Panama - Day 2 recap

Saturday, 26 November 2011

Today was a fantastic day. We headed up to Sabanitas and a quick shop for some lunch foods and stuff before picking up the kids of a day at the water park.

Those plans got slightly delayed though when we arrived at the home and discovered a group of people from the local university doing a presentation to the kids. We missed the beginning part of it and arrived in time for games, songs and lunch for all!

The girls sang for them, the university group sang for the girls. They organized all sorts of fun games and even a real piñata (in the shape of a mermaid, no less!). There was a hot lunch (rice and chicken pieces) and a huge cake with ice cream. Besides some of the girls winning prizes at the games they played, there was also a gift for each girl. One of the youngest ones, I think it was Madalena, when she opened her gift and saw it was a Barbie type doll, her eyes nearly burst out of her head, she was so happy and she exclaimed, “Una Barbie!” It was priceless. Many of them came to show us what they’d received and were all so proud of what they had.

While eating lunch, my little friend Janilka from yesterday was sitting beside me. She told me she didn’t like her rice and would prefer to be eating the candy she collected from the piñata. I told her she had to at least finish her chicken before she ate anything else. So she started chewing on that like it was the last meal of her life. When she got down to the bones, she looked at me for somewhere to put it. I picked up a bowl from the table and brought it back to her, where she promptly SPAT it into the bowl. Whatever I was expecting, it wasn’t that she’d spit it out. Classic.

Finally, about 90 minutes later than planned, we left for the water park. It started to rain on the way (typical) and by the time we arrived it was really coming down hard. Keith was worried that the place would be shut due to the weather but it wasn’t. It was open and we all traipsed in. Pretty soon it didn’t matter if it was raining or not because we were all wet anyway. The next 4 hours were so much fun. Joan and Marlene played with the littler ones for a bit in one of the paddling pools. I joined a few of the older girls for a few trips around the place in the “lazy river” and then we headed to the big slides. That seemed to be the biggest attraction for the older kids. Later I played with some of the younger ones in a shallow pool. Estrella (4, possibly 5 years old) wasn’t too sure about being in the water and was quite scared to be close to the heavy falling water. She got pretty comfortable clinging to me and being swung through the water. When we discovered a little slide, she was happy to try that out as long as I stood at the end to catch her! She’ll fit in a hockey bag, right?

On the car ride back to the home, Joan thought to play “Eye Spy” in Spanish with the 5 kids in our row. They liked that and it made the ride go that much more quickly. A few of the older ones sang a little bit in the back row. It was a very nice and relaxed atmostphere.

Once home, we handed out the bags of school supplies and gave Marlene the Christmas gifts. The girls were quite excited to pen the bags but also quite tired after the long and busy day. While the girls were going through their presents, Rodelaida (13) was eating some pop-rocks candy and I could hear the sound of them popping on her tongue. I indicated that I could hear it. She offered me what was left from the package but I said no, that I didn’t like the feeling. She laughed and said it’s true, “duele” (it hurts) but she liked it anyway! Probably I would say the exact same thing if I was 13 again.

Keith had a nice surprise today with the visit of Ovidia. She lived at the home for a number of years and still stops by a few times a year to catch up with the girls and Marlene. She’s 20-something now and working. It’s encouraging to see that some of the girls still keep in contact with Marlene. I suppose she must be quite a mentor and mother figure to these girls. They’re lucky to have her.

Then it was time to say good bye. Quite said to think that I may never see some of them again. Rodelaida, Janilka and Estrella touched me quite a lot, in just one day.

Back in Panama, we went for dinner at Mi Ranchito on the Causeway and then for coffee/ice cream further down the road. A nice quiet evening after a long, loud, busy, fun, happy day.

Panama - Day 1 recap

Friday, 25 November 2011

Happy Birthday, Yvette! First things first, after all. It's my "bestest" friend's 43rd birthday today. Hope it's happy!

Yesterday's travel down to Panama was pretty uneventful. We even got all 5 of the hockey bags!

Downtown Panama City traffic is worse, and I do mean Worse with a capital W, than Montreal's. Same goes for Colon - and not even counting rush hour.

We picked up Major (retired) Shirla this morning in Paraiso, and brought her with us for an afternoon visit to the girls orphanage in Sabanitas, a tour of their school, and a short visit to the seniors home in Colon. Thank goodness we had Shirla with us today! She had Keith going left, right and avoiding traffic wherever and whenever possible. Without her, we'd probably still be sitting in a traffic jam somewhere between Panama and Colon.

Met Janilka, Anna, Melissa, Kimberly, Hiam, Nawal and ... I'm missing about 7 other names. Marlene is still in control at the orphanage and ready with a hug and smile for all. Us too! We arrived just as the girls were finishing lunch and I made friends with Janilka. She's 7 years old and is just the right size for a dress I got from somebody at work. While Joan and I were emptying the clothes and blankets from the van into the house, Janilka asked to help us and when she saw that dress, she held it up to her and said to me, "Oh, me gusta!" (Oh, I like it!). While many of the others were playing floor hockey with Joan and Keith, Janilka and I played on the swings and see-saw. My Spanish is pretty rusty but we somehow manage with our limited language skills and charades.

