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Poor Little Bee

15 May

Yesterday was race day, yay! It was the FCRCC Knockout Race which means your team races three qualifiers then you go on to the knockout round which sounds pretty much exactly like it is.

There are 7 teams in the heat, you race, the last two get knocked out, the rest of you immediately paddle back to the start line and you race again. This happens for three races in a row. The final race there are only three boats and the pressure is on!

It is soooooooo much fun! 🙂

There are no medals for this race, just bragging rights.

We earned a tad bit of bragging rights since we came in second place in B Division. Not too shabby!

However, despite a day filled with racing, and fun, and hanging with the team, and repeated sunscreen application, and the joy of not being at work on a day I normally work the one big memory that won’t leave my brain is of…*dun-dun-dun*…a bee.

Yup, that’s right, a honey bee. Ya know, those cute little guys that are integral to our ecosystem and that are dying out? Those bees.

honey bee clip art

Might as well lean back in your chair and be comfy for this…

Some of us went to McDonald’s to get drinks, hey, it’s Summer Drink Days, don’t judge! I decided to try the lemonade, which fyi, delish! I didn’t quite finish it when we had to go warm up for our next race, the Knockout round, so I left it in the cup holder in the arm of my camp chair.

When we got back after our three back-to-back races I figured take one last gulp to finish the lemonade off and throw away the cup. Seems a fairly normal decision, right?

Well, note to self, next time look in the cup, and the straw! I take my sip of drink and something solid-ish is all of a sudden in my mouth. I thought it must be a lemonade seed and was kinda surprised cause this is a McD’s drink, so, not real lemonade, right? I mean, it comes out of a machine, it is processed in some way I am sure…but maybe I am wrong and there are real lemons involved in the making of this drink…who knows!

Not wanting to swallow a seed I pop a finger and thumb in to my mouth to remove it and what do I remove but a dead honey bee.

Yup.

Let that sink in a minute. I had a honey bee in my mouth.

My. Mouth.

*shudder*

What if I had opted to chew and swallow the “seed”?? Ugh, the thought makes me cringe. (seriously, cringing right now from having written that!)

I guess the lure of the sugar in the lemonade was too much for the bee to resist and down the straw it went, where it promptly got stuck and drowned, poor little bee. And then instead of having a proper funeral, or whatever it is bees do when one of their own goes down in the line of duty, I almost ate him! Then I threw him to the ground in a silent freak out! *shakes head at self* So disrespectful.

I actually do feel kind of bad. I don’t feel bad about killing certain creepy crawlies, especially if they are in my apartment, but I try not to kill them when I am outside and in their home environment. Plus the whole endangered thing! Oh the guilt! So I’m going to take some wild flower seeds with me when I hike this Wednesday and scatter them around, maybe some of them will grow, and help out the honey bees in that area, and karma will be balanced once again…or the bees have a little bee network and they now know I was indirectly responsible for the drowning of one of their own and the desecration of his body and now I’m on the honey bee hit list…

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Now Comes The Exercise

10 May

I warned you in the last post this one would be about the new exercise plan so don’t blame me if you’re all “omg all she is writing about is working out, ugh” 😉 lol

I found the work out plan I am going to follow by complete and total fluke, such a pleasant surprise!

I can’t lay claim to any part of this plan, I found it here…

http://www.popeyescanada.com/strongtothefinish-en.html

It is the Popeye’s Supplement company website. I was on it seeing if my protein powder was on sale (sadly, it isn’t) and noticed they are having a contest. I can’t enter because it is already started but that doesn’t mean I can’t read the information they have on the site and learn from it.

You select your gender and from there check out four different workouts. I have made copies of all of them with the theory that once I have gotten good at the beginner level I will be able to move up to the more advanced workouts and well, might as well be prepared for that, right?

Here is what the beginners workout plan looks like…

Capture

For some reason the part that most appealed to me was that all the workouts can be done at home. Normally I don’t like working out at home, I like being lazy at home. Buuuuuut there are advantages, like, I don’t have to worry about making myself presentable to the world, I don’t have people in the gym watching me, I can work out at anytime of day or night, my shower is less than ten steps away so when I’m done I can get cleaned up super fast.

Oh, and the biggest perk is that I have no excuse to not work out. My gym closes at 10pm Fridays and Saturdays which means I can’t get there after work and I don’t care for working out prior to going to work so I have used those two reasons for more often than not skipping my Friday and Saturday workouts. Well, no more!

Something else I like about this plan is the alternate exercises. It is smart to not keep doing the same exercises for weeks and weeks and weeks in a row so having things to swap out to keep the body guessing is good. Also, as I get stronger I can add weights to the moves, add more reps and sets, make it more of a challenge. 🙂 Plus it alternates cardio with the full body circuit and even throws in a rest day and a stretching day. It’s a good mix.

