A year in the life: 2014 retrospective

...sort of. I was going to do Gillian's 5 things roundup, but then I decided to steal Oonaballoona's collage idea and grey out the makes that didn't work out so well. And then I thought: since this blog isn't just about the stuff I make, usually, why not do an entire year in review? I've done some fun stuff this year, and I haven't gotten around to blogging it all yet, but this would be a good way of remembering where I went and what I did.

So that's what you're getting, with some reflections along the way, minus the pancakes. You can see all my makes at Crazy Stuff I Do; most of the event posts are In Progress^TM.

The biggest thing to celebrate is a year a successful cohabitation with the DC! I'm still not sure what I did to deserve him, and I'm very excited to announce that Lucy has stopped hissing at him. Plus? He brings me tea and does the dishes. Often. And unasked. He's all-around awesome and I'm a lucky lady.

Ahem. On with the remembrances. Do you need me to tell you it's probably going to be a long post?

Frozen

It's been a wee bit nippy here. Starting with the ice storm shortly before Christmas and continuing on practically non-stop since then it's been... more like the winters I was used to than the ones we've been having lately.

Nerdigras, Macarons, and Easter Bonnets

Just under the wire, but happy Nerdigras, everyone! 10 days until Pi Day!^*

Two more fun dates are coming up in the next few weeks. First up is the Jour du Macaron on Wednesday, March 20. You may remember my tour du macaron last year. I might be planning a similar tour this year. Stay tuned.



After that is the second annual Vintage Easter Parade on Sunday, March 31. I may try to finish (read: line) the green dress I made for last year's parade, and I am thinking about what to do for a hat, because as L says in her blog post about the history of the parade, it's all about the hats.


But I will definitely wear a coat if I need to! Brr!

^*Or 114 until Tau Day, if you prefer.

In which PhysicsGirl, though jet-lagged, tries to find a cream tea

So here I am in London, again. I was very happy, this time, to not be lugging around a huge 26-kg suitcase. I managed to fit everything I need for the next two weeks into a small suitcase. In fact, if it weren't for Air Transat's bizarre carry-on limits to the UK^*, I would have been out of Gatwick in about 10 minutes. As it was, I had to wait about half an hour to claim my oddly-blue bag^** . As soon as I did, I was off to navigate the tube to my hotel.

Cupcakes and Easter bonnets

Last Saturday I went on the season opener Cupcake Ride. There was a huge turnout, the cupcakes were delicious, and the day was gorgeous. You can click on the link to see Hyedie's recap.

We started at Prairie Girl Bakery, tucked away off King St. E. on Victoria. They provide mini-cupcakes, which as you know I love because it lets me try several flavours and not feel like a pig. So very tasty.

And so we, finally, bid farewell to the City of Lights...

My Paris pictures. Are. Done.

Yes.

Again, to my Facebook peeps, click on "View Original Post" below to come over to actually see the pictures. If you're reading this on the actual blog site, ignore the previous statement. Everyone click the title below the pics to see more than just the one. Or click on the link at right to see all the albums in their glory.

I took pictures of Luxembourg Gardens, the St-Martin Canal, the Eiffel Tower, back to the Jardin des Plantes, and Père-Lachaise cemetery. Twice.

From Paris 2010: Cityscapes and Walking Tours

I finally went inside Notre Dame for more than a few minutes.

From Paris 2010: Look Ma, Culture!

I also did a bike tour to Giverny.

Giverny 2010

I've also uploaded pictures into my daily life and oddities albums.

Paris 2010: La Vie en Rose

Paris 2010: Ça m'amuse beaucoup!

Wahoo! Only the rest of Provence, the Greek Cruise, Athens, Delphi, London, Oxford, Bath... Salisbury... QM2... NYC...

Suddenly? I feel a little tired.

But, she said, brightening, I have these to look forward to, as I promised myself two months ago:


I may have cheated a wee bit and bought them on Sunday in anticipation, since I only had a few dozen pictures left to go. I did take them to my brother and sister-in-law's, and I did hold back while they took first choice. But they might not have eaten all of them. And Aged P may have bought me a macaron recipe book. And I may have bought a few extra to come home to...

In knee news, the scab has fallen off, and I've got a rather angry red scar bisecting my kneecap. It's still quite sore, especially when I've been sitting for a while. Perhaps it will be back to normal just in time for summer's end.

In which more pictures are posted...

