PROGRESS REPORT #26: SOME LEISURE MOMENTS

I've been working very hard the last week or so getting my travel website set up, so by Sunday I needed some leisure time and decided to go for a long walk on the seawall from the Downtown East Side to the Convention Centre. The day was sunny and bright but crispy cold. A good day for a long stroll with the camera. Above is a view of the skyline from the seawall at Crab Tree Park walking west toward downtown.

The Canada Place Convention centre was built to resemble the Sydney Australia opera house. It's like a giant ship. There's a luxury hotel in front and the cruise ships all dock here so there's also a heli-port. That day there was a new B.C. Ferry in the dock and I wanted to go on board but there was over an hour wait. As I've seen dozens of ferries (non can compare with those new super-fast ferries in Greece) I didn't bother waiting, but continued along on my lovely Sunday afternoon stroll.

The mountains were glorious, clear and crowned with new snow. All week we've been blessed with this frosty winter weather, clear skies and at night a huge full moon shining down on us.

Besides all the work on my travel web site (which is almost ready to be officially launched!) I also attended another travel media dinner, this time for Turkey. It's as if a new door has opened for me and I'm schmoozing like crazy, making all kinds of new contacts. Hopefully the new web site will bring some new opportunities for me too. At best, it's a great way to do some blatant self-promotion! (Although I don't want it to be a 'vanity' site as I want to give new travel writers a chance to have their work published.) Last night I went to a Chile promo do for Patagonia. And guess what? I won the door prize - a 4 day all inclusive stay for two at a luxury spa near Punta Arenas in Patagonia, Chile. I was delighted and immediately worked out in my head the plans for my travel pal Patrick and I to fly down there from Santiago when we go to Chile again next November. Well, my delight was short-lived. The offer expires September 2008. I was quite frankly a bit miffed about this. You don't go to Chile in summer (their winter) and Patagonia in September would be like going up to the northern territories in March. So unless you went now, or later (the time I'm planning to go) it wouldn't be practical to visit the spa.

So I gave it to a man who is leaving this weekend and he said he'd send me a nice gift from there. I suggested he could send me a penguin!
I'm going to another travel/media event tomorrow. This one is mainly for schmoozing, collecting my next supply of free pens and do-dads, and having a little free food and drink. Ah, the life of a travel journalist! And, my night school classes start tonight. Prompting the Muse. And Travel Writing tomorrow. So I am finally going to be bringing in a bit of cash again which will be most welcome as the coffers are pretty bare these days.

I've only had a bit of time this week so far to work on Shadow, my novel. But I've become totally hooked on the HBO series ROME. My friend loaned me the DVDs of the whole first season and I watch it most nights before bed-time...dream of Marc Antony...get lots of inspiration and ideas for my novel from the excellent script and the attention to details they have used in the movie. I wish they had made the Alexander movie into a series like this one, but maybe one day they'll make Shadow of the Lion into just such a series. (It lends itself perfectly to this idea.) I felt sad to hear that Heath Ledger so tragically died. He's the one I thought should have played Alexander in the movie instead of Colin, though Colin did a reasonable job. I find when I'm writing Shadow I 'see' it as a movie and even when I read it in my writer's critique group, people (one guy in particular who is a real movie buff) 'cast' the roles for me. In watching ROME, I see a strong resemblence between Atia and her son Octavian like the relationship between Olympias and Alexander was and now, Olympias and her grandson little Alexander (Iskander). Interesting and inspiring. I'll be posting more snippets soon.