Rooster and frigate birds...

 

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Internet access at the Sunset Royal Resort is disappointingly restricted, and yesterday when I thought to write something here, access was closed, and I was told the nearest internet cafe was 8km away.  As it is, I have now only a half hour before the guy here shuts me off. 

After a couple of days of rainy, cool weather, the temperature has begun a steady increase. Yesterday morning in Piste it was already warm when I was awoken at about 5.45 am by the sound of some sort of rooster, whose alto song went caa-haaaaa-mee--gluck.  I figure the notes, respectively, were f#, d, g in the treble clef.  The gluck at the end was a special sound, and I was unable to discern its pitch. That was little different from the cockledoodledoo I might have expected from a rooster. 

Awaking there in Piste, away from the hustle and bustle of Cancun was peaceful, though the road near the hotel is a main thoroughfare between Merida and Cancun, and there were trucks passing through all night long.  Soon after awaking, despite some congestion in my lungs, I was excited about a run.  The area is largely flat, though I found I country road, where I thought to keep my eyes open for trails that perhaps went in the direction of Chichen Itza.  I found two such trails, one that led me to a garbage dump where flocks of blackbirds the size of vultures lingered alongside a pack of stray dogs.  Dogs are small here, rather about the size of a blue healer, and they are not menacing, but I thought not to linger too long in the company of a pack of strays.

The second of such trails led me to a collection of box beehives, and that was the end of it.  So, any chance of finding the back trails that would lead me to Chichen Itza for a last look were rather minimized. 

As I have said, dogs are not menacing here, but even so on my return a small pack accumulated behind me as I passed by.  When they were not barking, I was not worried.  But when one started, they all jumped in for a chorus and they approached my heels a little too closely for comfort.  At that point I started kicking the heels up a little higher and speeding up.  Soon they peeled off, fortunately. 

Under the early morning sun I found a nice local place for breakfast, and they make great breakfasts here.  Even a request for cornflakes and eggs was accompanied by chapaties, rice and beans.

Time is running short here...the bus ride return to Cancun was uneventful.  Owing to my bug, I managed to sleep most of the way, like so many of the bus traveling Mexicans.  Sleeping on a bus is as easy as sunshine for these folk, it seems.  After returning I lounged most of the afternoon away before the yacht ride at dusk.  When Elizabeth, my time share presenter, described the tour, I thought she said jets but that was my mistaken understanding of her Mexican accent. 

Today, I ran early under another baking sun, covering just over 12k in 55mins.  The bug I have is dying and Im starting to feel a lot better.  Just in time to come home for the rain!  The rest of the day has been spent lounging, reading, going over Iolanthe, and observing frigate birds - more about that later.   I can rent a bike for a couple of hours tomorrow before I head back in the late afternoon.  2 minutes left....

Chichen Itza

Thursday, December 28, 2006

In Piste, Yucatan State, there is a small restaurant with an internet cafe that holds seven computers.  It is where I am at the moment.  Perhaps there are other such cafes, but this is a village of 3000 people, and it is unlikely to hold very many more.

Piste is the nearest populated village to Chichen Itza, where the population swells by 5000 tourists a day, I have heard.  On March 21st, it swells by 50,000, all of whom come to witness an extraordinary event when the light of the sun falls into a special alignment that reveals seven triangles up one side of the main pyramid illuminated by the sun.  These triangles rise up alongside the pyramid behind the head of the serpent, exposing the complete length of the serpent.  If it is sunny on September 21 (apparently it often isn´t) the same phenomenon may be observed.

That the Mayans could calculate the 17 degrees off symmetry required to expose these triangles on two equinoxes of the year, is nothing short of astounding. But so is the entire archaeological site at Chichen Itza.  The observatory, although its dome is crumbling, resembles so closely our current astronomical observatories - at least from the outside - it nearly defies belief.   It is also hard to believe that once the city was abandoned (sometime in the middle ages - I can´t remember exactly when), it lay overgrown by jungle until relatively recently before being rediscovered.  In the vastness of the jungle here, one can´t help but wonder what amazing discoveries remain to made.

In any event, I have at last arrived at one of my most anticipated destinations.  It has not disappointed, and a light show this evening has enhanced the experience, although the discussion was in Spanish.  It is a truly amazing site. Stonehenge, for example, which I saw a couple of years ago or so, is miniscule in comparison to this. 

Near dusk, as the site was closing for the day, I was also thrilled to watch a long line of aramigos (ants, and I´m unsure of the spelling) along a more secluded pathway near the site grounds.  I doubt whether the photos I managed will do this ant parade much justice, but I have never seen ants in the flesh in this formation - a site that rivals flocks of frigate birds or pelicans or geese in formation.  There are some principles (energy output reduction) that underly this collective behaviour which are arguably similar to those of bird flocks, or of penguin huddles, or of bicycle pelotons.

The bus ride to Chichen Itza was not as expected.  I had not arranged for a full tour starting with the bus ride from Cancun, and thought to catch the bus independently and arrange for a tour when I was on site.  Unbeknownst to me at the time I caught the milk-run ride that took over four hours, as compared to about 2.5 for the express bus, which I did not know about.  So I arrived with less than three hours before the site closed for the day (to reopen for the light show).  When I arrived I did arrange for a personal tour guide, whom I flagged down while in the line up.  Unfortunately by the time I got through the line, he had disappeared.  So I ended up hiding in amongst a couple of other tours that were going on.

Fortunately, on the bus I sat across from a couple who spoke fluent English and Spanish, and the one fellow helped me out considerably in figuring out simple things like where the bathrooms were at a rest stop and the logistics of my travel. I´m especially grateful for his presence when a non-English speaking ticket conductor boarded and asked for everyone´s tickets, after I had given mine to the driver upon boarding.  Even so, it is amazing how much one can in fact communicate if a Spanish speaker has just a few words of English, and an English speaker has just a few words of Spanish. 

