The Crawl

This weekend Mum came out for the Eastside Culture Crawl, a three day event in which artists (about 300 of them) open their studios.

On Friday we had dinner at Tropika with Team Pink and Cassandra. On Saturday it was a lazy start to the day with eggs benny then off to the crawl. There were tons of fantastic artists, a few not so great ones and a few that were probably good but I think I missed something. I planned to go somewhere cool for dinner but we were both a little burnt out after all that art so instead we ordered pizza from my favorite pizza place in the city and watched a movie.

This morning we tried for a slightly healthier start (oatmeal) then met up with my friend/almost sister/Mum's 3rd daughter for coffee.

Aside from some slightly unhealthy eating, it was a fantastic weekend. (I made up [or tried to] for the unhealthy diet by going for a run this afternoon followed by some yoga.)

I had a Google video chat with sister and nephews this evening so it's been a great family weekend!

I'll leave you with a picture my Mum took (both photos in this post are her's). I think the Canadian Tire on Cambie needs to replace some lightbulbs.

A Little Less Vein

I had my ugly, ugly varicose vein removed today.

The surgery was reasonably quick and painless but unpleasant in the way that surgical procedures are. I was about as unhappy getting my fillings redone last week, so it was sort on par with that (although I really dislike dental procedures). At least this time I was less likely to bite the person doing work!

Now I'm at home and supposed to sit quietly with my leg up. Usually when I'm home on a weekday it's because I'm sick so I sleep all day. Aside from an achy and awkward leg (it's wrapped from ankle to above the knee in a tight tensor) I feel fine, definitely not sleepy, and am seriously bored and more than a little twitchy. Using the computer is doable but difficult as it's a PC, I'm currently at my desk with my leg up on the arm of the couch - not a terribly elegant or comfortable position. I'm sure I can deal with one day of this!

Remembrance

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
— Lt.-Col. John McCrae

IM Day

It was 200m IM day in masters swim this morning and I did a grand total of 250m of butterfly - I think that's double the total amount of fly I've ever done in one swim session (including butterfly days). We did break up the IM - 25m of fly, rest then the other 25m of fly and 50m of everything else in order, Paul probably figured this was the best way to prevent drownings!

This is cool because fly has been my nemesis since I started masters. I could do the stroke and I could do the kick but could never put the two together in any sort of useful way. On the last fly day we had something finally clicked and I got the rhythm (kick-to-breathe, kick-hands-in, kick-to-breathe, kick-hands-in ...)

Now that I've sort of figured out fly it's actually sort of fun. My technique is still terrible, I most likely look like an epileptic beluga, but it's far better than the almost-but-not-quite-drowning-while-somehow-moving-forward that was my previous method.

It was also fun to do (broken) 200m pieces for our main set. Normally we do 100's or, very rarely, 150's for the main set so a longer set was fun, especially for those of us who're more about distance than speed.

Aaahhhh

I haven't been to a yoga class in ages. For years I took yoga once a week, finding a good instructor was up there with having a good dentist, maybe more so as you only see your dentist twice a year (if you're lucky). It was something that had a significant effect on my life, helping me find peace and calm and get myself to a positive place. Somehow, though, I fell out of the habit - it's been years since I've been to a class. I keep meaning to go but never really got around to it.

A few months ago I came across a link to a website that had free one hour yoga classes, I've been meaning to check it out but, again, never really got around to it. Until yesterday. I finally tried out a class and it was fantastic. Fantastic enough that I did another today after getting home from work and am considering getting up early to do one in the morning.

The website should come with a warning that it's addictive.

If you're interested, the site is yogatoday.com.

The sessions are free, there's an ad at the begining but 60 seconds of advertising is worth sitting through for 60 minutes of yoga.