I wasn’t intending to have Day 1 be a Monday but I wanted to start the program right away and I found it last night so right away meant Monday. Whiiiich actually turns out to be a good thing because if you’ll notice on Day 2 and 4 I will be doing cardio and in the alternate exercises one of the options is “sport” and those are the days I have dragon boat practice which means my dragon boat practice can be substituted in to this work out plan and count. Yay! I figure I am probably still going to do a separate 30 minutes of cardio on those days, cause why not? But if life gets in the way and one day I can’t fit in time for a run or hike I won’t be missing out completely cause I’ll still be going to practice. Maybe my logic is flawed but it makes sense to me…

So today after work I went for a one hour hike with a friend then came home and immediately did Day 1’s workout. I had to make some minor changes, after the second set my knees were hurting quite badly so during the third set I did 20 squats instead of 15 squats and 5 squat jumps, the squat jumps were killing my knees. Also, in set 3 I did my push-ups on an angle because I felt it was better to do angled push-ups with proper form than pathetic push-ups on the floor that weren’t giving me as good of a workout as they could be. I’ll get stronger and be able to do all three sets of the push-ups soon but until then I’ll do one set angled, build those muscles!

There ya have it, my new work out plan. Easy in the sense I can follow it and have no excuses to not work out. Challenging enough that hopefully it will start me on a lovely path of getting more fit. 🙂

Care to join me?

 

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Burnwater

17 Sep

For those of you not in to dragon boating you’re probably wondering what the hell Burnwater is. Well, lemme tell ya, it is a company that makes amazing dragon boat paddles and accessories.

Something else amazing about them? Their customer service!

My paddle got damaged towards the end of this season and had to be sent back to Burnwater (they are in the States) for repairs.

Here is what my paddle looked like…

2015-07-26 21.04.25

I had to drive over the border and take it to an American FedEx because FedEx on my side of the border said they aren’t legally allowed to ship the paddle to the States. Annoying but oh well, I got a little road trip out of it so yay! lol

My contact at Burnwater knew I needed it back for a race festival and it seemed like I would get it back in time. If I couldn’t get it back in time for the festival it was to be shipped to my parents place because I was going to be staying there while on vacation and I wanted it for a guest paddling session I was doing with a friend’s team.

The paddle didn’t arrive here or at my parents, it was mia.

The tracking information online said the package had cleared the San Francisco sorting facility and was en route but it had been saying that for a ridiculously long time.

Arin, my contact at Burnwater was so nice about all the harassing and annoying emails I kept sending him asking if he knew where it was and when it was obvious it was not going to show up he said he would send me a new paddle!

Can you believe that?! I mean, how awesome is that?? It wasn’t his fault USPS lost my paddle but he, on behalf of Burnwater, took ownership of the situation and fixed it.

Best customer service. Ever!

My brand new absolutely lovely and perfect paddle arrived this past Monday and I am not exaggerating when I say I hugged it. I hugged the box it was in when it arrived because I realized what it had to be and then I ripped the box open before even signing for the package and hugged the paddle directly.

I had it shipped to my work because there is always somebody there and it was just fluke it arrived on my shift. A friend of mine at work was there when I opened it, she now thinks I am a little crazy, as do the other staff and residents who saw me hugging it lol but that is okay, they suspected I was a certain level of crazy anyways, now it is just confirmed for them lol 😉

I can’t seem to take a good picture of my new paddle so here are pictures I stole from the internet so you know what it looks like…as if you care lol 😛

burnwater 3

I have a T Grip Handle

I have a T Grip Handle

burnwater

If ever you need to buy a dragon boat paddle (or accessories!) I highly recommend going to Burnwater, their website is http://www.burnwater.ca Not only will you get an excellent product but if ever you need to contact customer service they definitely know how to threat their customers! 🙂

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Vacation Talk!

9 Sep

I went on vacation for two weeks and recently got back. I had intended to blog while on vacation but yeah, that soooo didn’t end up happening lol It was a simple trip back to Alberta to visit my family and friends, you know, the ones I left behind when moving to BC. 😉

Instead of making multiple posts about the trip I’ll see if I can condense everything in to one post…or maybe two…

The cat came with me so instead of flying we had ourselves a 13 hour road trip through the lovely Canadian mountains then through the lovely Canadian prairies. Striker, the cat, spent the first 45 minutes of the drive loudly expressing his displeasure over his forced confinement in his carrier as well as being manhandled out to the suv. I took a book on cd (from the library) to listen to and he was so loud I had to turn the cd off because I couldn’t hear the narrator! He eventually stopped meowing at me and decided a better use of his time was to pout…for approx 12 hours…

This is what a pouting cat looks like.

This is what a pouting cat looks like.

When he wasn’t sitting on the floor under my legs he was sitting in his carrier with his face squashed against the mesh side ignoring me. Blatantly ignoring me.

I have two nephews and I like to take each one of them to hang out one-on-one.

My first day there I took the older nephew (he’s 14) horseback riding. He agreed to go but he wasn’t really feeling the whole riding horse thing, he’s such a trooper! 🙂

Giddy up!

