It is early morning and I am sitting in a very luxury hotel suite (Barcelo Premium) in Guatemala City - I've put the 'please do not disturb, am sleeping' sign out so that I can finish this and maybe another blogpost. I will write two posts; one on the info in the title above, and the second on my work trip to the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Guatemala (where I am right now).
So back to March/April. Long time ago, but here is a test of my 33 year old memory.... Yes that's right....Miriam and I had just started training for the Ottawa Half Marathon (May 23rd). It was hard, as always, for the first few runs, but after a while we were enjoying our 3-4 runs per week. It was nice being fit again - I have a torn meniscus now, so fitness is slowly (actually speedily) disappearing, but that is another story.
So in between the training, we decided to spend the Easter long weekend in and around the Saguenay Fjord in Quebec (about 10hrs drive NE of Ottawa). Now, we ended up doing a lot more driving than expected. After a long days driving we arrived at our backpackers hostel - photo below (very cool place - used to be a flour mill - 4 families lived on the land back in the 70's - self sustained living - made and grew their own food etc). While in the carpark I noticed that the car beside ours was almost a write off - roof caved in winows and sides smashed - I thought someone had an unlucky day. At dinner, we met the others that were staying there - a young French couple - the guy studied at Lincoln in Chch back in NZ (small world) and knew a friend of mine. We also met another young couple with 2 young kids - they lived in Quebec City, but were originally from France - they were taking a short vacation around the Fjord. The father of the kids said to me (after a few red wines) 'Today I hit a Moose'. I said, bloody hell, that must be your car in the park then - ' ah wee'. 2 hrs before we arrived (early evening) the French family were 20mins from the backpackers and a Bull Moose came out of the trees and onto the road without warning - the French man acted quickly, swirved, but clipped the side of the Moose - the Moose flew, head hit the roof and windscreen, it then swung to the side of the car, smashed the side, its legs went through the side windows - narrowly missing the kids in the back and ended up on the road behind the car. Now, a Moose is big and top heavy. They have very skinny legs that go up for miles and all their weight is up high - so when cars (unfortunately) hit Moose, there usually isn't much damage to the bumper (as only the legs are hit) - but the top half (the heavy part) will write off the top half of the car - as the Moose usually flies through this part - think of a tonne weight flying at you at 50mph! Bugger that. That is why this family were extremely lucky to have survived, and why the French man was on his second bottle of red wine. They only had a few minor scratches. After the accident, the Moose lay on the road for a few minutes, then got up and ran into the bushes - hopefully to recover, but most likely to die. Apparently no one stopped to help the family after it happened - even when people saw the Moose in the middle of the road - in the end a women reluctantly stopped to help.
I mentioned earlier that we did a lot more driving than expected. Well the next morning we took the french family (minus the dad - as he drive back to Quebec City with the tow-truck) up the road (1.5hrs) to catch a bus back to quebec City. Once we dropped them off, we drove around the Fjord and back to the St Lawrence river. We went whale watching in a little zodiac - very rough swell - saw a couple of whales - no blue whale though - best time for that is now (August).
At the end of May, after many weeks of training ;), Miriam and I completed the Ottawa Half Marathon. We both finished with better times than last year - Miriam did 2hrs 8mins, I did 1hr 38mins. We were both happy, as there was a headwind for the last 8km.
OK, so I mentioned in the title that I had my 15min of fame over a 2 week period. How does that work? Well I made it on national TV twice and had a article published (in a Subaru travel magazine) back home.
The first time on TV was for work. The story was on social media and how it is the big thing at the moment and how employers are looking for social media strategists. I didn't speak, and I was only a background 'extra' - they showed me working at my desk - the back of my head, side and my hands - laugh.
The very next week I was on TV again - this time it wasn't work related, the story was about me, and I was in the opening credits to the evening news! In short, I was chased by a bear in Gatineau Park - must have been a slow news day!
