The Leslie Show

Travelin'

I'm in NYC this weekend, taking Kate to school, then on Tuesday I head to Dallas for six days for the eWomen Network national conference.  Busy, busy!  More later.

Delicious Baby!

Well, it's summertime!  Here in Seattle we're finally getting a taste of some warm(ish) weather.  It may be hot where you are, but in Seattle we've had the coldest spring in almost 100 years. 

I am now officially the mother of two high-schoolers, as my daughter just finished her junior year and my son just finished jr. high (and will be starting 10th grade in the fall).  Where did the time go?  I'm taking my daughter to the Pratt Institute in NYC, where I will leave her for a month to attend their summer pre-college program in Fashion Design.  I'll miss my baby!

Hey, for those of you who still have small ones at home, I thought I'd show you my friend Deb's blog:

http://www.deliciousbaby.com

It's full of travel tips and ideas for folks with small children. From international travel to just day trips, it's a really good site and it's gotten quite a lot of publicity. Check it out!

Going to Japan!

And, like I always do for something big, I'm writing a separate blog about it!

Go to:

Six Gaijin

(Not much there right now.  I haven't left yet! Duh!)

Sayonara!

Greetings from Merry Olde England!

I'm way behind in posting about this trip, and will have to do some back-blogging when I get the chance. 

It's Thursday and we've been in London since Monday.  After our great African adventure, we were extremely happy to be surrounded by comfort and convenience.  Chris got us a room at the May Fair Hotel, in the Mayfair district in London.  Oooh, it's so posh!  We flew in overnight from Johannesburg on British Airways, so we were tired, and we were especially grateful that our room was ready for us at 10:30 in the morning!  We went right upstairs and zonked out in a beautiful bed with fat, fluffy pillows and crisp, clean sheets.  Aaaah.

After an absolutely marvelous lunch at Amba Grill (the hotel restaurant) we were refreshed and ready to go do some sightseeing.  We popped back up to the room to grab Chris' cameras, and got a bad shock: 

They were gone.

Someone had stolen them right out of his luggage.  Foolish of us to check them, and a mistake we'll never make again, but not one lick of help from British Airways, to be sure.  (For the full story, read Chris' entry here at duffergeek.com)

A tremendous bummer!  But, we had four days to go in London, and we decided to shake that shock off the best we could and enjoy our time here. 

Tuesday was Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and Avenue Q in the West End.  Fabulous!  So far we've walked everywhere.  No cabs or tube.  Sore feet, but we are happy to be moving.  (Our safari was a great experience, but it was quite a bit like being on a cruise.  Two buffets and one lunch a day, and driving everywhere.  No walking.  We felt like veal being prepared for slaughter.)

Wedesday we signed up with Evan Evans Tours for a day trip to Leeds Castle, Canterbury Cathedral, and Dover.  The weather was, to be British about it, splendid, and we had a really nice time.  Got to eat some really good fish and chips (though, to be honest, I've come to accept that even when they're really good, I still am not crazy about fish and chips). 

(to be continued)

Greetings from Africa!

We're having a great time here.  Lots of amazing encounters with the animals out on the safari drives.  But internet is slow and not readily accessible, so details and photos will have to wait 'til we get to London next week.  Check back here after July 30!

We're going to Africa!

Many of you know I have three blogs:  The Leslie Show (which is this one), Joy or Death (my Joy of Cooking project), and calm by leslie (my massage business).  But there is a fourth blog out there which I have been neglecting:  It's my Fifty by Fifty blog, a list of fifty things I'd like to do before I'm fifty years old.  I fully intend, one of these days, to incorporate it into this blog, but for now there it sits.  As you can see from the list, it's been ignored, but I am about to take a big step towards accomplishing item #4:  Visit All Seven Continents.

I'm going on a photo safari to South Africa!

That will add Africa as the fourth continent in my goal of visiting all seven.  I've done North America, Europe, and Asia.  After this, it's South America, Australia, and Antarctica and I'm good!  Hmm.  I'll need to do that all in the next 9.5 years. 