After a bit of a visit at the orphanage, we headed over to the school with Marlene to deliver some school supplies Joan collected from her own school in Montreal. We had over 1000 pencils to give out, plus red pens for the teachers and some other important things like erasers, tape and highlighters! We were warmly welcomed by the principal of the school and she let us go about our thing. She told us that the school runs in two shifts: mornings from 7:30am to 12:30pm, and afternoons from 12:30pm to 5:30pm. There are about 1300 students total, broken into those two shifts. Quite an operation. We arrived pretty much at the turnover hour, so it was slightly chaotic, as only a school can be. But we stopped in every classroom and gave pencils to each student. One of the funniest things I noticed while we were there was 2 little boys dripping glue straight from the bottle into a gutter, right in the middle of the school yard! Not shy at all, those two, and not worried about getting caught either! Boys will be boys, in Panama just the same as at home.

From there we headed to Colon for a visit to Hogar Jackson, the old folks home. We got stuck in traffic going there – this was about 2pm. Crazy. And it seems mostly it’s because of the Free Zone shopping. Apparently the toll highway will eventually come out to there but it’s not there now, so there’s traffic, traffic, traffic! Anyway, Hogar Jackson is looking good, all things considered. There are only 5 (or is it 7?) residents there now, all of whom are blind except one. Good old Mr. David Bennett is still kicking around there too. What a surprise that was! He’s still blind and down on his knees praying, but happy to talk to us and welcome us to Panama. Incredible.

On the way back into Panama, we had a quick stop to visit Shirla’s daughter at work and then to the shop where Shirla works (retired from the Army but now has to work 6 days a week to afford her retirement – no kidding). That woman is something. The shop is called Galeria de Arte Indegena, and is filled with the most wonderful indigenous baskets, carvings, molas, paintings and even a few of the usual tourist trap souvenirs. I went in saying I only needed two t-shirts for my niece and nephew. I came out with two t-shirts, 2 woven trivets, a pair of shoes, 2 rings, and a basket. Yeesh, there goes the budget! Everything in there was so lovely, I couldn’t help myself (and you wouldn’t have been able to either, Mom).

After dinner with Shirla, we headed back to the hotel for a rooftop swim in the pool (heaven!) and then wrapped the Christmas presents for all the kids. The Panama skyline seems to grow while you’re watching. There are more skyscrapers than ever. Pretty soon there won’t be much of a view to Caribbean left.

Great, great day. Tomorrow – water park with the kids. Should be … wet :)

#85: Buy Something at Auction

#85: Buy Something at Auction

Last night I attended the annual Youth Unlimited fundraising dinner. Before the dinner there was a silent auction. For the 3rd year in a row I put a few bids in, not really expecting to come away with anything. But I guess third time lucky really means something because although I didn't get the hockey tickets or the suitcase, I did buy a beautiful painting for $100 (instead of $400!). How cool is that?!

It was only when I got home that I remembered I had "buy something at auction" (it was #85, in case you're wondering) on my Life List and that I could now scratch one more item off it. So very pleased with myself.

Here's a picture of the painting.

Panama Updates Soon

Back from Panama, safe and sound. Took 415 pictures in 3 days; 189 of which are uploading to flickr now. Possibly have lice. Daily updates from the trip soon.

Update, 2:39pm:
Pictures are up here.

#39: Take a cruise

Oh yeah, so that last minute cruise I took in September? That was number 39 on my Life List. Only 89 left.

Cruise recap: Day 5

Day 5: Miami

One last sunrise (still no sleeping in for me!) and vacation's over. Time to head home.

The trip home was uneventful. Caught the transfer bus from the port to the airport, dropped my bag (and paid another $25!) and wandered until it was time to board the plane. Arrived in Montreal on time and then, to my surprise was met with the biggest crowd ever in the customs area. So big that airport staff were holding passengers back at the top of the escalators/stairs so that the crowd could move a bit, before allowing us down. It was long. The plane landed at 4:15pm and I walked in my front door at 6:45pm. It was faster to take a bus, metro and bus home than it was to move through that queue. Crazy!

That's it. All caught up. I've been home for over 2 weeks now and with the way things are picking up at work, I hardly feel like I had a vacation. But I still have about 8 or 9 days left to take and will probably take a few days off towards the end of November. There's a little plan in the works for that, so stay tuned!

Cruise recap: Day 4

Day 4: Key West, Florida

Another beautiful sunrise. I'll tell you, starting every day of this vacation with a beautiful sunrise was one of the highlights of the trip.

We arrived in Key West shortly after breakfast and without really planning to meet, I managed to meet up with a bunch from the group as we were getting ready to disembark for our day in Key West. I only had one thing I wanted to do and that was visit Ernest Hemingway's house. For the first time in the trip, I actually felt the heat. The first day in Miami and the other days in the Bahamas there was always a breeze, not so on this day. Our stop in Key West was hot and humid and we felt it. Anyway, enough about the weather (although, short aside, scattered thunderstorms were forecast and that never happened!)