In any event, there is a brief summary.  I´ve found a place in Piste for 18US a night - no extras, but it is clean and all I need for one night.  I plan to go for my first run in several days in the morning, explore a little, and will see if I can find a back trail onto the grounds (I am fairly sure there is at least one, as I was noting them on my tour - I just don´t know how to get to them) for one last peak at the ruins before I leave.  I´m still fighting a bug and felt mildly asthmatic this morning, though I managed to purchase a Salbutamol inhalor for 5US without a prescription.  This was fortunate, as I had neglected to bring my inhalor from home.

After my run and breakfast somewhere in town, it will be back onto the second class bus to Cancun for two more nights at the Sunset resort.

The reef, er Jungle tour

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Bikes r possibly us afterall.  On my 11k walk home through the Zona Hotelera after the jungle tour was finished (or perhaps more precisely, the ´reef´ tour) I spied a shop that rented bikes, and upon peering through the window, they appeared to be of good quality and well-maintained.  The shop was not open when I passed by, and I will not get a chance to investigate more closely until Friday, when I plan to return from Chichen Itza, where the plan is to venture tomorrow early. 

I was forced to postpone my 10:00 am reef tour to 1:00, owing to the resolution of my first quasi-crisis here.  After the cab ride home yesterday which Elizabeth, my time-share presenter, arranged and joined me for until I was dropped off at my hotel, I realized this morning that I had left my package of time-share contract documents in the taxi - a very unwise thing to do.  The continuous refills of champagne after we closed the deal had adled my judgment just sufficiently so as not to hang on to my package tightly.  At least that is the excuse I am making, and I'm sticking to it.

At first I thought to call the taxi company and report the missing booty.  Nearly an impossible task trying to communicate the problem, let alone impossible to contact the cab company.  I was told that to lose something in Mexico is to consider it gone permanently. 

Then I thought to wait until the morning and go back through the Sunset hotel time-share people and see if they could assist me.  At worst they could provide me copies of the copies they had kept, but ideally one needs originals.  Fortunately, they were extremely helpful and with their ontacts in high places, they traced the cabbie and retrieved the package within a few hours. Crisis number one solved, and I am developing a healthy respect for Mexican honesty.  I see the time-share processes here are highly regulated, with many protections in place for consumers.  I get the sense that the State of Quintana Roo in particular has many regulatory protections in place for its citizens.  This is perhaps a development over previous years and a poor reputation Mexico in general may have in that regard. 

While waiting to hear about the cabbie issue, I had free access to the resort (as I am now a member, as well) and so spent some time under the now sunny skies, swimming in the ocean a bit and the pool, and lounging around the deck and helping myself to free lunch, and finally experiencing the burning sensation of hot sun on skin, liberally slathered with sun-block. 

On to the ´'jungle' tour.   Speed boats, seating two were supplied.  I was in a boat with Parson (I actually can´t remember if that was his name, but it was something like that).  Parson is from Denver, Colorado and is visiting with six of his siblings and in-laws, all in other boats.  We had something in common, since I had been training in Boulder, very near Denver, for three weeks as a cyclist there in about 1989.  Beside us were Harry and Tonya (I think) from Jersey, England.   Parson explained that he does not speak Spanish, but instead he just speaks very loudly.  ¨Just to let them know you´re American,' I said.  ´Exactly!´¨ he replied. 

I should really stop razzing these Americans.  In truth I think many of them are developing a bit of an anti-American complex.  My Boston acquaintances the other night explained that Americans ´...do everything wrong.  The rest of the world uses metric, and we still go by fahrenheit and miles.  We just do everything wrong,' he said apologetically.  'Most Americans don´t admit it though,´I said.  Hee hee, time to let up a bit on these poor guys!   The kind of international isolation they must encounter is very real, I believe.   For example, in Belgium three years ago for the duathlon Worlds, we Canadians were nearly despised by some Belgians when we were at first mistaken for being American.  One asked me if I was American, and upon informing him otherwise, he proceded on a tirade about the mainland European´s distaste for all things American.

I digress.  Parson was happy to let me drive the boat both ways, despite my offer to allow him to drive on the way back. The boats seemed to hit nearly 70k an hour, although the speeds are perhaps a bit deceiving.  When following behind other boats, I discovered quickly there was one line in the wake of the boat ahead that exhibted the least amount of turbulence.  Fall outside that line and the waters are very rough and even a bit dangerous.  Apparently Tonya,  in the boat with Harry, nearly capsized on the return when we did a fast loop-de-loop, having gone over the wake of our boat on a bad line.   There were definitely some points when we were catching significant air through the cross-wakes of other marine vehicles that were not for the faint of heart.  Great fun though. 

The reef itself was a little disappointing.  Being my first real snorkelling experience, I was hoping for a colorful show beneath the waters.  However, there were a only a few schools of fish about 9 inches long and 6 inches high that swam around us for while, some coral and a couple of cute little blue fish near the floor about 15 feet below us.  I had some difficulty getting back on the boat with my flippers stuck out in front of me.  While Parson and Tonya pulled on my arms as I was stuck between two boats, I was laughing so hard that my own efforts were rather ineffective.  A lost opportunity for a film about how not to re-mount your boat, Parson commented.

In any event, that was that, more or less.  Í did see my first crocodile on the short ferry ride across from the hotel where the tour began to the hotel where people were buzzing about trying to locate my lost package.  One fellow explained that after the hurricane there are only small crocodiles left - for some unknown reason the larger ones seem to have vanished.

Met some other Australians who have been travelling Mexico for four weeks and are now off to Cuba for one more.  So far attempts to reach Ricardo´s mom and sister have been in vain.  Will keep trying.

Now, owing to the bug I'm still fighting, it's another early night.   Fortunately it didn't prevent me from enjoying the day - hopefully it will be ok tomorrow too as I make my way to Chichen Itza.

