If It Was Today...

Change

Posted on December 30, 2015 by If It Was Today

Our recent trip to Mexico was a welcome change from the hectic pace of the previous months. But that’s not what I’m writing about today.

Early in the week I manged to capture a fairly good shot of the colourful birds and flowers in the area.

The next morning I was checking the same general location, and saw this…

Now my memory is not always that great, so I went back and checked the previous photograph to confirm. Sure enough, the flower had been red, and now it was yellow. So the next day I decided to pick a flower, and check it every few hours during the day. (As I mentioned last post – it was a very slow relaxing holiday.)

First thing in the morning, the flower was definitely yellow.

Within a few hours hints of red began to appear.

By mid-afternoon it was trending toward orange.

And by the end of the day the flower was red.

The next morning, the flowers were yellow again, and repeated the cycle. All of which proves two things:

Flowers can change colour dramatically over the course of a single day; and
I am easily amused.

Hope you all have a great New Year’s Eve.

Posted in Photography, Travel | Tagged Flowers, Mexico, Photography, Travel | 2 Comments

Mexico

Posted on December 16, 2015 by If It Was Today

I’m back. Finally. It was a rough fall. Rewarding, in so many ways, but just a little too hectic for my tastes. Okay, okay – a lot too hectic for my tastes. And that’s the reason we decided to get away and do something completely different.

We’ve traveled a fair bit over the years, but we typically enjoy (moderate) adventure. Perhaps wandering aimlessly through the streets of a new city, or even exploring ancient ruins. What we have never done, is simply lie in the sun.

Until now, that is. After our hectic schedule this year, all we just wanted to do, quite frankly, was as little as possible.

Sitting in the shade, reading a book, and sipping a piña colada was about all the adventure I wanted.

As for local culture, this was just about perfect.

And, of course, the coconuts for the piña coladas.

Make no mistake. I certainly wouldn’t want this to be my only view of a foreign culture. And on future trips to Mexico, I will make the effort to visit Mayan ruins in the vicinity. But for this trip, unwinding by the pool was exactly what we needed.

Posted in Photography, Travel | Tagged Mexico, Photography, Travel | 3 Comments

The Martian

Posted on September 29, 2015 by If It Was Today

The Martian is being released this week, so it seemed like the perfect excuse to post a few of the pictures I took in Wadi Rum this spring. In case you were wondering, The Martian was shot in Wadi Rum, which is one of the most amazing landscapes I have ever seen.

The cliffs, eroded by the wind, look like something out of a fairy tale.

It really isn’t all that difficult to imagine you really are on Mars.

Contrasting colours add further interest to the landscape.

Drifting sand…

… and rock arches complete the effect.

Sand and rock.

The one thing you will not see in these pictures, unless you look very closely, and perhaps not even then, is living things.

But of course, there is actually a surprising amount of life in the desert, including, as it turns out, a couple of pasty-white Canadians – though to be fair, Ashoosh is not nearly as pasty-white as he will be by next spring.

It rather spoils the effect, but you have to admit that if I took the time to Photoshop spacesuits into the picture, you could totally believe it was Mars.

Posted in Photography, Travel | Tagged Jordan, Martian, Photography, Travel, Wadi Rum | 5 Comments

Phoenix

Posted on September 23, 2015 by If It Was Today

It appears that work is getting in the way of blogging of late. I’ll have to see what I can do about that before too long, but at least for this week, work has finally given me something to write about.

A two day business trip to Phoenix doesn’t leave as much time to see the city as you might hope – especially when meetings go from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Fortunately there was the morning walk from my hotel to the meeting.

… followed by the walk back to the hotel at night.

Fortunately, there was also a certain amount of socializing with the locals in the evening.

But by far the most interesting scenery was where I least expected to find it.

As dawn approached, the colors intensified.

I could have happily watched the planes departing into that amazing sky all day.

The last place I wanted to be at 6:00 AM on a Saturday morning was in Phoenix airport, and yet I was treated to quite possibly the most impressive sunrise I have ever seen.

Posted in Photography, Travel | Tagged Phoenix, Sunrise, USA | 4 Comments

If You Can’t Go to the World…

Posted on September 5, 2015 by If It Was Today

One of the things I love about travel is the food. The most important part of a typical travel day is deciding where to eat. For me, it is definitely part of the appeal. But of course, you don’t have to travel to experience the food of the world. So we decided to take advantage of perfect Labour Day weather to enjoy a bit of the south of France on our own patio.

Salad Lyonnaise starts with frisee lettuce – really a type of endive. It is nearly impossible to find, at least around here, but fortunately this year we have some growing in our garden.

Next comes “lardons” but we opted for pancetta, which worked just fine.

Then shallots, fried in olive oil – or if you want to go for an authentic taste, a mix of the pancetta fat and olive oil.

While the shallots cook, prepare croutons, fried in a mixture of olive oil and pancetta fat.

When the shallots begin to brown, deglaze the pan with sherry vinegar to make a hot dressing, and drizzle over the frisee leaves.

Toss well, and arrange on plates with the croutons.

Finally, top with a poached egg, and transfer the plates to the patio. A glass of French rose wine is pretty much essential as far as I am concerned.

