(Somewhat...) working out again

During my fight with a nasty cough, I was obviously not feverish enough to work out at the gym or go for runs. I can't imagine how the heavy breathing would have helped my irritated throat.

This week, I started exercising again... somewhat. It feels like I've lost 50% of my strength and cardio in the past two weeks. I know it won't take very long to feel right again, but this has been a very frustrating experience. I worked out with Jenika this morning and she had to cut short several of the exercises she had planned. She was good about it though, very patient and encouraging.

So, I'll have to see about my short-term goal of running 10km in less than one hour. The Sun Run is in one month, let's see how things are progressing. I still plan to run it, but it might not be my personal best after all.

See below a picture taken at a healthier time: Jen, our clinic leader, sent me this picture from the half marathon in February. I remember that stretch, it was pretty cold and windy, might explain why I'm not looking so happy!


First half marathon - running along the seawall

Dear Charles - Week 2

Dear Charles,

Another week, another few dollars. March is ending soon and spring is (somewhat) in the air. That's right, March 21 was the official first day of spring. Let's see what else happened this week...

What Canada is Talking About
David Emerson did nothing wrong, says the ethics commissioner Bernard Shapiro. Tell that to the people of Vancouver-Kingsway... Maybe its our ethical guidelines that should be revised.

Quebec becomes Canadian champion in curling. Now, if you're like me, you don't care much about curling, you don't understand how its played and you've never watched a game... We must be real
Quebecers! The team is hoping this win will help develop interest in this sport in La Belle Province.

What Canada is NOT talking about: The Fourth World Water Forum in Mexico. Apparently, there was no official Canadian presence at the forum and only one Canadian journalist covered the event. Why so little interest by the country with the largest fresh water supply? Is it because we have no issues with water, because all Canadian residents have access to fresh water? I don't know what the residents of the 170 native reserves that are at high risk for dirty water would say about that.

Twenty-nine years after her well-publicized visit, a very angry-looking Brigitte Bardot returns to Canada in protest of the seal hunt. She asked to meet with Stephen Harper, who declined. This must have something to do with the fact that she's calling for a ban on Canadian products. The seal hunt began on Saturday.

The Commonwealth games closed in Melbourne and Canada is in third place with 96 medals, including 26 gold. The next Commonwealth games will be held in New Delhi, in 2010. We did well, very well!

Last, but not least, the three remaining peace activities who were held hostage in Iraq were rescued on March 23, four months after being captured. Canadian James Loney returned to Canada today.

West Coast Stories
The biggest story of the week was without any doubt the sinking of a BC ferry, the Queen of the North. The ferry was making a trip from Prince Ruper to Port Hardy, 15 hours along the coast of BC. The ferry somehow ended up off course and hit land, or at least a very big rock. Of all the people on board, 99 were rescued (half of these were ferry personnel) but two are missing and feared dead.

This story really shook BC. Ferries are part of everyday life for many people living along the coast and on the various islands, this incident leaves many uneasy.

To offset the seriousness of the previous story, in other news, we learned that Mayor Sullivan received a very large chocolate egg from the paralympics committee in Torino. On the flight back to Vancouver, someone mishandled the egg and it broke into pieces. Fortunately, the good people from Purdy's will be able to save the egg.

None the Wiser
Samuel L. Jackson has assembled an all-star cast for a spoof on March of the Penguins. The documentary followed Emperor Penguins while they journey through severe weather to mate and protect their one egg so it can hatch a little baby penguin. Farce of the Penguins is the story of "one penguin's search for love while on a 70-mile trek with his libidinous buddies on their way to a hedonistic mating ritual." No comments.

Bruce Willis wants to pull a Die Hard on Columbia. "I'm talking also about going to Colombia and doing whatever it takes to end the cocaine trade." Oh Bruce... 'cause walking in with a bunch of soldiers with lots of guns is going to fix that problem, right?

Personally
I've had a better week, much better. The cough is almost gone, although I still go through episodes where I can't stop coughing for a few minutes. At least I'm sleeping now, which feels wonderful. Now, the road to recovery must include going back to running and to the gym. I haven't done anything in the past two weeks, I feel lethargic. I have a session with my personal trainer on Tuesday, this should kick-start things :-)

The rest is pretty much business as usual. Weeks go by quickly, work keeps me busy and out of trouble. I'm looking forward to this week, Annie and mom are coming to Vancouver for 10 days. It will be good to have these two around and spend some quality time with family.