Yikes!

Tuesday December 26, 2006

The weather was only hot for about three hours this morning, and round about noon it began to cloud over and the winds picked up again. Although it did not rain, it wasn´t overly conducive to spending heaps of time on the beach.   So far my plans for simply relaxing on white sands have been mostly a bust.  After my short time on the beach, I walked through the lobby of one of the resorts and signed up for a jungle tour tomorrow, for the special promotion price that included a 90 minute time share presentation that included a buffet and a walkthrough of gorgeous ocean view Sunset resort suites and facilities. 

That seemed reasonable, and I thought I would be unlikely to purchase a time share, although I have considered in the past that they are not bad deals if you do travel a fair amount and can exchange the locations.  So, after a great lunch with my presenter, twice I nearly said no, until the inexperienced presenter, Elizabeth, called over one of the seasoned pros, Milton, who sweetened the pot twice.  In addition to a substantially reduced asking price, he offered ten additional weeks free in Cancun useable anytime during the rest of my life, an increase from four such weeks he´d offered after I was asking all sorts of hard questions and nearly putting the kaibosh on it all.  On top of that, he gave me two nights at the resort before I leave for Victoria, at dirt cheap rates, as they needed to fill a cancellation.  I also get a ¨free¨ flight in a jet plane on Friday with three or four others.  That will truly be a hoot! 

The upshot of this all is that I have yet again been the typical western SINK (single income no kids) consumer.  However, given the amount of travelling I am doing and will most likely continue to do until I kick the bucket or something serious happens to me, it will hopefully end up being a highly valuable purchase.  I cannot help but wonder though, how much of the spontaneous and authentic travel experience I have just sacrificied.  Sometimes the most memorable travel experiences are those in which you must rough it just a little, or even a lot.   Suddenly I´m in the category of one who will be lodging in pausch upscale suites where ever I go, or nearly so.  Of course I don´t have to use it, but now that I´m paying for it, I´m tied into it.  What have I just done? 

Aside from that, the plan, which is a fluid one, is now for the jungle tour tomorrow (apparently I get to drive my own speedboat which should be fun), bus to Chichen Itza in the evening for a full day there on Thursday.  If the weather is nice in Chichen Itza I may sleep under the stars one of the nights, if I can find a suitable location.  Friday I´ll return to Cancun for two more nights at the Sunset lodge and will hopefully meet Ricardo´s sister and/or mother one of the days, both of whom are residents of Cancun.  Ricardo lives in Vallarta and works as a massage therapist, but lived in Victoria for a few years, when he and I occasionally trained together.  He ran a 2:26 marathon sometime after he left Victoria, and occasionally I bump into his father or Barb Z who give me all the news about Ricardo.

At the moment I am actually fighting a wee scratchy throat, which I awoke to.  I¨m sure the miles in the rain yesterday did nothing to help this condition.  In return for being sucked into a time share, I have no doubt passed on this Canadian´s version of Moctezuma´s revenge to my presenters.  So, it will be another fairly early night.

Bikes R not Us

Monday December 25, 2006

Before arriving in Cancun I had heard the possibility of renting a bike here might be slim to none.  So far that has been borne out to be true.   Even a visit today to Isla Mujeris, after walking a few kilometres in driving rain (albeit a nice warm rain!) to the ferry for its 25 minute ride away, turned up one bicycle for me to rent that featured a rear wheel hub so decimated with wear that the rim mashed against the breaks on every pedal stroke and I decided that sort of ride was not what I was going to pay money for.   Bicycles are not much of a priority here, evidently.   This is unfortunate for me, but I understand there are bikes to be rented in Tulum, where I will make my way in a day or so.

So sans bicycle, after breakfast spent discussing the sports culture of Italy with an Italian man who asked me first if I spoke Italian, then exchanging a few stories about our respective visits to each other´s countries with two women from Switzerland, today I walked for about six hours. I´m guessing it was about 25km.  This included a few wrong turns and excursions into the nether regions of Cancun and Isla Mujeris ( the Isla is small,  and really there are not really any ¨nether¨regions in it).  

Had it not been raining most of the day, I would have found more time to plant myself  on some sand and read for a while.  But what else is there to do but to walk all day when it is raining in Cancun?  One experiences much more tangibly the city by doing so, and one certainly can see much more of the poverty there by endless miles of walking.  Or so it seems, anyway.  Many of the dwelling places are tiny with numerous occupants, and many are open without windows.  Still, although these people are not wealthy,  it is sometimes not easy to know what level of poverty they may be experiencing.  And as the old truism goes, external wealth often does not correlate with internal wealth, or perhaps more closely worded: the greater the outward show, the greater the inward poverty.  So, if the small and dirty houses are packed with laughing people, how impoverished are they really?

 In the poorer regions, people do not openly ask you for money, although if you say hola to people, some will take that as an invitation to ply you with all sorts of stories in Spanish that you (if you are me) do not understand, and you end up saying ¨no entienes espanol¨ several times.  They look at you quizzically and wonder why you cannot speak Spanish when you look like you should be able to.  Then if you are me, and you sit for a moment to rest your feet on a little cement wall on the tourist strip in Isla Mujeris, you get large American tourists saying Hola to you, seeming to think they are being very cordial with the locals, using the only Spanish word they know beside ¨gracias¨.   The least they could do, I would think if I were a local as they seem to think I am, is to not insult me with your single Spanish word.  If you said hello in English to me or thank you to me, I would know what it meant - so mr. Americano tourisito, why don´t you add ten more words to your repertoire and make me, little loco Mayan boy, laugh a little. 

But now after thinking that thought, I feel horribly guilty for being one who befits the above touristo description perfectly.  My lame attempts at ¨donda esta¨this or that when asking for directions, doesn´t qualify as any better.  However, I have decided to commit to learning a tiny bit more Spanish before I spout hola and gracias too liberally. 

