First race of the season

Yesterday we had our first dragon boat competition of the season. After all the training all winter long, we'd finally arrived at the moment where we'd see the results of our effort.

We competed in the sport mixed category, against 8 other teams (other categories were men, women and community mixed). One sport team pulled out sometime between Friday night and Saturday because we were only 8 sport teams in the end. This meant there would be two sport divisions, A and B. Of course we wanted to place in division A and we did!

It was a rough start to the day. We had to be at the site by 8:30am. It was cold, raining and windy. I was frozen and wet before our first race. Our first race was 1000m. We were in the second heat (not against any of our real competition) and we won! Off to a good start. Funnily enough, by the time we were getting out of the boat after that first race, it stopped raining and the sun came out. A few hours later we had our 500m race. Again in the second heat (this time against THE best in Montreal.) We lost by 0.08 seconds. So we placed second but were thrilled that we'd done so well. Our competition was rather surprised to see us so hard on their tails. Apparently they had quite the debriefing after that race. Our combined times from the first two races gave us our position for the third race, a 250m. We had placed in division A. Still don't know how we finished in this final race, but either third or fourth. It was a bad race. We had a bad lane (yes, there are bad lanes), we had to contend with the wind (lanes 1 and 2 are protected from the wind by the grand stands) and we also don't train for sprints. Anyway - as bad as felt, we knew that we'd either place third or fourth in the final results so there was still a chance for a medal at the end of the day.

About half an hour later, after a change of clothes and lots of chocolate milk, we found out. We listened to the placings and winners of all the other categories before ours. Even though we didn't have any more races ahead of us, I was still nervous. Finally they got to calling the fourth place winners - it wasn't us! Some of us were surprised (me). They called the third place winners - it wasn't us! Now all of us were surprised because that meant ... we'd placed second! And a moment later it was confirmed - we had indeed come in second place. I was so surprised! Really shocked! Never, ever expected us to do so well against those teams. The team that came in third was not happy with us - at all.

In the end, we were 4 seconds off the first team, and still 2 seconds ahead of the third team. Quite a big gap.

To celebrate our (unexpected) victory, we went out for great Chinese food in China Town. A long day (left at 7:30am, got home at 7pm), but an eventful, surprising and GREAT one!

26 Days Left

Today I remembered to buy more packing tape. What a relief. Tomorrow night I can tape a bunch of stuff together. Like bookshelves, skis, boxes and stuff.

Last month

Down to the last month until I move. 67 boxes packed. Think there are 12 empty ones left from my stash. Hoping that'll be enough. Panic not so bad these last few days.

Five weeks

I've looked quickly on the calendar and it seems I'm moving in five weeks. This freaks me out. Especially when I start to think that next Saturday is really my last "free" Saturday (even though half of that day will be spent at practice).

There will be a few evenings I can use to pack but I know I won't get too much accomplished then. I'm usually too tired to do much more than sit and read.

So what I suppose I'm trying to say is ... time to get off my ass and get cracking!

The things you find

Going through my textbooks last night, I found Word Perfect 5.0. The first computer course I ever took. Think that was from about 1990. Have put it in the recycling pile and agree that I probably should've thrown that classic away before I moved into this place, before I moved to the old apartment in NDG, before I moved to the Bahamas, before I moved to Mexico before I moved to England/Ireland.

Me and my OCD

Being a touch on the OCD side of organized, I've started a spreadsheet for my move. You know, numbering the boxes, indicating the room they belong in and briefly listing the contents. This way I'll be able to track which boxes get on/off the truck. But then last night I had a stroke of genius! Genius, I tell you!

I decided to get some coloured stickers. What I'll do is put a coloured sticker on the box and then a post-it with the same coloured sticker on that, stuck on each door/area where the boxes belong. So everything will be colour coded, identified and numbered. You're thrilled, aren't you? I can tell!

Stuff

Where exactly did all this stuff come from? Did I have it when I moved in? Seriously going to have to get rid of a whole lot of stuff.

Appliances for sale

Still haven't heard if the people buying my place want the appliance so am going to start advertising their sale.

Amana fridge ($300), white, bottom mount freezer, with ice maker
Frigidaire range ($200), white, ceramic cook top
Frigidaire washer ($200) and dryer ($100), white, front load, stackable

Can be sold together or separately.

Pictures provided on request.

In the meantime, I've started buying new appliances for my new condo. Bought a fridge today and am going to sort out a bed, range, dishwasher, washer and dryer tomorrow. All this money flying about worries me not a little.