A bunch of people are flying to Cuba so we had a bit of a Cuban-themed evening at the Batcave for them to get a taste of the country beforehand. We watched “Buena Vista Social Club”, drank sangria that I’d been marinating in the afternoon, and ate tapas that Maria whipped up in her kitchen. I don’t have any photos of the food or drink, but I did take some post-sangria shots of Jan (below) and Natalia (above). The one of Jan was a white balance accident (I forgot to change the setting), but I like how it looks.

We’re all recovering from a wedding weekend in Wolterdingen near Soltau, eating and drinking and making merry to celebrate the nuptials of Iris and Torsten. I’m not on my own computer, so this post will be all of seven photos selected and hastily edited from some 300+. I have one last flight to make before I can do the bulk of the processing, uploading, and writing…

So without further ado, I present to you Iris, Torsten, and baby Cedrik:

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We arrived safe and sound from Bremen and are staying with our first Norwegian host, who’s simply fabulous. I would describe his fabulousness in greater detail except I’m fading fast after sleeping all of three hours in three days. I just keep getting a second wind, then a third, and next thing I know half a week has passed.

My first photos of the trip aren’t terribly exciting, since keeping track of three people and baggage is, well, three times more work than travelling solo. But now that we’re not dragging our stuff around and have a place to put it all down, my camera hands are free to do their thing.

Taking a picture of Berit cooking curry for everyone isn’t high art, but since she hates most of her photos I’m aiming higher than high art: taking that elusive unhated photo.

It’s 6 o’clock on Saturday morning and I have yet to go to bed. Why? I think my body is in some form of sugar shock.

A bunch of us invaded Maria’s place like a band of modern-day pirates, except we didn’t make off with anything except bellies full of nachos, pasta, cocktails, champagne, and a variety of chocolate, including the shipment of Dove chocolate that arrived at my door 12 hours earlier.

I don’t have enough brainpower to upload more than two photos from the evening, even though I’ve got heaps of good ones. The rest will have to wait! But this one of Nadja the Chocoholic basically sums it up:

My three visitors got stuck in traffic across the border and arrived around 4am, so they are all out like a light now. Even the cats are impatiently waiting for me to go to bed. Beano’s laying across my arm as if to say, “I’ll just cut off the blood flow to your fingers, then you’ll go numb and stop typing, right?”

Jose-Jose’s fortune cookie is right — he is travelling far and wide. Actually, we all are, but he’s going the third-soonest after Anf and Rosie, who are leaving next week. That’s one thing I love about the CSers: everyone is either catching a flight soon or just got off a plane. Everyone’s on the move — road trips, day trips, camping trips, photo walks, cross-country trips, international trips, you name it, someone’s doing it. That’s the spirit!

A bunch of us gathered at Full Moon Restaurant on Dundas Street West for some nosh, and of course I showed up last since I work the oddest hours. There are always some leftovers, though, and I got my fill of Chinese veggies while I gabbed on about cameras and lenses and whatnot. I mentioned in conversation that I believe equipment and technical skill isn’t everything; good results come largely from creativity, and technical skill can (but not always) overcome equipment limitations.

Just how much processing is happening, you might ask? Well, I’m going to put my money where my mouth is and show you. Here are some photos from the evening produced with a $400 (Pentax K100D entry level DSLR) camera, a $200 lens (Pentax 50mm f/1.7), and Photoshop 10 (CS3). Images were shot in JPEG, mostly processed in Adobe Camera Raw, with a bit more processing in Photoshop. I’m going to post links to the original files, which are uploaded to Flickr but not public, so you can see how much processing is going on.

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Traffic was pretty slow along the QEW heading back to Toronto after my inaugural trip yesterday to the Royal Botanical Gardens, and the smog alert was in full force (index of 6). Something tells me this summer’s going to be as brutal as the past winter…

I made it to Sushi on Bloor and — incredibly — found a spot to park by the restaurant. We only had the room until 7pm, so I had just enough time to meet the crowd and take care of some leftovers. The restaurant was abuzz with sushi-lovers and our bunch alone took up about a third of the second floor space; ordering something from the menu seemed a little too optimistic for a deadline.

Over sushi, I congratulated the participating CSers on their successful climb up the CN Tower last Thursday to raise money for WWF Canada. It’s been so long since I did the Grouse Grind that I wonder how I’d do climbing 1,776 steps (144 flights). But hey, I climbed The Chief in Squamish so maybe I’m underestimating myself. No mountains around here to climb, though.

The weekend weather had all of Toronto out in droves and many of those people were on Bloor Street walking by as we tried to take a group photo. It’s been such a long time since it’s been this warm that the city-wide wardrobe change seemed to happen overnight.

Back at the ranch, there was not one but TWO birthday cakes waiting for us.

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My flight to Toronto’s been delayed, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to post a few pics. Yesterday was a full day of family and friends and airports and beaches and — goodness gracious — enough food to feed an army.

I took my father and brothers to the airport yesterday morning, where they boarded a flight to the Philippines. There is a whole saga about that, but I’ll skip the storytelling for now and just show some pictures…

My father, the 71-year old Filipino cowboy:

My father brought a white hat because he thought that it would make them easier to find at the destination airport, where they’d be met. Leave it to my dad to buy a white hat and wear white shoes!

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April2008 310 by Tanya HK

Tanya shaved her head in Hong Kong today, to raise money for kids’ cancer research.

To see what Tanya looked like before the buzz, here’s a picture I took last summer when we met up in Kingston, Ontario. If she were still living in Canada, she might be more reluctant to cut off all that head insulation! Or, she’d end up wearing a hat for a few months.

See the whole St. Baldrick’s shaving set here as thumbnails, a slideshow, or click through in the Pictobrowser:

Our dear Nicole (below photo, centre) was due to return home to Germany today after her six-month work stint in the GTA, so the CS group in Toronto had a farewell bash in her honour at the newly-opened Crown & Tiger pub on College Street.

When I arrived, it was all dark inside because of Earth Hour and everyone was practically hushed to silence by the darkness. It was so quiet I thought I must’ve had the wrong place!

oops, the flash didn’t fire, but I thought the streaks were interesting

Once the lights went up, the pub started to fill with parties small and large, including an older group who — I think — were celebrating a birthday…

… I believe it was the lady in the purple sweater. So what does Marin do? Why, head on over to help celebrate, of course!

It was quite funny because I overheard a girl exclaim: “That’s my GRANDMOTHER!”

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pyjamas aren’t just for bedtime, says the Easter bunny

Marin was very kind to open her home and invite all of us over for Easter Sunday games and a Mexican feast. Oh wow, what a feast! Chocolate fondue and everything! Everything was vegetarian or vegan, and very tasty.

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