Ottawa's Baby Boom!

J: Our friends back home are in the midst of a prolific progeny production process. No doubt the demographers at the federal government of Canada are thrilled with the spiking birth-rate in Ottawa!

As part of Melanie's two-week whirlwind visit to Ottawa she was entrusted with the honourable task of introducing herself to these new tykes. From Braeden Ogilvie Leask, to Sean "Jebus" Millar, Little Miss Sophia M Perrakis, Grace Kathryn McLaughlin, and Enzo Antonio Fama von Shilling freiherr... she blessed many a child.

Lois' 80th Birthday Bash!

J: From cattle- and oil-rich Calgary to Anne of Green Gable's Prince Edward Island, Melanie's huge family travelled from all corners of the country to Ottawa for her mother's 80th birthday. Melanie, with the very kind support of some little birdies, "secretly" travelled to Canada to surprise her mom on her big day. And what a surprise it was! Lois said, "I haven't been so surprised since they closed the old Capitol Theatre at Bank and Queen back in 1970" (that's supposed to be a joke).

The big birthday bash, which took place on Sunday, February 19, was attended by dozens and dozens of people. What a fest!

Later that day, the immediate family ventured over to a local eating establishment to indulge in copious amounts of souvlaki and a decidedly Atkins-unfriendly smorgasbord of potatoes and rice (for pics click here).

We'll Always Have Paris...

M & J: On Saturday morning, John took me on a little adventure for my 33rd birthday...he surprised me with a trip to Paris!

We spent Saturday and Sunday re-visiting the classic sites (never boring) and wandering the fantastic neighbourhoods and streets. We braved the damp cold and walked for hours, working up perpetually thunderous appetites that were satisfied only by consistently stuffing ourselves with every "Viennoiserie" (pastry) in the history of French dessert-making (OK, slight exaggeration, but you get the point; Dalloyau was a classic pastry spot, see pic below). We ended our gastronomic over-indulgence tour on Saturday night with a delicious French dinner -- and exceptionally friendly service I must say -- at Le Pamphlet in the 4eme arrondissement.

Sunday morning we were delighted to find a bustling market in the Latin Quarter (Mouffetard Market). It was a foie-gras feeding fetishist's fantasy (sorry). Aside from that goosey (and uber-pricey) treat, there were cheeses with monster mold colonies that made even a fratboy's fridge look comparatively tame. The boulangeries and patisseries had line-ups out the door -- talk about French commitment to baked excellence! John couldn't resist the urge to look legit (already sporting an unwieldedly Euro-hairdo and dark coat) and decided to purchase a shock-quality baguette to saunter around with. We later enjoyed falafel sandwiches in the Jewish quarter at Marais. Finally, we ended the 48 hour extravaganza with a visit to the Tour Eiffel, lit up in all its glory.

To check out our "best of" pics from Paris and other photo collections, click here.

School's Out!!

M: AHHHH! I just finished my last exam yesterday (Monday the 23rd of January 2006) at 8am. So now I am (hopefully!) done my Masters of Arts programme in Conflict and Sustainable Peace (MACSP). Proclamation is apparently not until the 4th of July 2006.

Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)

M: I present and defend my Master's thesis tomorrow (Friday the 13th of January, 2006 at 12:30pm GMT+1:00) on "Conflict Resolution Techniques in Northern Uganda" in Leuven. Yikes!!!

Coast of Kenya and the Indian Ocean

M&JK: Following our safari adventure, we decided to spend the remainder of our trip checking out the east coast of Kenya (Mombasa, Malindi, and Watamu).

What we didn't know was that the Masai and Samburu warriors of interior Kenya would be replaced by Prada, Chanel and Gucci warriors of Italy! Little did we know that the Italians have cornered the market. Never could we have imagined that original Prada, Chanel, and Gucci would be so pervasive in East Africa, neither did we know Italian was an official language of Kenya!!

