Monday 22 June 2015

Juggling...

Learning how to Juggle... I'm not quite sure how this one got on the list but it may have something to do with at every Christmas dinner we have every year, our family friend Guy has a new and improved skill to treat the kids with... this last year it was a magic show, and even my Gran was impressed... Ha.
So to learn how to juggle was the trick as he has not done this before.  Did you know that juggling can be perfomed with just 2 balls?  That is officially juggling?  Well it is.  I bought a set of juggling balls (made up of 3 balls) - I have practiced on and off for the last 6 months (to be honest it was more on than off) but in the Margaret River I seem to have found my groove... most potentially never to be repeated again... but I do have a non-biased witness and adjudicator and the task has been passed!!


Tess

My Granddad "Da" gave me a book in 1986, Thomas Hardy's 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles', and it has sat on my bookshelf since then un-read.  I think I tried to read it once but the language was a little to old-worldy for me and I just didn't get it. 

Having read it now, I probably wasn't ready for it as an 11 year old.  I actually just read it in around 5 days... I must say it is an amazing book although I was right in saying it is oldy-worldy... a lot of words ran past me and I think I need to read it again to pick up on a lot of other things in the story that I probably missed reading it so quickly.  It is a tragedy and I can understand why it is a classic. 

Definitely a great read for any girl / woman and guy (in fact the guy I sit next to at work read it twice in high schoold for English) and don't let the old words put you off... this book started as a series of newspaper submissions from the author that he peiced together for the book... a mish mash of quite a few chapters that he designed - it did all flow together nicely.

 

Wednesday 17 June 2015

The Overhaul

My bedroom has been a shambles for a very long time... since I was a child really and into my teens and now my adult life as well.  I often don't let my friends into my room as it is quite messy.  Not dirty or dusty (I have a cleaner who does all that), but cluttery - lots of old paperwork around, clothes that I don't wear, the usual suspects.

So the task was to tidy, clean and organise the bedroom.  It has taken a few sessions to do so, but I am now very happy with the result!

Before and after shots:


Tap-tap-tapping

I thought this was the task that  I had failed and had originally posted this to be so.

I bought a ticket to the Sydney Dance Company which you can  use at any time within 6 months. And of course I have left this task right until the last minute and the last possible night I had available to go to a lesson I missed getting into it...

So I still have the ticket and it is still valid so I will make it to a class in July instead... just not before I turn 40.

However I have just been spending my last couple of days in my 30's in Margaret River in Western Australia and I completed an online Tap For Beginners course during this time!  So in fact I have completed this task now....

 

Paying it all off

For this task I had to pay off the below big ticket items which have all been successful!
Car Loan - I sold my car!  So the loan got paid off :) and now I am on a new plan where I lease my new car and save money doing so.
Credit Card - luckily for me I got a bonus at my new job this year which means a portion of it went straight onto the credit card to pay it off.
Flights to Hawaii - the same bonus gave me enough money to pay for my a large proportion of the Hawaii trip I am taking later this year in September (including airfare, hotel accommodation, car rental and race fees).  The only thing it doesn't cover is shopping!! Although I haven't purchased the tickets as yet, the money is set aside in the Hawaii fund.

Task complete!

Moving canoes

This task has been a long time coming. I have been President of my paddling club now for 3 seasons and at the start of that term we lost the spot where we had been storing and launching our canoes from for around 10 years!  

So many members of the club and myself set to work with the City of Sydney to get a storage spot at the new site once built.  They had been proposing a foreshore walkway for a number of years and finally it was coming to fruition.  

Photos below are of the opening day at the foreshore where the club was invited and well represented at the racks, handing out flyers etc.  And we got to meet the Mayor.  

I am pleased to write that I received last week confirmation and a contract advising we had been successful in obtaining storage for our canoes back over at the site!  Move day hopefully at the end of the month cross fingers!  

A really big thank you has to go out to everyone at the club, both past and present, who helped at some stage to make this happen...



Tuesday 16 June 2015

Being a Vego

My sister Jacqui suggested this one... to be Vegetarian (including no seafood) for a month.  So for the last 31 days I have done so.  

I left this one to the last minute as we had a lot of racing to do from February to April so I decided to do it after that.  Being Vego is hard!  

