Jun
19
There’s nothing more precious than the sight and sound of cousins playing together. Even though we live halfway around the world from the rest of our family it’s amazing to see my little nieces and nephews embrace Savannah and before long they act and adore each other as if they’ve live under the same roof their whole lives.
Apr
30
Off to Australia, Bali and Hong Kong for a month… See you all when I get back!
May
22
During our trip to Portland we went and saw the Japanese Gardens located about 20 minutes from downtown. The gardens are situated at the top of the hills and you can get a view of the city from the top. I took the opportunity to do some photography while we were there and I decided to do some experimenting with HDR shots (High Dynamic Range). Without going into the technical details, you can see that with this particular photography process the photos exhibit greater detail compared to a regular shot. The textures and grain of wood are more evident, the cracks in stone walls are more detailed and the final product has a dramatic effect…
 
 
The Japanese gardens were a perfect place to experiment with this technique because of the vast variety textures and colours of the scenery, statues, wooden objects, rocks, moss and stone.
 
 
 
Check out the photos and let me know what you think…
May
19
 
Over the past long weekend Tash and I decided to do a roadtrip down to Portland Oregon. This was our second trip there and this time round we had a chance to see more of the sights and had a chance to enjoy our first real taste of SUMMER! The temperatures hit 35 degrees Celsius and after the 7 hour drive I actually noticed a tan line on my arm where my sleeve ended! Of course the great sunny weather comes with a price… Tash and I got hit with a huge case of hay fever and we suffered all day with runny noses and tearing eyes! Even little Jasmin was suffering from sneezing fits and puffy eyes. We decided to bring the dogs on this trip and they enjoyed every moment of it! Candy ran around the parks like a mad man (dog) as per usual, and Jasmin loved the attention from all the random strangers…
 
We checked out a few of the local sights such as the Saturday Markets where Tash got a Henna Tattoo drawn on her. Not quite the traditional indian design, but it’s a lot less permanent than the real deal. It was fun walking around the markets checking out the local crafts. After that we went to the Washington Square Mall and Woodburn Factory Outlets and check out some of the sales.
 
Portland is a very green and beautiful city. There are plenty of trees and the city is so clean and tidy compared to other Cities in the US. We checked out the Portland Japanese Gardens and I took the opportunity to do some photography. The garden is spread over 5 acres and had a variety of Japanese style gardens with water features, rock gardens, moss and statues.
 
The trip was great and gave us a much needed break from the regular routine of work and day to day life… all we seemed to do when we weren’t sight seeing is eat! One of our favourite restaurants has to be The Cheesecake Factory. The food is great there and I’d have to say the cheesecake is to die for…Â Â
 
 
 
Check out the photo gallery with all the highlights of the trip… I can’t wait until the next holiday…!
Feb
28
Well the title says it all… I was looking through some old photos from last year and came across these “B Side” pics… and they were too good not to share…
Every moment that presented itself where we could partake in some tomfoolery and take a photo was never passed. Unfortunately it was Sahan who ended up being the model for most of the shot!
Public disorderly conduct…
  
Even beating up the M&M’s mascotts…
Only Sahan could violate Sponge Bob Square Pants and leave him have a smile like that…
 
 
We did take *some* normal photos…
More in the Photo Gallery…
Dec
27
On Christmas day we drove up to Billabong Lodge to join the Tavakoli family (my brother in law’s family). They have a log cabin in Hope which is about 2 hour drive from Vancouver. It was a little hard to get up early in the morning after the dinner (that involved a bit of boozing) at Marina’s the night before, nevertheless, we made it just before lunch time. There was Diane, Ata, Aaron, Maria, little Ayden, and Brigid.
It was a perfect day to open Christmas presents under the tree with the snowy view outside the window. Little Ayden was so busy opening up presents from everyone, since he’s the only child around in the whole clan, he was definitely spoiled rotten. He is really cute and so sweet plus he’s such an affectionate child that loves cuddles and kisses from everyone and has an amazingly big heart for such a tiny person.
 
 
Little snowflakes were falling down from the sky but it wasn’t as cold, it was dry actually so we had a little play outside the cabin and Saj made what you can call a teddy-bear-wannabe-snowman. Haha actually, I think he did a really good job. We went for a walk along the hills and went on top of the hill which has the most beautiful scenery of snowy mountains, pine trees and houses that were covered in snow. It was so serene…
 
I couldn’t think of a better way of spending Christmas in Canada, here we are thinking that we’ll be all alone this Christmas but it was definitely far from it. Diane and Ata prepared a huge meal for all of us and I learnt some basic cooking tips from Diane while Christmas music was playing in the stereo, accompanied with a glass of red wine. They made this scrumptious roast beef, roast chicken, roast ham, cauliflower cheese, and baked potatoes with pumpkin. We played cards, played poker, watched movies, made a snowman, Saj made the most gigantic snow ball (I swear that thing could kill a small child if it rolled on them), made snow angels, played snow fight, went tobogganing (in which Aaron almost had an involuntary vasectomy due to some loose branches:P) and we went and played some more…
 
The next morning, we woke up to 10 inches of snow and it snowed quite heavily during the morning, so the boys started to plough the snow away from the front yard and the cars. Another relaxing day to play more games and watch even more movies. That night we had the most delicious kebob that Ata made for dinner.
 
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end… Saj had to work the next day so we had to drive back home after dinner. What can I say? Even though we are far away from our families, we had a great time spending Christmas with the Tavakoli family as they always treat us like their own family.
And as for the White Christmas as opposed to 41 degrees Celsius heat? I’d ask myself this very question… Do I hear myself complaining..? Nah.. I don’t quite think so…