Paris in Spring Time in the Rain

I have no idea why this took me so long to get done! Anywho here is a blog post about le trip, and hopefully from now on we can back to regularly scheduled blogging.

Ok...lets see how much I can remember...

On May 27th Mike, my friend Trish and I left Toronto Pearson Airport. Just getting there was an adventure as Mike and I decided to be thrifty and take public transit to airport. One Streetcar/subway/bus ride later (but only 3$ each) we were finally there. We checked in, waited and then boarded the plane (on time and stress free), and settled in for our long flight across the Atlantic.

None of us had travelled to Europe before, and we were all extremely excited and didn't get much sleep. One of the highlights of the flight were flying right over Trish's and my hometown! I remember seeing planes fly by my window as a kid at night wondering where they were going...now I know!

Blurry, but you get the idea

Once arriving into Charles De Gualle Airport on a rainy France morning, we spent about 2 hours trying to find a shuttle bus, and then headed into the city! I think we were all in a state of shock from the lack of sleep and actually being in there!

After checking into our hotel, and since sleep wasn't an option, we decided to head out to Versailles. The concierge at the hotel said to take a taxi to save time. In retrospect, that was a dumb suggestion as the train was just as fast and was way cheaper. However our cab driver was fantab and we got to practice our French. Once he found out we were Canadian, he was super nice to us!

As we arrived in Versailles, I think that was when I realized we were actually in France. It was so serene with the light spring rain, the lush landscape, and oh you know...a friggin PALACE!

Panorama of Versailles Palace

The line up wasn't too long and soon we were in experiencing all of the glamour of the Palace.

Hall of Mirrors yo.

Mike chillin with Laplace (Nerd.)

After the great tour, and then getting lost in Versailles, buying some amazingly cheap wine (4 Euro)

Bad signage!!!

...then taking the train back to Paris, we arrived at our hotel running on no sleep after 30 hours of work/travel/sightseeing.

We then went to drink the wine, and realized we had no bottle opener. To borrow one from the hotel was 5 Euro, and we all decided that was a waste of money and googled/youtubed alternative ways to open it. Mike's attempt of using a shoe against the wall did not work, where another method of using a pen to push in the cork did...until the wine splashed everywhere. I don't know if it was because we were tired or what, but this was a pretty epic moment. 

That is Engineering right there. 

After a delicious but late dinner (AMAZING FOOD!!) we arrived back to the hotel and passed out, ready for day 2. 

Sunday was a much nicer day out so we decided to actually spend some time out and about in Paris. After some delicious coffee we headed out to St. Michels Fountain. Our friend Brittany recommended this 3 hour free tour, and we had Alex as our tour guide. I cannot recommend this tour enough. It hit all the highlights, Alex was an amazing tour guide..oh and did I mention it was free!! At the end the guides ask for a tip, that is it! 

Alex our Tour Guide

We got see most of Paris on that trip, and it was great to do that first, then know what we had to go back to see. 

Ooo site seeing!

One thing that is amazing about Paris (to a nerd like me) is the Public Transit System, or the Metro. There are so many lines an stops it takes you everywhere you just have to be willing to make a lot of transfers! We had to take full advantage of this to get from our hotel to the Gare de Lyon where we where catching the Bullet train to La-Seyne-Sur-Mer to visit our friend Brittany (the main reason for the trip!). We literally ran through the subway stations/transfers, but got there just in time!

Gare de Lyon is actually really nice, didn't get much of a chance to see it though!

After a quick 5 hour ride, we made it to La-Seyne-Sur-Mer where Brittany had prepared a delicious dinner, and once again we crashed after another eventful day!

Since this post is getting long and photo heavy, I am going to delay the rest of the trip for later this week. In summary...

1. The free tour was a highlight

2. The food/wine/coffee in France is making me hungry just thinking about it

3. The subway/train system is intense

4. Versailles is totally worth the trip to see. 

5. The stereotype of people in France being rude to tourists isn't true if you speak or attempt to speak French. That being said we totally got some glares for speaking English on the train. 

Have you been to Paris? What were your favorite things to do? Did you have to boot it to get to a plane/train/bus on time while travelling?

May in a Nutshell

Annnd I am back.