Because I do so much exercise I had to really think about what I was eating to make sure I got enough of all the food groups to help aid in my recovery, particularly iron and protein. I did make some yummy food at home to keep my going and Cath and I discovered an awesome Vego restaurant just next to her house.  We went to a cool Indian place in Perth and found one in Sydney as well. 

However, I have decided that I will go back to eating meat and seafood... I missed it all too much and had a lot of food envy moments.  I still love eggplant which is good because I ate a lot of it, and eggs.  

Bacon is very high up on my agenda to be eaten very soon..... Fakin' Bacon unfortunately tastes nothing like the real thing.....  One thing I have noticed is that when you eat out and are vego, more often than not you are offered white pasta or lentils, so I have spent much of this month bloated!  Ha.

Pics are of a couple of yummy meals I ate as a Vego who is looking forward to being a meat eater!



Ringing Gran

My Gran lives in New Zealand and she just turned 93.  I decided that I don't call her enough so this task was to call (or Skype) her every month.  My Uncle's Skype unfortunately is not working so calling it was.  I did miss out on one Month (February) but did call twice the following month!

I will definitely be keeping up doing this one...


Roar & Snore

Taronga Zoo is a fantastic zoo - it not only is on prime real estate and has the most amazing views of Sydney city, the zoo itself is a great organisation.  

I experienced this first hand with Cath and Caitlin at our recent Roar & Snore adventure... we arrived at the zoo having taken the ferry after work at around 6:15pm. Met with the group and our leaders for the night and the we went for a walk (it was dark!) around the zoo to the camping area which turns has fantastic views.  The official part of the evening starts with cheese and wine, a look at some animals, a great dinner and a night safari.  Then you sleepover at the zoo (woken in the middle of the night by some monkey like animal noises) glamping style.. luckily for me my camp bed had an electric blanket.  

We woke to an awesome sunrise over the harbour and then breakfast and then onto our close encounters where we fed the giraffes breakfast, had a local native animal petting encounter and watched the new seal show training.  

I had to go to work after that but everyone has the option of staying at the zoo all day - and you get 30 minutes of the zoo all to yourself before the masses enter.  What a great experience and well worth the money that goes straight back into the zoo!


the Big Issue...

This is another one of my charity tasks.  I had to by a copy of the Big Issue every month.  It gets published every month and is sold by people who do not have a job and they get the profits of selling the magazines.  

What ended up being my main challenge was being out on the streets when the magazine was being sold!  Recently I have been going into work quite early (before the guys are out selling) and rushing home after work to get to training on a route that doesn't have anyone selling them!  But I have now found a couple of guys that I like to buy from and will continue to buy the magazine when I can.  

It is actually quite a comprehensive magazine full of good articles and well worth buying.  A great initiative and a great publication.


10 Chin Ups??

Chin ups are quite hard for girls, especially taller and bigger girls - there is a lot of weight to lift up! 

2 years ago I did my first unassisted chin up but never really got very far with the development of them. Even though I loved being able to say I can do chin ups, the most I could ever do was 2 or 3 in a row, then I would have to stop and regroup and then do 1 or 2 more, and never really more than around 5.  So I set this challenge to do 10 unassisted chin ups.  

I actually didn't start training for this properly until mid-April when most of our racing season was out of the way and I was able to fit a 2nd and 3rd gym session in (before then I had been running as well as doing both DB and OC and I was finding it hard to do more than 1 gym session a week).  So with the additional sessions under my belt, my improvement curve went up fairly quickly. 

With adjudication of my awesome PT Alani, who helped me get there, I have successfully completed this task!






Monday 15 June 2015

Learning impossible new skills

I have never been able to click my fingers or whistle, not properly.  Sure I can do it, but not with any solid or audible sound, every time, consistently.  I have discovered however since revealing this lack of skillset that there actually are quite a few people who cannot do this. And there are people who cannot wink.  So I don't feel so alone.

However much I tried to improve my skills in this area over the last few months, all were to no avail - I still can't do it. 

We worked out what I do wrong with my clicking (it's all in the technique), but I can't change it - I cannot change my hand, my fingers, or my thumb so clicking is just a skill I will continue to live with limited abilities.  Whistling is the same - if I concentrate hard and be patient, I can whistle.  But I cannot carry a tune and no matter how much I tried I still could not improve (I would say it would take years, not just a couple of months).

So the co-creators of 'The List' came up with a replacement challenge of their liking (my friend Cath is currently in protest about this)... To perform a short skipping routine in front of a small audience.  We did an OC1 session on Saturday morning out around the Sydney headlands which was great and afterwards a small group of friends stood around and watched my do a short skipping routine.  Some of it was captured on video and some photos as well... it was pretty funny.

(Warning: video contains coarse language, parental guidance is recommended): https://vimeo.com/130607786


Tennis anyone??

I played tennis a lot when I was growing up - mainly in Hong Kong at the Ladies Recreation Club (LRC) where I spent many a Saturday morning playing with my friends.  I was good at it, not great but good enough to play a couple of games, have long rallies and win shots.  I could serve, volley, and I always hit straight shots (never spinning the ball at all).  

So I discovered that a couple of my friends here play tennis semi-regularly!  So I asked them for a game.  Adrian set up the court and on a lovely winter's morning we played a game.  Hit the ball around for a bit of a warm up, chose our teams and then played a set and a bit.  It was great fun!  It all came back to me after a while too.  I think we all produced some winning shots, we all hit a ball over the fence by accident and we all had fun.

Followed by a recovery breakfast, what a great way to spend the morning, I think I might do that again!


Giving Blood

It has been around 14 years since I have given blood - for around 3-4 years I was a regular donor and then stopped for some reason (can't remember why).  There is a Red Cross near my office and so I decided to start donations back up again.  Compared to before, I don't smoke and I do a lot of exercise so I figured my recovery would be a little different but wasn't sure.

My first attempt to donate again unfortunately did not go ahead... I had an upset tummy the day before so they told me I could not donate :( 

Then I went to India and unfortunately India is on the list of countries that needs a buffer before you are allowed to donate... 4 months!

So May it was - however it was the height of my race season so I decided to wait until after our final race of the season to donate so the recovery didn't affect my paddling.  I just must remember not to do a heavy weights session the morning after as it is not good!!

It was exactly as I remember it, and I do highly recommend it.  It takes a long time the first time if you haven't donated before, but subsequent times are a lot quicker.  It really is a great thing to do and I received an email to say that my blood had gone to Westmead Hospital and had helped to save someone's life.  How cool is that?


Mothers Day

This challenge is a running challenge.  I have done a couple of runs over the last couple of years but my sister Jacqui had just started running.  So we thought we could do the Mothers Day Classic together (originally Mum was going to walk it but she decided to go to Mexico instead!!).  I don't think I have run in a race with my sister before so I was quite excited.  And she had been training well and getting her speed and distance up.

So I attended my friend Steve & Jenny's wedding on a Saturday in Sydney, took the last flight out of town and landed in Melbourne with a ride to Mum's and a quick sleep to wake up in rainy Melbourne on Mothers Day!  It was cold!!  But we did a good warm up walk to the start line, did some stretching and hydrating and then before we knew it we were off!  The race was 8kms and we had set a goal of 55 mins to do it in (with me fairly confident we would do it quicker) and we smashed it!  Woohoo - go us :) 

It was great racing with you Jacqui - hopefully one day we can do it again - we should make this an annual race and it is for a good cause.


Aloha Hawaii!

I love Hawaii.  It is a fantastic place to go for a holiday - you can make the trip as relaxed or as adventurous as you want... there is so much or so little to do!  The shopping is amazing, as is the food and they paddle... there are outrigger canoes on every beach available.  It's a cool place where everything is on island time and everyone is so friendly and welcoming.

My paddling club is lucky enough to have Hawaii on the agenda again this year for some fantastic racing in September and what a trip we have now planned...

4-7 September: Queen Liliokalani

  • 4 days of flat water racing OC6, OC1, V12 races on the Big Island - the main race is 29kms
8-11 September: OC1 Camp

  • 4 days of technique and ocean skills playing in the beautiful Hawaiian waters on the island of Oahu
13 September: E Lau Hoe

  • A 50km one way race from Maunalua Bay to Nanakuli Beach Park on the island of Oahu
14-18 September: Free Time!

  • Likely to spend this time on Kauai, an island I have not spent any time on yet, maybe cruising the Na Pali coastline... 
19 September: Pailolo

  • A 42km one way big ocean race from the island of Maui to the island of Molokai 

And I can't wait!  We are going with a great group of people and some special friends of mine who I have travelled and raced with for a few years now... I am very excited!

Aloha :)