Lots of packing going on right now, but I promise to blog about the trip.  Also check out Duffergeek.com for additional "coverage".  It's also a pretty darn funny story of how we got this trip in the first place.  I'm sure I'll find time to relay it while we're on vacation.

So, until later: salani kahle!   (I think that's Zulu for "good-bye".  Anybody wanna check my grammar?)

Busy Busy Busy

Hey, y'all - Just wanted to apologize in advance if I'm not posting much these days.   I am PSYCHOTICALLY busy this summer.  With the hopes that the following doesn't bore you too badly, here are some of the major things I am scheduled to do in the next 13 weeks:

1. AROMATHERAPY SCHOOL:  Attend 32 hours of class.  Write a 10 page research paper.  Begin my 14 case studies.
2. REFLEXOLOGY SCHOOL:  Attend 12 hours of class.  Continue documenting any and all reflexology sessions I perform.  Continue to FIND those reflexology sessions so I can acquire my practice hours to get my certificate.
3. BREAST CANCER 3-DAY:  Walk 453 miles.  Yes, if I do all of the suggested training AND the full event (which I am planning to) that's how far I walk.  And that doesn't include any extra walking I do anywhere else, that's just the training walks.  I'm very glad to be a part of this event, but I sure didn't think as hard as I could have about how much TIME the training would take.  The good news is, I'm more than halfway to my required fundraising goal of $2200!
4. TRAVEL:  A long weekend in Vancouver, then two weeks in South Africa then London.  Awesome!  But a LOT of work getting kids, pets, house, etc. all settled and where they need to be when this goes down.  Guess who's job it is to plan/arrange all that?  (Hint:  It rhymes with "Nestlie".) 

That's all.

No.  Wait.  It's not all.  These are only the EXTRA things I'm doing in my life besides trying to run my own massage practice AND be a wife, mother, and homemaker.  (Guess which role is getting the shortest shrift?  Let's just say Domino's and Maid Brigade LOVE ME.) So, life is good, but Leslie needs to learn to stop trying to do everything at once, and Leslie apologizes in advance if she is irritable or non-responsive or doesn't post much.

Vegas, baby!

I'm heading off to Vegas with friends and family to celebrate my 40th birthday.  While, technically, I don't turn 40 'til April 16th, this is the best weekend for everyone to come.  Besides, my sister always told me that the older you get, the longer your birthday lasts.  So....let the festivities commence!

France and The French

This trip has been remarkable for a number of reasons, not the least of which is getting a better feel for France and the French people.  Oftentimes when I travel, I pick one place and stay there for a while.  I'm not a big fan of The Grand Tour in 10 days, where "If this is Tuesday this must be Belgium".  How can you get to know a place like that?  I find it exhausting. 

I'm also reading a terrific book:  SIXTY MILLION FRENCHMEN CAN'T BE WRONG:  What Makes the French so French (I bought this at an English bookstore in Cannes, so the version I'm reading is the England-English version.  The American version of this book is sub-titled:  "Why We Love France But Not the French" which I find most embarrasing and rude.)  It explains, in direct and un-romanticized terms, the history of La Republique and why the French act and live as they do. 

Here are some things I have learned (through this book and over the course of my two-week stay):

