Some Snippets of Recent Video

Here are some of our adventures lately here in Macao, Hong Kong and Amanda's trip to India!

TransLantau 2014

Another of my favourite races has come and gone and I had even more fun this year than last. This year, Amanda, myself, Kari and Kirsten participated and we all did an exceptional job! The race is primarily on trails and it definitely presents a hilly challenge!

This was a first for me though as I was in the washroom when the race started! When I got to the start line, everyone was already gone. Nature calls I guess!

IIIIIIIIIIttttttttttttt's Time! For An Exhausting Race

Last weekend, the UFC returned to Macao for the second time and it definitely did not disappoint! Amanda, Vicki and I went to the fights and had a great time! All I have to say is that Vicki is definitely not a calm and quiet spectator! And, UFC returns again in August 2014, just after we get back from summer holidays!

As soon as Kim KO'd Hathaway, we had to pull pin at 11:00 pm so we could get to bed and wake up at 2:30 am! It seemed like we just closed our eyes and we had to get up again. I was not a happy camper! We had to get up so that we could make the 4 am ferry to HK for our duathlon race. You'd think the 4 am ferry would be empty, but not in Macao. This the perfect time for HK residents to return back to HK after a night of partying/gambling. We had to pay double the price for our tickets from a scalper as the 4 am ferry was sold out already and the next available one was not until 6:30 am. We finally made to the race location by taxi (45 minutes), and prepared for the race. As we pulled up, we noticed that most, if not all, of the participants were decked out in the finest gear money could buy, including road bikes worth more than our crappy car!

Amanda, Nicole and I did our best and definitely had a great, but challenging time. Next time (if there is a next time) I will be investing in some bike shorts! For the last 5 km of the bike, I could barely sit on my seat! After checking our times online, it was apparent that this was no race for the recreational runner/biker. We all finished in the bottom 20 overall and most of the other racers belonged to triathlon clubs located in HK! Next up is the Lantau 15 on March 15 and the Sundown Half in Singapore May 31, 2014 where Kylisha will run her first half along with Amanda, myself, our friend Lisa and at least 3 other staff from TIS!

Run Kiats Run!

I'm always so elated when I receive a surprise email with the subject line "Congratulations! Registration Confirmation for the 2014......................Race". It's happened a couple times now thanks to Amanda! Back on Feb. 1, we were in the China Coast Half Marathon located in Sai Kung, Hong Kong. The races are fairly early morning starts so we decided to head to HK the night before and stay at Vicki's place as she was out of town. As the evening progressed, especially on the ferry, our health deteriorated to a couple of fevers and aches. Getting sick is even better when you know you have 21.1 kms to run in the morning! As soon as we arrived in HK, we got to Vicki's and hit the hay fairly late around 11 or 12. Due to the location of the race way out in Sai Kung, the race had shuttles leaving from Central that departed at 6 AM. this meant that we would have to find a cab and get to the shuttle locations in time for the bus. So after 5 hours of sleep and a few panadols, we caught the shuttle and slept through the 45 minute drive to Sai Kung. FYI, Feb. is not the warmest month here! It was freezing!!!!!! Due to the weather and our feverish bodies, we wanted to keep all of our clothes on just to stay warm, but we also needed to check our bags with enough time to make the start. About 1 hour before the race, we had to hit the can, and Amanda managed to use it within 5 minutes. Me, on the other hand, had to stand in line for 45 minutes! It was totally ridiculous and immediately after, we had to RUN, change and get ready for the start with seconds to spare! After 21.1 kms, it was all over! This race was definitely the toughest race for me so far. So many elevation changes made the legs ache and I even had to walk uphill a couple of times. Brutal. Considering our health and the difficulty of the course, we were both happy with our times and were very happy to make our way back to Macao and climb into bed! Sorry we didn't get a pic this time due to our throbbing need to get the heck out of there and into bed!

Next up is another "surprise" duathlon in HK. This time a 30 km bike sandwiched between two 5 km runs! AND.......Amanda accidently put me in the Elite division...............I love her!

Hockey Night in Macao - Loving the GoPro!

I'm already getting some great mileage out of this camera! It is so durable and versatile that you can virtually use it anywhere you want. Here is a video of hockey this week. After I placed it in the net, my buddies were asking if it would be safe if it got hit with a shot. I told them I'm there to stop the pucks from getting to the back of the net and judging by the video, I didn't do the best job!

