However, I have had my little Nikon Coolpix in hand a few times to recount my wonderful adventures, which began with this parking ticket that I got while parked outside the Verdun General Hospital when visiting my mother there.

Parking ticket issued in Verdun

I had paid for a day pass, but apparently, there were about five spaces reserved for regular permit holders. Of course, I happened to park in one of those spaces. At least I was able to pay the ticket online and not have to make a special trip to any “financial institution” to pay the damn thing.

Happier adventures included lunch and catching up with Bernicky and his daughter at a little local greasy spoon in my old neighborhood.

In the Diner

Us in the diner

I have also been trying to run when I can. The weather has been perfect – sunny and warm, and the ice has even melted off the sidewalks – it would be a crime not to be out when possible. The bicycle/walking path along the Lachine canal was clear enough, too, though you can see that the canal itself is still rather frozen!

Lachine Canal

She had surgery two weeks ago, and, after a bit of a setback, was released from the hospital on Monday. We’ve been taking things easy, staying home and watching lots of Maury Povich (an awful, awful show!).

The weather, though, has been really beautiful – sunny and mild every day; so today we ventured out to Kahnawake for breakfast, then did some grocery shopping. This got us out without being too taxing.

We don’t have any big plans for tomorrow, but if it’s nice again, we might go for a little walk.

The blog’s tagline had been *A blog of two passions: mountain biking and Japan”, but since we have adopted many other pastimes and passions, including running and motorbiking, I wanted to change the tagline to reflect that. So now, as you might notice, our tagline reads, “Our blog of Japan and other passions”.

Any thoughts on this or advice for a better tagline appreciated!

We have already been back from our adventures in Cambodia for nearly two months, and I spent some of my leisure hours scrapping our photos and making a photo book. I made the photo book at Shutterfly, a service I’ve used before with good results, so I will probably have this book printed for us to keep as a hard copy set of memories of our holiday.

Here is the book at Shutterfly:

Click here to view this photo book.

Alternatively, click this link here:

http://community.shutterfly.com/gallery/post/start.sfly?postId=/gallery/1/post/GMGDJgybM2blowbibw613A

The draw-back to taking the bus is that they are few and far between. So, if I wanted to take the bus (which I did), I had to arrive at the airport four hours early. Okay – I knew there were shops, and figured I could kill the time. However, the bus actually got me there five hours early. Oddly enough, that time passed quickly. I did an hour or so of window shopping in around the many airport shops (prior to check-in), and then spontaneously got my nails done at Nail Quick.

Nails - after taking off my boots...

Of course, going through security, my nails were destroyed when I had to roll up my jeans and take off my knee-high boots – but it was still a fun way to spend an hour.

After checking in and going through security, I grabbed some lunch, and even thought about a massage at Raffine, a chain massage parlour here, but they were fully booked up until my departure.

Anyway – if you’re ever hanging around Narita airport, there is a fair amount to do!

Raffine Massage parlour at Narita airport

Here are two photos taken at a local temple, not too far from home (as you can see, no snow in sight anymore)!

Temple

Hishaku Ladle

The View from Our Balcony

Of course, it melted not long after the sun had risen, but it was a nice way to wake up.

This weekend we mostly stayed home, working on house tasks and personal fun-projects (me on digital scrapbook pages, Brian on beer-brewing and  digital book production). We took a break from staying indoors to go out for dinner at Tori-Ichi, our favourite local yakitori (grilled stuff on skewers) restaurant, and to go for a decent run this morning, but otherwise, it was a quiet, house-bound weekend.

Outside Tori-Ichi