After getting our bearings myself and a couple of friends headed over to Hemingway's house and did a little visit. It might have been a good idea to do the guided tour but I didn't feel like being pushed around from room to room, so we just wandered around and took our time viewing the place. It is really quite a beautiful home. Lovely high ceiling and huge floor to ceiling windows. Hemingway's studio was very interesting to see as well, even if we couldn't go right into the room. The gardens are also very well kept and the swimming pool looked all too inviting! The one thing that bothered me, even though the windows were all open, were the cats. Every time you turned around there was another cat or two or three, jumping off some piece of furniture or strolling past. And as you walked through the gardens they were just everywhere. It was a bit too much for my sensitive allergy and I pretty much spent close to an hour trying not to rub my eyes and breathe through my scarf.

After our visit there we walked over to the Southernmost Point in the USA. We were told it was a photo opportunity. Arriving there I wondered why people were lining up to take their picture against a big piece of concrete painted in a variety of colours but I guess ... well, I don't know. I just took a picture of the area and the ocean and moved on. I suppose the best thing about that was the price - free!

By this time we were about melting so found ourselves a little bistro on Duval Street and had an enjoyable lunch, complete with air-conditioning. One of the few instances that I have really appreciated a/c.

After lunch we walked back down Duval Street to visit a butterfly conservatory. That wasn't air conditioned as much, but it was still cooler than being outside in the heavy humidity. We had fun with the butterflies. There were just so many different kinds, of every size and colour imaginable. Really impressive.

It was probably about mid-afternoon at this time and we decided we would stroll back up Duval Street and head for the ship and a refreshing dip in the pool. On the way, we stopped for some Key Lime pie and ran into two of our friends so we all sat down and enjoyed our pie together.

Back on the boat, it was a relief to jump into the pool. A number of our group somehow managed to meet up again and two of our own guys were selected for the Sexiest Man competition. And what do you know, one of them even won!

A quick shower and change and we were back in the dining room for our final meal together. Once again the menu did not disappoint. I was impressed with the food. There was always a good selection and the portion size was just right. I could eat the appetizer, main and dessert and leave the table feeling well fed without feeling I'd need to order a second dish or without feeling I'd eaten too much.

After dinner we all went and got our packing done and then met up in one of the bars for a few cocktails and some laughs. Given that we were 16, while it was difficult to get everyone to meet up, when we were together we all really enjoyed the atmosphere as a group. It was a good mix of people and I think that's why I had so much fun. Shortly before midnight I headed to my cabin to finish my packing and hopefully get a good rest after the long day of walking.

We would arrive in Miami around breakfast time the next day and head for home.

Cruise recap: Day 3

Day 3 - CocoCay, Bahamas

We went to the beach.

I could end the post there because really, that is all we did and it was amazing! But maybe I could give a few extra details.

Let's see ... once again I was up early. Think I managed to sleep until 6:15am (progress!), so I hit the gym for a bit of exercise before our beach day. The sky was cloudless and I got a few pictures of the amazing sunrise. The boat had dropped anchor (saying stuff like "dropped anchor" makes me want to throw in a pirate-y "Arrrr") just off the coast of a little island. This island is a private island for the cruise line, called CocoCay. They had all kinds of activities set up there: a snorkeling beach, a water sports beach, small market and hair braiding, bbq and picnic area, volleyball, Fisher Price Power Wheels track, water slide, kayaks, floating mats, parasail and glass bottom boat tours, corners with hammocks strung up between the palm trees and the best part - Barefoot Beach!

At breakfast I met up with only one of our group. Apparently most of the others were still sleeping and/or hungover from the previous night's festivities (it was the birthday for one of the guys). We decided that we weren't going to miss a single second of our eagerly anticipated beach day and headed out on the first tender over to CocoCay.

Getting there so early gave us the pick of beaches, lounge chairs, etc. We did a short walk around the various beaches and finally plunked ourselves down at Barefoot Beach. We choose a corner just off the beach but beside the walking path, with plenty of hammocks for our group and lots of lounge chairs. It wasn't even 10am but the call of the hammock was too much for us. We ended up having a nice little snooze for probably close to half an hour. The thing that woke us was this irritating golf cart that drove around the island selling bottles of water and beer. The guy's voice I could have ignored. The horn he honked sounded very much like this. And he would honk it about 3 or 4 times when he drove by.

Anyway ... by this time we were pretty sweaty, the sun having moved and our hammocks not being in the shade anymore, so time to get in the water. The water was heaven. There were really no waves (not like at Cabbage Beach on Paradise Island where you could sit in the water but only get knocked over by the waves) and it stayed shallow for ages. After swimming for a while, we finally saw that a few from our group were showing up. We directed them to our camp site and eventually everybody showed up.

