Vancouver Sun Run

This weekend we spent in Vancouver. I had foolishly signed both Chris and I up for the 2011 Vancouver Sun Run 10km race. This was back in mid-winter when running a spring 10km seemed like a great idea and I was sure I’d be back into the swing of things in terms of training after my winter hibernation. Oh, how wrong can a girl be?!My spring training has been slow in getting started it must be said. I have the willing, just lacking in the motivation and get-up-and-go to actually go. I did clock 50 miles in March which I grant you is not too shabby, and ran 4 days a week. However my pace is much slower than when I started running last year and I’ve struggled with any kind of distance – sticking mostly to 5-7 km runs.

However none of that changed the fact both Chris and I had entry to the second largest timed road race in the world (a neat fact, but so far I’ve been unable to find out what the largest is). A weekend in a hotel in the city did add a little sugar coating to the ordeal so off we went.Vancouver put on its bestest, brightest, sunniest face to welcome us, so things really were looking better and better. We collected our race bibs, timing chips and tees and then spent an awesome afternoon on Saturday strolling along the seawall, along Robson Street and around the city. The blossom was out, the sun was shining, the mountains still had a lovely sprinkling of snow on the tops and life was good. We were in high spirits.But then, it was getting close to dinner time. And what better way to relax than to have a drink before dinner? Or two, oh go on have another, well just one more before we move for dinner, a drink with your dinner sir? – oh go on then! And before we knew it we were stumbling back to our hotel for – hic - a restless nights sleep – hic. burp…

Ah joy. Chris had sportingly agreed to walk like a snail and plod along with me for this race. His last 10km was in Spring 2006 so he wasn’t exactly planning a PR and I loved the idea I finally had a running partner. However he’s had a few issues with a tight hamstring lately so between the hangover and the concern for his hamstring we were getting close to agreeing just to have a nice ‘Sunday morning stroll in the city’ and just walk the course. I also had no expectations about beating my ’06 Sun Run time but even so, come 9am I was game for a little light jogging!
Seriously I love this event. 50,000 people getting out there, running, some in fancy dress, all in high spirits does that to you! And I am so glad to have been a part of it. We did not set any records. But I had a blast. I didn’t have to stop and walk. The previous night’s dinner did not make an appearance. The sun DID! And we ran along to the sounds of everything from rock n’roll to traditional native drummers.
The Vancouver Sun Run rocks! And I just did my longest run since November last year!

Anniversary weekend in Washington

We spent last weekend celebrating our ninth wedding anniversary. Not exactly a new country this year but to open up the game a little we’ve decided to split the provinces and states of Canada & the US respectively – so it WAS a new state!- Washington. Having already enjoyed a week away in the sun this year we opted for something a little chillier and wetter – the Olympic Peninsula. We visited for a few days back in October 2005 so knew what to expect (rain perhaps?!) especially since the accommodation I was booking was situated in a temperate rainforest.

The weekend started early for us and we got to Bellingham, WA on Friday in time for a pint at the Chuckanut Brewpub right down by the waterfront in old downtown Bellingham – such a great little find with some seriously tempting food – we resisted but did leave with a 64oz Growler full of their finest Red Ale ready for the rest of the weekend! Next morning we headed south and headed for Quinault, right on the edge of the Olympic National Park. We stayed at the wonderful historic Lake Quinault Lodge. We treated ourselves to one of their fireplace rooms overlooking the lake and were not disappointed. Everything about the place was perfect and we loved every minute of our stay! We spent plenty of time sitting by the fire, drinking and reading and glancing up every so often to gaze at the view and pinch ourselves to remind us how perfect it all was. We were so wonderfully lazy that both nights we ended up eating at the Lodge restaurant – once visited by FD Roosevelt himself and hence now called the Roosevelt Room, again with views of the lake and some early season hummingbirds feeding right outside the windows. We donned our waterproofs and boots for a hike through the rainforest and along the lake. (Definately a worthy recipient of this award - Best place to Kiss!! - and perfect for an anniversary getaway!)

