Happy New Year!

Yes, tis the time. All I know is that I did something I probably have not done all year, I had a Tim Horton’s breakfast sandwich this morning on my way to work today (a little hung-over). And as I was eating that yummy biscuit feeling slightly ill and slightly in heaven, I thought to myself well, might as well...cause as soon as the new year comes and I get nothing....ha ha!

I love how I envision most years, I will not lie, a year without bad foods, over indulging, laying around the house instead of going to the gym, eating chocolate for dinner...and then 2 weeks in, I find myself doing one of the items mentioned and I say - SCREW IT.

Of course I am being a bit hard on myself. I do actually have good habits and do a pretty good job at taking care of myself...and it is true that I have a new gym membership, paid for 16 sessions of a personal trainer and plan to really get back in "gym" shape this year. Surfing is a lot of muscle memory and I walk to work and swim, but do not push myself like I do at the gym. It is not like I have put on any pounds, but not going to the gym the last year has affected my body fat % and muscle mass to unsatisfactory levels. So, back at er.

I suppose that is my new year’s resolution, to go to the gym, although the truth of the matter is that I am a huge fan of working out and really am looking forward to it, sooooo, I am not making a resolution this year. I rarely do, and if I do I cannot remember it a few months later.

Oh wanna hear a good one? Jon's new year’s resolution is to get himself hooked up with Play station Online. HA HA. Who makes a resolution like that?

It’s Christmas Time!

It’s Christmas Time!

I knew it was for real on December 6 (yes, we started early this year), when Jon put on the Charlie Brown Christmas album for the first time this year. We had our tree up on the 12^th, and were toasting eggnogs by the 14^th. Party on we say.

It is the first live tree we have had in the apartment. We cut down our tree on the way home from surfing up near Sombrio, down some old logging road. At first I was hesitant to kill a tree by chopping it down, but when Jon put it in perspective – “Sacha, between us we have planted over 2 million trees” I was like “Right, no big deal”. And got over it pretty quickly.

Since then we have been snuggling up to the tree in the evenings and planning our cabin trips for the holidays. We have recently decided to go up on Christmas day, as there is a south swell coming which means we will have waves walking distance away from the cabin and will be surfing on Christmas Day. This makes two years in a row, although last year the waves kind of sucked.

Jon bought a ham and are planning on our “Saturday night special” for Christmas dinner. This is ham, eggs and beans…mmm. We like to start with some hot toddies in the early evening and a couple games of backgammon. Jon bought some rum back from Costa Rica and that was smart thinking (8$ a bottle)...rum, hot water, butter and sugar = warm glow in the pit of the tummy.

This Sunday, we had our West coast Christmas celebration with the Vaartnou’s (Jon’s aunt and uncle) and with Robin, Jacques and precious Gabrielle.  What a feast and, as always, a very good time.

Christmas Eve has been planned for quite some time now. Cyn and I are totally excited about it! We will spend the day/evening playing games, drinking and snacking. There is French onion soup and baked beans with bread planned for dinner and chocolate fondue for dessert. We will be opening all gifts and relaxing as much as possible. We are definitely happy to have time with Cyn, as it has been busy since we have been back from Costa Rica. With surfing and snowboarding on the weekends we have not had as much visit-time as I and Jon would have liked.  

We promise to take lots of pictures around our tree and of the Christmas surf. OH Almost forgot – I got the best Christmas present of the year so far yesterday (and it will most likely stay that way as gifts to me mean nothing compared to words and pictures written and taken of the ones I love).  My little brother Matty sent me a Christmas card including a Polaroid picture of him and Santa from a downtown TO subway. It is way too cool.  It is not easy, as I miss my family to bits and pieces around this time of year. I have to keep it in perspective how lucky I am though - I got Cyn and Jon and of course Jon’s awesome family to back us up.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Time to fess up

One of the main reasons I started a blog was because I totally and utterly enjoy reading a few other blogs that my friends have and I thought it would be a perfect way to keep my family in the loop and get out some of the thoughts in my head. Anyway, I find myself these days, when I have a little time at work, going and reading blogs INSTEAD of updating mine. And if blogs are not updated, the less I go and check them out so hello Sacha, get with the program right? Jeeze. Ok - So back to it I promise.

