Lindt Peach Apricot Milk Chocolate

Recently, I tried a Lindt chocolate bar, described on the wrapper as "milk chocolate with a peach apricot yoghurt filling".
It wasn't bad. I think a creamy fruit filling lends itself to a fresh, summertime bar, but if you enjoy chocolate and peach and the combination of the two, you might enjoy this chocolate bar at any time of year.
It was a little sweet, but most cream filled bars are.
If you're looking for a chocolate bar that's just a little different, this one could be a good pick!

Countdown to Torino

This past weekend, I went to Italy to prepare myself for the Olympic Games. Due to the travelling that going to the games will entail (for my specific situation), I thought it would be best if I visited the city first to get an idea of what the town was like, how to get to various places and in general, familiarize myself with what would be happening in 18 (!!!!!!!!!!!) days.
I had my first couchette experience. I didn't really know what to expect out of it, but as I walked beside the train toward my car, I saw youngish people laying on beds, drinking booze and making lots of noise. That creeped me out. When I entered the car, it looked like any other Italian more-sketchy-than-Switzerland 6 person car, except near the top of the car there were two beds. I said hello to the three gentlemen who were already chatting up a storm in the same car as me and skeptically sat down, unsure how the night would unfold...and how four more beds would magically appear. A would soon find out that the bench seats (2 total, three people on each, each set facing each other) were two beds and that their back rests would fold up and rest on latches to create two more. I was to wedge myself into the middle bed on one side. They were close enough that I could not sit up on my bed. There was a ladder if it was needed and sheets, a blanket, pillow and fizzy water were also provided. We all settled into our beds and since I wasn't the last stop on the ride, I was a little concerned about falling asleep and not waking up in time. The conductor also had my ticket and passport, so I would be able to leave without seeing him again. I ended up taking little naps throughout the night. I woke up every time the train came to a stop and would look at my watch to see where we were on the itinerary. I also woke up to a lot of loud snoring. Half an hour before my scheduled stop, we arrived at an unknown location (I couldn't see any signs) and left again 15 minutes later. I lay back down, keeping my eyes open waiting guessing that the next stop would be mine. The next time I opened my eyes, it was 15 minutes after my scheduled stop, and I was ready to freak out. I paced around the car, unsure what to do (knowing full well that there was nothing I could do if I had missed my stop), but almost sure that I didn't sleep through any other stops and knowing that a train wouldn't leave a station early. Finally, after sufficient freaking out and running into a passenger who could speak English (multiple language skills shut down when one is extremely tired) we found a conductor who told us that we were running late (it was pretty snowy outside). An hour and fifteen minutes late to be exact. I should have known as much - I'm too used to the perfect Swiss train system...nothing against the Italians, but you know... - so I ended up staying awake the rest of the time, getting a boxed breakfast (also included) and preparing myself to miss my next train. I get off in Verona at some ridiculous hour and luckily don't have to wait very long for another train. My final destination that morning is Milan.
Yes, Milan. Yes, the Olympics are in Torino. Let me explain.
I decided that I needed a little "break" from it all and decided that I wanted to spend a morning shopping in Milan. Isn't this crazy? I decided to "go shopping in Milan", just cause. My life is ridiculous.
So I wandered Milan (sadly, no purchases) and then after grilling Trentitalia with questions regarding their fares and schedules I proceeded to train to Torino. It was now the middle of the day and my tiredness hit. I planned it well. Might as well be tired while sitting on a train for an hour and a half.
Upon arrival to Torino Porta Susa, I am faced with huge sculptures of Neve and Gliz and a bunch of construction. I would soon realize that the city is still undergoing a lot of construction to prepare itself for the games. Most of the construction is just setting up little things, but there are some other things that don't look like it would be finished in time. Who knows though? I guess I'll find out in a little while.
I would say that all of the sporting venues are under construction (just little things on the outside) as are housing and hosting areas and presentation/large public events areas.
One construction site was for the Live NBC Today Show stage. I don't understand Italian, but all the people who were standing near me reading the sign sounded like they didn't know what it was. It'll be neat to see though.
I can't even imagine what the place will be like once the games begin. Even before that. The hotel I stayed at said that they were fully booked even a week leading into the games. The city and its people were definitely excited for what would be happening soon.
I'm really excited for it. Every young athlete dreams of going to the Olympics, and while that idea disappeared from my mind quite soon after it arrived (at least as an athlete - I'm still working on other ways to get there, not including as a spectator) I'm so excited to go and experience it for myself. I hope everything is as fantastic (if not better) than I imagine it to be. I hope everything works out the way I see it, because if you know anything about me, I definitely have had a master plan for quite some time now.
Whatever. Eitherway, it'll be (another) once in a lifetime experience (although, I won't rule out the fact that I won't get to the Olympics again) which I'm sure I will learn a lot from.

