Borneo

We arrived in Borneo a few days ago. We first landed in Kuching, the capital of the Sarawak state. We spent a day there, before we left for the Permai Rainforest Resort where we spent Christmas. It was awesome. We got to sleep in a tree house, which was very comfortable. There was a beach, there was a pool, there were rainforest trails, and there was a very good restaurant with a special Christmas dinner. We got to see monkeys from our balcony, so one of my goals has been met! One thing about the rainforest is that it rains a lot, and quite often. So we did not spend much time at the beach nor in the forest, but instead decided to go visit the Sarawak cultural village not far from the resort. It was interesting to see how the different tribes of the region used to live. We left Kuching with the intention to come back for a few more days before we go back to Kuala Lumpur, there is a lot more to see around there!
We then headed to Brunei, where the immigration rules (the written ones, at least) scared the hell out of me! But going through customs was not that bad. We had a reservation in a resort in another Malaysian town, which is an hour away from Brunei by ferry. We had thought that we might go back to visit, but we didn't see anything at the airport or on our way to the ferry that inspired us much, so we got a stamp in our passport for 2 hours spent waiting for a ferry. Instead, we have spent the past 2 days doing nothing but enjoy the resort's pool, the room's AC and the wonderful pineapple juice and virgin pina coladas of this resort. We also visited a bird park, and tried to swim in the sea, but the bird park was hot, humid and a little depressing, and the sea was not much fun. We are leaving tomorrow morning, we will take another ferry to Kota Kinebalu.

Our tree house

Permai resort beach

Inside the house (through the screen, we don't want the mosquitoes in!)

Pineapple friend rice and pineapple juice...I'm addicted! 

The beautiful pool!

Temple in Kuching

Laksa Sawarnak, and what I think is star fruit juice. I've never felt so far away from our 3R restaurants! It was soooo good! 

Permai resort beach

We got a visitor!

At the cultural village

Traditional way to make cookies

Cultural village

Palm Beach Resort, Labuan

More news to come!

2 days in Kuala Lumpur

So, what to say about KL? The 2 words that come to my mind are:  hot and overwhelming!
I think that the stress and tiredness of the past few months and of the trip + jetlag + the intense heat and humidity of the city caught up on us, minus the adrenaline of the exotism we felt in China, so we probably did not take advantage of the city as much as we could have.
Moreover, this city is truly overwhelming, it's like landing in 3 countries at once, between Indian, Malaysian and Chinese people. And the contrasts...We've been in the most elegant shopping malls I've ever seen, and in awesome markets that were quite messy (guess what I prefered...). The sounds of the calls for the prayer are followed by the churches' bells, and we can hear Christmas carolls everywhere. I'm happy we'll be back for a few days at the end of our trip, so we'll be able to better explore it.

Biggest shopping mall I ever saw, with a lot of people!

Christmas is really a commercial event here...

Food is awesome

KL aquaria

KL park

Mix of cultures

Wet market

Breakfast options at Imbi market

What we finally had

My breakfast being prepared

Pedestrian-friendly sidewalks in the air

We're now in Kuching, Borneo. More pictures to come!
Merry Christmas!

Vacations

I haven't been good at all at writing this semester, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, it was just too busy. But now, all the funding requests are done and submitted, and I'm off for a month. I'm actually writting this from Kuala Lumpur, where my man and I arrived in the middle of the night, after spending 3 days in Shanghai.
This has been a looong trip. We left Monday morning around 9am to take a bus to Montreal, followed by another bus to the airport, then a first plane to Toronto, a second one to Vancouver, and a third one (over 13 hour-long) to Shanghai. Once there, we realised our luggages had not followed, so we just took the high-speed (300km\h) train to town, where we bought a 3-day metro pass, and went to our hotel. We didn't stay in long, because we wanted to get over jetlag quickly. So the first day was spent disovering the Bund and the old town. Here are a few pictures.

Quite the choice of food! 

Tea house

Tea with eggs...

Fish...

Shanghai metro

Our luggages showed up at the hotel as we were about to go to bed, how lucky are we? 

The second day we visited the zoo, and the people's square and around. The zoo was a lot of fun, although I spent the day freezing. 

Wearing the new blouse I finished the day before we left! 

And we still had a little time, so on day 3, we went to the free national museum, and walked around a bit more before we headed back to the airport for our flight to KL. 

About to taste the stinky tofu I got from a street vendor. It tastes better than it smells! 

So, my impression of Shanghai after less than 72 hours spent there? It's cleaner, better organised than I expected of a country with so many people. It's very easy to get around, EVERYTHING is in English. And the food is to die for! On the other hand, people kind of don't talk unless they're trying to get you into the famous tea-scam, they push or almost hit you non-stop in the metro and on the street. Nobody seems to be following any circulation rule, and the weirdest thing is that nobody ever says a word about it, as if it's just normal that you almost get hit by a bike/car/bus/scooter, etc. at every single corner. Also, Shanghai is really, really rich, and I just kept thinking about what happens in order regions of the country, and did not feel comfortable about this opulence. Lastly, Facebook and Bloger did not work while we were there. It was a good reminder that despite all the Starbucks, Gap and other North American ways of living, it's still China. So, I'm happy I saw it, but I would not go back. Next post: Kuala Lumpur!!!

