Not sure about you, but whenever I see any of these three commercials. My mind just goes a mile a minute with

- Boy do I feel out of shape just watching those people (and I’m not out of shape)
- Have I, Did I workout today, If not then I’m heading back to the gym
- My bad shoulder starts to ache

Thank you mom for being there for my brother and I over the years, by teaching us how to swim, driving me to and from dragonboat and outrigger practices (until I knew how to drive), being at every local regatta. I may not always say it, but thank you for everything.

Instead of the typical Mother’s day bunch my brother and I decided to take our mom out to the movies this evening.

Happy Mothers Day to all you moms out there.

What do you have planned for Mother’s Day?

What IF I did not go on my trip, I would be closer to/at my goal weight
IF I was not recovering from a shoulder injury, where would I be in my fitness goal
What IF I was paddling on another team, would that help me get closer to my goals
IF only I was that much closer to my goal weight
I cannot let stress run my life

Sure, I was hoping to be a lot closer to my goal weight by now but at least I can see it in sight and I know I am a lot stronger then I was and my endurance level has improved. But at the same time I’m happy that my shoulder is allowing me to do more with it, ex. I am able to increasing the weights at the gym and even being able to paddle on both sides (of the boat) which has made me very happy, I hated being only able to paddle on one side .

The plan is now to get more focused and use yesterday’s weight in as a benchmark for how far I’ve gotten and how close I am to my goal weight. Now to make sure I don’t fall off that diet like I did last week (thanks to a ex)

It’s been a busy last few days, I was hoping to have this post up on Monday but got busy.

Since I was the one buying the chocolate easter eggs this year, I was the one who was controlling how much chocolate was coming into the house. So I gave my mom and her dragonboat team the bag of chocolate that I had and I used what was left over. Why should I go overboard on chocolate when I barely eat the stuff?

The kidlet got a good mix of toys, books and of course chocolate, even my cats got spoiled they got some more treats and the youngest one got a new collar and of course I got myself a bag of mini eggs(yum) and some more sunscreen.

The wine I got in South Africa

Easter dinner was great not just cause the great company but the food was amazing and the wine I brought, had great reviews from everyone who had a glass.

How was your easter/long weekend?

With the weather being so nice, I decided that after practice I’d go to a local high school track to work on some sprints but when I got there the place was placed. Came home and bought out some cones to do some sprint drills. I hope I didn’t damage the grass

Fast forward to Sunday, I spent the afternoon in Whistler as I was taking part in Whistlers Sliding Centre’s public bobsleigh ride. It was something I have always wanted to try/do but wasn’t willing to spend money and fly to Calgary to do it. We all sign in and get weighted with our shoes/jackets and try on helmets. After a quick intro we get dropped off at the novice start (curve 7) meet our drivers and climb into the sleds. I’m not sure who got the fastest time/speed but all I know that the sled I was in, got up to 127.8KM/Hr and it took us 43 seconds to get from the novice start to the finish line (9 curves later). I’d definitely do it again but maybe next time as a push athlete/brakeman were I don’t have to see where I’m going ..

The other day I got there a few minutes early like I normally do, and I noticed my trainer shuffling a deck of playing cards at the personal trainer desk area. At first I’m thinking he might have some free time or something been clients. So after my 15 minute warm up on the stair climber. He met up with me afterwards to mention what we were gonna do for that day.

As he explains instead of doing four sets of 15 reps per exercise, I’d be doing whatever number he pulled from the deck of cards so anything from 1-5 was 11-15 reps and 6 to King was 6 to 12 reps though if he pulled a Jack of spades it was the wildcard and it meant I had to do 20 minutes on the stair climber with the increase the speed by 5.

It seems like its gonna be a simple workout, you think as it’s just four things with so many reps etc.. But the non-stop movement between doing crushes and hamstring curls with the exercise ball, step ups on a plyo box and a few chest presses on the machine. I felt like I had the wind kicked out of me, I mean I barely had time to breathe before I was back doing step ups again or doing crunches against the wall. But thankfully I only had to do the “wildcard” once and it was near the end of the session. But at the time I was back on the stair climber I was cursing at myself because I warmed up on the stair climber. Do have to say he kicked my butt hard!

But what doesn’t make you weaker makes you stronger!

