Nice timing, having had sushi for dinner tonight and all. Reminds me of the conveyor sushi place we ate at in London, it was the same sort of place. I wonder if there are any conveyor sushi places in Vancouver...

One of my favorite quotes from President Obama's inaugural speech today:

"People will judge you based on what you build; not what you destroy."

And here you have it. We are now on a new and much improved course.

It's official, Barack Obama is now the President of the United States. It's a time of opportunity and, yes, hope. And hope is what we desperately need after these dark years. And for me, even more notable than Obama's inauguration is the goodbye to the 43rd president. The long and hard years with Bush at the controls has been damaging to our nation. Very damaging. With Bush, we've found ourselves accepting torture, pre-emptive war with another nation, destruction of our right to speak freely and our civil liberties, the shrouding and coverup of presidential matters, and the list continues on.

The sun is shining down in Washington, DC. And at least for today, it's a very good day. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.

The whole Gaza thing is a mess. And this graphic makes a pretty good representation about why it is the way it is. Israel will find no sympathy from me. They are gluttonous, and the US has no place stocking them with weapons with what to use to steal more Palestinian lands.

Well last week is replaying all in my head as I get ready to go yet again on this trip to St Lucia. We have new tickets for us leaving Vancouver tonight at 11:30pm, connecting early morning in Toronto, and reaching St Lucia around 3pm local time. Sleeping on a plane, hurray. At least this time the weather seems to be behaving. Vancouver's snow has turned back into rain, which is causing awful problems with slush and flooding, but won't likely affect us too much in our flight out.

My heart feels divided on this trip. After this crazy week in which our flight was canceled, Sim had to work overnight on Christmas Eve, and then having a Christmas without gifts or a tree or anything such as that, all I seem to want is a return to something normal and familiar. On the other hand, however, I feel a bit cheated this week and I want to just go and have fun, and our poor cameras ache to be more in use. Well, however how I feel, the tickets are non-refundable and all that, so we're most definitely going this time. I feel a bit better about it today, also, since I had a good sleep.

Anyway, I'll likely be updating as I know more. Cheers everyone, and hope to talk to you all poolside from a lounge chair.

Rest in peace, Eartha Kitt.