Giddy up!

After the trail ride we went to a movie (Fantastic 4) and dinner (food court). I tried to get him to go to a real restaurant but there is a pasta place in the mall he loves and I’d rather he eat something he really wanted than drag him somewhere he doesn’t like.

I went to a place called Freshii and had an amazing rice bowl called Pangoa…

Pangoa from Freshii

Pangoa from Freshii

Imagine my surprise and horror when I got home and found the nutritional information online for this dish, it has 900 freakin calories!!! There is brown rice, grilled chicken, beans, various veggies and some bbq sauce but as you can see not a lot of any one ingredient so where all those calories came from I do not know. I do know that I won’t be ordering that ever again, even though it was tasty.

The next day I went for brunch with my mom, we went to Tutti Frutti and I had a lovely vegetarian omelette and one slice of Maple Crisp crunchy french toast. Yes you read that right, crunchy french toast! Mmm!

Crunchy French Toast

Crunchy French Toast

The omelette was a tad odd, IMO, because it was open not folded or rolled but it was tasty and really that is all that matters lol

Veggie omelette with potatoes on the side.

Veggie omelette with potatoes on the side.

My mom got the Casa Blanca which is French toast topped with fresh fruit & coated with delicious English cream only she got the cream on the side so she could decide how much of it she ate. Smart lady! 🙂

French toast with lots of fruit!

French toast with lots of fruit!

Later that day I guest paddled with a dragon boat team called The Raunchy Rodents. They practice on the river and have a freakishly short training season because winter is a long and cold season there, can’t really practice on the river when it is frozen! lol I had a great time, they are a fun bunch! 🙂 They had about half of their team at that practice due to a variety of circumstances which kinda made me feel better about taking a spot on the boat, I would have hated to be an extra body if all their team showed for practice.

The Raunchy Rodents - well, about half of them lol

The Raunchy Rodents – well, about half of them lol

A view from the middle of the river

A view from the middle of the river

Some of us went out after practice for a drink and a nibble, we went to a local pub called Duggan’s Boundary Irish Pub and had a fun time. 🙂 The brunch I had earlier with my mom powered me for the whole day, though I did cave and get some Potato Pancakes cause uh hello, how could I not? lol

Potato Pancakes with sour cream

Potato Pancakes with sour cream

The next day was a big day, I took my younger nephew (he is 7 and will proudly tell anyone who asks! lol) to Drumheller to go to the Royal Tyrrell Museum. It is basically the mecca for anyone in to dinosaurs and this little guy is most definitely in his dinosaur phase! It’s a three hour drive there and we spent the entire time talking about dinosaurs and life and music and playing pretend, it was a highly entertaining drive lol

Little hand, big footprint.

Little hand, big footprint.

I was abandoned 20 minutes in to our arriving at the museum so he could participate in a Dino Dig, basically he got to go be a paleontologist for 90 minutes while I wandered around doing nothing of much interest because adults aren’t allowed on the expedition…well, minus the adults running the expedition that is lol He loved it! They went on a 2.5 km hike through the badlands, used real paleontology tools to excavate part of a fossil then learned how to cover it properly and transport it back to the museum. After the day was over he told me everyone should move to Drumheller because why would anyone want to live anywhere else? Oh, and we are all supposed to work at the museum…oh boy…lol

If you were thinking he fell asleep on the way home after a long and busy day you my friend are oh-so-wrong. We played pretend and chatted the entire three hour drive home, although I would have been ok with a bit of quiet time because I was tired lol

Let’s see, the next day I got to spend with my friend Nicole, we had plans but they fell through so I ended up going with her while she bought kitty supplies and then adopted two adorable kittens. Yay for kittens! She was going to get just one but the brother and sister were in a cage together and how can anyone be heartless enough to separate siblings?

Meet Solar and Lou.

Meet Solar and Lou.

If I remember correctly the girl is on the left, she is Solar, the boy is on the right and is named Lou. I don’t have a great picture of the two of them because they are super fast and oddly enough don’t much care for staying still…go figure lol We had so much fun playing games with them we basically spent hours playing games and just watching them be silly lol

Sunday (the day after the Day of Kittens!) there was a family brunch where I ate pretty much everything lol I don’t have any group pictures from that day, I do have a bunch of individual pictures but that’s too many to be putting on here. Later that day I went to hang with a friend, Jasmine, and her family which consists of a husband, three kids and a dog. Her brother came over as did her parents, all of which I have known for a loooong time. Her youngest is my Goddaughter and all three kids think of me as an Aunt. They are great, the whole lot of em. 🙂 That evening involved a decent amount of alcohol, lots of reminiscing and my camera being dropped in to a glass of water by the middle child.

sigh.

Yup, there went my camera. 😦 We fished it out immediately and put it in to a bag of rice to dry it out but the camera didn’t recover fully. It could take a picture but the flash was dead and the picture quality was not good after it went swimming. Sadness.

