...leaving on a jet plane

Aloha!
I'm outta here.

See you in two weeks. Back on the 4th October.

35 hours til take off

One day to go! Clintos (seasoned hawaii traveller - his parents have a 'condo' in Waikiki) has informed me that baggage limit from US is 2 bags per person. 32kgs EACH. I am going to be in shopping heaven. You know what - maybe i will be back that mixmaster!

3 more sleeps!

Two amazing things happened today.

Firstly I went to the grand opening of Spotlight at Rockdale. I wish I had my digital camera, so i could take a picture with the 'spotlight man' mascot. I didn't even know they had a 'mascot'. I bet Lincraft doesn't. Anyhow he looked abit like the bad twin off a leunig cartoon. But i digress! Rockdale Spotlight is truly amazing. It reminds me of Walmart in America - i guess like any big w or kmart in OZ. It is big. It is craft heaven. It has party supplies, specialist baking stuff (colouring PASTE not liquid!), a whole book section for inspiration and everything else you expect (wool, fabric, paints, scrapbooking) and . And in clearly designated section and aisles AND they even have lay-buy! It has become my new favourite place to go at lunchtime and possibly means that i will spend less time on internet looking for inspiration and sourcing materials. not.

Secondly, after much 'um'ing and 'ah'ing, I'm in. I'm doing the Hawkesbury Canoe Classic when i get back from Hawaii. 111km over night down Hawkesbury River. Yeah so that last post below might have to wait til after the race. We're doing it as a mixed crew in an OC12. What's an oc12? I've never seen one either but I have it on good authority that OC6 x 2 = OC12. I'm not joking, it's a 'double hull' canoe. hehe!

Did i mention 3 sleeps?!

counting down the days...

4 days until hawaii!

Another typical weekend of training - abit windy, abit choppy, abit fripple-y and then some tasty bacon and egg rolls for brunch (bikini diet endorsed). Plus lots of talk about hawaii this hawaii that.

So I've been training up practically since the start of this year - what am I going to do AFTER i come back from Hawaii? Plenty.

1. Keep paddling - the local OC and Dragonboat competition season starts, and it will be SUMMER so I wont have to train in thermals. woohoo!

2. Clean my room. HA HA

3. Craft it up. Christmas gifts, scarves, bags, baking, gardening. I'm going to be all Martha Stewart/ Donna Hay. But not overcommit.

4. SURF. I"m going ot hit the beach and try to be a surfer girl. at least once.

5. Help the needy - all my friends in need of interior/wardrobe makeovers. haha

6. Learn to cook some chinese dishes from my mum.

7. Do all my photos from all my previous holidays into some sort of album!

What are you going to do this summer?

gym-ness

This morning was my last friday morning gym session before hawaii. yay! Anyhow I was doing my usual 'can't do a chin up but going to try' routine at Globo Gym at Rockdale, when one of the personal trainers (that is always there) came up for a chat. He said he had seen me around and had been trying to guess what kind of sport I was training for. His first guess, Basketball. HA HA. I dont even use the treadmill, brother! And I really dont do enough leg strengthening workouts. Maybe he got swayed by my shiny purple basketball shorts that I occasionally wear. Anyhow I told him about my big race and he was suitably impressed and asked if i was training full time or working as well etc etc. He didn't even try to offer his personal training service. ha. I was waiting for him to casually throw that in.

Anyhow it got me thinking - am I starting to look like an athelete, finally?! *squeals of delight* (secretly I wish I did, but really i think the answer is that he sees me training all the time and it's not quantum leap to figure that I must be training for 'something'.)

Yeah got my glamour shots back.
Favourite comments back so far
1. 'you look CHINESE!!'. Yes, that's because I AM.
2. 'They're great but they don't look like YOU' . Thanks...i think.
3. 'You look really hongkie'. Ok.
4. 'Is that your gold glo mesh top'. AS IF. But i do have a glo mesh handbag..it's almost the same size as the top. ha.
5. 'How much did they cost and how much did they airbrush'. ALOT.

Anyhow, the rest are here

12 things to do in 12 days

Only 8 days to go til I say ALOHA!

Here's my list of things I wanna do while I'm in Hawaii.

1. Surf on a long board (or at least attempt to)

2. Pose on North Shore Pipe Line beach in the style of Blue Crush (possibly in bikini)

3. Go to a Luau and learn a little hula

4. Try some local cuisine including poke, loco moco, Malasadas - fried Hawaiian donut (originally from Portugal) and Hawaiian Shaved Ice

5. Buy a Kukui Nut lei and bracelet

6. Drive around in an open top Jeep listening to Bob Marley’s “Could you be loved”.

7. Shop til I drop at Waikele Premium Outlets!

8. See a sea turtle while snorkelling.

9. Try on a Mumu

10. Get a Lomi Lomi Hawaiian Massage
11. Check out the Outrigger Club on Waikiki Beach.

And most importantly...

