End of another season

As tired as I've been, as sore as I've been and as much complaining and whining as I've done over the last few months, suddenly the dragon boat season is over and I'm wondering where the last 4 months have gone.

This weekend was our last dragon boat competition of the 2010 season. We ended on a bittersweet note. While we did improve a lot this season, we didn't quite meet our goals. For me though, I do feel very proud of what we did accomplish. That we improved overall at the competitions (no final B this year) and are becoming more consistent as a team, this I think is worth remembering. We beat some good teams and some great teams, this is also worth remembering. That we still have a long way to go is also very important and I think will help to keep us motivated during the long winter training months ahead.

For now, I am resting all week. No gym, no running, no biking, nothing. And I am already missing the energy and excitement of my team members, and the adrenaline of a race.

Wait until they see us next year ...

Hotel Review

If you're ever in the Toronto area and need a budget hotel, do not stay at Casa Mendoza. Here's my review (see review by StephanieT7 - that's me!).

Oh yeah, and a few things I forgot to mention:
No bedside table, just some leftover wooden box, painted brown, with barely enough room to fit the telephone. One bedside reading lamp (for 2 beds?). No overhead lighting, just a seris of misplaced lamps with bare bulbs hanging from them. No suitcase rack/holder, so there was no place to set my bag down except the filthy floor. There was one chair - it was a rickety old wooden bistro chair that had seen better days. I set my bag on that and wouldn't have trusted it to actually use it as seating for a person. There were 2, what shall I call them ... coffee tables? One was a piece of log, the other was another leftover piece of painted wood that had been nailed together.

Right, think I'm done.

Great White North Challenge

Update: final results from GWN are posted here.

**************

What a weekend! In some ways it was not what I was expecting, in others it more than met my expectations.

The hotel, pardon me, motel (that should've tipped me off): did not meet expectations. Apparently some people don't understand the definition of clean/safe. Old rusty, squeaky (double, not queen) beds, sliding doors to balconies that don't lock, holes in the wall directly to the outside, ants in the bathroom, old toilet pipes coming out of the wall, broken toilet paper holder, no towel holder, mirror sitting on the floor, SHAG "rug" ... the list goes on.

The races: exceeded expectations. Competition was tough. We raced some of the best races ever but it still wasn't good enough to make the cut for Final A. We finished 2nd in Final A consolation, which means 8th place overall. The team was hoping for a top 12 finish, we achieved that. Some were hoping for a top 6 finish, we didn't achieve that. This does not surprise me.

I hate being the voice of doom on the team but I just don't think we're there yet as a team. We still have a fair number of new people on the team, whose technique isn't the same as the rest of us, and our timing is still a big problem for the team.

Continuing, the race site: met expectations. It was big, there were lots of trees for shade, lots of portable toilets with portable sinks, decent selection of food stands, some shopping, good places to watch the races, good marshaling area, great announcer (dude must have no voice left by the end of the weekend).

Team spirit: met expectations. Although we, for the most part, did stay together, it felt like there was a little bit of team spirit missing. I wonder if that had any effect on our races, or if it was as a result of our performance. It's hard to say. Funnily enough, after all the brou-ha-ha in Ottawa about needing to have a team dinner, it was decided that we wouldn't do that in Toronto. What ended up happening of course, was that 22 of us had a most-of-the-team dinner, even if it did mean eating at 3 separate tables. The table I was at (with 12 of us) was the best (of course!) we had a great meal together and then went out for dessert afterward to the fanciest bubble tea place I have EVER seen. Apparently they take their bubble tea a whole lot more seriously in Toronto than here in Montreal.

All in all I had a great weekend. It was sunny, it was not hot but it didn't rain (ok, a few little drops but not enough to complain about). Any plans to retire from competitive dragon boating are naturally gone, again. What is it about competing, or more precisely losing, that makes me want to paddle harder, train harder, compete more??? Whatever it is, I want more and next weekend I'll get it. Last competition of the season, Quebec Cup will take place at the Basin. See you there!

New favourite song

Have been listening to this song over and over and over again for the past week. Can't get enough of it. In fact, the entire album is pretty awesome.

Lack of updates

Vacation got away from me and never did have the time/energy/will to fuss about with wifi connections, etc. so didn't update again while I was away.

I'm home now and have posted a huge whack of pictures over here. There's also a second set for the Zurich Street Parade. Have a look if you like and enjoy!

Oh yeah, and for the record - my goal to eat cheese and chocolate every day while I was away ... Successful!

Slower than molasses

Have just finished downloading today's pictures and would love to get them on to flickr but the wifi is slower than molasses so it'll have to wait. Probably until I get to Yvette's.

A few observations from today. There must be a lot of Indian tourists that come here because up at the Jungfraujoch, there was an Indian restaurant. Bollywood theme. I kid you not. If I'd been feeling a little better, I might've gone there for lunch.

Oh and while I was up there, I took a picture of a woman wearing high-heeled wedge SANDALS. That's getting the Stupid Footwear of the Year award from me.

Went to dinner at an Italian place that advertised pizza (what Italian place wouldn't?). Beside me was a Swiss couple, speaking in Swiss-German and I was able to follow part of their conversation. Across from our two tables was an Asian family. Fair play to them, they ordered in broken English and charades, and were understood. Did they speak/understand any German? I have no idea. When their food came, they started eating in a way that may appear rude to us white folk, but is in all likelihood perfectly normal in their culture. Well, the (Swiss) woman beside me started commenting on how like a pig one of the people across from us was eating. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell that woman that those people would probably think the same of her, if they saw her eating their food in their country, so maybe she should be a little more open and a little less judgmental. My German not being what it was in 1989, I said nothing. Never mind the fact that her conversation was heard by more people than just her dinner partner.

After dinner I went for a walk through town and around the big park. On one side of the park I came across nearly a dozen Swiss men all wearing these blue shirts with little edelweiss flowers and black caps with the typical Swiss flower border. They were walking through the park together, pulling a kid's wagon piled high with Swiss teddy bear cows and a ghetto blaster playing some music. They were drinking beer and just walking. What was all that about?

Yesterday when I got on the train to come here, the first language I heard was French. Not any French though, Quebec French! I'd just crossed an ocean to hear the familiar Swiss-French accent and Swiss-German and what do you know, the first thing I hear is a couple from Quebec. And again another couple at dinner last night. Nothing today though and I've been keeping my ears open!

And finally, it's only two days but still ... you'll be pleased to know my goal to eat cheese and chocolate every day that I'm here is on track so far! I know I am!!!

Top of Europe (or Montreal in January, hard to tell the difference)

As tired as I was last night, a good night’s sleep was not in the cards. I could not keep my eyes open a minute past 9pm so went to bed thinking I’d surely sleep until 5am or so. Not quite. Was wide awake 2:30-4:45am. My plan to get up early and catch one of the first trains up to the Jungfraujoch did not happen. I ended up dozing until the kid in the room next door started slamming the door and screeching at his parents, just before 8am. Isn’t that just what you want to wake up to? No? Well, ME NEITHER!

Had a lovely Continental-style breakfast. Fantastic coffee, orange juice, yummy grainy breads, cheese, jams, yogurt, fresh fruit salad. Everything I needed.

Headed out to the train station in a bit of a drizzle but hoped things would improve weather-wise by the time I got up to the Jungfraujoch. They did and they didn’t (it was rainy and cloudy this morning and has been clearing up since early afternoon). When I met the travel agent yesterday, she explained that instead of taking the same train route there and back, I could do a loop. Go one way through Grindelwald and the other way through Lauterbrunnen. So that’s what I did. On the way up to Grindelwald this morning the clouds were quite low but gave a fantastic dramatic view of trees and mountain tops peeking through. I left Interlaken at 9:05am and got up to the Jungfraujoch at 11:22am. The last couple of kilometers are all done in tunnels and you have no idea where you’re going except up. By this time I had all 5 layers of clothing on and I’m glad I did. I would’ve just about killed for a proper hat (but my hood did great in a pinch) and gloves. The Jungfraujoch was packed with tourists. And according to my very unscientific survey (i.e. people watching) Asian tourists outnumbered Indian, European and North American. First I visited the Sphinx area. One side of that was closed off due to falling ice. There was a tonne of snow up there! It was still very cloudy and extremely windy. But there were a few mountain peaks here and there. As much as I knew you needed a clear day to see the mountains, I decided this was my chance and am glad I did it anyway. Next I wanted to walk through to the glacier but that was closed off due to threat of avalanches. Back through the tunnels and over to the Ice Palace.

Now I have to mention that I have never been at a high enough altitude to experience altitude sickness and I haven’t the slightest idea how high you need to go to experience it, but today I really think I was having some trouble with the altitude. Not long after leaving the Eigerwand station (2865m) I started feeling dizzy, this was still while we were on the train, and my eyes hurt. Thought maybe just a bit of jet lag, being overtired. Right, so start wandering around the Top of Europe (3454m) and the longer I was there, the worse I felt. By the time I got to the Ice Palace section, I felt nauseous as well, could feel my heart beating like crazy, and just felt light-headed. Nothing I’ve ever felt before. Weird. So I slowed down and took my time. After the Ice Palace, went to the Plateau area. But here again, a large part of this was closed. You could go out and walk for maybe 50m on the snow. After that it was closed off. It was sooo windy there! Everybody was surprised by the amount of snow, the wind and how little we could see. Didn’t stay long. Back inside, thankful for some warmth, I bought a few postcards and made my way back to the train. Had originally planned to stay there for lunch, but felt so wrong, I decided I’d be better off heading back sooner rather than later. In all I only spent an hour up there. Yes, it was an expensive hour but I was happy to be heading back down and hoped I would start feeling better soon. I was right. By the time we got back to Kleine Scheidegg, I already felt miles better. My eyes had stopped burning, I wasn’t dizzy and my heart wasn’t racing anymore.

