LOTS OF WHEELING AROUND VANCOUVER

Every city has their own Green Lung. What New Yorkers call Central Park, Vancouverites call Stanley Park:

Since we first took our boys here I promised myself to come back with my skates. You see, Stanley Park is surrounded by an 8,8km long promenade called the seawall.  It is just perfect for a quick spin around on your bike or skates.

Yesterday was the day to fulfil my promise.  I squeezed my rollers into my backpack, pumped up my bike tires and boarded the train heading west.

If you rely on the train to bring you downtown and back home, our choices here in Maple Ridge are limited. We have to out of here by 7.44 am. As this is a commuters train, we need to kill time in Vancouver; we need to kill 8 hours to be exact. Now, this is a lot of wheeling around!

Let me take you on a spin around the city:

1. Stop:                                          Welcome to Stanley Park:

Off we go,  here I am getting ready for the first lap around:

 

 A few shots of what it looks like when you are on the seawall:

 

This lake is called Lost Lagoon, at the entrance / end  of the park, depending from which side you are coming from:

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The trip was so nice, I did it twice! The second time I went for speed - or not?

2. Stop: Cycling to English Bay, west of the Stanley Park:

 

 What do you think?  Pretty? Be honest!
Vancouver boast 11 beaches most of them looking like this. It is definitely a fantastic record for any city; and to have a beach like this is better than having none- true! Let me just say this, it is fabulous to cycle along these stretches of driftwood covered brown sandy spots, don't expect me to spend the day there. 


3. Stop: Crossing Granville Bridge to Granville Island:

Here I stopped in the middle of the bridge, looking left:

Here I am looking  to my right:

 

 

Granville Island, the spot nearly every tourist goes to - and a visitor from Maple Ridge. Please check out this link to have a look of what is going on there! All you need is plenty of spare cash to enjoy the festivities, theatres, restaurants and goodies at the market.

3. Stop Cycling to Kitsilano Beach:

Kitsilano has a serious size saltwater  swimming pool!  I looked at it and nearly cried; I didn't bring my swimsuit! 

 Here in Kitsilano I checked my watch and discovered my eight are nearly over - I needed to go back to catch the train!
Vancouver is definitely fun in the sun, on your bike and on your skates!

O' HAPPY DAYS

Summer time is holiday time!

Once again, structure and a logical rhythm for the day has gone out the window and been replaced by - chaos!
This is what the long summer break does to us: Late mornings, later nights,

Port Moody, Buntzen Lake

 spontaneous outings,


 

A bike ride along the dykes to Pitt Meadows

 

impromptu  BBq's!

Like always, it is the small stuff that makes life so fantastic and exciting regardless of being an expat in a new country or not!

For example, who and how many young boys / men  will I find in our men cave at any time of the day?

Whom will I find sitting on the kitchen table in the morning?  This in itself is quite challenging - I need to be dressed appropriately not to embarrass our son's friends (it's my house though)!


Oh, I love the teenage stage!
Given the choice, I vote  to give birth to children of at least 10 years of age!                                         I know, I know, this makes the whole process of carrying and delivering a child slightly more challenging and difficult! Okay, I need to think this through properly before I propose this next step in evolution!

Life with teenagers has so many more perks than feeding and nappy changes:
You might find yourself at the local shop for Body Piercings, holding hands with your second 13 year old while he is getting his ear pierced!

(Only one, that's right! Boys with two studs at that young age look somewhat - girly? Is that the word I am looking for? Our youngest would call it gay! But what does he know? He is only 10!)

Or, you discover real life thrills when your 16 year old takes you for a spin around the neighbourhood with your car!

 This is what I call a White Knuckle Ride! And let's not forget the sweaty palms and arm pits!

LADIES WHO LUNCH Part I

One glance at the glossy invite and my gut feeling told me, I shouldn't show up in Lower Mainland's most favourite attire - yoga pants and flip-flops! As always, the gut was right!

Yes, even here in Vancouver, the world's most relaxed, most beautiful, most unfashionable city of all, glamorous ladies are out and about; you just need to know where to find them!

Last week, after 1,5 years of living in Canada, I discovered a crowd which speaks fluid fashion:
I had the honour and privilege to be invited - and speak - at the inauguration event of                   Ladies Who Lunch

 at the Arbutus Club in Vancouver!

Here is the first of two parts,   THE PREP

Surely,  I was able to sprinkle some inspirational Christina Dust over the listening crowd . It was all about "Women living their Dreams, How can you inspire others to do the same?" The ladies were laughing and stopped eating, - that's always a good sign, isn't it??

