Just been watching tv and there was an advert for Mousetrap. I must have been 8 when that game first came out, and it hasn’t changed at all. They haven’t screwed with it at all. My cousin Linda got it for xmas and as we always used to go round to their house at xmas we played it all night.

Went out for a run this morning, the first since my calf popped just over a week ago. It was almost ok; started to threaten on the way back. I walked a bit and ran a bit more and it stayed as just a nag. So I’m happy that I got a run in, but not happy that it’s still threatening to ping. I’ll just have to keep doing small runs and trying to make them a bit longer.

It’s been dumping on Seymour today – 15cm of fresh lovely snow:

Bring it on!

It’s my mums birthday later this month. I thought that next year was her 80th and I was planning on making the trip back to the UK for that one. But it turns out that she’s 80 this year. I just can’t afford it this year; working 3 days a week in a shop isn’t exactly filling up the bank account. It’s a good job my sister sent me a message on FBook telling me about the plans. My brother and his wife and are going to be there, and their daughter and grand-daughter so there’ll be plenty of people around. One of the plans is to take the folks to Blackpool for a couple of days and stay in a hotel. To most people that would sound immensely shite (me included) but it’ll be cool for my mum and dad; they (actually, my dad more than my mum) get nervy when they’re in new places and Blackpool is totally familiar. My brother and his wife are staying in the hotel with them so that’s another safety net. Good on ‘em – a couple of days in Blackpool is a hell of a sacrifice to make for your mothers birthday. Not sure if I could do that one.

I was reading the BBC news website this morning and there’s an article on there about Sesame Street being 40 years old. I never really got into it; I must have been in my early teens when it eventually came to the UK. What really killed me was following a link to Ricky Gervais talking to Elmo – it’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.
Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr9_5uZn6ds

Then I ended up following link after link to watch outtakes of The Office. Classic comedy. We’re off to the dvd shop tonight to get the series. Watch some proper telly for a change. Actually, we have a channel called the Knowledge Network. It’s one of those public access things where at the end of a show they ask for your money. In one of my channel hopping rages the other night I came across Britain From Above (or something like that). What a refreshing change to watch a quality documentary.

The downside to working weekends is that well, you have to work weekends. The upside is you get to do stuff when everybody else is at work and hence things are really quiet. I went for a paddle this morning; did a route that I’d meant to do all summer bu never got around to. There are native indian drawings on the cliffs along Indian Arm and I’ve only ever seen the ones that are close enough to take my tours to. There’s a set of cliffs heading north about 6KM up the Arm that have some drawings on that I’ve never seen. So today was the day. It’s not too cold out, wasn’t raining, only a light breeze. I got my favourite boat out and set off at a pace good enough to keep me warm. It was a good outward journey; once I got past the usal turning point I was seeing stuff that I never noticed before. There were waterfalls that I’ve never seen, huge cliffs, little bays….all very cool. I saw a river otter, a couple of seals, some kind of weasel, and a bird that dived into the water for a fish – it flew off before I got a good look at it so I don’t know what it was. The drawings (pictographs) were well worth the paddle. There are a couple that I have no idea about, but one that is just awsome; it looks like an eagle. It’s in a very sheltered spot so unlike the ones closer to the Cove it’s not as weathered and faded. I took a couple of photos on my phone but shouldn’t have bothered – they’re toally crap. I explored a bit farther then headed across the Arm to go back on the opposite side. Another top place to paddle; big cliffs, creeks running down the side of the mountain and waterfalling….awesome. I stopped at Twin Islands for a quick pee then hit it hard for the trip back. I got a great pace going, got the balance right between breathing and stroking, and just hammered it back in.

I’m out on a surf ski tomorrow. I have to do something while the calf mends.

Injured…..AGAIN. I went out for a run on Thursday morning, nice and early, still dark, raining a bit. No real plan other than to spend about an hour locally on the pavement. I went out easy, good tunes on my iPod, enjoying the morning. I threw a couple of climbs in and went up them on the forefoot just like I do on the trails. Everything was going great until I was coming down a steep hill about 10 minutes from home. A slight nag appeared in my left calf, more of a dull ache really. Literally seconds after I noticed it it became a pain that shot from the top of the achilles up the middle of the calf. It was one of those “HOLY F**K” kind of pains that stops you dead in your tracks. So I walked the rest of the way home. I was all pissed off and gloomy and “oh my god, I can’t train and the Yeti races are only 2 months away” for a while but I kicked my arse and got over it. It’s a muscle strain and it’ll get better. I think I know what the problem is. I’ve been to 2 yoga classes and I don’t think my calves have quite recovered from the stretching. I decided to give it a go as a I was given a 2 week pass for a new studio that’s just opened near home. I did one class called sport yoga (which is what attracted me in the first place) and then did a hatha class. The sport yoga is more like vinyasa yoga where the moves flow from one to the other. I got a really good sweat going and enjoyed it. The amazing thing was the next day – I was absolutely buzzing with energy. So I tried the hatha which was ok but a bit too spiritual for me. Anyway, I think that’s what started the problem. I’ll give it a few days before I try another run. I’m definitely going back to the sport yoga class though.

It’s funny how you never see yourself as getting older, but every so often you get a little reminder. I’ve been swapping emails with Janey, the snowshoe manager on Seymour about doing some work for them. She’d like me to do the SnowFit series which is cool, but also asked me to get involved with leading some other stuff including the Silver Snowshoers series. I thought “yeah ok, I can lead a bunch of old codgers around” and went to the website to see what day it was. I got a slap in the face when I saw it’s aimed at the 50+ group, which obviously includes me. Ho hum.