From Kleine Scheidegg, I took the train through Wengen and Lauterbrunnen, and finally back into Interlaken. As promised by the timetable, arrived at 2:54pm. Across the street from the station is a Co-Op(grocery store) so popped in there to pick up a ready-made sandwich, a bit of fruit and then ate that as I walked back into town through Casing and Unterseen, following the walking path along the river. That took nearly an hour and by the time I got back into town it had really cleared up quite a bit. It was warm enough that I was even able to take 3 of my layers off! Was able to take a few of pictures of the city without having to worry about my camera getting wet.

Next big decision … where to eat tonight?

Arrived

Here I am. Posting from Interlaken. Am staying at Hotel Blume for 2 nights. It’s a small hotel located on a pedestrian only street, about 5 minutes walk from the train station. My room is small but it’s clean, has free wifi access (!), and for just under $100 a night, it’s perfect.

The flight last night was good. Had done my check-in online in the afternoon, so only had to drop off my suitcase and clear security. There was nobody in line!? I was through in no time at all and had to kill a full 2 hours before they even started boarding the plane. Flight left on time and actually arrived a good 40 minutes early in Basel. Collected my suitcase and found my way to the train ticket counter without any bother. Bought my half-fare card and a ticket to Interlaken. Finding everything could not have been easier. The bus was right outside the airport doors and took me directly to the train station. Jumped on the train and was on my way less than half an hour after getting my luggage. The Swiss (perfectionist) part of me looooves how well things like this work.

After checking in at the hotel, dropped off my bags, pulled one of my gift calendars out of my bag and walked over to the travel agent (because of course I printed off directions and have them in my travel binder) to thank her for sorting out my hotel arrangements. While I was there I was also able to buy my ticket for tomorrow’s trip up to the Jungfraujoch – The Top of Europe!

Weather isn’t exactly great right now. Grey and rainy and cold. From the weather reports, it looks like it snowed up in the mountains today. But it’s looking good for tomorrow and Saturday!

On my way back to the hotel I wandered around town a little and figured out how to get back and forth from a few key locations. Going to have dinner at the Mexican restaurant located in the hotel. Am feeling the time difference, even though I did “sleep” for nearly 5 hours on the plane. Figure if I can make it until 9pm, I’ll catch a good night’s sleep and be ready bright and early tomorrow for some fresh mountain air!

Am so excited and happy to be here at last, after so many months of planning.

GOLD!

Unbelievable but true! We won 1st place in Premier Division Final A, 500m! That means a beautiful, fantastic, wonderful GOLD medal for each of us and a fancy trophy for the team to keep until next year.

In the 250m we didn't do nearly so well, finishing only 4th or 5th, I believe. We had an open lane and the wind did nothing but push us back the whole race. That hurt.

In the 100m "Best of Fest" face we raced against 5 other mens teams and lost. To be expected, I suppose, but I'd just like to mention that whichever boats were in lanes 3 and 4, they were well ahead of the pack on the start. Cheaters.

And finally, my old womens team, needed me back for a few races too, so I sat in and we were able to finish first place in Womens Division C 500m. So that was pretty awesome too!

It was a beautiful weekend. Hot, sunny, good friends, lots of laughter and GOLD medals!

MIDBRF

Day one results: two 500m races, both with a 2:09-something. Not a 2:06 but still enough to make it into FINAL A on Sunday!!!

Also paddled a 500m with my old women's team. 2:28 - ouch. But with this community team there's no pressure to perform. Phew.

Dead beat, heading to bed with some Advil.

Wanted: New shoulder

This pain in my shoulder is getting to be more and more of a problem. Thought my swim training was lagging a bit so decided this morning would be as good a day as any to get back in the pool. Discovered that I can't rotate my arm at all without huge amounts of pain and a weird clicking noise in the shoulder. This can't be good. Stopped after 10 minutes. Crap workout. Not sure what this means for the triathlon in September. I know it's only 750m but right now I can't even do 100m without wanting to rip my shoulder out.

Have made an appointment to see an osteopath but could only get a slot in late August.

Good news: only 22 days until I leave for vacation!

Peas: 1, Lentils: 0

Tried a new salad last night to eat for my lunches this week. Made with quinoa, green lentils, argula, peppers, feta, plus herbs and a salad dressing. All stuff I like. So I started and while the lentils were cooking, I noticed a weird smell, like, not a lentil smell, but didn't think too much of it. Finished cooking the lentils, the quinoa and threw all the ingredients together. It looked OK but the lentils looked a bit bigger than I thought they should. Still didn't think too much of it.

Until ...

I woke up this morning at 5:15am (5 minutes before my alarm) and thought to myself, "oh yeah, I used dried peas, not green lentils."

Suddenly I wasn't really looking forward to lunch. But I ate it. And it was OK and I didn't barf. I could have cooked the peas a bit longer, but the rest of it was good. The dressing was lovely and the quinoa takes the flavour very well. I will definitely make it again but next I'll make sure I use LENTILS.

Rant over.

Ottawa Recap

Where has the week gone? I've been trying to write this update since Monday night and I'm not getting much further along.

Most importantly - the pictures of the weekend can be found here.

In short: Special thanks to Marc for fixing the car window, and to Nick & Sue for letting me relax at their place on Sunday night and all day Monday.

We didn't finish as well as last year, but then last year the future provincial, national and Olympic canoe/kayak champions weren't competing with us (this week I found out that there was a Beijing Olympic medal winner paddling with the #1 team). We had been aiming for a top 8 finish, and ended up with top 5. Very proud of that.

On both Saturday and Sunday we had our shares of challenges to overcome during the races. Strong currents, paddling against the wind (in the 2k, no less), broken paddles, injured paddlers, trash talking from other teams, boats cutting into our lane, rain delays. The only thing that didn't happen was that nobody fell out/off the boat.

All in all, it was quite a weekend. Go Mix!

No crying in baseball (treatment)

Saw my athletic therapist tonight to work on my right shoulder. Have been having problems with it since about March but after my last visit in April, things were better there for awhile. Since Saturday though, it's been far worse. To the point where I'm actually carrying around a bottle of Advil with me.

Anyway, saw the therapist tonight and he poked and prodded and rubbed and made me do a bunch of different exercises to tell me ... umm ... I swear, I was listening intently to what he was saying but really, what do I know about muscles and bones and stuff? Nothing. So - there are these muscles that make up your rotator cuff (?) and some of those are tight and one of them is m-e-s-s-e-d up. Probably from too much paddling, training, whatever. This one little one in particular is under part of some bone and along the top and it's rubbing the something or other. (Isn't this helpful all this technical talk?) Anyway, it's no wonder it's been so painful and that I'm having trouble doing push-ups, bench presses, etc.

The short of it is: I did not cry during the treatment! I did ask how many people he made cry every week. He said one or two and I determined I would not be one of those pansies. All I could think of was Tom Hanks in that girl baseball movie saying, "There's no crying in baseball!" Well, there was no crying in treatment for me. So there, sadist-therapist guy :P

I will have to go back twice next week to work on it though and just the thought of it right now scares me (as I sit here with my deliciously cozy hot water bottle on top of my shoulder.)

No paddling for me this weekend. We're having our 2nd dragon boat initiation day at the Basin. If you want to see what dragon boating all about, come over at 11:00am on Saturday. $45 gets you in, we supply life jackets and paddles, get you trained up on technique, have fun in a couple of races, door prizes and a fun post-day 5 à 7. See you there, rain or shine!

Oh the pain

If you haven't already seen the pictures of the fantastic (because really, there is no other word to describe this) bruise I got paddling on Saturday, check out my new set of bruise pictures here.

Saturday's race was good. Not great but still good. We finished 4th overall. So no medal, no glory - but still, out of 45 teams, it's not too bad either. And if you consider that we have 12 new people on the team, it really isn't that bad at all. But I'm kinda greedy now with the glory of winning and didn't get what I wanted. Oh well.

The competition on Saturday consisted of one 1000m, one 500m and a 250m race. As I paddled in the first race, I could feel pressure on my hip and was a little uncomfortable but didn't feel too bad. As we started warming up for the 500m race, I could feel more pain in my hip but didn't really pay much attention to it until we finished the race when I had trouble moving my leg and standing up. When I went to change, I discovered my hip was already bright red and purple with bruising. It was throbbing and obviously swollen. Luckily, I got rotated off for the last race because I'm not entirely sure how I could've done another race in so much pain.

I'm still not sure why I have that bruise. The boats used aren't boats that we use in training practices but they are boats that we paddled in last year at competitions and I never got any bruising then. The only thing I can think of is that the butt pad I sit on is higher than my old one. Maybe I'm just sitting too high on the seat now and that is what's made the difference. I'll have to wait until our next competition to find out though.

In other muscular pain news, the right side of my neck is all pinched, as it the top of my right shoulder. I'm almost positive it's because I sleep too long on that one side and the pillow I have isn't supporting me properly. To help with that I have (a) booked appointment with athletic therapist to get that worked out properly and (b) bought new extra-firm side-sleeper pillow. Hoping that will help.

