sketches of the mind

So a group of us are heading to Presqu’ile for a tramping trip this weekend. We’ll be leaving tonight and will be back on Sunday evening.

From the website it sounds like an interesting place:

A mecca for birdwatchers every spring and fall, this peninsula south of Brighton is a major flyway for migrating birds, home to waterfowl and shorebirds, and a staging point for Mexico-bound monarch butterflies. A long boardwalk crosses wetlands where marsh birds live and fish spawn. On islands to the west, colonies of gulls, cormorants, terns and herons nest. At the tip of the park are Ontario’s second-oldest operating lighthouse and the original lighthouse keeper’s cottage.

The last time I actually slept in a tent was in eleventh grade on a school arranged camp trip, so this will be fun. The sun has come out to play too today, after a week of gloominess and rain, so hopefully it will carry through the weekend.

I’m excited!

In other news today I have my first official volunteer photographer gig for The Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People (LKTYP). I joined their volunteer photographer roster a month before I left for Sydney but couldn’t make it out to photograph any events then. The assignment sounds simple enough:

Thom has requested a photographer for a summer drama school teacher training session here on Friday June 20 from 12:30 - 1:30. During this time there will be some role-playing activities that we would love to have documented.

I recharged my camera battery overnight so I’m good to go.

Excitement x2!!

Next update after I’m back from the camping trip

Well we did it. “We” being my team “Couchsurfers Combating Climate Change“. The team consisted of Alex, Rodney, Darrel, Neesa, Esther, Jan and myself. We’re all active members of the Couchsurfing community.

It took me 18 mins and 01 secs to ascend 144 flights, 1776 steps. Then there were the additional 9 flights to get to the exit (painful!). My goal was to do it under 20 mins and I achieved that, so I’m happy. I would have liked to do it under 15 mins as one of my sponsors Garry promised to double his donation if I did it under 15. It knew I was in trouble when after the first 20 or 30 steps I had a stomach cramp, and it stayed with me the rest of the way.

The long, and I mean long, wait (nearly 1.5 hrs) between check-in and the start of the climb did not help at all.

We even had a cheersquad - Nadja, Charles, Jose, Natalia and then later Maria. How cool was that?

At the top it was equally chaotic, there was hardly any space to breath because of all the climbers there. However we managed to find some time to appreciate the view, as well as walk up to the next deck where it was a lot more quieter and the view was spectacular! Shame we weren’t allowed to take any electronic devices (such as my camera) up with us. Toronto from up at the height and lit up at night time is gorgeous.

Once we returned to Earth (and it only took just over a minute, no fair!) there were more queues to wait in. There was the shirt queue and the photos queue. We got our shirts with our times written on the back of them, but we didn’t get our photos because it was taking them a long time to get through printing all the photos. Apparently we can access them through the WWF website and request for them to be posted out to us. I hope so.

Anyways, all the training helped and I wonder what I could have achieved had I begun training earlier (instead of two weeks before the event). Oh well, now I can tell people that I actually climbed the CN Tower!

Great effort from the team too - we all did it under 20 mins, and we collectively raised just over $1500 CAD for the WWF. GO TEAM C4 GO!

Here are the pics from my own camera:

Change was always part of the plan when I decided to move to Toronto and the act of actually getting up and leaving Sydney was a very big change in itself. This past week however has been particularly powerful in the change department.

So what’s changed?

1. I started training for the WWF CN Tower Climb.

I’ve registered a team of Couch Surfers and we’ll be participating in the team event next Thursday April 17th. We’ll be climbing all 1,776 steps of the tower in an effort to raise money for the WWF’s anti-climate change cause as well as to promote Couchsurfing.

Click here to sponsor me now! I’ve almost hit my individual fundraising target of $250 CAD! Help me exceed it!

2. I’ve gone veggie!

After eating more and more vegetarian over the past few months, I attribute this mainly to the veggie friends that I’ve made here (Cigdem, Neesa, Edmond and mr vegan Garry), I finally made the call to give it a real attempt. So last week I had 3 veggie dinners in a row and then I slipped accidentally on Saturday (or maybe it was an unconscious intention wa-ha!) at Future Bakery when I ordered the chilli fries. So there I was thinking that “chilli” fries were fries cooked with chilli sauce but no I was totally wrong. Oh wells.

So since Monday I’ve been eating veggie all week. My classmates from my photography class were surprised when all I ordered at the Pickel Barrel last night was a veggie pasta with garden salad, and a glass of water. Actually they looked shocked which was pretty funny. “You’re so healthy. I’m impressed!” exclaimed Chris, one of my classmates.

For the record I haven’t gone completely veggie (yet), I’m just limited my meat consumption to see how I survive without it. The first few days I experienced some severe hunger in between meals and my body has been taking a beating with the lack of calories (which is normal Garry tells me) as well as the hard training that I’ve been doing for the climb. Two days ago I was preparing to train and my body just crashed. Nothing major, I just ended up sleeping on the couch instead of running LOL.

3. I’ve got a new phone and cell number.

Introducing the Motorola MOTOKRZR K1.

I’m on a plan and work is paying for it yay! Bye bye crappy Rogers PAYG!

I’m on a 250 Anytime Minutes per month plan so I do have a limit to stay under. Thank you HP for paying the bill

Bonus! First 3 months unlimited local calling at no additional cost (all locals calls are free within the first three months starting yesterday!). In sexy voice *caaaaalll meee, calllll meee!* (within the first 3 months only though LOL)

+++

Well I’m sure other stuff is going on but I really do need to get ready for my Montreal weekend trip now, and get something to eat. The stomach is grumbling!

On Sunday, August 12, I completed The Sun-Herald City2Surf. Click here to watch me crossing the finish line after my 14km journey from the Sydney CBD to Bondi Beach. I’m on camera 3!

Of 53,000 people who completed the 14km journey, I was the 40954th over the line with a time of 164:19. I ran about a third of it as I was too busy taking photos of everyone and enjoying the experience!

My body was aching something severe once I got home that afternoon (I couldn’t move from my chair!) as well as the next morning, but it was well worth it!

Team Crush (my team) raised approx. $2000 for the NSW Cancer Council! The Cancer Council speaks out on cancer issues, funds research to find better treatments and earlier detection, provides support for cancer patients and their families and runs prevention campaigns to help people reduce their cancer risk

You can still donate by clicking here.

Thanks to everybody that supported me and my team!

More pics from the day:

People trafficking is wrong. I support STOP THE TRAFFIK in its call to:

• Prevent the sale of people,
• Prosecute the traffickers,
• Protect the victims.