Just some recent shots.

It's becoming more and more bearable to actually go out for walks during the day, so the other day I took full advantage of that, with my hubby, pup and Canon in tow. 

My colleague/friend/now photography teacher is showing me some tips and tricks, and I'm slowly getting the hang of it. Which is good, because I definitely want to learn how to make the most out of the camera that I have. 

It's the weekend, and we've got plans both nights. And we have plans the following two weekends. I'm not usually this social, but the past month or two have just been crazy. I do like my alone time. 

Guess who's back?

I was at work today and I started thinking, I really need to make more of an effort to post on this darn thing, especially for my friends and family who I don't keep in touch with all that often.

So here I am. Let's see how long I'll last this time.

Well, what has happened since the last time I posted? Probably a lot, but I won't go into detail. Roderick and I went to Venice and then departed on our Mediterranean cruise, which took us to Croatia, Montenegro and Greece. It was an incredibly relaxing trip, we got to meet a few other couples who we got on really well with, and yeah, just a really nice time.

We also decided to put in for an extension, which would mean a 3rd year here in Pakistan. We enjoy it, and we've got nothing holding us back, so why not? I told Rod though, that the only way I'd stay another year is if we had our German Shepherd, Mya, shipped over. So that's what we did. It's been really nice having her around, and good for my health as well, as I've been walking her daily. And I hate walking without a dog, it's just not as fun.

Our next trip is in October. We're off to Kenya and Tanzania. It'll have been 4 months in between vacations, which is the longest stretch we've gone since being here. It's a hard life, eh? 

Cameras, kitties, and more trips.

Sorry, I am really crap at keeping up with this blog! (I doubt anyone reads it anyway, aside from a few family members I know)

ANYWAY.

There was a bit of a rough patch there, but things are starting to pick back up again. Thank goodness. I nearly bought a plane ticket home, and would have done, if it didn't jump $700 while I was humming and hawing over it and waiting for my boss to give me the go ahead. She never did. And I probably should have just booked it anyway (she would have said yes), but it's too late now.

Although, that being said, they do say everything comes in threes, and I was blindsided by two life altering things in the past month. So I am just waiting for the third bombshell to drop.

There was an earthquake today. I was wondering why my chair was shaking, while I was in my Counter Terrorism training class. Charlotte grabs the handles of her chair, informs me that it's an earthquake, and tells the whole class to get outside. Years of living in Japan has made her uber paranoid about quakes.

Um. Work is still good. I like having a life outside of the Canadians.

I splurged and ordered myself my first DSLR (that's a camera, for you non photography folk) and spent way too much money on it, but it's lovely and I can't wait to figure out how to work the thing properly. I think it was a good investment, seen as we travel all the time.

We've got a trip to Venice and a Mediterranean cruise booked for next month, a trip to the Northern parts of Pakistan is tentatively planned for June or July, and then in October we're off to Egypt and Jordan. We'll go away again in December for Christmas (not Canada - don't get any funny ideas!), then again in March or April of 2014, and then sometime in May or June we'll go on our house hunting trip back in Canada, and then in July we'll be home!

Speaking of house hunting. From time to time I'll look at houses for sale in the areas that we're hoping to be posted to, and I fell in love with one today. I'm sure we won't be posted there, but it's nice to dream.

What else? Oh, I'm having 5 out of 9 tattoos removed. It's probably the most painful thing I've ever put myself through, but no pain, no gain. I'm contemplating having two more removed as well. What stupid ideas I had when I was younger.

K. I think I've rambled on long enough! Here, have a couple photos of the stray kitten I feed (taken with the new camera). She's been around since November and it seems like she hasn't grown at all.

South Africa

Well hello there, long time no see!

I said that I would post more here, and then failed, obviously.

Anyway, in my last post I talked about going to South Africa. We were there for 10 days and it was uh, quite the adventure. We flew in to Johannesburg and then rented a car (a standard - which Roderick had only driven a handful of times, in Afghanistan, where the speed limit was 20km/hr and it didn't really matter if you crashed - so that was an adventure in itself) and drove the 4 hours to Nelspruit, where we were going to stay with my friend Riki. She and I were best friends when we lived in the Netherlands, and we kept in touch so I figured it'd be cool to see her again. In the time we were with Riki, we went to Kruger Park and went on safari, saw the Drie Rondavels, God's Window, plenty of waterfalls, and a lot of nature. It was great, minus the fact that it turns out, Riki and I actually hate each other. Yeah, unfortunately I grew up, and she hadn't. I won't go into all the gory details, but basically there was a lot of screaming and crying, and then hundreds of dollars spent to change our plane tickets so we could get the hell out of there. A very expensive lesson, but what can you do?

In a way, it was good because it meant we would spend more time in Cape Town, which just so happens to be the most amazing city that I've ever been to. Sorry Ottawa, you've moved into second place. We ate a lot of delicious food, saw a lot of beautiful scenery, and had a wonderful time when it was just the two of us. I ended up spending a few hours with another friend from the Netherlands, Ibti, so that was nice too. And the best part of all? I got to swim with Great White Sharks! Fuck yeah! (Excuse my language). It was Rod's number one dream, and he (stupidly?) reached his arm out of the cage, and touched one. It was incredibly amazing to see the love of my life's dream come true.

Here, have some photos, in no particular order.

 At God's Window

 Drie Rondavels

 Cape Town from halfway up Table Mountain

 Cape of Good Hope

Work and South Africa.

I haven't posted in a long time, and while I thought that I probably should, I don't really have anything to say.