Bricks

Have been reading this book on triathlon training and find it super motivating and interesting. And after chatting with my brother Nick over the weekend about the race, training, etc. I decided I'd get my first brick workout in before dragon boat practice last night.

I probably should have picked a cooler day. I probably should have been more aware of what I'd eaten earlier in the day and what I had to eat later. I should definitely have been better hydrated. I should have worn a hat. Lots of coulda, woulda, shoulda.

In the end I biked from home to the Olympic Basin - 10k, then dropped my stuff off as quickly as possible (hello transition!), did a 3k run and had enough time for a 1k cool down walk. But a normal person probably would've stopped there. Not me. I ate a quick 100 calorie granola bar, drank some water and jumped into the dragon boat for an hour of paddling practice. (Our first competition of the summer season is this Saturday!) After that, because I still wasn't finished ... I had an apple and went and did a short 30 minute intense weight training session in the gym with the team. And finally, biked another 10k home again. Boy, the shower I had after all of that was great!

In all I burned roughly 2000 calories last night. That sort of freaked me out. So I drank 500ml of chocolate milk, and was still thirsty, so drank some water and a bit of leftover protein shake, today's pre- and post-workout breakfast snack.

Am going to have to pay better attention to what I eat and drink. And the temperature.

But back to the main point. I did a brick workout! Bike and run. And I lived. The first kilometre of the run was rough. My heart rate was still elevated from biking. I ran a little slower than I normally do because of that but the upside is that my shins didn't bother me at all and they still feel good today. Originally I thought I might do a 4k run but the F1 put a stop to that and it was probably just as well. The temporary stables around the track/basin are up now in preparation for the race in June so I couldn't do a full circle of the basin. That alone is probably what saved me from puking during DB practice - but it was close!

Did a very light workout this morning at the gym. Tried to keep my heart rate between 130-140 but it still went up to 150 on a couple of the intervals. Oh well. I'm taking it easy tonight.

Survived my first brick workout. Yeah, me!

Pictures!

Right, so the pictures from my trip to New Brunswick are up here.

And, as an added bonus, here are a few pictures from Nick, Sue, Darcy & Wesley's visit this weekend.

Oh yes, I'm home

Arrived back home on Friday night. Saturday had practice, then had to run a few errands. Spent most of Sunday fiddling around with my not-so-new laptop, transferring files and not getting the wireless to work. So although I've downloaded the picture off my camera, I haven't gone through them yet and that means I haven't put them up on flickr yet. But I'll get there.

Acadian Shore

Shediac is about 20 minutes from where I'm staying and was really easy to get to. Arrived there by 9:30am and enjoyed an hour walking up and down Parlee Beach before the rain started.

Tried to find a couple of places that looked interesting in the guide book, but of course, they weren't open yet for the season. One of the places even looked to have burned down during the winter, or was undergoing some kind of renovation. By 11:30 I had made my way to Chez Léo's Fried Clams and ordered a lobster roll. It was great! A bit mayonnaise-y for my taste and I was surprised that the lobster meat was cold - but it was delicious! I should maybe have ordered another one ...

From there I headed back east along the Acadian Shore toward Cap-Pelé and found another great little scenic road to drive along. At Cape Jourimain, I nearly ended up on the bridge to PEI! (Must pay more attention to road signs.) I followed the scenic road most of the way until Upper Cape (now into the Tantramar Region) and stopped a number of times to take a quick picture by the roadside. It was so beautiful. By this time it had been raining on and off since I'd left Parlee Beach and I had had about enough so I headed back to Moncton.

After a late lunch at Cora's, I returned the rental car to the airport and caught the shuttle bus back to the hotel. Feeling a little tired out. Probably from all this fresh sea air! Going to relax for a bit and probably head down to the pool in a little bit.

Had a great weekend! Looking forward to another busy week at work in the Dieppe office and then will be very happy to get back home.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! Sorry I couldn't be there. Hopefully Dad is treating you to something special.

Fundy Coastal Drive

Got off to a great sunny, if cool, start this morning. Made it to my first stop, Hopewell Rocks, by 9am. As I sort of expected, the place was closed. Apparently tourist season here doesn't start until May 17. There was a sign stating that the place was closed and if you entered, it was at your own risk. Sooo ... I entered! And boy, am I glad I did! I spent the next 90 minutes in stunningly beautiful landscape, hiking from look-out point to look-out point and enjoyed the warmest and sunniest part of the day there. I even walked on the ocean floor! Although having the entire place to myself was at first a bit on the creepy side, I got out of my head and started really listening to the ocean, the birds, the leaves rustling in the trees. What an incredible morning! By the time I got back to the entrance there were three other cars pulling up and getting to go do the same thing I'd just done. I was glad I didn't have to share the place with other people (and I'll thank you, Mother, for keeping your remarks to yourself.)

Next I headed to Cape Enrage. Is that the best name ever or what?! Somehow I was driving too fast and missed the exit for it, so ended up heading straight to Fundy National Park and figured I'd stop back there on my way back, which I did.

First of all, Fundy National Park is huge. I only stopped at a couple of the hiking stops. Apparently there's something like 50k of hiking trails! I only hiked about 6k of them. But 6k of rugged and beautiful trails. It was very windy there, clouds had covered the sky and the temperature had dropped. I was glad to have 4 layers of clothing. And still I wasn't quite warm enough. Where did I stop? Hmmm ... let me check my map. I stopped at the Covered Bridge and took a bunch of pictures there. Then on to Plage Point Wolfe Beach, which was just over 1k, there and back. Then on to Matthews Head (4.5k loop), which provided some spectacular views of the Bay of Fundy. And finally on to Herring Cove, which was another short 1k there and back. By this time, the wind had really picked up and I had both my sweat shirt hood and my rain jacket hood pulled tight around my head. I could've used a pair of gloves too!

Finally back on the road, I headed to Cape Enrage, caught the exit this time and made my way up this crazy half paved road. Of course, this place was still closed too. I wanted to walk over to the lighthouse but was so cold by this time that I just couldn't do it. I only took a few pictures from the look-out point and then jumped quickly back into the car. But I can see that it would've been fun to stick around for a little while on a warmer day.

Arrived back in Dieppe just before 5pm starving. During my hike at Matthews Head, I had lunch on the go because there was no food to buy inside the park. After dropping off my bag, camera, etc., I decided I needed pasta. Headed to a fun little restaurant called Graffiti and had a delicious lemon dill linguine with scallops. When I got back to the hotel I finally took advantage of the hotel pool and hot tub. Even better - I had it all to myself. There wasn't a single person there.

Have pretty much decided I'll head to Shediac and that area tomorrow. It's raining now but am hoping it will only be cloudy tomorrow, and maybe just a little warmer, please?

First Week Done

What a week. As excited as I am to go out and explore New Brunswick tomorrow, right now all I have energy for is sitting in my hotel room eating pizza that I ordered in.

It's been a good week at work. We got all kinds of stuff done and I think I finalised a record breaking 100+ invoices to clients in the last 2 days. Insanity. But am proud of everything we did and feel we accomplished a lot this week. Next week should be a little less stressful and I hope to spend less time in the office and more time out in the evening doing stuff.

Pizza's here ...

Moncton, here I come!

The last thing I was thinking about yesterday morning when I got up was where my next trip would be. I worried about the weather, if I needed my umbrella, etc. Nice banal stuff.

By the time I got to work and started reading through my emails, that had changed. All of a sudden I was wondering if I'd like to try working at another of my firm's offices for two weeks. With a "nothing to lose" attitude, I put my name forward, got my team's approval and somehow, by mid-afternoon, I was the lucky winner of two weeks hard work in Moncton!

In all honesty, with the work that's going on right now in our department and our current staffing problem, I never thought they'd choose me. I know other people applied to go (one in fact, was the guy who works next to me). Why did they choose me? I can think of these reasons: they want someone to get work out? That's me. They want someone who knows her way around the billing system, the time reporting system, the expense reporting system, the client network? That's me. They want somebody bilingual? That's me. They want somebody who works efficiently? That's me. They want quality work? That's me. But that's a lot of other people in my office too, so in the end, I'm still not sure why I got so lucky.

Anyway, ticket is booked, hotel is confirmed and I'll be on my way Sunday afternoon. I had the choice to come home on the weekend but have chosen to stay out there and do some exploring. There are already a couple of things on my "must-see" list: Bay of Fundy (want to see if I can walk on the Ocean floor) and Magnetic Hill (have your car roll up the hill all by itself!). This list will surely get added to while I'm there.

Better make sure to charge my camera batteries. You know I'll take lots of pictures.

I wonder if there's a dragon boat team I could paddle with ...

Fitness Test Results

Last night we did an abbreviated fitness test. Only 4 exercises.

Chin-ups: Take a wild guess! Go on ... you know the answer. I did zero. What a surprise :(

Back extension: 4 minutes, 7 seconds. About 30 seconds longer than last time.

Sit-ups: 84 in 90 seconds! This is 10 more than I did in January and 4 more than our coach set as the benchmark.

Sit & Reach: Long story short (involves sitting, reaching, a tape measure, some math), my flexibility is above average.