I heard that a few consultants never showed up and another few are feeling ill. How are you holding up, with your limited crew? Remember to pace yourself, you're on this mission for six months, not just a few weeks.

Kiss, kiss.
Mel

Foodies... so fashionable

I often read blogs from people who declare themselves "foodies" and wonder what the word really means. Foodies are everywhere, most of them are self-declared and all are obsessed with food. Well, not just food, but celebrity chefs, the Food Network and an entire industry that is more than happy to cater to this obsession with accessories, books, and pre-packaged ingredients.

I'm not a foodie. I enjoy food and cooking, but mainly as a catalyst for the company of others. I can appreciate a delicious meal presented neatly on little tapas plates and enhanced by the vibrant atmosphere of a trendy restaurant. However, I'm just as happy making a hearty stew and inviting a few friends over for dinner. Presentation be damned! I don't care whatsoever about celebrity chefs, and, well, without TV, never watch the Food Network. My favorite recipes are also those that take less than 30 minutes to prepare and require ingredients that I can easily purchase at the Sunshine Market.

This said, I'm off to see Lara who is preparing a Filipino soup of some sort. Yum!

Finally...

Sleep :-)

Here's to hopin'

Cotridin cough syrup is what this stuff is called and I'm crossing my fingers (and toes) that this will be my salvation. Until today, I remain sleepless in Vancouver, well, sleep-deprived is more like it. The coughing gets so bad that I've turned on the lights at 2 in the morning, sat in bed and started reading. I knew I wasn't going to fall back asleep immediately. Good news is this is still only a cough, nothing's moving down into the lungs and causing more unpleasantness.

Fred, I followed up on your recommendation, but Tylenol+codeine is not sold without a prescription in BC. You can get over-the-counter products with codeine, but they also include caffeine, which, well, would defeat the purpose.

Did you hear about the ferry that sank this morning? That's scary stuff. Anyone living along the coast or on any of the many islands must be pretty shaken by this story. People rely on the ferries to go places in this province, they are part of our day-to-day transportation system. Problem is, many of the ferries are really old, many should probably be retired by now. Last fall, one ferry had engine trouble when approaching the dock at Horseshoe Bay and smashed into an adjoining marina, destroying over 20 boats. Nobody was hurt, but that was pure luck.

Dear Charles - Week 1

Dear Charles,

This is the first of what I hope can become a weekly tradition for us. You see, I know you are keeping informed on international events, but very rarely will local Canadian news or Vancouver stories reach you. We just don't make the international headlines that often. You could read some of the local blogs or online news sites, but I also know that you'll be busy with you assignment. So here's my offer: every week, on Sunday, I will point you to some news stories I think you'd be interested in. I'll include three sections, What Canada is Talking About, West Coast Stories, and None the Wiser (this last section will be for funny stories or news that made me shake my head in disbelief). Then, I'll tell you about my week, if anything interesting happened.

Bear with me as this week might be short. I'll try to "flag" stories as I hear them during the week, but this time, I'll have to go solely by memory.

What Canada is Talking About
Hard to ignore, Harper's surprise visit to Afghanistan was the topic of most talkshows around the country. Canadian's seem to be equally divided on whether this was a good idea or not, although there's been a recent surge in the support for the mission (55% of Canadians back the mission and 41% are opposed). Note that nobody raised the issue of the Prime Minister's safety (Kandahar is pretty dangerous these days).

Cindy Klassen beats her own world record at the 3,000 m in Calgary. Klassen is the one who came back home from Turin with five medals, one gold, two silver and two bronze. You go girl!

The Canadian Medical Association is going through PR-hell after 15 out of 19 members of the editorial board resigned to protest the firing of the journal's top two editors. They accuse the firing of being a form of censorship. Dr. Ruth Collins-Nakai, the President of the CMA was on As It Happens this week and evaded any question about the reasons behind the firings.
(The Journal has some pretty interesting content online.)

West Coast Stories
Not to be outdone during a world-wide protest to mark the third anniversary of the Iraq war, between 900 and 7000 people marched in Vancouver (the number varies largely
depending on the source) on Saturday March 18. Vancouverites love a good protest and a few are planning to continue their vigil in front of the U.S. Consulate until the bombs stop. Nobody in Montreal volunteered for this task ;)

While 900 showed up to protest the war in Iraq (I'm making an editorial statement and picking a number here, ok?), 500 attended the launch of the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival on Friday. The festival is intended to be "an exciting new cultural initiative for our city, promoting Vancouver's spectacular beauty and natural resource of over 36,000 cherry trees in our parks, boulevards, and private gardens."
(Warning: vcbf.com has nothing to do with cherry blossoms...)