Aside from that, I feel quite worn out.  After arriving yesterday - somewhat late due to a late plane departure during which an American man and his mother quizzed me on trivia after I boasted that we Canadians are smart cookies - all the excitement had me headed for the Coco Bongo (something like that) disco on Hotelera Zona.  After taking a bus bloated with people into the Zona, and then discussing with some boys from Boston the logistics of getting in to the disco at 11:30 at night when it finally opened,  some waitress fed me two shooters of unknown content after my two free drinks had been consumed - when these kicked in about three minutes later, it was loco Mayan boy up on the tables gettin´ groovy in a serious way, his pseudo- Flamenco arms a-flying in every pattern imaginable.  After the live acrobat performers and Hollywood lookalikes did their rounds and the deafness of his ears became apparent , he paid the cabbie far too much for the ride back home.   So the long walk today did much good for his ears...

Tonight, owing to general fatigue, I´m turning in early for more adventures tomorrow...

__________________

Chris - just a note in reply to your last comment posting: I´m like you - I often enjoy training solo, and doing many things solo - afterall here I am in Mexico, enjoying the experience.  I might not describe it as the ¨time of my life¨ but I can certainly enjoy all sorts of things on my own.   Even so, I sometimes ask myself, would I enjoy training solo, or doing anything solo, if I were trapped on some vast expanse of tarmac as far as the eye could see in all directions?  Somehow I have food and water to sustain myself, but there is nothing interesting around me. No people, animals, vegetation, no changes in topography.  Maybe I have running shoes and can run without hurting my feet on the tarmac.  But how long would I enjoy the experience of ¨training¨solo? I wouldn´t be doing it ¨for¨anyone, since there would be no one around to do it for.  I would probably not care about whether I got fat or how I looked - why would it matter?  So I would hardly be doing it for myself either.  My point is that even when we do things solo, I think those things still fit within the matrix our social interactions - because we do them to prepare for some other sort of pending social interaction.  Either that or it is some form of complex interaction with our environment which stimulates complex neural activity in the brain - but if the environment has no, or insufficiently few, features to stimulate the brain, then it is ¨boring¨and we end up unhappy, I think.  More sometime later...

The Longest Evening

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Without fanfare this shortest of days has slipped like cold grey sand through fingers; the sand made sparkling for just an hour or two this morning by a momentarily bold, but weakening eye of day, chased away by the rapidly closing darkness and clouds.  I had nearly forgotten of the shortness of the day - this year I have not been as conscious of the length of the days as much as in previous years, but as I've mentioned a few times here, the shortest and the longest days always hold significance for me. 

Still I am not as anxious about them lengthening now or their rate of doing so - with seven days in Quintana Roo and the Yucatan approaching, the length of the days here does not concern me as much, and with thirteen rehearsals in January and twelve in February and even more in March including six performances, these months will pass so rapidly that when I finally come outdoors to sample more fully the light of day, the days will be much longer then. 

To catch up on the last three days of "training":

Tuesday - 1:05 easy running, followed by 45 minutes on the rowing machine (I don't remember now what exactly I did on the machine, but it was about 11,000m I think).  Later, it was nice to have tasted Demian and Sarah's wassail and to have enjoyed their eclectic gathering.

Wednesday - 2 hour ride, through Munns road.  I was surprised how good I felt, since this was only my second ride longer than 15 mins in the last two months.  I think the rowing has been instrumental in maintaining my base conditioning for the bike, as well as for running. 

Thursday - met Cliff at the Odyssey gym for a treadmill workout - 3 x 10 mins at increasing paces - 5:45; 5:39; started at 5:29 for the last ten minutes but gradually accelerated the pace, finishing up with an extra minute at 5:00 pace.  Then onto the rower for 1/2 hour (just over 7000m).  The chain was a bit stiff on the machine there, so the technique suffered, but I was still able to get a good workout in.  Cliff then took me through some brutal core strength exercises, made especially hard after just finishing the rowing workout.

Tomorrow the plan is for a run or ride early, a vocal session with Kathleen West at noon, and pilates with Scott later in the afternoon; trail run Sat with Hicham, another vocal session with Scott Saturday afternoon, then it'll be throwing stuff into a backpack in preparation for the Sunday morning flight to a place south of here, where the air is much warmer and the days are longer and the skies are not cloudy all day (no buffalo roaming though)...

_____________

I leant upon a coppice gate,
When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
...

    - Thomas Hardy, The Darkling Thrush

The pursuit of happiness

I'm not sure why the term Nichomachean ethics sprung into the forefront of my consciousness today. Like a melody or some memory past, sometimes words or phrases leap into mind at the oddest of moments, having only a tenuous connection to anything happening around me, if any at all.   Fortunately I don't necessarily vocalize these fleeting phrases, but in any event I thought to read a bit more about Nichomachean ethics, which I knew originated from Aristotle, but that was all.

Having begun to read just a bit about Aristotle's Nichomachean ethics, I struck upon some discussion of endaimonism, which I understand to mean is the pursuit of happiness by exercising virtue, in the Aristotelian framework.  This led me to think more about what constitutes human happiness.

I have for a few years now been formulating my own theory of happiness, which derives from a basic principle of complexity theory: namely that patterns of order emerge at a "meta" level from the interaction of components within a system.

People are social beings, which means they interact with each other; in addition they have highly complex brains that must be stimulated by complex activities in order to use even a fraction of the capacity of their brains.  Happiness derives from a minimum amount of certain kinds complex interactivity, and generally includes some aspects of social interaction as well as other stimulation of complex neural activity.

In terms of social activities, there are, I suggest, complex physical patterns that emerge from certain types of activities. A good example is participating in a sporting event: there are complex patterns that emerge as a result of basic rules of interaction (this was largely what I presented about at the Philosophy of Sport conference in Wales that I attended in May).  The participants derive much satisfaction from these interactions and we may even announce that they are "fun", and "fun" is a component of happiness, it seems to me.