Lunch was provided by the cruise and consisted of a buffet lunch set up at various stands in the picnic area. Lots of barbequed meat and stuff, some salads, and fruit for dessert.

After lunch it was back to the beach and we discovered that the tide had gone out. I went for a walk along the beach and discovered lots of exposed shells. I had never seen quite so many before. While a bunch from our group went to play beach volleyball, a couple of us stayed in the water and watched a storm approach. It was pretty cool to see it move closer. When it did start to rain a lot of people grabbed their stuff and headed back to the tenders. We just covered our stuff (that waterproof backpack cover was the best MEC investment ever) and jumped back in the water to wait it out. About 15-20 minutes later the rain had stopped and were almost the only people left on the beach. It felt very much like a private island. No noise from other people, no blaring music, no sellers passing with junk.

At 4pm we had to catch the tender back to the ship. With the last stragglers back on the boat, the ship set sail again at 4:30pm.

Another delicious meal (think I had a battered fish plate) and for once we managed to make it to the show. It was announced as a comedy and juggling show. What it was, was a juggling show with a few (terrible) one liners thrown in. I hate juggling so probably I'm not the best judge but really, I expected better. Following the show, some from the group did a bit of shopping after the show but I didn't get anything.

Thursday would be the last full day of the cruise and we would be in Key West, Florida, so off to bed for a good rest (after a day of doing nothing).

Cruise recap: Day 2

Guess I'm a little behind in my posts. Sorry!

Where was I? Day 2 - Nassau, Bahamas

Up before dawn (4:15am, in fact) just for kicks, you know. Had to wait until 6am before the gym even opened. The gym was right at the back of the ship so there was a great view. Not like you could see any of it at 6am but as the sun started coming up, bit by bit, you could see the line of the horizon a little more clearly each moment. By the time I finished my run/bike at 7am, the clouds were taking on some beautiful colours from the sunrise. I walked outside to stretch and cool down. Not like you could cool down much outside, it was about 30C already, not counting the humidity - but still.

The ship was just pulling into the port in Nassau and we had a good view of Paradise Island. It was very odd to see it and know that Club Med wasn't there anymore. Strangely, I felt a bit emotional seeing it all again.

Anyway, the sunrise was beautiful and it was interesting to see the crew prepare to dock the ship. At 8am our group met for breakfast and decided on the plan of the day. There was lots of discussion about renting a van or getting a few taxis to take us all over the place for the day. Far too complicated for my taste and really, all I wanted to do was jump on the water taxi over to Paradise Island and chill on the beach all day.

As the others were trying to negotiate prices, I bought my little water taxi ticket ($6 return now!), a few of my friends joined me and we waited for the boat to fill up. Funnily enough, every last one of the group ended up doing the same thing.

A short 10 minute ride later and we were arriving on Paradise Island. On the way over we went right past the old Club Med buildings. I'd forgotten about the old shack used in the James Bond Thunderball movie, the Harbourside building that housed the restaurant of the same name and also was where the Chef de Village lived. Then past the theatre and bar area. The old dock is still there but everything is fenced off. And finally past the dining room. You could there was all kinds of furniture piled up close to some windows in there.

Now the hard part, to find the beach. Paradise Island was unrecognizable. In the 12 or so years since I left, hotels, shops and time share condos have popped up everywhere. I honestly had no idea how to get to the beach anymore. A few questions to a security guard and about 20 minutes I was running down the beach to be the first one with my feet in the water!

We managed to find a tiny bit of shade and dropped our stuff off there. Some of the group stayed there to snooze while others jumped into the water and some others started negotiating with the ever present jet-ski, banana boat drivers for deals.

The water was heavenly. The beach wasn't terribly crowded but there were lots of people selling things: hair braiding, water/beer, recorders (you know, those irritating wooden recorders elementary kids "play" as a musical instrument), lounge chair & umbrella rentals, jet skis, banana boat rides, snorkeling tours, parasail rides ... I just stayed at the beach all day. Luckily I had thought to bring a bit of food and water with me, so I didn't have go hunting for food or leave the beach.

On a day that forecast scattered thunderstorms, it rained for about 5 minutes, max. A lot of the tourists left to go back to their hotels or wherever at that time but it didn't bother us. I knew it wouldn't last long and it didn't.

In the end we spent a little too long at the beach and only had a few short minutes to hurry through the straw market for a bit of shopping before having to rush back to the ship and be ready for our 6pm dinner seating.

After dinner some of the group took taxis or scooters back to Paradise Island so they could have a look at the aquarium and then went out to celebrate one of our friend's birthday. I stayed on the ship with some of the others and just relaxed outside on the top of the ship. We watched the lights, did some people watching and somehow, I forced myself to stay awake until our departure at 11:30pm. Hopefully I would sleep in tomorrow ...

Cruise recap: Day 1

Sorry for the delay in details about the cruise. I've been ... not busy actually, just still on vacation and taking a few days to sort out laundry, groceries and some fun stuff like reading until noon and seeing movies.

