Social Weekends

Last time I wrote, I was counting down the hours until I left for a camping and wedding weekend on the Cowichan River. The location was beautiful, the group campsite was beautifully set up, and it pissed with rain the entire time.

The roof of my tent and a very wet fly on the first morning.

Okay, maybe not the entire time, but a good 80% of the time.

To give you an idea of how much it rained, we received more rain in 4 days than we did in the 4 months proceeding them. The Lower Mainland more than doubled the amount. Along with all this rain? A wind storm. In a year of recording breaking heat, drought conditions, and double the amount of forest fires, my friend picked the one weekend the weather was shite.

We needed to warm up during the ceremony so we made coffee.
This was encouraged by the wedding couple.

At least the Friday we arrived was sunny and hot. Some of the party even got in some swimming. I did not because that morning I tried to break some cement stairs with my back. FYI: the stairs won. It made for a slightly painful weekend with limited movement but I wasn't missing the wedding!

Down at the river.

To top off the rain and the wind, on the day of the wedding, the Malahat was closed due to an accident which left those who hadn't come up on the Friday scrambling to make it up. If you don't know Vancouver Island, the quickest way 'up Island' - to go north - is over the Malahat. There is also a ferry crossing which is a) never on time, b) always late, and c) notoriously unable to keep to schedule, or the 4 hour drive west to Port Alberni and then loop back east. People who needed to make it over the Malahat included friends, family, and the caterer. Eek!

The mantra for the weekend became "this will all make a great story." And how many brides have a photo of their wedding dress hanging in a tent?

I selflessly agreed to bring the giant six man tent instead of the
cozy two man tent so it could double as the dressing room.
Selflessly.

After the wedding weekend, I met up with my friends who were visiting from Switzerland. It was a wonderful reminder of how awful my German has become. Obviously, I need to make an extended trip back to Germany, Switzerland and/or Austria to practice and improve. On the upside, this was the view from our table.

This isn't even the 'good' view to the Olympic Mts. That was taken by a private party!

The following weekend, my younger brother and I met up at the Irish Times to watch the Liverpool vs Man Utd game. I grew up watching English Premier League soccer but no one in my immediate family had any real loyalty to a specific team. Then B returned from living in Ireland after high school (family tradition) and he was a die-hard Liverpool supporter. By default, the rest of us have kind of become converts.

Walking in, I found a solid wall of red Liverpool shirts. Apparently I had found the unofficial Liverpool supporters club in Victoria.  No matter where you go, you'll will never walk alone. It was a fun way to watch a game that didn't exactly go in our favour.

TSN! Hire me for more of this great insight!

Today, I got up at Ass O'clock to watch Ireland play Canada in the Rugby World Cup. I headed over to my dad's, fried up the healthiest version of an Irish fry you will ever see - scrambled eggs, bacon and tomato - and sat down to watch the game.

Yeah. I don't want to talk about it.

At least my dad was happy.

(I expected Ireland to win but I was hoping for a bit more a fight from Canada. If they had played in the 1st period like they did in the 2nd...)

So Rushed I Forgot a Title!

I keep sitting down to write a post but there are so many things I want to talk about that I don't know where to start. However, if I don't post something now then it's a good week before I can get to my laptop again.

Topics to be discussed in more detail when I can:

1. Canada called an election. I used to have a strict 'No politics' on my Facebook but I am so done with the Harper Government that I've decided to nix that policy... in a big way. I have my preferred party but I really just don't want Stephen Harper to rep my country anymore. 
2. My friend is getting married this weekend. As an aside to that statement, I will never trust her "we should have a girls night at my place" invites again. So many paper cuts!
3. People visiting from Switzerland!  Yay! Haven't seen them yet because of wedding prep, but I've talked to them.
4. My pants are looser. I'd do a happy dance but they might fall off. Okay, so it's not that much of a loss (yet!) but it's a loss!
5. I've seen some great movies and read some fantastic books and I want to talk about them all.

And because it's been on repeat in my headphones, a little Bruce Cockburn for you. This is my calming song so I've been listening to it A LOT!

Happy last weekend of August, everyone.

A Week in the Land of Gishwhes

Gishwhes2015 is over! During the course of a week, my team flew flags on the steps of the South Carolina Courthouse, flew a paper plane made of only paper and tape 15 yards, created a new fairy because the tooth fairy was on strike, tweeted a picture of two girls kissing to Rick Santorum, made a picture of IronMan using just pepper and salt, sang ‘Carry On My Wayward Son’ in an amphitheater after we used an online translator to take the lyrics through three other languages and then back into English, surprised Volunteer Victoria with free cupcakes and balloons, dance around the lawns of our legislature building in kale skirts, and many other crazy things that we would have never done otherwise.

In amongst all this, one needs to calm their mind. That’s where this video came into play.

It’s one of those videos that I always keep bookmarked so when I need a little moment of joy in my day, I can go straight to it. Not going to lie, I played it multiple times during Gishwhes. Twerking Stormtroopers; what’s not to love?