Like the patterns in sporting events, the vast panoply of social interactions we undergo result in complex patterns too, but they are more subtle.  Patterns are bound to emerge at a holistic level, and there are certain types of patterns toward which we aspire and from which happiness ultimately results, I suggest.  If one becomes subject to social exclusion, isolation or sanction, one's participation in the broader emergent patterns are limited, and unhappiness results.  Unhappiness, in this instance is only at one level about an individual's feelings of guilt or shame or isolation; at a more fundamental level, unhappiness is a direct consequence of not contributing to the broader physical patterns that emerge from social interaction. So my theory goes, anyway.

In any event, I could go on at length, and I have no doubt my audience became vanishingly small after the first sentence of this post.  I'll leave off for now, to be continued sometime later.

_______

Today I did 35 mins on the treadmill, followed by a half hour on the rowing machine.  I was out of work a bit later than usual, owing to the fact that I'm on vacation starting tomorrow and needed to finish up a few things.  Back to work on January 2.

The routine restored

Sunday, December 17, 2006

After my ride yesterday I felt quite tired today and, with power restored later in the afternoon yesterday, when the alarm went off at 6:30 this morning so I could meet Cliff for a run at 7:30, I momentarily found myself dreading it.  On the other hand it's been a while since I've finished my workout so early, and fuelling myself with oats and brown sugar, I was out the door and glad to be so.  Running at first twilight we were witness to a red rising sun that seemed to pierce a hole in the clouds an the horizon.  We ran for 1hr 20.

In the afternoon, sometime not long after joining the Sunday morning coffee runners for coffee, Scott and I ventured to take in the Sing-a-long Messiah at the Royal Conservatory, where Stephanie Landucci was the soprano soloist alongside three other very good soloists.  It was really nice to hear Stephanie sing from the audience's perspective - an opportunity I will not have when I'm on stage beside her in March. 

For the sing-along, the audience was sectioned off into the four main vocal groups.  Scott had a good handle on the chorus tenor pieces and is a good sight reader, and although I have heard it a few times, I have not sung any of the Messiah before and do not sight read, so I could only pick up a few bars here and there as we went.   But it was still fun, though, and there were a few other G&S singers in the audience.  Gail Nash, the registrar of regulations at the Attorney General and who plays the oboe and French horn, and from whom I purchased my tickets, was in the orchestra (the Civic Orchestra of Victoria).

I finished up the day with 35 mins on the rowing machine at an easy pace and 5 mins on the exercise bike, joined for a short while by Roger and Kerri whose pumpkin pie and ice cream afterward satisfied to perfection the gnawings of my stomach.

The cold sleep

Saturday, December 16, 2006

The wind storm that battered Victoria on Thursday was true to its predicted intensity, and on Friday, after being started awake at least twice during the night by the shaking winds, the morning arrived and I awoke realizing the alarm had not rung and that the power was out.  Not to worry, I thought, it will be restored sometime during the day while I'm at work.  So after a cold wash in the dark, I tip-toed down the stairwell blindly, feeling for the railing in the blackness and realizing what it must be like to be truly blind, but then out the door of my complex to work on the expectation of resuming a normal routine upon returning home.  But after arriving home, the power was still out, and remains so today as I write from the Serious Coffee downtown. 

I'm certain, however, to get no sympathy from those in Sooke whose freezers full of winter fish and meats are rotting after days of being without power.  And admittedly, it's a minor inconvenience when I can use the shower facilities at the rec centre, eat out as much as I like, or connect my laptop to free wireless internet services, such as now.  The biggest difference is the forced change to my routine: no gravitating to the computer immediately upon arriving home or tuning the radio to CBC, phoning anyone or simply enjoying a warm place in which to dwell after coming in from the cold (relative cold, that is!).  There's a calm solitude that accompanies an absence of electrical power. 

But a change of routine should be no cause for complaining.  Rather, it is an opportunity to adapt and test the boundaries of our tolerance, if only a little; to exercise resourcefulness and appreciate the many things we take for granted.  And for me all of these things have arisen on a scale that is insignificant in comparison to what people experience in true disasters or worse.

Thus being largely incommunicado with the outside world yesterday, and with the darkening dwelling place accompanied only by coldness and silence, I went for a half hour treadmill run, a half hour erg workout and 15 mins on the exercise bike at Oak Bay yesterday evening, enjoyed a warm shower there, ate out and sauntered into town to watch Apocolypto. 

Despite periodic gory scenes, I thought it interesting that the director, Mel Gibson, portrayed two Mayan tribes quite sensitively, while portraying another, much larger component of Mayan civilization, as very brutal.  Contrary to some reviews, which suggest that Gibson portrayed the Mayans generally as wholly psychotic, he did not portray all the Mayans that way; he also illustrated, somewhat successfully I thought, the suggestion that internal corruption precedes the collapse of a society or civilization, as indicated by the quote at the beginning of the movie.  Much of the movie was simply fantastical, but it didn't seem to make much pretense that it was otherwise - it was really a kind of Mayan legend that illustrated a few of the kinds of attitudes within a society which precede its collapse.  But that's just one way of looking at it - there could have been a lot more done to portray the sophistication of the Mayan people and more to fill out the theme of corruption, as some critics have said.

In any event, after a sleep facilitated by a toque, gloves, two heavy shirts and two extra blankets, I thought to hop the bike in the morning after having coffee out.  I joined up with the tail end of the Burnside group for an hour and a half on the bike.  The ride felt good, considering I haven't done more than 15 mins on an exercise bike since October.  The indoor rowing and running have been quite sufficient to maintain a modicum of riding fitness as well.  I will have no trouble riding a bike for hours in Mexico, should I choose (though I heard today that bike rentals in Cancun are few and possibly non-existant, though I really can't imagine that to be the case - he says hopefully).