I spent Monday working in my parent’s basement sorting out all the stuff I have stored there lol My parents got the basement renovated and my mom wanted me to go through all my stuff and sort it in to things I am bringing back with me, things I am keeping stored in my parent’s basement and things I am getting rid of. I got rid of quite a bit, brought back a chunk and left the rest in rubbermaid containers on shelves out of my parents way. Aren’t I such a good daughter? 😉

Tuesday was a day of awesome, well, sort of. I went to Calgary to ride the Olympic bobsled track and ride the zip line they have. Calgary hosted the 1988 Olympics and now the Olympic Park is a tourist place as well as where current and future Olympians train, for only $99/month I too could have a gym membership there lol

Decked out and ready to bobsled!

Decked out and ready to bobsled!

Ready to zip lining!

Ready for zip lining!

I have gone zip lining many times but this type of harness was new to me. When I was hooked to the line it is like sitting in the most comfortable hammock ever lol It is supposed to be the fastest/longest zip line in North America (if I remember correctly) and there was a parachute I had to deploy to get me slowed down in time for the stop but it wasn’t so fast or long that it was scary, sigh. I think I am done zip lining since it no longer brings out any nervousness or fear. The bobsledding was interesting, there are 14 turns in that track and it was fun but not “oh my god I’m so scared and nervous and can’t wait for the adrenaline rush” type of fun, which was what I was hoping for, shrug.

On the way home from Calgary I stopped at Peters’ Drive In and ordered heaven, seriously, their food is sooooo good! If I lived in Calgary I’d be a thousand pounds because I would always be at Pete’s lol

The most amazing of all amazing burgers and mouth watering onion rings.

The most amazing of all amazing burgers and mouth watering onion rings.

The thing about Peter’s is that they have the best milkshakes you will ever find! You choose your flavour and can combine up to three flavours to make your own custom milkshake.

All the flavours available.

All the flavours available.

The rest of the trip was filled with dinner with friends, hanging with other friends, hanging with my parents, helping out with stuff around my parent’s place, basically just enjoying being there. Oh, and shopping! There was some super impressive shopping! I got boots, and flats, and a blazer (so grown up of me don’t ya think?), Christmas presents for various people, random things that I wanted to buy there because there is only 5% tax vs the ridiculously high tax where I live, stupid tax *grumble*

I had a great, fun filled, always doing something, type of trip and I’m really glad I went. 🙂

The drive back went much better, the cat decided I wasn’t subjecting him to some random form of torture and he spent most of the drive sitting on various objects so he had a better view out of the window. The only time he got vocal was when I had to swerve to avoid a deer and the cat did not appreciate that, I’m pretty sure he would have hated the experience of hitting the deer more though so I wasn’t too worried about his bruised feelings lol. 😛

This is what I woke up to my first morning at my parent's place.

This is what I woke up to my first morning at my parent’s place.

That adorable picture is the site I woke up to my first morning of vacation, there was a head board on the bed I slept in and the cat figured out he can watch me from above…scareeeeeeee! lol 😉

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Dragon Boat Video

7 Aug

Okay, hopefully this works, here is a video of my teams second, third and fourth race at the Harrison Dragon Boat Festival from a couple weeks ago. 🙂

Just in case anyone was interested lol

https://youtu.be/sxrNDVj0RHg

Quick Note: I tried clicking on the link once it was in my post and it gave a message to watch the video on YouTube so there is a link on the screen that will take you to the video on YouTube. No big deal but for some reason when I do that it plays the video suuuuper slow and the picture is out of sync with the audio. Hmm. That could very well be my computer doing that so it may play well for you but if it doesn’t than I apologize, I don’t know why it is acting wonky. 😦

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Hello America!

6 Aug

Today I had a little jaunt in to the States, and when I say little I mean little, I was only there a couple of hours. Thank goodness the border is so close! 🙂

Why bother going for such a short visit? Simple, I had to ship my dragon boat paddle back to the company that made it (Burn Water) for repairs.

Why did I have to go across the border to ship my paddle you wonder? Simple, Canada and the States are weird and like to have random rules in play in regards to what can be shipped where and my paddle was a big no-no for going across the border in a box.

Makes no sense? Lemme explain!

I went to FedEx on the Canada side of the border to find out how much it would cost to ship my paddle, it had to go to Northern California. The guy took one look at it and said they can’t ship it, there are rules that prohibit them from shipping my paddle. I asked for clarification and his explanation was this:

The States has a policy that we can’t ship used personal items across the border in to the States. Apparently the American government is worried people will ship over all their personal items then drive or fly over as if on vacation and then be all “haha, I claim squatters rights! my stuff is all here and I’m not leaving!” Basically they are afraid Canadians are going to try to sneak move-in to the States.