Whew. Sorry to leave you all for so long. May was a crazy crazy month. I will eventually get around to talking about the trip, but I thought I would do a quick May summary and then we can all move on to June. (I have a strange need to keep things chronological, so I HAVE to write this blog in order and skipping the trip is messing me up but that is how it is going to be)

First some of the sad bits…After we got back from our trip Mike got some bad news from home, his grandmother passed away and he had to fly back to Halifax. She was a great woman, who made amazing food! His family is doing well, but still a sad time for them. For that whole week I didn’t feel right blogging about all the fun times we had in France when Mike and his family were going through that, so I just disappeared from the social media world.

Also just yesterday there was a shooting at the Eaton Center..to all my relatives don't worry I wasn't there, Mike and I are safe..etc. etc.

Ok…on to the not sad stuff…

Things I did in May:

1. IKEA TRIP

Finally had an IKEA run and bought a second dresser. Before this dresser all of my non important clothes (jeans, gym pants) were chilling in little baskets on the floor...which then became the Moseby’s fav sleeping spot..not cool. So with this new dresser, Moseby has a new sleeping spot and he LOVES it.

The Mose..being cute

After the trip to IKEA complete with cheap food, Mike and I went to see the Avengers and it was awesome!

2. PATIOS

The weather has been absolutely amazing in Toronto for the entire month of May. On the long weekend Katie, Travis, Mike and I had a great BBQ on the patio at our building. It was just as nice as going out to dinner and it was way cheaper! I also have been enjoying the balcony of our apartment. I am terrified that Moseby will freak out and jump over the edge, so I rigged up safety system involving rope and a leash that prevents him from doing anything crazy.

Sorry..my safety nerd is showing

This past weekend Mike’s cousin was visiting, so we ended up all hanging out at his friend’s house and had a BBQ…on a Patio. I <3 Summer!

3. ROLLARBLADING and FREE STUFF

Since gym has not been happening this month (more on that later) I went on a big rollerblade with my friend Brittany the long weekend. It was great! I hope to fit in a lot more rollerblading this summer. After we went to a free circus! The performers were amazing!

New life goal..running away and joining the circus..JK!!

5. BEING CHARITABLE

On last Sunday Mike and I participated in the World Partnership Walk with my company. It was in support of the AKFC to end global poverty. I think they said that there was about 8000 people there, so a huge event. I always am amazed to see this many people out at things.

Oh hai half the population of Bathurst!

It was also nice to see work people outside of work!

4. TUTORING AND WORK

Ugh, this is actually what has consumed my life for the past two weeks. I have been tutoring non stop. I am really enjoying working with the kids (they are all great), but 50 hours of tutoring in May/June may have been a bit ambitious.

NO FREE TIME AHHH

Oh well, one of the girls just finished her exam so I am down to 2 students left… much more reasonable. And since I have been tutoring so much, and working more than 40 hours a week at my real job, it has been very nice on my bank account! Not only am I making more money, I don’t have time to spend it haha.

So that was May in a nutshell.

Now that tutoring is winding down I need to take a second and think about what I am going to do with all my free time in June.

1. GYM/Exercise- I haven’t gone to the gym much since mid April and it is time to get back into the habit. Starting this week I am back on track...I am totally looking forward to it!

2. Reading/TV- All relaxing activities have been put on hold because of tutoring so the next month is all about catching up on the TV shows that I missed this season, and reading Hunger Games!

3. Organizing my e-life. I have about 2 years of photos that need to be organized and possibly uploaded to FB so I better get on that.

4. Being outside- If this fabulous weather continues I want to spend as much time outside as possible, hopefully hanging out with friends!

June looks pretty good!

Do you have any big plans for June? Anyone else freaked out by the current events in TO!

Planning for Paris

Oh Hai! Yes, I disappeared from the blogosphere for a while..but I have a good excuse.

I WENT TO FRANCE!!

For the past 2 weeks month all I wanted to do was blog about my trip, but I am still a little bit hesitant to tell the world that my condo would be empty for a week. Paranoid…just a smidge. Anyway now that I am back I give you deats..this will definitely be a multi-post post so here is part 1:

Planning

Back in November my friend Trish and I (and Mike) decided to go visit our high school bff Brittany who is teaching English in the south of France. We had to wait a whole month to tell her at Christmas, but after that point the trip planning went nuts.

