Tiki Village on Saturday Night

The ceremonial opening of the ground oven before the big dinner and tiki show. Tahitians would cook their meals together in an underground "stove" lined with coals for an entire day. The food was absolutely delicious and worth the wait.


The fire-dancers, demonstrating their skills with blazing torches.

The dancing girls answer to the call of love.

The male dancers in a re-enactment of a Tahitian courtship ritual.

Indulging in a rare Polynesian sunset.

Mo'orea By Night

A cacophony of fish are attracted to the bright lights, swirling about in a trance-like dance just beneath the water's surface. I could watch them play for hours. The most magical thing is when you switch off one set of lights, and turn on another, the dense cloud immediately migrates to the other light source, and continue their dance.

By day, Mo'orea is a scenic island paradise, lush with vegetation and soaring mountains. But by the moonlight, she has an eerie but beautiful tranquility about her.

Mo'orea Pearl Resort, French Polynesia

My husband and I stayed in a deluxe overwater bungalow during our sojourn in Mo'orea. The accommodations at the Moorea Pearl Resort were impeccable and the oceanview, priceless. Every morning we would wake up and dive from our balcony into the blue for a relaxing swim. These images are just teasers. More to come in the next few days or so.

Holiday Soiree Venue

The theater is to be our dancefloor, but this is still subject to debate, I think.

The bar....

The atrium will be the dining area, ideal for schmoozing and rubbing elbows with the higher-uppers.

I volunteered to help plan the company holiday party this year and today we visited the Living Arts Center in Mississauga to check out the venue. Very nice. I think HR did a great job. I took some photos to get an idea of layout and where to set up the dancefloor, the bar, the Christmas tree and all the other holiday stuff.

No Go

Wednesday was the only day I could attend Fashion Week. 8 P.M. was Andy The-Ahn's show and I was really looking forward to it. I was guaranteed good seats and no line-ups. At 5 P.M. wednesday I was bombarded with work: urgent and had to be taken care of asap, no exceptions. By the time I left the office, Andy's fashion show was over. Sigh. I sometimes feel that I've chosen the wrong occupation, but when I returned to the office today, I realized how much I love science and hence, my job. Fashion is fleeting and I am simply a spectator. Science, on the other hand is forever moving forward, and I consider myself a major player. There is always the spring Fashion Week.

Lions and tigers and runners, oh my!

This was a really fun 10K run held at the Toronto zoo on saturday morning. I organized this little team building exercise for my company. While we had a couple of dropouts, the rest of the team pulled together and finished the race, some of them running a 10K for the very first time. The course was hilly and a little challenging but the distraction of the elephants and giraffes looking on made it all worth the effort!

Election!!!

I almost did not make it in time before the polls closed. I did my usual tuesday 6K run after work, but then decided to check my e-mails in the office just before heading home. Big mistake. There was a trail of emergency e-mails on my outlook (you know, the ones with all the big red exclamation points) that required immediate attention. Got stuck at work managing the "emergency", then came home. Fought through the highway traffic, got home, ate dinner then made a mad dash to the community center to cast my vote. I did not want to miss the opportunity to exercise my rights as a citizen. Especially after my work colleague told me about "voting" in Iraq during the time Saddam Hussein was in power. Apparently they were all required to "vote" but there would only be one candidate. It was such a farce. I'm lucky to be in a country where I do have a choice and know that my vote will count.