Saturday Morning Treat

My Body for Life program allows one falling-of-the-wagon meal per week.  I've decided that Saturday morning breakfast at the Mugg and Bean at Festival City is going to be it.  I've always enjoyed a long, slow breakfast on the weekend.  I enjoy sitting over a full meal and reading a newspaper or book for an hour or two.  The Mugg and Bean restaurant has a few tables that look out over a large courtyard.  There's glass roof, so there's nice natural light.  There are numerous "waterfalls" so there's also the pleasant sound of running water. 

Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary

I and a colleague went to the Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary yesterday (Friday) because I had checked one website that said the hides were open every day from dawn to dusk.  Ha!  They're actually closed on Friday.  Fortunately, we were able to walk along the fence.  There were a lot of cool birds.  It made me wish that I had a better camera with a long telephoto lense.  In spite of the fact that we couldn't get into the hide, we spent a pleasant hour and a half there. Now that I know where it is (there's no big sign), I'll go on a Saturday morning at 9am.

It's really strange to be looking out over a lagoon full of flamingoes and seeing the Burj Dubai in the background.

Rain

Last night, it poured rain.  There was thunder and lightning.  This morning, it was 12C.  I'm wearing a sweatshirt and wool socks.  I actually kind of like it.  It feels like an autumn day in Vancouver.  I'm going in to town later this morning.  I hope the traffic isn't affected too much by the rain.  There are no drains anywhere, so the water pools until it evaporates.

Body for Life

Today was the my first day of a 12-week fitness/diet program.  I have a feeling that this is something that I will have to slowly get used to and I may have to adapt parts of it.  I've been doing basically the same workouts for 20 years and I think a change may be exactly what I need. I liked the focus that it brought to my workout today (Upper Body).  Alternate days are aerobic days.  I will be trying to get up at 5 or 6AM for a ride on my bike.  I used to get up at 5AM every day, so I'm not expecting it to be a big problem.  I figure I'll ride to the front gate of University City.  I'll have to check it with my car, but I think it's about 15 km.  I can usually manage to ride hard all the way to the front gate, and then ride back at a slightly slower pace.  I've been wanting to do this ever since I bought my new bike.  I think this program will provide a little more structure and incentive to do it.  I've report back in 12 weeks.

Outsourced

I really enjoyed this movie. Both Josh Hamilton and Ayesha Dharker were wonderful. As an English teacher, I enjoyed the occassional language struggles and, as an expat, the cultural bits were great. The movie also dealt with the topic of outsourcing in an interesting way.

The movie was funny and thoughtful.