20,376 individuals have signed the petition to recall David Emerson. Mr. Emerson surely hoped that this story would disappear from public interest, but he definitely chose the wrong riding to piss off. Wikipedia has a bit of history to explain why this story is not going away in Vancouver.

None the Wiser
Staying true to the phrase "barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen," Britney Spears, who is expecting her second baby, accidentally jammed a hypodermic needle in her foot. She was stepping out of her car, barefoot, somewhere in Hawaii. Now, never mind the part about walking around barefoot, but she's expecting a second baby? Say it ain't so...

Personally
Last week was a waste. I went to work on Monday. Period. I've been sick since, coughing away, unable to sleep. The cough is slowly easing, so I'll be returning to work tomorrow. I'm sure plenty of stuff is waiting for me!

Your girlfriend was a gem yesterday. She dropped by with some sushi for dinner and we watched Two for the Money with Matthew McConaughey, Al Pacino and Rene Russo. Wow, we didn't expect this movie to be any good, we mainly rented it to see the handsome Matthew, but it wasn't bad at all. We had a chance to talk about addiction afterwards, why some people are easily addicted and others, not.

I'm reading Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. You would love this book, I'll lend it to you when you return, or if you run out of books on your trip, let me know, I'll send it with Lara when she comes to visit you. It's basically a book about science explained in a language that everyone can understand. Bryson not only relays information about our world, but also asks interesting questions (if you say that planet Earth weighs 5.9725 billion trillion metric tons, how did you come up with that number?) and tells the stories of the scientists who dedicated their lives to answering such questions.

Hope everything is going well. I'm sure your grandma was very happy to see you!

Kiss, kiss. Mel

OK, I'm still at home

I could not sleep at all last night, my cough kept me awake. My symptoms are slowly converging from an infection to an irritation. The doctor called yesterday afternoon to tell me that my throat swab test came back negative. No strep. But since I already started the antibiotics, she recommended to continue taking them for four days and then stop. Why four? No idea.

I don't like the idea of taking pills when not needed. I should have waited until the test results came back, but even she (my doctor) was convinced it was a case of strep. This must be some kind of clever virus that mimics the symptoms of a bacteria. Darn thing!

So, back to basics. Buckley's only managed to turn my stomach, not stop the coughing. Even the night-time formula didn't help me sleep, I was up on and off between 1 and 7 a.m. Instead, I'm rinsing my throat with salted water. Let's see how that helps. I'm also going to try catching cat naps on the sofa throughout the day. Maybe if I sleep in a sitting position, I won't cough so much.

I hate being sick :-(

I don't think I can watch another movie...

Four in three days in possibly a record for me. Now I'm ready to go back to work. I rented Water (from Deepa Metha), Lord of War (with Nicolas Cage), Walk the Line (about Johnny Black) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The best was Water, followed closely by Harry Potter... I didn't care much for Walk the Line.

Buckley's is now my new best friend, although it doesn't make it taste any better. I'll bring a daytime bottle to work, with cough drops, and a water bottle. The goal is to not completely annoy everyone working around me. Here's to hoping.

At least it's not the flu

I saw a doctor today and she confirmed my self-diagnostic: I have strep throat and I am now on antibiotics for the next 10 days. I also need to spend another day at home, as I remain contagious for 48 hours after I start taking the pills.

The symptoms should ease by tomorrow, which will be nice because I haven't slept well for the past few nights.

Yuk

I stayed at home today. I wasn't feeling well at work yesterday, came back home early and slept, then slept more. This morning, I woke up with a swollen throat and a bit of a fever. Hopefully, a day of rest will help...

It's not surprising at all that I find myself sick, so many people have been ill at work and a few insist on coming to work even when unwell. C'mon people, spread the love, not the germs!

Let the sun shine

Wow! What a wonderful weekend this was!

Two sunny and warm(ish) days, three dinners with friends, lots of fresh air... A girl can't ask for much more.

Friday night was the dinner at Libby and Dan's, which I described in a previous post. It was so much fun! Then, on Saturday, I had an early meeting with the Strata council and a woman who could potentially become our new property manager. We have to get rid of the current company, it's unacceptable how little service we get from them. Then, I did a bit of cleaning, had lunch, and was about to go out for a long walk with my camera, but the batteries died after two pictures and I had to return home to see if I could get any replacements. While I was home, Raf called and asked if I was doing anything Saturday night. I didn't have any plans, so we decided on dinner and a movie. I was in a mood to cook and offered to make dinner instead of us going out. Now I needed groceries, both for Saturday and Sunday night, so instead of pursuing the photo-safari, I opted for a trip to IGA.