While I was glad not to spend 2 hours forcing my body to its absolute limits, I must admit I would've liked to see if I'm stronger at bench press, faster at bench row and at sprinter run, and if I can do 50 push-ups in 90 seconds. I think I can but will have to wait to find out.

Grandpa

Found out this morning that my Grandpa died last night. My heart is breaking.

**************************

Update

Here are some photos we found in Grandpa's room and some others I found in my photo albums. More will be added as I find them.

#82 - Check!

#82 - Be the first to borrow a book from the library. Check!

It took me nearly two weeks to realise this but I did it! I was all ready to take this back to the library tonight but when I opened the back cover and realised I was the first person to take it out, I had to bring it back home and take a picture as evidence.

Somehow I've managed to cross three things off my life list this month. How cool is that?!

#90 - Check!

#90 - Buy a lottery ticket. Check!

Today I did it!

Did you know there is no tax on a lottery ticket? Actually, I'm sure there is but this must be the only thing in Quebec where the GST/QST are included in the sales price. Who knew?

Have started keeping track of the items I'm checking off my Life List on flickr, you can check out that set here.

#50 - Check!

#50 - Bake a soufflé. Check!

I wanted to take a picture of it when it came out of the oven but some friends had just stopped by with their 2 week old baby ... so I had to wait half an hour.

Notes on baking a soufflé: Not as hard as it you might think. Delicious!!!

#67 - Check!

Was going through my Life List today (thanks for the reminder, Mighty Girl) and have discovered that I can cross another item off my Life List! Woot!

#67 - Have a great big soaker tub and use it weekly.

Well, I moved last June and got the big soaker tub. I don't use it weekly but it's pretty darn close. Yeah me!

Also, am setting myself a deadline on two goals. This month I will cross #50 (Bake a soufflé) and #90 (Buy a lottery ticket) off my list.

I wish with all my heart I could cross #89 (Do 2 pull ups) off the list but it is not so. YET! I am trying very hard at every practice by using the cheater machine (not a technical term, go figure) and also by doing reverse training. It's not helping. YET!

********************************************************************

Update March 4 -

Thought of my third goal for this month while I was on the elliptical trainer this morning. Although it's not on my life list it's something I've been needing to get done since last August.

Buy a new rim for bike tire.

Spring is coming. Can't smell it yet but I can see it when I leave work and it's still light. All of a sudden I'm almost feeling light-hearted. Weird.

Gougeres

No practice today so I tried a recipe I've been dying to try for ages now. Here's the result.

43 Push-ups

Have I mentioned that I can do 43 push-ups in 90 seconds? I know I have. Just not here.

Here are the latest results from the fitness test at the end of January:

Bench press max weight: 105 (same as my best to date)
Bench press reps: 67 reps (7 less than my best to date)
Bench row reps: 95 reps (best ever!)
Back extension: 3:35 (not great but still better than last time - argh)
Sprinter run reps: 228 (1 less than my best to date)
Sit ups: 74 (same as my best to date!)
Push ups: 43 (personal record shattering best ever!!!)
Chin ups: 0. Sigh.

I felt pretty good about the results but not great. I let stress get the better of me that night. Our own team plus another were both doing fitness tests at the same time so the gym was jam packed. You couldn't move and it was crazy loud.

Until our next fitness test (no idea when) I am working hard at the chin ups. Every practice I use the cheating machine (whatever the hell it's called) and I try to do assisted chin ups and also negative training (that's what some of the guys call it - you get into position of a chin up and then release slowly to work the same muscles as you would use pulling up). No success yet but I'm trying.

Summer Plans

Because January is so horrendously long and it's months until the next long weekend, I had to give myself a little lift this last week. A lift in the form of summer vacation plans. After much searching and about a dozen calls back and forth with my travel agent, I managed to get a return flight to Basel, Switzerland, in August for just over $1,000, taxes and everything included. Rather pleased with that.

...

Meant to post this last weekend. I forgot.

Now I can move on to complaining about the horrifying cold. It was -33C with the windchill when I left the house at 5:30am. That was not funny and quite painful.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

It's oh so quiet

After the hubbub of pre-Christmas stuff last week, the departure of Nick & Family and getting myself back to work for a few quiet days, everything seems almost too quiet. The kind of quiet where you start to think you're in the wrong place, at the wrong time, on the wrong day. Like this morning when I arrived at work and all the lights were off and all I could think was "Crap - today's the 31st and the office is closed and I'm such a loser for being here." Then I realised that actually, it was only the 30th, the office was open, I was just the first one on the floor (at 8:30am - late by my standards).

Which reminds me of a little story I meant to share earlier this month.

On December 3, Eric's girlfriend Sam successfully defended her PhD thesis (yay Sam!). To celebrate they invited some of her friends and family out for drinks. First we were going to meet at the bar around 7pm. Then it was decided to meet closer to 5:30pm. Things were busy at work for me at the time and I knew I wouldn't leave work much before 5:30pm but hurried to get there as soon as I could. What do you know? Even though I arrived around 6pm, I was still the first person there! Even when I'm late, I'm early. Sigh ...

I should embrace my neurosis (does punctuality qualify as a neurosis?) and live with it. Why do I feel obliged to apologize for it? Seriously, I am sick in the head.

Christmas Day

I've probably said it the last couple of years but I'll say it again - Christmas is really about the kids. This year Wesley and Darcy made that perfectly clear. Talk about seeing two overexcited kids. I don't think either of them were quiet for more than 2 minutes in the 8 or so hours I spent in their company yesterday. That's a lot of excitement, a lot of chattering, singing, running, screaming, bouncing, yelling, laughing and anything else you can throw in.

While Darcy and Wesley opened Santa's presents at my parents' house in the morning, I got caught up on a little quiet time of my own. And it was a good thing because once I got to my parents', it was all noise, all the time.

We went to visit my grandparents at the senior residence to give my Mom a bit of peace while she finished preparing our huge turkey dinner. Grandma and Grandpa were thrilled to see us all but of course more interested in hearing and seeing Darcy and Wesley. It was very sweet to see Darcy give her Great-Grandma a hug and kiss and to see Wesley shake his Great-Grandpa's hand.

Back at the house, once Eric & Sam, Marc, and Bob & Gayle arrived, we sat down for Christmas dinner. For the first time in quite a few years we actually celebrated Christmas on Christmas Day with the entire family. There were 12 of us around the table and the table was loaded with food. Mom is a great cook and she's especially good at feeding masses of hungry people amazing food. She never disappoints. Well, for me at any rate. My Uncle Bob and brother Nick were ready to call Christmas a bust because this year Mom didn't have time to make the fudge "mice" she usually makes. The 14 other kinds of cookies and bars apparently meant nothing.

After dinner we took a break from food to do our Secret Santa gift exchange and give the kids their gifts. From the noise, I'd say Wesley enjoyed himself. Then it was back to the table for dessert. The evening ended with our traditional Annual Titcombe Pit Extravaganza. This year's winner by a landslide was Sue! I lost miserably.

And that's it. Christmas is over for another year.

If you want to see some pictures, check them out here.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve - It's been a long, fun, loud, laughing sort of day. I'm beat.

This morning I joined Nick, Sue, Darcy, Wesley and my Dad for tobogganing. Instead of heading up to Mont-Royal we went to Westmount and enjoyed a smaller, more kid-friendly hill, local kids and families, and free parking. The weather for this was perfect. Not too cold with just a sprinkle of snow coming down.

Last year when we went tobogganing, Wesley screamed basically the entire time we were there, unless he was being held by Sue. This year there was no screaming. Only laughing and laughing and laughing. Wesley could have stayed there all day. He loved going down in the toboggan and was all ready to go by himself! He was so funny - all bundled up in his snowsuit, he could hardly move but that didn't stop him from doing anything. He ran, he climbed, he threw snowballs! He didn't stay interested in the tobogganing for too, too long but the park next to the hill caught his eye and we spent a fair bit of time there with him. He went on ALL the slides (think there were 4 different ones), the swing, those stationary wobbly animals/car-things. His favourite was the slide. Any slide, but the bigger, faster and more dangerous the better. We had to keep a close eye on him because he seems to invite danger or at least know where to find it, and fast!



Darcy enjoyed it too but in her own way. She is clearly more independent and not interested in having to go down the hill with an adult. But coming up the hill on her own was another matter! She found out that wasn't so much fun, especially if you had to pull the toboggan.

The funniest part of the morning was when Nick and Darcy went down the hill and suddenly there was Wesley running down the hill after them! As it was, he could hardly move in his snowsuit but that didn't stop him. He managed to run his bouncy little run for longer than you would've thought before he face-planted into the snow. But up he got and off he went again. There was no stopping him. People walking up the hill laughed at the sight of him too. It was hilarious.

The kids had a quiet afternoon at home before Eric & Sam came over to celebrate Nick's birthday. Instead of going to a restaurant to celebrate (that's the usual thing) we ordered Chinese take-out this year. It was easier mostly due to MonkeyBoy (aka Wesley) who could at least be let out of his booster chair when he'd had enough of sitting around the table with us.

Both Darcy and Wesley were a little shy around Eric & Sam when they first came in but soon warmed up to them. By the end of the evening Wesley was all over Eric, to the point where he even managed to drool onto Eric's face, which we all thought pretty funny.

It was my turn to put Darcy to bed and once again she asked if I could sleep over. I don't know what I've let myself in for, but I've gone and said that maybe, if she comes back in the summer, she could come and sleep in my extra bedroom, in the chair that turns into a bed! Darcy was pretty excited by that idea.

