Montreal, May 2013

Before I had Mark, I was prepared for a number of baby-related duties, including breastfeeding or bottle-feeding, diaper-changing, etc. I also knew that I would eventually get peed on, spit on and poop on.

But no one had told me I would have to spend every waking hour with a baby in my arms.

I had heard new mothers complaining about the fact they didn’t even had the time to take a shower. “How hard can it be?” I wondered, innocent and still child-free. “Just put the baby in the crib, walk into the bathroom, turn on the water, make it quick and voilà! Return to baby feeling clean, fresh and happy!”

Yeah, well, it’s not always that easy. I learned it the hard way.

Mark was a Velcro baby. “Velcro” as in perpetually glued to me. Velcro as in “put me down for a minute and I will scream on top of my lungs.” Velcro as in “don’t even think of eat, shower, use the bathroom, mommy.”

It drove me crazy.

At first, I loved having him in my arms. I couldn’t get enough of it. Plus, let’s face it, the first few weeks are a steep learning curve for everyone—the baby is adjusting to the outside world, and the parents are adjusting to the baby’s (lack of) schedule and their new duties. We are all a wreck, exhausted and focused on the baby’s needs, focused on making it through the days and the nights.

We soon discovered that Mark hated not being held by either Feng or I. I couldn’t leave him alone for more than a minute, and even if I was physically around, like twenty centimeters from him, he’d scream until I would give in and pick him up.

I couldn’t even go pee—I still did though (ahem, basic human need!), as fast as I could, to the sound of his screams. Talk about stressful.

I tried several tricks, like leaving him with a tee-shirt I wore and had my scent, putting a musical teddy bear besides him, or talking to him explaining I would be back shortly. I tried letting him cry, and I cried a lot myself, out of frustration, tiredness and yes, anger. “How do other people do it?” I couldn’t help wondering.

If I could make it to the kitchen downstairs and back without him turning crimson red with anger, I’d congratulate him.

It rarely happened, though.

I ended up putting him in the sling and doing my usual chores with him strapped to me. Cooking, cleaning, working… he just slept against my chest and at least, I had both arms free. To cook and eat, Feng and I had to take turns: one of us would hold Mark and the other would eat, then we’d switch. Fortunately, Mark didn’t mind Feng holding him.

After a while, I got pretty frustrated with the situation. I mentioned it to the doctor during Mark’s routine one-month visit. “Ahem… is it normal that we can’t leave him alone for two seconds?”

The doctor looked at us, bemused. “Well, it’s a baby, what do you expect?”

Take that and suck it up, dumb new mom!

But talking with my friends and my family, I realized that not all babies were Velcro babies. Sure, you can’t leave them alone for long. But you can put them down in a bassinet, a crib, a baby seat and as long as the parents are around—in the same room—most babies don’t scream to death. They nap, stare, play… you know, do baby stuff.

I was a wreck, especially considering that Mark was barely napping during the day. Two– or three-month-old babies can’t do much. You can’t really play with them, and peekaboo games don’t really fill up the day or leave you feeling productive and happy. I also wanted some time alone. It was a visceral need—as much as I loved Mark, I just couldn’t stand having him glued to me all day long. I wanted some freedom, a bit of me-time.

Eventually, we started going out more and putting him in the stroller. This way, I could breathe a bit. He learned to enjoy being on his back and on his tummy, little by little. We still had to be at arm’s length but we didn’t have to hold him all the time.

Mark is still a bit of a Velcro baby. He certainly wouldn’t complain if I’d hold him all day long but considering he is now 9 kg, it’s not really an option anymore. Little by little, he getting more mobile and he is exploring the world, playing with his toys and whatever he finds amusing. He is still clingy but not as much… he is growing up.

But still… it’s been a long road!

So I recently started to focus on other projects—stuff that don’t include changing diapers, burping, cleaning up various body fluids… you know!—including my “People of Ottawa” set. I love candid shots and street photography, and spring weather is the perfect time to roam around the city with my camera again.

Maybe it’s my voyeur side but observing strangers in the street is fascinating, and capturing a moment is always rewarding.