WHEEEEEEE!!!

--picture courtesy of www.torino2006.org

WAHOOO!!!!!

Only about 15 minutes ago did I give my signature to a deliver man (with a British accent - interesting) in exchange for...my OLYMPIC TICKETS!!!!

AAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

22 days left before they start!!!

I'll be going to watch figure skating (obviously), but I'm not at liberty to say which events (for those of you in the know, the stress levels are still high, but it's being dealt with). Oh and I'll be watching some hockey game (Canada vs. Switzerland) too...but of course that's not too important.

************

Segue...
Last night, at the rink, I re-realised that I need to be really patient on the take-off of double loops for them to work out. This would explain why this is the only jump in my arsenal that never became consistent. Patience is for suckers.

Fruitisms

So, moving to Switzerland HAS changed me. I now eat kiwi like apples (bite into them, including the skin - but only if they're really ripe) and peel and eat grapefruit like oranges. It's not because I saw Swiss people doing it, I just decided to start. Strange, I know.

Nice and Monaco

November 9th, I headed to Nice for a little vacation. Good ‘ole easyJet provided for some cheap flights (we’d booked for this trip a long time ago). I’d never been to Nice before, and although it wasn’t the summer (you know, the French Riviera, the beaches and such), I was excited to visit this place that I’d had a vision in my head about. We knew that we were also going to take a day trip to Monaco, and I was really excited about that too.
As our plane was landing, I looked out the window and saw that we were flying low above the water and the lights (it was pretty late at night) from the city made the place look so magical (remember my weakness for lights). We were driven to the hotel and we could see palm trees and more lights. We hadn’t eaten dinner yet, so we headed out into town to look for a restaurant to go to. I didn’t really think about the fact that we were right on the water, but that night, I started my fabulous string of seafood meals. Sure, it was 11:30pm, but I was hungry and I was going to eat a full meal. Especially when it was a seafood tagliatelle…delicious. I was stuffed, and then I went to bed. Yes, not the best thing for your body, but still...it was yummy.

The next morning, we decided to spend the day looking around Nice. First stop, Chagall Museum. I don’t really know anything about Chagall, and I’m not really big into museums, but I’m sure glad I went. The paintings (although religious in nature, so I didn’t know what was going on) were beautiful. The vibrant colours that were used on the huge canvases were incredible. The museum itself was nice.
It was like something I would imagine, in a chic place in New York. It was a really small museum with only a couple large canvases, but it was so classic. White walls, large windows with white blinds, a couple black leather benches in the middle of the room. The main part of the museum was just one large room and those painting were definitely the main attraction. It was a beautiful museum.
On the way to and from the museum, we saw a clementine tree. It was so cool! I’d never seen one before! I won’t lie, we took some clementines to eat, even though it was obvious that the tree was on private property. There were also orange trees along the side of the street, but after careful inspection (read: climbing the tree to grab some) we saw that they were rotten.
At the same time last year, I was in Belgium and Karl Lagerfeld’s H&M collection came out. I remember not being very impressed by it. There was this tacky pouffy dress in the collection. This year, Stella McCartney’s H&M collection came out. I think it sold out (well, the clothing items – the keychains and purses were still there) in an hour or so. I guess I can’t say that I saw it on the shelves at opening, so I didn’t touch and see the collection up close, but the items that were on the mannequins in the window weren’t very impressive. And they were (naturally) more pricey than normal H&M wear. Someone else told me (a week or so later) that they thought that the line was actually very reasonably priced. And not even compared to her own line, but to H&M standards. I must have seen the wrong items. So, I think that H&M is taking over the world. They’re everywhere. I wonder who they’re going to get as a guess designer next year. I wonder what country I’ll be in for that. I wonder why they picked this date to open.
Next stop: beach!!! It was so exciting to walk out and all of a sudden see a large body of water in front of you. The sun was shining (it was really warm still), and the water was so blue. Playing in the Mediteranean ensured and soaking up some rays to gain some vitamin D (among other things).
The old town of Nice was very similar to old towns in other European cities. I really liked the small alleyways and curious little boutiques selling some bizarro wears. I found the prices in Nice to be a little higher than I expected. Was it because it was a tourist town perhaps? There were quite a lot of tourists there even though it was the low-season. Lots of British people.
While wandering around, I stumbled upon this confectionary store. I felt like I was stepping into a movie. They have to get more places like this in Toronto or something. It’s places like this that I will miss if/when I leave Europe. There was also an amazing olive oil store that had a similar kind of appeal. It really does make the shopping experience that much more enjoyable.
Obviously being in the south of France and with the reputation that the French Riviera has I wasn’t surprised to see palm tress (I guess sort of like how I should have expected the orange trees), but when I saw them I was surprised nonetheless. The gardens were beautiful (yes, there was some skipping involved – especially through an arched…trellace?!? – is that the right word?) and I could sit there for a long time just daydreaming and soaking up the sun. The flora they had there looked so exotic, but obviously this was only because they were specials that lived in warmer climates than I usually reside in.
We ate lunch outside where we could do some people watching. People are so interesting. What they wear, how they hold themselves, how they react to and interact with people...I could just sit and watch people all day long. That’s something I love about Europe. There’s so many more outdoor café’s where you could sit, not even having to continually pay for services, even by yourself...it’s all good. No one will think twice about the fact that you’re staring at other people. It’s so much more fun to do it behind sunglasses too, because that way you feel all conspicuous and stuff.
If there’s one thing that I always like to see in the different cities that I visit, it’s the opera house. I don’t know why, but I do. It’s not like I’ve ever really seen an opera or anything. Most of the time though, the opera houses are spectacular. The one in Nice was completely white, and looked very much like the Paris opera house.
We walked up to the park on the cliff to get a view of the city, beach and port below. It was just like I imagined in my head. We watched the sunset, the colours in the sky, reflecting on the water below, albatros soaring above.
Dinner was moules and frites. Yummy. It got really cold at night. As soon as the sun went away, the temperature dropped. Even still, we ate outdoors for some reason, and you know those heaters that restaurants and café’s have on their patios and such? In French, they call them "mushrooms". Ha ha. It makes complete sense, because they’re shaped like big mushrooms, but the name is still funny nonetheless.

