Happy Halloween

I've been really busy the past week since photographing a wedding last Saturday, but here are some quick updates.

The weather for the wedding was fantastic! It was one of those sunny, crisp and cold fall days that just make the colors pop, with just enough clouds that we weren't squinting into the sun the whole time. The bride was a bit of a stress case and refused to put on a sweater or shawl for fear of wrinkling the dress, so there were a lot of pictures where she looked like she was freezing, but there were also plenty of good pictures too.

The next day, the weather was absolutely miserable with gale force wind and dumping rain. All week the weather has alternated between quite nice and downright awful with temperatures in the 40s F/4 to 8 C. It culminated yesterday when the drizzle went over to pelting cold wind-driven rain, to sleet, and eventually to snow! It took me totally by surprise. It was a wet snow with huge flakes (about an inch/2 cm in diameter) that melted quickly. After a couple hours, the snow started to stick to the ground, and it remained for several hours.


Last week my daughter totally shocked me by asking how babies are made. She's only 6! I thought I'd have a couple more years to think up an age-appropriate answer. I managed to dodge it this time, but I'm sure she'll ask again soon. Any advice?

For my friends and family on Flickr, I've added some pictures of my daughter dressed for a Halloween party. I love Halloween. In the states, it used to be my favorite holiday, and I went trick-or-treating even as an adult. I think the only year that I missed was when I was 12 and "too old" for that type of thing. Halloween is catching on slowly in Sweden now, and my daughter was invited to a couple of parties. So far it's mostly just a kid thing here, but I hope to eventually help spread the tradition.

This year my daughter and I carved pumpkins together with some friends. This was the first year that I let her carve herself, and she did just fine. This is a picture of our creations.

Happy Halloween!

Fall has fallen

Fall has fallen here in Skåne, and for the most part, the fall color just flew right by. As usual, it's too wet and windy here to get the really spectacular fall colors like in New England, but I did have the good fortune of being able to get out and take some pictures on the days that were nice.

Some of the pictures were taken while I was scouting locations for wedding portraits, others were scenes that caught my eye as I was driving by. (I'll be doing a wedding on Saturday, so let's all keep our fingers crossed forSome of these pictures are from locations that I was scouting as potential sites for wedding good weather.)

More Pictures

For those of you who are my "friends" or "family" on Flickr, I have posted more pictures from Montreal that you might want to see. If you'd like to be added as my contact on Flickr, or if you'd like me to send you a guest pass so that you can see the pictures without joining, please leave me a comment or send me an e-mail.

Nobel Prize in Medicine

Three people shared this year's Nobel Prize in medicine. One of them was Harald zur Hausen for the discovery of human papilloma virus (HPV) which causes cervical cancer. I remember studying about this in my virology class, and I round it absolutely fascinating that a virus could cause cancer. This has even lead to a vaccine (rather controversial unfortunately thanks to the abstinence only crowd), but I'm hoping it will soon be commonplace. Congratulations to him and all the many, many people who undoubtedly helped him with this.

Congratulations also to Luc Montagnier and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi (and their teams) who also shared the Nobel Prize for their discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Now not to in any way diminish their accomplishment, but there's a third person who is also deserving of this recognition: Robert Gallo. Back in 1985 Gallo in the US and Montagnier and Barre-Sinoussi in France figured out HIV separately but at the same time. In fact, Gallo probably got more publicity for this at the time, and their professional rivalry turned ugly. However, in 1987 they agreed to bury the hatchet and share the credit. I know it's a long and complicated story, and I'm in no position to judge. However, if the rivals in question can agree to share, I think it's particularly bad form for the Nobel Prize committee to acknowledge two but not the third, thus promoting rivalry instead of cooperation. It makes me lose respect for the Nobel committee and the prize as a whole, and that's a shame. For me, the Nobel Prize in Medicine would be the pinnacle of achievement--better than an Olympic gold medal, or an Oscar, or a Pulitzer prize.


