31 Day Photo Challenge - In My Bag - Day 20

My friend Vicki's asked what today's picture was for the photo challenge, and I told her "What's in your bag."  She replied, "Oh, that's not very exciting."  There's your prelude for today's post.  Sorry it's boring.

31 Day Photo Challenge - Day 20 - In My Bag (final picture)

An itemized list of what's in my Coach bag:

• Guinness key chain with keys
• $2.00 off coupon for a 12 pack of Diet Coke
• iPhone
• Passport
• Presto Card for the bus
• Work pass
• Istanbul map pendant and chain - the clasp is broken and I keep meaning to get a new clasp
• Key to my friend's place
• Flower chain purse from Peru and it holds my earphones
• Glysomed fragrance free hand cream
• 2 USB Memory Sticks
• Butler Soft Picks
• Package of tissue
• Fold-up bag for shopping
• Container of ibuprofen
• Wallet
• List of foods to eat and avoid from my elimination diet
• Burt's Bees pink grapefruit lip balm
• Green Beaver boreal lip balm
• Clinique chubby lip balm in chunky cherry
• Dolce & Gabbana glasses
• Ralph Lauren sunglasses
• Pen

31 Day Photo Challenge - Something You Want - Day 19

This morning I woke up to Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode playing on the radio and it's a great tune to wake up to.  As I laid in bed listening to the song, I remembered when this video came out in 1989 on Much Music and I instantly loved it.  I loved the beat, the tune, the grittiness of the video, and I thought David Gahan was so sexy in it.  You know it has to be a good tune if Johnny Cash covered it.  Back in 2005/2006, when I was studying library science at the University of Waterloo, a couple of classmates and I went to Toronto to see Depeche Mode in concert.  It was a great concert and I couldn't believe I was finally seeing them after all these years.  David Gahan was just as sexy on stage as he was in the videos.  Hope you like it as much as me.

Another old tune I heard this morning is Lucky Man by Richard Ashcroft, from The Verve.  For some reason, this song screams summer to me and feeling happy.  Thought I would share it with you since it's summertime.

Today's photo challenge is "Something You Want".  There are lots of things that I want.  I want to be free of my student debt and I will be very soon.  How do you take a picture of this?  I want to buy a small postage-size house (really small) with a yard so I can sit outside and have a garden and Nutmeg would have a place to fart around and play.  I want to get my drivers license.  My goal is to get my G1 (learner's) by the end of 2014.  I want the IQ Kettle by Breville, which is a stainless steel electric kettle that boils 5 different temperatures for white, green, oolong, and black tea, and I think the 5th setting is for bodums.  It will even keep the temperature for 20 minutes so you don't have to reboil the water.  How cool is that!  I will buy this kettle sometime over the next year after my student debt is paid off.  Lately, I've been comparing 8 speed dutch style bicycles and the various options that come with them, such as a rear rack, front rack or basket, skirt guard, and colours.  Perhaps it will be a purchase in the next year or two. 

What is Something I Really Want?  I want to go to Egypt more than anything.  Egypt has been my dream destination forever.  I have two Egyptian style mugs, which you will see in the picture and I believe they were given to me by my grandmother.  They sit on my book shelf two shelves above these books:

1. A River in the Desert : Modern Travels in Ancient Egypt by Paul William Roberts
2. Nefertiti : Egypt's Sun Queen by Joyce Tyldesley
3. Teach Yourself Hieroglyphics by Ronald L. Bonewitz
4. Fodor's Exploring Egypt (2001)
5. Egypt by Eyewitness Travel Guides

I want to see Cairo and wonder around it's markets.  I want to stand next to the Great Pyramids of Giza (Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure) and be awed and feel minuscule by them.  I want to look dead on with the Great Sphinx and maybe some of it's power will transfer over to me.  I want to sail down the Nile on a felucca and dream of days past.  I want to visit the Luxor Temple, the Edfu Temple, and see the Hatshepsut Temple.  Yes, I want to be engrossed in this ancient history.  I want to go to Oasis and camp in the Desert.  I want to go Alexandria and see it's ruins and new buildings, such as the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.   I wrote a paper on the library in my 4th year Alexander course in my undergrad.  I want to ride a camel to Mount Sinai and visit Saint Catherine's Monastery, which is one of the oldest Christian monasteries (I'm not religious, but I like to know about various religions to have a better understanding of people's beliefs and what makes them who they are; and churches, monasteries, mosques, etc are great examples of architecture.)  I want to meet local Egyptians and eat and talk with them over meals and tea/coffee.  I want to sample all of their food.