I will continue with Costa Rica and wrap it up in one more post tying in the final post with the theme of "Sunsets and Nights". And I also really want to write about Christmas time, cause it is happening and then there is also the cabin reno's we are doing, becasue they are happening too.

Jon is up at the cabin this week, surfing a south swell and trying to get up as much of the tongue and groove pine on the inside walls as he can. We laid a linoleum floor down last weekend that makes the place so bright and wicked. Super happy about the heat it keeps in too. And the look again is like 150% better than the plywood look we had going on. Pictures to come soon I promise.

Tonight the Canucks are playing and I have a phone date with my Mom and am flying solo --- sounds like a party and I am looking forward to it. I also will be starting the wild rose cleanse Friday....which yes, sounds like a crazy time to do it right before Christmas, but for me makes perfect sense. You start the holidays with no indulging in heavy foods and no drink and then when they come, it really feels like a treat. Anyway, for me it works and that's all I gotta say about it.

Robin sent me a picture that she took a couple of weekends ago during a visit with Gabrielle that we had after a day in the surf. This is cute ---- I overheard Jon talking to her a couple days ago, planning a visit with her and the baby on his way up to the cabin and he referred to the baby as Gab-Gab (which I thought was pretty damn adorable). Anyway, she is getting bigger by the month and is just such a sweet little girl. I am in love.

Costa Rica Early Afternoons

Early afternoons in Costa Rica. Well considering we were up so early most mornings, I am going to start afternoons at around 11am and then break them into early afternoons and later afternoon. Then will come sunset and then nights in Costa Rica. 

Oh lovely early afternoons… by the time the eating and starring out at nature was over, it was time for either a little walk around town (which happened like twice) or a trip down to the beach, which happened all the other days. So sometimes, because it was so hot and sunny we would pack up the big beach umbrella and a thick small sheet I brought from home down to the beach as a blanket, a towel (for a pillow) and often our books. But by the end of the trip, I kyboshed Jon’s novel from coming down the beach with us – it was this huge hard copy and like he would read like a page of two before needed to get in the water and it was heavy! Well, I guess considering he was the one carrying it, it didnt really matter to me... but anyway. We had a bottle of water most times, but weirdly I was not drinking tons of water down there…even though you can drink it right out of the tap, it was never cold enough for me and I was too lazy cheap to buy some at the store.

Prices in Costa Rica are EXPENSIVE. Nothing was cheap that is for sure. We scored with our accommodations, because of friends, still eating out for good food was about the same as Canada and yeah, other things were even more expensive. Anyways, whatever, who cares, vacation and we were cooking for ourselves most times anyway. We were happy. OH whoops, almost forgot beer (more to follow in Costa Rica nights), beer is cheap, so that was good.

The beach would be hot after 11am – hardly anyone would be in the water even. Us, of course, were not deterred and saw this as a perfect opportunity to catch more waves and hang in the sun. Jon had a visor out there with him. It had a shoelace ducktaped to this hat and then he looped the strap around his neck (yeah, perhaps not the smartest technique). I tried the visor once, but I hate distractions in the water - making the adjustment of putting it back on after being thrown around under water was no fun. It worked well for him though. I had a rash guard which was OK, not complete protection, but really I was super careful and had lots of sunscreen on.

Too much in fact! And after a few days down there I was crying about how brutal my eyes were doing, like totally scratchy and sore and finally on day 3 or 4 – after my friend Sue said something to the fact that it could be the sunscreen in my eyes, which I blew off - Jon looked at me and said “You aren't putting the sunscreen on your forehead are you????” like I was some crazy nut and I said “yea I am”. Well, SM (stupid me) I guess, eh? I was like "DUDE – I have been crying about my eyes being sore and rubbing them for days and all this time you didn’t clue in, until now to ask me this pretty critical detail and think about how it could have been the problem" something along those lines anyway and finished up with a big "…thanks a lot buddy"

Anyway, after I stopped applying sunscreen on my forehead it took about 24 hours, but my eyes chilled out and were much better.