If you'd like to know more about the discovery of HIV, I highly recommend the movie And The Band Played On which, while biased, is both informative and entertaining. As an extra added bonus, it show biomedical researchers doing more than pipetting.

While I'm on the subject, I'd like to give an extra "you go girl!" to Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, since only 4.2% of the people who have won a Nobel Prize in Medicine are women. If you were to look around research labs today, women are well represented, yet it's still the men who get the credit. I hope that that is changing.

New Dollar Bill

The horror

I was at the grocery store yesterday, and much to my horror, there was Christmas stuff for sale already. I really like that in the US there are two major holidays before Christmas to keep things from getting out of hand. October is usually dedicated to Halloween which is then celebrated on the 31st. In Sweden it seems to be the first Saturday in November, though I'm not quite clear on that (actually I think that's the feeling that a lot of people share). Anyway, Halloween keeps most of the marketing away from Christmas at least through October.

Then the fourth Thursday in November is Thanksgiving, and while all too many stores start with their holiday decorating and promotions earlier, it's not until after Thanksgiving that the Christmas season begins for real. A lot of stores open at 6 AM for the Friday after Thanksgiving, also known as the busiest shopping day of the year. There are tons of sales, but I've never found it worth braving the crowds.

I'm not even close to ready for the Christmas season yet. I'm not even ready for Halloween. In fact, I'm still hoping I'll wake up one morning and discover that it's still summer.

Montreal Day 10

For our last day in Montreal, we slept in, went out for a leisurely breakfast, then returned to the hotel to pack. We had to check out by 1 PM, but we didn’t need to leave for the airport until 5, so we stashed out bags and went for a walk. The guys were not interested in going to Biodome to see the Madagascar exhibit and lemurs, and since it wasn’t raining, I went with them.

A lot of walking, a lot of window shopping, some photos, and eventually a mid-afternoon meal. The guys were in the mood for pizza, and we found a rather classy looking pizza place with a very interesting menu. I had a Mexican chicken wrap, and it was great.

With nothing much better to do, we decided to head off to the airport a little early and to try to get better seats. At the airport, everyone was forced to use the automated check in machines. Several of the machines were not working properly, and quite a few people were getting very frustrated. There was nobody around to help until someone started yelling (even then, the guy didn’t actually help. It took me three tries, but I did get it to work eventually. I had reserved a window seat, but I was not surprised to find that they’d put me in the center seat of the center section. If there’s turbulence, I need to be able to look out the window or I’ll get sick. Luckily, I was able to change to the seat next to my husband, only one from the window.

The flight was uneventful. It was a bit late taking off because they had to fish off the bags of a no-show, but we were able to make up much of the time by the time we got to Frankfurt. We had more than enough time to hang out in Frankfurt, but we were a bit frustrated by the lack of seating. There was no seating that was not dedicated to one of the restaurants. We eventually found a McDonalds and McCafe with some open tables, so we ordered a little and sat there.

We were good and tired by the time we got home, but it was a good kind of tired after a fantastic trip.

Montreal Day 9

The guys wanted to go to Walmart, so I went back to the mall area. Since the weather was still OK (relatively warm and not raining), on the way, I stopped in China Town and at the Performing Arts Center where they were promoting the “Days of Culture” which was going on all over the Quebec province. There were local happenings in every neighborhood it seemed, but as far as I could tell, there were mostly kids stuff or lectures (in French) near where we were. There was a photography exhibit about Cancer, and I looked at a few very well done and touching black and white photos, I found it too depressing. Besides, there was still shopping to be done. I’m normally not much of a shopper, but now I’d gotten a taste of it, and I didn’t want to give up while there was still room in my suitcase.

As soon as I got oriented at my mall of destination, I got a message from the guys who were ready to meet for lunch. The pickings were slim at this mall, so it was back on the subway to meet them at the mall with the giant food court. I chose a taco salad. The guys had a little shopping to do, so we split up agreeing to meet in an hour. There were a few places in this mall that I wanted to investigate more thoroughly, and one hour was hardly enough, so I had to prioritize.

