April 25 Photo: Looking Down

After another long day, arrived home just as the sun was setting and saw the first blooms of the year in front of my neighbour's house. And then I played with some new camera apps on my phone. Trippy.

More on my long day to follow - pictures of the Korean Cultural Showcase!

April 24 Photo: Something I Am Grateful For

After a full day of work and a full night of marking... I am grateful for my bed. Actually, I stopped marking at 12:30 a.m. and did some housework for a couple of hours and then I was REALLY grateful for my bed.

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Note:   I am grateful for many things in my life. I don't mean to trivialize this. But I wasn't with my family and I didn't meet up with any friends. I could have taken a picture of work but maybe today I wasn't as much grateful for it as grateful when it was done. Ask me on a different day. I really do have a good job.

I used to keep a gratitude journal. Remember back in 1995, when Sarah Ban Breathnach shared her ideas about acknowledging daily the things in your life that you are grateful for in her book Simple Abundance? Oprah took up the banner and had women all over North America buying pretty notebooks and making their daily list.  I also read about a teen struggling with depression who kept a  daily photoblog of one thing she was grateful for. It's true that by recognizing all the blessings in your life, you can alter your attitude, and uplift your mood. Someday the blessings are substantial and those essential parts of life that keep you going and give life meaning and other days, it is the small and simple things that sweeten life and remind you of the beauty and joy that surround us if we choose to notice. And today, it was my comfy bed.

April 23 Photo: Vegetable

This picture was taken at one of my many meetings and just to mix it up, tonight this meeting is being held in a restaurant. It felt that little bit less like a meeting and more like a night out even if I still had to take minutes. I had the Mayan Salad with chipotle mango chicken, black beans, cheddar and asiago crisps.Quite the title and a yummy choice. Probably more NON-vegetable ingredients than vegetable. (since the tomato doesn't count either). The word "salad" is what I based the picture on.

Monday Music Break

This came up on my playlist. I really like this band and it is a good toe tapper for a sunny afternoon (and does it make you think that the Stampede is right around the corner and the SuperDogs may be back?)  Enjoy!

And since EVERYTHING must come out in 3D these days, here's the newly released version.
Do you have some 3D glasses somewhere in a drawer to pull out and view this?

World Book and Copyright Day 2012

The New Library of Alexandria, Egypt (2011) built roughly on the site of the ancient library

Today is one of many days to celebrate BOOKS.  Read my whole post on my Page Turner blog. I need to read more so I hope to update that site more.

Did you do something for Earth Day?

Happy Earth Day! Was it something you thought about? This gentleman really wanted to make a statement - I think I would prefer to use cloth bags and recycle any plastic bags I receive.

April 22 Photo: The Last Thing I Bought

The last thing I bought was a bouquet of tulips from the Calgary Farmer's Market. Oranges and Yellows. I love fresh flowers.

Just missing the gelato

Four cheese pizza with honey truffle oil

Sticky Toffee Pudding

After the work week, it was nice to start off the weekend with dinner at Una on 17th Avenue. I had seen someone post pictures of the food on Instagram and since my friend and I wanted to try somewhere new to us, we headed there after work. The pizza was delicious - although the sweet hint of honey may not be to everyone's taste. It reminded me of the pizza I had my first night in Venice. So while the Sticky Toffee Pudding was tasty, I was thinking of how a walk and a gelato would have been a nice way to end the meal. We did fit in the walk as we had some time after dinner and so we headed downtown to check out the newest addition to the city.

Prince's Island (west end)

I like what has been happening with the arts and culture scene in this city. When I travel, I love checking out the unique architecture, structures and public art of a city. This bridge will become something that is featured in photos by visitors from around the world.  I know this was a controversial project --including the length of time taken, the money spent and its location less than 300 metres away from another pedestrian bridge, but now that it is here,  I like the addition of this geometric design to the riverway.

Calgary's Peace Bridge by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava

After our walk, we ended up at Eau Claire Market Cinemas to see the movie "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen". Directed by Lasse Hallström, who directed another favourite of mine, "My Life as a Dog" and written by the screenwriter of "Slumdog Millionaire". 

It is a sweet story about a crazy plan to establish a salmon run in Yemen by a sheik with enough money to make the impossible plausible and the British team of Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt who are charged with helping him.  While it may not be around much longer, add it to your list to watch when the DVD comes out. You can check out the movie trailer below.