Monday we said goodbye to Quinault and headed north (the only road encircling the Olympic NP). We passed windswept beaches full of driftwood (and rain), passed through Forks (home of Twilight, Vampires and all that jazz – no peculiar sightings today – perhaps the incessant rain kept them at home for the day!) and Port Angeles. We ended up in Port Townsend for the evening. PT is a charming historic port town with some beautiful old Victorian buildings – in fact most the district is designated a national Historic Landmark.Our final day we caught the ferry from Port Townsend to Whidbey Island and then north to Canada. We lucked out a little when I noticed that the annual Skagit Valley tulip festival takes place during the month of April. Still a little early for the tulips the daffodils were in full bloom and we took a detour to pass through field upon field of bright yellow blooms – so pretty.

It really was such a fabulous weekend. And thank you to my wonderful husband of nine years for giving me the excuse for another mini-vacation!

In February...

I started a new job. It's part time and is working out perfectly I think. It's great to have a stability of a 'regular' job and I still have some time to work freelance at a couple of other places. It was an interesting couple of weeks figuring out a routine and how it all fits into place but that has passed and of course I have a house-husband at home doing all the cooking & cleaning which made it a lot easier. It's been quite the novelty to have Chris at home and me be the one heading off to work in the mornings!

Of course February we got the new country item (#4) ticked off straight off with our vacation to Jamaica! We also rented a boat (#13) – well, sea kayaks actually. We both took a classic x-country ski lesson too (#6) Don't think I've spent so long on my backside! Seriously. I do not pretend to be anything of a skier really but I can get by OK on a downhill blue run but this was a whole new ball game. I didn't realise it was going to be so tricky to balance on little 2 inch wide sticks - silly me! We spent most of the lesson doing drills which was the difficult stuff but the last 15 mins we scooted round one of trails and once we got into a rythem it was OK. Realistically I don't suppose we'll get another chance to get out this season but I would like to spend some more time doing this - and such a bargain for our lesson - $40 for a 1 hour lesson including trail passes and rentals - an awesome deal for people 'first time out' up at a nearby x-country club. Bagged another restaurant first this weekend In Seattle when Chris and I checked out a Rainforest Café for the first time. I’d seen these places before but we’d never eaten there – what fun?! We sat by the gorilla family who kept us entertained during our meal but mostly I loved the funky animal legs bar stools! (and the 21oz margaritas!)

I am currently failing in the scrapbook-a-page-a-month goal, although I think my point was to have a layout a month to look back on even if I didn’t actually make it each month – and I have prepped the photos and journaling for January so it’s not all bad! I also want to put together a little mini album documenting my progress on the manifesto and also a vacation mini album for Jamaica (though we don't have too many photos so it might be a mini mini!) Nothing like adding to the 'to do' list rather than crossing things off eh?!

My running is also not going well. I've probably logged about 20 miles so far this year. I took a break over the winter. I felt the dark nights, icy sidewalks and cold were not conducive to me getting out there, and back in December after feeling guilty about not going all the time I finally gave myself a break and 'retired' for the winter without that guilt. I had intended to cross train instead but that didn't happen. I'm OK with all that. But now the sidewalks are clear again so I'm feeling the urge again, just lacking the motivation! I have signed both Chris and I up for the Vancouver Sun Run 10km in mid April so we do have something to work towards. I really need to listen to my own running mantra....if you went when you first thought about it, you'd be back by now!' It's so true and I'd probably have logged half the miles by now! ;-)

January progress

Just got back from a weekend down in Seattle. I was excited to catch up with Tess – my bff from Cyprus days. It’s been over 7 years since I left the island but we’ve been so lucky over the years to catch up from time to time. Funnily enough though, each of those 3 times has been a meeting in a country that neither of us live in! So great to have dinner with her, and her daughter & son-in-law on Friday night and then a bonus meeting in the mall the next day for lunch. Loved seeing you Tess.xx

So already it’s the end of February eh?! My 2011 manifesto has been moving nicely along. January I ‘ticked’ off 5 items;

