I am not a writer. I dabble in parenting, sport and making fun of myself. I'm good at coffee. I love where I live and the things I get to do.
Love, happiness and peace of mind.
Sleep.
A dose of confidence and the courage to try new things.
Speed and endurance.
Patience (x 100,000,000).
The memory of my mother to become both stronger and fade a little bit.
Fun.
New adventures.
To meet new people and forge new friendships, and strengthen the ones I’m lucky enough to have.
My sense of humour to remain intact, or better yet, improve.
Merry Christmas to all!
Much to my sister-in-law’s dismay, I’m a big fan of the CBC. I’m still mad that they got rid of Rick MacInnes-Rae (the best voice on radio, in my humble opinion), but despite that grudge, I listen almost every day.
I love that the program “Q” has created what is sometimes described as the “Survivor” of books. How very Canadian… a reality show about books.
I’m making it my personal goal to read all these books by 2013, regardless of which ones get kicked off the island first. So who’s with me? We can have our own virtual book club!
I was walking in Vancouver yesterday and saw this. I actually laughed out loud before I snapped a picture.
Needless to say, I don’t share the author’s belief… but the challenge continues.
For the record, this week I had one success, one fail and I’m still waiting to feel the love.
I was here. It seems so improbable and far, far away…
Some days, it’s best to take your cue from vintage Calvin and Hobbes.
“Life is like topography, Hobbes. There are summits of happiness and success, flat stretches of boring routine, and valleys of frustration and failure.”
“Hey Mum, you have a cute bum”.
-Anja, 2.
The guest posts continue…
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Hi there,
When we left you last, we were bedding down for the night in Rivière du Loup. The next day started off poorly though, as some city workers had knocked out the water supply to the better part of the city, including our hotel! So un-showered and unshaven, (like good road-trippers) we put Riv in the rearview mirror and sped through the rest of Quebec and northern New Brunswick. We veered off the Trans-Canada at Grand Falls heading to the Miramichi valley based on a reports from an old college friend that The ‘chi is beautiful,… and it was! On the way, we stopped for lunch at Plaster Rock,known for hosting the largest pond hockey tournament in the world (hey, that’s something!) and a Tim Horton’s stop in Miramichi which, as it turns out, is the “Irish Capital of the Maritimes”… who knew?
At sunset, we were cruising over the Confederation Bridge between New Brunswick and PEI, and by nightfall we were having fish and chips at a little place I remembered on Water Street in Charlottetown.
The next day was another beautiful, sunny and warm one, and Dad and I took advantage of the nice weather to tour the Island from West to East. We drove out to Summerside and then followed the shore north and all the way back to Charlottetown, passing through Anne of Green Gables country – replete with all the gimmicks and Trilingual (Japanese!?) signs. But I think the highlight was definitely Cavendish Beach which was stunning. Miles and miles of soft red sand, a little surf, and basically we had the place to ourselves as this is the “off-season”. I recommend you drag the kids out there: a fraction of the price of a Nantucket vacation, and the water’s just as cold, guaranteed!
Yesterday, we took the ferry from Wood Islands PEI to Caribou, N.S, and pushed on another few miles towards Antigonish to stop for and visit my friend Paul and his family at their cottage. Paul is also recently back from London, and for the occasion, his brother Chris and Sister Kate had come up from Massachussets to visit, so it was a very full house! But Paul’s mom pulled out all the stops and the family whipped up a fresh seafood feast of epic proportions: Pan-fried scallops and fresh oysters literally just out of the bay behind the house, smoked Atlantic salmon, trout, all kinds of other goodies from a family of serious “foodies”, and I am proud to say I sampled everything despite my strong dislike of seafood. I must admit that, prepared properly and being that fresh, I would eat it all again!
As the night wore on, a nice neighbor from down the road popped in for a nightcap. He is a retired lighthouse keeper.Seriously, I am not making this up!
