A summary for people with short attention spans... or jet lag

Prague: Felt like we'd never left. Guess it really is my third home. Was so amazing to see everyone and revisit old haunts.
Venice: Still magical. So happy to he able to share it with someone I love so much
Florence: Up to our ears in art. Oh and it turns out I can drink cask wine. No preservatives. Boo ya!
Rome: Stunning, astounding, a tad tough after dark. So much good cheese.

Conclusion: Honeymoon perfection. More information and boatloads of photos to follow after westward oriented jet lag frees me from it's evil clutches.

HRH

Departure

Here we sit in the airport lounge at Pearson International. Maybe we should have played the “oh it’s out honeymoon” card at the ticket desk, but judging by the sourpuss that took our tickets, I don’t think that a young couple, oh so in love, would have had any kind of effect.

Our flight company seems interesting. There is a gaggle of older women, ranging in age between 40 and 60, no doubt off to see the wonders of the city of 100 spires. From the looks of it, there are about 15 women, all recenly loosed from their husbands. I don’t think Prague knows what’s coming.

Getting ready for this trip has been a busy-ass blur. But now that we’re about to get on the plane, all that can be done has been done, I actually have the time to be excited. Our trip will give us eight days in Prague, bisected by a whirlwind trip through northern Italy. Two nights in Venice and Florence each and then four days in Rome.

I’m really looking forward to seeing Venice and Florence again. I’ve never been to Rome, but I feel like I know so much of it from art history classes. We’re thinking of renting a Vespa in Rome to get the entire La Dolce Vita experience. I may need to procure a pair of absurdly large sunglasses if we do (not that my Italian-made Miu Miu glasses wouldn’t do in a pinch).

Another thing I’m considering doing is making a return visit to the Prada outlet store just outside of Florence. When I was studying art history in school and we’d taken a weekend trip to Florence, instead of spending the afternoon responsibly looking at divine frescoes, two other girls and I hopped on the Italian rail system and made our way to our own mecca. Sadly, outside of a wallet, there wasn’t much for me there (all the shoes were on sale for $50 and there were only three there in my size... all of them ugly).

So we’ll see what new things we discover this time. It will be great to be back in Prague and see our old home. I imagine it will shock me how much it has changed in three years (as I typed that, M said “I wonder how I’ll react to being back in Prague?” not even knowing what I’d typed. Not bad.)

Whatever it all turns out to be it will be awesome. I’m off on another adventure with my favourite person in the world (other than myself). I’ll try to update when I can, so watch this space.

HRH

For beautification purposes only

For those who are so inclined, there are a heap of new blurbs up on my beauty blog, The Royal Beauty. I promise never to lose my makeup focus like I did again!

Today's sing-a-long song: "Magic's in the makeup" by No Doubt.

HRH

Jonothan Product

Walking through Sephora today I was targeted. The sales lady from Jonothan saw me and I saw her and we both knew that there was nothing to be done about it. She was going to show me some hair products and I was going to be impressed. Mightily impressed.

Really any conversation that begins with "Would you like me to add some body to your hair?" is going to be a good one. True I do have good hair. I'm good to it and I have some genetics working in my favour. I have healthy looking hair. Give me a blow out, it's hair commercial time. All that in my favour I do have one thing working against me. Getting body in my hair is like getting blood from a stone. My hair is layered to encourage lightness, I use very light conditioners... still, I had to recurl my hair three times on my wedding day and that was after three hours of salon prep and curling, and leaving my curls pinned in my hair for another four hours. Body just isn't easy.

And I don't want to suggest that Dirt Texturizing Paste by Jonothan Antin is a miracle cure. It isn't, but may be a small sign from a higher power that the tools out there exist to give me more body than I've got.

It's always nice when the product-specific people are in the stores to show you how to use things. I spent a good ten minutes with this woman and learned a good days worth. I learned about Redo, the refreshing product that may enable me to further extend the period between hair washing. It may sound ick, but the less you wash your hair the better. Shampoo can be very drying on your ends. If you have long hair like I do, always try to concentrate the shampoo on your scalp. If you also have oily skin/scalp like I do, keep conditioners to the ends.

Because I have an oily scalp, but I have long ends that I don't want to dry out, a product like Redo is awesome. Spray it all over your scalp when it has become unruly and oily and get another day out of your hair.

The last product that I learned about to day is the Leave-In Gloss Cream. After I'd been given a generous sample of the Dirt and picked up a bottle of Redo to take with me on vacation, the Jonothan product woman sought me out in the store to give me yet another sample. She told me to just put it on my ends after I've washed and dried my hair. Futhering the thinking that not all sections of your hair are the same and different parts need different care.