Day 1, Monday:

Had to set my alarm for the hideous hour of 3:15am. I'm still asking myself why. I should've just been better prepared the night before is all. Except that I was well prepared. It's those ridiculous last minute things before you go away that have to be taken care of. Anyway, the taxi I had pre-booked, picked me up right on time (4:15am) and I arrived at the airport shortly after 4:30am. My check-in had already been done online, so all I had to do was drop off my bag (and pay American Airlines $25 for the privilege ...) Going through security was long, even at that time. Thankfully the customs officer was chatty and had even been on the same cruise before so he just told me to enjoy myself.

The flight was uneventful and I arrived in Miami spot on time. The cruise representative met me at the luggage carousel and sent me on to the bus to transfer to the port. A short bus ride later and we were at the Port of Miami. Checking in for the cruise was also a breeze because I'd done that online too (how did we live before?!) No sooner had I lined up to pass security, did I bump into nearly all my friends that were coming on the cruise. Boy, was I glad to see them (had started panicking that I'd be spending 4 days on a cruise all by myself.)

After a buffet lunch on the ship, we all wandered off to our staterooms and some exploring. The buffet was ... a buffet. I'm not the best judge anymore thanks to nearly 4 years of buffet meals (3 times a day, 7 days a week) back in the Club Med days, but there was certainly plenty of variety.

My room, located on the 5th floor, was small but not any smaller than I really expected. I took an inside cabin and can honestly say that I didn't miss having a window. I'm not really sure I would ever have had the time to look out of it anyway.

At 3:30pm we had the obligatory muster drill. Fine, whatever - it was hot out, it wasn't raining (yet) and I was on vacation! Then somehow most of us managed to meet up in one of the bars for a round of departure drinks. Just in time too because the rain came down - and hard! Time flies when you're having fun and we had to break up the party to get ready for our 6pm dinner time.

Dinner was fun, if long, and somehow we missed the opening show and the sunset (in fact, missed every single sunset). After a bit more exploring on the ship with the others, I headed to bed around 10pm. It had been quite a long day for me.

Tomorrow ... Nassau!

Pictures, if you're interested are up here.

End of the Season Recap

This summer I had 2 goals. The first was to get my shoulder better enough to paddle again. The second was to paddle with my mixed team again in competition.

After six long months of physio, acupuncture and osteopathy, as well as three months of paddling to get back to competition level, I managed to finish off the season meeting both those goals.

At the Montreal Festival in July I paddled with a women's team and that was good. The intensity wasn't quite as, well, intense. I raced only once each day with the women and didn't have any pain. My shoulder was stable!

August and September meant long months of paddling practice with my mixed team and there were a few sessions that did hurt. But I took care of my shoulder right away. I kept on with my exercises, strengthening and stretching, strengthening and stretching and finally it came time for our last competition of the season, Quebec Cup and I was allowed to race with the team. Not every race because I do understand we all wanted the best result possible. But that's OK. The races that I did do with the team were races that we won!

I was so happy to end the season on a high note; with a podium finish, surrounded by my team mates and a medal (bronze is beautiful) around my neck.

Cruise?

How does a 4-day cruise in the Bahamas sound? Sounds like fun to me. Bit on the expensive side once you include flights, etc. But you know what? I'm worth it!

To be continued ...

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

Update: 8:57pm

I'm going on a cruise! Now that I've gone and booked it, have a departure date, time, etc. it feels real and exciting.

Glad I'm doing this.

Definitely not

At last, this morning there was an email from the school I applied to and unfortunately there is no place for me next term but I'm welcome to apply again later.

What next?

Guess not

September 1. I've been waiting all summer to make a big announcement and now it's September and I still have no news so no big announcement.

I had hoped to be able to tell you, my small little audience, that I would spending a few months in India next winter. At first I thought I would know by June, then I was told to be patient until August, and now August is officially over and done with. September is here and I have officially given up hope that I'll be anywhere other than this bitterly cold country next winter.

Maybe it wasn't meant to be. Maybe I'll go some other time. That will be great when I do. But right now I'm kinda bummed out. *Sigh*

Vitreous Floater

At my annual eye exam yesterday I discovered that the pinpoint shadow in my left eye doesn't mean I'm going blind (phew!) just that I have a vitreous floater.

The doctor explained that in the eye there's this gel and sometimes it detaches from the retina. When it does this, you get a "floater." As long as it's not pulling on the retina it's not a big deal (it's not). If however, it changes (gets bigger, becomes a cobweb) or I wake up one morning with a whole bunch, or I suddenly see flashing light or a curtain type shadow, then I am to get myself to the Vic immediately, as they have an eye specialist on call there, who would be able to do urgent laser surgery or something gross. But only if it changes. For now everything is fine with my eyes.

It doesn't hurt, it's more of a nuisance than anything else, particularly when I'm reading. I'm glad it's not a big deal, just something to watch.

Jean Paul Gaultier

Last Thursday night I visited the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition.