I took the pictures below on Parliament Hill, Rideau Street, Rideau Centre, on MacKenzie King Bridge, at the Confederation Park and in the business district, using a simple 18–55 mm lens and my Nikon D60. I took some of the shots on Mother’s Day, hence the number of people with flowers!

You can see the complete People of Ottawa set on Flickr.

The News Readers

Buying Flowers

Connected

Arguing

Waiting

Goodbye!

The Tourist

The Book Worm

The Young Visitor

Winnies Candy Factory

The Silhouettes

Tired

Moosehead

Smoking, Texting, Biking

A Dog’s Life

Flowers For Someone

The Reader

Flowers Delivery

Alone in the Crowd

Scooters

Behind the Doors

Waiting for the Bus

Got Change?

Reading at Chapters

Traffic Jam in Ottawa, June 2013

Despite being a fairly large city plagued with the usual issues associated with any urban environment, Ottawa is home to a variety of wildlife. For instance, in our suburban neighbourhood, a fifteen-minute drive from Parliament Hill, we have plenty of rabbits, squirrels, skunks, turtles (!) and many beautiful bird species. It was a surprise to me—in France, we had pigeons, that was about it.

The City of Ottawa even has a page dedicated to the local wildlife (admittedly, this is probably for folks living in the National Capital Region’s rural areas), listing bears and coyotes!

The other day, we were trying to park by the War Museum when we had to slow down for local traffic—a flock of geese crossing the road.

Life in Ottawa…!

I could survive on carrots, broccoli, bok choy, yu choy, celery, spinach, zucchinis, bell peppers, kai-lan, chaya, mushrooms and endives. .. with some kind of carb, like semolina, pasta, bread or rice, of course. And I am not bragging here—I like chocolate, cakes, etc. too, but I truly love veggies.

What do people who don’t like veggies eat? Serious question here. I mean, you can’t just eat meat or fish, right?

Yesterday, I was at the neighborhood playground with Mark when the mother of a baby started a conversation with me. Somehow, we ended up talking about the things we were craving when we were pregnant.

“It’s funny,” I said. “I was craving celery. I think I ate about half of the production of celery in Ottawa when I was pregnant!”

The mother looked at me with disbelief. A long uncomfortable pregnant (ah ah!) pause followed.

“Oh my God, that’s so… gross!” she finally proclaimed, with a look of true disgust in her eyes, as if I had just admitted I was doing crack.

Eating celery, gross? Seriously?

The same night, while cooking veggies and semolina, I handed Mark a leaf of spinach. He inspected it carefully for a good five minutes before finally attempting to chew it… the look on his face was priceless!

Unlike the woman at the park, he has an excuse, though—he is only eight-month-old!

Now, he loves his Baby Mum-Mum rice rusks. I started to give him these little snacks a couple of weeks ago—we started with the “original” one, and now the “apple” one—and he loves them!

Spinach versus “baby biscuits”… we have a clear winner here!

You can see all the pictures of Mark in his Flickr set.

What’s That Thing?

Alright, I’ll Take a Look…

Mmm… Bendable…

And Is It Good?

Mom, Seriously!

Want Cookies Now…!

That’s Better!

Yummy Rice Rusks!

But of course coach travel is not as quick as travelling by plane or train, so you do need to be organised to make the journey part of the holiday and not just an extended waiting period for your holiday to start.

Buying your ticket is obviously your first task. Check out the bus timetables to see which dates and which times you would prefer to travel. Think about whether you would like to travel overnight (and sleep) or during the day and watch the countryside pass by whilst you relax on board. If you decide to travel overnight you have the added advantage of not having to pay for overnight accommodation for that night and can arrive at your destination refreshed and ready to start your holiday.

Local bus timetables in the UK are notoriously difficult to read as there are so many routes and stops. But travelling to the Continent is a different matter, with fewer services running between the major cities. Fortunately iDBUS’s website has a really easy way to find your times: select where you’re travelling from (e.g. London) and where you’ll be travelling to (e.g. Paris Bercy city centre) and your dates and you are given a choice of a couple of times, one in the morning and one in the afternoon or night.

