Made it

Nic and I made it into Sydney this morning, touching down at around 6:30 am local time. Its monday here. Rosano and Oli came to get us at the airport.

 A longish drive, (roughly Vancouver to Abbotsford) got us back to there place and took us over the harbour bridge.

 Not much else to report. Im just trying to stay awake for the rest of the day so I can get a good nights sleep and start all the touristy stuff tomorrow.

Kylie served us up some awesome tea and biscuits. Yum.

This is pretty much the rest of our day today. Playing Wii with the kids, eating and resting up.

 

We'll pick it up again tomorrow when I have more gas.

Kylie's been a great host. Looks like our first day of meals are all taken care off

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The Snow is Melted on Pangor

Live and Die on this Day.....

Back in the Saddle

We've been taking advantage of the warmer temperatures this month. A trip to the island to get some warm up rides in. Today I managed to scrounge up enough mustard for a single on Gear Jammer. Pics in no order. Just a nice day getting ready for what I hope will be a redemption year weather wise.

Where have I been?

It's been four and a half years since I started writing this blog, originally intended to be a log of my times in Japan training Karate with Sensei Sakurai. When I got back to Canada in 2008, I almost stopped writing, but in 09 I started to feel like I had things to say again. Since the summer of '09, the bulk of my entries have been about Mountain Biking trips, big or not so big.

But the name of the blog is Karate Monkey, and karate does remain a part of my regular routine. I've not graded since the fall of '08, but I still plug away as best I can.

Izzy decided to start us a Facebook page. I don't have a Facebook account anymore but I thought it was a good idea and a good excuse to bring a camera with me to class.

I changed Dojo's in 2010. Living in East Van makes the commute to the North Van dojo make more sense. This is Sensei Mike using Colin to help demonstrate gohan kumite.
Trever and his mom practice and so do Colin and Alfred below.
And from the open session just today, I was allowed to move around and take some pictures from Kata training. It was pick your poison day. Kanku Dai or sho, or maybe Teki Shodan or Heian Nidan or Yondan.





A few people were asking me where I had been. I hadn't realized how many open sessions and B&B's I've been missing but some had thought I'd taken 2011 off. Not true at all actually. Just life getting in the way as it often does. And I won't lie, I've come to dread the long journey out to Chilliwack. But really it's just the traffic I hate. The training last night was awesome. This morning, a little more brutal for my oft absent behind.

It's good to be back. I hope I can ramp it up from here.

Minus 1, plus 1

Some how the mountain always know what I want for my Birthday. The day started off around -1 degree outside. I was plus one year old inside. Snow was coming in from the Alaska but it held off for me to get in a quick ride on Pipeline and Bobsled. I'd been away from Fromme for a while so I had to ride up to a few things, but overall the ride and conditions were great.
Got home, showered and got ready for dinner with friends. 20 of them. I never usually give a shit about birthdays. This one was on a Friday the 13th, so I figure a good excuse to drag people to dinner.

Nic made me this really cool Friday the 13th themed cake. Girls got talent!
Every day should be your birthday.

The next day we awoke to a blanket of snow. It can't melt fast enough.

One Expensive Christmas

But sometimes you just need to act your age.


This pick tells the full story, I think.