So yeah, after digesting on the beach for a while I would get in and join Jon. Typically I would last an hour or so, maybe a lot longer if the waves were unreal, but that only happened 2 or 3 times. Usually in the afternoons, the winds pick up and would blow out the waves, or make the ocean choppy. If it was on shore winds, then it really sucked and there is not much point to be out. But we had lots of off shore wind days and the tides were actually at there best when I was there, midday so often in the afternoons we would get good waves and it was pretty sweet. I think my best session of 7 or 8 solid waves (solid = long ride, good turns and speed into the sections) happened in the early afternoon and I remember being pretty high off that session.

I would say that the transition was not too bad for me – by day 2 I was sticking my waves (staying on my board – adjusting to not having booties on that really do give you an extra grab) and that by the end I was catching some over head set waves pretty confidently.

Jon gave me some advice right at the get-go – he said “watch your fins baby”. And holy, was he right. My first session out in the ocean, fresh off the plane and after 15 hours of travelling I was in the water for a sunset surf in pretty descent sized high tide waves, and yeah, I felt my fin wrap around my leg losing my board on a duck dive and I was like – right – I got no armor! One thing about the wetsuit is that it is a protector. Makes you a lot less concerned about your extremities and you have more sticking power to your board.

But the liberation you feel in a bathing suit – sweet heaven! The paddling is like a dream – with no wetsuit on, and gloves, no matter how you may have the newest technical equipment, which we do, it does not make a hell of a lot of difference. Paddling in a wetsuit is HARD, period. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fine we are totally used to it, but holy – your arms are SORE by the end of 1.5 hours. Without a wetsuit, my arms do not get sore (not really anyway).

So yeah. My surfing in the afternoon was good. Since we are on the topic – Jon also had me working on my duck dive. One may think after 10 years of surfing, 7 pretty seriously, that I would have mastered this …well, nope. Not really at all. Don’t get me wrong, I can get me and my board under a wave, not very efficient and gracefully though. Doing the proper method of duck diving takes practice and I dare say I really progressed with it quite a bit on this trip. I am also currently using our 6’6 fish board that has more opportunity to duck dive properly…my other board is a 6’0 fish (same style but shorter and fatter at the top) not ideal for duck diving. I did OK with one in the past cause it has glassed in fins (2 of them) and I would wrap my legs around them (in my armor of course) and be cool.

Anyway, I am not going to get so into this duck diving thing, but just wanted to say that I really did learn a lot from being more open to letting Jon give me tips. There was a time where I would not hear of such things, either I thought it was better, or just as good or it would make me feel bad, but now I am more mature now and realize he is a way better surfer than me, always has been…even though I did introduce him to the sport goddamit. And he is just being helpful and I appreciate it.

Costa Rica held a lot of experiences in and out of the water for me to really just be at peace with myself and let things happen around me without being overly involved. And that was really ok. It was nice to be away and out of my element and learn new things and be with Jon, have a good time, and just relax.

Costa Rica Mornings

It has been a while since I posted and it is fortunate and unfortunate at the same time. I was on vacation and decided to be on vacation from computers too, which was the fortunate part. What a holiday it was, not to be checking emails and sitting and staring at a computer screen all day. Even though I had some good advice (from both Sarah Hamlin, and my Mom), to keep a journal during my trip and then transfer over my journal entries, I didn't (and that would be the unfortunate part).

But, I am hoping that my short term memory (jeeze, it was only a week ago, come on!) will prove itself and I can write about our time in Costa Rica clearly, from memory. I have decided to enter my Costa Rica entries in posts depending on the time of day and will start with the earliest time of day; mornings.

Mornings in Costa Rica were warm, but not hot, hence why the sheet on our bed would be pulled up to our necks most mornings. The fan would be on constantly on in our big open concept apartment and help with the morning chill that, yes, you can even have in the tropics. Jon would spoon me for a little, and then start with the "UP", "UP" that he likes to yell out in a loud voice to indicate that he is ready for me to wake up, which he knows pisses me off :)

A few mornings I was woken quite early by howler monkey's, there bark so loud and scary sounding, that it would make me quite alert. They sound like elephants in fact, but they are only the size of fat cats up in the trees. Although they are vicious little guy's supposedly. This sometimes was on my mind when we passed them up in the trees near the surf shop and restaurant, but mainly they were high up and cool to watch eat leaves and howl at eachother...but anyways back to the morning...