We had set dad up in a B&B just down the road, so dad adjourned, and I stayed up later with the 3 Basile kids, and crashed in the guest room. Our visit all ended too soon, as we were off this morning for our next destination.
We drove along the back road past Cape George to Antigonish, had a bite to eat and went to check out the STFX campus. So much has changed, but somethings were still exactly the same, and I was so pleased when I popped into the old Kinetics building and ran into the former chair of the program as well as another one of my profs. Truthfully, I was pleased to be able to gloat about my involvement with the last 2 Olympic games…
Finally, we continued on our way to Cape Breton, looking for (former senator) Lowell Murray. We drove and we drove on an on northbound along the Cabot Trail until we found his home…. but he was not there. So we went to get a bite to eat, killed some time, and came back…. but he was still not there! So we decided to carry on to Baddeck, which is stunning, and which is where we are camped out now. We sat by the water enjoying the warm breeze and the sunset, then found a nice Inn, played some cards and are about to crash. We hope to hear from Lowell before we leave tomorrow AM so that we can meet up with him.
UPDATE: Lowell just called, and we are meeting him for lunch tomorrow at a place called The Distillery, midway between Inverness and Mabou.
After that, looks like we will be heading home. Having seen the highlights on the way out, we are not sure what is in store for the return trip: we will either go to Qc City or through the states. As with most things on this trip, we will play it by ear.
It will be sad to get home to the empty house and try to start fresh, but this has been an amazing trip full of laughs and old memories with dad, and I like to think we created some new ones along the way. Paul said it reminded him of a Hemingway story, and like those, I will cherish this one.
À la prochaine!
N
Yesterday was the first race I’ve done since June of last year. I rarely state my goals, but in this case I declared that my goal was to either run a personal best or blow myself up trying.
I did both!
Overall, I am super happy with how my run went despite the fact that I spent the rest of Sunday paying a hefty price. Hello, post-race nausea! Go away now, thanks.
I did a few things differently for this race and surely some of these contributed to a good race.
A half marathon is a hell of a long time to spend inside one’s own head. It’s generally not somewhere I like to hang out and at around mile 12, the mental Gremlins started to get the best of me. Maybe I should just walk it in. I managed to keep them in check and kept pushing it to the end.
Turned the corner to the finish line and saw 1:37! I was so happy! And also, in a bit of shock.
I felt great when it was over, my legs were fine but my feet were not (I’d post a picture but that would just be gross). As per usual, my stomach had some nasty ideas of its own not long after finishing. I’d welcome your suggestions to how to get through that without wishing death upon myself.
One last observation about ½ marathons… Why do people carry enough water to hydrate a village? We’re not running through the desert, it’s a supported race with water every few kilometers, in downtown Vancouver. Why would you do that to yourself?!
Thanks to Carlee for the support… and for driving my sleepy self home.
I’m in the motherland, enjoying some family time and a bit of R n R. I’m happy to have a bit of kid-free downtime to focus on getting a few things done that I’ve been neglecting but also to rest and get ready for the upcoming half marathon. I’ve accidentally caught a cold, so that’s slowing me down a bit but I’ll get over it.
My goal for the race is to either run a PR or blow myself to smithereens trying. Maybe I’ll accomplish both! That being said, I’m in the market for a reliable pace bunny… Anyone? Anyone?
I enjoy coming back to all my old running routes when I am back here. I didn’t run very much when I lived here 10 years ago but in the times that I have returned to visit I have carved out some favourites that never get old. It’s a nice change of pace from the Pemberton and whistler runs we know so well. Only a few days to go till race day.
Whistler Blackcomb’s Queen of the Storms needs your vote to take the stars of her show heli skiing. How awesome would that be?
To view the contest details and to vote, visit http://www.tiipz.com/c/deepwinter/join
If you haven’t seen Robin’s fantastic show, do it. It’s very much worth your time.
The SMO's stories 