*rolls eyes*

Listen, I may be happy you have ObamaCare now but don’t think it sounds good enough for me to leave my healthcare system behind…even if I do desperately want to live in LA and pursue my acting career there *big epic sigh*

Oh, and on top of all that, if they could legally ship it, it would have cost me in the high $200’s! That’s just crazy!

It is cheaper to drive the paddle over the border and ship it from within the country, which is exactly what I did. 🙂

The wait at the border crossing looked like this…

And I didn't bring a book, sigh.

And I didn’t bring a book, sigh.

I thought mid-day on a Thursday would be nice and quiet, don’t any of these people work?? Eesh. 😛

While sitting in the traffic that closely resembled a parking lot two border guards started walking down between the cars, I did my best to look innocent but I guess it didn’t work because they stopped at my suv and said they were doing a “spot check”.

Those are never good words to hear from someone with a badge and a gun.

While I sat super still in my vehicle, with the engine turned off, they searched and questioned, and searched a bit more. When the one guard asked the reason for my trip today I explained about the paddle and having to take it to FedEx on the American side of the border and they both looked at me like I was crazy. I wanted to point out that if I was up to something I would have come up with a far less odd sounding story but figured they wouldn’t appreciate hearing that, shrug.

Eventually they left me and my vehicle alone and I continued to slowly inch my way up to that little booth thing the border guards chill in while asking questions of those of us trying to pass through. The guard in the little booth asked a lot of similar questions, to which I provided the same answers and he also looked suspicious and unimpressed.

I should have just said I was going shopping, sigh.

The guard in the booth let me go and zoom! Off I went, in to America!

I am navigationally challenged and seriously doubted my ability to find the FedEx without getting lost but my directions were perfect and I got there quite quickly.

The poor guy at the FedEx though, I made his day harder, not intentionally though! Apparently if I had an American PO Box the amount of effort he would have to do is diminished by quite a bit but I don’t have one so he had to get me to fill out a form and he had to manually enter information in to his computer – oh the horrors! 😉 Luckily FedEx has a box that is perfectly sized to fit a dragon boat paddle, so yay! But the FedEx guy didn’t let me put packing peanuts or bubble wrap or anything in there so I am now paranoid about my paddle and how well it will endure transit. I got insurance for it though soooooo if they mess it up even more than it already is I guess I can file a claim, now doesn’t that sound like fun? lol

I finished at FedEx way sooner than expected so I went to Fred Meyer (that is a grocery store) and bought some super delish, Weight Watcher friendly, yoghurt that we don’t get in Canada. I have bought them twice before, once on a trip to the States for shopping and once when I was visiting a friend in LA and both times my taste buds have been super happy. 🙂 I didn’t only buy the ones marked with the Weight Watcher symbol because they didn’t have that large of a selection so I branched out to some of the non-Weight Watcher ones, they are all low sugar options though.

Why oh why can't you be in Canada?

Why oh why can’t you be in Canada?

Ok, fine, I lied, I bought one that is not low sugar, non aspartame, Weight Watcher approved, heck, it isn’t even a yoghurt lol

Chocolate Whip? Yes please!

Chocolate Whip? Yes please!

The yoghurts were on sale, 10 for $5 and I was trying to not duplicate flavours so I was forced to pick up a Chocolate Whip, it is such a hard life, teehee. 😉 I ate it this evening and it was…ok…not as good as say a chocolate pudding but hey, it could be worse.

I also took a look at these soups I always see ads for that I’ve never been able to find over here either, yup, they are Weight Watchers also, well, affiliated with WW.

2015-08-06 22.25.00

The ads make these soups seem like the most delicious healthy option ever, they are only 4 points for the entire can! Not every Progresso soup is a Weight Watcher friendly one but I took one of each of the flavours that don’t contain pork so I could give them a try.

After the grocery store, which fyi, uses paper bags! That was different…Anyways! After the grocery store I hit up a frozen yoghurt place, mostly it was because I needed a washroom and if I was going to have to buy something in order to use a washroom they were the best option out of what was around lol

The place is called Menchie’s and it was cute. 🙂 It is a serve yourself type of place and you are charged 0.51 cents per kg. Seems a weird amount to me, I mean, why not fifty cents? You pick up a bowl, walk through a selection of soft serve machines that have all sorts of flavours and then choose your toppings.

I swear I wasn't the only one there!

I swear I wasn’t the only one there!

You can combine any amount of flavours you want as well as sample as many flavours as you want before you commit to what you buy. I ended up with peach and red velvet cake, Mmm! I topped the peach with sliced banana and the red velvet cake with broken up pieces of waffle bowl.

2015-08-06 14.13.55

Ok, so obviously making frozen yoghurt look pretty is not something I excel at but hey, it tasted good and that’s all that really matters!