I made a stir-fry with turkey and chicked sausages, and it turned out really well. Raf was hungry, he had gone for a long run in the morning and built up quite the appetite. After dinner, we took the bus back to his place to take Macie for a short walk (Macie is Raf's puppie Beagle, she's a real cutie) and headed out to the movie theatre to see Syriana. It's a good movie, very dark, and a bit depressing when you relate what they show to reality (and realize that the worst parts are true).

On Sunday, again, the sun was shining outside. I woke up somewhat early and went for a short run after breakfast. This is the first time I ran without my jacket, it was even warm when I was facing the sun! Nice. I came back home for lunch and headed out again, this time with charged batteries in my camera. I walked around the seawall for two hours, soaking in the afternoon. You can see some of the pictures here. Pretty incredible if you think that we woke up to snow on Friday morning (actual snow on the ground, something quite unusual in Vancouver in March). Everyone was out enjoying the weather.

Then, I returned home, read a bit and then started preparing dinner for Charles and Lara. I made a beef stew on egg noddles, something meaty as Charles had requested. We had such a great dinner, wonderful food, good wine, that we forgot entirely about his promise to teach me the secrets to attracting men. Let's say that we had more important things to talk about. I'll miss Charles while he is away, but I'm sure he'll be back in no time.


Goodbye Charles, see you in six months!

Small, small world...

Sometimes you find out that you have things in common with complete strangers and think "what a small world!" Last night, that world became even smaller for me...

I had dinner with Libby and Dan, two friends I met through Dina and Stephen (we were virtually introduced by way of e-mail and blogs). They also invited Greg and Laura, two ex-Montrealers also living in Vancouver.

So, we did the usual introductions, and then started asking questions. They asked where I lived in Montreal? NDG. Really? Where in NDG? In a building at the corner of Monkland and Grand Boulevard. Really? The old building where the super's name was Mike? Yes, that building, I was living there on the first floor, from 2001 to late 2002, until I moved to Vancouver. Well, Greg and Laura lived in the same building, on the second floor, between 2000 and 2003! We only needed to move 4000 km away to meet...

And we continued with dinner. Greek restaurants are all over the place in Montreal, and really good ones too, so Dan and Libby had crafted a meal around that theme. Great conversation, we talk about Montreal and Vancouver, politics, George Bush ;) We laugh a lot...

Then comes dessert, a lemon tart I brought that made quite the impression (I'll take the credit only for finding the right place to buy lemon tart in Vancouver, La Baguette et l'Échalotte). As the conversation is moving through a variety of topics, we start talking about salsa. Greg and Laura are starting a course at the Law Courts soon. Level 2 on Fridays? Yes. With Graham, the one who teaches the large level 1 class on Wednesdays? Yes. Well, that's the salsa class I was planning to join at the end of the month. And this means Greg and Laura were taking the same class my friend Rafael was taking on Wednesdays. And they will be in my salsa class :-)

Indeed, very small world...

It's official...

I'm accepted in the Management of Technology MBA program at SFU. If you remember, I was originally accepted under the condition that I complete two courses: accounting and finance. Well, I completed the accounting course and finance is now part of the course load of the redesigned MBA program...

I received the letter to confirm that I was accepted and will start in September. Now they want money...

Typical.

Post #300

I'm not kidding, that's a pretty good stretch of periodical writing if you ask me. 300 posts to date, some crazy initiative that started in July 2004. I'm quite happy to keep the tradition alive :-)

I went for a long run this morning, the first since the half. I was planning to run around 14km, but changed the route half-way and ran 12km instead. It was pouring outside between 10 and 11:30, when I decided to step out. I don't mind running in the rain, it's the wind that I mind. I use this cool little mapping tool to figure out distances. I also tried using the heartrate monitor again, this time without any set limits. I'll do this for a few months to figure out my target rate, and then try to run within limits.

This afternoon, I saw Charles and Lara. We had tea and sweets, chatted about Charles' trip to Haiti where he will monitor the second round of elections and help with the reconstruction efforts. It's a big deal but a great opportunity for him as well. He's leaving on March 14 and will be gone for six months. This summer, Lara is probably going to visit him. It's just too much time to spend apart otherwise! And he'll probably need a bit of a vacation after all his hard work.