If you're in any way interested in fashion, this is an extraordinary exhibit. All but about 3 outfits on display were close enough that you could see the feathers move when you breathed on them, you could see the fabrics move as they glided around the automated catwalk. Unless you're rich/famous enough to go to an haute couturier for your clothing or you're a top runway model, you will never be this close to these kinds of works of art - not even if your attending a fashion show in the front row.

To hear Jean Paul Gaultier's history and learn how he got into fashion was interesting. But to see clothing from, I believe, all of his collections was such a treat! I took the guided tour (free with admission!) and it was worth the time. The museum guide had obviously done a lot of research on the subject and was able to provide a few funny anecdotes. The tour took about an hour and then I went back through the exhibit and spent another entire hour just losing myself in each piece. Granted, they weren't all to my taste but honestly, there were some clothes there that I would give a limb for. So beautiful, so elegant, just soooo wonderful.

At the end of the guided tour, one of the little old ladies in our group mentioned to the guide (and rest of the group) that she'd actually met Jean Paul Gaultier, nearly 30 years ago, just as he was starting at one of the French designers atelier. She remembered that he (JPG) had a great sense of humour and was one of these people that are really passionate about every aspect of fashion and clothes design, even back then when he was just starting.

Admission to the museum is $15, and considering I spent 2 hours there, I'd say it was well worth the money. Definitely better than going to see a movie.

Updates from Bill & Gigi

My Dad is able to post updates on his blog himself this time around, so check out Will Bill In India for their news.

Safe & Sound

My parents sent an email telling us that they've arrived in India:

"We left Montreal at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday and arrived at school at 7:45 a.m Friday morning. We haven't been to bed since we got up Wednesday morning.

The flights were good and long! The taxi ride was almost 7 hours from Bangalore to school. We had a nap and are getting adjusted.

We saw deer, elephants, peacocks, bison, and a wild boar as we drove through the game reserve."

So, safe and sound. Phew!

See you later ... much later!

In a strange twist of fate, my parents this time are the ones saying goodbye and see you later. They'll be leaving this week to spend 5 months in India. (Lucky so-and-so's ...)

They're going to the same school my Dad volunteered at four years ago. My Dad had such a good experience that he wanted to do it again, and there was no way my Mom was going to let him go alone. Well, they're off!

Last night we managed to squeeze in a little goodbye dinner with the whole family. Here's a picture. Nick, Sue & the kids were on their way back from their vacation in PEI, so we were able to have an extended family dinner, with Sue's parents (Hi Barry & Renée) joining us too.

I'm excited for my parents and can't wait to hear, read and see all about their adventure - together this time. (Hint - Mom & Dad: take more pictures than you think necessary.)

Have fun! We'll miss you!

SOS Richelieu

For those of you living outside of Quebec, you may not be aware of some flooding that happened this spring in the region of St-Jean sur Richelieu. St-Jean is only about 30 minutes from Montreal. This spring there was heavy rain in the region and flooding resulted. Here's a link to a news article about it. And here are some pictures I found online of the flooding. This all happened about 6 weeks ago.

Yesterday I went with a small group of about 20 people from work, as well as several other groups of volunteers from other companies, and we spent the day in this community to help the victims of this flooding get a little order back in their lives.

After my trips to Panama (2005, 2007) and Belize (2009) I remember feeling that it didn't really matter what we did to help, what was more important to these people was that we took the time to be there. The work we did yesterday was no exception. Yes, we did work. We emptied some cabanas of furniture, cleared debris from grass, moved rotted wood and things to the side of the road and hauled what seemed like a million bags of sand curbside for pick-up. I found out what sludge really is. It's smelly. It's slimy. It's gross.

This was, I believe, the third weekend where volunteers came from Montreal (or wherever) to help out the people of St-Jean sur Richelieu. The last couple of weekends were so successful that this weekend they only needed volunteers for Saturday, and actually had to cancel the work plans for the Sunday (today) because there just wasn't enough outside work. Apparently the volunteers have been working hard. Good to hear!

At the end of the day, my work colleagues and I were sitting down to a BBQ when the woman who we'd helped out that morning came to say a few words of thanks. She has a little restaurant on the edge of the river, with a pool, lawn, beach volleyball court, all set right at the end of the road, in a really lovely, quiet and probably normally a beautiful location. Six weeks after the flooding, the river is still 4 feet above it's usual level, her restaurant has basically been gutted from hip level down. Anyway, she came to thank us. She said that we'd probably put her ahead by about 10 days to 2 weeks. She has kids and knows how busy they are, so realised how busy our own lives were and was so thankful that we'd actually taken the time to come and help a complete stranger. We didn't know her, her business, the area, nothing. And that's when I remembered Panama and Belize. Every time we did anything, either at Hogar Dr. Eno, the Seniors Home, at the school and now, here in St-Jean sur Richelieu people really are thankful and happy that you're there.

