The left coast...

I've enjoyed the past few days here on the left coast of Canada. The weather has been much to be desired and got just enough sun when it was needed.

I began my weekend with an outing to Whistler. Well, sort of. I tagged along with my mate Kris on his way up to see a client in Whistler. In tow were two vintage enduro motorcross bikes. Brilliant. After business was handled we ventured back down closer to Squamish and found a clearing full of motorcross clad fanatics. This apparently was the trail of trails that these folks share a commonality in.

For my illustrated memoirs...
Up'd by theusual

I didn't have any gear with my and Kris was prepared. I got some vintage Italian racing boots, a leather jacket and a coconut to protect my melon. The adventure started out with my bike not starting and while Kris worked on it to find the fix, I took his bike up the hill to get acquainted with riding again. I made it up the hill and then I stalled it. This bike had a crank that was a work out to try and start. Uphill, tip toeing the bike around trying to kick start it was not the easiest of tasks. I managed somehow to turn the bike around on the incline that I was on and coasted down hill towards where I began and left Kris. As I was coasting down, Kris was blasting up the mountain. We traded bikes and again we were, up, up and away! ;)

I dropped the bike on my finger coming around a corner, dropped the bike while stalling out in first, and I think dropped the bike one other time while climbing up some snow filled rock infested land. We got to as far as we could due to the snow blocking us off and so we headed back down to the flat clearing that looked out into the mountains. The sunlight reflecting off the snow and the sides of the mountains while everything in the shadows stayed dark and black. Clouds over head painted along the canvas as the wind blew by as we looked down to see how far we had climbed. A brilliant experience and splendid to be back on a bike. Might just have to pick one of these two wheelers up ;)

The concert on Friday was fantastic and I had to opportunity to catch another concert, U2. I got to see U2 in concert!! My seats were fantastic. Edge was right up in my face I was so close. Bono reached out to hold my hand as I extended mine out to grasp hold, yet just out of reach. Then my 3d glasses fell of my face and then everything appeared as it was... an IMAX 3D event of U2 performing a concert in Buenos Aires. A thrilling experience to have enjoyed my first IMAX theatre and a 3d event at that. It was a great concert and was filled with humming and singing U2 for days...

A cup of joe with Jo Up'd by theusual...

One of my favorite breakfast choices has always been an eggs benedict or florentine. I tell you, the secret is in the hollandaise sauce, you can't be stingy on the butter. So I was taken for an eggsperience ;) Fresh fluffy waffles and creamy benny's. That is what was ordered, that is not what came. After a clarification the waffles were sent back for more fluffy ones. Thank goodness they were. These flufferific fun filled waffles were not only salivatingly splendidly scrumptous, they were covered in fruit and alliteration. I enjoyed a slow moving breakfast that was filled with a spot of rain and observations of umbrellas bouncing by. Smiles poured down on me.

In between my sushi fixes and Starbucks fills I managed to squeak in some time on a beach cruiser ripping around the sand walls of Vancouver resulting in my exploration of Stanley Park. I spent hours aside the ocean, moments in the trees, years beside the flowing streams. It was a sanctuary at a time when I needed it. A great deal of reflection had been had since I recalled a point of reference into where I am. I don't mean where I am located, I mean the where I am on the way. The people I had visited with I had not seen since I had left a couple of years ago. It allowed me to see where I was then and put into perspective where I am now.

Still lost and yet this time, wearing a smile...

Miss Badu...

My adventure started with a phone call. A dear friend of mine, Camilla Rivard (of the Bison Mountain Bistro of Banff - and yes I plugged your restaurant ;)) painted me a delightful painting of her experience of Erykah Badu's concert on the east coast. Her husband Ryan mentions there is a second show that's been added to the Vancouver stop. I was elated and dove right in to buy tickets. It was my birthday present to myself.

I can't tell you how many times this woman has cradled me off to sleep, dropped the vibrations in the room into a slow sway or just had me bouncing.

So I bought five tickets, one for myself and I'm sure I'd find four people to go with me. I was right about that. They were gone in no time.

The second show started at 11:30pm on a Friday night. Have to say that this was a first for me. The show was at the Commodore Ballroom and the line up was wrapped around blocks as the first show was cleared out. Once everyone was out, they let everyone else in ;)

True to character, she rolls out with her infamous afro and started belting notes into the microphone. The only thing missing was The Roots opening up for her. They were slotted for most of the tour with what seems to be the exception of Canadian dates.

It was a mellow way to round out the celebrations of my birthday week...

I planned my success. I knew it was going to happen.
-Erykah Badu

Rollin double three's...