Like most women I have a secret, and like most of us I like to share one of them with you here,
It took me less time to prepare and rehearse the speech than deciding on what NOT to wear, putting the colour into my hair and onto my body, buying earrings and the forever question of which shoes to slip on.

HAIR:
 Take a close look at my hair and you will see it's curly and grey!! Isn't grey the most persistent colour ever? Becoming older is fun, getting wrinkles is part of my (happy) life - getting grey hair? Give me four words to express myself, It p... me off!
Thank God there is a company out there who promises us to become Natural Browns again 'because we are worth it." What I want to know is, why is my favourite hair dye always playing hard to get whenever I need it most?

SKIN:
When it comes to skin tone, I tend to pale in with the Nicole Kidman's of this world. Being too pale is a big No-No, especially if you want to wear a knee length dress. Help is at hand: With the help of squeeze bottles we can squirt the perfect amount of mayo, chocolate paste, mustard, salmon pate or self tanning lotion onto our crackers,  pieces of bread or bodies!

For this particular get together I opted to involve a tanning specialist, Spray Tan anybody? Strip down, spread your legs, open your arms wide and let the fun begin!

SHOES:
 Carrie Bradshaw will faint if she opens my shoe closet. First of all, I don't have one and secondly, all she will find are runners, boots, sneakers, and flip-flops! High Heels? In your dreams Carrie.  Here is another secret I want to share, I can't walk on heels! I prefer to walk it flat and safe than sky-high with the risk of looking stupid! My choices were clogs(!) or sandals. Again, the gut decided on my behalf. A pair of sandals had the honour to lead me ....behind the podium!

It's all about the presentation - and when it comes to Ladies Who Lunch, it was all there>
Glamour, sparkle, a Good Cause and some serious fashion.

Stay tuned for Part II, the PHOTOS!

NIGHT SKIING, GROUSE MT.

Vancouver,  the city where you can enjoy snow skiing, ocean sailing and a round of golf in one day!

If you live the affluent way of life here on the west coast it looks like this:  you start your day with a round of golf, hop into your yacht or sailing boat and end the day with night skiing on one of the local mountains, followed by dinner in a five star restaurant.

If you live an active life on a shoestring budget, it looks like this:

A trail run in the morning (free), 50 laps at the local pool ($4.78), a husband who takes you on a date night skiing on Grouse Mt.(free again) and a dinner at Mc Donalds ($9,98 for two, with discount card).

During this winter season our children spent more time on their boards than we have. We figured it's about time we are going on a date night, skiing. Our boys are as happy being home alone, enjoying their freedom as we are enjoying ours. All they need is a pre-cooked dinner and a curfew (yes, I wish), all we need is a car and our gear.



The folks at Mt. Seymour and Cypress have all discounted their lift passes,- but no, Grouse holds on to his normal, pricey self. Bugger, but hey, they are the only ones still open during the week and for night skiing. Plus, they have a gondola which carries you to the top of the mountain.



Two weeks before the end of the season (April 28), they have three lifts running and promise 26 runs. They were right about the lifts, but I am not sure about the 26 runs. Somewhere between run 13 and 14 we lost count.



What I always suspected was confirmed yesterday: I am a 'perfect - conditions'-  kinda-skier. A fine layer of freshly snowed powder will do it for me nicely. Everything else is just torture. Or I am getting too old for that stuff -

Holy Moly, we had 16 degrees during the day. When we started our first run at 6pm the snow had melted and hardened- yeeks! Very icy, hard to ski on and painfull if gravity wins.



Like Mt. Baker, hardly anybody else was on the slopes; from the top to the bottom, free runs, burn, baby burn!



In my opinion, skiing up here is not a priority, you come her to enjoy the views- which are spectacular, breathtaking and magnifique! On a clear day you can see all the way across to Vancouver Island. When you ski down to the bottom, it feels like you are heading straight into the city, literally.



This is what we moved here for, to live the fabulous outdoors - shoestring budget or not! It can be done!

X-MAS JIGGLES of a Different KIND

There are three things I have to accomplish on a daily basis: To make sure my family is well fed, to exercise and to strategically plan my moves on how to convince the book reading population to purchase my book when it is published (January 2013!, See: "There is a Sucker born every Second").

I enjoy the wonderful feeling of freedom to do whatever I want to do, whenever it suits me. I discovered, To have no schedule is the best schedule to be on!