Jon would usually be the one to skip up to the kitchen and either pull out an almond bar protein ball from the fridge (which I picked up at the health food store before I left) or make us a smoothie with banana and pineapple. We would sit up in bed, eat and forecast what we thought the waves might be doing. Sometimes (especially when high tide) we could here the waves clearly from the house, but sometimes not so much.

After the little breaky Jon would head out of bed and get the boards outside ready for a morning wax. I would hit the washroom, brush my teeth and throw on my bikini top or a tank top and a skirt of some kind, and my flip flops. Then I put my damp rash guard and bottoms in a plastic bag and pretty much from there we would grab our boards and walk down to the beach.

Let me tell you, this was not a 5 minute walk to the beach - it was more like 12 minutes and doing it like 6 times a day would get a little sore on the legs (of course, that could have been the surfing or the tiredness that comes from walking in the shallow waters to get out past the beach break in low tide - but I will explain that in another post sometimes). The walk in the morning's was usually quite silent, we might talk a little about the people we would pass, which were not many...say hi to Juan at the surf shop and maybe Sue at the restaurant. Usually though, we wouldn't stop at all and try to make it to the beach and in the water as early as possible to avoid the morning crowds.

We would pass beautiful flowers on the morning walk. The most memorable were bright blue flowers on a vine along the road side and tons of yellow flowers on the beach side in the meadows. The flowers would be bright and plentiful, but disappear entirely after noon. Morning glory flowers, I suppose.

Most mornings we were in the warm water by 7am and the heat would start up (my chill would be gone), the sun would be bright and the surroundings would be stunning. I would feel energized and fresh and we would want to stay in the water until the crowds thickened and our stomachs growled. This would be around 8:30 or so. On our walk home from the beach we would discuss our best waves, talk about the folks we were surfing around ("uncle fucker", "Ben Kingsley on a longboard", and the "guy in the blue rashgaurd", as examples). Mostly on our walk though, we would plan our big breakfast and make sure we had what we needed. If not, we would come home, shower and quickly head out to the local store. We would pick up the missing ingredients and by then, starved, we would rush home and cook up our feast.

We would almost always have scrambled eggs cooked with onion, garlic, tomatoes and accompanied with black beans, white rice - which would usually be made into a "ginto pinto" (local Central American rice and bean dish, flavored with salsa and onions and garlic). We would serve this with warmed tortilla's from the frying pan, local salsa (hot sauce really), coffee and tea. This breakfast would make us very happy and afterwards we would sit around, digest, chat with Benny if he was around, and/or flip through our novels, magazines or local English newspaper of the area (made for the Americans living there).

Often after breakfast, sitting outside on one of the patio's where we would be eating (either our downstairs patio deck or Ben and Sue's upstairs patio deck) we would just stare out at the vegetation and point out to each other how big and different the tree's were, how beautiful the colours were on the flowers and plants (well, usually I was pointing that out to Jon, he is a lovely man, but not that perceptive:)) We watch the cool red squirrel's in the tree's or the Pisotto's (a funny looking half ant-eater, half raccoon looking thing) in the neighbors yard (they fed them, we think) or just watch the local Costa Rican butterflies cruise by.

Morning's in Costa Rica were very peaceful, somewhat surreal and extremely interesting to take in. They were by far, my most favourite time of day.

I love SURFING

Boy oh boy was today just so sweet. It pays to be older and boring sometimes ;)
I think all the surfers on the south coast were hung over this morning, because me and my friend Comish, got to the beach and there was no one there, and we were late - like around 10am.