The hotel we stayed at (Aquarius Hotel) included buffet breakfast and dinner. Needless to say, we gorged ourselves silly. It was located on the Indian Ocean. Every day for several hours, the tide would go out and you could walk all the way to the little islands.

We went on a "tour" which involved dolphin spotting, seeing mangroves, a seafood barbeque of scrumptuous shrimp and lobster, Meda Creek, spotting a baby white shark, and ending the whole day adventure snorkelling in a marine park with little fish and coral abound.

But other than that, we relaxed by the three pools at the hotel and worked on our winter tan.

Kenya's Sunrises and Sunsets

J on sunrises: We were fortunate to wake up to beautiful sunsets waiting for us on the horizon. However, the only downfall to this wonderful site is the fact that it arrived at 5am every morning.

M on sunsets: We capped of our safari game drives with breathtaking sunsets followed by a night sky filled with more stars than we have ever seen in one viewing.

The most spectacular view came every morning when we would crawl out of our tent in Amboseli to see the sun rising beside Kilimanjaro.

Bad Monkey!

M & J: Ah, primates... our closest relations. Vervet monkeys, baboons, syke monkeys, you name them, they were everywhere!

Here are some "primal" (sorry) memories from our trip:

At the Samburu National Reserve, camp site refuse was tossed into a large pit and subsequently burned. This may not sound terribly interesting (nor terribly eco-friendly), but the scenes that ensued were. In fact, we felt like we had stumbled onto the set of Space Odyssey 2001: a small platoon of baboons -- from geezers to young'uns -- had circled around the fire, greedily grabbing whatever they could salvage, and bellowing out shrieks and cries every time the hot flames surprised them. Talk about an absence of Pavlovian instinct.

At the same park, we witnessed a young vervet monkey getting a "right lickin'" from his dad for horsing around too much. As a Canadian, John thought about giving the dad a lecture on the futility of corporal punishment, but eventually decided against it.

John also exchanged some words with a few sneaky monkeys in Masai Mara, who not only had the audacity to break into our tent and steal our peanuts and popcorn, but were cocky enough to discard the empty popcorn bag on our tent floor. Bah!

Satisfied Kitty

J & M: On one of our safari game drives in Samburu Natural Reserve, we came across a leopard in a tree snacking on a baby impala. Since the leopard is one of the most reclusive animals in Africa, we were extremely lucky to catch a glipse.

But we were not the only ones enjoying this spotting: about 20 other safari groups were sharing the experience with us. Safari vans jousted for the best viewing position. The best viewing position was hogged by a peculiar photographer with the world's most powerful camera lens (this thing was a a meter long). He was the same guy we had seen hanging around with his monster camera and nothing but his tight Euro-speedo the day earlier, patiently waiting to snap close-ups of tiny birds drinking from a leaky water pipe.

The photo above was taken once the leopard had stuffed his little belly and washed up. You would have never known this cute guy was capable of causing such carnage. :) For more pics, click here.

Visit to a Masai village

J&M: We started our safari adventure in Masai Mara. The park conjures up all the glorious images you would expect of the African plains.

On day two we carried out our requisite tourist duties by visiting a Masai village. Before entering the enclosed village, we were given a welcome dance, which JK was subsequently invited to join. The dance entailed a lot of jumping. Let's just say the NBA won't be recruiting JK any time soon.

After an interesting tour (by a very charming Masai warrior) of the inside of a typical Masai home, JK was invited to make fire by rubbing two "special" sticks rapidly over flammable (and relatively scentless, if you're that curious) elephant dung. Despite utterly failing to create any heat, let alone fire, JK was convinced to purchase the two sticks for an...ahemm...mere $20 (you know, just in case we end up on an isolated island with no possessions but the two special sticks).

I must say these young Masai guys had finally honed sales skills. I can only imagine how many encyclopedia sets or vacuum cleaners they could sell in Canada. They also convinced John, by shamelessly playing on his machismo :), to buy one of their special warrior clubs. They insisted every man should have one. John concurred...

Anyway, it was an amusing adventure. For more pics, click here.