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!

Experience #43

Theme: social- Fundraiser

In a moment of great affection and appreciation for Jack, my choir director, I vowed to organise a fund raising event for Choir Kids, an after school music education program. Jack was most gracious in allowing me to sing a whole song solo at our year end concerts. It was a very special thing he did for me. He spent time during practise with me and encouraged me to find my voice.

So I felt I should give back. Jack organised Choir Kids in 2006 with five members of the Arbutus singers choir. The idea was to provide kids, in communities that might not offer after school programs, a chance to sing in a choir-just for fun. It received charitable status in 2008. At our year end concerts the kids come and perform with us. To see their enthusiasm, and the pride in their parents eyes is heart warming.

I thought-lets make a carnival style afternoon at a park. Beckwith is a great venue for families. There is a water park and lots of room to run and play. I booked a part of the fields for my event. I chose bocce for the adults, and pit spitting and carnival games for the kids. I also put forth the idea for a bake sale. Creating the games was fun. Did you know: that watermelon's don't have pits anymore? and that there is a helium shortage? For my pit spitting I had to use Spitz, and the balloons were air filled.
But the big challenge for me was to promote it. I am not that person who can be forceful-even for a good cause. I am very uncomfortable with asking for help. Lucky for me, I know Shirley, who has done this sort of thing before-a lot! I should have called on her long before I did. But she helped me so much with the little time we had left. She got Tim Horton's to lend us an awning, and provide us with coffee and Tim Bits. Thrifties offered us water and juice boxes. She also got a few friends to come out to help. Wow! She is amazing!

The weather could not have been better, and I had received lots of baked goodies from friends, clients, and choir members. My friends were there to hang-out and help. All that was missing were they families. A few folks came by, plaid some games, or bought our baked goods. They were most generous with their support. But I should have advertised much more than I did. The paper adds, and choir invites and community recreation parks where I posted my event weren't enough to get people out.

I learnt a lot doing this event. I was amazed and so touched by all the folks who so willingly came to help and support me. I get emotional just thinking about their kind gestures, their love. I will be forever in their dept.

Experience #41

Theme: Air: Sleeping in the spheres

Thanks Celeste for suggesting this experience. The Free Spirit spheres are located in Qualicum Beach area. Tom Chudleigh built them of local woods using sailboat technologies. His concept was to harness the healing qualities of the old growth forest and create a habitat that is in harmony with it's surroundings without causing harm to it. The spheres are hung from a series of cables and no nails go into their support trees. You enter the floating orbs by a spiral stair case which wraps around a tree. The Erin sphere has a double bed, a dinette, kitchenette, and a loft single bed. The morning light streams into the round windows, the breeze gently rocks the orb. It is truly a relaxing and healing experience.
Our host Tom showed us the facilities: the 3 orbs, the compost toilet and shared shower facility. All very clean and well maintained. His partner, Rosey, had prepared a basket of goodies and champagne for us to enjoy. Their story is worth noting. Rosey came to stay, in 2009, for 2 months to recover from an illness. They fell in love and she ended up staying. Very romantic...
We arrived Friday night and stayed Saturday. The feeling of being cradled in this suspended tree house was magical. The suspension rocked away the stresses of the last few weeks. It was a week-end just for the two of us. Let's just say that the orb got 'a rockin'...

Experience #42

Theme: Earth: Spelunking

Horn Lake caves offers 3, 4, and 5 hour tours. Our guide was a young man named Myles. He explained that the caves were created many millions of years ago through the erosion process of glaciation. Limestone dissolves under the action of water charged with carbonic acid. The dissolution process produces a distinctive landforms known as karst, characterised by sinkholes, and underground drainage. Limestone caves are often adorned with calcium carbonate formations produced through slow precipitation. These include flowstones, stalactites, stalagmites, helictites, soda straws and columns. These secondary mineral deposits in caves are called speleothems.
Our tour took us through narrow tunnels where we had to crawl on our hands and knees and sometimes on our bellies. We down climbed into the deeper caves where we saw some of the largest flowstones and stalactites. One of these resembled the Buddha sitting by the water, others resembled animals such as elephants, crocodiles and wolves. It was a very exciting day of discovery. We both ended up very dirty-great fun!

Experience #38
Theme: Water: Surfing the wave in Tofino

Our nephew, Augustin, arrived just in time to join us on our long week-end in Tofino. The weather was spectacular! We did some whale watching on our first day, but-been there-done that so it can't be marked as a "new experience" for us. We were booked with Endless Ride, out of Ucluelet, for both the surfing and the SUP. Jay was great. He got us geared up and into the surf safely. He showed us how to read the beach and surf. Lesson # 1: stay away from the yahoo's (AKA the idiots who don't know what they're doing) and the rip tides. Augustin is in track and field and young (18) so he did very well. Simon and I were a bit more slow getting up onto the board, but we all had a blast! The waves were great and for most of the morning we had lots of space to practise.

Experience #39
Theme: Water: SUP-stand-up paddle board
Early start to the day. We met Kat at the boat launch at 7am. The skies were clear, but the water was a bit choppy. The SUP board is broader and thicker than a surf board. Balance is only a bit easier on this board. I could feel all my stabilising muscles working hard to keep me balanced. We set off along the inlet and across to a fish hatchery. Coming back the winds picked up and we had to work hard to paddle our way to the boat launch. The next day we all commented on how stiff we were-it's a great core work-out!





Experience #40
Theme: Air: zip-line
This was an easy one. On the way back from Tofino, we stopped at the Wild at Play park in Nanaimo and did their zip-line course. The guides set you up and you zip across the Nanaimo river canyon. It was great fun but a bit short.

Experience #37

Theme: exotic foods

Question: if you are invited to a BBQ, where you know the host and no-one else, what can you bring as an appy/ice-breaker?
Answer: bugs of course!

I think I gave myself this challenge. As the saying goes, we are always harder on ourselves. I decided to try eating some of those creepy crawlies. I let Simon choose them. They were purchased at the bug zoo, for those wishing to partake. He chose crickets and dried larvae-yum...

Witnesses are always important, so when Mandy invited us to her BBQ, I thought-perfect! Mandy is my inspiration for the 50 new things. She ventured into this experience last year, and is repeating it this year, as well. So I thought she might appreciate the opportunity herself.

We've all swallowed mosquitoes accidentally while being outdoors-but that doesn't count. The aim is to bite and chew the bugs. The mental challenge is to put that icky little critter in your mouth; after that just chew. I was amazed at how many ladies joined me for the "degustation" (french for tasting). What a brave/crazy bunch! After all the psyching-up it was just a crunchy little morsel. The drying process took away any possible flavors. I may try the real, juicy, thing, one day...

For the record, Simon also ate the bugs. Here is Paula, Mandy and I with our larvae... mmm protein....