Tomorrow will probably be another long, loud and laugh filled day, so I'd better get to bed.

Happy Birthday, Nick - hope you enjoyed it!

Firsts

Yesterday I had the honour of participating in Darcy's (my niece) first movie theatre experience. It was fun!

Nick, Sue, Darcy and Wesley flew in to Montreal on Tuesday afternoon. They're staying with my parents until Sunday. Nick & Sue had a bit of Christmas shopping to do, so we decided to meet at the mall close to where I live. I met up with them there and Sue, Darcy and I went for lunch at the mall, while Nick took Wesley home for his nap.

To say Darcy was excited is putting it mildly. Or maybe it's a stage. But she was full of jumping and dancing and loud talking! It was pretty funny - the more excited she got the bigger her eyes would get. Anyway, Darcy insisted that I sit beside her for lunch and then had to have some of my sushi. Next time she gets her own!

Sue went over the movie rules with Darcy. Rule #1: get popcorn. That's my favourite one. The others are all the usual: no talking, if it's funny we can laugh, if it's sad we can cry, we have to sit still.

Here's a picture of Darcy at the movies, popcorn and all.

Previews are a lot more interesting with a 5 1/2 year old. Darcy would like to see Toy Story 3 and Ocean. Girl has good taste. None of us was interested in seeing Cats & Dogs.

The movie we saw was Disney's The Princess and the Frog. Darcy did really well. She sat quietly and watched the movie. It was only towards the end, at the sad part, that she got upset and cried. But Sue was great letting her know it would all turn out in the end, and of course it did. As Sue mentioned on her facebook status, "Darcy laughed and cried. It was better than Cats."

Us girls made our way back to my place on the bus. Darcy was thrilled to be on the look out for the right numbers on the bus and had to stand up on the ride, even though more than one person offered their seat to her. Nick & Wesley showed up shortly after we got home and we all had tea and cookies. Dinner was spaghetti and I was pretty amazed that the kids ate my sauce. I didn't tone down the spices or puree it and although they were both excited and a little on the tired side, I would say they did pretty well.

Darcy managed to spill her cup of water twice and that did earn her a time out away from the table. But that was really the worst of it, so I think it was pretty successful. Wesley could hardly finish eating his cookie before wanting the broom to sweep up his mess. What a funny little guy. At the mall in the morning he would hardly look at me. But after half an hour at home, running up and down my hallway, sitting on the bench at my vanity and looking at himself in the mirror saying "Me!", he was quite happy to have me spin him around in the office chair and even played a bit of hide n' seek with me, behind the dining room curtains.

More pictures of the day here.

Any Requests?

Have got 6 kinds of cookies made and 2 kinds of chocolate bark done. Have one more cookie to make and 2 types of bar/cake. But to bring the total up to an even dozen, I need one more. I'm willing to try something new but nothing too fussy or time intensive. Any requests, ideas or suggestions?

Christmas Baking

After leaving things very much to the last minute, and in fact, until after Christmas altogether, this year I have started my Christmas baking with plenty of time. Got two batches of cookies baked this morning!

Of course, last year we did celebrate Christmas nearly a week late so it was OK. This year though, it's happening on the day so that that means it all has to be done on time.

Too bad I can't be this organised getting birthday and Christmas presents off to England on time ...

Signs of winter or H1N1

Seems to me it was about this time last year that I got sick as a dog. So either the cold that I woke up with on Friday morning is either a sign of winter or I have H1N1 flu. Hmmm.

Probably not Swine flu. I kept the "Decision Chart" I got in the mail a few weeks ago and according to their list of symptoms, whatever I have is probably just a flu and I should stay at home and rest.

Maybe this is just my body's way of advising me winter's a comin' after all.

Signs of winter

Sign that winter is coming:

- had to break out my cashmere scarf this morning

Signs of winter

Ooops, meant to post this yesterday.

Sign that winter is coming:

- the carpets are down in the elevator banks at work.

Signs of Winter

Sign that winter is coming:

- The carpet is down in the gym locker room.

H1N1 Humour

Read a funny joke on facebook today:

A bear, a lion and a pig meet.
Bear says: "If I roar in the forest, the entire forest shivers with fear."
Lion says: "If I roar in the jungle, the entire jungle is afraid of me."
Pig says: "Big deal ... I only have to cough and the entire planet shits itself."

Back in action

Ow.

Ow.

Ow.

If I could lift my arm higher I might be inspired to write more about getting back to training last night. However, given that we started off the winter training season (after 5 weeks of doing nothing, nada, zero, zilch) with a fitness test, it will be enough just to say that I hurt. A. Lot. Oh and also - I am using muscle cream like moisturizer right now.

Not the movie for me

Reading some movie reviews, I came across this one. I will not be going to see this movie.

Think I'll be safer going to see this.

Boring

Not much posting going on, I know. It's boring not to see any updates, this I also know. But guess what? By November I'll be back training and you'll be able to read about all my sore muscles (just saying anything about my "muscles" makes me laugh) for the next 10 months.

Something to look forward to, no?

Girly Get-Away Weekend Recap

Incredibly, a week has already gone by since Yvette left.

On September 24, Yvette's flight arrived on time and I was there to pick her up from the airport. I took Yvette for a walk along the canal to help keep her awake until dinner time (where I did not point out the Atwater Market.) For dinner I served a homemade macaroni & cheese with warmed apple crisp for dessert. Yvette managed to stay up until after 9pm so I let her go to bed after that.

Friday morning we got up early and drove to Mount-Royal to see the sunrise. It was positively frigid. It was also pretty cloudy so we didn't see much at all of the sunrise. Kind of a let down but still fun to say we did it. After a quick breakfast at home and some much needed coffee, we picked up the last provisions for the weekend. Anna & Lynn showed up mid-afternoon and we made our way through all the weekend traffic to head up north.

The girls all loved the cottage! It's a great place. A bit on the rustic side but still very comfortable and really had everything we to keep us happy. We sat down for a snack and a drink before settling in, and then had a delicious Thai dinner - fresh rice paper rolls, a red shrimp curry and a green fish curry, with basmati rice and three kinds of shrimp chips. Lynn broke out a special bottle of red wine, call Friends, bottled in 2003, the last time the four of us got together. I have no idea how late we stayed up talking but one thing I do know is that we laughed and laughed and laughed.

Saturday morning Yvette and I were both up pretty early so decided to head down to the beach for a little look-see. It had rained in the night and that morning the place was thick with fog. I have never seen fog like that before. It was really cool. We both took a bunch of pictures of the lake, beach and swamp. The fog gave a great mysterious feel to everything. Back up at the cottage, I made sure we all had breakfast and got us on the road to Mont-Tremblant by mid-morning. By this time the fog had been burned off by the sun and it turned into a beautiful sunny day. We found the spa with no trouble and then continued along the scenic route into the ski station part of Tremblant for a look around the shops and then a gorgeous lunch on a terrasse.

After lunch we headed to the spa and spent the afternoon being pampered. What's not to like about that?! The spa is surrounded by woods and with all the leaves changing colour on the trees, it was really quite incredible to be outside in a steaming jacuzzi and then plunge ourselves into 13C water! We did the hot, cold and relax sessions a couple of times before heading to our massages.

I can't say for the others but I have a fair idea that all of us were disappointed ... that the massages weren't any longer! If that wasn't the best massage of my life, it was the second best. And after that we headed back to the baths for more. Hot, cold, relax.

During one of our relaxation sessions we were in a room with these zero-gravity lounge chairs. Lynn melted into hers and I did the same. Yvette sat down and then proceeded to turn purple trying to get her chair to lean backwards. Well, if you know anything about the four of us, especially when we get together, it generally means that laughter is never far off. This was one of those times. You know how it is, the more you try not to laugh in a "complete silence" atmosphere, the more you do laugh. That is of course what happened to us. We were crying with the effort of trying not to laugh, shaking so much it must've looked like we were having fits of some kind. We did manage finally to control ourselves. Until Anna came in and went and did the exact same thing Yvette had done not 5 minutes before. Well ... more silent laughing, more tears and more convulsions. I'm still amazed we didn't get thrown out of the place for disturbing the tranquil atmosphere.

When we decided we'd had enough, we showered and headed into St-Jovite for dinner. We found a great little Italian restaurant that looked quite expensive but was very reasonable. We each had a great pizza and Lynn and I indulged in a little creme brulee for dessert while Anna and Yvette shared a chocolate parfait.

A short drive back to the cottage and we were home again. I got out of the car first to open the door and turn on the outside lights so the others could see where they were going. But when I got the back of the van I pretended that something got me and screamed and ducked down. Yvette screamed bloody murder and then slammed the side door shut. I nearly wet myself laughing. Lynn had a good giggle too. Anna stayed safely where she was in the van and didn't move. She still maintains that she really did "hear something out there." Safely in the cottage, after relaxing for a bit, Lynn and I decided to stretch our legs and go for a little stroll. I took her down to the beach and this time you could see a few lights across the lake and around at nearby cottages. It was very picturesque.

We ended the night playing bits of various games, listening to 80s tunes and laughed some more. The entire day could not have been more perfect.

Sunday morning after brunch, all four of us headed down to the beach in the hopes that we'd actually be able to see the other side. Luck was mostly with us! Most of the fog had gone and we actually had a pretty good view of all the amazing colours surrounding us. I had my small tripod with me so we were even able to take a great picture of the four us.