Replacing my thoroughly warn out Easy Spirit walking shoes was a high priority that I hadn’t had much luck with all week. I had gotten a great deal on these shoes as a discontinued model four years ago, and I hadn’t found anything as comfortable for a reasonable price since. But now my feet hurt and my shoes had holes in them, so it was time to stop bargain hunting. I found a pair of Rockports that were very comfortable but $130. Ouch. Was I willing to spend that much on a pair of shoes? I asked the guy to hold them for me, and I kept looking.

The guys were intrigued by the underground city and wanted to follow the tunnels to other shopping centers. So we walked, and walked, about 4 km I estimate. There were a couple of shopping centers and a few restaurants, but not much of interest. The most amazing thing was that we could walk that far, from building to building, without ever stepping outdoors. These tunnels also connect up to train and subway stations, thus connecting much of the city. That must be really handy when the weather’s bad.

We eventually ended up at the mall where I’d started earlier. We had snack there. I had a cylindrical piece of chocolate mouse pastry, but it wasn’t nearly as good as the chocolate mouse cake I’d had previously or the pastries from my favorite shop. I really wanted to do more shopping, so I stayed at the mall while the guys continued their walking tour of tunnels and shops (though no longer avoiding the outdoors). Before I knew it, I noticed shops closing up. Much to my surprise, not only this smallish mall but all malls closed at 5 PM on Saturday. I ran like crazy to the subway back to the other mall where my expensive shoes were waiting. I knocked on the closed door to the shop, and a salesclerk just shook his head at me. I kept knocking, and the guy who had helped me let me in and sold me the shoes.

Back to the hotel then out to dinner with the guys. We went back to the pub in the Latin Quarter where I had cheese fondue. Yum! One of the guys also had fondue and tried to order a refill of cheese. The waitress was baffled because nobody had ever done that before. After discussion with the cook, he was informed that they couldn’t do that. If he wanted more, he’d have to order the whole meal again. As far as I was concerned, that left the perfect excuse for dessert.

As part of the culture days, I’d seen a flyer for some sort of music and light show at the waterfront with the theme of Fire. Our subway passes were good for the whole day, so that halved the walk to Old Montreal and made the idea more appealing to our rather tired feet. This time I had my camera with me, so I was pleased to get some pictures of the beautifully lit buildings. The “music” was of the experimental sort and often rather painful to listen to. I had a strange urge to yip and howl like a coyote. The music was accompanied by some paddleboats in formation, flares, and a ring of fire on the river. In tents nearby were a glassblower and a blacksmith.

Montreal Day 8

Cloudy and humid; CNN reported a hurricane warning for Maine, and the weather report forecasted rain for the weekend. While the mall was beckoning me to return (at this point I think I’ve seen about half of the shops in that area), there was an outdoor photo exhibit and some sights that I didn’t want to miss.

After only a banana and a cup of tea in the hotel room, I took the subway out to the Olympic park that was built for the 1976 Olympic Games. The Stadium was famous for having the world’s highest non-vertical tower. It certainly was distinctive looking, but it really didn’t do much for me. One could pay to ride up to the top of the tower, but since I’d already seen the view from the top of Mount Royal on a much prettier day, I abstained. Instead I walked over to the botanical gardens where they had a photo exhibit called “Alive” put on by Yann Arthus-Bertrand (the same person who did the exhibit “The Earth from Above” that I had the good fortune of seeing in Copenhagen several years ago). Alive was a collection of pictures by the world’s leading nature photographers (including Frans Lanting, Thomas Mangelson, and Mitsuaki Iwago) and a bunch of factoids about how we’ve screwed up the planet. I found the text a bit irritating, but there was one quote that I really liked: “The Condors must be saved, not so much because we need them, but because we need the human resources that can save them. Those are the same resources we will need when we shall save ourselves…” by Ian McMillan in 1870. As expected, the photographs were magnificent and inspiring, but I got the impression that I’d seen many of the pictures before. I think I liked Earth from Above better.