Once you’ve got your ticket sorted out, all you have to do is pack and make your way to the coach station. London Victoria Coach Station is located in central London and can be easily accessed by tube or train at Victoria Station, which is only about 300m away from the iDBUS coach station. If you have a lot of baggage you might find it easier to get there by cab. Coaches don’t have strict luggage weight limits like planes do and you are usually allowed one piece of luggage per person plus a piece of hand luggage to take on board, but depending on how busy the coach is you may be allowed to take more.

Your hand luggage is going to be vital for your journey. You’ll be spending up to 13 hours on the coach (though there will be rest stops en route where you can stretch your legs) so it is important that you take on board anything you need to be comfortable and enjoy the ride. Most people take electrical equipment like iPads and laptops – don’t forget your charger! iDBUS has electrical sockets on board so you can charge up your equipment if the battery gets a bit low, and Wi-Fi to keep you connected so you can stay in touch or play games online or get some work done.

If you are planning to travel overnight then consider taking earplugs in case you find it difficult to block out the sounds of other passengers around you, and if you have children travelling with you don’t forget to take their favourite teddy.

Mark and I on Parliament Hill

Mark is turning eight months on June 12—yes, already!

Baby Mark has changed a lot lately. He has become a little baby boy with his own personality and he can now express himself very well. He is tiring… exhausting, even, but he is a happy curious baby most of the time.

Mark can now sit by himself very well. He occasionally loses his balance but it’s rare and he learned to deal with it (and we learned to place a pillow or something soft behind him!). He doesn’t really crawl the way babies in diaper commercials do, but he moves around, somehow, using various unorthodox methods. He can also stand on his legs supported.

Food-wise, Mark still mostly has formula, although I started giving him rice biscuits (he likes them and can feed himself), plus he often gets to taste the food when we eat out. I’m getting tired of bottle feeding but he needs it from a nutritional point of view and he is not a fan of whatever pureed food I try to give him. I’m leaning towards the “baby-led weaning” method, where kids are given small manageable pieces of food and feed themselves, rather than trying to spoon feed him.

Mark is also showing some character and asserting himself. He throws things to get attention, hold his arms up when he wants to be picked up and can start screaming when he is not happy about something—but will stop on cue as soon as he gets what he wants, a toy, attention or a hug.

He is social in a way—he smiles back at people who comment on how cute he is (really, it’s kind of embarrassing, I never know what to say when random strangers stop to tell me he is a cute boy!) but he screams whenever anyone but Feng and I hold him. Like Feng says, at least no one will steal him from us… else we can hear him if it happens!

So, after month one, month two, month three, month four, month five, month six and month seven… here is month eight, in numbers!

Body parts discovered: For some reason, Mark suddenly discovered he had feet. Yep, a right foot, a left foot, five toes on each. I mean, nothing new here, right? Well, for Mark it is apparently novelty and he loves grabbing his feet, sucking on his toes (I wish I was that flexible!) and taking off his socks. He also likes staring at my feet—I can get five minutes of quiet computer time if I move my toes in front of him (don’t laugh, it takes some coordination to type an email and remember to move your toes!).

Big baby milestone: One, Mark said “Mama”. For real. He often babbles, “mamama”, “dadadada”, etc. so I wasn’t sure whether he was just making sounds or actually saying something. On May 24, I changed him and left him with Feng. As I walked out of the room, he clearly called “mama” and grinned when I turned around and came back to him. Yes, I tweeted about it—I know, STFUP moment.

Okay, Mark clearly say “mama” this morning, calling me as I was leaving the room. Yes, I cried a bit. #MotherMoment

— Juliette Giannesini (@Xiaozhuli) May 24, 2013

Favourite toys: Three. Stacking plastic rings; “bumblebee” a soft toy; and two small rubber balls he desperately tries to chase across the living room (he quickly learned it was easier to cry and wait for me to retrieve them from under the couch).

Favourite unofficial toys: Three. Starbucks carton coffee cup sleeves (buys me at least ten minutes of quiet time when he chews on it); boxes of semolina or pasta (buy me five minutes of free time to cook said semolina or pasta); my hair (especially the long strand at the front—pulling it is so much fun!).