We decided to go in May, and we knew we had a week to fit it all in. We had never been to Europe before and wanted to do as much as possible. This meant that are trip was going to be a little on the amazing race side of things, and less laying on a beach. I think in one facebook planning message the comment “no sleep allowed” was brought up.

Now I am a savage trip planner. I don’t necessarily have an hour by hour schedule, but I know to a point what I am doing each day, what is the most logical way to do things, what train/bus route to take etc. It also helped so much that Trish was super willing to go along with the crazy plans, and Brittany had been to these places before and could give us tips.

So the plan was made…Arrive in Paris on Saturday, Paris on Sunday then Train to La-Seyne-Sur-Mer (a little town near Toulon), Monday and Tuesday relax in that area, Wednesday Monaco/Nice, Thursday Nice, Friday and Saturday Paris…and back to Toronto on Sunday. Whew.

We booked the plane tickets in January so we knew we had to fit around being in Paris on our arrival and departure days.  Then we booked our trains to and from Paris and around. Next we booked our hotels, and then finally made a plan. We wanted to see most of the sites in Paris, so it got quite detailed.

In the end (as you will see in an upcoming blog post) we did manage to see everything on our list (most of it anyway) and I think that comes down to a few good trip planning tips.

1. Be organized. Know what train takes you to what spot. For example, when you have 24 hours to see Paris, taking a wrong subway for 1 hour does make a difference. Print all of this info so you don’t forget..or save a tree and have it on your tablet..(Side note, I want a tablet bad)

2. Do your research. Wikitravel the city/country you are going to..look at the maps, read a travel book. Google the heck out of everything. (Can you drink the water? What is the best way to get to the airport? etc.)

Crazy Subway System! (Source)

3. Hit the highlights first. We tried to block our last weekend in Paris by a block of time..not specific times. For example. AM Arc De Triomph/Effiel Tower, Lunch, PM Shopping and Notre Dame, Pre Supper Mont Parnesse Tower, Supper. That way you do have some order, but it isn’t the end of the world if you don’t get to it all. And the last thing on the list wasn’t a priority so if we didn’t make it, it was ok.

4. Communicate. This especially important when trying to plan a trip from Toronto, North Bay and La-Seyne Sur Mer. It may seem extreme but we actually made a quite detailed itinerary for the trip so that everyone was on the same page with what we were doing. It was a huge help. It is also important when planning a multi city trip. If we had spent the whole time in Paris it wouldn’t have been as important.

And taddaaa you have trip planned! Chances are by following the tips above you will also save money..which is the topic of my next travelling post..with more pictures to come!

Does anyone else have trip planning tips? Anyone else a savage trip planner?

From Scratch

This past Sunday I went crazy.

Mike and I decided to eat really healthy for the next two weeks, so I had to make sure we were prepared for the week. On Saturday we did our healthy groceries..discovered that a big ole turkey was on sale and bought it. After we defrosted it I realized that we had just finished leftover turkey...and now we had an whole week of more turkey..boo urns.

Sunday, after a movie date with a friend (aside..I went to go see Titanic in 3D..at IMAX...yes I could watch it for free, but paying almost 20 bucks for a ticket was almost worth it. Man I really like that movie..ok back to food related post). After coming back from the very long movie it was around 8 pm on a Sunday evening. Perfect time to START COOKING A TURKEY. The full stuffing, (borrowed) roast pan and all. Told you I went crazy.

Once I got the Turkey in the oven I started on all the other business. Mike helped and chopped and peeled and washed all the veggies. Meanwhile I made two things that I refuse to buy from a store anymore:

1. Almond Butter

Almond Buttery Goodness

This took some time, but the end result was awesome. I simply added almonds to a food processor and blended away. One thing I learned was to only add a little bit at a time. For some reason the almonds didn't start creating oils unless there was lots of room in the food processor. I also added a bit of olive oil to make it lest almond dust and more Almond Buttery. After a lot of blending (and probably annoying my neighbours) the end result was DELICIOUS. It is light and fluffy, and even my "natural nut butter" hater of a BF likes it! The best part was that for a 300g jar of Almond butter costs like 8 bucks and I was able to make about 900g of almond butter for 6 bucks..yay!