12. Finish Molokai Channel Crossing with my kick ass team in under 8 hours and not be the last team back to shore out of 37 teams (that includes the wooden Koa Class boats!)

Guess Who's Birthday it is.

water! wind! fire!

This weekend's post is brought to you by the three elements.

Water!
Yesterday we did our only Molokai race simulation which was meant to go for 5 hours of paddling with 5 x 10-15 minutes breaks inbetween. All was going well up to the 4th session when we were turning out from Shelly Beach and heading toward North Head to go back into Balmoral, when we flipped. I was in seat 5 so i saw all the action, unfortunately a wave hit us on the ama (outrigger) side and i could see the ama in the air and then we were in the chilly water within 3 seconds. Normally when you flip you just flip the boat back over and bail out the water and get in and paddle, except that the waves were quite large and the boat was submerged. It wasn't until we were back on dry land that we realised the floation tank at the back of the boat was missing a plug,and was filled with water instead of air. Anyhow we had to get towed in by a boat that happened to stop to see if we were okay. it was abit disappointing to not be able to finish the five hours, but we're confident that everyone is able to complete the 5 hours.

Fire!
It wasn't until about 4 hours later when i was getting ready for dinner that I noticed the searing pain on my arms...sunburnt!! Yes it was a glorious 25 degrees during the day and I had been was wearing a rashie top with short sleeves, now I have attractive red skin from my wrists up to my triceps - like red gloves. ha ha.

Wind!
Last night was the highly anticipated chilli crab night (not for marissa's birthday he he) at Temasek. I forgot how HOT malaysians like their chilli. HOT - Like Burning. So Trace and I decided to ask for the milder version, which was slightly less hot, but too hot for poor Sharon. The rest of the farkers ate chilli through their pores. Shar was still eating long after I had waved my white napkin of surrender at the offending dishes. So much Chilli in everything - I could feel it waging war in my stomach. But i was prepared for the attack - Extra Strength Mylanta tablets - the perfect defence. That intense relief....And no chilli butt. The perfect end to the weekend. And i got to sleep in coz there was no sunday training!

beach hair

The other day I was killing some lunch time in the aisles of Woolies, in anticipation of my Hawaii trip (two weeks to go!). 20 minutes later I came out $60 poorer but with some of my fave products - John Frieda Beach Blonde Ocean Waves Sea Spray, conditioner and Fruitrience Raspberry and Pink Grapefruit shampooo. Just like my favourite fruit cocktails!

I've been using the Beach Blonde Spray for a few years now and it reminds me of summer. I love that it smells like coconut reef tan oil mixed with saltwater and makes my hair crunchy and dirty with texture. The packaging now has a swing tag that says "suitable for all hair types". Clearly the tag is there to inform real blondes that brunettes can also use their 'beach blonde' products. And not the other way around... he he he.

Lastest food obsession

I was going to blog about the mussels at Heritage Belgian Beer Cafe that we ate at last night, usually they are really good and satisfying, but last night they were really disappointing- bloody thumbnail sized mussels...all shell and no meat. So instead i take the opportunity to bring you Jpeg's current food obsession. It's that tasty combination of crunchy shortbread biscuit, caramel and chocolate coating called the Twix bar. For the last month or so has been eating them daily. He is addicted to them and has 'forced' me to join in his addiction - particularly the GIANT sized Twix. Luckily I only see him a few times a week, because unlike him - my metabolism wouldn't let me forget that i'd eaten them!

So anyhow last night I offered a Twix to Jpeg before dinner with the basketball girls. He ate half and left the remaining golden packet on the dinner table - everyone started gasping "Are you eating twix before dinner?!" aghast at the thought of eating chocolate before a meal. To which jpeg replied "i know you want some - come on, just have a bit". Jen then asked me to remove the offending twix packet as it was 'talking to her'. Instead I grabbed the packet and started shaking it around, making it dance and talk with a cartoon voice 'eat me now jen, you know you WANT me...i won't ruin your appetite!'. Everyone else just stared at me. Like I was incapable of such tomfoolery. Ha! People forgot I have a 13 year old brother - they do stupid things like that constantly.

I might point out that Jen did indeed eat the rest of the Twix.

PS. Last night I also won a bet that involved knowing that Keira Knightley was Natalie Portman's decoy in the First Star wars movie. Can you believe - Star Wars Trivia. I guess I can thank Clinton for that one...urrrrrrrrb.

Happy Birthday Mel

Bec and Mel on OC1, originally uploaded by creamy_mash.

Yeah so this is actually a picture of Me and Mel on the borrowed OC1s at in Rodd Point. This was our second OC1 training session at Voodoo's place which is in an awesome location - only 100metres walk to the water - except must dodge traffic along Henley Marine Drive with boat.

Anyhow it's Mel's birthday today! I finished her UBER giant purple scarf. It's like for a giant. extra wide and extra long (2m in length using almost 300m of wool). It's too wide for a scarf, not wide enough for a shawl. I should have listened to my mother. ha ha.