For 10 min. of quiet time at Chapters, make baby eat Starbucks carton sleeve. Tested and approved. #BadMothering twitter.com/Xiaozhuli/stat…

— Juliette Giannesini (@Xiaozhuli) May 29, 2013

Favourite activities: Banging toys on the floor, smiling at people when he is in the cart and I’m grocery shopping, being tickled, being hugged, chasing toys across the room.

Trip taken: One overnight trip to Montreal! And it was great—hopefully Mark will be a good traveler.

Night without mum or dad: Just one, when we escaped to Toronto to see The Rolling Stones concert. Mark didn’t seem too traumatized (staying with the grand-parents, he gets to improve his Mandarin!).

Educational trips taken: Several. We went to the National Art Gallery, to the Museum of Civilization and to the Experimental Farm.

I’m looking forward to the next few months… should be fun!

For the latest pictures of Mark, check out his Flickr set.

Mark, 8 Months

The joke was on us. Eight years later The Rolling Stones are still on the road with their 50 & Counting Tour and we couldn’t resist going to see them, again. Back in 2005, we had crappy tickets and the band played at Lansdowne Park in Ottawa, an outdoor stadium that isn’t great for concerts.

We bought the special $85 tickets—a bargain. However, these lower-priced tickets came with strings attached: the seat locations would only be revealed when we pick up the tickets the night of the show, and once we had the tickets in hand, we had to be escorted inside—no refunds, no exchange.

This meant we could land great seats or end up with 300-level obstructed view seats.

We took a chance.

We traveled to Toronto (more on that later!), showed up at the Air Canada Centre around 7 p.m. and queued with other overexcited fans to pick up the $85 tickets. The staff picked an envelope from a huge pile, opened it and announced “…and you’ve got… great seats!”

Oh boy did we get great seats! We landed the sought-after “Tongue Pit” tickets, just meters away from the scene. Retail value? $600.

We felt like we had won the lottery.

We made our way to the pit and truly realized how close we were to the stage, even closer than we were when we saw U2 in Sydney. It was amazing. I could count the wrinkles on Mike Jagger’s face, and be the first one to notice each time Keith Richards lit up a cigarette.

This was my first concert since Bryan Adams, last year, when I was five-month pregnant with Mark. Trust me, this time I was happy I wasn’t pregnant—being in the pit for three hours is exhausting, and the band put up quite a show!

I couldn’t help wondering what Mike Jagger was on… he had so much energy it felt unreal!

The show ended shortly before midnight and we wandered downtown Toronto, looking for a bite to eat before giving up and getting a pizza we ate on our bed, at the hotel.

Rock on!

You can see the complete set of pictures on Flickr: The Rolling Stones.

SET LIST

Get Off Of My Cloud; It’s Only Rock ‘N’Roll (But I Like It); Paint It Black; Gimme Shelter; Worried About You; Rocks off; Emotional Rescue; Doom and Gloom; One More Shot; Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’ (with Mick Taylor); Honky Tonk Women; You Got The Silver (Keith on lead vocals); Before They Make Me Run (Keith on lead vocals); Midnight Rambler (with Mick Taylor); Miss You; Start Me Up; Tumbling Dice; Brown Sugar; Sympathy For The Devil

ENCORE

You Can’t Always Get What You Want (with Cawthra Park Secondary School’s Chamber Choir)^Jumpin’ Jack Flash; (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (with Mick Taylor)

Best Tickets Ever!

Start Me Up!

The Air Canada Centre

Before the Show

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

Off to Bed, Now…

Fotor’s Homepage

Ever wished you had access to a good photo editing tool? Sure you did. We all have this great shot that could use some improvement to become a “wow!” picture. Maybe you need to crop the picture, apply colour correction or adjust the white balance. Or maybe you just want to have fun and add text and a frame to your favourite shot… and then share it on social media, or add it to a blog article.

Image editing doesn’t have to be complicated, and most of us do not need to invest in a fancy and pricey software (ahem, Photoshop, looking at you…). There are great online solutions for photographers—and Fotor is one of these useful tools.

