I escaped winter for two months so wasn’t lifting weights while I was in South Africa. Home a week now, and having exhausted all excuses and all strategies for delay, I dragged myself back there today. It’s always an ordeal to get there, always, and then, 10 minutes into the workout I remember that I […]
Author: Moniera
Mornings like this
There’s a coffee cart a few blocks over from where I’m staying here in Stellenbosch. It’s only open until 9. Some mornings, instead of plugging the kettle in, I dress and walk the 0.9km for the best cortado in town. The path there meanders through the woods, along a playful stream that frolics towards town. […]
Lopsided days
Abandoning routine I’m in Stellenbosch, South Africa, where I’ve come to escape the oppressive wet and grey of Squamish. When the magnolias bloom, I’ll head home, but not a moment before. So for now, I’m working remotely and riding my bike in the sunshine. Winter crushed me in so many ways, so I’m here to […]
Solo Travel
Most of the time, when I travel, it’s solo travel. I have no one in my life who’d want to go to South Africa to escape winter and ride bikes for an extended period of time. Ok wait – a few people might want to, but no one who’s ready to make it happen. When […]
The “special occasion” dishes
Growing up, we had a set of dishes for everyday use, and then another red set of dishes that came out only at Eid, or when we had guests for dinner. I remember the long washing plank being brought in from the outside basin where my mother did the laundry by hand. The plank would […]
Making peace with running
I am not a runner, or so my brain tells me. But I’m learning that not everything I believe is true and am untangling the limiting beliefs. Running and I have a complicated relationship, actually its marginally abusive. I try every few years, running beats me to a pulp and I skulk off to the […]
A fleeting memory
A conversation with my brother sparked a memory from a trip to India almost 10 years ago. I think we were talking about solo travel in places with a language barrier, but I don’t really remember. I was traveling from Benares to Agra by train. I had spent a few days along the Ganges and […]
The best years of my life
I often talk to people who are holding their heads in despair as they approach 50, thinking the end of the world is nigh. When I was turning 50, someone sent me this graphic as a birthday greeting. What a clever way to reframe it. The year I turned 49, I took a solo trip […]
12 things about racing
I am a BC Bike Race Finisher
Or am I? After the BC Bike Race (BCBR), I was home for one night to do laundry and repack and then headed off to do Singletrack 3, another mountain bike stage race in the Kootenays. Following that race I traveled to Whitefish, Montana to do a one day gravel race, The Last Best Ride, […]