Excellent year of 50 new experiences!

A special thanks goes to Simon. He was instrumental in helping with the organising, planning, booking, driving, encouraging and pushing to make this year possible. Our budget was blown pretty early, but we managed to find less expensive versions, and chose events that were local and at times free.

My friends and clients all helped by suggesting various challenges for me to ponder. Some folks even joined me on my adventures. I had low moments when I thought this year was too much, when my worlds collided and I had too many things to do all at once. Simon would help me out by pointing out that if all I have to bemoan is the fact that I have too many fun things to do, well I'm pretty lucky.

So here I am, 50 years old. There is a philosophy that holds that we renew ourselves every seven years. All our cells are new; our emotions evolve with each seven year cycle. So 49 is a special year as it clears our slate so to speak. We are completely new at 50, ready to begin once more. I am ready to begin again. What shall I carry forward? I have learnt new skills this past year that I will definitely carry on such as scuba diving and kayaking. I will continue with my passion for music, and hiking.

The strongest impression for my 49th year is that I can conquer my fears. They are there but I go move past them to learn new activities and challenges. I don't have to be stopped simply because I'm afraid of the outcome, or the fact that I might fail. Trying is the important thing, not being excellent at everything. I feel lighter having this understanding.

So, what does 2013 bring? I will be taking motorcycle riding lessons. As well, Simon and I have signed on to our first organised trip. We are going to Nepal with a tour guide. Looking forward to continued challenges, an discoveries.

Thanks for everything, love Julie C

Experience#50

Theme: spiritual-Sabbath

Simon had been joking that for my last experience I do absolutely nothing! Having done a lot this year, and holding to my normal busy schedule; this sounded kinda nice. Grant added complexity by suggesting I follow the Sabbath Orthodox rules during this day.

For the Orthodox Jew, the Sabbath is a day of rest and prayer. No work is to be performed. The term work relates to very ancient life giving activities such as burning, plowing, carrying, grinding... There are about 40 defined tasks that one avoids on the day of rest. These have been interpreted to fit our more modern lives. So an individual should not: work, wash, carry anything, cook, write, use electrical appliances...

So on my day of rest I had to refrain from helping my friends prep the meals. I had left-overs from the previous day.  I didn't pick-up, or make my bed, nor did I exercise. I sat and watched the tide roll in then out. I watched the wildlife do what nature does, out our window. I chatted with my lovely husband and good friends and rested.

It was hard not to get involved with the daily tasks of our household. It did show me how much I can make myself busy with shores. This day of rest was a reminder that in our culture being still is often seen as lazy. I am guilty of this. I tell myself I'll take it easy after everything is done, but there is always something that needs attention. So having this day of rest is a practise I recommend and promise to incorporate into my schedule.

Experience #49
Food: Chocolate tasting and wine pairing

I can't remember who suggested this wonderful experience; but whoever it is WOW! It was absolutely one for the books. Thanks!

Simon and I have rented a nice breach house in Deep Bay for the Christmas holidays and our foodie friends (Celeste, Brian, Shirley and Tony) have joined us for the first three days. I thought they would be willing to help me with this one.

I could not find a somalier to organise this for me so I searched the web and found wine suggestions to pair with a variety of chocolates. My friends were each asked to bring one of the bottles and Simon and I went hunting for good chocolate. Cooks Culture on Blanshard is THE place to go. They have chocolate bars from all over the world; very nice selection. To round our tasting, I stopped at the Chocolaterie on Fort for a few flavoured chocolates. Shirley also brought some of her home made truffles.

With our spreadsheets in hand we started... What to do:
Take a small nibble of the chocolate and savour it's texture and discover the flavours as they build on your tongue. Sip a bit of wine and mix the two in your mouth. Good? No?

Our findings:

Riesling with it's fruitiness is good with lighter chocolates such as white, and fruit cremes. Muscadet is bold and pairs better with spicy chocolates such as Ginger, wassabi, peppercorn. Zinfandel was OK with medium dark chocolates, cinnamon spice. Cab-Sauvignon was pretty much a bust, OK with milk chocolate but did not add and new tastes. Madeira and Port was great with the darker chocolates and the spiced chocolates as well. The home made truffles with alcohol fillings did not match up with the wines.