2. Hummus
 I have made homemade hummus before, but this time was perfection. I added 2 cans of chickpeas, a couple spoonfuls of tahini, some garlic, lemon juice and some Sriracha hot sauce and a wee bit of olive oil and processed it up. The trick to get that nice creamy hummus without adding tons of oil is to leave a little liquid with the chickpeas. Perfection. Once again, homemade hummus is WAY cheaper. So for 2 dollars (for the chickpeas) I made about 1L of hummus. Now we just have to eat it!

And after all that (pushing midnight by now) the turkey was done!

It is a gobble gobble

And now for the second week in a row, we have been eating turkey. No more turkey please.

As for eating healthy we have stuck with the Low Sugar Diet Solution plan this week. I had a few little cheats today, but resisted the temptation of work donuts. The past few weeks at work there has been a ridiculous amount of "morning treats" and I have no will power in the morning, but this week I realized that I don't even like donuts..so why should I keep eating them! I would much rather eat timbits haha. 

Do you make any thing from scratch? Have you almost forgotten to take out the giblets while prepping a turkey?

Catch Up or Ketchup...If You Prefer

Too busy to blog...arrghhh! 

After hanging up my lovely curtains, the next day my parents came to visit for Easter! We had a lovely visit, spent some time shopping, and some time exploring china town. We also went to a Second City comedy show and it was fantab. 

Side note..this was my curtains the next day:

Curtain Fell down :(

So I still need to fix that curtain. 

Because I have a serious lack of food or fitness related info to share from last weekend..here are some silly Moseby pictures. Me and my parents were chilling down on the patio of my building and I had the brilliantly idea to bring Moseby outside. It was a semi successful endeavor.

Big adventure for the Mose

He was super scared especially with the elevator, but I think he enjoyed the outside. 

Afterwards when we were setting up for dinner...Moseby decided to make his apperence as a dinner guest:

Nom Nom

We shooed him away before chowing down on a delicious fish dinner. I guess that is why Moseby was so interested. 

After a super fun weekend with the fam, I spent this week tutoring and studying for the professional practice exam. Oh and I also had a BIRTHDAY!

On Thursday I celebrated my Birthday with Work, studying, tutoring and a surprise quick visit from my friend Trish who was in town for a conference. We went out for thai food, and I only ended up at home around 11pm, very long day, but a good day!

I wrote my test today and it went very well, and now I have a super excited night of watching some old Harry Potter movies.

And tomorrow, for the first time in a very long time, I get to sleep in!

I Have Been Dyeing to Tell You Something

Firstly this title is horribly punny. Get over it.

Secondly rounding up pictures for this post took 4eva and I may or may not have gotten horribly distracted at looking at old pictures and then a big phone chat with Mike's Momma. I am totally focused at finishing a task 100% of the time...ooo look Real Housewives of Vancouver is on...*runs away for 15 minutes*

OK NOW I am writing this post for real.

Actually my ADDness is some what fitting for this post, since this project started in August. Ooops.
In the spirit of the Dude Get On That Already Challenge from Young House Love (side note for those who care..aka Mike...this challenge is about completing DIY/projects that you have procrastinated for a very long time), I decided to GET'ER DONE.

That being curtains. Kind of.

Rewind to August..or July even.

After having super sexy vertical blinds installed by the land lord in our apartment,

Only Before Pic of the blinds I could find

I decided that I needed to give them some love. So I bought some cheap shear IKEA curtains that were beige and had a brilliant idea of dyeing them teal.

All I needed was a Bucket, some Dye, and some Tongs and a pot of boiling water. I could have dyed them right in the pot but I didn't want to stain my new Paderno!

Once the water was boiled, I poured it over the curtains in the bucket and added the dye, and started stirring

As I started dyeing I realized that the bright perfect teal of the dye was not translating well to the shear curtains, they were coming out a light teal colour. Even letting them sit longer than the recommended time before rising, I kind of knew that they weren't going to be as dark as I wanted.

After washing they looked like this:

A pretty colour but I was hoping for this:

But I was happy with the colour overall and knew it would work out fine. So did Moseby. 