After cleaning up at the cottage and a quick snack, we headed back to Montreal for dinner at my parents house. The four of us, plus Anna's husband James, came and we had a great roast beast dinner and great conversation. What an end to the weekend!

Monday Lynn, Yvette and I headed out to drive by our old houses (44th Avenue, 52nd
Avenue and Claude Avenue) and then met up with one of Yvette's flickr friends at Chow's in Dorval for a Chinese lunch. After that we drove out to Fairview to smell the fountain (for Yvette) and do some shopping. We all managed to do very well. As Anna & James were celebrating the Jewish New Year at Jamie's parents, Lynn came over to my place for dinner and a movie. She brought St-Elmo's Fire and we had nachos. A fun and relaxing end to the day.

Tuesday Anna had to work in afternoon but we were able to shop all together at Simon's in the morning. For lunch I took Lynn and Yvette to my favourite downtown pizza place, Il Focolaio, at Philips Square. We all ate our entire pizzas and the shopped for the rest of the afternoon. It was a horrible rainy day and on our walk home from the metro to my house, we actually had to duck into the pharmacy just to take refuge until the downpour stopped a little.

Anna & James joined us for a pasta dinner and I served Yvette her much requested chocolate cheesecake. The evening ended on a sad note as that was our goodbye to Lynn (and our last group photo.) She would head back to Toronto and her family on Wednesday. I'm so glad she came for the long weekend. It was a long drive for her on her own and especially all that time away from her young family. (Thanks Gus, for letting her come to us!)

On Wednesday Yvette and I explored Old Montreal in the morning, had lunch in China Town and then strolled through China Town. On our way home we stopped at the Atwater Market to pick up some fish for dinner as Yvette's brother was coming over. We enjoyed a few hours with him and started to make some progress getting through all the food in my fridge!

Thursday I rented the community car and took Yvette out to Ikea and then to the Kirkland outlets. Now that I wasn't specifically looking to buy anything, I managed to come home with a beautiful new table lamp and paid for a new bedside table (which I picked up today). We headed home early in the afternoon so we could have time for a little rest before meeting up with nearly a dozen of our old high school friends that evening.

God, what a laugh. Almost everyone who said they'd come did so I would say we had a good turn out. What I found most amazing was that although during high school we were all in different groups or cliques, that night none of that mattered any more and we were all able to sit at one big table and talk and laugh with each other. It truly was fun. I had kind of been dreading the night but I really did have a good time and am very glad I went.

Friday morning I went to a funeral (RIP Auntie Bette), while Yvette and Anna went out for brunch. I joined them later for lunch and we spent the afternoon walking along the lakeshore in Lachine. For Yvette's last night we went to the Botanical Garden's to visit the Chinese Lantern Festival. Think that's my third year in a row now. It was great! Yvette loved all the different lanterns. It wasn't too terribly crowded and although cold, for once I was dressed warmly enough.

Saturday morning Yvette said goodbye and went to visit her old friend Lisa before heading to the airport. As always a sad goodbye for us. She is truly my best friend in the world. I can't believe how we always just pick up from our emails and chats and continue as if we last saw each other yesterday.

It was a great week. I got to do a lot of things I never get the chance to do: shop without a deadline, stroll through Old Montreal and China Town, have friends over for dinner every night.

It's all over now but we all have great memories and great pictures. Now to start planning for our 50th birthdays ...

Yvette's on her way!

At long last, Yvette is on her way to Montreal for the Girly Get-Away Weekend! Lynn will be leaving Toronto late this afternoon and staying at Anna's before all four of us head up to the Cottage tomorrow.

We've been planning this for so long it seemed like it would never get here. But now it's here and I am so ready for some catching up with best friends, lots of laughs and a day at the spa!

The let fun begin!

Not what I was expecting to write

The day after the end of the dragon boat season and I am tired, sore, tired and sore. I could go on but I think you get the idea.

As I said in my previous post, there were 12 potential races for me. I ended up paddling in 11 of them. Five on Saturday and six on Sunday. It was a little much lot. I feel it. A lot.

Originally I had planned to write about each race, the teams, the atmosphere, how I felt about the eighth competition of the summer but now I have something far more interesting to write about. Instead I'm going to tell you about the day I stood up to a bully and gave him a piece of my mind (and a hand gesture to boot).

Yesterday's last race of the season was my mixed team's 2K. There were 13 sport teams racing. The way a 2K works is you get all the boats lined up at the docks and then at 10 second intervals, each one starts. The idea is to pass as many boats as possible and not to be passed by any boats. It's a little scary but really kind of exciting too. Passing so close to other boats that you actually paddle into each other, riding their wake, hearing everybody grunt and moan and scream. Anyway, we were 9th off the mark (therefore 5th overall ranking). We waited our turn for the horn and then started paddling. For the first turn or two no changes. Sometime after that we passed boat #8. Coming out of another turn we passed boat #7 but #8 was coming up behind us on the left and we had to move over to give them space to go into the turn. This we did. The referees even told our coach (& steer) that he was good. But even though we were on the outside, we were gaining on boat #8. Their steer started taking the turn wider and so pushing us out wider at the same time. This is an illegal move. You are not allowed to push boats off course with your own boat. But the boat was ahead of us and we couldn't do much to change that. Then boat #8 came up right beside us so that their last 3 rows of paddlers on the right and our first three paddlers on the left couldn't even get their paddles in the water because the boats were touching. No big deal, really. Everybody else keeps paddling and soon enough we should part. But not this time.

No, this time, some guy in the 10th row of boat #8 lifted his arm in the air and then swung his paddle like a baseball bat and deliberately hit two of our WOMEN in the arm. Not once. Twice. And he laughed while he was doing it! I think he may even have got a third swipe in but I'm not sure. The girls were shocked and shouting. I was paddling in row 4 and saw all this perfectly. Then, as boat #8 separated from us but still wouldn't let us go straight, that moron shouted "I'm going to scare those ladies!" I saw red. I'm not even sure if I paddled. What I do know is that I shouted back at him, "FUCK YOU!!!" (Sorry, Mom for the language.) It's possible I was heard on the other side of the world.

By now we were probably two full lanes off course and paddling in shallow water. Our coach was screaming at the refs, our drummer was shouting at us to get our focus back and to use our anger effectively. During that crazy ass turn, two boats from behind us managed to pass us. We were behind and we knew it. It took everything we had but we passed one boat in the next turn, and even stole the inside turn back from the Halifax boat at the last turn. We weren't able to beat a couple of the boats we wanted to though and that was disappointing. We also didn't make great time but whatever. Still not the end of the story.

Once over the finish line we did our quick cool down circle, we also went by both referee boats to make sure they saw what happened and they were aware. Everybody on our boat was talking about what happened with the guy hitting our paddlers. Some of the guys at the back of the boat hadn't been able to see what had happened. As we were coming up to paddle by the spectators, the Halifax crew came up to our left and that idiot started trash talking us. I wasn't paying attention. I was trying not to puke. All I know is that one minute I wanted to puke and the next I was standing up in the boat, paddle in one hand and flipping this guy the bird with my other hand. He turned around and called out to me, "oh yeah? come here!" And that was it. I lost it. I completely lost my head. I actually climbed up on the space between the paddlers in front of me so that I could ... I don't know ... get to the front of the boat and then jump from boat to boat to do what precisely? Other than knock his head off? Luckily more level heads prevailed and they quickly pulled me down to my seat. By the time we got back to the dock I was calmer and realised how foolish my reaction was. But my team loved me for it. They told me later it was what they were all thinking but I was the only was "brave" (stupid?) enough to act on it.

Finally off the boat, we told our story to the referees and race officials and in the end the Halifax crew got a 15 second penalty and we were awarded 5 seconds. The officials also spoke to the Halifax coach, steer and that paddler to warn them that this was not the type of sporting conduct that is tolerated in Montreal.

And there you go. This was big for me. This was one of the rare occasions that I actually got mad "out loud" and didn't let my anger fester and sicken me. Maybe it wasn't the most mature thing to do but you know what? I am probably never going to see that ass again so I'm glad I screamed at him and was ready to attack him. How dare he hit my team mates, how dare he hit women?! Complete strangers, at that. Who does he think he is? This isn't a contact sport! This isn't hockey or football or soccer. This is my third season of dragon boating and it's really the first time that any physical violence has reared it's ugly head. I've seen a lot of other stuff happen but nothing like this. And for a guy to threaten and strike a woman! That's beyond me. I can't even imagine ... I just don't understand what he can have been thinking. It still doesn't seem possible. I find it altogether shocking that he did that.

To end the day, we had a BBQ at the Basin with my old women's team (Montreal Waves). Burgers, veggie burgers for a few others as well as me, and cold beer. It was a pretty good end to the season after all.

OK but still - how could he have done that???

End of the Season

This is it - this weekend is Quebec Cup. It's the last dragon boat competition of the season. If you haven't been out to see us race this year, this will be your last chance. It's a smaller festival than in July but no less exciting.

I'll be paddling with my old women's team (Montreal Waves) and with my current mixed team (Montreal Mix) so it will be pretty busy - about one race every hour. I could potentially paddle 12 races over the weekend but hopefully it won't be quite that many. My main concern is getting through the 2k race on Sunday afternoon without puking at the end. I desperately hope I don't have to race the 2k with the women on Saturday afternoon. Not sure my body can take it two days in a row.

