We had a BBQ a couple of weeks ago. Back then the wisteria vine hugging the pergola was barely budding. Earlier this week, the vine is in full bloom…
oh, our wedding / house warming gift, a yellow delicious apple tree, is also beginning to flower. I love spring, and should really learn how to garden properly to keep the yard pretty
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Thank you to Lisa for organizing the party. Having a potluck and making truffles is a great way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon. I came home with 6 delicious truffles and 10 pieces of fruits and cookies dipped in dark rich chocolate. |  |
We got our PADI certification cards earlier this week, so exciting :-). Went to Jamaica a few weeks ago for a very elaborate wedding. We decided to stay in a resort for the whole week. After one day of laying by the pool, sun bathing, we decided to have some fun and be more productive. The dive shop and the instructor were on the resort, it seems like a great idea at the time.
We were suppose to do 3 dives in the confined water, aka a swimming pool; 2 real dives and completing the quizzes to get Scuba certification, the lowest level certification. We spent about 2 hours in the pool that barely reached my neck for our 3 confined water dives. The same afternoon we went into the water for a real dive. Needless to say I felt very unprepared, and it didn’t help that a lady on the boat kept on asking me if I were scared, and joking that she’d call for help if anything happens to us while we were under the water. I was too polite to tell her to shut up 🙂 I struggled a bit when I got into the water, a wave of panic washed over me when I stepped into the water, it took some convincing from the instructor for me to proceed with the dive.
The underwater world is so different and fascinating, I was in awe despite the fact that I’ve watched “Finding Nemo” half a dozen times. I would try to describe the world 40ft below the sea, but I don’t think I could do it justice…
In any case, we’d like to go for a couple more dives this year so we could upgrade our certification to deep-water diving. I’m definitely looking forward to do more dives. There is a strange calmness and sensation from being under water, where everything seems to be moving in slow motion.
We were invited to a rather unusual event this past weekend, house concert + potluck, a fun and low-key experience. We saw our friends, had really good food and drinks, heard beautiful music and dined with the musicians afterwards; just a neat package all around.
A quick plug for the band, Four Shillings Short. The dynamic musicians, Aodh Óg and Christy, flawlessly and artifully combine instruments from different continents and across different times in history, to produce refreshing and soul-moving sounds. To attend a Four Shillings Short concert is to attend a musical instruments’ trade show (you gotta to see the number of instruments they travel with, I think they played with more than a dozen instruments during the night), a poetry reading, a music history lecture and a concert all at once. I was truly humbled by their talent and their passion for creating and re-inventing music.
Our host, Wendy, was all gigally to have a live band playing in their living room. We just appreciated the fact that we were invited; and I thought it was pretty cool when the musicians told us that we could freely make copies of the CD’s we bought from them and share with friends. With their blessing, I’d be happy to upload their songs to a file share if anyone is interested in giving them a try.