My week 4 Paris photos are online! This quickness is entirely due to several facts. First, I posted my annotated pictures of Mont St-Michel the day after I got back. Second, I had renamed the rest of the photos, which is a way lengthy process, sometime last summer. Third, I spent most of that week vegging out since I had been on the go every day the previous week.

However, I did manage to grab some cards and tour a new part of the city: Palais Royale and the Opera quarter.

From Paris 2010: Cityscapes and Walking Tours

I also took a trip to Brussels and Mons to visit two old friends from my exchange days: Magritte and Laurent.

Brussels/Mons 2010

And just for good measure, even though they've been online for over a year, my pictures of the trip to Mont St-Michel.

Mont St-Michel 2010

I am nearly done renaming the pictures from my last week in Paris, which included the bike trip to Giverny. I can nearly taste those macarons...

PhysicsGirl and the blustery day

Well, it wasn't that windy, but it sure was cold.

I went for brunch with my friend T at Easy Restaurant at Roncesvalles and Queen. Afterward, we went for a walk along the western boardwalk, where to my shame I had never been. It was beautifully sunny, but brutally cold.

We saw some urban art, some very cold swans, and a surprising number of people. It's a 10-minute bike ride from my place; I definitely have to make it a regular haunt when it gets warmer.

You can see the rest of the pictures by clicking on the link under the pic and scrolling to the picture below.

From Rambling Through Toronto

Storm before the calm...

I've been very busy with summer school and catching up on North American tv, so I haven't been working on my pictures or updating my European blog posts. Aged P is impatient. However, summer school finishes next week, so I will try to get my Provence and Paris museum week pix up Real Soon, with the rest to follow In The Near Future.

Meanwhile, I've been casting about for something to do with the rest of the summer. With my unexpectedly depleted bank account, due to the fact that I apparently had a leetle too much fun in Paris, and frankly because I'm not really fond of the travelling part of travel, any "foreign" adventuring this summer must be somewhat curtailed. I've decided, though, that I will still go visit a great city, and it won't cost me a dime.

I'm going to play tourist in Toronto.

Everything's comin' up roses, except my nightlife

Don't read this yet. Although it's in the past, I've only published it because I want to link to it in a future post. Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.

Some really good stuff is going to go here about my last day in NYC. I meant to do the circle line tour of NY and missed it because I misread the schedule. There was a great deal of walking in less scenic parts of New York.

On my way there, I went to [name I can't remember] to buy macarons. I hadn't had any since leaving Paris, and I know that they have jumped the pond. (Not Payard, where my cousin worked, because that was uptown and this place was more-or-less on the way). The poor boy behind the counter didn't really know that much about them. No pictures, alas, because despite my best intentions they did not last. They were a bit chewy and possibly not completely fresh, but still very, very tasty.

Went to the Shake Shack for lunch.
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Tour of East Village & bought my earrings.
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On my way back to the hotel, I went through Soho to take more pictures of Green St. & cast-iron architecture. Saw a couple digging through a box of what I thought were fake flowers, but turned out to be real roses that someone was just throwing away! The woman was saying "Oh, we can't take them all. We should leave some for other people." The man just started threading roses in her hair. I grabbed a few for myself; I figured I could enjoy them for the evening and leave them as a gift for whoever cleans my room when I leave tomorrow.
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More stuff about getting back to the hotel. "You look like you need the bathroom more, because you are carrying roses and someone carrying roses shouldn't look that unhappy."

I hope to be going out dancing tonight. The reason I planned to stay in New York until tomorrow was Frim Fram on Thursdays. Unfortunately, I seem to have picked up some kind of... how shall I put this delicately... intestinal bug that is making life unpleasant. Not a great way to end this trip, I must say.

I won't think of that. I'll think of roses instead.
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It turns out that last week was just a warm-up...

I knew that I wanted to see Mont St-Michel. It's a UNESCO world heritage site, and more importantly, it plays a role in the 1940's espionage novel Assignment in Brittany by Helen MacInnes. The scene where the hero is saved from discovery by the dangerous Nazi being sucked into the quicksand near the mount left quite an impression.

Statistics

In the last 10 days...

