Tag Archives: holiday

Time for a break

It’s the last day before March Break and it’s going to be a long day. My final ‘to do’ list is quite big and my goal is to get it done and not take it into the break. Sometimes these holidays sneak up on me, like this one. Other times I am counting down the days. But despite the fact that this two-week holiday seemed to come so quickly this year, I can tell that I need a break.

It’s a reset for me. A chance to rest my aching back. A chance to listen to a fictional novel. An opportunity to visit my parents. And most importantly, a chance to switch work off for a little bit. The last semester of school from March to June is always a whirlwind of non-stop activity and this break is the preparation for it.

My brain won’t totally let work go on this break, but unlike a weekend, I will be able to go a couple straight days without thinking about work. I’ll put my vacation response on email, and I’ll not be checking email daily. I used to not do this, but over the years I’ve realized that when I actually let myself take a break, I come back more rejuvenated and ready for the homestretch.

So while I’ve got a long day ahead of me, I hope to leave work at work and take some time completely off this holiday. The test of this will be my daily writing… how much of it will show that work is still on my mind? We’ll know in a couple weeks!

Workout whimper, not bang

We spent almost a full two days getting to Spain, having booked our trip to Paris first, then deciding to continue on to Barcelona rather than staying in France where my oldest is living. I was up at 4am on the Saturday morning and we didn’t get to our final destination until almost 8pm Sunday. I obviously didn’t get my workout routine in, then the next two days I woke up early and did pushups and leg raises to check off my daily workouts. I wrote about this in a post, The long game, and finished that post saying:

I’m not trying to run ultra marathons or have a bodybuilder physique. I’m actually going to let myself let loose and eat a bit more gluttonous while on vacation. But I’m also going to find time to exercise, I’m going to return home and be more thoughtful about my diet after my vacation. I’m going to keep playing the long game and not worry about minor fluctuations in my schedule. Because while there will be fluctuations, I’m going to keep a schedule of writing, meditation, and exercise. I’m not looking for quick gains, I’m just working on staying on a healthy path, knowing positive results are still to come… in time. Perseverance and the long game are the path I’m on.

But here is the confession, while I’ve done a lot of walking since then, I haven’t done my fitness routine at all and have only meditated a couple times. I’ve been out late with my family, and not waking up to do my routine. I’ve maintained my daily write, but mostly on the go, and when my family shops, or when we have down time between planned activities. My lack of exercise was more than a minor fluctuation, I’ve gone 10 days without a workout, which is the longest break in my streak since I started tracking in January 2019.

I’m not beating myself up about this, I’ll be back on track when I get back home. I just wanted to share because I think it’s important to share that while I’ve been on a pretty amazing fitness journey, it can have bumps and things don’t always work out as planned. After three years of dedication 2022 is ending on a whimper, not a bang, and while I’m on the worst streak of my 3 year journey, I’ll be back to my routine in the new year.

Things don’t always go as planned, and while things haven’t been great in the short term, I’m here for the long game and this blip will be over when I get home tomorrow… well maybe the next day since with time zone changes tomorrow will be longer than 24 hours and spent mostly on airplanes. The point is, I failed to keep a workout and meditation schedule while vacationing with my family, something I won’t get to do too often anymore now that my daughters are 23 and almost 21. I know I could have done more, but I didn’t. Things didn’t go as planned and that will happen. It did happen, but it won’t define any lasting pattern and I’ll be back at it in no time.

The long game

Playing the long game is often referenced in sports and revenge. ‘Wax on, wax off’ for the Karate Kid, with thousands of repetitions leading to skill improvement.

Or one of the best ‘long game’ movies I can think of, Fresh, where a young kid makes strategic sacrifices to get him and his sister off of a dangerous path.

It’s 3:30 in the morning and I’ve been up for a couple hours. My plan to stay up and adjust to the new time zone after my long trip to Barcelona failed. And so after 2 days of travel with no exercise I decided to work out. 5 sets of 20 pushups, leg raises, and crunches. Then a meditation. Right now I’m writing this listing to some 432 hertz music and I’m going to try to go back to sleep for a few hours.

I decided to write this first because the meditation I did on the Calm App with Jay Shetty was about perseverance, and while I listened I could see my reflection in the glass balcony door. In the reflection I saw my shoulders, trapezius muscles, and physical outline clearly, while my features were less visible in this not-so-perfect reflection. I noticed that over the last 4 years I have really transformed my body.

Four years. Not 3 or 6 months, not even 1 year, four. I started my fitness journey with a calendar on January 1, 2019. This was my reflection after a year. The path has been a tiny bit bumpy, but overall extremely consistent and without any significant injury as a result of my fitness regimen.

So often people (including me in the past) go on fitness binges and/or eating diets. It’s a race to see results. And while results can come from these brief attempts to improve, unrealistic fitness plans and unsustainable diets eventually lead to a point where they can’t be sustained.

I’m not trying to run ultra marathons or have a bodybuilder physique. I’m actually going to let myself let loose and eat a bit more gluttonous while on vacation. But I’m also going to find time to exercise, I’m going to return home and be more thoughtful about my diet after my vacation. I’m going to keep playing the long game and not worry about minor fluctuations in my schedule. Because while there will be fluctuations, I’m going to keep a schedule of writing, meditation, and exercise. I’m not looking for quick gains, I’m just working on staying on a healthy path, knowing positive results are still to come… in time. Perseverance and the long game are the path I’m on.