Fotor was launched in May of 2012 to bring powerful, easy-to-use photo editing tools into the hands of anyone and everyone with an internet connection. Utilizing cloud computing to provide a suite of image processing tools ranging from basic cropping to HDR (High Dynamic Range) processing, Fotor has made professional-level photo editing accessible to everyday users through a clean, intuitive interface and workflow.

No registration is required: just click on “open a file” and load your picture. A second later, you will have access to a neat interface with a ton of options, such as:

• Basic editing: to crop, rotate, tone, resize, etc.
• Photo effects: to apply a filter to turn your picture into a Lomo shot… or to play with one of the many funky options!
• Frames: to add simple or fun borders, apply shadows, etc.
• Clip art: to add a special touch to a shot, such as a message for Father’s Day.
• Text: to add text to your pic.

With Fotor, you can also make collages, cards and montages to save and share. All you need is to pick one of the many templates available, and you are all set! This could be a great tool for those looking to make a banner for their blogs, or to send a special wish to a special someone.

Fotor’s interface is very intuitive and you can play around with it for hours! I love the fact that you can work with the most basic tools and not feel overwhelmed by a complicated interface, yet have access to more sophisticated options if needed.

Once you are done, you can save your picture to your computer in various formats (JPEG, PNG, BMP, and TIFF) or share it through Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, etc.

You can use the online version of Fotor at http://www.fotor.com, or download a copy of the software for free for many platforms such as Windows, Mac, etc.

Verdict? Fotor is an easy and fun way to enhance your images. The tool is quick and powerful and most users will find the option that fits their editing need. Try it today!

I had browsed their tee shop a few times but I found that at $20, they were quite expensive. Fortunately, the two designs I liked finally went on sale and I decided to give the company a try.

The first tee that caught my eye is “My Collection”, by neontiger, a Portuguese designer. I’m a child of the 1980s and I do remember using tapes a lot… in fact, I “only” bought a MP3 in 2005! This grey t-shirt is a celebration of all those cool mix tapes you had as a kid, combined on one cool neon tee. It is kind of a retro funky tee, and I loved the colours. Ordered for $12!

The second tee was designed by helvebula, from Canada (yay!). “One Colour Only” reminded me of the Dark Side of the Moon album cover—yes, I love Pink Floyd… remember, “Floyd” is baby Mark’s middle name! This homage to the album shows colours filtered through an exploding prism. The light band emanating from the prism shows a rainbow of color—did the light break the prism or is it fixed in a state of explosion? That’s a very Pink Floyd-ish question! Ordered for $15.

I ordered both 100% Cotton DBH Premium Teetees in “Woman size S”. I found a 10% discount coupon online and shipping and handling was $9.55, brining my total to $38.05 for two t-shirts. I paid with Paypal and placed the order on April 24.

The package was received on May 8, exactly two weeks later. It came in a black plastic pouch branded with the logo of Design By Humans. The two tees were neatly folded inside, along with a receipt and a small sticker of the brand, with a 5% discount code for future purchase.

Both t-shirt were size S but “My Collection” has a closer fit, and the fabric feels thicker than “One Colour Only”, which is thinner and a bit looser. The designs printed well and the colours are pretty awesome.

I’m happy with my purchase and will consider buying again from Design By Humans!

My Collection

One Colour Only

BIXI at the Byward Market, May 2013

It’s prime tourist season here in Ottawa, and with the nice weather, the “Capital BIXI” are back on the road—the stations had been removed during winter time, where only hardcore Canadians dare to bike.

There are racks of red bikes ready to be borrowed all across the downtown core—but I can’t say they are very popular. I snapped this shot close to the Byward Market and the BIXI docks seemed to be full, i.e. none of the bicycles was rented out

Apparently, you need a credit card to rent them, which may be a problem for people who do not necessarily have a credit card, especially foreign tourists. You also need to leave a $250 deposit, which seems a bit too much for a bike…!

I’d rather walk or take the bus—I still think Canada wasn’t built for bicycles and riders, unlike some European countries.