Thanks so much for the nice emails and comforting words.  It is so nice to read them, and I really appreciate it.  Especially people who know me well and aren’t afraid to give me honest advice.  It really warms the heart.  I pray everyday for the strength to be confident and calm through the rest of the pregnancy, and I know I have a great support team.  And I do want to stress that I am feeling much much better, and very much more normal.

So great in fact, that last weekend Pedram and I took a easy jet flight down to Malaga, Spain for a few days.  We drove up to Granada for a day, basking the Spanish sun, and enjoying the food.  I don’t really like Spanish food, but down south there are option with an Arabic flair, like roscas, an enormous bagel, that we had with falafel.  And the coffee…yum.

Spain is the ham and seafood lovers dream, but we wandered upon a market that made me so happy with its fresh fruits and vegetables.  I brought home with many kilos of strawberries and tomatoes.  Of course, the first season strawberries and artichokes made me feel like spring is just around the corner, but when we arrived back in England, we had the coldest week ever.

Otherwise, the trip was just a relaxing time drinking coffee at the bars, watching impromptu flamingo dancing in the streets, soaking in some history and discovering a new city.  It was so nice to enjoy a change in scenery and culture and to enjoy fiestas and late dinners.  The baby was loving the entire experience, especially the churros.

The strawberries I brought home lasted a few days before I decided to make a cake out of them.  In these freezing cold days, it is a very nice reminder of where I was a week ago.

I need to have travel plans at all times.  I need to be looking forward to a trip, looking at ticket prices, checking on tripadvisor.com for hotel reviews, asking friends for opinions and suggestions.  Lets just say my Thanksgiving trip to Seattle makes me smile every time I think about it.  And I think about it alot. I think I have mentioned to everyone I have seen in the past month.

My office is closed at the end of the year, so obviously I have been looking for flights around the world.  Proximity-wise, it makes most sense to visit the Caribbean.  Here is my short list:

• Cuba (yeah Canada!)
• Turks and Caicos
• The Virgin Islands
• Coasts of Mexico
• Barbados

Thoughts about my options?  Choices are aplenty, but ticket prices are ghastly, so the cheapest option will win.

On another note, I didn’t want to say anything and jinx it, but the Montreal weather so far has been AMAZING.  So much better than I was anticipating for mid-November.  So good, I actually rode my bike to work yesterday.  It is still cold, but there is plenty of sunshine…and NO snow so far.  We had two days of snow tease, but it didn’t stick and melted.

And finally, eventhough we argue about it the entire time — some of us like more cheese than other, some of us like mushrooms under the cheese, and some of us think differently and are therefore wrong.  The point is, Pedram makes the best homemade pizza…ever.  From scratch.

Homemade tomato sauce on homemade dough

Before going in the oven

The final result

I am not lying when I say it is pretty darn good pizza.  Come over, and he’ll make it for you.  I played the role of sous-chef — I prepared the mushrooms.

April 27
Location: On N2 from Swellendam to Wilderness
Our view since leaving Cape Town has been a beautiful back drop of mountains and rolling hills of farmland, wheat, sheep, cows and ostrich farms.  We are listening to Umhlobo radio, where they speak Xhosa (I think) with the click sound.  It is really hard for us to replicate it.  Pedram has done a great job driving on the left hand side and shifting with his left hand.  After getting used to the idea that we are not driving the wrong way down the street, it seems odd now that we ever drove on the other side.

April 29
Location: Tsitsikamma – sitting at lookout point
Am really falling in love with it here.  Absolutely stunning beauty.  A huge cricket flew past me and freaked me out — I think it is the sound more than the actual cricket itself.  Need to buy a frog and prop it on my shoulder to avoid hearing bugs.

April 30
Location: Plettenberg Bay
Walked on the beach this morning and had the “why don’t we live here” discussion.  The ocean is SO nice, but we stuck our feet in and froze, definitely not surfing.

May 1
Location:  Port Elizabeth – waiting for the flight to Maun, Botswana
We are actually passing time at the airport by playing battleship on paper.  Pedram got really excited making the grids.  We spent yesterday at an elephant sanctuary, which was surprisingly great.  We learned more about the elephants, held hands with them.  My favorite was Thandi, a 15 year old elephant who was rescued from an illegal sale to a Chinese circus.  She didn’t have tusks due to genetic defect from poaching.  She was such a giant and so gentle and smart.  I think I love her.

Elephants are struggling in Southern Africa because they take up so much space, eat so much and do so much damage.  In Kruger Park, they are culling the elephant population to reduce it from 12,000 to 7,500.  Obviously, this is a serious issue here.

As promised, some pictures and thoughts from our trip.  I thought it would be best to just quote from my journal, which I used to store all my thoughts from the trip.

April 24
Location: Sitting on top of Table Mountain
This is my first time below the equator and P just pointed out hat the sun is now north instead of south. Had the “does the toilet flush clockwise or counterclockwise” conversation. He thinks it is the same.

Location: Boulders Beach
Chilling with some penguins. Just saw a seal thrash and eat an octopus. Smiling so big at my own little planet earth display. Forgot all worries.

Location: Cape of Good Hope
Wow. This is really awe-inspiring, looking beyond cliffs to the meeting place of two oceans. I am standing here in awe. What magnificent beauty.
…later…
Baboons are creepy – they look harmless, but I saw them eat a flamingo on the Discovery channel, so keeping my distance. It is like that Bel Biv Devoe song – “you can never trust a pink butt and a smile” ☺

Picked up a Swiss hitchhiker who traveled from Geneva to Cape of Good Hope, relying only on the generosity of other humans. We gave him a lift to a nearby town, and signed his petition – www.petitionmondialepourlapaix.org– he is trying to get a “critical mass” of signatures, which is 1.5 billion. He is currently at 70,000.

April 25
Location: Guguletu Township
Visiting a township, which is a weird idea by itself, but we came here for lunch. Mzoli’s, a enormous butcher/bbq place, filled to the brim by meat-lovers, where we ate braai meat and pap.

Location: Climbing Lion’s Head
Climbing this “hill” kicked my butt but had an amazing sunset experience. Then FREAKED out that we had to go back down without a flashlight, so booked it down the hill.

April 26
Location: Leaving the Bo Kaap (Cape Town)
We are finally leaving Cape Town, although we had such a good time here, we could stay much longer. Had a conversations with our hosts about how developed Cape Town is – the infrastructure is amazing to other large cities I’ve seen in Africa. It makes me hopeful that this could also happen in Dakar and other places, but can’t say the high HIV/AIDS rate and massive disparity between rich/poor, white/black, and the 40% unemployment is something I’d want exported. While we were here, Jacob Zuma was elected President – should be interesting.