• The French like to take it easy. But it's not the same kind of "hang loose" attitude we found in Hawaii.  They are a very industrious and proud people, but they have built leisure time into their lives.  For example, many (but not all) shops close from noon to three.  That's lunchtime, folks, and it is taken extremely seriously.  So, the shops are open from nine (or ten) to noon.  Closed from noon to two (or three), then open til 7 or 8 at night.  During those open hours the shopkeepers will be quite attentive to you and give you very nice customer service.  It's not as though they're lazy while they're working.  They just make room for leisure.
• There is a looser sense of time here in the South.  The shops might open at 10.  Or 9.  Maybe 8:45.  Then they're closed for lunch for ... a while.  Then they're open again.  Pas de problème, Madame.  You'll get what you need eventually. 
• Manners are extremely imporant here. And it has a different context.  Yes, sure, in the United States "please" and "thank you" are the magic words.  But here it is required that you greet the shop owner with a "Bonjour" when you walk into a store, and leave with an "au revoir".  The analogy they give in the book is that in French culture, a shopkeeper's store is like an extension of their home.  (Sometimes it literally is.)  You would never walk into someone's home without a "hello", right?  It would be rude.  Same deal here.  "Bonjour" will get you good service.  Just marching in without a polite greeting = you're a boor.
• Snacking is not a major phenomenon.  Mealtimes are very set things.  You have, perhaps, a coffee and some fruit or a croissant for breakfast.  Then you have a very nice lunch (with wine and salad and an entree).  Then you have a nice dinner, somewhat late.  To graze around all day just isn't done.  Also, grabbing a quick cup of coffee "to go" is really hard.  There are cafés with delicious coffee everywhere.  There are no Starbuck's.  A cup of coffee?  Great idea!  But you'd better be ready to sit down and drink it. I think this has a great deal to do with why the French aren't fat.
• Wine is good, cheap, and everywhere. We've been staying in apartments while we're here so we've had to go to the grocery store to get our food (which is both fascinating and very nice...eating all your meals in restaurants gets old fast, even in France).  In the grocery stores, the wine section takes up rows and rows, and most bottles don't run any more than five or six euros.  There are more expensive wines available in the specialty stores, but we haven't felt the need to go there too often.
• Cheese is a way of life.  You know how in your grocery store the cheese section might take up a quarter of an aisle?  Well, in France, it takes up three or four full aisles.  One whole aisle, both sides, just for the different kinds of yogurt. 

Well, that's all for now.  Time to go drink more cheap rosé, as we are leaving in two days and then the rosé won't be quite as good or quite as cheap. Au revoir!

Calissons

As we've traveled all around Provence, I keep seeing these diamond-shaped boxes in all the gift stores.  Calissons d'Aix, they say, and I couldn't quite figure out what they were.  I assumed they were hard candies, but the ingredients list said "almonds" and some of the boxes seemed awfully big (and expensive) to be hard candies. 

Yesterday we went to Aix en Provence and I discovered what they were.  They're sort of midway between a cookie and candy, and they're a very specialized, very regional treat.  Calissons have been made in Provence for centuries, and they were handed out on Sept. 1st to commemorate the end of the plague.  (Gotta love the French:  "Hooray!  The plague is over!  Let's eat!")  I went to a local confiserie (confectionary, i.e. candy maker) and bought a teeny box so I could try before I bought.  They're not bad.  A little diamond of almond paste flavored with some fruit syrup (from the melons of the area, don'tcha know) and some sugar.  Kinda mild, and some of the nicer places offer chocolate covered ones.  I'll bet those taste better, but I didn't want to worry about the chocolate melting them before I got them back to the states.    Here is the best site I've found that describes calissons. 

Aix en Provence was very pretty.  It's a big college town, so there were lots of attractive college kids running about.  It was also market day (which is French for "you will never find a parking spot").  Chris and I have perfected our technique of visiting towns:  Drive there, go to a café, order lunch, lunch takes an hour and a half, pat our bellies, walk around a wee bit, roast to death from the heat, head back to the house to go swimming in the pool.  HA!  Rushing about cramming in lots of sites in one day is virtually impossible here, for a couple of reasons:  1)  It's bloody hot (mid to upper 90's by noon, hotter thereafter) and 2)  The French do not rush lunch.  Please allow at least 90 minutes for lunch.  If you're in a hurry, get a sandwich and bypass the cafés and restauants. 

We've actually been enjoying this slow pace very much.  There are so very many things to see and do here, but if we tried to cram them all in we would be very stressed and unhappy.  Instead, we take our time and just see a few highlights and all is well.