Gerri is also leaving, tonight, but for only one month (only!). She's off to Thailand, to further study Thai massage, spend some time meditating and cleansing, and lots of time on the beach. She does this kind of trip every year, last year, if I remember, she was in India for two months.

Attraction

I've been going out a bit more these days, because the sun is back and it stays dry outside for more than 24 hours. The rain has a way of making you want to stay on the sofa with a movie, drinking a warm tea. There are salsa nights, cultural outings, girl's night out, and afternoon meetings for coffee. Bars are usually not my thing, never have been, which is curious since I worked in bars for many years. There probably lies the reason why I dislike them so much, I know the crowds that they attract and the lifestyle.

As a now single woman, I do look at the men that cross my path (or at least pay a bit more attention now) and I have to admit that so far, I've never come across someone who made me stop in my tracks, turn around, someone who caught my attention. I see a lot of good looking boys, with their messy hair and surfer looks (and attitude, dude), but I don't want to meet boys. I asked Lara the other day what she thought of the men in Vancouver. I know Lara's been scouting men for her best friend. We are both coming to the same conclusion: this city lacks attractive, interesting men who are not already dating, engaged or married.

Men also don't flirt here. That must be something that Montreal got us used to, where men have an easier time talking to women, smiling at them, just saying "Hi" where you walk pass them. Here, if you walk towards a man walking alone, he'll often lower his eyes or look elsewhere, at least until he's passed you.

Now, Charles beg to differ on our examination of the dating situation. For the price of a home cooked meal involving meat in the company of his girlfriend and alternate girlfriend (that's me), Charles will reveal the secret to attracting the type of men I am seeking but not finding. Because I am intrigued at what he will come up with and because he is leaving abroad for the next six months (for work), I had to take on his offer. I've also been meaning to cook a nice roast :-)

You never know, if his material is good and proves to be helpful, maybe I'll publish my own best-selling self-help book, specifically for the single women of Vancouver: Dating in the City of Glass.

Fundraising

Last weekend, I started my fundraising for The Weekend to End Breast Cancer. The response has already been really positive, with many friends and family members letting me know that they will contribute to the campaign (and a few have already committed funds).

I'm really looking forward to the walk this year, my colleague Sarah is joining me, along with one of her friends. Last year was a great experience, but I did walk it by myself. Mind you, I was never really alone, there were so many people to talk to, but it's not the same as walking with friends.

Sarah and I are doing some brainstorming on fundraising events we could organize. We've talked about concerts, BBQs on the patio at the office, and a few more options.

Dance like you mean it...

It's all about the music baby.

This post from my friend Raf made me laugh. Because honestly, if I had to dance on hip-hop, I would be the 30-year old he's referring to (well, without the mom part). See, I couldn't dance on hip-hop because I don't get the music. And that's what dancing is all about.

Now here's the kicker: that's not how they teach you how to dance. Learning to listen to music is not what people will pay money for, they will pay to learn moves. And they stand in front of a patient teacher and learn moves. Then starts the music... and the carnage.

I've seen it in dance classes, I've seen it at the gym. My gym has aerobics salsa and aerobics belly dancing classes on Thursdays. Sometimes, I happen to be at the gym when the classes are held and, not knowing anything about belly dancing, I won't comment on that one. However, way to make salsa the most annoying dance in the world. Ripping salsa apart to leave a few easily repeatable movements means none of the sensuality of the dance is maintained. At least the music was good, but nobody seemed to really enjoy it. They were making sure they were doing the moves right.

Raf saves himself a rebuke for the 30-year-old-women-dancing hip-hop comment by being a salsa lover first, and then a salsa dancer. When there's salsa playing, he can't stop moving. That's why it's a pleasure going to salsa nights with him. (I know he reads the blog, hi Raf!)

More little pleasures

There's nothing nicer than catching up with my mom, my dad, my sister AND my brother over the phone. Well, OK, catching up in person would also be pretty terrific, but this comes in close second. I speak to mom and dad every week, Annie, at least once a month, but Marc and I don't really phone each other, so we had lots to chat about last night.

I recently finished reading a great book: Tuesday's with Morrie: And Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lessons, from Mitch Albom. The lessons are simple yet so true. And the author tells a story and stays away from the self-help style that makes so many books completely unreadable. If you want to read a book that will remind you about the truly important things in life, I recommend Tuesday's with Morrie.

Tonight, I came back home and had worked out, then was showered and having dinner by 6:30. It's lovely to be home early and have an entire evening ahead of me. Mind you I had to be at work at 7 this morning for a video call with our office in Bangalore, India, so I guess leaving work at 4:30 was quite reasonable.