I’m down to my last stash of Woolworths fruitcake pulled from my freezer this afternoon. There are 3 … no wait, only 2 now … 2 treasured slices left. As far as fruitcake goes it’s pretty decent: moist and just the right amount of fruity sweetness. It’s not special in that its spectacular fruitcake, it’s […]
Long Lines
The Road to South Africa & Wines 2 Whales
Wines to what? Wine 2 Whales is a 3-day mountain bike stage race in South Africa, put on by the same group that hosts the Cape Epic. The Cape Epic is a tortuous ordeal, high on suffering, low on frolicking and is not something I would ever aspire to do. Wines 2 Whales (W2W) is […]
Culinary comforts
It’s interesting what you miss when you’re away from home for a long time. Of course my bed, my shower and the familiarity of my life in my apartment. I also missed my kitchen. Self-catering has its limitations. While you can get by feeding yourself, it is within the limitations of always only shopping for […]
Childhood memories resurfacing
It’s been four week since I arrived in South Africa for this glorious adventure. Even though I grew up in Johannesburg, I’ve lived in Canada for more of my life than I have in South Africa, so Canada is home. I’ve been back 3 times in the 30 years I’ve been away, the last trip […]
We are wanderers
My baby girl – who’s almost 30 but always my baby girl – moved to the UK 5 years ago. 5 years have passed in a blink of an eye. For one reason or another, I haven’t seen her since the summer of 2019. 5 years may have passed in a blink, but these 3 […]
Racing is mostly about Human Connection
SBT GRVL Recap Most of us arrived in Steamboat Springs, Colorado on Thursday evening having never really met before. We’d been on zoom calls once a month since we were selected for the All Bodies on Bikes team, but few of us had actually met in person. We were all signed up for different courses […]
20 days to go …..
There’s a big gap between “I should do that race next year, it sounds like fun” and the reality of “How can it be less than 3 weeks to the race?” Last November when I applied to join the All Bodies on Bikes team at SBT GRVL it seemed like a reasonably achievable goal. It […]
Sea to Sky Trail Challenge
The Sea to Sky trail is a 180km trail that will, one day, run all the way from Squamish to D’Arcy, north of Pemberton. The Squamish to Whistler route is in place, but the extension is still under development. There’s a stunning section of it the runs from Brandywine Falls to Whistler that I’ve done […]
Getting Stronger
Training can in turn be so empowering – and then also so demoralizing. I lamented to a friend a few weeks ago about not seeing any progress from my training. She came back with, “What would getting stronger look like to you?” I’m not sure if I love it or hate it when friends ask […]
Periods – and other irksome things
I am 54 – a few months short of 55. That means I’ve been having a monhly period for about 42 or so years. That’s somewhere in the region of 500 periods. This means more than 500 months of at least one week of cramping, bloating, helter-skelter hormones, headaches and poor sleep. Oh yes, and […]