So after all of that I came back to my side of the border, the line was way shorter on the way home and the guard was less suspicious lol When I told them why I went over (the FedEx issue) he just shook his head a little, gave a small smile and waved me through. He was a cutie so I wouldn’t have minded being questioned more by him! 😉

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Harrison Dragon Boat Race Festival July 25, 2015

29 Jul

This past Saturday was the Harrison Dragon Boat Festival, held at (in case you didn’t guess) Harrison Hot Springs. The race is held on a beautiful lake. This means clean, heavy, choppy, water – it’s pretty much awesome. 🙂

2015-07-26 12.00.59There are four races in a day, which is average for festivals. The day and most of the night prior it was raining and not cold exactly but not warm, ya know, cause of getting drenched every time you went outside on account of the rain so we all prepared for a rainy race day but lucky for us when we woke up it was overcast and windy but not raining, yay! 🙂

The paddler’s village is on the beach so we all lugged the stuff we would need for the day the whole 5 minute walk from the motel to our team’s tent and settled in for a day of awesome.

Our first race started fairly normal, the teams lined up, madam caller gave us the mark to go and boom! We are off! Then all of a sudden we weren’t because another team rammed their boat in to ours! Fyi, this is not normally a contact sport so yeah, not cool.

Since the team that hit us never came over to apologize we don’t know for sure why it happened, I am going on the assumption it was an accident since there was no reason for them to do it on purpose.

Let me set the scene for what happens when dragon boats collide…the boat with the most momentum tends to go over / into the second boat so the dragon head and part of the boat actually ends up inside the other boat. Since there are people in the way this generally means the dragon head hits or goes over top of a paddler, or two, or three…and sometimes hands and paddles get squished between the boats. Sometimes boats tip, sometimes they don’t, there are a lot of factors that decide that.

Here is a video of multiple dragon boat crashes, you can see how there are a lot of different reasons for boats to flip. Just ignore the propaganda type text that is talking about dragon boating lol oh, and no, none of the crashes shown are our crash, I don’t think it got caught on video which is too bad really, it’d be fun to see!

So yeah, we got hit, at first we kept paddling but we got the call from the water marshal to stop so we did, then once the boats were no longer connected we were told to keep going so we are hmm, maybe halfway through the race and have to start from a dead stop while the other teams had kept going (well, except for the boat that hit us). Basically we just dug in and gave it everything we had and then some to stay in the game. It is amazing how motivation and adrenaline can help boost you lol For that race we ended up coming in second place, I know right?! You’d of thought we’d be last but nope, second. 🙂

The water referee saw the collision and recommended we file a complaint with the officials so we did and they took 6 seconds off our finish time. That kept us in second place finish for the race but that’s ok, it’s still a good finish, especially considering the collision!

The remaining three races seem a bit anti-climatic compared to the first, no more collisions, no more drama, just normal racing. We placed first in races two and three which put us in to the medal round for Division A Rec which is awesome and terrifying all at once.

Part of me was all “how’d we get in to A Division? We’ll never medal in A Division, dammit, why aren’t we in B Division?” but I think that was just my nerves talking. I know how we got in to A Division, we earned it, and we were going to show everyone there we earned a spot in that medal race by kicking ass! 😉

There was a bit of nerves, a lot of encouragement being shared amongst the team, reminders that we know what we are doing and we’ve been doing great all day so just keep it up then before you know it we are lining up for the race and there is no more time for nerves, no more time for doubt, no more time for anything but focus, determination and control. Relying on training and technique and muscle memory, relying on our steersperson to keep us safe, relying on our caller to keep us motivated and in the game, relying on ourselves and our teammates to get us to victory!

So how did that race go you ask? Oh you know, fairly well, we only came away with the GOLD MEDAL!!!

The Twisted Hips Won Gold!

The Twisted Hips Won Gold!

You can see me over to the right wearing the black baseball cap. 🙂

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After the festival was over we all went back to the motel, we were in a bunch of suites but congregated in one as it was the biggest. All the normal things happened after that, people showered and changed, we all kept our medals on, went for dinner at a local pub, got congratulated by random strangers (fellow dragon boaters and non-dragon boaters) as we walked through the town, then we ended up back at the motel to celebrate (aka drink and revel in our victory lol) 🙂

The next day those of us that stayed overnight (which was most of us) went for brunch where I had the most amazing omelette ever, Mmm! and we slowly started to drift back to our vehicles. We all car pooled to some degree so don’t go thinking 22 people all drove up there individually! 😛 You could tell that nobody wanted to leave even as we were all saying how we should leave because the goodbyes kept being drawn out, excuses were found to take pictures, people lingered for ages until finally we all went our own way. You’d think we were never seeing each other again or something when in reality it was Sunday and we were going to see each other at practice on Tuesday lol

Our last race weekend group selfie…

Some of my awesome team!

Some of my awesome team!

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Rio Tinto Alcan 2015

23 Jun

June 20th & 21st were the days of the Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat festival. Technically the festival started June 19th with the dotting of the dragon eyes ceremony but I never go to that so for me the festival started June 20th…that is this past Saturday for those of you not near a calendar lol This festival is the largest Dragon Boat Festival in North America, it is actually the largest outside of China, it is massive. This year there were over 100,000 people there and the competition was fierce!