I decided not to pay the $16 to go into the rest of the botanical gardens since the café was closed and I was getting hungry. I considered going to see an exhibit on Madagascar (featuring lemurs) at a place called Biodome (part of the Olympic area), and while I’m quite fond of lemurs, I decided to save this indoor exhibit for the weekend in case the weather was bad. Instead I hopped the subway back to the Latin Quarter for a pastry for lunch. This time I chose a baseball sized sphere which turned out to be a crispy dark chocolate coating over a ball of rum flavored dough. It was so rich I could only eat half of it.

From there I took the subway out to see the Biosphere. This is a giant geodesic dome built for the World’s fair 1967 to demonstrate Buckminster Fuller’s dream of having entire cities contained inside such domes. While undergoing some maintenance welding in 1976, the acrylic panels on the outside of the dome caught fire, and the entire shell burned off in just 15 minutes. Since it burned so quickly, the metal framework was not damaged, and it is that which remains today. Inside the dome is a museum dedicated to the environment. Outside the museum I was pleased to discover a photo exhibit called “Walking on Thin Ice” about the arctic. While I didn’t recognize the names of the photographers, I found it more interesting than the exhibit I’d seen earlier in the day.

My husband had asked me to try to find him new shoelaces, so I took the subway an extra stop beyond the hotel to a “normal” neighborhood. Here I was pleased to find a drugstore almost immediately where I could complete my mission. I also found a lively street with interesting shops and houses as I walked back to the hotel.

For dinner I was with an even larger group of guys from two leading companies in the cell phone industry. While much of the conversation was over my head, I am learning a lot about what my husband does. We ate dinner at a tapas restaurant. I’d never had tapas before, at least not by that name. It was a meal of ten different appetizers, some rather ordinary like guacamole and tortilla chips, others more interesting like fried Greek cheese. I was too stuffed for dessert, so I went back to the hotel when most of the guys went out for drinks to celebrate the end of a rather productive conference. We still had another day and a half in town, but I wanted to pack as much as possible so that I knew how much space was left in the suitcases.

Montreal Day 7

By now I was determined to get some shopping in. Sure, I’ve been to Walmart and some malls, but I’ve only gotten a few things for myself, and time is getting short. I began my day with a piece of Napoleon pastry from my favorite café, then I took the subway to one stop beyond the major mall area. I’d noticed that the bus tours of Montreal go to Dorchester Square so I figured it must be worth seeing. Unfortunately it was just another park with a statue much like other parts of downtown that I’d already seen. The only difference was that this one was surrounded with tour busses and full of tourists photographing squirrels. However, it was a beautiful day, and I was just happy to be in the sunshine.

I walked along the main shopping street towards the malls, poking my head in one shop after another, and it wasn’t long until I was drawn into the subterranean maze of malls. I’d hardly bought clothes for myself besides jeans and t-shirts since my daughter was born six years ago, and I felt now was the time to update my wardrobe. The prices were also right, so I had a very good shopping day. Lunch was a gigantic spinach salad at a salad bar in the food court of one of the malls.

When I could carry no more and my feet were in agony, it was time to take the subway back to the hotel and meet the guys for dinner. Tonight we were joined by an important colleague from another company. He had chosen a restaurant based on an internet review which he thought was only a few blocks away. It turned out to be more like a mile away, so our expectations were high by the time we finally go there. It turned out to be French and Italian food with a rather snooty staff that did not care to speak English and a menu only in French. We made out choices on the safe side, since there was a lot of the menu that we couldn’t figure out. The food was good but not exceptional. No pastries for dessert, just a choice of caramel custard or tiramisu. I love a good flan, and the walk back to the hotel was just right after this meal. The night was surprisingly warm and balmy, so we didn’t even need our sweaters.