This year, for Valentine's day, our plan is to sit next to each other, in an enclosed space, on not so comfortable seats, surrounded by strangers. For 12hrs. This may not have been my most romantic idea, but we are flying somewhere beautiful and exotic, so what follows that flight and then the next one should be pretty great. Just many, many hours later. But more on that in a few weeks. I have to say, I'm pretty lucky to have found someone to share these adventures with, who laughs at my silly jokes, and who puts up with me when I wake up early on the weekend, with a suddenly long list of things to accomplish. Even luckier that, by the time I crash at about 5pm, he'll pick up the slack and help finish all these things on my to do list. I'm also pretty fortunate to have this furry, fluffy, cuddly and cheeky little pup, who loves to sleep in, play chase and eat raspberries. I'm glad he's also found someone who seems to completely accept him. From them I'm learning that true love is letting your friend sleep on you. It's letting him steal a toy right from your mouth, and even put up with him sticking his snout in your food bowl. We are so glad that these two grew to love each other, and I could probably watch them playing in the hugging/wrestling fashion so distinctive of Labradoodles for hours. Maybe that would make the flights go by faster?

This Holiday season, there is a lot I have to be thankful for, but my thoughts keep going back to this amazing long weekend I just spent in Vancouver with a great friend. Last week, my friend Leonie flew across the country to meet me for 4 days, and we had a blast. We stayed in a nice hotel, strolled around downtown, shopped 'til we dropped, went out for meals and ate pizza in bed. We caught up with each other and with some of cable TV's best, pretending that we no longer live at opposite ends of now two countries.

New Orleans is an amazing city. Colourful, warm, full of contrasts. I love the music, the liveliness, the architecture, the food, and well yes, the beer-to-go. Now, I'm usually more of a dry, unoaked white wine kind of girl (you know, nothing too specific), but there is something pretty great about a pool side beer and walking down the street with a plastic cup. Don't ask me why. This long weekend, a few weeks ago, was the perfect balance of catching up with old friends and making new ones, of lounging by the poolside and exploring the city, of partying and sleeping in.