Hopefully by tomorrow this time, I'll have my power restored...

Yet another storm approaching?

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Yet another storm accompanied by hurricane force winds is predicted for this evening.  I feel fortunate to have made the 5:00 ferry home from the mainland, where I spent the day facilitating a meeting.  I had originally booked a plane, but changed my mind in favour of the ferry, partly because of the potential that it wouldn' fly due to the weather, and also because it was convenient to have my car with me.

Last night, after a drink at the Bent Mast following our last Iolanthe rehearsal of 2006 (which went very well), I barely got a wink of sleep, and I found it interesting how I was able to make it through the day-long meeting with some semblance of competence on such little sleep.  I'm finding I finally have a sufficient amount of experience for presentations or when speaking at length that I can carry them out reasonably well even when I'm tired.  I'm not sure I had this ability even five years ago.

This evening, after returning home, I stopped in at the Commonwealth pool gym on the way, and ran for a half hour on the treadmill.  This included a 3mile effort at 5:42 pace, increasing to 5:18 pace for the last 400m.  I then hopped on to the rowing maching for

    a half hour with one 6min effort starting at
    1:50 pace and accelerating gradually to 1:44 pace.

Finishing up with 20mins on the exercise bike. 

Hopefully I'll be able to sleep tonight.

A longish day

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

These last few days at work leading up to the Christmas are full ones, and I have a lot to do.  The day went by quickly, but by the end, now, I feel nearly spent.  With Oak Bay still closed for another couple of days, after work I ventured up to Henderson Rec centre, only to discover they were closing at six.  This gave me enough time for half an hour on the rowing machine, after which I could do a run outside.  I hadn't brought my tights for running outside, as I thought I would be on the treadmill, but the air was just warm enough to allow for running in shorts.

So, on the rowing machine, I did about 28 minutes and about 6800 metres.  I did one interval of 11 minutes at 1:46-1:51 pace, mostly at 1:47-1:48.  If I can hold that pace for 10km, it will be a respectable time in the world rankings.  I've learned that any distances other than the 2000m are ranked unofficially, in the sense that you need only have it verified by uploading a copy of the Concept2 machine's computer report , or by having a trainer witness your time.   The rankings are published on the Concept2 website.  However, if you are making a record attempt at any of the distances, much more stringent rules apply.  I'm certainly not going for a record attempt, so I don't have to worry about that.

In any event, I ran for about 35 minutes afterward on roads near the University, finding myself scooting by the track where I could see a panoply of IRR runners warming up.  There was no time for me to stop in and check it out, as I needed to be back for the Iolanthe rehearsal tonight.

The rehearsal was for leads only, and quite a lot of fun.  For my parts, there are still a few rough spots but it is coming along nicely. And although the high G yesterday seemed effortless for the first of the duets while practicing on my own, today I still didn't have it, and we talked about altering the note.  Apparently there are some recordings in which the note is not sung and replaced by a second middle B, as it is a baritone's part, which I seem to be.  So I am reassured that I won't be in bad company if we need to replace the note. 

All the leads are sounding great, and it is also reassuring to me to hear the little places where some of them, much more experienced singers than me, also have trouble.  I half expected them to all have it perfectly while I stumbled along, but even they must work at it to get it, so I see. 

Tomorrow is our first run through of the whole piece, leads and chorus.

A cold coming we had of it

Monday, December 11, 2006

Such a Long Journey, by Rohinton Mistry looks like a suitable book to accompany me on my approaching travels.  It isn't as thick and heavy as A Fine Balance, by the same author, for lightness is necessary for ease of transport.  And Such a Long Journey appears to encompass just the right blend of chararcters and literary subtleties by which to wile away the duration of my flights and some hours spent on the beaches of Quintana Roo, the state in which Cancun is located. 

These were my thoughts as I stood inside Bolen's Books this evening, after gazing furtively at the long bookshelves and pacing the aisles at a gentle tempo, at last finding my fingers tugging Mistry from the shelves.  The final run for the Frontrunners clinic had ended earlier in the evening - after two additional ones were scheduled to compensate for those which were postponed due to inclement weather -  and our coffee gathering at the Starbucks in Cadboro Bay afterward dispersed; and I thought to linger for just a short while inside the bookstore.

There will be other books I will take with me too, perhaps a science book or two, but not too many as I want to travely lightly.  My travels are now less than two weeks away, and I am beginning an inventory of things to take, but the inventory is small: everything I take I should be able to carry in a single pack, I hope.  And for my "research" into the history of the Mayan people, perhaps I will see Mel Gibson's Apocolypto, although I am hopeful gratuitous blood and gore will be minimal.

But this will be a busy week.  Tomorrow and Wednesday are Iolanthe rehearsals, and Thursday I fly to Vancouver for a work meeting there, which will generate more work for me, all of which I will certainly not complete before I am on vacation starting next Tuesday (though I don't fly out until the 24th). 

This weekend I hope to get on my bike for a Burnside group ride for about three hours, just to be sure I can handle two or three hundred km on the bike in Quintana Roo over two or three days, should I choose.  A ride or two next week will be a good idea too.

___________

A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year,
For a journey, and such a long journey...

       - The Journey of the Magi, T.S. Eliot

The vacuum which nature abhors

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Something from nothing is
The vacuum which nature abhors
Packed by things unconscious, undone and
Unsaid, unnoticed and unrequited;
It is the universe that from a particle burst
And all the space between the stars;
It is the words upon this page
That sprung from nothing to say.

______________
So from a moment of absent inspiration, I've managed to write something.  Additionally, this weekend consisted of a run this morning for about 1hr 20, most of it with the Sunday morning coffee group (as I am calling it), as we seem to enjoy meeting at Starbucks on Cook St for some java afterward. Interesting the number of people I've spoken to lately that say they've been having trouble sleeping this week. 

