Chris and I just booked an all-inclusive vacation to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt!  We’re staying in a 5-star hotel with its own private beach.

How did we afford this?  We used www.lastminute.com coupled with www.tripadvisor.com and www.vibeagent.com to read reviews and check prices.  We used www.kayak.com to see if we could get a cheaper flight than the deal offered.

The last-minute deal was £499 each, which was quite a steal but we decided to sleep on it and make sure we really wanted to go.  The next morning we woke to find that an extra £100 each had been knocked off the price.  We booked right away!

Soon after, we got a phone call from the travel agent saying that there were no more available seats in Standard Economy so we had to upgrade if we wanted the holiday (an extra £69 each — ouch, but still less than the original trip price).

We went ahead with this and we leave on Sunday!  That, my friends is how you score a sweet sweet deal.  Now look at these photos and weep:

Our deal includes:

• meals, drinks, snacks, the mini-bar fridge in our room
• sauna
• jacuzzi
• anti-stress massage
• tennis court
• fitness centre
• beach volley
• 4 pools
• 4 restaurants
• dive centre

I have felt somewhat guilty over the last few months in basically abandoning her before her wedding since I won’t be around for bridal showers and other bridesmaid duties. This was stressing her out also as she’s having a big traditional wedding and really wanted me to be a part of everything with her.

We had a big talk about my involvement with the wedding and she decided that since being a bridesmaid is about more than just wearing a pretty dress, I should be involved with the wedding in a different way.

I must admit it was a little bittersweet at first, but then I came to a realization. I may not be a part of this one day for her, but I’ve been there for her many days before it and I’m going to be there for all the rest. Our friendship roots deeper than the pretty dresses and fancy up-dos. I hope she knows that even though I won’t be standing beside her on her wedding day, I’ll stand beside her no matter what.

See a snippet of an HTML email newsletter below!

Email clients handle HTML differently and I spend entirely too much time looking for workarounds and sending test emails. Among the particularly troublesome are cellpadding, background images, margins, and any tags that have default settings (h1, p, etc).

I fully support the email standards project in their quest to improve support for web standards in email. Pleeeeeease support this!

Age: 5 years old
Humiliation Score: 2/5
Location: shopping mall
My mom never used to take me to the mall because I would do all the normal child things: hide and seek in the clothes racks, stand on the end of the shopping cart, whine about wanting treats or to go on the mini-carousel rides. This particular time, my mom and I were on the down escalator, and I had decided to sit whilst I waited for it to descend. Somewhere near the bottom, my mom noticed and grabbed my hand, but by that point my dress got caught in the escalator and a whole group of teenagers snickered at me.

Age: 17 years old
Humiliation Score: 4.5/5
Location: The small town grocery store, where I worked as a cashier
This woman that my parents knew and who knew me came through my check out line. She was a plump brunette woman and had two daughters with her who were helping carry the groceries. She asked how my parents were and what I was doing that summer. I responded politely and asked if she had summer plans. She mentioned that she had the summer off, so I inquired, “Oh, are you a teacher?” to which she replied “No, I’m 8 months pregnant - I’ll be on maternity leave.” I hadn’t even noticed she was pregnant! The next time she came in to my work, I didn’t want to ask about the baby in case it was still unborn! The woman said to me “So, I had a baby boy,” in a tone that hinted she knew what I was thinking. I felt so bad!

Age: 15-16 years old
Humiliation Score: 4.5/5
Location: Internetland
My best friend Meagan and I were IMing with our friend Simon, whom we both happened to have a crush on at the time. We ended up having a keyboard war and she accidently hit CTRL + V and I hit CTRL + Enter right after, which pasted my most recent journal entry and sent it to him. The entry went into humiliating detail about my crush on him and made working with him the next day really awkward! [Pat, I know you’re going to comment on this one!]

Age: 20 years old
Humiliation Score: 2/5
Location: Residence at Humber College in Toronto
One day after having a shower, I returned to my dorm room to find my crappy 13″ TV missing! I ended up reporting the missing TV to Residence Security over the phone as I stood in my room in my towel and ended up going down to the front desk to report the missing TV in person and ask for a new room key. My friends burst out laughing behind me - they had hidden my TV as a joke!

Age: 8 years old
Humiliation Score: 2/5
Location: Photography Studio
We were getting family portraits taken to surprise my grandmother with on Christmas Day. I have 11 cousins - some older, some younger than I and they were all there. When it came time for the photo of my brothers and I, the photographer said “Say ‘I hate cheese!’” to prompt us for the photo. I yelled “I hate YOUUUUU!” which made everyone feel awkward for a moment or two.

Age: 10
Humiliation Score: 3.5/5
Location: School bus
For some strange reason, I decided to wear a shirt and tie on my first day of school in fifth grade.  But not a cute girly shirt and tie- my dad’s shirt and tie!  The clothes swam on me and given the bizarre fashion choice I had a few kids approach me and say mean things

Age: 9 years old
Humiliation Score: 3/5
Location: Classroom at school
We were doing some sort of comparison graph in school that would plot everyone’s weight and height. We knew about this a day in advance and I was really upset about it as I had just gone through a growth spurt and was taller than all the boys. I was weight-conscious even at that age! My mom wrote my teacher a note excusing me from the exercise, and when I handed my teacher the note, he read it out loud: “Mr. Carrol - Amy is uptight about getting weighed.” The whole class heard him read it and I ended up having to get weighed in front of everyone anyways.

I know that this is probably because I’m female, but I really don’t see this girl’s appeal.  Yes, I realize she’s incredibly pretty, but honestly there isn’t anything remotely interesting or profound or even that creative on her youtube channel, and a video of her shopping somehow has 18,000+ views.  The camera work is rather shaky most of the time, her editing is cliche and I couldnt even make it all the way through her Fall Out Boy interview.

Now, I’m not saying that I could do any better than this.  I’m not a vlogger and don’t aspire to be, but I do spend a fair bit of time on youtube and I also have experience with video editing and production.  As far as material and creativity go, I’d much rather watch katiesopinion over ijustine anyday.  Her personality is less fake, more interesting and she’s easier to relate to.  Her voice is more animated and her acting is much better.  She finds better ways to get her viewers involved than ijustine.  Also, she doesn’t post boring 2 minute videos of herself in a bikini in a pool talking about nothing with strangers.

As I was approaching probably the busiest intersection in London, one of the big tinfoil barbs jumped out of the bucket onto the floor of my backseat!! I had to grab him as he was flip flopping around on the ground and throw him back in the bucket!

How did he freaking jump so high?! It must have been at least a foot!

My brother Nick, php geek and budding musical genius that he is, agreed to create a simple CMS to go along with my “new” portfolio design, circa December 2007. It has been months since with no sign of my CMS / Christmas present and I have long since tired of that design! I figured hey, I’m not stupid. I can figure this out on my own! In the end, I’ve implemented a pimped out Wordpress and a grunge design to go with.

This site will now focus on the blog aspect rather than my work, since the new chapter that I mentioned happens to be a new job and relocation to Bath, UK! That’s right, I’m no longer freelance. It was fun while it lasted, but I can learn so much more when I’m surrounded by a team of people who know oodles more than I. Plus, I’m nearer to Chris…