Summer days....

So, although I haven't written much lately, it doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything- it's actually been a pretty action packed week! It's been so great having most of the girls back in town- we went to a shower for Michelle and had a girls' night'@ Nicky's complete with lots of appys, drinks and of course a photo-shoot.

It was fab to see Kate L who came over from Van to visit, and catch up with Simon M again and meet Dawn and little Elliott, who has perfected his pterodactyl impression! Plus, they made excellent burgers! :) I also spent a great evening with some second and third cousins once removed (!?), the Bonds- the food there was also excellent, as usual! :)

Tuesday was a very wet night camping beside cowichan river with Greg, Aidan and Caley- we got soaked but had a great time anyway- one of the coolest parts of the trip was a visit to the Pacific Northwest Raptor Centre in Duncan (Thanks to Greg B. and Deirdre for telling me about it!). We saw a flying demonstration where eagles, falcons, owls and hawks flew only centimetres from our heads- there were also lots of other neat birdies on display, including a really cute Kestral named Ruff, and some baby Kookaburas, Boomer and Roo who really did laugh, just like in the song! It's a great place for kids but adults would really enjoy it too, so you should definitley try to go if you have time!

The Olympics ended the other day so I'm in withdrawal a little- it was great being able to turn on the tv any time of the day and see some sort of world class althetics taking place- even if it was something weird like fencing or racewalking (I'm glad I'm not famous, otherwise I probably would have about 300 racewalkers writing in getting mad at me for making fun of their 'craft'...but seriously, you guys look pretty athletic...why don't you just RUN!!??)

The big news around here lately is that Michael just got home from his South American Adventure (the title pic is us wearing some creepy masks he brought back...)! It sounds like he had a great time and I will enjoy spending a few more days with him before he heads off to Vancouver to become a bigshot accountant ;)

Okay that's all for now, here's some pictures...

BYE!!

C

Jen thinks we forgot about her since she's trapped in the US, but clearly, that's not the case! :)

What an AMAZING race!!! But what happened to the sun!?

So, on Monday night, I, along with about 90% of Victoria was glued to the tv/streaming coverage of the men's triathlon final--- if you are one of the 3 Canadians who haven't seen it yet, you can watch the whole thing here- the whole race was good, but the last 5 minutes are by far the most exciting racing you've seen since...um I don't know.......Sydney 2000!!!

Simon W gave it ounce of energy he had, but in the end, Jan Frodeno was just a teeny bit faster, grabbing the gold, while Simon, finishing about 200m back got silver. Although the medal wasn't the colour I know he hoped for, I don't think Canadians could have asked for anything more- what an amazing effort!! The other two Canadian Men, Paul Tichelaar and Colin Jenkins both also raced well- Paul finishing 28th and Colin, having done the job he came to do (not going to comment on that...lots of opinions and controversy out there, you can make up your own mind..) enjoyed his olympic experience and although he finished 50th (out of 50 finishers) helped Simon celebrate "the team's" silver medal.

Although I have not won any olympic medals so far, Dr. B (my chiro) seems to have fixed the issue I've been having with my right hip for the last few months, so I'm sure I'll be able to rack a few up in the next couple of days...

The weather here sucks this week-- rain rain rain- I thought it was supposed to be summer!! I saw a great play last night @ the Belfry, Anything that moves, it's a musical and is hilarious- it's being held over till Saturday, so if you want something to do on a rainy night, go see it- you won't be sorry.

Okay, off to swim practice.

C :)

What a weekend for Canadian athletes! and a teeny timezone mixup...

So, I just got back from a great weekend of camping @ China beach (just past sooke) with Greg - the weather, scenery, company and food were all perfect - I forgot how much I loved camping. We spent lots of time on the beach and even saw some grey whales (well their backs and their blowholes) as well having encounters with lots of other west-coast wildlife, including mossy chitons, aneomes, squirels, mice and our campsite neighbours, some rednecks from Langford ;)

While we were away, our athletes were busy in Beijing winning tons of medals-- what an amazing job our men's 8 and 4 did capturing gold and bronze in rowing!! Ryan Cochrane from Victoria, winning a bronze in the pool! As well as medals in trampoline, wrestling, equestrian jumping and a few others I'm probably forgetting.... what a great weekend!!!