 WHAT! NO ONE! crazy. I am somewhat exaggerating in fact, there was people at the beach, but at our wave called "Firsts" there was only 1 guy out, which is practically no one, and then he left and it was just me and Comish until some guy came in at the end...but we had our fill be then. I caught at least 15 waves, some I bailed off, some I road to the beach --- yipppeeee.....

so to explain there are 3 waves at Sombrio - Firsts, Seconds and Chickens. Next time I am up there I will take a 3 of all three waves so that you can see what they look like and where they are in location to the beach.

So fun though today and it was a beauty out there. No wind, no rain...sun and birds and the beautiful view of one of the most precious beaches on the west coast. So I feel great! Anyway, good practice for what is to come soon. I now just cross my fingers I get a day in next weekend too.

Jon and Sacha

Here are a few pics that got sent from Jon's Mom. They were snapped when they were out here a couple weeks ago. 

I miss my guy, but I know that I will be in paradise in a little over a week - so its ALL good.

Poor Ducks

My favorite little guys (water foul) were on this mornings news and it wasn't good news. The oil sands in Alberta took thier sweet little lives. It's somewhat sad really, but I guess these are the incidents we pay for to have all our wants and live the way we do. We are just to blame for wanting and living the way we do. I am just stating the facts.

I should bike more! I should not have a boat! I should have not thrown out that can the other day! Dammit. The little choices are so important. And we are all guilty of them. So my plan is to stop buying toxic cleaners and go back to vinegar and baking soda. That is my little step in the right direction. And maybe I will blow up the tires of Jon's bike and bike a little more. At least not drive to work when I takes me 30 minutes to walk!

Before I get down to It

"It" being a big tough Spec that I have to write out for work. But before I get to it- I wanted to include a couple shots from Cyn and I's walk the other afternoon. Victoria had been sunny and gorgeous, but today has put the F-word in Fall. ha ha ha. ITS COLD! 11 degree's to be exact, but damp and misty. Ok work is calling - and then a weekend of Salmon Beach, Yippee!

3 Cheers for Jon

Feeling better today - Jon emailed me and said

"come on you cooper!  you've got the world by the ass on a downhill drag! off to your cabin this weekend, with your sister, boyfriend who loves you dearly, great job, family who loves you, vacation coming up..."

And he is so friggin right!!!!!!!!!!!

Me and Cyn are off this afternoon for an epic hike around Thetis lake. The sun is shining bright and it's nice to take advantage of the light at 4 and 5 pm as it wont last long with winter in the air. 

The pic below is Jon yesterday at the wave I will be surfing everyday for 10 days woooo hooooo...
Some photographer takes the pics on the beach and probably trys to flog them off.
What a beauty wave...the day dreaming begins...

First Monday away from Jon who is away in Costa Rica.

I got to be honest. I don't feel super today. I want to be in Costa Rica with Jon. It does not help that I have somehow caught a little cold (2 in a couple months - go figure). But alas, I sit at my desk, with lots of tea and focus on my work and will make it through this day and then the 3 more weeks until I leave.

It has been almost 3 years since our last "vacation" and that was to Dominican Republic. We were gone for  5 weeks!!! 10 days is going to fly - but I plan to make the most of it and get a surf, a yoga class and a sundowner (a cervasa at sundown) in everyday!

What is making me happy and excited today though, is that me and Cyn are going up to Salmon Beach  this weekend (FINIALLY!). I am hoping for good waves and good weather... so that Cynnie and I can garden and walk the beaches in the fresh beauty of fall. It will be really nice no matter what the weather - as the cabin is warm and dry and the westcoast is intriguing and wonderful in both its rain and sunshine elements. Plus I can certainly surf either way and major plus - Cyn will be with me!

I still plan to post pics up from past posts, I promise.

A couple days after Thanksgiving weekend

Wow - the food, company and weather were outta this world! Holy smokes. I ate, drank and was merry that is FORSURE. I have great pictures to post too...but again have not a chance to download them. A working business women doesnt have tons of time. It is 7:30 am on a Wednesday and I must get to work. Jon leaves on Saturday for Costa Rica. That came up quick.

More to come - including pictures. The most thankful thing I was thinking this weekend is how Robin and Jacques have sweet little Gabrielle. And how I have more love in my life than I have ever felt before.

