Homebound

Or at least that's where I wish I could stay these days...

Today, I took a cab back from work. I was stepping out of the building, ready to head for the corner of Beatty and Smithe when a colleague stopped me and said "I wouldn't get close to the street corner if I were you." I then turned around to see people bravely approaching the intersection only to suddenly have to use their entire body weight not to pull a Mary Poppins. High winds are OK, but when you have to maneuver an umbrella, a gym bag, jump over the large puddles and not get hit by a car, having the additional variable of wind direction and intensity makes it just plain unpleasant. I smiled at Craig, my colleague, asked how he was planning to get home, and when he said a taxi, I offered to split the fee. He lives a few streets away from me.

Vancouver broke a few records this January, including most days of rain (29 out of 31) and probably total rainfall (281mm). You think people's complexion are greenish here because of the lack of exposure to sunlight? Wrong. It's mold.

Kung Hei Fat Choy

"Congratulations and be prosperous."

You can probably guess where I spent part of my weekend, but more on this later.

Friday evening, as usual, was quiet and spent at home. Many coworkers are sick at the office and I made sure to have some hot herbal tea and a long night's sleep to hopefully keep the bug away. So far so good.

On Saturday, I went to the gym to lift some weights and also included some time on the rowing and elliptical machines. It breaks the routine of running. When I returned home (completely drenched, as I had left my umbrella at home and it started pouring), I got a phone call from a neighbor. Apparently, there was water leaking from somewhere in the building down into the underground parkade. I asked if they called the emergency number from the property management company (they hadn't, apparently, I'm the first point of contact for many neighbors), so they said they would call and I thought nothing more of it. I did go have a look and saw that the water was coming down steadily, and since the rain had stopped, it was probably not rain water that found its way in.

I walked to Granville street to do a bit of shopping in the afternoon, and when I returned home, I met the neighbor who called me and asked how the leak was being taken care of. It wasn't. Apparently, the emergency response person, after asking a few questions, made a call that it wasn't urgent and could wait until Monday. I went back downstairs, and the water hadn't slowed down. So I called the emergency phone number and asked them to call me back. Three hours later, nobody had called and another neighbor knocks at my door and tells me she has water pooling on the carpet in her bedroom. She also called the emergency number and gives me the name of the person she talked to. I call this guy, explain the situation and insist that he sends a plumber over. Water in the suites is not something that can wait.

10:30 p.m. The plumber is on site, he was at a big job in Burnaby earlier and couldn't make it before this late. We walk around the property and he agrees that the leak is probably due to a broken pipe. Problem is, the two suites above the leak are dark, nobody is home, so we have to call a locksmith to pick the locks and give us access to the units.

1:00 a.m. After spending quite a bit of time waiting for the locksmith and another bit of time waiting for him to break the locks (they couldn't be picked, he had to drill his way in), we find out that one suite is dry, but the other one does have a leaky pipe. It's being renovated and when the contractors did some piping work for the kitchen late last week, they probably yanked hard on one of the pipes and the joint (quite old) gave up. I sign the paperwork, leave notes to my neighbors (I now have their housekeys, as their locks had to be replaced) and go to bed around 2.

Needless to say I wasn't going to run 18km at 8:30 Sunday morning. I'm too tired and can't get up until 9:30. I make myself breakfast, then head out downtown. I have some shopping to do at Sears, where my friend Justin is registered for his baby shower next week. Since it's the Lunar New Year (Chinese New Year), I decide to drop by Chinatown to see the parade. It was lovely. And luck has it that the rain didn't start until after the parade. I went to Sears, purchased a few items, then made my way back home, starving, as it was 3 and I hadn't had lunch yet.

I took a few pictures of the parade, you can see them here.


A lion pausing for the crowd at the Chinese New Year parade

Recent readings

So far, I've kept my resolution of reading one book every week. Here's what I recently finished.

The Crazed, from Ha Jin. The story of a university professor in China who ends up in the hospital following a stroke. Two of his students look after him while he is recovering. One of these students, Jian, is also on his way to marry the professor's daughter. But the professor becomes delirious, reliving various parts of his life out loud and some revelations bring Jian to rethink his purpose in life. The story happens in China, weeks before the student protests on Tiananmen square.

On Equilibrium, from John Ralston Saul. I didn't actually finish this book, I'm half way through, but I felt I needed a break before going back. On Equilibrium discusses six human qualities, I've read about the first three, common sense, ethics, and imagination. Lots to think about when reading this book. Saul's definition of common sense is interesting, he calls it shared knowledge. This implies that without our interaction with others, we could not develop common sense...