Of course the event I've been waiting for the most is tonight, and apparently I've been traveling too much lately because in my last post I said that Simon W would win his gold medal in tonight's race starting at 1am.... but I was adding 3 hrs to EST not subtracting...oooops!! The race actually starts at 6:49pm tonight PST- it will be on CBC but they only showed snippets of the women's race last night so if you want to see the race in its entirety it's better to watch it streaming from the cbc website.

Speaking of the women's race last night, our Canadian girls did a great job, and Canada is very proud of all 3 of them, but unfortunately none of them had the race they hoped for- especially poor Lauren Groves, who had to leave the race early due to a broken left arm that happened during a pileup on the bike course... :( If you have a message for any of our triathletes you can leave it here.


GO CANADA!!!!

xoxo C

Swimming, sushi and gold medals

So, apparently when you're not changing countries every few days, you have less blog-worthy things happening to you- hence the week between posts!

It's funny, I was feeling a little antsy the other day and didn't know why till I realized that this is the longest I've been in one place for over two months...but that said, being home has been SO great- although I'm not working at all, I have no problem filling the days and seem to be on the go all the time- lots of running, swimming at the rec centre, cycling, swimming at the lake, coffee dates, sushi dates (it's nice to have sushi available that doesn't make you sick 65% of the time, like in cairo!), swimming with my swim team (I didn't realize how much I missed swimming), movies, dinners out, and spending lots of time outside... Although I didn't plan it, my timing for coming home was excellent- Sean, Michelle, Erika and Tim are all in town so it's been like old times catching up with everyone- obviously there are some key people missing, (Kate, Jen, Brent etc, etc) but usually Christmas is the only time this many of us are around.

I'm going camping this weekend which I'm really looking forward to, but the last few months I got pretty used to luxury hotels, so hopefully I'll be able to survive with no turndown service.. ;P

The other thing I've been doing a lot of lately is watching the olympics. Obviously, my favourite events are anything in the pool, and of course the triathlon-- but the tri isn't for a few more days so I've been watching mostly swimming and diving. Most of you have likely heard of the American swimmer Michael Phelps who has already won 5 gold medals in these games (it could be more by the time you're reading this)--He is poised to break the record set by Mark Spitz @ the Munich olylmpics in 1972 for the most gold medals won in one olympics (7). Apparently his strategy is that immediately after he wins a gold, he puts it out of his mind and forgets all about it so he can focus on the next one ...Nicky, Lisa and I were trying that strategy in the pool the other night @ swim practice, but it wasn't working so well for us...weird. Maybe you actually have to have ONE gold medal in order to forget about it...I'll keep you posted on our progress...

Also, I think I might want to take up syncro diving, so if anyone wants to be my partner, I'm currently accepting applications.

In other news, I finally got to meet Aiden Jakob Lange Fitzgerald, (aka Erika and Tim's little guy) and he's just as cute as he is in the pictures! Also, a big congratulations goes to Jason and Sandra who just got engaged!

Okay I'm heading out for a run, but just a reminder..... I'm sure you all have this on your calendars, but don't forget to watch the women's tri on August 17th at and men's race on August 18th- the schedule says 10PM, but that's EST, so for us on the west coast it will be a late night....but we have some great canadian triathletes competing so it'll be worth it!!!!

Here are a few random pics from the last week. Hope you're also having a great summer!

C

"...but do you feel safe!?"

That is probably the #1 question I've been asked over the last few days- everyone from cashiers at the grocery store, starbucks baristas, GAP employees (hmmm, maybe I am a bit too chatty during my errands...) friends and former co-workers seem to have the same opinion about the middle east, which is understandable considering the way the region is portrayed by the media, but it's a real a shame that it has been vilified and painted with the same brush as the very small areas where the conflict really does exist.... I mean it's not like I work in Baghdad or anything....and anyway, apparently bus travel in Canada isn't as safe as it used to be either with cannibals lurking around!

Although I have never felt unsafe, I must admit, it is VERY nice to be back in BC where I can drink water right from the tap and breathe air that doesn't smell like a million people are smoking at the exact same time... I can't believe I've been home for a week already! I know I'm here for a month, but it's going waaaaay to quickly- if anyone has a machine that can stop time, can I please borrow it!?