Funny how the last 5 months have flown by. It'll be over in a few short days and I already miss my team, the training, and the complaining ;)

Have you guys seen this? So cool!

The longest way 1.0 - walk/beard grow time lapse.

New York City

Item #44 on my 100 Things to do Before I Go list:

- Celebrate my 40th birthday in New York City

Well, I didn't quite celebrate the actual day itself, but I think I can say that I celebrated the day after my birthday in New York City. That's close enough for me to consider the item above as done.

Last Friday morning, I got up bright and early at 3am, the taxi picked me up at 4am and by 6:25am I was on my way for a day in New York City. My friend Steve, who works for an airline company, offered me a buddy-pass so it was decided we would go. Unfortunately at the beginning of the week, the weather forecast predicted a nice sunny day. By the time Friday came around, Tropical Storm Danny was making his presence known by providing steady rainfall the ENTIRE day. Although it did make being outside all day a little uncomfortable and it did change my plans a little, I was determined to make the most of it and enjoy myself.

We arrived at JFK airport shortly after 8am, got through customs and waited for a taxi to make our way in to Manhattan. In rush hour traffic, in took over an hour. Down in Battery Park we bought tickets for the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island ferry and really started the day.

The Statue of Liberty is really big. FYI - you can't reserve your ticket up to the crown or even the base, at the last minute. In fact, you need about 2 months lead time to be sure you'll get up to the top and about 2 weeks to buy a ticket for the base. Otherwise, all there is to do there is walk around outside. It's not a big island and in the rain, it's not so pleasant. But I did it anyway - for one day I could deal with rain.

From the Statue of Liberty, we jumped back on the ferry and stopped at Ellis Island. This was incredibly interesting. It would have been an easy thing to spend the whole day there, wandering through all the different rooms, reading about the experiences there and how it all worked. There was also some kind of theatre performance that was going on but we didn't get a chance to see that.

After taking the ferry back to Manhattan, we hailed a cab to take us up to Central Park and Strawberry Fields. (It was still raining so we decided to skip Ground Zero, Wall Street & the Charging Bull, and walking across the Brooklyn Bridge.) On the way up to Central Park, we did drive past Ground Zero but weren't able to see much beyond the construction fences that were up. We also passed a whole bunch of docks, saw a cruise ship and even saw the Intrepid, an aircraft carrier that now serves as a Sea-Air-Space museum. I have NEVER seen anything so big in all my life. Crazy.

Finally up at Central Park West and 72nd Street, we walked into the park and quickly found Strawberry Fields and John Lennon's memorial Imagine. I took a bunch of pictures and was most impressed by the lack of people around. I was even able to take a picture of the famous park benches without a single person in the frame.

From there we walked through the park to the east side and up another couple of blocks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That is some place. After briefly examining the map, I decided how we could do a quick tour of the place and hopefully hit all the highlights. We did that and then seeing as it was still raining, decided to do a quick tour of the mezzanine level as well. By this time it was nearly 5pm, and there just wasn't enough time to go up to the Guggenheim Museum or to go shopping so we jumped in a cab and headed back to the airport.

What a day! Obviously it would have been great to have good weather. It would just have meant that we'd have spent more time rushing around trying to do more things and not really appreciating what we did see. So we didn't see as much but we really made the most of the places we did visit.

The flight home was fine too and I was in my front door by 11pm, after a 20-hour day. Totally worth it!

Maybe my next goal should be to spend a week in New York City!

Oh yeah - here are the pictures.

The Big 4-0

It seems like just a minute ago since I turned 30. That was pretty traumatizing at the time. A lot has changed since then. Good things, bad things, and all things in between.

As much as I've joked about turning 40 being a bad thing, in some ways it actually feels pretty damn good. Yes, 40 still sounds too much like being a grown up. On the other hand, 40 means I can afford myself little luxuries that I couldn't even dream of as a 20 year old, or even a 30 year old.

It's a little scary this whole age thing but I like a challenge and I think I'm up for it. Take that, the Big 4-0.

Nationals

The Canadian National Dragon Boat Championship races took place this weekend. The goal of the weekend wasn't to win the competition (in itself impressive for me to think about) but also for teams to race for the 5 positions Dragon Boat Canada was allocating for the Club Crew World Championship in 2010.

Approximately 50 teams were there. Under 23 years old (U23), over 40 years old (Seniors), over 50 years old (Grand Masters), women's teams, men's teams and mixed teams.

Saturday was a beautiful day. Hot, humid and sunny. My team, Montreal Mix, had three 500m races to compete in the morning. We didn't have a good start to the weekend. In the first race, the qualifier for division, we finished 9th overall and missed making A division by less than a second. That first result brought a number of people on the team down. I tried to keep upbeat and motivated and did all I could to pass on good energy to the team. Our second race (semi final B division) resulted in another 2nd place finish. We slipped to 10th place. Morale was sinking fast on the team. Before our third and final 500m of the day, a few minutes before we were going to start I tried my best to get the team up and in an aggressive mood but it didn't work - a third 2nd place finish.

Despite these disappointing results on Day 1, we had actually done better times than a month ago at MIDBRF. I fed the team homemade brownies and that seemed to cheer them up a little (or maybe it was just the chocolate talking).

Sunday morning started off cool, windy and rainy. Given the summer we've had, these were conditions we were used to during training and racing. We had three 250m races in the morning and the "final" 2000m in the afternoon. There were still some long faces as we were loading the boat for our first race and I'm pretty sure that didn't help us. 2nd place finish. Our coach reminded us all after that disappointing finish that Saturday was over, to stop thinking about it and really place our focus on winning today. An hour later we were ready for the second race but not prepared for another 2nd place finish. So frustrating. I don't know why, but I almost think that by this point everyone had had enough 2nd place finishes and were angry. Angry enough to pull it together as a team and FINALLY win our third race. And a beautiful race it was. An amazing start where we didn't have to play catch up with the other boats, then powered through the transition and straight into the finish of all finishes. You could really feel the boat pull ahead on the finish. It was incredible! That was the feeling I'd been waiting for all weekend from the team. Although the inconsistency is a sign of our inexperience (as a team), when it finally meant enough, we were able to do it and win. That is the team I know. It sure felt good to gloat in the face of the team who won the second race (bad, I know), especially when we found out they placed last in the final.

We then had about a 3-4 hour break until the 2000m at the end of the day. Time to watch the women's and men's teams race. Part of the joy of being at Nationals is that there are no beginner teams. All the paddlers are now experienced. Also - ha, ha, ha - there was certainly no shortage of buff bodies. Hey, I couldn't help noticing my surroundings :D

After a bit of a delay (there was a tie for 5th place in the men's teams so they had to race-off, Quebec vs. Alberta, QUEBEC WON!!!) we were finally ready for the 2000m race. There were 8 or 10 boats in our heat. The 2000m by the way, isn't just 2000m straight. It's a holding start from the shallow end of the basin, power through the start just to get to the starting line and going slightly beyond the 500m mark to turn. This is a tough race, not just for paddlers but for the steers too. Turning corners without losing too much speed is not for the faint of heart. Our coach likes that. He took us as close as possible to the buoys. There wasn't much action in our heat, only one boat passed another boat. I was happy that our arch enemies, who started behind us, never passed us. After our last turn, I could really feel every muscle in my body screaming at me to stop. But I gave it another little (well, big) push to get through. Suddenly we were at the 250m mark and I knew I could get through it. We finished the 2000m. Nobody fell out, the boat didn't die, we didn't tip. But then I had that feeling again. That bad feeling that I hadn't wanted to feel for another 10 years. Next thing I knew I had my head over the side of the boat and was puking my guts out for the second time this year. Because you know me, I have to prove that I've really put everything into it. Because I have to go and listen to our coach when he says "I want everyone puking after this one!" Thankfully, I hadn't eaten much. Racing seems to kill my appetite. Anyway - my old coach from the women's team, sits on the bench behind me and was proud that he got some of my barf on his paddle. Not really what I was going for but there you go.

Finally off the boat and back to our tent area, it felt good to sit down for a minute and breathe properly. A few minutes later, the most incredible thing happened. The results of our 2000m heat. We finished FIRST! It's never easy to tell how you do in this race because the boats leave every 10 seconds and even if you pass a boat it doesn't necessarily mean you're going fast, they could just be going slow. Anyway - when I found out we finished first I felt that everything had been worth it, even barfing.

For somebody who knew nothing of dragon boating 3 years ago, who joined a women's team to have some fun and practice for 1 hour a week 2 years ago, who got the bug and started training with a mixed team 7 to 10 hours a week last year - I have come a long way. OK - we didn't make the A division. Yes, it's disappointing to find out that the dream of competing in Macau next year is over. But wow, it's been some ride anyway. Even though we didn't quite reach our goal this weekend I can honestly say I loved getting to this point. And my resolve to retire from the competitive team is quickly dying. Despite the huge amounts of Advil I've been swallowing ;)

Happy 2nd Birthday, Wesley!

Today is my nephew's 2nd birthday. Happy Birthday, MonkeyBoy!

PS - hopefully Canada Post will get off their duffs and deliver the present I sent on August 13 ...

Gold

We won the competition in Rawdon!

Our first proper "win" of the season and it felt great. It was a perfect summer day. Hot, sunny, at the beach, time to go swimming and to top it off, a gold medal at the end of the day. Now that is what summer is all about.

