Let there be blog.....

And so my blog is born. Something I've ummed and aaahed about for ages (with a little poking from my sister too).....let's see how this goes :-) Seems weird putting my thoughts and daily trivia out there for people to read even though I actually kept a journal for over 15 years when I was younger.....but never really intended anyone to read it (least of all the twisted ex-boyfriend who worked his way through each one).

So today was another gorgeous and unusually Spring-like day in Vancouver - a bizarre reprieve and stark contrast from the regular grey & dismal November-thru-July monsoon we've had every year since I moved here. The daffodils and cherry blossoms are already in full bloom, which is literally 2 months earlier than last year. Crazy weather for a city in the midst of hosting the "Winter" olympics.....to the extent they literally had to truck in snow for one of the local ski hills, and even that hasn't totally survived the unseasonably mild temperatures.

The weekend was great too - always a bonus. (When I first moved to Vancouver someone asked me, "What comes after 2 days of rain in Vancouver?"....."Monday!") Such a lovely day yesterday that I went for a long-ish run......since I recently took the plunge and entered myself for Vancouver's Half-Marathon on May 2nd (What was I thinking?!...not least because it's the day after my birthday.) Alas, a nagging hamstring problem decided to show up again and after half an hour I felt like someone was squeezing my leg & bum cheek hard in a vice....so the aspirations of a fab run quickly descended into a peeved run-walk-hobble followed by perching myself on a bag of frozen peas for the next 2 hours. Ho-hum. Maybe I'll have to book myself for a massage and hope some swedish hunk called Jurg will rub his greasy hands all over my bum......though knowing my luck I'll get a moustachioed brick-sh*t-house of a 'woman' called Olga Ripyalimzzov, who'll no doubt twist me into a pretzel.

Well, since I alluded to it earlier, I guess I could talk more about the 2010 Winter Olympics going on in Vancouver right now.......but to be honest, I voted against it back in a 2003 referendum and haven't changed my opinion since. Not that I'm against the talent and sportsmanship of the Olympics (quite the opposite in fact), but it's become an arrogant and extravagant 'legacy' in Vancouver that the average person can ill afford and it's at the expense of so many social/community/hospital & arts programs (not to mention remotely affordable housing) that I find the greed and excess of all that Vancouver has created around this ridiculously expensive TWO-WEEK event quite distasteful.

While I truly admire all the hard work some of these outstanding athletes have put into it and I can't deny there's a huge (red&white) party spirit around town right now, on a personal level I can't help feeling the true spirit of the olympics has been lost somewhat in Vancouver's excessive spending on this major ego-trip and I personally struggle to support any of it.

That said, I'd be lying if I said I'm not envious of the fact my sister, Victoria, has managed to score tickets to both the men's and ice dance figure skating finals in the past week........lucky mare! :-)