I Love Paris in the Springtime

Troy and I have a definable date for our first date: April 7th, 2002. This year marked the 7th Anniversary of our first date, or 'The Seven Year Seven' as we dubbed it. What to do to celebrate this auspicious occasion? A weekend in Paris naturellement.

We have a system of touring via "fortifiers" -- a quick coffee, a pastry, a cocktail, a chocolate. This system is very responsive to your immediate needs (hunger, thirst, need for a restroom break, tired feet) and is easily adaptable to whatever city you find yourself in. In Italy, a fortifier might often involve a cappuccino at a sidewalk café, whereas in Hong Kong it might be a stop for green tea in an air-conditioned tearoom. In Brussels, it would inevitably include beer, chocolate, and/or a waffle. It all depends on the environment.

So, for example in Paris it might go something like this: Begin your day with coffee and croissants sitting at the tiny table in your room since it's still a trifle chilly to eat outside on the balcony.



Once you leave the hotel, make the 30-second walk across the square to Saint-Sulpice and visit the church, discreetly watching the parishioners and their laurel branches as they observe Palm Sunday services.



From there, head towards the heart of the city, stopping off for a quick coffee standing up at the bar in a café as, of course, you don't need to sit down yet.



Make your way over to the Île de la Cité and the Cathédrale of Notre Dame de Paris. Forego the interior and the hordes of tourists it holds, and instead take some pictures outside and wander through the lovely surrounding garden.





Walk over the bridge to the Île Saint-Louis, pausing to listen to the random trio of musicians playing on the bridge. Get a hot crêpe filled with jus de citron et sucre or confiture de fraises from the window of a tiny café, and stroll the isle, popping in and out of its fun little boutiques.





Rest your feet from all that shopping by hopping on the metro. Head over to the Place Vendôme for a late lunch with a glass of dry rosé.



Try to visit the Musée l'Orangerie, and, after being unexpectedly turned away due to a random private party having engaged the museum for the evening, console yourself with a stop at La Duree for macarons.



Nibble on them as you head over to the Arc de Triomphe, popping into a random bistro for a cocktail while you wait for the sun to set.





Walk up the million steps to the top of the arch to take in the view of the Tour Eiffel all lit up and the sparkling lights of Paris at night.





From there, head back to your hotel to change and take a moment's rest. Stroll through the quiet streets of Saint-Germain-de-Prés and sit down at La Ferrandaise to a lovely 3-course dinner accompanied by a bottle of Côte du Rhone at 10:30 pm. C'est parfait.



Fortifiers work! You need sustenance for all that walking and site-seeing, plus potty breaks, supporting the local economy, staying hydrated, resting your feet...Really, you're just being sensible.



Well, at least until you get the bill...

Paris Photo Album - Click Here

Bluebells in the Bois de Halle

Rain is a fact of life in Belgium. Sometimes that fact can be rather dreary and depressing, but it does have its upside: all the rain does a very good job of keeping things green. Trees, shrubs, flowers, and vines flourish in such a moist environment. Coming from the high desert that is Colorado, such lushness never gets old.

One day last week my friend Cornelle had the idea to drive about 30 minutes south of Brussels to go walking in the Bois de Halle. Belgium has its fair share of forests, but this one is special because for a few weeks each spring the forest floor is completely carpeted in bluebells (aka wild blue hyacinth).

We spent a couple of hours meandering, chatting, taking pictures, and appreciating springtime in the forest. We listened to the birds chirping, stopped to look at ducks and tadpoles in a pond, smelled the delicate sweet fragrance of the bluebells and the pungent garlicky odor of wild alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard), and even happened upon a little white rabbit hopping through the woods. It was like walking through a fairytale.







The afternoon was lovely, refreshing, and relaxing, the kind of simple outing that I have not often made time for. It is hard to recall the last time I was so unhurried and present in nature. Hopefully, you can take a second to look at the photos below and have your own moment of zen on this Sunday afternoon.

Bois de Halle Photos - Click Here

Little Altars Everywhere

Hong Kong is a city of sensory overload. To be precise, Hong Kong is a whole district consisting of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories. Formerly a British colony, it is now back under the Chinese banner, governed by a policy they call 'One Country, Two Systems'. Each area is distinct, and chock-full sights, sounds, smells, and people...lots of people. We spent two weeks in Hong Kong, staying on the Kowloon Peninsula, visiting our friends John and Sue on Hong Kong Island, and experiencing a completely foreign culture.

John and Sue, aka Our Charming Hosts


In seeking to describe it, the one word I keep coming back to is contrast. The city, and especially Hong Kong Island, is glitzy, glamorous, full of beautiful buildings and beautiful people.

View across Victoria Harbor of Hong Kong Island


Victoria Peak dominates the island, leaving a relatively small amount of land on which to build. As such, buildings go straight up...hundreds and hundreds of them.

View of the city from the top of Victoria Peak


To see the lights of Hong Kong at night is truly a sight to behold.