Anyway, as I said, it's been excellent being here--the last few days I've been at the gym a lot-I've even been doing weights...I've also had a couple of super swims at the lake with John, an old friend from RRU- he's about 3 weeks out from his second ironman, so needless to say, I'm nowhere near his fitness level, but he's tapering right now... the water was so warm both times, even though I wore my shorty, I didn't really need a wetsuit (but it was nice to have it for the added bouyancy!)- it was good to catch up on the last 7 years too!

Yesterday it was really nice to catch up with Jim over a mocha @ Bubby Rose's; I also met Nicky's new neice, Mariah, and then Nicky and I did our part for the kids by buying an oreo blizzard @ DQ (all the money from blizzards that day went to a kids'charity).

Today after the lake, I spent a few hours with the J-Team- Jake and Jude are getting so big and they're both so chatty now- but of course both have retained their origninal cuteness. Needless to say, it was fabulous catching up with their mum too!

Here are a coupla pics I've taken over the last few days... Sunset over the inner harbour taken from Nicky and Dave's condo; Thetis right before I got in to swim this morning; Mariah; and Jude and Jen.

**This post has taken me about 3 days to write so sorry if it doesn't flow so well...

I'm baaaaaaack!

I guess I haven't posted anything since before I left cairo.. sorry if some of you thought I didn't survive the 23 hr journey! The flights all went really smoothly actually, and I had a great surprise when I got to the airport in Cairo...(thankfully I arranged for one of our airport greeters to meet me because the chaos that awaited me there rivaled the Damascus airport) as Moh'd was helping me check in, the woman from egyptair said something about flying business... I said, "pft, I wish- it's economy", but she said "no miss catherine, you're booked on business..". Apparently in my haste to book something on expedia two days before I left, I didn't realize that 2 of the legs of the trip were business class- it was especially great because it was the two longest legs, one of them was the ten-hour London to Seattle one! The seat reclined to a point where it was almost completely flat and I had my own personal tv and choice of about 100 movies- not too shabby for a last minute (and pretty cheap) flight :)

Besides having to sprint through the Munich airport to make a really tight connection, all the flights left and landed pretty much on schedule and when I got to Victoria, both pieces of my luggage were there and so was............NICKY!!!! I was SO happy to see her and to take a breath of the air which smelled so fresh-- I was even happy see the rain. Anyway after some tea and a chat @ the condo, I had a great sleep on a very comfortable (SEE Nicky, it's written on the internet, so it must be true!) pillow top air-mattress and Nicky and I got up and had blueberry pancakes with a string quartet (long story!)- then Nicky chauffeured me to the DMV to renew my drivers licence and to the hotel for a chat with my the HR team at the hotel- it was splendid to see everyone again. (I have decided that I use "great"way too often, I think I should make an effort to use different adjectives in my writing... let me know which ones you like best...).

I got a one month membership to the rec centre near mum and dad's, and have dusted the cobwebs off the mtn bike I got when I was 12 and have been riding it to the gym every day- I feel SO much better being active again!! Also, apparently Nicky told John (our amazing swim coach) that I am back and he expects to see me in the pool, so hopefully I can regain at least some of my fitness... :P

The last few days have been pretty action packed, so I won't go into details, but I've been busy pretty much every moment- I met Cole and Kristina's adorable 5 week old son, Adam James; attended Aidan's 7th birthday party; drank sangria on the Canoe patio while the snowbirds flew about 20 feet above our heads; watched a concert for BC's 150th b-day and saw Colin James, Burton Cummings, Sarah McLachlan and up-and-coming Nelson sensation Shawn Hlookoff, live! I will post some more pictures soon, but Greg is currently holding my camera hostage...

So it looks like the Olympics are starting in a few days!! With the fabulous weather we've been having lately, the last place I want to be is inside watching tv, but obviously there are a few events I will have to watch (swimming and triathlon, of course..). Speaking of triathlon, my dad had a dream the other night that Simon W called me and asked me to stop referring to him as my boyfriend because his wife was getting upset!! Ooops, sorry simon!

Okay, gotta get to the gym! Hope you're all doing well and I will hopefully SEE most of you soon!

xoxo C