I turned the ripe and sweet age of 33 today. Turned 33 on the 3rd of the 6th month. Not to mention that the day that it falls upon is a new moon?! Apparently in some circles these numbers have some significance. So I did some research on them just to see what kind of hocus and the pocus were attached ;) 33 by it's lonesome is considered a Master Number signifying a Master Teacher.

I read this on some website and just cut and paste it into here

As with all souls, the owners of Master Numbers have a challenge to meet in living up to their extraordinary potential ... and, as mentioned, significant "adventures in growth" usually fall to them through turmoil, tests, and trauma. A considerable number don't meet the challenge well -- through choice or perhaps a failure in self-discipline. By taking "the easy way out" into vagrancy, sloth, and substance abuse -- which, of course is a way of losing that all-important balance I've mentioned -- they can use their free will to avoid the challenge of becoming all they can be.

Obviously, this may create karmic problems in the future, but who among us hasn't put off until tomorrow the work we should have been accomplishing today? Ultimately each owner of a Master Number can become an example of his own learning with the choices he makes in life, even if the example he sets is a gross illustration of how not to handle one's life and one's gifts. Again, this is available to anyone, whatever his number. But when the owner of a Master Number is truly on his game, he is nothing short of awesome, showing the rest of the world how it's done!

For example, a 33 Life Path can happen only when each of the 3 units of the birth date (month/year/day) add to 11. Or when the year adds to 22 (only 7 years that add to 22: 1939, 48, 57, 66, 75, 84, and 93) and the month and day of birth combined total is 11. And finally, when the birth day is 22 and the month and year of birth total 11.

So, according to these calculations, I am 33 years old in a year that yields 22 and my favorite number in the world is 11. I found this triangle of enlightenment...

33

22 11

Beginning with 11 represents vision...

The 22 combines vision with action...

And 33 offers guidance to the world...

I don't know what it means and am hoping that this master year or master teacher number results in a similar saying of 'Comes in like a lion, and leaves like a lamb'. My year has entered roaring it's cry to commence the year's events one after another...

Some wikipedia facts around the double three's:

*Believed to be a number that appears in an unusually high proportion to other numbers. See The 33 Mysteries Home Page at home.earthlink.net/~ktd_33/index.html

*the age of Christ when he was crucified.

* Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty-three

* On most occasions, the traditional number of racers in the Indianapolis 500

* In reference to gramophone records, 33 refers to a type of record by its revolution speed of 33⅓ revolutions per minute. 33s are also known as long playing records, or LPs. See: 78 and 45

* Many people claim that they see, witness, or experience the number 33 in unusual circumstances or at a frequency that defies statistical likelihood. A popular website is dedicated to this digit

* The best-known car number of retired NASCAR driver Harry Gant

* A significant number in modern numerology, one of the master numbers along with 11 and 22

* A song by the Smashing Pumpkins on their Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness album. Also a song by Coheed and Cambria on their The Second Stage Turbine Blade album (the songs are not related)

* The title of the first episode of the new Battlestar Galactica television series

* In Spanish, the "smile to the camera" word, as is "cheese" in English. Diga treinta y tres ("Say thirty-three") is the same as "Say cheese"

* The number of years Khayyam has been blessed to roam this mystery of life.

* In French, Italian, Romanian, Spanish and Portuguese, the word a patient is usually asked to say when a doctor is listening to his or her lungs with a stethoscope (Trente-Trois, Trentatrè, Treizeci şi trei, Treinta y Tres and Trinta e Três)

* The code for international direct-dial phone calls to France

* A normal human spine has 33 vertebrae when the bones that form the coccyx are counted individually

* The number printed on all Rolling Rock beer labels

* The number of chapters per series of DarkSoul Kingdom, an online fantasy story

* Number of Cantos in each of Dante's 3 parts of the Divine Comedy

* Number of maximum European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System credits that Instituto Superior Técnico's students are allowed to achieve throughout one semester

* In music : www.thirty-three.be : a Belgian rockband who devoted their music to the sacred number 33.

* The namesake of the private club, Club 33, located in Disneyland's New Orleans Square.

* The Scottish Rite of Freemasonry has 33 degrees.

Thou shall not Steele...

My new found love in mystery is thanks to the reemergence of Remington Steele into my life.

"Try this for a deep dark secret: The great detective Remington Steele... He doesn't exist. I invented him. I'd always loved excitement, So I studied and apprenticed, and put my name on an office. But absolutely no one knocked on my door. A female private investigator seemed so... feminine. So I invented a superior. A decidedly masculine superior. Suddenly there were cases around the block. It was working like a charm. Until the day he walked in, with his blue eyes and mysterious past. And before I knew it, he assumed Remington Steele's identity. Now I do the work, and he takes the bows. It's a dangerous way to live, But as long as people buy it, I can get the job done. We never mix business with pleasure. Well...almost never. I don't even know his real name!"