The center building is Sir Norman Foster's amazing HSBC Building


A world financial hub, there are movers and shakers thronging the streets, and every imaginable brand, mark, and type of commercial good is available at an unimaginable amount of malls and shopping areas. As a friend mentioned, space is so lacking that if you can't drive it, carry it, or wear it, they're not interested.

A street in Central, Hong Kong Island


There are glam areas on the Kowloon side as well, but by and large it has a grittier feel, lots of buildings are aging and crumbly (the results of cheap post-war construction and lack of maintenance) and there are wide swaths of immense poverty.

A recently condemned building in Sham Shui Po on Kowloon


And the pollution!

View over the harbor from the Bank of China Tower


The pollution at street level was unlike anything I have ever experienced. It was so thick you could taste it, and the air had a peculiar yellowish tinge to it most days. Kowloon is a non-stop mass of buses, taxis, cars, scooters, colorful signs, and hordes of people. One district, Kwun Tong, is among the most densely populated places on earth with ~55,000 people per square kilometer. (Take a second to let that figure sink in.)

Despite all this, one striking thing that we found in each part of Hong Kong was a proliferation of temples, shrines, statues, gardens, and greenery squeezed in between all the high rises.

A small shrine tucked in the back of a random housewares store in Causeway Bay


Po Lin Temple on Lantau Island


Inside Po Lin


Roof detail from a Tang-style temple building at the Chi Lin Nunnery


Vivid spots of color and bits of natural beauty popped up in often unexpected places, full of decoration and detail in both the man-made things and those from nature. These colorful oases provided a much-needed respite from the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong's streets.

Temples and Natural Beauty - Click Here for Hong Kong Photo Album #2

Hong Kong King Kong Ping Pong Ding Dong

Once upon a time there was a company called GE Access. Located on the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, it was a pretty rare vortex of interesting, creative people and certainly a unique place. (This was actually where Troy and I met, but that is a different story for a different day.) Troy joined the company in the fall of 2000, and worked as a Business Analyst in the IT Department for about five years before deciding to try his hand at a different discipline for awhile. He successfully applied for GE's Six Sigma Quality Program, and began his rotation in early fall 2005.

GE Access had a European branch, headquartered just outside Amsterdam. The two branches of the company operated fairly autonomously, but certain powers-that-be decided that it would be a worthwhile endeavor to start a STIR (Short Term International Rotation -- gotta love those corporate acronyms!) within Quality to promote a better understanding of business processes on both sides of the Atlantic. Our friend John was the first employee to participate in this trial program, so off went he and his wife Sue to Amsterdam for six months (more about them later).

Having whet our appetites with a wee taste of life abroad (Troy when he studied at Oxford, me when I studied in Rome), Troy and I were very attracted to the STIR idea. Plus, it would have been a nice way to finish up Troy's time as a Six Sigma Quality Black Belt (Take that all you creators-of-boring-job-titles!). So by the fall of 2006, Troy was lined up to complete the second STIR when, a couple of weeks shy of a final decision, GE announced that -- surprise! -- it was selling the company and all pending offers were off the table.

Fast forward six months. GE divested itself of the Access business, a company called Avnet acquired it, and, as with all M&As (that's 'mergers and acquisitions' for all you non-corporate types) there were several resulting 'reallocations and redundancies'. Six months of chaos ensued when finally Troy's persistence paid off, and Avnet managed to connect his previous interest in international work with a current job opening in Hong Kong. Though we considered the possibility of a move to Hong Kong remote, we like to be open-minded so Troy went for the interview.

Actually, both Troy and John (remember him, from above?) flew to Hong Kong in July 2007. Interviews were completed, negotiations ensued blah blah blah yada yada yada. John took the job in Hong Kong, and we ended up in Brussels.

Fast forward again, this time to last fall. Troy embarked on a whirlwind worldwide business tour, kicking off a major project with 2 weeks of work each in Phoenix, Düsseldorf, and Hong Kong. Having never been to Asia, and with the added bonus of having friends living there, I decided to accompany him on the trip. And that, my friends, bring us to our story today.

As you might imagine, two weeks in Hong Kong could provide fodder for dozens of blog posts. But, I will try to settle for just a few. We took literally hundreds of photographs, including those in the album linked below. It is a pictorial introduction to Hong Kong and our trip. Going forward, I plan to tackle the story in thematic vignettes. No simple (boring) chronological accounting of our days in the Far East, but rather glimpses into what was a crazy, contrasting, love-it-hate-it kind of adventure. Let's begin.



Hong Kong Photo Album #1 - Click Here

Sunshine!

The following image is:

a) A photo I took of Simone enjoying the beautiful, late afternoon sunshine on the first day of spring while putting the final touches on a fabulous dinner we'll be sharing with some friends this evening.

b) A fake.  I secretly photoshopped sunshine into the real picture because it's not possible that the sun is actually shining in Brussels.

c) An image of a butterfly.  But you never did have much imagination when it came to those inkblot tests so we're not surprised you can't see it.