Anyways, Back in June/July I heard that my best friend and her family were planning on heading back down to South Africa to spend Christmas with some family. Since my friends brothers girlfriend and I’ve never been, we were invited to tag along as well. Some days I wish all my flights, I book were direct flights this way I wouldn’t have to deal with long layovers but of course it doesn’t happen that way. We had about a 4 hour layover which wasn’t that bad since there was 6 of us. We always had someone to talk to/look after our bags if we had to head to the washrooms etc. Plus free booze on long flights is a bonus.

Once we landed in Johannesburg, a family friend came by and picked us all up and gave us a quick tour of the city and dropped our gear off at my friend’s aunts place as we were staying there. That afternoon we went to a amusement park and took the mining tour. Trying to stay awake for that was hard but it was nice to walk around and getting all the joints moving again.

Check out my flickr account if you’d like to see more pictures

Once we got back into Johannesburg, the next day we spent time at one of the local museums, like with all museums there are parts you just skip pass and other parts you could just look at all the articles/artwork all day. Even with 2012 just around the corner there you can still find that racism is still around, may not be as noticeable as it once was globally but it’s still around and with that once you get your ticket to enter into the building you are either white or non-white and gave us kids (who didn’t grow up with the whole colour divide a view of what life was like).

The flight to Cape Town is about two hours, which wasn’t that long but it was long enough that we given a real meal, none of this pay $5 by a credit card for a few slices of cheese and crackers crap that all North American airlines do to save a couple of bucks. Once we landed in Cape Town, we were surprised by my friends cousin who met us at the airport. Once we got our two rental cars we drove did a quick tour of Cape Town as we were heading to my friends Grandma’s place.

The next day or so, we (7 of us) packed up again and road tripped it across South Africa to the town where the Grandma grew up in. It was really neat but creepy that we were staying in the house that she grew up in. I only say it’s creepy as it’s now a hunting lodge and since none of us hunt, we were just grossed out by the animal skins all over the place. Traveling with 4 vegetarians can be interesting at times.

While we were there we (the four kids) went tubing and I re-flamed my shoulder/arm up again… Stupid move I know.. On the way back we did a cave tour, did a lot of swimming at all the local beaches, another highlight was the paragliding (I didn’t go), hiked up Cape Point, did some winery tours, saw some wild penguins and went to the local aquarium.

Managed to see some dragonboats while I was in Cape Town which made my day, sure they were just at the dock but I didn’t care as we were at the wharf mid afternoon when we spotted them (to early for teams to be practicing).

If I ever do go down there again, I’d bring two suitcases one for my clothes and another one for all my purchases.

PGN written in the sand

Near the end of the trip, we did find ourselves at a different beach almost every day. It was really nice to be able to enjoy the summer like weather by doing something other then being stuck in a building sightseeing and or drive from point A to B to C all the time. Since I wasn’t really keeping up with my dryland training (crunches,jogging etc) I just used going to the beach to be my dryland training with some swimming, I also mixed it up a bit by doing some body surfing when I wasn’t able to rent a bodyboard.

Some of the beaches we went to were jammed packed with people and others had barely anyone on them which was quite nice as your not always dealing with huge crowds. We did a lot of our swimming when we were traveling along the Eastern coastline/Indian Ocean. I do have to say it was really nice to be swimming in a warm ocean for once. Having brought my Chawel towel with me on trip, I found that changing on crowd beaches a lot easier then having to wait to use a change room.

My Best Friend and I, after a few hours of swimming

An afternoon of Body Boarding

My trip to South Africa was just amazing and even the 6 hours I spent walking around London, England between flights was incredible. It doesn’t seem surreal that I was just in both countries less then a few days ago (got back on the 23rd). I’m currently going thru over 3000 pictures, I’ll write more about the trip soon …. I promise.

Since I’ve been back, it’s been jammed pack busy, on the 24th my family and I meet up to visit my Nana at her care home for a family lunch-in. It was great seeing her even thought she doesn’t recall who we all are anymore. And since I was in London had I had to get her cookies from , Christmas Morning was at my Mom’s and tonight my Aunt is hosting Christmas dinner and then on the 30th, we are going to another family dinner.

Didn’t really have had a problem with jet lag since I’ve been back, well my sleeping pattern has been weird since I normally work night shift/early morning. But I’m glad to be back home

Thank you to all of you who sent me Christmas cards this year. You all rock!!

There wasn’t much of a culture shock when I first arrived like I thought there might be. Johannesburg just reminded me of Home (Vancouver) and a bit of Calgary and Seattle mixed all together, just from the buildings to the landscape and how green everything is and how friendly/polite everyone is.

I do have to say I’m having a blast and I’d love to come back here one day to do more sightseeing.

How are you doing?