The next day, we decided to go to Monaco. I really don’t know why this place is so famous and stuff, expect for the fact that I wanted to see some yachts and the casino. Oh, and I thought it would be really funny if there was a place called Club Monaco there.
I can’t believe how close everything on this part of the continent is. Just a short train ride away and we’re in another "country". The train station didn’t look like anything so special, and the walk down to the harbour wasn’t anything particularly exciting, except for the fact that there was a little market on the way down there were these amazingly soft persimmons on sale, and I really wanted to buy a couple, but I didn’t want to eat them at that very moment and they were so soft that I was worried that they would explode and get all squished and stuff…so then I didn’t buy them. Which I was a little bit sad about.
So, Monaco is pretty obsessed with their royalty right? There was a portrait of King Albert (actually, just Prince at the time) in every single storefront window; even in some personal home windows…it was a little bizarre I thought.
At the harbour, yes, I was expecting it, but the yachts really surprised me. They were HUGE!!! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a boat that big, unless it was supposed to carry over 1000 people. I can’t believe it. I want to know who or what companies own these yachts! I wanted to hop on board one of them just to take a look around to see what the inside of one looked like, but of course every single one had a sign on the gangplank that said "private property", "do not trespass", blah blah blah. Darn. One thing that made me laugh (or maybe just be in even more awe of the situation) was that on shore, in front of the walkway to each boat was a fancy monogrammed mat special to the yacht. And a lot of the yachts had those preppy loafers beside the mats. I guess they don’t want to bring dirt from the street onto their yacht right? The people cleaning the yachts seemed normal enough, but who knows if they are the same people who own them?
So we keep walking around the port and through a tunnel (apparently used in the Grand Prix race – which seems a little scary to me...fast cars in confined areas?!?), through a strangely situated souvenir shop (in the middle of the tunnel) which was beside an elevator up to another part of Monte Carlo (so that’s why the shop was there...). From here, we could see the port down below and the palace on the top of the hill in the distance. This was also the way to get to the Monte Carlo Casino!
It did look pretty impressive from the outside (nothing at all like casinos in Las Vegas of course) but it wouldn’t be open for a couple of hours, so we decided to walk around for a bit (to let me get my fix of window shopping – I fell in love with a hat from Hermes by the way), eat lunch and go to the beach.
For some reason I was really really tired on this day, so I was hoping that a good lunch would make be feel better. Disapointingly, the dish that I wanted to order had run out, and even though it was listed on the menu, they didn’t have any Badoit in stock.
After lunch, we head across the tunnel again and rest at the beach for awhile. They had these really chill patio bars that I wouldn’t have minded staying at longer, or even going to later on that night. Lots of lounge chairs and pillows. Clean lines and cool atmosphere. Interesting people too. We decided to go to the casino, and after paying the 10 euro entrance, we entered the most beautiful and old style glam room I’ve ever seen. See...Versailles is tacky...this was nice. Really nice. (No cameras allowed inside, or else I would have definetely taken a bunch!) The side room had slots (didn’t stay there for long at all), and the main room had roulette, black jack and some other game that I don’t really understand, but it tres European. There were side rooms that could be rented for dining, and of course the special VIP room. I wonder what that place looked like. Being the people watcher that I am, I really enjoyed watching all the action and also looking at the stats of the numbers that would show up on the roulette wheels. I was so tempted so bet on 17, but couldn’t bring myself to do it for some reason. And it (or numbers very close to it – I probably wouldn’t have just bet on 17, but the numbers near it) kept popping up. Like, 5 times in a row! Strange! I didn’t really want to leave, but we needed to figure out what we were going to do for the rest of the night.
We walked around the harbour to see if there was anything interesting happening, and after visiting a couple places and weighing our options, we decided to take the train back to Nice.
In Nice, we found a nice place for dinner, walked around a little bit longer, checked out one place, but after a little bit, we decided that we were too tired to do anything else. Traveling is relaxing, but often exhausting.

