Never Underestimate Seniors

Recently, a friend of ours turned 60 and was distressed to receive a letter from her bank referring to her as a "senior." People! It's time to reclaim this word from its unfairly negative connotations. Many seniors lead fun, rich, rewarding, vibrant lives! Turn those stereotypes on their heads!

And to all you young whippersnappers out there who can't relate to this post . . . . well, just you wait, kiddos.

Easter Bunny Exposé

So the Easter Bunny arrives in town next weekend. Time for a little hard-hitting investigative journalism here on She Who Seeks. This blog is not just all superficial fluff and LOLcats, you know.

Is the Easter Bunny really the good guy and hero we always believed him to be?

Or is he some kind of irresponsible philanderer and deadbeat dad?

Are the whispers true that the Easter Bunny has a dark side? A crazed North Korean dictator-type dark side? *shudder*

Or can it possibly be true that the Easter Bunny is the drug lord kingpin of the world's biggest illegal grow-op network? Is his real goal to get our innocent kids hooked on the evil mary-jee-wanna?

Coincidence? I think not.

This concludes today's special report. Thank you for reading.

Hey, what are you bitching at me for? Good investigative journalism simply asks the tough questions. It doesn't necessarily produce the answers!

All Hail the Bee Goddess!

Isn't this a wonderful portrait of She who must surely be the Bee Goddess? Look at her gorgeous headdress, bee earrings and honeycomb dress! Now She graces the sidebar of my blog with Her sweetness.

I don't know the identity of the inventive artist who created this work but I found it posted over at Calvin's Canadian Cave of Cool last week.

Blessed bee!

LATE-BREAKING UPDATE: Many thanks to Diane at Always Crave Cute for discovering that the artist is Lea Bradovich, an American artist from Santa Fe, NM. Lea states on her website that:

My magical realist portraits depict a playful engagement with nature in her guise as the eternal feminine. Allegorical figures wear honeycomb garb, butterfly crowns, and caterpillar necklaces. Last summer's leaves are raiment for their decorative pleasure, metaphoric compost for the eye. Mythopoetic headgear is often entomological, hats display life cycles, food sources and sometimes predators as well.

Please check out Lea's website (click here) to see more of her fabulous works of art!

X-Men: Days of Future Past

I can hardly wait to see this movie when it opens next month! Four of my favourite actors will portray Professor X (James McAvoy / Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender / Ian McKellen) as their young and old selves.

And not to mention the return of Hugh Jackman as my fave, Wolverine! Jackman can pull off both the young and old roles since Wolverine ages so slowly there's hardly any difference between the two except for bone claws vs adamantium claws. Oh and that little touch of grey at the temples, yeah right.

Apparently Prof X and Magneto will finally become allies in this movie. Will it play out something like this, I wonder?

Oh, those wacky mutant BFFs!

Our Beautiful Tattoos

Long-time readers may remember my sad, cautionary tale about the disastrous temporary tattoo which I got in Mexico a few years ago. Chemicals in the black henna caused the tat to morph into a raised, angry red welt that took several long months to subside.

So did I learn my lesson from that whole ugly episode? No, I did not. I got another temporary tattoo in French Polynesia! Plus I talked My Rare One into getting one too! But not to worry -- this time there was no black henna involved, only safe non-toxic body paint.

Here's My Rare One showing off her alter ego as Honu Wahine -- Turtle Woman:

And here I am with my very erect hibiscus flower, LOL:

We sported these for about an hour before having a shower which caused their immediate demise.

[First photo by Debra She Who Seeks, 2014; Second photo by My Rare One, 2014]

Polynesian Tattoos

Tattooing was an integral part of Tahitian and Polynesian culture until Christian missionaries halted the practice in the 1800s. Thankfully, tattooing was re-introduced into French Polynesia about 30 years ago and is now a central part of the Polynesian cultural renaissance.

Here are some fabulous tattoos we saw on our trip. Their bearers agreed to let My Rare One photograph them.

The above tattoos belong to a guide on Huahine who originally came from California. His knowledge of Polynesian culture is truly encyclopedic. "Toa Nui" means "great warrior."

This handsome young Polynesian host on the Paul Gauguin ship has a fabulous tribal tattoo. And a beautiful smile.

These eye-catching tats belong to a catamaran captain who originally came from France.

Next post -- Did we or didn't we get our own tattoos?

[All photos by My Rare One, 2014]

Fakarava, Taha'a and Mo'orea

Fakarava is another atoll where we spent a lovely day at the beach. Fakarava is classified as an UNESCO biosphere reserve. My Rare One went snorkeling and saw a shark. Luckily, it was not in the mood for trouble.

The island of Taha'a is called "the vanilla island" and produces 80% of French Polynesia's vanilla crop. So of course we visited a vanilla farm to learn how it is grown. The woman in the red tank top is the very entrepreneurial farmer who gave us a funny and informative tour. Those are vanilla beans on the drying rack. Growing vanilla is incredibly labour intensive. The vanilla flowers must all be fertilized by hand with a Q-tip in the early morning hours. While drying, the vanilla beans require repeated individual massaging by hand to release the full flavour within.

The final island we visited was Mo'orea, possibly the most spectacularly beautiful of all. It is also more urban than the others and in that regard is similar to Tahiti which is only a few miles away. Look at that gorgeous water and reef!

Another harbour and valley on the island of Mo'orea:

You can see Mo'orea's typical volcanic mountains in this photo taken from a catamaran as we sailed out to a reef to snorkel.

French Polynesia is an ideal place for a quiet vacation of sun, sand, snorkeling, swimming and relaxing. I suspect Hawai'i was very much like this in the 1950s before it became more touristy and commercialized.

[Photos by Debra She Who Seeks, 2014]