So far I am quite impressed with this line of products and am quite keen to try more.

HRH

Preamble

Does it strike anyone else as strange that you have to do so much work in order to be able to take time off of work? And not just the work you work so hard for the money for, but everyday house and life work.

Ahh well. At least I had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend with my parents. On Saturday, I flew a plane (with my father's aid and supervision) and drove a boat! If only every day could be filled with such amusements.

One day, when I finally find that mountain money that will enable me to do what I really want to do in life, my pilot's license is way up there on the list. Way up there.

Until then, I will consider myself very fortunate to have a father that will take me up whenever I'm home to visit. It's funny how you never truly appreciate how cool your parents are until you're largely independent of them... and I thought mine were pretty cool back in the day.

Today's sing-a-long song: "Learn to Fly" by The Foo Fighters

HRH

Bobbi Brown: Gold Shimmer Brick Compact

Gold is all the rage these days. Blame Mike Meyers I suppose. The thing is, the warmth that gold gives you is unparalelled. This brick compact is a great way to give your face that something extra as the golden warmth of the sun retreats from our lives once again.

Using all the colours in the brick, you dust the powder on your face, concentrating on the places where the sun would hit you the most. This is something to always keep in mind when using bronzers or illuminators. Put it where it the light is going to go, otherwise it will look totally unnatural.

If you want to use it on your eyes, then you can apply the five colours individually. I'm not sure when you'll have occasion to go for a gold eye, but if you need to look like a 24 carat woman, this is the tool that you need.

Soon you'll be overheard saying "I love gooooold"

HRH

Bobbi Brown: Shadow Basics Neutral

Doing my makeup in the morning is fun, but it can be hard to get it all working right when I'm overtired. Which is why something like the Bobbi Brown eye palettes are heaven sent. I got the neutral palette for my birthday and having great looking, Bobbi Brown polished eyes has never been so easy.

It comes with four colours (bone, cement, slate and smoke) and a mini brush, and the case is wonderfully compact. This is something I really appreciate as I try to always take off my makeup at the gym, yet don't want to go home looking like ass.

Something like this should be a standard in every woman's beauty arsenal. Well made classics that are basically idiot proof. Why do it the hard way when it's been made so easy for you.

HRH

Stila: Eye shadow pan

Well I went and did it. I finally gave in and got the Stila eye shadow pan. It was another one of those Stila events and instead of telling the makeup artist to do whatever I asked for a really, really pretty look that worked mostly with browns. I'm always trying the crazy things, why not try something classic.

What resulted was a great lesson in the classic brown eye. I learned to correct for my slowly slouching eye lids (Yay aging!) and learned an entirely new and exciting way to line the inside rims of my eyes to create a stunning evening look.

I came out of it getting chinois (a great base), starlight (for some lightness), puppy (my wonder corrector) summer (a wonderful warm brown), java (a dark chocolate brown for lining) and cassis (just becuase I can't get enough of those purple eye shadows).

And not only did I get all that, but it was also super gift with purchase time that got me three more neutral eye shadows, a small black smudge pot and mini brushes and well as a travel size mascara.

My eyes can't help but be pretty now.

HRH

A big game

My small town roots enable me to be perpetually entertained by big city sporting events, so when M asked me to join him at an Argos game this week, I was ready to be amused. I watched a lot of football in highschool and watched a lot of on television with my father so I have a very good understanding of the game. Such a great understanding that I couldn't remember if Canadian football had four or five downs (turns out it's four). To be fair I think I've watched two full football games since I moved out of my parents house, but really, I should have known that one.

Football is a big game. Big teams, big players, big crowds, big opportunities to write something inappropriate that I won't take. I can only imagine what the spectacle of an American NFL game must be like. Even still I was impressed at the Canadian offering.

One thing that impressed me was how much the players interacted with the crowd. With most of the major sports I've seen played, the players, while fueled by the energy of the crowd, rarely acknowledged its existsence (note: this may be a symptom of watching most of these sports in Toronto where the crowd will turn on its team as quickly as I'll ****). At the Argos game the players were not only playing to the crowd but actually prompting the crowd directly to cheer them on.

Seeing another sporting event also provided me with an opportunity to find intentional connections between the action on the field and the music played during the action. An example from last night, a player from Calgary drops a pass and the song played during the break is Snoop Dogg's "Drop it like it's hot." I do this at every game and like the big sporting events it never ceases to amuse me.

Today I have a cold, so I'm experiencing a Chelsea-in-the-sky-with-diamonds kind of day from my beloved cold medication, so that's all I can type for today because my head is all spinny.

HRH