Dreaming in Technicolour

Last night I dreamed I was doing chin ups. Yes, that's right, in the plural, chin upS. In fact, in my dream, I did 10 of them. Now how to make that a reality ...

The Wall

So here it is. The red wall. It's not perfect (despite new primer plus six coats of paint) but it will do. Still need to put a few pictures up and then I can really consider it finished.

MIDBRF 2009

This weekend I took part in my third Montreal International Dragon Boat Race Festival.

It was a tough festival. Elite teams that were away last year at the World Club Crew competition were in Montreal this year and we felt it. My team, Montreal Mix, did well. Not as well as we'd hoped but still. Our objective was to finish in the top 5. We finished in the top 7 (of 125 or so mixed teams). Not bad. But if you take away the out of town teams then we finished in the top 4 Montreal teams. So that makes me feel a little better.

This was our 5th of 8 competitions this summer. As a team we're finding out just how hard 8 competitions, plus training, is on the body. We have about 5 injured on the team now. This weekend we had 3-4 more team members working at the festival so they were exhausted. Another 5 team-mates were paddling on other teams. That left precious few of us who were in top shape and even at that I think it's fair to say we're all in pretty rough shape. We're tired. We're more than tired. I speak for myself and possibly a few others when I say I'm exhausted.

Saturday started off cool and rainy but it dried up by the time we started our first race in the Saturday qualifying heats. By afternoon it was hot and sunny and the Basin was crowded with teams and spectators. It was a real festival atmosphere. One of my favourite moments on Saturday was watching the National Women's Elite team come in second against 5 other MEN's crews! We were disappointed leaving on Saturday because we didn't make the A Final, only B. Our second race was better, a good race, but not good enough.

Sunday was an awful day. It started off rainy and truly didn't stop until sometime after 3pm. It was cold and damp and windy. Our morning race, the 500m final, was when it rained the hardest, naturally. While this is strangely when we paddle our best, we still only managed to come in second place. Still, meant a silver medal and (for me anyway) that is nothing to be upset about. Many hours later, made even later due to several thunder delays (now 90 minutes behind schedule), we raced our last race of the day, the 250m final. Head wind coming from the opposite side of the Basin, bad lane but now we were hungry for that gold. So guess what happened? WE GOT IT!!! We had the most amazing start of the weekend. Even though we were trailing on the start (against 5 other boats) we started pulling ahead after our transition and then killed it on the finish. It was a close race. Think there was something like 0.04 seconds between us and second place. But the race was ours. Nothing made me happier than coming out of the weekend with a gold medal.

I've been trying to convince myself that this will be my last season with the competitive team but after a race like that, I want more. I want to train harder, I want to compete harder at Nationals (which by the way, is something a lot of teams only dream about doing and we're actually going to do next month) and I want to compete in China next year. I'm back and forth between this decision every 5 minutes so don't quote me that.

We're resting this week (thank you, Coach!) and I need it. I screamed myself hoarse in the races and after winning. Honestly, sounds like I have laryngitis or something now, heh. But it was worth it. That gold medal in my hands feels good.

Book Review

As much as I read, it's funny that I have never given any book reviews here before. Huh.

Today that ends. If you follow the side bar on the right (hello, side bar) of this page, you'll be able to keep track of what I'm reading now and which are the last 5 books I've read.

Yesterday I was desperate for something new to read but didn't have time to make it to the library before they closed (6pm?!) so I ran into Indigo and what do you know, one of the books that's been on my wish list for ages now was on sale for 20% off (plus you know me, I got my extra 10% off, plus I had a coupon for another $5 off ... ha, ha, ha!). Will I ever get to the point?

The point - I bought this book. I started reading as soon as I got on the metro and have been hard pressed to put it down since. I didn't even paint the 4th coat on my dining room wall!

A couple of the reviews on the book cover had much to live up to but so far they are completely right. From the San Francisco Chronicle Book Review "...This is a book for firesides or long train rides." I'm telling you - I started reading this and truly and honestly, suddenly wished I was on a long train ride (ok well, plane)! Then from Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, she writes "I can't remember the last time I discovered a novel as smart and as delightful as this one, a world so vivid that I kept forgetting this was a work of fiction populated with characters so utterly wonderful that I kept forgetting they weren't my actual friends and neighbors..." So far this book has made me giggle, snicker, get teary and even laugh out loud (thankfully, in the privacy of my own home).

I hope this book is just as good all the way through.

If you haven't read it - do! Borrow it from the library, a friend (not me because I'm a bit funny about lending books, sorry), buy it, whatever. This isn't existential navel gazing, it's not a brick of a work, burdened with deep thoughts and requiring a thesaurus or dictionary at hand, it's just a pure pleasure to read. Simple as that.

Tired

Despite a week or so off work to "relax" (read: paint), I am just as tired after my vacation as I was before. The drunks in the street nearly every night are starting to get to me. Guess people are also on summer vacation and out until all hours every night. Think the earplugs are going to have to be a permanent thing until the fall and I close the windows at night again.

Now you know what to get me for my birthday ;)

A stove!

At long last, 3 full weeks since the original delivery, I have a stove! I am so happy and excited about cooking again. I'm planning all kinds of elaborate meals in my head already.

First things first though - groceries! Tomorrow I'll be at the grocery store when they open the doors.

Starting Over

Slept on it and decided that the wall is not going to get the best of me. So there.

This morning I was back at the paint counter (4th time) at 8:15am getting more paint and getting a new primer. When I got home with my paint, I sanded the wall, I dusted the wall, I re-taped the wall and finally I re-primed the wall. I will let it dry until tomorrow morning. No matter how tempted I am to start the colour again now.

The waiting game begins.


The re-taped, re-primed wall

Now what?

This morning I finished up the touch ups of paint that needed to be done in the bedroom, hallway, kitchen and living room. Once I was done with that I figured I'd remove the tape from the red dining room wall and then see exactly what it needed to make it right. I took my exacto-knife and ran the blade along the edges to loosen the paint from the wall and then started lifting the tape off. It didn't go so well. The five damn layers of paint adhered pretty well to the tape. Not so well to the wall.

Here's what happened.

I have no idea what to do now. Should I get the primer out and start over from scratch? Should I get more red paint and try again? Should I use what I have left of the living room colour and just use that? Sigh ... I dunno.

Suggestions? Offers to help? I'm open.

Fitness Test

We had another fitness test tonight. Considering that we've scaled back the weight training quite a lot in the last 2 months, I was surprised to see how well I did. We started back with the weight training only 2 weeks ago and I seem to be on track for gaining even more strength!

Bench press max weight: 105 (same as last time)
Bench press reps: 63 reps (9 less than last time)
Bench row reps: 91 reps; (3 more than last time!)
Back extension: 3:37 (3 seconds less than last time - argh)
Sprinter run reps: 225 (4 less than last time)
Sit ups: 74 (1 more than last time!)
Push ups: 20 (same)
Chin ups: 0. No surprise there.

Feeling good about these results.

Shawi

Yesterday we raced at the Shawinigan Dragon Boat Festival. It wasn't a great day to be outside. It was cold, it rained, it was windy and we were in wet clothing for a good part of the day. Even though we changed clothing between races, we still had to put on wet shirts for each race and that is not pleasant.

However, we had a fairly decent result. We finished third overall! So another medal! A bronze one this time - but still. A medal is a medal. And I'd rather have a medal from Division A Sport than any other.

We had 4 races all counted. Three 500m and one 100m. The first race we won but as that was the qualifier for the semi-finals, it was just about getting a good time. We didn't have a good race though. It wasn't in control. The second 500m was amazing. We won that too but this time it felt amazing. We were in complete control, we paddled with really long strokes (serious head wind) and really reached and sat up with each stroke. Immediately after that we raced The Best of Fest, a 100m sprint with nine other boats. That was a free-for-all. It took ages for the starter to line us up and give the "Attention please!" call. The next 20 seconds were a blur. With the head wind coming off the water and boats nearly within reaching distance on each side (2 boats per lane!), it was a wild ride. But we did well. We finished second. Our third and final race was not good. We had a bad race. The pace felt too fast (for me), we weren't in control and our finish was not in sync at all. And so we finished third. Not exactly the result we wanted but we finished in A-final and we got a medal so I'm still happy with that.

Hurting today. My back is in spasms, my legs and arms still a little shaky. Think I may have a rest day. No painting allowed.

Painting, painting and more painting

According to my mother (Hi Mom!), I need to update my blog. So where was I? Last I was telling you was that I was spending the first part of my summer vacation at home. Today is day 3 of that vacation. What have I done so far?

1. Painted the bathroom. It's not blue anymore! This makes me so happy.

2. Painted the bedroom. It's not a poo-ey beige colour anymore. This makes me happy too.

3. Painted the dining room wall. It's my favourite red. Or almost. Have got 4 coats of paint on there now and it's looking good. Do think it'll need a 5th coat though. Thank goodness it's a small wall. I love it, love it, love it!

4. Bought the paint for the living room, hallway and kitchen. That'll be my project next week. As I look around the place, I realise I will probably need every minute next week to get it primed and then get 2 coats of paint up on the walls.

I am taking before and after pictures and will make a set on flickr once I'm done.

Have also started thinking about the new headboard I'm going to make (bigger, better and bolder), the desk I'd like for the office/guest bedroom, and how to improve the area above the fireplace.

More updates soon. Promise!