• We went outdoor ice-skating (#21) up at Big White ski resort.
• We painted a wall (#3) in our bedroom which is just the first step in a bit of a re-vamp/personalization from the orignal and unimaginative natural tan the house was painted in - we used the Behr 'Wine Frost' - I think it looks great, though way more purple in real life than I was expecting!
• I finally made a piece of wall art (#7) that’s been on my mind to do for the longest time. I printed the phrase 'home is where the heart is' repeated over for the background then cut an outline shape of BC with my Silhouette machine and mounted it with foam squares. Then I cut out a little heart and placed it approx where our home town is with some more foam sqaures. It was so simple to do and I'm really pleased with how it turned out; we now have it hung in our entranceway.
• I tweaked the design of my business cards (#18) just a little more and finally sent them off to the printers. Loved how they turned out and upon delivery I felt justified in ticking that one off my list too!
• And finally for January we tried out a new restaurant (#26). I knew this was going to be a pretty easy item on the list – we love eating out, but I had in mind a few places in town I wanted to try out. Mimi’s Italian is just one of them! (I can see us succeeding in this task a few times over during the course of the year!)

I also did a great job of keeping up with a gratitude journal for the fist month and I tried and tested 3 new recipes already so good progress towards a couple of the annual goals.

Jamaica mon!

Got back last weekend from our awesome week in Jamaica. It really felt like a really welcome break for us, escaping the winter weather for a glorious week of sunshine, rum, over-eating, sunburn, rum, warm waters.....ah...bliss! Did I mention the rum?!

We stayed about 35km out of Montego Bay on the north shore of the island. In a large *all-inclusive* resort. There I said it. Yes, all-inclusive. Really not my thing - the whole package holiday thing, but this time the stars really were aligning themselves to point us in this direction. We've had an interesting couple of months over this winter - waaay too many discussions at home revolving around work (or lack of it) and so many uncertainties to face up to. We wanted an zero effort, lazy holiday - I didn't even bother buying a guidebook! (ok so I DID borrow one from the library!) We had no aspirations to explore and travel around much like we would normally and there was also an element of 'we're too old for this shit' when it comes to backpacking and living out of scuzzball cheap rooms. Don't get me wrong - the classic scuzzball room, aka Casa Wretched (Zihautanejo, Mexico) and Turdapec (also Mexico and seriously I mentally blocked it's real name) and the various others served us well at the time. But for this vacation I wanted some indulgent 5 star luxury and ain't afraid to admit it!

Oh yeah baby! I did not know that rum could be served in so many guises. It seemed a trifle boring to order a 'rum & coke' when it could be a punch, a daiquiri, a Bob Marley, pina colada, mojito and coutless others. If one didn't work, move onto the next! Same with restaurants. We had 10 to choose from. Pools - there were 5 of those and 3 different beaches too! Our 1 bed suite had 2 TV's (which I think only got turned on once - I found Glee!! - couldn't miss Glee!). As large hotels go I can't complain and we certainly got our 'luxury'.

We couldn't give up our independace entirely though. We rented a car for the week so we could head off on our own to explore a couple of spots. We'd already looked into a couple of the popular tours and price-wise the car was as cheap with the added bonus of being able to stop as and when. Perfect!

We followed the masses to Dunnes River Falls on one day. The thing is with these 'tacky tourist traps' - they got that way for a reason right? It's still a beatiful place. Lush green forest all around and the most beautiful cascading falls that just go on and on until they spill out into the warm Carribbean sea. I really didn't think it was all that busy either. We climbed the falls ourselves and on several occasions we found ourselves the only ones in sight so we still had the sense of 'just us'. These days they scrape the rocks to prevent them from getting too slippy. We still found a couple of spots that they'd missed though - heck it would be lethal otherwise! You have to wonder when Jamaica will get up to speed with the health and safety regulations and ban climbing of the falls altogther!

We also visited the Appleton Rum Estate who have been distilling rum since the 1700's. What was great about the visit there though was the 3 hour drive to get there - through the hills that they call cockpit country. There were no grand vistas (so no photos to share) as the forests were just so dense with little tiny villages appearing out of nowhere and crumbling roads and their own special breed of kamikaze minibus drivers (we may also have got slightly lost due to the lack of road signs)
The Rum estate itself had a great tour, followed by a complimentary unlimited rum tasting session from their 13 different brands (it was about now that the coin was tossed as to who was driving home!)

