in Halifax

-3 degrees!!! Yep that's the temperature outside right now at 9h30 am. Rather fresh like I like to say .. but the sun is filtering through the clouds and the light is absolutely gorgeous.
I've been here for a week - my oh my it doesn't feel that way at all!! - visiting my friend Marta who is a post doc here with Heike Lotze at Dalhousie university. The two of us met when she came for a short stint to UBC 4 years ago, whilst she was still working on her PhD. It's been wonderful wonderful to get to spend some time with her - and to have each other for company whilst we work 'til the wee hours of the night. Marta is a little machine -- very inspiring when lots of work needs to be done ;o)
However, we did take Tuesday off as Boris and Heike had invited us to their lovely house by the sea for dinner. It's an absolutely stunning place - in a little community of about 40 people, right by the water, it's quiet, idyllic, peaceful and yet you can see nature unfolding it's beautiful wildness right around you. The day before I arrived the tail of a hurricane had been sweeping through sending 15, yes FIFTEEN, meter waves crashing against the seashore!
After a week of working until 1 am we also took saturday off - which was a real treat!!! ...went into town and the market -- I LOVED it, it's located in a an old brewery and has so so much character, little stands of people selling cheese, right next to stand of people selling scarves, or ham or fruit of postcards! Full of visitors and regulars gently elbowing their way around... irish music playing at this corner, an incredible violinist practising at the other end. We sat on the steps in front of him for a while, his music delight to our ears... whilst eating a cinnamon bun that was rather tasty!!
On the way home we stopped in multiple small shops - getting inspiration for various xmas presents...
...and in the evening we went 'round to one of marta's friends' house, Diego and Allison - incredibly warm hosts and aquaria fans. They have truly stunning tanks -- 2 saltwater ones and 3 freshwater ones! The incredible thing about the saltwater ones is that they do not use any filtration equipment at all!!! and the corals look SUPER healthy - i was seriously amased -- trick of the trade - as few fish as possible ;o)

Diego is from Mexico - and his parents were visiting - so we got an amasing treat: mole. Absolutely fantastically delicious!!!
ahhhhhhhhhh life is good I tell ya!

Today we may brave the crazy cold and go explore a little bit when we take a break later this afternoon - Peggy's cove maybe.
Stay tuned ;o)