As for the chocolates, we all had our own favourites. The new flavours tried were licorice, saffron and pistachio, olive and lemon, chili spiced, Thai lemongrass, cinnamon, wassabi cashew, ginger, and salt.

Experience #48

Theme adventure planning

Our good friend Garth is turning 50 in 2014. He has a dream of doing a motorbike tour somewhere in the world. Options abound: South America, Eastern Europe, Alaska and Northern territories, Southern States...Sounds very exciting-but first one needs to know how to ride a bike.
Enter new experience! It all starts with a knowledge test.

Most of you may remember the written test for your drivers license. It's about the same; it incorporates basic road skills knowledge with some questions relating to riding a motorcycle. It is a good exercise to do as it reminds us how to look at driving/riding and sharing the road. I already ride a scooter and have increased my skills riding by reading the "manual". Maybe one day I'll be a motorcycle mama...

Next step, next year, we will be to take a course on riding defensively and passing a learners, then a full license. I'm a bit nervous about motorbikes, but I'm confident the instructors will teach us the skills. I will keep my options open as to whether I'll be a rider or a passenger; either way I think it wise to know how to ride.
 
Simon has started working on the Gant chart for the future trip. What we need to do, when; the visas, medical considerations, insurance for travellers, potential locales for the road trip. This planning will keep our brains occupied for a long time.

Experience #47

Theme: Parrot Refuge

Margot suggested this event as I am a "bird person". Many of you know, We adopted Tiki, the lovebird, about 4 years ago. Simon and I recently adopted Cheeko, the parotlet. Both birds are doing well and getting used to one another. I love the human and bird relationship. They are so comical, interested in all you do, and get into such mischief to make everyday interesting.

I have often meant to stop at the Coombs Parrot Refuge, but timing has always been an issue. This past week-end, we were at Sproat Lake doing our usual Thanksgiving week-end with friends and thought-why not go and visit? The World Parrot Refuge is an educational facility that provides a “Home for Life” for previously owned pet parrots, and is operated by the “For the Love Of Parrots Refuge Society”.

The Refuge has over 800 parrots, a dedicated team of staff and volunteers, and 23,000 square feet of heated indoor free-flight aviaries. The Refuge opened to the public for educational purposes in June  2005. Many of the birds housed at the refuge come from homes where they could not be cared for, some were neglected, or even abused. When you enter the large aviaries, the sound is unbelievable. The ear plugs they provide don't last long as some of the parrots think their great toys and slip them out of your ears.



Simon and I have owned a few birds in our lives but all where small. The large macaws, cockatoos and other parrots at the refuge a huge. It's a bit intimidating to have them land on you. They are inquisitive and want some loving- so be prepared! I met a lovely pink cockatoo who had a plucking issue. He wanted some preening and was so affectionate it was hard to leave him. There was a green macaw who also came by and was very clearly in need/want of some preening. I was in heaven!


Check them out at their website, or drop by. You'll see many beautiful birds; plan to stay at least an hour.

Experience #45

Theme: tough chicks-Roller derby!

How to play: Two teams of five players each are on the starting line. The jammers for each team are in the back, and start after the rest of her team skates off. The whole goal is for the jammer to lap everyone on this oval track and begin scoring points. For every opponent a jammer passes, she scores a point. All the while, the other four players, called blockers, are trying to knock their opponents down to make it harder for the opposing jammer and easier for their own jammer to score. At the starting line, the blocker with the striped helmet is the pivot. This position guides the speed of her blockers, paying attention to where her and the other team's jammer is. The pivot might signal for her team to skate faster, so it is harder for the other team's jammer to catch up to the pack and thus score before the clock runs out. The pivot might signal for her team to slow down if she sees her own jammer is trying to catch up to the pack. Jammers wear the star helmet. As the whistle blows to start play, the jammers wait until the rest of the pack gets 20 feet ahead. Then the jammers race off, trying to be the first to get through. The jammer who does get through the pack first is the lead jammer. Only the lead jammer can call off the jam before the clocks ends. The advantage to being the lead jammer is obvious: you can call off play if you are tired, and calling off the jam prevents the other team from scoring. Of course, the lead jammer can strategically let the clock tick, skating around and racking up more points before the three minutes allotted for each jam elapses.