So all I had to do was wait for them to dry and then iron them and hang them up. Apperently that took from the August long weekend until the Easter Weekend. 

Tonight I finally ironed them and hung them up and it took all of 10 minutes..and here is the finished product. 

Ugh I really should have taken down the clothes rack..oops. Anyway now that we have accent pillows that kind of balance the teal and the grey and the light teal, I actually really like how the curtains look in real life.  Also this picture makes my apartment look a lot more squishy than it is in real life. But anyhoo. And the big fancy hanging up method...tape. I just taped the fabric to the inside of the blind cover thing.

I am actually glad they are light in colour because the moment I finished attaching them I remembered that we are only suppose to have neutral coloured window coverings in our building..and I bet from the ground it looks like they are white.

There one project down...50 million left to go.

PS...I found this video while trying to find the old pictures...look at the cuteness!!

Anyone else have projects ongoing since August? Anyone else want a kitten now!!?

Guide to "Greens"

Whoa two posts in two days! Crazyness.

I had an idea for this post today while making dinner.

I have been experimenting with different greens. And by greens I mean lettucey type things. About 2 years ago I didn't know the difference between swiss chard, kale, and had no idea what rapini was..so now that I have had my fair share of these forgotten greens I thought I would share my knowledge.

Disclaimer: I am no food expert. This is just my general knowledge of greens from the interweb and personal experience.

Ok..from wikipedia: 
Leaf vegetables are typically low in calories, low in fat, high in protein per calorie, high in dietary fiber, high in iron and calcium, and very high in phytochemicals such as vitamin C, carotenoids,lutein, folate as well as vitamin K.


To most of us, leafy greens mean lettuce (romaine, red, green) and spinach. One good tip I have heard is that the darker the leaf, the better it is. Therefore iceburg lettuce doesn't count as a leafy green..it is pretty much like water...nutritionally void. I rarely eat iceberg lettuce, and when I do I feel like I am wasting my time. 


Moving on to the cooler greens. 


Other lettuces:

Source

This is probably familiar territory for most people. Romaine is my favorite in Ceaser salad, and it can even be grilled, if you are allowed to have a BBQ..unlike me :(. I like red lettuce in a salad with lots of other veggies, and boston lettuce is good for lettuce wraps. I don't have much experience with arugula but it is delicious with goat cheese!


Next up is the most versitile (in my opinion) Spinach! 
I love spinach salads, and cooked spinach and even spinach in a blender hidden in a smoothie (like this from Real Food Katie's Way)!

Spinach is really good for you, and it tastes pretty good too! Spinach was as far as I got into the leafy greens until 2 years ago, when I first attempted to cook swiss chard...


I made a "diet soup" that involved swiss chard. It was disgusting. So gross that I had to beg Mike to try it again recently. I think the key with swiss chard is to not cook the stems. With most leafy greens the stems are really bitter, so they aren't the best to eat. 

Source

I finally gave swiss chard another shot, and cooked it with this Moroccan inspired meal.

I simply removed the stems and sauteed it. When in doubt with leafy greens..just saut the heck out of them with lots of EVOO and garlic. That makes anything good. 

I don't really remember swiss chard, but it wasn't too bad, just not my favorite. 

And then there is Kale. 

Source

It is the "healthy living" blog world's pet leafy green. It could be the mascot haha. Kale is really tasty. My favorite way to cook kale is to make kale chips. It can also be sauteed, or used straight in salad.

Just last week I tried rapini for the first time. I had heard about it from cooking shows, and thought it looked nifty, so I picked some up:

Source

I didn't really like it at all..my guinea pigs (Mike and his cousin who was in town visiting) had some, and both agreed it wasn't the best. But they were good sports. I rewarded them with brownies later.

And that brings us to tonight: Collard Greens

Source

These were surprisingly really good! I boiled them, and then sauteed them. They tasted like a mild fiddle head, which in my opinion is awesome!

So there you have it, a mini summary of greens. I haven't included all of them, and some like dandelion greens I really want to try. 

I got a lot of the photos from Eatrightontario.ca, which is a good site with more information! I see a few I need to add to my list of things to try!

So I dare you, expand your tastebuds away from lettuce and spinach, and see what you think! 

Anyone else loving the greens? Anyone have success with Rapini??