Later, Scott was over for some vocal coaching, which I consider very much to fall under the category of "training".

Yesterday, I was out at the Henderson rec centre for 45mins on the rowing machine, with one
5 min interval at 1:43-1:45 pace; 1X 2mins at 1:41-1:44; the last 500m at 1:41-1:43 pace; total distance just over 11000m.  Later I met up with Cliff for a one hour easy run, and a great workout for my stomach muscles and dynamic balance, as he always has me doubled over in stitches.

Generally I feel tired from the efforts this weekend.  I must also confess to beginning the count down to the Mexican sun and tropical heat.

The Yucatan of Tzinacan

Thursday, December 7, 2006

I've learned that if one intends to sleep outdoors in the Yucatan region of Mexico, he is well advised to purchase mosquito netting and a hammock.   One fellow at work, Jesse, who travelled for four months through Mexico and spent most of his nights under the stars, explained how the mosquitoes almost take on a collective intelligence by pressing in unison on the netting, seeming to push the netting precariously close to ones skin. 

I was thinking the mosquitoes only had to push the netting within stinger range as you sleep, and they could then stick their stingers through the holes and have at you.  I can well imagine a million stingers in the darkness of night, like little needles, pushing through the holes in the netting as the mosquitoes all push down on the netting, one well-timed thrust at a time, getting closer and closer...

Aside from that, apparently the hammocks you can buy there are very comfortable and inexpensive and fit nicely in the back of a pack, along with your mosquito netting.  I am told to travel lightly, which is definitely the plan.  Apparently it's a good idea to keep elevated when you sleep outdoors (ie. in a hammock) to avoid the tarantulas.  Jesse never had a problem the whole time he was there, he said.   And on some of the beaches there are little huts you can rent for about six dollars a night - that sounds rather ideal to me.  Doesn't sound like there is any need whatsoever to stay in a hotel.

At last night's rehearsal, Scott stole the show with some fantastic high Bs for his part, Tolloler.  Tolloler is a more demanding part than Strephon (my part), largely because he must sing in most of the chorus parts as well.  Also, those high Bs are only doable by a true first tenor, and they are outside my range.  I seem to be more of a baritone, as I am quite comfortable with some of the very low notes in the score, and may just barely be able to train the high G for the performances.

In any event, I did no other training yesterday, although today I did just short of an hour of running, with 2 X 8minute tempo efforts.  Later I zipped down to the Crystal pool (Oak Bay was closed) for half an hour on the erg with 1 X 5mins at 1:43-1:47 pace, and an average pace of 2:05.  I finished up with a few minutes of spinning on the exercise bike.

________

"And that is why I, Tzinican, let the days and nights obliterate me."

    from The God's Script, by Jorge Luis Borges.  Tzinican is variously described in literary criticism as a Mayan or an Aztec priest.

Blemes revisited

True to the old adage that there is nothing new under the sun, I've discovered that I was a long way from being the first to coin the term bleme.   The online dictionary The Urban Dictionary defines it, in essence as I had suggested.

From:  http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bleme

"bleme is a meme for a blog.

    Through understanding of the terms meme & blog, the term bleme becomes a simple natural progression.

    A meme is defined as "any unit of cultural information which one mind transmits...to another mind. Such examples can include thoughts, concepts, ideas, theories, opinions, beliefs, practices, habits, songs, dances and moods." (Wikipedia, 2006)

    A blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal or newsletter frequently updated and intended for general public circulation. Blogs tend to represent the personality of the author or the Website.

    A bleme has come to represent the fusion of the two i.e. a meme transmitted via the internet, websites or blogs in some sort of a viral fashion."
_________________

On that note, I've found a relatively inexpensive hotel in Cancun, somewhat off the waterfront, but that matters not a jot to me.  For now I've booked three days, and then I'll be off to towns north, south, or west - wherever the breezes of spontaneity blow me.   Tulum, about 150km to the south of Cancun beckons, and of course so does Chichen Itza.  I may end up driving to Chichen Itza just to take advantage of a full day tour, as Joanne suggested, and then renting a bike for a couple of days perhaps to ride north-west where, I see from maps, that there are a few more inland roads.  Down the south coast there appears to be only one main road linking the various coastal resorts, and few if any connecting inland roads. 

A few people at work have offered suggestions including a visit to the island of Cozumel, or to Isla Mujeris.  Perhaps a jaunt into Belize, said one, it is not all that far south, and plenty of Mayan ruins to be seen there too. Along the way there is a fantastic archipelago near a national park, a must see, said another.  There is so much, said yet another, you will have no trouble filling up your time from dawn to dusk and then some for seven days straight. 

Of that I have no doubt, and if I can record just a few minutes of the flight formations of frigate birds or pelicans on my wee digital, I will return a happy man indeed! 

__

Oh - I ran down to the Oak Bay track for a mile there, with 1000m hard, but untimed.  Then it was onto the erg for:
      50mins
      Just over 12km in total
      Including 1X2000m at 1:46-1:47 pace
      1 X 1000 at 1:41-1:43 pace

      5 mins spinning on the exercise bike
      run home

    I felt some fatigue after the weekend, but feel like I am building a decent aerobic base.

Blemes R us

Monday, December 4, 2006

Recently I read a couple of articles about blog datamining: one describing a study done by a psychologist in which certain key words were counted indicating particular emotional states of mind. By this method, apparently BC'ers are content, while Edmontonians consider themselves 10 times sexier than Calgarians (something like that); the second involved American intelligence gathering to find indications of terrorist activities.

As blogs become more popular, they become a very useful way of gathering data about people on a very large scale.  Presumably it will become a highly useful tool for sociologists and others to determine social networks, compile data on interaction frequencies and patterns.  It will be interesting to see the studies, which are inevitable I think, that show how memes spread (like genes, but ideas that are spread socially, as I understand from my laypersons readings), and how the content of blogs within a community of bloggers influence each other. 