Let me just say this weekend was beyond awesome! 😀

Both days were sunny and gorgeous and busy and I loved ohhhh I’d say every minute of it!…well, maybe not the early rising part cause I hate mornings but once I was up definitely every minute.

I was racing with two teams this year. My team, The Twisted Hips which is a mixed team…that means we have both men and women on the boat. The second team was Concord Flying Dragons, they are a ladies team that a friend of mine is close with, they needed a couple extra ladies so I got asked and of course said yes, who wouldn’t want more chances to race?

Both teams won medals, wOOt! wOOt! which means I came away with a Gold and a Bronze! Oh yeeeah! 😀

My bronze and my gold medals.

My bronze and my gold medals.

Aren’t they such a pretty addition to my collection? Love em! 😀

The Twisted Hips

The Twisted Hips – we won bronze.

The Flying Dragons

The Flying Dragons – we won gold.

My team!

My team!

This is my team, I’m so proud of each and every one of them! We’ve been training since February, in the cold, the rain, the dark. We come to practice when sick, when we don’t feel like it, when we’re exhausted. We race with injuries, when our lives have a million other demands, in any weather. We fight for our division within the festivals, we earn our medals, we race with determination and heart. 🙂

And I’ll stop with the preachy aren’t-we-awesome stuff now lol 😛

I don’t have a team picture of Concord…yet! I like keeping team pics from each festival so I’ll be making sure to get one eventually.

I took some random pictures during the weekend which I will now bombard you with! teehee

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Okay so there weren’t as many pictures to bombard you with as I thought, I took a lot but I highly doubt you want to watch a series of pictures showing the end of a race or multiples of shots that are near identical lol I don’t have any video footage of our races, if I did rest assured I’d be providing you a link so you could watch lol

For me the festival is all about the races, obviously, but there are a lot of other things happening to keep those in the crowd entertained. There are a large variety of food trucks, with pretty much nothing healthy lol Some of us from The Twisted Hips shared some Beaver Tails which sounds barbaric until you learn they are pastry, deep fried, with toppings put on top. They are oh so yummy! We went with the classic toppings of cinnamon and sugar but you can get a whole bunch of stuff on them. There are also vendor tents for shopping, yay shopping! You can find all kinds of things, dragon boat gear, clothes, jewellery, food and drink samples (I got a delish blueberry yogurt from one tent and a yucky tofu mango drink at another *shudder*) and random other things. There are also tents set up from companies giving away stuff, or with contests you can enter, you know all they really want is your business or to recruit you to their cause or to teach you something but hey, free stuff is enticing so I’ll listen to someone talk about why I should drink tap water over bottled (which I already do lol) if it’ll get me a free item that I will, oddly enough, never ever use, and end up having to throw out at some point when I am decluttering. It’s weird lol but it’s a festival! 😛

Oh! I forgot! We sponsored a team from Portland, which really means we bought them some food and were friendly with them lol They also won a medal so we took a team pic with them. 🙂

Rio Tinto June 20-21 2015 J

I don’t know who took this, a camera ninja obviously! But there I am in marshalling (the waiting area where teams get lined up before going to the boats) in all my dragon boat finery lol

Who took this? lol

Who took this? lol

And lastly, this is me with my dinner which came loooong after we won and celebrated, it was the best burger ever! I’ve probably had better but I was so hungry it sure seemed like the best ever lol 😛

I'm such a lady lol

I’m such a lady lol

So there we have it, it was an awesome weekend I wish didn’t have to end but of course it did, sigh. Filled with friends, and fun, and food and medals! 😀

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Knockout Race Bragging Rights

13 May

Last Saturday (yeah, yeah, I know I am late writing this!) my dragon boat team The Twisted Hips competed in a Knockout Race Festival.

What is a Knockout Festival you ask? It is a festival that after your first three normal races that are used to determine your division you compete in up to four back-to-back races.

There are 7 boats at the start of the heat, you race, the last boat is knocked out and everyone else promptly returns to the start line to re-race without having a rest period. You race twice more, each time more teams are knocked out, until you have three teams remaining.

The last three teams race one final time and there is a winner and two losers. That’s right my friends, there is no first, second and third place. Nuh-uh, there is First Place and people who didn’t get first place. A little harsh but hey, it’s Knockout racing!

My oh-so-awesome team got in to B Division, so we ranked fairly high up there, and in our Knockout rounds we went all the way to the final three, then we won the final race, meaning, We Won! First Place in B Division! wOOt! wOOt! 😀

It was an amazing day! We had early morning races so we were at the race site by 7:30am, which means I started my day off getting tea and a breakfast sandwich from Tim Horton’s lol We had our first two races fairly close together, then what felt like a ridiculously long wait time for our third race. After that there was another bit of a wait until we went for our Knockout rounds. The day didn’t end until around 4pm or so. A looooooong day!