The only thing left to do is “enjoy”. Santé.

Posted in Food, Travel | Tagged Food, Lyonnaise, Travel | 9 Comments

Denver

Posted on August 20, 2015 by If It Was Today

Business travel is a bit of a mixed blessing. On the plus side, you have the opportunity to see new cities while someone else picks up the tab. I recently spent a week in Denver, and my out of pocket expenses were negligible.

On the negative side, the people who are paying for the trip expect you to work. So the amount of the city I saw was also negligible. The highlight of my day was walking across the street to grab breakfast.

A long mostly-pedestrian mall runs for a dozen blocks through downtown Denver. I say “mostly-pedestrian” because a free bus service runs the length of the mall. But other than the risk of getting hit by a bus, it’s pretty safe. And at 7:00 AM the streets are nearly deserted of buses and pedestrians anyway. It provides a hint of what I might have seen if I hadn’t been in meetings all day.

And of course, being in Colorado, you find some rather interesting stores, right there beside the 7-Eleven.

It adds new meaning to Rocky Mountain High.

Posted in Photography, Travel | Tagged Denver, Travel, USA | 2 Comments

A Quiet Day in Amman

Posted on July 25, 2015 by If It Was Today

As you may have noticed, I am slowly working my way through my trip to Jordan and Israel in April of this year, interspersed with various side trips in North America. As I do that, I’m even going to include some of the slow days, because these often show a completely different side of a city.

The Amman museum is well worth an extended visit, but with the opportunity to visit so many of the actual archeological sites, we limited ourselves to a few hours, and then headed to the heart of the city. That is an adventure in itself, and one that I would not recommend unless you have a local behind the wheel.

As you can see, driving in Amman can be an adventure in itself. Fortunately we had Jamal to drive for us.

Our objective was a very small Falafel shop, highly recommended by none other than Jamal. Which is a good thing, because I don’t think that we would have been likely to walk down this street without a trusted recommendation.

And I am positive that we would not have stopped at the shop without Jamal.

But we did stop, and it was well worth it. We had falafel sandwiches, and falafel with red onion filling. Yummy.

On our way home we stopped at a local shop to pick up labneh and marvel at the local spices.

Then it was back to the patio and a meeting of The Other Champagne Club.

But if you want to read about that, you’ll have to check out the TOCC blog.

Posted in Photography, Travel | Tagged Amman, Jordan, Photography, Travel | 1 Comment

The End of a Perfect Day

Posted on July 23, 2015 by If It Was Today

Ominous clouds on the horizon at the end of a perfect summer day.

Posted in Photography | Tagged Photography, Summer | 2 Comments

Philadelphia

Posted on July 20, 2015 by If It Was Today

The bad thing about business travel is that you fly into a city for a one day meeting, and then fly out, without ever having the chance to really see anything of the city.

The good thing about business travel is that if you are very lucky, while you are missing the things that every other visitor to the city will see, you just might see things they will never see. That happened on this trip when the view from the 45th floor of the Comcast building was rather spectacular.

It also provided a different perspective on the fountain in the square below.

Of course, the trip also provided a view of everyday life for the people who live there and take the train everyday.

And unlike many U.S. cities, this one has a reasonable rail system, including a train from downtown to the airport. It presents another opportunity to see the city from a different perspective.

And the city? Well, in this case, if you didn’t already know, the advertisements would give it away.

Hoagies = Philadelphia.

Posted in Cee's Fun Foto Challenge, Photography, Travel | Tagged Philadelphia, Photography, Travel, USA | Leave a comment

The Bedouin

Posted on July 16, 2015 by If It Was Today

On our trip to Jordan this spring, we were fortunate enough to be invited by the local Bedouin guide to visit his home and taste fresh butter and Shaneeheh. Ashoosh is a huge fan of Jordanian Shaneeneh, so of course we accepted. In case you are wondering, Shaneeneh is a salty-sour goat milk yogurt, that is liquid enough to drink. It reminds me a little of buttermilk, if you have ever tasted that.

This was a very traditional Bedouin camp, except for one small detail – the recycling containers. I find it rather amusing because the Bedouin reuse things so extensively that there must be hardly anything available to recycle. But I guess it’s part of the branding for the ecolodge.

Okay, I lied. There was one other not-exactly-traditional element. Can you spot it?

Our host explained that in the past, when guests arrived they would hang their swords high on the wall as a sign of friendship. He added that now, they hung something else in the same place.

You guessed it – their mobile phones. It was the one place in the tent with a decent signal.

But pretty much everything else was authentic, from the baby goats just outside the tent…

… to the Bedouin dog bringing the flock home. The dogs look friendly, but they are all business. You do not want to get between them and their sheep and goats.

The Bedouin are known for their hospitality for good reason. We were treated to local “Tafilah jokes” while sampling fresh bread, butter and shaneeneh. They also explained how many different products are made from goats milk, including butter, shaneeneh, labneh and jameed. Each additional step produces a product that is drier, richer, more pungent, and of course, more delicious. I won’t bore you with the details, but if anyone is curious, I’d be happy to explain.