My Life.

I really do need to get better at updating my blogs... I'm hoping I'll get into cooking a lot more, so Chef Lolls might get more activity, but I should also make a bigger effort with this one!

So, what's new?  Hrm. Well, if you hadn't guessed already from a few posts down, I have moved into my own flat! It's in the City of North Vanouver (vs the District, where I've lived since I was 7 years old). Not exactly a big change - I'm a 10 minute drive from Mum and Dad's.... 

My place is in a 22 story condo building, and I'm on the 4th floor overlooking a community park. I'm south-west facing with a view of downtown Vancouver AND a little peak of some mountains. I love my place and it's been quite an experience setting it up.  Before I could move in some reno's had to happen, and then it took me over 2 months to unpack.  I've finally broken down the last box.... now I have to get art up on the walls, and then figure out where I stashed everything!!  I will totally admit the last 3 months have been a complete and utter blur.  Once it's all finished I'll post some photos.

Within that time I went to the East Coast of the US, as per the photos in my previous post. That was a great whirlwind trip. I met up with my UK friend Kathryn and we started in Boston before picking up a rental car to hit up Cape Code, Phillidelphia, and then ended up in Washington DC.  I really liked New England, it felt very un-American. DC was a whole new thing - felt very Imperial and grand... another world.  I came back exhausted, but also very pleased with what we'd accomplished.  One of these days I'll sort through the photos and actually post them up on Flickr!!!!

My days and weeks are jam packed with work, physio/dr's appointments (my shoulder is STILL messed up, 6 years and 2 car accidents on...), keeping up with family (munchkins are 3 and 1.5, so much fun!! and my parental units are fun to hang out with too...) plus being a director of the Museum of Vancouver actually takes quite a bit of time.  I'm actually incredibly busy these days - oye!!

Work is going well - I have some fabulous coworkers and the work itself is keeping me interested. No regrets on my choice to walk away from the bar at this time... 

Actually the other night some friends came over and brought a house warming gift, and the card that came with it was super accurate for what's going on in my life right now. I'll leave this rather quick update with an image of it - it's a Mary Engelbreit card (one of my favourite artists, a huge soft spot from my childhood!!)....

can you hear me Roar?

Some images

Well obviously I wasn't able to update as planned. Here are a few phone photos to be placeholders until I get Internet at my flat...

Boston skyline from Bunker Hill

 

Walking near the Charles River

 

Mayflower II at Plymouth

 

Marconi Beach, Cape Cod

 

Providence skyline

 

Abe at the Lincoln Memorial

Reflecting Pool and the Washington Monument

 

 

Capitol Building

East Coast adventure begins!

I sit here in San Francisco drinking a glass of wine waiting fort next flight to take me over the continent to Boston for the start of a 9 day east coast adventure with my London friend Kathryn. Life has been so intense recently I actually haven't done any planning or advance research for this trip so I really don't know what's head.

I do know that our first stop in Boston includes staying with a friend whom I haven't seen in years; I get to meet his new wife!! So looking forward to that!

So many adventures ahead. Will try keep this up to date but can't promise anything... Other than many many photos!!!

Big day today

More to come...

Postponed..

August 3rd's big announcement (that most people know about heheh) has been postponed to early September.. some work was required...

Change is on the Horizon

August 3rd marks a fairly big change for Orkney Adventures... but more about that later..

Painting from the Armana Period

I had a Mommy-Daughter trip to Seattle last weekend which was lots and lots of fun! We drove down after work on Friday and stayed in Lynnwood, 20 minutes north of Seattle. The main purpose of our trip was to visit the King Tut special exhibition and the Pacific Science Center.  We did that on Saturday mid-day.  Very good exhibition, lots of really interesting stuff to see. The King Tut stuff was a pale comparison from what the Egyptian Museum in Cairo has, but if you haven't seen that I'm sure you'd be impressed.

Pharaoh in offering position

Other adventures in Seattle included hitting up a number of the stores that I discovered in California, specifically World Market, Trader Joes, and See's Chocolates... YUM!!! Lots of little bits were bought, but nothing too extravagant.  On the Sunday drive home we stopped off at the Outlets, but, shockingly, I was very good!

This coming weekend I'm off to Hope for a friends bachelorette weekend... not sure exactly what will happen, as I don't know any of the other attendees, but I'm sure I'll have fun!!

Otherwise things are well; work is pleasent with lots of interesting stuff going on - I just helped close the second largest IPO on the TSX-V in 2012 - not too shabby! 

Anyway... back to preparing for August 3rd!......