Just been out for a run. Perfect Fall conditions. It hammered down overnight and early this morning and left the mountain with low clouds in the trees. As I set off the sun came out and it was streaming through the trees. Lots of the trail was under running water; you try dodging around and over for the first few sections and then just get in splash around. The creeks were running high and loud, so impressive when they’re so loud you can’t hear your iPod. It becomes even more important to stay focussed on these trails as the roots and rocks are really slippy. I went over a drop and my heel slipped forward as it landed, so my body weight came down on a straightened leg; the shock went up my body and nearly shook all my fillings out. Nasty. Sweet couple of hours.

I’ve just been fooled by the BBC. I had a look at the Radio 2 schedule and it listed Paul O’Grady with his weekly dose of Motown classics and Northern Soul. Hmmmmmm I thought, a bit of Northern is always good. I was confused when his first record was Wired for Sound by Cliff Richard, then something by Sarah Vaughan (who I think is from the early 60’s). Eh????? Not the foot tapping, hand clapping session I was ready for. F**k me, now he’s playing Billy Cotton – it’s called Oh What a Beauty and it’s the musical equivalent of those cheeky seaside postcards. I may sue the BBC for this. Off it goes.

Saturday’s tour was brilliant; blue sky and sunny, flat water, great people, and I was on form. They were all lawyers from a big downtown law firm; most of them from their international offices so nobody had been in Indian Arm before which was very cool. I changed the route around so we’d keep the sun on us for the outward part of the trip and everything just went perfectly. It was the perfect way to end the season.

We went to see Where the Wild Things Are on Saturday night. Instead of the local cinema we met some friends at the big movie theatre downtown. It’s way better than the local place as it’s got stadium seating, and for some reason people don’t talk all the way through the movie; I’d got to the point where I thought it was Canadian law that you had to talk through a movie. Anyway, it was a great movie. I’ve never read the book so I went in with no expectations and it was good. Sad but good.

I actually wore long pants on Saturday night – the first time since the end of March. I wore my shorts in the shop today though, and suffered as a result; my legs were bloody cold all day. So that’s it – goodbye shorts until next year. Except for running that is – it’s not that cold yet.

Went for a run this morning and it should have been great fun as it was absolutely battering down. Instead I was fighting with Fat Lazy Gaz, trying to get his arse moving. It was just a big bloody effort all the way round, even though I deliberately hit the ‘easy’ trails. That’s what happens when you put crap fuel in the tank. Still, even a bad run is better than no run.

Last tour of the season tomorrow; it’s a corporate event at 14:45. I’m hanging on to my key this winter so that I can go and grab a surf ski when the weather’s up to it. It’s a great bit of cross-training and I’m looking forward to paddling up The Arm when there’s snow on the mountains.

As she was on a day off and I’m not working today, Linda took me for lunch. She took me to a place called The Naam in Kitsilano. When we walked in I thought “nice place”; lots of beat up furniture and cool photos on the walls. And then I read the menu. This place is just a sliver of boiled egg away from being vegan. The farther I got down the menu the more confused I was; “why has she brought me here? Is she breaking up with me? This is it – I’m screwed”. Her motives were fairly innocent though – she just likes the place. I settled for the Chili Deluxe, thinking it was the safest bet. It came with salad that was covered in the mankiest dressing I’ve ever known. And the bread had some weird brown stuff spread on it. The chili was ok but could have done with some meat in it. Obviously. I now understand why vegans are so self-righteous (ok, bit of a generalisation, should be all the vegans I’ve ever met) – you have to be pretty special to be able to eat that stuff.

On a lighter note, I’ve got into watching the US version of The Office just lately. It took a while but I’m finding it really funny now.

The fog lifted:

so I grabbed a boat and cadged a scraping tool:

Unfortunately a spoke shaver doesn’t work too well on wet log so I ended up taking the blade out and using that on its own to scrape the graffiti off. My fingers are killing me now, but at least I have them all – there were a few close slips. It only took a couple of hours and it looks much better. And I feel better.

I took the last school group of the season out this morning. They specifically requested a trip to Jug Island, but we had thick fog down at the beach so that was a non-starter. Well, almost a non-starter. I figured we’d paddle close to the south shore out of the Cove, see if it cleared out in the Arm, and maybe go across. I’ve never paddled in fog before though. It’s really weird – you have no sense of how fast or slow you’re going, and if you have no reference points you have no sense of direction either. I was using the houses along the south shore as markers, and I couldn’t believe it when I saw the big house that’s only half way out of the Cove – I thought we were almost out by then. So we paddled out to Grey Rocks staying very close to the docks. Apart from the fog the paddling conditions were awesome; totally flat water, not a breath of wind. Once we got to Grey Rocks we turned around and then I got the kids in single file so that we could come back under the docks. It makes the trip back more interesting when you’re ducking under the docks at high tide.

I’m off to Jug Island tomorrow to scrape some graffiti off the big log on the beach. On Sunday some drunken redneck wankers blowtorched their names on the log then pissed off in their skanky motor boat. It’s one of my favourite spots in the entire Arm so I can’t just stand by and leave it. It would have been better if my kayak had torpedoes on it, but that’s only in a perfect world….