Sleeping on a plane

I still marvel at the idea of large planes traveling with the weight of people and luggage, defying gravity, thanks to forward propulsion and Bernoulli’s Principle. It still seems like magic to me. But the cost of this miraculous feat is such that people are squeezed into planes like sardines. This is not conducive to seats that are comfortable for sleeping.

That’s not a big deal for short flights, but on long trips, and multiple trips with layovers, that extend over several time zones, the lack of sleep is less than desirable. For me, travelling east is harder than travelling west, and getting some good sleep on the trip would be desirable… but not achievable.

Every time I do a trip like this I think, there must be an app that helps you plan your trip such that you reduce jet lag. But, I don’t travel enough to actually make the effort, and besides, even if I did, I still wouldn’t be able to get the recommended sleep suggested.

I just had a 4.5 hours flight from Vancouver to Toronto that was delayed almost 2 hours. Then power walked to a gate that felt 2 kilometres away to arrive at the gate for our our next flight about 20 minutes before boarding. That was a 7+ hour flight from Toronto to Paris. Now we’ve just finished a 4 hour layover and have a 2 hour flight to Barcelona. I’m tired. I didn’t sleep enough, but I’m afraid to even try sleeping now for fear of getting up in the middle of the night ready to start the day.

My strategy for not being able to sleep on a plane is to fight sleep until regular bedtime in my new time zone. It doesn’t make for a very comfortable travel day, but hopefully I won’t be falling asleep on my first full day in my new destination. Wish me luck.

Airports and airplanes

Today we travel from Vancouver to Toronto to Paris to Barcelona. Including an early arrival to the airport, on one of the busiest travel days of the holiday, we will be traveling for 26 hours. Add another 9 hours on the clock to that for time zones and this makes for a looong day!

But we finally get to see our daughter, who turned 23 a couple days ago, for the first time since she moved to France. And our youngest daughter is with us, and this is our first family vacation in a few years.

We are going to spend a lot of time in airports and on airplanes… but I’m finally getting excited about the trip. And I’ve got a few episodes of a show downloaded on my iPad as well as 2 audio books on my phone. I have snacks, headphones, and AirPods, and a battery power bank to keep my devices charged. I’d like to just click my heels and arrive at my destination, but if I’m going to spend a whole day traveling, I might as well keep myself entertained.

Barcelona… here I come!

Travel plans

I find it odd how much time we spend planning to go away. We have a cat that needs attending to, and fortunately we have a nephew who will be staying at our place while away. There are flights and places to stay to arrange. There is the packing, and the planning of things to do.

Holiday getaways are wonderful things, and I feel fortunate to be able to enjoy the great trip to Spain we have planned, but I don’t get excited by the planning and prep work the way I see others get. I don’t know how to ‘do’ anticipatory excitement. But I love arriving at a new destination. I love waking up in the morning in a foreign place knowing that the sights and sounds of the day will be different and new. I enjoy the flavours of new foods.

Now it’s time to start packing so that I’m not in a scramble the night before we leave… and hopefully a little excitement will creep into the tasks I need to do.

4-day work week

Maybe it’s my age, but I really wish the work week was just 4 days long. Too often a weekend feels too short. It’s not even about rest, it’s about wanting to do more in such a short time.

We’ve had a few 3-day weekends recently and I’ve really noticed a significant difference compared to this past 2-day weekend. I got stuff done beyond the ‘need to do’ stuff when I had one more day.

I don’t know the history behind the 5-day work week, and frankly I don’t care to look it up. It doesn’t matter what the reason was, it just doesn’t seem necessary anymore. Add an hour a day to the school day, Monday to Thursday, and Fridays get added to the weekend.

What would it take to make this happen? Whose game to try?

Understanding orange

Today is orange shirt day.

4 years ago I shared this 3 minute and 43 second video on Facebook:

I’m thankful for TJ, teaching me and allowing me to share his story. I’m thankful to Inquiry Hub student Madison for sharing her ‘Every Child Matters’ artwork with our school and community.

I am thankful that as more Truths come out about Residential Schools, the stories have inspired us to recognize that there are two parts of Truth and Reconciliation… there is the truth of what happened, and the reconciliation that is beginning to happen.

It would be easy to see Truth and Reconciliation Day as just another holiday from school, It’s harder to understand why it matters. Harder to see that reconciliation work is something to foster beyond the day off from school, and well into the future of our communities and our country.

Every child matters. Wear orange today and share your support.

Holiday decompression

We arrived home yesterday from a wonderfully relaxing Kelowna holiday. Today just disappeared. It’s already almost 5:30pm and I’m left wondering where the day went?It doesn’t matter that the holiday wasn’t a run-around-fun holiday, and that most of what I did was relax anyway. Day one after returning home from a holiday feels like a recovery day.

Is it just me or do you often feel like you need a holiday to get over your holiday?

Decompression time

Holidays are funny things. There is this delicate dance of feelings whereby one moment you are wanting to plan what you will do with your day so it isn’t wasted, and another moment whereby you are enjoying doing absolutely nothing. Well, not nothing, but going for a walk, laying in a hammock, listening to a book, or taking a nap.

It takes a while to decompress and allow yourself to enjoy doing nothing. It takes a while to appreciate being still, and not spending your time planning what’s next. But once that’s achieved, then decompression really begins.

It’s fun to plan things on your holidays, and it’s also fun to plan to do a little bit of nothing.