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Scheduling time

My Nike+ GPS watch (with TomTom co-branding), a cool gadget

One big thing that changed since I moved to Canada, is that I have a lot less time for reading news and writing blog posts. In China I used to stop doing emails and calls around 11 or 12 at night, have a glass of wine and start reading my RSS feeds or write a blog post. But in Canada I need to get up much earlier to get Scott ready for school (no nannies here!), so instead of going to bed at 1 or 2 AM I am normally in bed by midnight already. That means I need to rearrange my time schedule a bit if I want to write a blog post.

I have at least 5 topics that I planned to write about, but it seems I can’t find the time to do so. I just realize I did not post anything in the past 2 weeks… In China there was always time late at night or while driving to work, but now I will probably need to make time for it: either spending less time with the family, going to bed later or getting up earlier, or spending 30-45 minutes during lunch to write a post. Not sure yet what’s the best solution, but I want to keep writing this blog so I will find a way.

As for reading news, I deleted a lot of my news feeds and try to find good curated news sites to keep up with what’s happening in China and the rest of the world. It’s a slow process and it’s sometimes hard to delete a feed that I have been following for years (I now put them in a ‘read on the weekend’ folder, that I scan a few times during the week as well). Also finding good news sources for Vancouver proved harder than I thought, feel free to let me know if you have any suggestions.

I am still not watching any TV, despite having hundreds of cable TV channels, so at least I am not wasting time on that. When I just got our TVs installed I spent some time zapping through all the channels, but I quickly realized it’s a major time sink so I avoid turning it on. I could probably save about $100 per month by canceling my cable subscription, I should look into that. I do watch some video on demand late at night (especially through Netflix), so I don’t miss the cheap Shanghai DVDs yet!

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Grey Sunday afternoon

Vancouver on a grey Sunday afternoon

Vancouver this afternoon

I signed up for the Vancouver half marathon that will take place in 4 weeks. I did not specifically train for it yet, because normally my shape should be good enough to run a half marathon. But just to make sure I decided to try a longer run this afternoon. The weather was grey with a bit of rain, perfect for a run!

I drove to Park Royal, parked my car next to the Ambleside hockey fields and started my run through the Ambleside Park, over the Capilano River and on to the Lions Gate Bridge. There was a huge traffic jam on the bridge and just when I entered the sidewalk of the bridge I heard the sirens of fire engines and an ambulance. I then realized that the traffic had come to a complete standstill and that there was no traffic coming from the other side anymore.

Accident on the Lions Gate Bridge

Accident on the Lions Gate Bridge

I continued my run up the bridge (which seems to be much longer and higher when you run up than when you drive!) and almost at the top I saw that there was a 4 car pile-up. Especially the last car was in pretty bad shape, all airbags were deployed and a child seat had broken lose and was hanging half over the front seat. I hoped there had been no baby in there… There was  nobody in that car anymore (it seemed the person(s) were in the ambulance) and I decided to continue my run.

Stanley Park & Seawall (Vancouver)

Stanley Park seawall

At Stanley Park I left the bridge and did a run around the island. First over some trails (very wide, more suitable for a leisurely stroll than for a trail run) and then from Third Beach over the seawall all around the island. Because of the grey weather is was not so busy and I enjoyed the sights over the water. I still feel very lucky to live in this beautiful city!

Third Beach in Vancouver (Stanley Park) on a grey Sunday afternoon

Third Beach in Stanley Park – just before the sun started shining

On the way back I ran a trail along Beaver Lake and then took the Lions Gate Bridge back to my car. The total distance was 17.5 km and it took me 1 hour 42 minutes (incl. a few stops to enjoy the sights and to take pictures). When I checked my GPS I noted that I had climbed in total 650 meters during the run. The Vancouver Half Marathon has hardly any climbs in it (it actually starts at 100 meter altitude and ends at sea level), so that will probably be easier than today’s run. I am ready for it!

Typical trail in Stanley Park, wide and well maintained

Typical Stanley Park trail – wide and well maintained, not for real trail running

 

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Holland Herald

Interview with me in this month's KLM inflight magazine Holland Herald

I was featured in this month’s edition of KLM’s in-flight magazine Holland Herald. I had seen the article in my Facebook timeline already but had not seen the magazine itself.

My dad flew to Vancouver today to help with the arrival of our household goods container and gave me a copy. Or actually 3 copies, the biz class was half empty on today’s flight so he took 2 more for me. I probably won’t fly KLM this month, so it’s nice to have the original magazine. I have been reading the Holland Herald for years on my KLM flights and I’m honored that they contacted me to for an article – especially considering the fact that I have been quite critical of them in the past (just do a search on this blog).

The interview was done a couple of months ago already and I don’t really remember it anymore. But I do remember the photo shoot: the picture was taken on what was likely the coldest day of the year in Shanghai. I was literally freezing during the shoot on the Bund: it was very windy (you can probably  see that from my hair) and with the windchill factor it was far below zero. I was glad it was over so I could warm up with a hot coffee in my office!