So here's a challenge I issue to anybody who has never done any kind of volunteering before. You can do it. Do not be intimidated by what you can't do. If you can serve a bowl of soup, you can volunteer. If you can give somebody a blanket, you can volunteer. If you can drag a rake, hold a paintbrush, lift a sandbag, talk to somebody, etc., you CAN volunteer. Now go and do it. Fill up your pot of good karma, or reserve your place in heaven - whatever religion you believe or don't believe, you'll see that giving back for an hour or a day or a week will make you feel good in a new way and it will change you forever. I promise.

Scratch that

Just finished reading Into Thin Air and have pretty much decided to scratch "Everest Base Camp" off my Life List.

Many reasons, some probably a little silly but in all honesty, I just don't think it's really for me. I'm quite sure I can think of something else extraordinary to do or someplace wonderful to explore or ... whatever.

Base Camp not for me. End of story.

Tough Read

As you can see from the sidebar on the right, I'm currently I just finished reading The Postmistress. This is a harder read than I was expecting. Not hard because it's not interesting but rather because the story centers around World War II and what a woman reporter sees and experiences as she journey's through Europe by train in 1941.

As much as I want to keep reading to find out what happens next, I have to put the book down often because what happens, as we all know, is not good. The lump at the back of my throat gets bigger and heavier every time I pick up the book.

Still, you should read it. And keep some kleenex near by (not saying that to be funny, just be prepared.)

Better not to think?

It seems to me that sometimes it's better not to think. I'm not talking about big issue stuff, I'm talking about keeping track of my schedule and all the things that are going on.

Example:
Monday: wake up 5:15am, shower and get ready for work, catch bus at 6:15am, 7am osteopath appointment, 8:30am - 12:00pm work, 12:00-2:00pm meeting, 2:00 - 6:15pm work, 6:15 - 6:45pm travel to Olympic Basin, 7:00-8:00pm dragon boat training, 8:00 - 9:00pm travel home, 9:00-9:10pm vote, 9:10-10:00pm eat dinner, make tomorrow's lunch, decide on clothes for work, 10:00pm - 10:30pm read a little and lights out.

Tuesday: wake up 4:45am, shower and get ready for work, catch bus at 5:35am, 6am arrive at work, do quick check of emails and voicemail, 6:15 - 8:45am hostess at work breakfast event,8:45am - 12:00pm work, 12:00-2:00pm meeting, 2:00 - 5:00pm work, 5:00pm pick up dry cleaning, 5:45 - 7:00pm hair cut, 7:00 - 8:00pm travel home, 8:00pm eat dinner, make tomorrow's lunch, decide on clothes for work, sometime after that, probably before 10:00pm - drop into bed.

Wednesday ... well, I think you get the idea. Imagine if I had kids to take care of? Imagine if I had more than a 30 minute commute? So I suppose I'm lucky that I only have trouble taking care of myself sometimes. At any rate, I'm going to try and not think about all the stuff I have to do, appointments I need to keep, etc. because really, I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

#81

#81 on my 100 Things to Do Before I Go was Learn to drive stick shift. Well, thanks to my youngest brother, now I can check that off my list. I understand the basic concepts and can: start the car, get into first gear, change gears and reverse. Not smoothly. Not well. And not without stalling. A lot. But I can!

Obviously I will have to practice (and buy Marc a neck brace ...) before I can feel comfortable and at ease driving for real, not just in a parking lot, but that'll come.

Thanks, Marc!

India 2012?

February 2012 still feels a long way off right now but it's coming. This morning I emailed my application to the school in India where I hope to volunteer next winter.

If things go according to plan, I will be spending February - May 2012 as an international guest at a school up in the Tamil Nadu hills of India (south west region).

If things don't go according to plan then maybe Plan B will come into place.

Now I wait to find out if I'm accepted. Hope to know by June. Fingers crossed.

MRI

Still with the shoulder, I know. Boring, isn't it?

Let's see, where was I? From September to December I maxed out my insurance with physio, athletic therapy, acupuncture and osteopathy, all in the hope that my shoulder would get better. It didn't. At the beginning of December I finally saw the "specialist." This specialist spent maybe 10 minutes with me and promptly gave me a cortisone shot. This was supposed to help with the inflammation in my shoulder for "7-10 days." He told me to come back for a follow-up if I still had pain. Naturally, I called, only to discover that my follow-up appointment would take place in APRIL. Well really. What is the point of that?

Frustrated at this point, I called a private clinic to find out about costs, etc. Cost was expensive! But I could get an appointment within a week. Next call was to my insurance to find out if they would cover a private clinic. Of course, the answer was no. Too easy. Back to my doctor for another physio prescription and a referral to another specialist.

This time physio is through a clinic the doctor referred. So far I am pleased. It is further for me to get there and back, but appointments are for a full hour, not just 30 minutes, and are the same price as I was getting at the fancy gym downtown. So, if nothing else, at least I feel I'm getting my money's worth. I do think the physio is helping though, if only in small doses. Maybe my shoulder is messed up enough that it really will take a lot of time and exercise to heal.

