About Me

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Vancouver, Canada
Originally from a small seaside town in the North of England, I lived and worked in France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and the Maldive Islands before moving to Canada in 1995 - where I intended to stay 'just a couple of years'. Well, I'm still here. I live with my fabulous (Canadian) husband, Lorne, in Vancouver's Westside, close to beaches & downtown. We opted for kitties over kids and are proud parents to 3 wonderful rescues; Mel & Louis, who we adopted in 2010, and little miss Ella, who joined us in 2013. I miss my family in the UK but luckily my sister and best friend, Victoria, lives just down the street with her family. I remain very European at heart and would love to move back there, even for a while. Hopefully I'll convince Lorne & the kitties one day. Besides, I'm fluent in French & German but rarely get chance to use either here. Outside of work I love photography, writing, making cards, working out, camping, kayaking, horse riding & most things really. I've always been an animal lover, support several animal protection organizations and haven't eaten meat in 27 years.
Words To Live By:
We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words. Anna Seawell (Author of Black Beauty)


Feb 28, 2010

The Sublime.....and the Ridiculous



The Sublime:
Canada won Gold in the Men's hockey!!!!!! - in a game that was extremely well-played between both the Canadian and the US teams, and despite the fact the US snuck in one more goal in the last 25 secs of the third period, to even the score to 2-2 and take the game into overtime. It's been over 2hours since the game wrapped up and cars are still driving by with horns honking, people cheering on the streets...and the images from downtown still show everyone in full party mode.

Lorne and I seriously considered going to a bar to watch the game but since it started at lunch and we have no self-discipline once we're confronted by so much beer, we decided to watch the game at home......and then heard that people were already lining up (queuing) down several blocks outside the bars at 8am this morning(!!), hoping to get a seat for the game. I don't doubt the atmosphere must have been amazing....it was when Canada won the gold in 2002's olympics....when I dutifully swilled beer and cheered with the rest of 'em. (Yikes, I'm in the midst of renewing my Canadian passport - hope my citizenship doesn't get revoked for not dressing head to toe in patriotic paraphenalia and watching the game in a bar.)

The Ridiculous:
So, when somebody asks me in 10 years time, "Do you remember what you were doing when Canada fought for hockey Gold in Vancouver?", I'll have to confess, I was at home....squatting on the living room floor....and rolling my right butt cheek back & forth over a couple of tennis balls stuffed in an old sock! Seriously....and I can guarantee you no-one else is gonna have that same answer! Yes indeedy.....that was me. And after 20 minutes of that (which was really quite painful actually), I really pushed the boat out and enjoyed a glass of beer and 2 ibuprofen.....seated atop a red-hot heat pad.

Alas my glute (aka butt cheek) is still in rough shape and feels incredibly tight/sore/painful even when just sitting. Even though I paid some woman to knead it with her pointed elbow and then shove a bunch of needles in my 'cheek' and leg last Thursday (a practise otherwise known as physiotherapy I'm told), I'm still in a certain amount of discomfort. (Mind you, I should be grateful she at least remembered to take out ALL the needles this time around. Last year I was given a few acupuncture needles during a session for lower back pain and it wasn’t till I went to the washroom 2hrs later that I discovered one last needle still embedded in my bum-cheek, having been pushed further in from my wearing jeans and walking around town – which suddenly explained why the heck my bum ached so much!)

Anyhooo, I have to work this muscle out of it's current spasm or I'll never get back to running, and my aspirations (or rather 'ass-pirations) of running a half marathon will evaporate like money on a Vancouver mortgage. Time to try the tiger balm again.

Ahhhh, the Olympics is drawing to a close and I hope to dear God that they (please) stop playing that infinitely painful song, "I Believe" and maybe we can even hear of other (non-olympic) news.

4 comments:

  1. I loved the photos, and the peony ones are my favourites after the one of the copse. I have blood red peonies in my garden, I love their many colours and they are such lovely blooms. Keep the photos coming, you are surrounded by such a beautiful and varied landscape and flora and fauna, perfect for wonderful photography, a photographers paradise, so thanks for sharing them with me, I look forward to seeing more and reading more.xxx

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  2. Lol - read that comment as corpse hehe. Anyway, are you warming up properly before your run missy cos that is how you pull muscles you know.

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  3. Thank you, I'm glad you like the photos - and there certainly are (& will be) more where they came from :-)

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  4. Thanks Graham, I guess I shouldn't shrink-wrap myself before heading out for a run. :-)

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