When I am in need of loud music and human contact I will join a class at our local Leisure Center. For the price of a fancy Starbucks coffee I get a 60 minute workout and can swim at the adjacent pool. I believe this is called 'prioritizing'.

Today was the day I decided to spice up the daily exercise routine (trail runs, power walks and yoga). Leisure Center, here I come!



Usually I end up participating in the class with the ill-mannered instructor, wearing her ill-fitting sports bra! Here is a word of warning: Jiggling "twosomes 'in front of your eyes can be distractive to your workout! It takes all my will power to focus on my foot work and not on the wiggling, jiggling body parts in front of me! And this is said by a woman, imagine what the instructor does to her male participants!  But truth to be told: I haven't seen any men falling of their step yet...

It was my lucky morning:  I had a new lady in front of me; far less distracting than the other one (only a few tattoos, nothing too fancy) and a new  piece of equipment to concentrate on: The BOSU ball.



Her routine was easy enough; to keep the balance was a different matter altogether. Stepping on and off the ball reminded me of a bouncy castle, only on a smaller scale.

I loved it!  A few other ladies were new to this equipment as well. Together we embraced the challenge and opportunity to experience and learn something new. It was wobbly at times, so what? We weren't perfect, but we had fun and we had a good laugh at our own expense.



From the aerobics room I ventured into the pool area. Before I got into the water I watched a few wheelchair bound teenagers. Their caretakers carefully helped them to get into the specially designed pool.  Another teen was put into a lift to help him get into and enjoy the water. Every member of the group displayed either a mental or a physical disability..

Our Municipality here in B.C. prides itself for the wonderful equipment they offer for our handicapped (better:"challenged") citizens, All public areas, facilities or buildings are designed to grant easy access for all. The buzz word is INTEGRATION!

I started to swim, my body capable, healthy and strong -  and it hit me like a hammer on the head how ridiculous my thought process really is! I am getting worked up about the jiggling instructor and loosing track of my footing, whereas right next to me are teenagers sitting in a wheelchair because they can't walk!

Sometimes I really need a slap in the face to realiize how fortunate we are to posess and control a healthy body and mind! Being born free of disability and illness should be the norm, but unfortunately it isn't.

Being "normal and healthy"isn't extra-ordinary! Do you know what makes 'healthy and normal 'extra-ordinary?  APPRECIATION!

To appreciate our wonderful, capable body regardless of its shape, size or age. And our ability to fully learn and experience something new - even if it's the small task of stepping up and down a BOSU ball.

SELL YOUR HEART OUT

First things first:

To kick-start my fight against middle-age weight gain, wiggly upper arms and excess handles on my tummy I started using weights and went "Cold Turkey" to lose at least some weight. It seems to take forever to get any changes done in the body!                                                                                          Puh, getting older is a bitch! ! But, defeat and acceptance are not in the cards - yet!

My book should be at the publisher by now but instead I got stage freight and added more bits, deleted and replaced some. Embarrassment is a big motivator at this stage in my life!  Being embarrassed because I haven't done my best!                                                                                          I have gone through this stage when I was way younger, not any more.                                              Now It needs to be as good as it gets or even better.Therefore I want to have a polished and finished product before I will hit the route to promotion!

I am still in the industry I love best: Selling!                                                                                        For years I was selling aerobic moves across fitness centers around the world and its benefits to health.                                                                                                                                                       Then it was coffee and cakes at Strawberry Lounge, my debut into entrepreneurship and  now I am back to selling cakes again!                                                                                                                         This time as an employee for a wonderful, sweet cake company in Vancouver!     Having sold lots of things around the world, I noticed one  universal law that can be applied all over:   Apart from being appreciated and wanting to feel special ( being extra-ordinary!),  WE ALL LOVE A GOOD DEAL!                                                                                                                                                          This makes for a very straight forward equation:                                                                             selling is a piece of cake - if you sell a product people want, appreciate and love! Selling at a good price makes it even easier, fun and more worth your while. In my current 'job 'the product speaks for itself:           You don't need a hard-core persuasion technique. You don't need to go into a long drawn conversation about the pros and cons and necessity of the cake.           You either want it or you don't. You like the taste of it or not!  You have an allergy or not!  All you need is to give an encouraging word at times, some information from the ingredients list,  or to simply stand back to let your customer make up their own mind!    It is that simple! I have been very fortunate so far to gravitate toward selling what I really, really like.  But  be warned, it is only easy-peasy if you love the product and the initial selling process.

If you are able to do what you love doing, then life can be your "piece of cake!"