Yes, chased by a 'Big Black Bear'. It was a hot humid, stormy Sunday and I decided to go for a bike ride (road push bike) in the Gats (Gatineau Park - in Quebec - 15mins from our Apartment in Ottawa). I was at the start of the park and I stopped under a tree to wait for a huge downpour to finish. It was one of those strange days - not many bikers out, dark, but still hot and humid. Once the downpour stopped I was in 2 minds whether to carry on biking or head back home. I carryed on biking. I was about 2km before Pink Lake, going at a good speed around a long bend (trees either side), when suddenly a big alpha male bear was right in front of me (3-4 metres) on the road (trying to cross), we both got a huge fright. I slammed on the brakes, but also did a u-turn at speed (fastest u-turn ever) - the bear was running at the side of my bike, I took off, heard the bear behind me, grunting, puffing. The chase was short - I think I gave him such a fright that he chased in self defence - and stopped after a short distance once he knew I wasn't a threat anymore. The whole moment was surreal and was over in a flash. the first thing I did after the chase, was ring Miriam, then a few friends. Then I cycled to the park visitors center to report the happening. Adrenaline was pumping all afternoon.
Anyway, I was interviewed the next day and was on the 6pm news on CBC. If you are a friend on Facebook, the video is on my page. There are a couple of screenshots below. The person who interviewed me was the same girl who did the story about social media the week before!
OK the final piece of the 15 minutes was that we had an article published in the NZ subaru travel magazine - it was about (us) kiwis living in one of the coldest places in the world - Ottawa, Canada - and about our adventures with our Subaru - had to mention Subaru to have the article published. Obviously Miriam wasn't allowed to be mentioned (by name etc) - people who know us well, know why. The magazine is free and avalible at any subaru dealer in NZ - if you get a chance take a look, all the photos are ours, and the a lot of the story is from this very blog.
Canada Day - nice relaxing day that ended with ride on Josh and Juile's (friends) yacht to watch the fireworks from the water - awesome experience.
About a month back, I tore my meniscus (knee) playing flag rugby. I was (and still am gutted) as sport and fitness is a big part of my life. It really sets one back. I was on crutches for a couple of weeks - the knee is still not right. I had a MRI scan before I left on my wrk trip (will get results next week) - physio and doctor have already said they think it is the meniscus though. As the inner part of the meniscus is avascular, no blood gets to it, which means it will not heal itself, which means keyhole surgery! Bugger!
So, we bought the whole pass for the Blues Fest this year - even though the lineup was not as good as previous years - but it was our last, and we thought why the hell not eh! There were still some big names like Jeff Beck, Cake, Stone Temple Pilots, Rudd, Blue King Brown etc. But the best, biggest, and the most OTT concert was the KISS concert. Unreal, I can see why there are a lot of KISS fans - they put on a huge show - fireworks, leader singer went on zip line across the crowd, fire balls, paper guns, everything. The pictures (all 200 odd) tell the story - on FlickR. There are a couple below too. I am a KISS fan for life and I was rocking that night on my crutches!
Oh yeah, a few weeks prior to the Blues fest, my sister Anna arrived for a short stay - from Columbia. She had a great time in Ottawa. We took her to Montreal, Omega Park (which has all the Canadian wildlife), showed her around Ottawa, and took her out on a friend of ours yacht.
Rib Fetsival (they come form all over North America):
Then the next week we had a visit from Miriam's dad (Clive), Suszanne, and brother Kit. We took them to Montreal, did some shopping, went to the Montreal Jazz festival - awesome, and also took them to Jeff Beck and Ben Harper, Holy F**k, at the Ottawa Blues Fest. I also showed them inside the embassy I work at. The day after the Jeff Beck concert, we were in a little cafe (that sold photos of famous people - mainly politicians). The photographer happened to be there, and he also happened to have had a backstage pass at the Jeff Beck concert the night before. He took some close up pictures of Jeff Beck playing - and Clive purchased one off him that day (at cost price).
Below are some pics of some Canadian iconic foods - Beavertails, and Poutine ( fries, with cheese curds and gravy). Below that are the Obama cookies. President Obama visited in Feb (I wrote about it in a previous post) and while here, he visited a bakery in Byward market (Ottawa central). He purchased a cookie shaped in the Canadian Maple Leaf. It now sells like hot cakes - people are purchasing them right throughout the country.
Ultimate Frizbee:
A poser on J&J's Yacht:
That ends this Post. the next will be on my work trip to the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Guatemala - 9 flights in 9 days!
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