Initially, I planned to visit Egypt for my 30th birthday, but I went back to university full-time and couldn't afford it.  Back then I said I would go for my 40th birthday because I want to celebrate my birthday in Egypt.  Well my 40th is less than 6 months away and unless I win some money I will not be going there in December-January.  It does make me a little sad that I won't be spending my birthday there.  I have a little over half of the required Aeroplan points to fly there from Ottawa.  My friend Vicki offered to give me the rest of the required points as a birthday present, however, it costs more to transfer the points over to me than to buy a ticket outright.  Why is that?  In the beginning, I wanted to spend a month in Egypt and travel on my own, but due to the unrest, I will go with a travel company.  My favourite tour at the moment is Absolute Egypt by G [GAP] Adventures.  It's 16 days and pretty much goes to all the places I want to see except for Mount Sinai.  I will go to Egypt at some point next year.  

31 Day Photo Challenge - Day 19 - Something You Want (final picture)

  

Show me a picture or tell me Something You Want. 

31 Day Photo Challenge - Your Shoes - Day 18

Check out my new bike pedals that I got today at Full Cycle on St. Laurent Blvd.  My other pedals were plastic and cracked.  The bike guy at the store told me, plastic pedals don't last very long and was surprised when I told him they were the original ones that came with my bike that I bought in the Spring of 2006 after my other one was stolen.  Soon I will need to replace my bike lock because the middle piece moves and sometimes I have to struggle with the lock.  I may also need to replace my bike seat because it has crack in it.  Oh boy!  Someone suggested I buy a new bike.  Last Friday and all weekend I thought my odometer screen was going, but then I realized it was new polarized sunglasses that would distort the screen.  Oops!

New Bike Pedals

I noticed the Flatbread Pizza Company, a mobile, wood-fire pizza company (they also live down the street from me), were set up at Full Cycle's parking lot this evening and decided to order a pizza before looking at pedals.  I was planning on strapping it to my bike rack and eat it when I got home, but my bungee cords were in my pannier which was at home.  What did I do?  I sat down on the curb and wolfed it down.  It was hot, a little greasy, and gooey, but isn't that was a pizza's supposed to be?  It was the perfect size.  Next time you see it, stop and a get a pizza. I think they are at Full Cycle on Fridays and Saturday, but not next weekend.  They take cash and credit cards using the Square credit card reader that works with your phone or iPad.        

Flatbread Pizza Company - Supper

Now after these interesting pictures, I will return to today's photo challenge "Your Shoes".  To be honest with you, today's picture is not exciting.  Remember that coworker I asked for advice on taking pictures of eyes?!  Well he came to my desk this morning and I gave him heck for not getting back to me (we bicker back and forth to each other all the time) and he apologized, then asked if it was too late.  I told him it was too late.  He asked what today's challenge was and when I told him "your shoes" he looked at my cubby hole of shoes beneath my desk.  He said it would be a good picture because it shows how practical I am.  I wasn't sure if that was an insult or not.  He said, "You have a pair of black flats, bronze flats, brown low heel, and a black low heel".  These shoes are always kept at my desk since I wear them mostly in the fall and winter I hate having to drag shoes back and forth, especially throughout the winter.  I usually wear other footwear to work, then change when I get there.  In the summer time, I mostly wear flip flops, flat sandals with straps, wedge sandals, black ballet flats, or Toms' grey leopard print ballet flats.

My bronze Target strappy sandals - they go with the bronze buttons on my dress 

31 Day Photo Challenge - 18 - Your Shoes (final picture)

31 Day Photo Challenge - Technology - Day 17

Today's photo challenge is "Technology".  When most people think of technology the first thing that comes to mind is laptops, computers, tablets, iPads, and cell phones.  What about those other things you use on a daily basis, such as the stove, fridge, microwave, electric kettle, television, and lights.  These devices represent such a big part of our lives that some people forget they too were once technological advances.  If you watched Downton Abbey, you will recall how the estate transforms over the seasons with new technology (electricity, cars, small appliances, etc.) much to the chagrin of Charles Carson, the Butler and Beryl Patmore, the Cook.  I loved watching their reactions when they saw the toaster and mixer.  A big part of Downton Abbey is the music played in the series, which leads me to my next technology device.

My first photo example represents music.  First, it was put on records, then there was 8 tracks, tapes, and CDs and now it's digital.  Now, we need a device to listen to our music whether it's stereo, record player, phone, MP3 player, iPod, computer, television, and last but not least, the radio.  Way back when before television, people listened to shows and sporting events such as hockey over the radio.  I listen to the radio every day.  It wakes me up in the morning, I listen to it as I eat and get ready for the day, Nutmeg listens to it when I'm gone and I listen to it while making supper.  It provides me weather, news, stories, and music.  I had a picture of a Tivoli Audio radio on my fridge for 3 years and finally bought this one in Montreal after passing a store carrying Tivoli Audio radios.  I didn't know at the time that they came in other colours.

Tivoli Audio - Henry Kloss - Model One Radio

I found this little gem on one of my walks today.  It's a New York Rangers 1998 zamboni dinky car.  Think of the technology used to build this one and other dinky cars.  My brother had so many of them and I used play with them and his model cars.  Actually, I repainted his model cars.  Oops!  It's a good thing I was young and cute.  I returned this little zamboni to where i found it because I assume it belongs to one of the kids that live on that street.  Does anyone remember who played for the Rangers in 1998?

New York Rangers 1998 Zamboni

For our 3rd walk of the day, I took Nutmeg to the Kavanaugh construction site to take some pictures because it's a prime example of how technology is used in construction, engineering, the crane, tools to dig, to excavate, etc.

The Kavanaugh Construction Site

I chose the crane as my final picture because it's one of the first things to arrive at the site, you see it for many, many months, and yet it does so much and can withhold enormous weight despite it looking so frail.  I also love the big, blue sky behind the crane.

31 Day Photo Challenge - Day 17 - Technology (final picture)

31 Day Photo Challenge - A Good Habit - Day 16

Today's photo challenge is a "A Good Habit".  A good habit can be so many things ... walking your dog, make your bed, do the dishes before you leave in the morning, brush your teeth at least twice a day, floss every day, eat well, exercise, read, watch less TV, drink plenty of water, spend time with friends, be positive, and the list goes on and on.

I had supper with my mom this evening and we were to meet at my place for 5:00 pm.  I was a little late getting home and when I did there was no mom or Nutmeg.  My mom took Nutmeg for a walk around my crescent and I met them outside and snapped a couple pictures of them walking towards me.  We went down by the river and walked along it for a bit then made our way back home and I took a few more pictures along the way.

Me and Nutmeg

I like this picture because both my mom and Nutmeg are not aware of the camera, and I caught my mom glancing to the side and smiling, and Nutmeg is looking in the other direction with a very weird look on her face.  This picture is also a good representation of today's challenge for it's a good habit to get exercise by any means necessary whether it's biking, running, yoga, cross fit, skiing, canoeing, walking, etc.  Exercise is beneficial for your health physically and mentally.

Since I live in an apartment, I need to take Nutmeg outside for walks at least a couple of times a day.   She's a great motivator to get me outside and enjoy the fresh air.  It's a good habit to take your dog for walks because it encourages bonding between you and your dog, you and your dog get to interact with other humans and pets along the way, you both get exercise, and you are both happier.  It's a win-win situation for everyone.

Now get off that couch and go for walk.

31 Day Photo Challenge - Day 16 - A Good Habit (final picture)