California Adventures

Up at The Strands

I had 5 wonderful days in California at the end of June/ beginning of July - and after the miserable spring and start of summer, wow, was the sunshine welcomed!!  It wasn't overly hot, about 23 degrees most day, but ooooh the sun!

It was lovely to see Kate and her family; I last saw them 4 years ago and so much has happened in all our lives since then. We had quite a bit of catching up to do!!

Crystal Cove State Park

The first three days were spent in Dana Point (and surrounding area) - we spent some time on a 'nostalgia tour', visiting, or trying to find, spots we remember fondly from our past 20 years of visits. We also added some new fun things - went antiquing and found Kate some lovely furniture!  Did some lovely beach/ cliff walks, and also explored a 'canyon' - Crystal Cove State Park had the best of both sea/cliffs & canyons for us! So lovely!

Ocean at Dana Point

On the fourth day we drove 3 hours north to Santa Barbara, which seemed like a 'get away' town for LA. It has a nice, patriotic, main street full of interesting shops and restaurants, a super beach area with a nice boardwalk for bikes and walkers, lots of beach volleyball nets and boats and everything you can imagine that floats, and as well a lovely pier. An art festival was on at the time, so we had great fun poking our noses into a variety of different interests...

Out for dinner in Santa Barbara

The last day was spent packing up and driving down to LA. There we put on our proper tourist hats and hoped on one of those city tours. Saw Hollywood Boulevard, Sunset Strip, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, La Brea Tar-pits, The Grove, Hollywood Sign etc... and of course we wandered along the Walk of Fame to the Chinese Theatre to check out the hand & foot prints of celebrities... proper tourist stuff!!

Chinese Theatre, Hollywood

It was a lovely trip that went too fast!! Photos are up on my Flickr site, but here are a couple!

Upcoming Adventures

Headed down to California next weekend for a long overdue catch up with my good friend Kate! Going down for 5 days and I suspect lots of fun and frivolity shall ensue!

Still plotting my summer out, hoping to do the odd weekend trip here and there. Have a friends bachelorette party to participate in, and am also doing a Mummy-Daughter trip in July.

This September I'm meeting up with my buddy Kathryn in New England.. gonna fly into Boston and after a few days rent a car and make our way throughout that area, down to Washington DC... that'll definitely be an adventure...

Other big adventures are brimming on the horizon too, but not spilling any details yet! Woo fun!

University of Orkney changes its name!

Forks happen in roads.... Unexpected journeys can start interesting adventures...  and with such changes come blog title changes!! The University of Orkney has changed its name to Orkney Adventures to more accurately reflect what I hope to be its function in my life now!

I've been working for just shy of four months and am settling into the new routine of it all. It has been quite the adventure already, getting set up, learning new methods, new locations, new people. I'm with a great group of people and have already been exposed to so much... and have the carrot of a lot more to come to keep me going.

I miss the ability to dream up all sorts of last minute trips or adventures - am now limited to planning within my means and vacation time! Weekends have become sooooo important to me!  I don't miss the endless hours and stresses of studying and preparing for exams. Oye that was trying on the soul.

I've begun chipping away at debts and have started dreaming about my hopefully not too distant future nest. I've got loads of travel plans in mind, but now have to either cram things into weekends or plot over a number of years etc. All good - I like the challenge and prospect of many adventures in the years to come!

So life has had some big adjustments and different roads and paths are showing themselves to me. I am enjoying life and the freedom I'm feeling that I haven't felt in years. There are certainly stresses, but in general, there is a smile on my face.

Woo! On to the next ADVENTURE!!!

Employed!

Whoohoo!!!!  The hunt is over!!

I have found a job with Aurora Resource Group (http://www.auroraresource.com/), which manages 4+ companies in the mineral exploration industry. I have a corporate governance position.

I have been exposed to this type of work before, mostly when I was working in London... still, there is going to be sooooo much to learn, I admit to being a bit scared!!

So the title, for the first little bit, is Assistant Corporate Secretary.  The idea is that I learn the role under the existing Corporate Secretary, and when she departs later this year, if they deem me ready, I take over the full responsibilities... if not deemed ready, I'll train under the CFO for a little longer until I can take over!  They hired me for the express purpose of becoming the full CS, so it should all work out well!!

Now in North America, few people know what a Corporate Secretary is... it has nothing to do with typing!!!  Rather than try to explain it, I direct your attention to the ever accurate Wikipedia page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_secretary. 

After that, if confused, let me know!

No more lazy days.. ha ha!