So now you know the basics of roller derby. The costumes are wild the player's names tongue and cheek, and the crowd a bit rowdy. All good fun! The Eves of Destruction event featured the junior teams: the Rotten Apples vs the Candy Crushers. They were fearless. The main event saw the Belles of the Brawl vs the Margarita Villains. They were tattooed mamas that were obviously fit and ready to rumble. Joining us at this event were Chris, Shawn and Chantelle.

 

Experience #46

Theme: Food-Food fight!

My friend Jack, who's 10, suggested this event. I thought it might be freeing of the constraints of proper manners at the dinner table. My parent, God love them, were neat freaks. (This is why I'm the way I am!) An example of this is that they often took out the little vacuum to pick up crumbs at the breakfast table, while the family was still eating! So flinging mashed potatoes to one of my brothers was definitely out of the question.
Alison suggested we use her yard. She and her family have recently moved into this beautiful home in Sooke. She invited her neighbours as a form of meet and greet. Well, It was fabulous. All came and participated, no injuries or upsets occurred. We started off with the egg throw; all was good until Don hit Alison in the face with the raw egg. Peas, spaghetti, pudding, and Jello started to fly. Goop was applied to faces, inserted into shirts; people slipped and ran around squealing and having a great time. The grand finally was the pie throw. I sat on a chair and got pies tossed at me, mmmmmm whip cream...

Don had set up a hose from his kitchen sink so we had warm water to hose each other to do a preliminary clean before going in for our shower. If you are planning a party and have plastic tarps and a grassy spot-try a food fight. It is quick and easy to prep and soooo much fun!

 

Experience #44

Theme: earth, water: the Great Lake Walk

I initially thought of doing the Tahsis great walk but due to conflicting times with other events chose to do the Cowichan lake walk instead. It is a 56km walk around the Cowichan lake. It started in 2001 by a group of locals (or loco's) who wanted to:

• Promote the Cowichan Lake area to improve tourism, commerce and the economic and civic welfare of the area.
• Promote all legally registered charities by encouraging Great Lake Walk participants to raise pledges and collect funds for the charities and causes of their choice.

Since then, they have had an average of 300-400 individuals participating in the event yearly. Simon and I chose to raise funds for the Hospice Society for their fine work and for my Mom, who passed away in their care 3 years ago. Friends, Sabrina and Lisa, were brave/foolish and committed to join us on this experience. I also saw a choir member, Ian, who was doing this event for the second time.

We got up at 2am and picked the girls up and drove up to Youbou where the event would start at 5am sharp. Like any other race, you could pick out the professional athletes and the novices. We sang Oh Canada and started of on our adventure. The lights of the people on the road made for an odd shaped Christmas tree. The going was good; the air cool; the skies clear. The time flew by, at first. We averaged about 5.3 km/hour. I think we slowed down a bit by the last 15 km, but all in all we made good time. Up until 30 km, we felt great! By then our muscles were tired and we could feel the aches in our gluts and hamstrings. Our feet began to feel overly warm, and we knew we'd have a few blisters by the end of the day. At about 40 km we encountered "the hill". It was not steep but it went on for more than 2 km and 100 m in elevation gain.

Down the other side and onto asphalt for the last 12 km. This was when we hit "the wall". The sun, the hard terrain and the fact we had been walking for about 9 hours by that time, our bodies were done. Simon tried to cheer me on at the 50 km rest stop by stating that we were in our last HOUR of walking. LAST HOUR!?! I sorta lost it and said let's stay quite for a while as I can't even imagine continuing for another hour-or words to that effect. Simon, the good man that he is, took charge and walked ahead of me quietly and kept me going. We arrived at the finish line #148/149 at 10:47 hours. We were spent! We drank more fluids and ate without appetite, and waited for our friends. Sabrina and Lisa were #163/164. They made it! Ian was #76! Great going Ian!

Sabrina's family were all there to cheer her and invited us to go out but Simon, Lisa and I were just too tired. We all went home to a hot bath and bed. Sabrina went out and had some wine and dinner and then a free ride in an ambulance! She became dehydrated and "sorta passed out"! She recounted this as part of the adventure, laughing and commenting on the good looking ambulance attendant! What amazing spirit!

They all made me vow NEVER TO DO THIS AGAIN! and I agree. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt!