Tonight, for the second year in a row, I will be donating my time and photography services to the Jewels for a Cause charity event in West Vancouver. The event was started 10 years ago by Jennifer Rainnie and Teri-Ann Donaldson, as a very grass roots way to gather friends, drink some wine, buy some jewelry and donate the proceeds to charity. The event has grown each year and has now become a very large gathering with over 20 jewelers/artists showcasing their work.

This year, Jewels For A Cause has chosen to support the Starlight Children’s Foundation.  The Starlight Foundation helps seriously ill children and their families cope with their pain, fear and isolation through entertainment, education and family activities.

Tonight’s event will be bigger and better than ever. They have more than doubled the jewelers, they will be offering free wine and bubbly sampling from Barefoot Wines, there will be 4 restaurants offering tasting plates (the menu is amazing!) tickets will be $1 and plates vary from 1 to 5 tickets. There will also be a shuttle service for parking and a fantastic silent auction. 

For more information on Jewels for a Cause and to view the gorgeous collections that will be available at the event, please visit the website at www.jewels4acause.ca.

If you’re looking for something fun to do tonight, I invite you to join me at this event to support an amazing cause!

Event Details

Thursday May 26^th, 2011 (Tonight!)
7pm – 10 pm
Entrance Fee: $10

Hollyburn Country Club  www.hollyburn.org
950 Cross Creek Road, West Vancouver, BC

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This morning’s snow play in the park! (yes… I’m one of those crazy dog people…)

I took these icy photos this morning while walking @Roxidoo at Trout Lake.

For more pics from my morning walk, please visit Flickr.

Right from my check in experience at the Vancouver airport (YVR), I was very impressed by China Airlines and their efforts to accommodate my seat request for my 13 hours flight from YVR to Taipei (TPE) Taiwan. My seat was decent to begin with, 9A by the window fairly close to the front of the Airbus 330-300, but the clerk at the desk said he could probably do better for me and find a similar seat with an empty one beside me as the flight was only at 70% capacity. He would let me know at the gate if he was able to make the change. And SUCCESS! I ended up in 12K, a window seat on the opposite side, with the whole row to myself! YES!

The flight was smooth for the most part, a few bumps and fasten seat belt warnings along the way, but nothing major. The food was… well… it was airline food… But surprisingly, I was able to sleep away about 7 hours of the flight… Almost like a time machine deleting these hours from the flight time! 🙂

The landing at Taipei was smooth. There was an attendant waiting there to help passengers find their next gate. So after a short train ride and a bit of a walk, I found Gate 1A, complete with drunk-airport-crazy-lady and all!

When I first arrived at the gate, drunk-airport-crazy-lady was passed out at the end of the people mover (you know, those escalators that don’t actually escalate? they are just flat people movers)… Then I decided to find myself a snack and some tea, and when I passed her for the second time, she was awake and ranting at everyone who passed her. Then she stumbled her way to my gate, and caused a bit of a ridiculous scene. Yelling, screaming and waving her arms like a crazy person. (ah-hem, straight jacket please!) The airport crew then moved her to a separate area in hopes, I think, to calm her down… But lemme tell ya, I sure hoped she wouldn’t end up on my 5-hour flight from Taipei to Denpasar!

Honestly, I’d be surprised if they let her on a plane at all…. but no security had shown up yet, so who knew…? If this was Vancouver, they would have tackled, pepper sprayed, tazed and handcuffed her by now! (ok, ok, bad joke… but still… the point is that this would never be acceptable airport behaviour at YVR…)

Anyway, now I have some dude sitting behind me in the waiting area and a China Airlines worker, who claimed to be the purser for our flight, hijacked his guitar and played Eric Clapton tunes flawlessly! Loved it!

Hehe, if the rest of my trip is this interesting, I think the next month will be an amazing one!

I later ended up talking to said “dude” with guitar (who ended up being from Vancouver Island) and he was telling me how he got upgraded to business class on his flight from Miami to Taipei and how great that was. I was pretty happy having an empty seat beside me, but I had to agree that a 13 hour flight in business class would have kicked ass!

So, that’s it for the first leg of my 30-hour travel adventure. Stay tuned for Part II in my next post about the flight from Taipei to Denpasar…