Christmas in Canada

This past Christmas, we traveled back to Canada for some fun in the snow and cold. We arrived in Calgary around 8 pm and the temperature was around -16 Celsius...bbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! It was so cold that night! Near the end of the holiday, I can say that I adjusted to the cold, but Amanda definitely still hated the cold temperatures!

First thing on the agenda was for Kaidyn and I to go meet my new nephew and his cousin Gage! Erin and AJ definitely make cute kids and he is so smiley and cute. We met him at Earl's, and since we had just arrived, I was quite out of it and Kaidyn actually fell asleep at the table! Despite the jetlag, we were able to spend a lot of time with him over the entire break.

During past trips back home, we had made so many plans to visit people and travel around everywhere, but we are now learning from that and just giving ourselves some time to relax and spend some time together. Upon our arrival, we spent a few days just lazing around town etc., but then for Christmas, the four of us were fortunate enough to spend 3 nights at the Bourne cabin and have our own Christmas, just like before our move to Asia. This was probably my favourite part of going back this year. It was so cozy with the wood burning stove, tree, snow and our dogs!

After Christmas, we had made plans to stay with Carly and Cory and check out their new house in Leduc. After living in an apartment for the past 3.5 years, it was nice to check out a new home with so much room. We also visited Dan and Lynn, who have also moved into a brand new home. It was funny because both of the new homes have almost the exact same colour scheme inside! While we were up north, we also planned to meet Mark and Jolene in Edmonton for an Oilers' game and some dinner. Its been a few years since I've been to an Oil game and it really hasn't changed much at all. They still suck pretty bad and the music at Rexall is absolutely terrible.  I don't know how they allow this to continue, but they need to ramp up the tunes during the game. Many times I found myself thinking that the song playing was so lame and putting me to sleep. Change it up already!!!!!!

Over the last few days, we spent some time with J and L Bourne and their kidlets. All of the kids just get along so well together and the had a great time playing inside and reluctantly outdoors too! They are all growing up so fast!

Now that we are back, we are back into our routine with work and school. We are hiring cleaner/helper full time to help with cleaning, cooking, shopping and babysitting. We have a half marathon in HK this weekend, and Amanda is headed to India with Vicki at CNY! How exciting and nerve racking for her. Kaidyn and I will spend a few days in HK during the break and putter around Macau for the rest of the week.

For Kylisha's grad, I bought her a GoPro camera for documenting all of her adventures and I fell in love with the camera. Amanda realized my enthusiasm and surprised me with one this xmas! I put together a little video with some of the clips I recorded since then and I hope that I can put together many more videos of our adventures here.

Busy Weekend!

What a fantastic weekend! Just look at how blue and clear the sky was these past few days. Despite the temperatures dipping down to 13 Celsius or so at night, the days have been glorious and warm for the end of November!

This past weekend, Amanda and I had some time to do some xmas shopping as Kaidyn was at a sleepover birthday party Saturday night. There is some good shopping on the strip, but maybe a bit too high end for us! I had the half marathon the next morning, we just relaxed at home and watched 4 episodes of Breaking Bad that afternoon. Finally, after hearing all the hype about the show, we have started to watch it, and I just can't can't help but think that Lois will be busting into the scene to give Hal an earful about something Dewey did! We had a great late dinner at Tuk Tuk before hitting the hay so I could rest up for the race.

The rest was not long as I found myself awake at 2:30 AM, but I managed to get back to sleep and was up at 4:15 AM for the 5:30 starting time. There were 4 of us running this year and we all had personal best times! Kudos to Amanda who was out on the streets in the dark to cheer us all on. Great job to Nicole, Martin and Kirsten for an excellent run. Next up is the January China Coast Marathon in HK.

If running 21.1 km in the morning wasn't enough, we had tickets to Clockenflap, an arts and music festival along he waterfront in HK. What is a Clockenflap? Who knows..........I knew I would be tired, but actually felt better than I thought I would considering the morning exercise. Again, it was an awesome day out in the sun.

Our main reason for attending the concert was to see Tegan And Sara perform, but it just so happens that Amanda's cousin Craig is an engineer for Tegan and Sara. After the fantastic show that they played, we were able to hook up with Craig and catch up on things. The number of miles this guy puts on is just crazy! Anyways, it was great to see the show and catch up with Craig in this part of the world!