Sociologists will glean much information about social patterns by how frequently certain words, phrases, or names appear in blogs.  Blogs, I think, are thus destined to become the stuff of dreams for sociologists and anthropologists; fertile ground for psychologists too, as we are already seeing. I think linguists will also find blogs useful in drawing comparisons between the occurrence of localized community blog characteristics ("blemes" perhaps?) and the occurence of dialects and accents in spoken languages. 

All blog writers voluntarily relinquish some privacy, and some may fear the invasion of the dataminers.  However, because there will someday soon be nearly a blog for every person, at least in the more affluent countries, very few will be read by more than a handful of others - so in a sense privacy is largely preserved.   Dataminers will find patterns and interesting information en masse that may even influence public policy makers, but few blogs will attract special interest to a broad audience and the users of the information will rarely read, or draw conclusions about, any specific blogs. 

In this way, despite the public nature of our blogs, we essentially preserve our anonymity. But in the process we become part of an emergent process in which the collective blogosphere exhibits characteristics not predicted by an analysis of any individual blog.  To me that is not only interesting and exciting, but a natural consequence of the amazing communication resource that is the internet.  It is not something to fear, but will eventually provide profound insights into the nature of collective humanity.

Merrython 8k

Sunday, December 3, 2006

Today was the running clinic's final event, the Merrython 8km run.  When I arrived I saw only one of the runners from the clinic, and wondered if they were allcoming.  Rachelle, the clinic leader, I heard later, hurt herself slipping on ice and couldn't make it; neither did Kim, the other run leader.  So I was left to be the big cheerful motivator (not!) and pump up all the runners.  A few more did show up; I wished them good luck, and cheered them on the route after I had finished.  The course is challenging with a long descent toward the water, and then a long ascent to the finish - not a fast course, but the downhill at the start is nice to loosen up with.

Nothing was stopping me from racing, so I thought I might as well run hard.  Off the start, Phil Nicolls, Gord Christie, Hicham, and Shane Ruljancic (sp?) and I were together.  Gord dropped off first, then Hicham a bit later, and then Phil, leaving Shane and I to battle it out for the win.  This was a fun low-key event, but make no mistake, when people race, they race - it doesn't matter if it's Santa's shuffle or the New York Marathon, people are always competitive.

So, with that in mind, it was Shane and I going stride for stride for the finish line. On the last turn with 100m to go he got the line closest to the snow forcing me to step out and behind him, leaving me a step back of him. He had a bit more speed than me over that stretch too, so there wasn't much I could do to catch him at that point.  Time was 27.14 (give or take a second or two) for both of us.  The course may be tiny bit short, but not much, perhaps 100m (the length of the finishing straightaway, since they started the race on the road, and finished in the parking lot).

I don't often get quite so graphic about what sort of competitive action I take in races, but what the heck - I haven't raced in a while, and I felt pretty good.  For the most part it didn't feel like I pushed all that hard, though the time was fairly good for me and I probably paced myself quite well; regardless, when it came to the final stretch I definitely didn't have Shane's speed. Also, since I haven't raced for a while or done any hard training, it was wise not to kill myself.  But it is nice to know that I can still go do a hard run on light base mileage.  The rowing erg stuff is also helping to maintain base aerobic fitness, and I think yesterday's 20k on the erg machine and easy run later actually opened me up for today.

After the run, I did a backwards loop to cheer on the run clinic people.

Chichen Itza bound

December 2, 2006

After mulling the thought over for I while, I decided to go for it.  There were some reasonably priced airline tickets to Mexico and, with a couple of weeks off over Christmas, I elected to spend some time in sunnier and warmer climes than Victoria for a week before the new year begins.  So I purchased a flight to Cancun for seven days.  In reviewing various travel guides, the Mayan ruins in the area will be an attraction for me, with Chichen Itza being the most spectacular of them.

The tentative plan is to relax for two days with day trips only, then to spend three days visiting as many Mayan ruins as possible on a mountain bike and possibly sleeping under the stars, before returning back to a hotel for a couple more nights of relaxing before returning home to Victoria.  I'm not yet sure of the distances involved, but just by quickly eyeballing a map, it looks like I might need to travel as much as 200km a day to see just a few of the ruins in the region.

I am hoping not to rent a car to see these places, as I would much prefer the palpable physical experience of the sun, the red dirt roads, the wind in my face and exhaustion for three days, over driving around in an air conditioned car.  I can do that when I'm sixty or when I'm with others with whom it isn't practical to undertake those sorts of distances, but if I'm on my own and still young and fit enough for it, I feel compelled to set aside three days of an intensely physical experience.  Just three though! I still want to relax, read and snooze under the sun, swim around a bit and perhaps even go out dancing once or twice.   That's the plan, anyway.

On the erg machine today I did:

    20,000m in 1:23.56, with one 1500m effort at 1:45-1:47 pace, and one 800m effort at 1:38-1:40 pace.  SR was mostly 17-20 at a comfortable 2:10ish pace, except for the pick-ups, which were over 30.  Average pace was 2:06.

Joji Ishikawa, who has done a lot of rowing outdoors and on the erg and has, I seem to recall, qualified for ergometer worlds before as a lightweight, was there and he offered a few tips on technique, especially in terms of the hand return after the finish of the pull.

Later in the afternoon, after a vocal session with Scott, I ran for just under 8km.  I had thought to go a bit longer, but tomorrow I'll be running the 8km Merrython with the Frontrunners run clinic runners, who are finishing up their 12weeks with this run (although they missed a couple of weeks due to inclement weather).  I will try to get some distance in before the run as well. I'm not sure if Rachelle will let me race the 8km yet, or if she'll want me to run with the clinic runners.  I'll find out tomorrow.