The car also came in handy for a couple of sunset sessions on the far west of the island in Negril. We found a great cliffside pub with Jamaican Jerk chicken to die for (and maybe a rum cocktail or two to wash it down with) A great place to people watch at dusk and a funky little town to boot (if we were to go back to Jamaica it would be Negril we would head for!)

We also spent a morning diving. The water was gloriously warm and calm, we had an awesome dive master and had an enormous dive boat to just 3 of us! Relaxed and so, so enjoyable for me.

(Chris getting a beachside mini massage!)

Overall we had an awesome week - one of those weeks that you're just so enormously grateful for. It was everything we wanted this time and I've come home truly refreshed. I love Jamaica and would happily go back. The food, the people, the dancing, the rum....oh my!

I have to say though. Fun as it was all-inclusives are a frightening breed. Large, character-less, bland and terribly, terribly wasteful. And FULL of loud drunken people! (and for once they weren't even English!!) I enjoyed myself for a week this time but I still love our usual independent way of travelling - if we go back to that though I just need to convince Chris to take me to classier joints where I get a toilet seat and I'm only sharing my bed with him (and not an army of ants!)

White Rabbit Snowshoe Race

Today Chris and I took part in our first snowshoe race at Crystal Mountain resort up in West Kelowna. We signed up for the 5km option (after seeing that the first half of the 10km route was all uphill!). Even our 5km route wasn't all plain sailing I have to say. We took the chairlift to the top of the mountain (So far, so good though it was helluva cold!) and gradually wound our way back down the mountain from there (with a little ravine crossing giving us a cheeky slog uphill in the middle somewhere) I haven't felt burn like this. Perhaps I don't run so hard, or have such cold air whipping through my lungs or even this nice lil' cold I have going on at the moment but man it was hard!! We managed a sprint away from the start line (there were TV cameras so we had to make the effort right?!) and then it was mostly a brisk walk. I have probably wrecked Chris's knees for life by making him run down a couple of downhill sections (the only bits I could manage but probably his last choice for a spot of jogging!) And of course the obligatory sprint to the finish line just over an hour after setting off!

It was a small race, but fantastically organised and everyone was so friendly. The sponsors outdid themselves too. After all the top placed winners picked prizes from an enormous pile from top-of-the-line snowshoes, bags, poles, gaitors and outdoor clothing to vouchers for house-cleaning, Curves gym and ski lift tickets all the other finishers got drawn randomly to pick up prizes too. We both won something! I picked a starlit snowshoe tour with fondue dinner for 2, and Chris scooped a $50 voucher for a local Italian restaurant. Incredible and so generous - way more than we paid for the entry fees and a fantastic (if exhausting!) way to start off our weekend!

2011 Manifesto of my life

Happy New Year!

I'm not in the habit of making resolutions, nor am I into choosing 'One Little Word' but I did want to do 'something' and so I made a list. Things I want to do, learn, make and accomplish during this year. This year I will be 37 and so I have got my list of 37 things to do in my 37th year. And so, here it is. Public. Just so you all can hold me to it!

1. Make chocolate chip cookies from scratch
2. Log 600 miles running
3. Paint a wall
4. Visit a new country
5. Blog at least once a month
6. Take a ski lesson
7. Make wall art (and actually display it!)
8. Go on a picnic
9. Learn something new
10. Grow vegetables
11. Play mini golf
12. Go for a bike ride (the type with pedals and hard graft!)
13. Rent a boat
14. Bake a loaf of bread
15. Relax in a candlelit bubble-bath
16. Go to a hockey game
17. Take a yoga class
18. Make business cards
19. Visit a national park
20. Go camping
21. Ice-skate outside
22. Give 3 handmade gifts
23. Sew something
24. Stay in Harvey
25. Make gazpacho
26. Try a new restaurant
27. Go to a live comedy show
28. Run a sub 56' 10km
29. Read 2 non-fiction books
30. Spray paint something
31. Feed the ducks
32. Do a scrapbook page every month (month-in-review)
33. Make money from my new business venture
34. Give to charity
35. Listen to live music
36. Cook and master 12 new recipes
37. Complete a Gratitude journal

And there it is. And as far as #5 goes - I guess I'll see you back here next month for a progress report!