Dark November

Well, it looks like this fall is just going to be crazy until the end. Or at least until December 13, when I finish working for over a month! I haven't been in vacation for more than a month since I was a master's student, over a decade ago. Meanwhile, I am paying for not taking much time off this summer, because I'm just exhausted. But hey, that's one last month to go, and given all the work I have, it should go by very quickly, and I've got lots to look forward to at the end!

Somehow, despite the running around of the past months, I still managed to do things.
I went apple picking and made apple sauce with a LOT of cinnamon. We made candied salmon and we got a slow cooker that we used a few times.

Salmon in the dehydrator. It's sincerely the best thing in the world. 

But that's it, I have not canned tomatoes, nor made jams as I had started to do in the past years.  Too busy, too tired, and still working on our grape jelly and plum and strawberry jams from last year.

On the weaving side, good news. The blankets have both been sent and received by their new owners, Emoke and Aron. After I finished hemming the blue one, the hem frayed when I washed it, so I had to do it a second time. I decided to hopefully solidify it by adding and extra blanket stitch. The final result looks like this (not super nice, but I was learning):

Picture taken in the car, because that's where I finished the hem, while my friends were waiting for me to drop it at Aron's place. I like the red with the blue. 

I had taken the blankets off the loom before the whole warp was completely woven (I hope to have 2 more blankets on it). I used the 2-stick heading tip from Peggy Osterkamp's weaving blog.  I re-attached the warp last week, and it looks good, although I have a few things to fix.

Sticks attached to the apron rod. 

Another thing I did was this (see picture below) with knitting markers, to keep the treads in the right sections as I re-warped the loom. It worked pretty well, and I'm happy I found a use for those markers I never use!

Knitting is also pretty good. After the last booties, I had time to knit another pair, this time red, for a future baby named Florence.

This pattern was so easy...but so cute! I knit it in about a week and gave them to the mama this morning.

Tomorrow is our weekly knitting meeting at the local coffee place. My heart is bursting with pride when I see people who started knitting a few weeks ago finishing scarves (and not any scarf, this one!), and starting baby sweaters. As much as I am proud of all these girls who are learning and running with their needles and yarn, as much as I am realizing that I am a bad knitter! It took me so long to finish my first few pieces, and even now, I can't make anything without having to knit it at least twice, if we consider all the mistakes I have to fix as I go...Anyway, I try not to get to depressed by that though, and try to feel better by telling myself that I must be a not-so-bad teacher:-)

Also in the knitting news, last week I went to Montreal with 2 friends for a yarn shopping day. We visited 3 stores, dropped the blue blanket, and stopped at my favourite Indian restaurant for a yummy lunch. I had just received a new book I ordered with baby patterns, and I bought yarn for a few projects. I'm ready for any other friend who is planning to procreate! I also bought yarn for this project. I can't wait to start it!

So this is it for now, have a great week!

Fall

Hello,
I think that October is my favourite month of the year.  I love the colours, I love the weather that is warm one day, and cooler the next, so we can enjoy long walks outside as well as cozy, homey activities, such as making soups. I didn't realize how much I love October until last year, we were in Transylvania for 2 weeks in October, and it was a chock for me to be away from here.
I missed this:

Not that Transylvania is not full of trees in the fall, but they become yellow. Not orange, and not red. And I missed that a lot last year.

However, this year is a busy October, and I'm not taking advantage of it as much as I should. Today is Thanksgiving in Canada, and I've been so busy that I didn't plan anything outside of home for the weekend. I mean, I had plans, but they were not well thought out, and didn't happen. With the big trip coming, I don't mind that much, but for sure next year I want to rent a cottage and spend some time in the forest!

So, besides my busy work (sending funding proposals and bursary applications all over the place), I've been busy with the wine class (I love it, but I realize how much more there is to learn...), trying to to make it to all my yoga, zumba and pilates classes (not as successful I I would have wished when the semester started), trying to make things (not to bad, considering the little time I have to invest) and cooking things.

In the making things, I managed to finish these for little Victor, born in the Nederlands last week (a few days early, I must say, so for once, it's not my fault he didn't get them before he arrived!)

I now need to start a few more baby items (everybody is having babies around me. EVERYBODY!). I also want to start Fuse , a pattern I bought last year and didn't get around to start yet. This morning, I went to our weekly coffee gathering, and I did the swatch. I think I will like it a lot! And I love the yarn I bought for it.

Talking about our coffee gathering, I'm very proud to report that we got a few regular knitters joining almost every week, and that 2 of the new learners have completed, or are very near completion of their first F.O.! I'm just so proud...

The other thing I finished is the hem of this woven baby blanket. (to see the pattern, it's the picture above).

I've decided not to add a crochet edge on the blanket. The main reason is that I still don't know how to crochet. The 2nd reason is that I washed the 1st blanket, which shrank significantly. I knew it would, so it's not a problem, but I forgot to do the lace and attach it before I washed the blanket. Bad idea. I feel that by the time I try to figure out how to crochet, and calculate how much of the lace would shrink, etc. I will never send out the blanket. My dilemma was then: do I wait, and potentially never send those thing to the babies, or do I take a big breath, decide that the blankets are already quite nice, and send them so they can actually be used?
I chose option 2, and the 2nd blanket is currently being washed so I can send it out tomorrow.

I guess I'll be perfect in another life...or with another baby. Meanwhile, I will try to start my next blanket this afternoon, to get back into the weaving mood.

More news soon! Have a good week!