My Obsession with Washi Tape

Last year when I found out I was heading to China, I knew I had to keep a journal, and I knew I had to make sure I remembered as much about the experience as possible. So I bought a Smash Book for journalling. I also bought washi tape, because, well, I needed tape to hold stuff in the journal. Now, I have been journalling since I was a teenager.... And I always keep a travel journal, but this was well, a new approach to the previous ones.

Not only did I fall for Smash Books completely... Love love love... But washi tape changed my life. From a couple of rolls just to hold stuff in, I then went crazy.... I bought so many.



Now I pretty much use the stuff for everything.

Need to decorate a card.... Washi tape.
Need to journal.... Washi tape.
Book too similar to everyone else's... Washi tape.
Hold a gift closed.... Washi tape.
Set a theme.... Washi tape.

The tape is smooth, and totally easy to use, it can be moved, repositioned, and still stick down.

I imagine I'll be using if forever... And probably buying far too many rolls.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Back from China

Well, 6 weeks in China passed quickly in the end.  It was certainly the experience of a lifetime, and I spent a lot of time feeling either surrounded or lonely, or both.  But I learned a great deal about myself, about others, and generally what I have to be grateful for.  I had hoped to blog more while away, but the internet was slow, intermittent, and I had to keep setting up a virtual private network just to log in to blogger!

Beijing Night Food Market

The food was amazing.  Mostly.  My favourite thing was the roasted tofu, which was served up pretty much anytime I sat down to eat.  Vegetarians the world over get the same comments,
"How do you not eat meat?  You are missing out on some good food."

Well, given how many wonderful vegetarian options are available in China, no one needs to eat meat if they don't want to.  I was served gorgeous dumplings and wonderful soups, as well as my favourite new meal, Hot Pot.

We were staying up in Changchun, which is in Northern China, up near Mongolia, Russia and Korea.  The food has influences from all these areas, and becomes really spicy.  The town is famous for ginseng, and they try to sell it to tourists.  Then we came down to Beijing which was a completely different lifestyle and food.  Finally, Guangzhou, where everything was again tropical, and much more like food I am familiar with while overseas.

Over the next week or so, I will write up my food experiences in China.  I will be sharing my travel experiences on my other blog, "Beyond Island Hopping", so feel free to browse both.  And I'll be tagging the posts with "The China Experience" just to keep the series together.

On REALLY Fresh Fruit

I have been away- she says, somewhat apologetically....

Not really.

Those of you aware of my other interests, will know of my love of travel.  This time I managed to take the whole family to Tonga and Fiji.  The weather was amazing and the sights spectacular.  However, the highlight was totally the fresh food!

Everywhere we walked, it was there.  On tables, sidewalks, in the barber shop (really, not kidding), and for sale.  Cheap.  We ate so well, and so ridiculously cheaply. 

And the flavours!  Now, I have never traditionally been much of a tropical fruit fan... but I have discovered that this is merely because most fruit has to be picked when it is not ripe so that it can be transported, and then even worse to prevent it spoiling.

Not so in the islands....

The best part was the price..... Like watermelons.  Whole watermelons.... $1 (Tongan... so like .75 NZ or .50 US)  CRAZY.  And the peanuts..... so delicious and in their shells, they almost tasted roasted from the heat.

We shared mangos with some of the shop assistants in the tee shirt store, had pineapple on the beach, and watermelon everywhere.  For my sister, who worried about her kids, it was fine to say, "try the coconut, if you don't like it, you don't need to eat it" because it was so fresh, so tasty, and so cheap, that she didn't need to worry.  And the kids loved it. 

All I can say is, I have definitely learned that travelling with a pocket knife and antibacterial wipes is not as insane as some have told me.... slicing up a whole pineapple and cleaning up afterwards is much easier when you travel prepared!

Nouvelle-Calédonie.... bon appétit

Wow!  After a wonderful trip to New Caledonia, I am inspired to eat!

Sort of.

There were a couple of things I discovered early on in my journey. 

1. I can read French reasonably well... better than I had even imagined possible.
2. And the worst part, the French don't really do much for vegetarians.

This second realisation meant that I was put into a smaller category of people who remove ham from bagettes, or people who eat things covered in chocolate.

I love chocolate.

I did however discover some wonderful French dainty desserts.  Yummo.

Raspberry and Ginger tartlet

Coffee filled almond topped donughty thing

One thing I did learn was portion sizes.  French portions are TINY!  Bagettes were huge, but sparing on things like cheese.  The sweets were so rich, eating more than one was a challenge in itself.  But I am so glad to be home, where I don't have to point and gesture, or try to add large numbers in my head (Pacific Francs are crazy to work with, a bagette was like 350 Francs, a can of "Solo" was 280 Francs, and my ability to count aloud in French is to 20.......)

So, getting back on track, thank you Nouvelle Calédonie for a magnificent time.

Wordless Wednesday - Nouvelle Calédonie