To Yield the Results

Getting going is hard. Once you start, things get easier.

Providing you’re consistent.

I am happy to have a goal. Not only for my physical well-being, but for the health of others. The Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer, Challenge Course (160km a day times two) in June, 2012.

Not easy though when to think back in May I was a shattered soul, hopelessly limping around with a cane and a sling. Edging up the addiction to emotional eating. Just cause (I fractured my pelvis and clavicle).

It’s a minimum or should be anyway, 1.5 hours if you’re training for any kind of cycling distance and heading out. Lately I’ve been reading about the amount of time you can cut off a good hill climb when you’re shy the bulge.

I’m ambitious today. Have no clue the route. These roads are new to me. Let’s see if I can knock off two hours just for fun.

I eat a banana. No snacks to pack. A to go cup of green tea and a water bottle.

The Scottish mist turns to drizzle. I decide to clock my distance and time against my Cat Eye with the iPhone app Endomondo which, coincidently shouts out each kilometer and the time it took.

Managed to forget my glasses, which worked out fine with the downpour that came.

The commuter jacket and the paddling gloves kept me warm. So did the booties.

At 45 minutes I approach a long climb.

There are a couple runners ahead of me.

Who’s going to get to the top first I think to myself? I should be able to gitty-up and go ahead!

I did try.

As we round the corner I manage to pedal past.

It’s flat.

Crap, I thought to myself. Am I that slow? Am I that out of shape?
Yes and yes. And overweight.

All I have to do is keep going I say to myself.

It will get easier.

To yield the results.

If you’re interested in supporting my Ride to Conquer Cancer, please visit the top left link on my blog page for all the details.

Practical Packaging

How many useless things do you buy with packaging that’s the icing on the cake? Complete and utter waste. Recycling isn’t even an option. The garbage is the only place.

Think about it.

OK, I needed the iPhone rubber shock resistant casing, but certainly not the mounds of packaging it came with so it could hang nicely on the wall.

Marketing.

True enough. Items need to be displayed so they can be sold. Competitively.

Sure, it’s consumerism. The way of our world.

Had a friend once who also lived on a boat. In protest of all the garbage she’d have to carry off the boat, whenever at a store like Canadian Tire or even Thrifty's for that matter - she’d spend the time at the cash desk leaving with the items she wanted and needed. The pointless stuff – rather the packaging, she conveniently for her - left behind.

Did we buy the garbage or the item within it?
After going months without a watch I finally broke down today. Along with my son we went on the search.

To my surprise I was introduced to a durable, everything I needed and wanted in a watch. The G-Shock.

I received my receipt and tucked it in my wallet immediately saying no thank you to the box that came with it.

“Mum you should take the box it comes in,” my son says to me. “It’s really neat.”

Happily I departed the store. Not just with a great watch, but with a manual neatly tucked inside something I’ve declared to be practical packaging.

I’ll be carrying my tea bags to school in my G-Shock watch tin.

Thank you very much for making a great watch with practical packaging to along with it.

Like Minded Vancouver

Was super curious to hook up with this morning coffee group. 

They really call themselves Like Minded Vancouver.

A creative source. A connected bunch.

Not about selling anything. All about a handshake and a yack. What you do, what they do.

Only been on the mainland two weeks. Know lots of folks for sure in Vancouver. Not so much around what I’m studying.

Stumbled on their link through Twitter. One thing led to another. Just so happened they wrangled a meeting Friday morning at the funky Gastown Milano coffee bar.

Since I’m commuting from Bowen Island and school starts at 9 a.m. I only had half an hour. Holy interesting 30 minutes!

I met a portrait photographer, a software designer, a real estate agent and a budding high tech entrepreneur.

Little skeptical of late when someone introduces himself or herself as an entrepreneur. Does that mean sales?

This guy was dialed.

Dick was his name.

“I’m a Dick,” he even said.

Which sent me into howls of laughter.

I ask him what he’s all about. He gives the nearby’s the lowdown.

A new technology start-up. Flashing bubbles of information on any one person instantaneously. Instead of going there or here to gain the info it all pops up as you scroll over.
Then he gets out his iPhone. Scans the crowd.

Soon to be, face recognition software that tells all.

Wow. Bubbler.com

Have to say, I’m eager to attend more of these, Like Minded meet-ups.

The Compass Worked

Got lost in the dark this morning.

Decided to ride from Horseshoe Bay to school in False Creek (Vancouver).

Talked to a guy on the ferry the day before he said it was easy.

“Stick right, right?” I asked.

“Yes, easy to find,” he replied.

Well there’s a right, right that I found that pretty soon had me awkwardly wishing I’d figured out how to use the GPS function on my new iPhone.

However, the good old noggin said, after maybe a couple kilometers – STOP!

So I did and rode back and eventually found my way.

That was awkward.
Lessons learned – ensure you look at maps of said roads before your embark on a pre-dawn commute by bicycle.

At least the internal compass worked.