Not only a long day but also a sunny and hot day which meant I was hiding in the shade whenever possible, covering myself in sunscreen and long sleeves and in between races wearing the most ridiculous looking big floppy hat you have ever seen! Everyone kept saying I looked like I belonged at the Kentucky Derby lol 😛 But hey, all that effort and guess what I achieved? A super long day, spent outside, and no sunburn! It is practically a miracle! I count that as my second win of the day lol 😉

Here are some pictures of our final race in the Knockout rounds, we are the middle boat…

Knockout May 9 2015 Pic 1

Knockout May 9 2015 Pic 2

Knockout May 9 2015 Pic 3

We Won!

We Won!

I know from the angle the pics were taken at it doesn’t look like we won. You have to keep in mind that finish lines on water are not a straight line like they are on land, they get all messed up looking to the people on shore because of the current and wakes. But hey, that is what judges are for! lol

When the race finished we didn’t know who had won, we knew we were either first or second but it is so loud that we couldn’t hear the announcer. The boat to our right (the one closest in the picture) started cheering at one point so we thought maybe they knew something we didn’t and they had won but nope, it was us! We heard the repeat announcement when we were getting out of the boat and then we started cheering like crazy people, exhausted crazy people lol 🙂

Here is a team pic…I’m the only one wearing long sleeves lol

Knockout May 9 2015 Team Pic

We actually aren’t all in the picture, some people had to rush off after we got off the water to make it to work on time, but that is a chunk of us. 🙂

If what I am attempting worked there is a video below of the final race, it is a bit long (the video not the race) because the person who recorded it kept recording after the race was finished, maybe they were waiting until we got off the boat, I’m not sure what their plan was, shrug. I’m just grateful they took the video so we could see the race!

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Dragon Boat Shoes!

26 Mar

It seems like every dragon boat season I go through shoe drama. Over the years I have tried wearing converse, flip flops, Skechers walking shoes and going barefoot. None have been perfect, all have had their pros and cons, as most things do.

Last season I was wearing Skechers walking shoes, I was super psyched for them because they seemed like the perfect shoe for dragon boating. They had a normal sole, so good grips in the boat and good for our on land warm-up. The fabric of the shoe was this quick drying, mesh but not mesh stuff – quick drying is important because nobody likes putting on a wet shoe, *shudder*. Sadly though, the shoes let me down. No matter how much I cleaned them they eventually had a stench that was impossible to ignore. The smell was because of the water in False Creek, it is naaaasty! Then, one of our away festivals had the paddlers tents on a beach and I got sand in the shoes. You wouldn’t think it’d be such a big deal but no matter how much I cleaned and rinsed those shoes I could never get all the sand out of that mesh-but-not-mesh fabric. By the end of that festival weekend my feet were destroyed! I had blisters and areas of my feet had been rubbed raw from wearing the shoes when they had sand trapped in them, omg it hurt!

It was so close to the end of the season I didn’t bother replacing the shoes last season, instead I waited, and the waiting proved fruitful! For Christmas my parents gave me a gift certificate to buy a specific shoe that I wanted for dragon boating. Some of my teammates have this shoe and swear by them.

My new dragon boat shoes.

My new dragon boat shoes.

The company that makes these lovely shoes is Native, their website is here if you are interested. They come in many styles but I didn’t pick them because of what they look like, though, I do like how they look so that’s a bonus lol They are awesome for dragon boating because they are made of rubber. Can’t get better than that for a water sport! They have a great grip in the boat, are comfy, despite the holes my feet stay warm even in rainy cold weather and as a little bonus there are these little bumps inside that sorta massage your feet while you are wearing the shoes. 🙂

The company amuses me, a couple of days after I got the shoes (I bought them online) I got an email from them that started with “Dear Human” lol, an enjoyable sense of humour don’t you think? The email was about proper care for my shoes so they last as long as possible.

Oh and the tags on the shoes made me laugh…

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The tag says: No sasquatch, unicorns, doves, jabberwoks, cows, werewolfs, whales, dogs, mermaids, pigs, yeti, anteaters, cats, antelope, cobras, possums, dragons, porqupines, owls, sloths, ostrich, crocodiles, bears, mice, pegasus, slugs, or any other beast was used in these natives! (the spelling mistakes are the company’s fault, not mine!)

There was another tag that lists one of the features of the shoes as being “beast free” and the third tag gives instructions for how to ride an escalator lol

I know its dumb but stuff like that makes me smile. 🙂

I’ve worn them for a couple of weeks now and they’ve been good. I haven’t gone running in them, because I haven’t been running during warm-ups, I think they’ll be ok for running except for the little problem that the heel of the shoe fits a tad too big so even when walking the back of my foot slips out of the shoe a bit, it’s not a huge deal, just an annoyance at this point.

I’m trying not to be too excited for these shoes, since every year I end up replacing what I’ve been wearing, but I’m hopeful these ones will last longer than one season! 🙂

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