Number stairs climbed: About 2100*
Number of "great views of the city"**(Paris or otherwise): 10
Number of museums/churches/monuments visited: 20***
Number of times I thought I was going to fall to my death: 4****
Number of times I did fall to my death: 0
Holes worn through the sole of a boot: 1
Minutes spent waiting in line: 60 (40 of those at Notre Dame, 15 at Versailles)
Kilometres walked: Lots (sorry, lost my pedometer in Amsterdam)
Number of pictures taken: ~ 1290*****

*Chartres: 300, Notre Dame: 400, Arc de Triomphe: 284 (+60ish to get to and from the underground passage), Panthéon: 300 (aprox - can't find the exact number), Louvre: 150(est.), other museums/monuments: 350 (est.), Parc des Buttes-Chaumont & 19th: 250 (est.)
**"Great view" usually means from a very high place. That you must climb many stairs to see. Except at the Pompidou Centre, where there are escalators.
***Chartres Cathedral, Chenonceau, Cheverny, Chambord, Versailles, le Grand Trianon, le Petit Trianon & l'Hameau de la Reine, Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, Notre Dame Bell Tower, Crypte Archéologique, Conciergerie, Sainte Chapelle, l'Arc de Triomphe, l'Orangerie, Hôtel des Invalides & Eglise du Dôme (Napoleon's Tomb), Musée Rodin, Panthéon, Musée des Arts et Métiers, Pampidou Centre.  I did pop briefly into Notre Dame itself, so that should be 21.
****Three of those times were at Chartres.
*****Yeah, it's going to take a little while to put those up.  Fortunately, there's a longish train ride on Monday and Tuesday.  Of course, there will be many more photos by Tuesday...

Once upon a time...

Note: I had decided not to try and catch up before posting recent ramblings...  And I had this post all written when some gremlin didn't save it.  I'll try to redo it, but it's a week later as I type this and I may not remember all the witty things I wrote before.

I have seen how the other half lived, and let's just say it's good to be king.  Until an unruly mob drags you from your bed...

Yesterday, I took a bus trip to the Loire Valley with Paris Vision. Well, a minivan trip: it turns out only six people registered.  Four of us were in the van when the guide said "We are just waiting for two more."  We looked at each other in some dismay; it would be kind of squishy with two more people in the van.  I said: "I hate to seem uncharitable, but I hope they don't show up on time."  Fortunately, they didn't and we were very comfortable.  So comfortable, in fact, that about 15 minutes after we left, almost everyone was asleep.  It was very early.

I'm getting there...

I'm posting my write-ups under the dates they happened, so you may not have noticed that I've put up two posts about my first day in Amsterdam, which are here and here.  The next day is coming, I swear.  There is a very amusing story involving clogs.  I bet you can't wait.

Edited: I have been making sure my photos are up-to-date as of yesterday.  I've been adding to my various albums.  Unfortunately, Picasa won't let me start an album in the middle, so here is what you have to do:  Click on the album title under the picture, then find that photo again in the album (you may have to scroll down a bit), click on the photo again.  Then you can navigate forward and backward through the album from the new point.  (Or you could just click on the first picture to go through all the pictures in the album.)  Either way, it's a pain.

You've already seen my first day walk, but I've been walking around a lot since I got here.  I explored Ile de la Cité a bit more:

From Paris 2010: Cityscapes and Walking Tours

the Latin Quarter:

From Paris 2010: Cityscapes and Walking Tours

and Montmartre:

From Paris 2010: Cityscapes and Walking Tours

  I've also been on a great bike tour:

From Paris 2010: Cityscapes and Walking Tours

  (These are all in the same album, so you could just click once to see the whole thing.)

I've also experienced some culture: I went to the Musée National du Moyen Age (dit Cluny):

Paris 2010: Look Ma, Culture!

and to Chartres Cathedral:

Chartres 2010

This coming week is museum week.  I've got me a pass and I'm gonna use it.  I have a feeling I'll be a little museumed out by next Sunday.

Ahem

As I expected, it's taking me a while to write up some of my rambles, but I've put up photos with pithy commentary for you to enjoy.

My Amsterdam pictures are here:

Amsterdam 2010

Pictures of my Paris apartment and other daily life are here:

Paris 2010: La Vie en Rose

I took a walk down to the Seine and to get chocolate the afternoon of my first full day in Paris:

Paris 2010: Cityscapes and Walking Tours

Some pix of funny things are here:

Paris 2010: Ça m'amuse beaucoup!

I'll be adding to these albums as the month goes on.

Think of all the beauty...

Instead of the quick hour-long nap I intended, I wound up sleeping for three and a half hours, so I decided to do the Rijksmuseum the next day and walked over to the Jordaan, which is a funky little neighbourhood near the Anne Frank Huis. I spent the first part of my walk learning how not to get run over by cyclists.

Here's the thing: there are no stop signs in downtown Amsterdam. A few major intersections have lights, but mostly you count on common sense to