The next day, we packed up, headed to the airport and jetted off to Paris...

All in all, I really enjoyed Nice. The weather was really pleasant (good escape from dreary Neuch) and the old town was fun to walk around. I would visit it again, but only in the Spring or summer when there are more people and after I’ve crossed every other city that I still need to visit off my list. Ditto for Monaco. There just wasn’t enough going on while we were there, but it was November. Super low season. I would have liked to window shop a little longer (too bad, no extravagant purchase for me) and hung out in the casino longer as well. That place is just too cool. It was still a good trip though. I’m glad I went because I’d really wanted to see what the big kerfluffle about the French Riviera was (would still like to visit Cannes – but now know that I would only go if it’s the summer time), and I would have maybe liked to stay there for one more day, but it wasn’t too bad a length of a trip. Especially since I knew that I’d be traveling to two other major cities within the span of the next week.

Some pictures from Kenya

...hopefully you know to clicky on the pics to enlarge them...



We spent a day in Nairobi before heading up to the ranch, and on the way there, we had to stop and stand with one leg in each hemisphere






Kuki Gallmann's Foundation played host to us for this fabulous experience. The logo with two acacias trees has so much meaning behind it.



While on the ranch, we were under the care of The Laikipia Wilderness Education Centre...







My shelter at LWEC during the stay on the ranch. No electricity, but I was one of the lucky ones with a flushing toilet (baby steps!)


At all times, we were under the watchful eyes of three eskari (guards). They are some of the most amazing people I've ever met. After intensive training they are the ones that keep the animals and humans living together at peace on the ranch. Here, they are listening and smelling the air for the buffalo. The way they use all of their senses blows my mind. The eskari are amazing. The things that they know,
sense, feel...it's incredible. Their first priority is to protect the animals. If the animals and humans get too close to one another, they shoot once into the air to (hopefully) scare the animal away. The second shot is the injure. The third is to kill.

Staying single file on a game walk. Notice the bush coloured clothing, the MEC bag (with a little Canadian pin on it all covered with the rusty coloured dirt that we would come to love) and buffalo tracks on the path (which we were following).




Jeez...






...and it hurt that my friends never stood down wind...






For 400USD per person per night, you too can sit on the throne...(the guest resort on site)





and see this...(sorry, the picture really doesn't give the view justice. There's a little brown patch at the bottom right of the picture where animals will come to lick salt that is put out by the eskari)





For some reason, I just love this picture








Their colours don't lend themselves to camouflage, but they're still pretty good at hiding!


One day, we went to visit a local Samburu village. They welcomed us to their village with open arms, told us about their history and traditions and danced for (and with) us. They used red ochre to paint on their faces and bodies. The Samburu warriors would dance by jumping as high as they could (you've probably seen the Masai do the same on documentaries...)



A beautiful samburu girl
You can imagine how intrigued all the people we met were when we could automatically show them their pictures on our digital cameras.





Taking some time out from the Samburu festivities...
Notice the sandals made out of tires.





Tee hee...impala bums! Notice the lone stag (look for the big horns) within the group. Impala live in harems, so we'd either see a stag with all his lady friends or random bachelor impala bouncing around. Every so often a bachelor will take on da man, head butt for a bit and hopefully knock him out of the group. The ladies will swoon and he will be hot stuff until the next guy comes around.


Yellow fever acacias are absolutely spectacular








And I thought my legs were short and my bum was too big!







Speechless...I'm sorry...you just have to see it for yourself.







100 points if you can spot the crayfish!





Kalenge taking a break from chomping on sugar cane to opt for greener choices. His mom (wild in the ranch) still comes to visit him every so often.






One doesn't tire of this very easily...








Watching the sun set with an acacia in the foreground...I miss it so much!




Hopefully I'll get my act together and write about it soon! (No promises...)