Next, the new specialist is a doctor at the McGill Sports Medicine Clinic, and I only had to wait about 2 weeks to get an appointment. The specialist has a number of what I suppose are interns working for her. The intern spent a good 15-20 minutes going over my history and putting me through a series of "tests" to see what I could do/couldn't do. Lucky for me, I'm pretty fluent in the injury language now and I am able to clearly identify what hurts and how, so the doctor was able to get a good idea of what's wrong. Following that, the intern and the specialist chatted with me about next steps.

First of all, the specialist was rather surprised that nobody had thought about having an MRI on my shoulder. She explained that no amount of cortisone is ever going to help at 5 month intervals. And then she said something that scared me a little. She said that if I do have a tear (probably I have a series of micro-tears), that tears don't heal. I'm not entirely sure what that means. She further went on to explain that an MRI will at least determine what the problem is and from there she'll be able to treat the problem with physio or whatever it needs. Until she gets the results of the MRI, it's really anybody's guess and I could be getting physio for nothing. Super. Don't you love to hear that you may have wasted over $1,000 for NO. GOOD. REASON?

Anyway, this specialist was able to get me on a waiting list for an MRI. After filling out 3 separate forms, I was told it would be about a month before the hospital called me for the appointment. Fine. I'd waited so long already, another month wasn't about to change anything. That was on a Tuesday. That same week, on Friday evening, the hospital called to schedule the MRI for the following Saturday, that being yesterday. So basically less than 2 weeks after seeing the specialist, I had my MRI.

Can I just stop for a minute and say,"Wow!" After all the appointments, waits, etc. I honestly was not expecting to have it that fast. Finally, I feel like something good is happening.

So yesterday afternoon I showed up at the hospital, found the right wing, floor and room. Of course, I was 45 minutes early but you know me ... I was a bit nervous before hand, got a bit more nervous when I discovered I had to get completely changed and wear one of those silly hospital gowns, and then I will admit to being a little bit scared when I finally saw that MRI machine. Nothing would have prepared me for that.

It was big. It was loud. The technicians were very nice and explained everything that would happen. Got up on the table, I was given some earplugs (whaaaaa??? not what I was expecting), they wrapped my shoulder in some type of hard plastic scanner-thing (sorry, I was too scared to ask pertinent questions by that point), they propped me up on one side, strapped me down to the table and gave me a rubber ball thing to squeeze so I could let them know if something was wrong. The whole process would take about 20 minutes and I was to remain completely still. Ummm, OK. But what if I had to sneeze or cough or something? (Yes, this is what starts going through my mind.) Then I was told to close my eyes as the table moved back into the machine so the lasers wouldn't go in my eyes. And the next thing I knew I was inside a frigging huge machine, something like a tanning bed, I guess, except the roof of the machine was only a couple of inches away from the top of my head. Suddenly I thought it might be a good idea if I kept my eyes closed for the whole thing. Then the machine started making all kinds of whirring, clicking, clacking, grinding and jackhammer-type noises. There was a good flow of air and for that I'm thankful because although I'm not typically a claustrophobic type of person, I was a little stressed about being in such an enclosed space without being able to move, and I started feeling like I was having trouble breathing.

I started doing some breathing exercises and tried to remember as much as I could to clear my mind and think of relaxing things. Lying on the beach, feeling the sand between my toes, hearing the palm leaves rustle in the sea breeze. I didn't sneeze. I didn't cough. I didn't even get an itch. The 20 minutes went by quicker than I thought and suddenly the table/bed was moving out of the machine and the technicians were beside me, unstrapping and unwrapping me. I made it!

Half an hour after my scheduled appointment, I was jumping on the bus back down to the metro and on my way home.

Next - wait about 10 days for the results and then make a follow-up appointment with the specialist. In the meantime, I will continue with physio and hope I'm not wasting any more money.

Shoulder Update

Saw a physiotherapist last night. She told me to do the following: no swimming, no dragon boating, no push-ups, no bench presses, in fact - no weights with my right arm at all for the next few weeks, I can do yoga - but no poses that put pressure on that arm/shoulder, also I can do these front and lateral arm lifts with a smelly rubber band thing.

Because I'm kind of an impatient person (in case you didn't already know that about me - haha) I asked how long it might take before this healed. In return she asked me how long it's been hurting. My response, about 5 or 6 months. She said, "there's your answer." And then I thought a bunch of stuff I'm not allowed to say here because certain people (Hi Mom & Dad!) might get offended.

Other shoulder updates: got an x-ray done last week and will have some specialist look at that when I see him in DECEMBER (glad I'm not in any hurry ...). Went for a combined osteopath/acupuncture treatment which really seemed to have done some good up until the visit with the physio yesterday when all the tests I was made to perform aggravated the shoulder a whole lot. So much that I even followed orders and iced my shoulder even though all I wanted to do was put heat on it and I'll do the same until the physio tells me I can add heat again.

Stupid ice. It's not bad enough that summer's over and that means winter's coming, now I have to purposely make myself cold. Poop.

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.

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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!

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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?