I had planned to recover from Gishwhes on the Sunday by meeting a friend for brunch and then tackling all the jobs around my apartment that hadn’t been done in a week – hey, at least I rinsed the dishes before I left them in the sink! – but somehow brunch at Floyd’s Diner turned into sangria at the Flying Otter which turned into wine on Katie’s balcony which turned into a late dinner at Spinnakers.

Well, it was a relaxing way to spend the day, I’ll give it that. Plus Katie and I were long overdue for a catch-up; we obviously needed the whole day!

In short, the entire Gishwhes experience was an absolute blast. Until next year, Gishwhes!

Customary First of the Month Post

Happy National Day to all my Swiss friends... not that any of them read here, but you know, it's the thought that counts. According to the folklore, this was the day in 1291 that the cantons of Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden swore the Rütlischwur - the Rütli Oath in English - declaring their independence from the Habsburgs and marking the start of the Swiss Confederation. 

Of course, with my love of Switzerland, I can't let this day pass without marking it in some way. Tonight, I will make rösti and sausages in Zwiebelsauce. Not to make you jealous, but it looks like this.

Well, trust me when I say that it tastes really good.

After 12 years away, I was back at UVic in early July for a course on Program Planning. I miss being a student on that campus. The whole place is just beautiful with so much green space - and a few too many bunnies - but I was a little disappointed when I went to see the old German department and it had moved. How dare they do that to me! The nerve of some people.

Save for that week at UVic, my gym attendance has been spot on. I had a little hiccup when my trainer got sick and ended up in the hospital - fyi, burst ovarian cysts suck - and they tried to pair me up with another trainer. The other trainer actually sighed on the phone with me when I confirmed that yes, I want to continue the 6:30am training sessions and no, it can't be any later because I have to get to work. She actually sighed, like I was causing her grief by being difficult. Do you know how much I pay for these sessions? I am allowed to require that you accommodate my schedule as long as I'm asking for regular gym hours. I was so angry that I texted my regular trainer and told her to hurry up and heal. Luckily, I only had a week before I was back with her.

I celebrated the end of July by getting another tattoo. This brings my grand total up to 2, but that's 2 more than my brothers who have been talking about getting tattoos for longer than I've been planning this more recent one. If I recall correctly, I first thought about this one almost a year ago. Get a move on it, guys!

The tattoo is on my right forearm and is just simple line work, although I may go back and get the harp shaded or coloured in. The writing on the bottom is my last name and my dad's county in Irish. This blog post may be the first time my mom sees this tattoo. Sorry mom!

To marks the start of the craziness that is GiSHweS 2015 (it's typed that way because of reasons). Not that anyone expects regular posts from me at this point, but really don't expect a post from me this week. I'll be to busy doing fun and crazy things.

Training for the Hoodie

When I wrote about my reasons for wanting to lose weight, I mentioned that I needed to sit down and set out a few short term goals. I failed to do that.

Instead, I signed up with a personal trainer at my gym. I instantly regretted this decision. But, like, in the best way possible?

One week into my two week trial, I had already committed to a year of thrice weekly asskicking. And to make it even better? Our sessions are at 6:30am because I’m an idiot. When asked what time I’d like my sessions to be, it may have been implied that I hate dealing with the crowds after work. From that it was inferred that I wanted a morning session and I agreed. I’m still not sure why.

Other than getting up at ass o’clock in the morning three times a week, I’ve been enjoying my sessions. I was a little reluctant when I was first matched up with my trainer because she seemed like she was going to be a cheerful, upbeat bundle of energy and I didn’t think I could handle that at 6:30 am. While she is cheerful and upbeat, she is also sarcastic and geeky. More importantly, she laughs at my jokes but doesn’t put up with my shit. I think I’m in love.

As part of the training package, we sat down to talk about my long-term goals, review where I was physically and then set a few shorter goals. My first indication that I was going to like my trainer was when we discussed what is feasible in the 15 months before I leave for Tanzania. "Our guarantee is that you will lose 50lbs in a year, but I know we can beat that. It's even possible that you could meet your final goal, I've seen people who've done it. But you know what? Those people have a single focus, and their entire lives are 100% about that goal and they don't enjoy the occasional beer on a sunny patio. Ugh. Who wants to be one of those people?"


Like I said, I think I'm in love.

One of the short-term goals that we set was to fit comfortably into a Monaghan hoodie I bought.

I had been toying with the idea of getting a Monaghan jersey for a while but made a game time decision to go with a hoodie instead for the simple reason that I have more options to wear it. It’s all about sharing the Monaghan pride as often as possible! I purposely got a few sizes smaller than I currently wear (a.k.a it was the largest size available for order) and then patiently waited for my package to arrive.

Okay, not so patiently.

When it arrived I was a little disappointed it wasn't smaller. I know. Tough life that I was actually sad about that. I can zip it up but it’s not comfortable. It’s tight and constantly rides up around the waist. So while it’s not as ‘too small’ as I had hoped, it is still too small and that’s what I wanted.

The full-body before pictures of the jacket are currently with my trainer but I’ll be sure to share the before and “hey, I can wear it fit” current pictures when the time comes. (I refuse to call them afters because they won’t be an after at that point. They’ll be durings.) In the meantime, here's a quick pictures I took myself.

Here's to it being a little less snug in three months!