Red Earth and Pouring Rain, from Vikram Chandra. This is a story about storytelling, Indian gods and customs, wars, traditions, ambitions, transitions, and a white-faced monkey who knows how to type and recalls his previous life. Something about this author's name sounded familiar and I'm quite delighted to have picked up this book.

My next few books will be about financing and shareholder's equity, an Alice Munro's novel, and a guide on preparing for a career in project management. My colleague also lent me Tuesday's with Morrie: And Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lessons, from Mitch Albom. It comes strongly recommended!

Another great reason to love living in BC

Polling stations open at 7 in the morning, which makes it convenient to drop by before going to work. No lineups at 7:30 :-)

Don't forget to vote today!

Detoxify your life

Two great resources I am using to identify offenders and plan their replacement:

The Environmental Working Group Skin Deep database for all personal care products (shampoo, deodorant, soap, lip balm, and so on). Enter the name of the products you use at home and you might be surprised by the results... not always in a good way :-(

The Labour Environmental Alliance Society's page on toxins in the household. This page lists eight common toxins that are found in household cleaning products and should be avoided. The site also includes a list of safe alternatives.

If you happen to discover that some of your favorite personal care products contain all kinds of nasty chemicals, why not write to the manufacturer and let them know that they just lost a customer. If enough people do this, eventually, someone will get the message...

Overworked

Two high-intensity workouts in a single day is too much. I discovered this today.

I started this morning with my first session with Jenika, who will be my personal trainer for the new few months. I do a lot of running and this causes certain imbalances in my body. Jenika is helping me strengthen the core muscles (abs, shoulders, back) and the muscles that counterbalance the muscles typically used during a run. Several colleagues have worked with her and liked her methods. She's tough, I'm sure I'll see some real improvement after working out with her.

Then, after work, I had my hill session with the running clinic. We were set to run nine hills. I made it to seven. The last one felt terrible, I was so tired. I don't think that combining two hard workouts on the same day is a good approach. I'll ask Jenika to switch my sessions to Tuesday morning instead.

It's strange, when I tell people that I am working with a personal trainer, I often get a remark about how expensive it is. It's not cheap, but this is my health I'm investing in. And if you want to compare prices, I could buy personal training for an entire year for the price of some flat-screen TVs. I don't eat out very often, I don't buy lattes every day (one $4.50 latte at Starbucks every day amounts to about $1200 yearly)... I guess it depends where your priorities are :-)

Doggie fashion

You know you are in Vancouver when some dogs have a larger wardrobe than most people, when businesses like doggie-daycares, doggie-bakeries and doggie-spas are booming and when, come Halloween, you can easily find a costume for your four-legged friend. No kidding.

My neighbor has a miniature Pincher (Doberman). The dog is a pain, it barks every time it sees me (or anyone else for that matter) and whines when left alone at home (fortunately, this almost never happens). This morning, I leave my place to come face to face (or feet to face in this case, the dog is so small) with a live Chia Pet. The dog is wearing a puffy, pink coat. "Nice coat," I said looking at the owner, also wearing pink. She smiles and says "Oh yeah, it's so ugly, but it's her favorite, she always wants to wear it."

The dog has no sense of fashion, if you ask me... It makes her butt look big.

At last there was sun

Vancouver was well on its way to breaking a record dating back from 1953 for the longest continuous number of days registering significant rainfall. I think the record was 28 days and if it had kept on raining until tomorrow, we would hit 29 days. But yesterday and today were partly sunny. Today's been dry. Record avoided (thank goodness).

I spent Saturday cleaning up my place, doing laundry, taking the recycling out, ladida... I had been kinda lazy in the past few weeks and the sun suddenly revealed all kinds of dusty furniture and spotted floors. It feels good to have these chores under wrap. I also made a large pot of soup (root veggies, tomatoes and lentils), perfect for when it starts raining again ;)

Today, I ran 12km (18km is actually next week's run), which wasn't all that easy because the course called for several hills. I don't mind running up, but running down hurts my knees. Then, after lunch, I visited the central branch of the Vancouver Public Library and borrowed two novels and one non-fiction book on financing. On my way back, I stopped by Best Buy to get myself a new cell phone. I bought a Motorazr V3 and signed up for a package with Fido. I was tired of so-so service and signal from Telus and my old phone was so big, I never took it anywhere (this beats the purpose of a cell phone, no?). The V3 is small, yet the interface is easy to use. It also has a camera, they all do these days.

Now, I'm fighting hard to NOT take a nap and instead, do some grocery shopping. If I nap, it takes a long time for me to fall asleep in the evening. But it would feel so good :-)

The gift of life

I gave blood for the very first time today. I'm happy to report that I didn't feel faint and that my blood-iron level is high (enough). They make it pretty easy to give, there's a shuttle that picks us up at work, drives us to the clinic, then drives us back. You simply need to show up. I think I might just try to give regularly, every 56-days, as this is the amount of time that your body needs to completely regenerate 454ml of blood. I was given a first-time donor pin and will receive my donor card by mail. I'm looking forward to learning what my blood type is!

After work, I went to see Picasso at the Vancouver Art Gallery with Charles. I had initially invited both Lara and Charles, but Lara is starting a new job this week and battling a cold, she was a bit too tired to walk around a museum. So I borrowed her boyfriend :-) The exhibit was really interesting, as the drawings and prints were not pieces you would typically associate with Picasso. I also suggested that we visit the fourth floor permanent collection of Emily Carr paintings. Charles was really impressed with her work.

Matching baby

No, this is not someone I've been hiding in Vancouver, it's the beautiful Naomi that I went to visit just before flying back to Vancouver. This is a great picture that I stole from Stephen. I couldn't resist!


Holding Naomi...

Little to report back about this weekend

It was a homebound and quiet weekend here in rainy (really rainy) Vancouver. Didn't go out, did a bit of reading, ran twice, Saturday morning at the gym (6 km) and this morning outside (16 km). I was planning to go to the library yesterday afternoon but it was coming down so hard I suddenly had an urge to stay on my sofa, in my pajama. I read Runner's World instead. My colleague Stephen buys a copy now and then and lends it to me when he's done. I enjoy their articles, I think we'll subscribe to the magazine for a year and split the cost.

This afternoon, I had the pleasure of helping Geri log some hours for her Thai massage practicum (that's what friends are for). I was really surprised by the outcome, I'm usually not a big fan of massages, but the Thai massage includes a lot of stretching and she focused on my legs, which felt wonderful after this morning's run. I was really sore before the massage and the soreness went away. It must also be the level of comfort I have with the practitioner. It's much more relaxing to get a message from a friend than from a complete stranger.

Tonight, I'll do a bit of cooking for the week, some laundry, then watch Mondovino, a movie about the wine industry and wine families.

That's what they meant...

... when they said it rains all the time in winter in Vancouver. It's coming down pretty hard tonight, and was also raining hard last night (except for the two hours I was outside running up-hill, go figure), and the forecast is all about more rain for the next, oh... four months?

Routine setting back in

I think I can take a liking to my "dressing for success" resolution. I was told twice this week that I looked nice (never happened before) and was even complimented on my earrings. If that doesn't make you walk around with your head high, I don't know what does. I have to admit though, there is a bit more preparation involved, but I took some sage advice from my brother and select my outfit the night before. If any ironing needs to be done, it's not in a rush and while eating my cereal.

Tonight, I ran up (and walked down) a 500m hill seven times! Yes, on purpose... Hill training is part of the half-marathon clinic. I wasn't sure I was going to make it to seven, as my last hill session only involved going up four times (I missed a couple of sessions over the holidays). But the beauty of attending a clinic is that others are there to encourage you (and they also skipped a few sessions, so everyone's encouraging everyone). I'm happy to be back on the training schedule, I don't think I fell behind much during Christmas. Sometimes, it's also good to take a short break, let your body adapt and recover. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Happy new resolutions!

It is true that a new year encourages us to look behind and learn from our past experiences, then look forward to more challenges and dealings. I've made some resolutions for 2006 and there is no better way to stick to these than having them displayed for everyone to read on this blog. No cheating :-)

1. Dress for success
I don't know if this is a side-effect of the laid-back West Coast lifestyle, but I've been going to work like every day is jeans day. In high-tech, it's easy to do, R&D staff is never known for power suits and ties. However, I feel it is important for me to dress not for the position I hold today, but for the position I could hold tomorrow. The trip to Montreal was a step in the right direction, I went shopping for shirts and dressed pants with mom and Annie.

2. Make running a part of my life
This is also something I've started in 2005, but I need to continue with my efforts to step out regularly and add kilometers to my shoe log. Being fit makes me feel confident and strong, and forces me to make healthy choices.

3. Nurture my relationships with family and friends
How easily we forget about the people who care most about us when going through busy times. I should call my family more often or send them regular e-mails. I should take the time to phone friends and go out with them.

4. Do one thing I have never done before
Stepping into the unknown is always a little tough, but there is no greater experience than trying something for the first time. Maybe a new sport, a course, a trip... Choices are endless.

5. Read one book per week
One fiction, then one non-fiction. Reading is such a rewarding experience. I work only a few minutes away from the largest Vancouver Public Library branch and I haven't even visited the place yet. I remember the pleasure of going to the public library in Montreal every now and then. NDG had a small but well-stocked library where I enjoyed spending an hour choosing books for the upcoming weeks.

Happy New Year everyone!