In the City of Love (Summer Sailing 2018)

In the City of Love (Summer Sailing 2018)

And we found ourselves back in the city with waterways instead of roads and gondolas instead of cars.  We were back in the company of gelato, masquerade masks, and hidden alleys built on water. We were in Venice, and it was so good to be back for the second time. I finished the book, Sapiens, just a couple months ago and the author writes about this whole idea of romanticism that has really exploded, especially in the 21st century. It involves buying experiences over material goods. As human beings, we long to see the world, we invest in trips abroad, we go to movies, or we throw money at cool restaurants that let you eat blindfolded. Because it’s all about the experience and over time, it is this collection of these experiences that make up a life. Our life. We were complete romantics in Venice. For us, the one day…

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Monthly Musings: July

Monthly Musings: July

And just like that, we’re in the heat of the summer. (In the literal sense too – just last week, Toronto had broken its highest recorded temperature on that day in 54 years). The children are out of school, the days are getting hotter, more people are flocking to the cottage on the weekends, and the summer barbeques are ramping up. It never fails to amaze me (or scare me) how fast the summer months fly by. This is pretty disappointing since Canada only gets so many months of good weather in a year. This sudden realization scared me in another way in that I realized I didn’t have much longer to do all the things I had originally put on my “summer bucket list.” It’s hard because, for our entire lives, we have all these grand ideas of things we want to do and goals we want to achieve.…

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Summer Sailing 2018

Summer Sailing 2018

And with another summer often comes another summer getaway. Another series of memorable destinations, another series of blog posts and another couple thousand photos to remember all that was seen and felt. This summer is definitely no different. This year, we’re setting sail on Holland America’s ms Oosterdam for the very first time. It takes a lot for us to stray away from booking with Princess Cruises, but this cruise line offered the perfect itinerary for us. We could only escape during the month of August, and we wanted to go back to the Mediterranean region. The last time we were there was four years ago, and after spending the past two summers traveling to colder regions, we were craving the heat. We wanted to be eating our weight in pasta and pizza in Italy, and we wanted to surround ourselves with the white houses in Greece again, with the…

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Journal Often, Journal Always

Journal Often, Journal Always

  “Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” (William Woodsworth)  Three years ago, when I first started this blog, I wrote a post entitled ‘How to Keep a Journal.’ At the time of writing it, I was struggling with the idea of keeping a journal. There was something daunting about all those blank pages – I constantly felt as if I didn’t have the dedication and ideas to fill them all. But still, there was something about journaling that I just loved. It was so cathartic. No matter what you were writing about, you’d always feel ‘cleansed’ after every entry, as if you got a chance to pour out your thoughts or capture the moment you were writing about. What is even better is that it allows you to store all these memories – the big days, the heartache, frustration, and happiness – on paper. Over time, getting…

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Monthly Musings: June

Monthly Musings: June

Before you know it, the flowers are blooming, the sun’s out to stay, and the boots in the shoe closet are being traded for sandals and flip-flops again. I feel as if the arrival of June surprised everybody, mostly because of the weird weather we’ve been having. It’s hard to believe it’s already June considering there was an ice storm in Toronto about a month back. But obviously, nobody is complaining about this change we’re seeing. June is always an exciting time of year. It’s when the weather is nice and warm, but still not scorching hot to the point where you’re afraid to leave the comfort of your air conditioner at home. There’s all this energy in the air – anticipation for the summer ahead, a longing for weekends spent at the cottage. I view June as a transition period. The precursor to the summer months. The precursor to…

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