Screw the "Day", Give me "Play"

Unfortunately my back got to sore to continue the challenge. I am hoping after the long weekend (up island surfing!) I will be back at it, but until then...play time, well more time anyway.

Last night Jonny and I went out for dinner with his folks to our favorite Indian food restaurant called Da Tandor. AMAZING. I had the fish curry and too much Naan, pretty much felt sick afterwards from overeating. good times. ha ha.

Tonight we are going to see Hannah Georgas and Royal Wood at the Victoria Event Center. We got some free tickets from my co-worker so are pretty excited to have a nice dinner at home and then drive down for a few tunes and a beer. Can we all say DATE NIGHT! Jon just loves when I call it that (ha ha)...we will likely be home by 10:30pm because really we are lame -oh 's.

It seems early to be saying Happy Thanksgiving, but it sure feels like fall outside. I am stoked for Pumpkin Pie, and surfing in the sound - I will take pictures and post soon. 

Day 8 - 30 Day Challenge

Hi Folks - well, here I am 8 days in on my 30 day Bikram Yoga Challenge and I feel good. Why not great? In fact, "mentally" I feel great...but physically - my lower back is starting to act up. I guess I may have pushed it a bit far one of the days at the end of last week. Its really hard to tell in the room though, because it is soooo freaking hot that you do not noticed the push and the pain only seems to come after the fact. Anyway, going to try to work through it. My ol pal from Planting is actually a Bikram Instructor who is in his 3 year of Phyiso therapy and we have a phone date tonight to "hash it out" (as he said).

Besides lots of Yoga, and hanging with Jon (he's home, he's home!!) we also went surfing on Saturday. The waves unfortunatly were fairly small and inconsistent. It was a nice day for a drive and beach time though. We had a lovely dinner with Jon's folks last night who are in town for a couple weeks and that was cool. Sunday night family dinners, can't beat em. I know both Cyn and I would just be so stoked to come home for one of those...we miss our own family for sure.

I will post a picture from beach sitting on the weekend soon.

Good Weekend - a tad tired.

Great weekend - scored some good waves and had an overall awesome time. Solo'ed it kinda, but then ran into some freinds at the beach and surfed with them so that was cool. They both are excellent surfers, married couple and they rip! Yvonne is probably one of the best femal surfers on the south island (on a long board anyway) ...here are some pretty sweet shots...

 

and Yvonne doing a hang ten

and here is me with "the point" as a back drop - unfortunatly the girl I asked to take my picture waited too long and you can not see the set waves (they would be in front of the trees) but whatever...when both "Sewers" (above) and the point are working - its going to be a great day :) 

and this is me doing a celebration YES with a cold one in Cyn's parking lot. nice wrap up.

The First Fall 2010 Surf Weekend!

So this is exciting - looks like we have good swell for the weekend. This will be the first time surfing south island since like April or May. And I just love Sombrio Beach, it's my favorite. Last time I was in the water was about 3 weeks ago, had a great session at Wickanishish Beach, which is the closest to Jon and I's land. It is also where lots of the local Ukee surfers surf. I have really improved this year (10th year surfing!) and look forward to getting out there with the "crowds" and enjoying it. I will take some pics and post.

YIPPEE Surf's up.

Also this post is to help you who need help commenting. I updated it so that it should be quite easy now - just click on the orange link "comments", write your comment, choose the Name/Url option and enter your name (you do not need to put in a URL) and post - once you do it a few times, it's a cinch. xoxox.

The meaning of Adventures

Hi - well this should be fun! I have no idea my plans for this blog - but I thought I would name it Sacha's Adventures because, well, "Adventures" to me can really mean anything from an emotional roller coaster ride, a hard time, health craze, or a crazy good surf...to actual trips and day hikes... Oh - how about the adventure of a new job or a new baby in the family. Life is full of them!

...I mean the first few that come to mind for me are my "Bikram Yoga 30-day Challenge" coming up starting Monday and then I have a Costa Rica trip planned for November. So I suppose that is where in this blog life I will start.

Life is really just one big Adventure is it not?!

Test Blog Post

First day - checking things out....here we go yo!