Work is going well. I am still enjoying myself, and we've got a new girl who is Danish, though basically an expat because she's lived everywhere BUT Denmark (grew up in Kuwait and Bangladesh and lived in various other places). She does the exact same job as me, so now I have someone to help out. And she's super nice, so that's a bonus.

Growing up, I thought that I wanted to work in an office. Sitting at a desk all day, doing whatever really. But I'm beginning to realize that's not what I want. I really enjoyed working at the airport, that was probably my favourite job so far. I've been pretty lucky though, and have enjoyed most of my jobs. So I think when I get back to Canada, I will apply for airport jobs. Especially now that I have Immigration experience. I could work Border Services, or I could just go back to an airline. But I think that's what I want. Time will tell.

I am off to South Africa in 12 days to see Riki, one of my best friends from when I lived in the Netherlands. I cannot wait. I've never been so excited for a vacation in my life, and believe me, I've been on a lot. 

Yesterday

Yesterday was one of the best days that I have had in a very long time.

Ever since September, we have been restricted to using Armoured Vehicles, with a driver, and since there are only so many AV's, when you need to go out, you're supposed to make it as quick as possible. But they lifted that recently, and so yesterday we were able to go out in our own vehicle, by ourselves. It was so nice to be able to just drive ourselves around, especially since I haven't gone out in quite awhile and was starting to feel like a caged animal. (It's not hard to feel that way, when you're surrounded by concrete walls, razor wire, bars on all of the windows and doors, barriers, check points, etc)

So Rod and I had a wonderful time yesterday, we went to the shoemakers to pick up a pair of boots that I was having made, McDonald's for lunch, to the butcher and vegetable market, to the candy shop to pick up some snacks, and to Tribal Arts, which was by far the highlight of the day. We had been trying to go there for several weeks now, but every time we went it was always closed, and finally it was open! And it is my new favourite place, and probably where most of my money is going to go from now on.

It's basically a maze of a shop, full of old pieces of wood, old doors, trunks, cabinets, that the owner, Shirazi, turns into beautiful pieces of furniture. I wasn't really expecting to buy anything, but Rod fell in love with one piece in particular, and so we came away with that, and have another one on hold. I am in love with it, but I want to see if I can find another piece that I like more, and if not, I'll buy it. Rod's will be delivered sometime this week. There were so many things that I wanted there, and it's perfect because we don't really have that much furniture back in Canada, and these are all things that we need. Not to mention that they all have a story to tell, instead of just buying some mass produced piece of furniture at IKEA that everyone else has, and isn't even built that well. The piece that Rod got is going to be a liquor cabinet, it's over 150 years old, made of Rosewood, from Punjab, and was used to store grain. It's beautiful.

 What I put on hold

 What Roderick bought. For $290! Can you believe it?

Then we had Lars and Mike over for a game night. It was Lars' last night here in Islamabad, and he's off to Nairobi for a week and then back to Ottawa. So we played Balderdash and ate junk food and laughed our heads off and had a wonderful time. I'm sure going to miss him. He was a TD, which means Temporary Duty, they come in and out a lot and are only here for 6 weeks. And most often, I tend to like them a lot more than the people who are here permanently, so it's always sad to see them go.

 One of my resolutions is to be healthier, hence the ginger ale while the boys drink Breezers

Once everyone left, I booked the flights for our trip to South Africa next month! I cannot wait. Not only is it Africa and maybe I'll see a lion (and then I can die happy) but I'm going to be staying with one of my best friends, Riki, whom I met when we were both living in the Netherlands. Woohoo :)

And have I mentioned that I am 2 weeks smoke free? Let's hope I can keep it up.

Merry Christmas (though it's a week late) and Happy New Year!

Yup, I'm a slacker!

So Christmas was fairly decent, though SO different! It was about 20 degrees celsius outside, no snow, no Christmas tree, no presents, no family. But we had a nice time regardless.

Christmas eve was spent at the Colonel's house. We played a present swapping game, ate delicious food, drank, and were visited by a naughty Santa.

Just a bunch of Canadians on Christmas eve

Me, opening the pashmina I got from Santa (the Colonel)

On Christmas day, Rod, myself and two of our guy friends went out and did touristy things. 

 Like visiting Saidpur Village, which I love so dearly

 Chilling with monkeys on the Margalla Hills

 Going to see Faisal Mosque up close for the first time

 Everyone wanted a photo with the white people

 Hanging out at Rawal Lake (which really isn't much to write home about)

And having Thai food for dinner at Wild Rice in the Serena Hotel

I attempted to stay awake until 2am (damn you time zones) to Skype with the fam, and I only was able to see a few of them for literally 2 minutes because the connection was so shit (and it wasn't me this time!) which was really unfortunate, especially because I was tired, cranky, and missing home, and had stayed up WAY past my bedtime for nothing. Oh well. So I cried, and then dried my tears and went to bed so that Rod wouldn't know. "You shouldn't have come if you were going to miss them!" LOL are you for real? Of course I'm going to miss them, how could I not? But I'm still going to go out and live my life, and sure, I'll miss them along the way, no doubt about it, but I don't normally get that down about it. Ah well.

Then New Years Eve was pretty low key. We had signed up to go to the Brit Club and/or French Club but instead we just went to the Canada Club, watched the hockey game, drank by the fire, listened to Rod play the guitar, and got wasted. A little too wasted. It doesn't happen often at all though, so I guess it's okay to let loose every once in awhile. Except I was laid out on the couch for the entirety of New Years Day, which was a complete waste. 

Did anyone make any resolutions this year? I never do, but I decided I would this year. 

Get healthy, quit smoking, save money for a down payment on a house, travel travel travel, and quit biting my nails are among them. Hopefully I'll keep to most, if not all, of them! *fingers crossed*