I am proud to admit that I am once again a huge fan ;) I don't care what anyone else thinks, it's the dog's bullocks.

However, there is some bewilderment looking back at the styles of the times and how a pencil thin suit with shoulder pads while sporting the most feather quaff was deemed to be appealing?! This was a good look?! Can't wait for that one to come back into style... skinny bobble heads come trouncing down the catwalks ;)

And not to mention that Stephanie Zimbalist has single handedly inspired me into wearing the detective hat or something that looks similar... ;) I've been noticing a lady here and there sporting and wielding this Laura Holt number. Give thanks to a woman who I now have a crush on that goes into the past about twenty years. Yes, I have a crush on Stephanie Zimbalist or the character, Laura Holt, that she plays ;)

Now don't get me the wrong way here... I'm not popping no popcorn and watching back to back episodes here or anything...

The only shows that have got me out of sorts are 24 and Lost. Keeping me on the edge of my seat and so glad that I didn't have to wait till the next week to find out what happens... just click next on the trusty remote ;)

Life has begun feeling this way... I mean to say that I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for the next opportunity or challenge. Life's mystery can't be solved in a 60 minute episode and I seem to recall there were a few seasons... so the show must go on as they say...

Let the clues fall where they may and allow the mystery to unravel...
;)

Root Tear Floats...

The wind thrusts through trees overhead with messages of hope, courage, insight, peace, wisdom and love. Yup. All of them. I closed my eyes and let go. There was my world behind closed windows. The past, the what if's, the memories, all the hurt, the wrong doings... and they all float by on a steady flowing boat. I wave to them as they traverse from one side of the screen to the other, a little parade involving the bits and pieces of my little mystery movie. The sun comes out and life, love and laughter vibrates everywhere. The birds sing their spring chatter, three girls sitting on swings start laughing and I absolutely love how this park is alive and how it feels.

Which reminds me of an old Irish saying...
Count your joys instead of your woes;
Count your friends instead of your foes.

Have you laughed today?

Two souls arrive in a small town...

Last night I got me some pie and watched a Bollywood movie. It was just one of those days... you know... just finished a cleanse and thinking about all the disturbingly unhealthy foods to eat and pizza popped into my head. Every time I start a Bollywood movie I completely forget about how long these movies are. It always throws me off when the intermission screen pops up after being and hour and a half into a movie ;) I was up until 2am trying to finish the marathon movie.

The cinematography was absolutely stunning. It was Moulin Rouge meets Bollywood or perhaps it was the other way around?! Whatever it was the effect was fantastic. The set was like nothing I've ever seen in a Bollywood flick before, Saawariya which translates into "beloved" was a delightful change in the same old same old of song and dance.

A short synopsis of the movie reads something like: Two souls arrive in a small town, one on vacation, the other to meet a lover. They spend the most magical dream-like days of their lives in that town... with each other.

Kind of like all the other Bollywood movies, except no one dies in this one, the man still chases the girl around, dancing around potholes and a mix of working women breaking out in song and dance in the dream like world of Saawariya... it's all there. I'd recommend this movie to anyone who is new to Bollywood and would like a beautiful introduction into the world of drama and overacting ;)

Oil change...

So I decided to sign up for a cleanse workshop. I paid money not to eat ;) The way it works is that you taper yourself off of solid foods for four days and totally liquid for another four days and the following four days you taper back on to solid food one group at a time. I met some beautiful people who were all drawn to make the commitment to cleansing their temples - body, mind and soul. I learned lot of new things about the body, some deep insights and new experiences.

Did you know that chewing gum is a practice that one should not have? The chewing motions begin to tell the body to salivate as to wash down whatever food is coming down and then the digestion machine starts up. Well, since there is no food coming the engines are running as if you were in a parked car raising your carbon footprint.

One thing that happens during the cleanse is that your metabolism slows right down to speed of a slug on a good day. That leaves you without the ability to, well, 'evacuate'. It is advised at that point in the cleanse to seek out a colonic. Yes, that's what it is. I had never had one and the thoughts that shuffled through my visions created this aversion to having someone insert anything into thy holiest. My alternatives were to buy a kit and fiddle around on me own undercarriage or to drink two liters of salt water and spend the afternoon paying homage to the porcelain god. I weighed my options and decided that to regain the freedom to evacuate was well worth the new experience.

Just before my appointment I dropped in on a friend of mine and discussed with him my afternoon plans. This brought up an interesting conversation ;) Ever heard of a coffee enema?! I hadn't so I had to ask. Apparently, you brew up some coffee and let it cool down a bit, then proceed to reroute the pipeline to your backside and let go of it at some point in time. The story I was told of was about a young lady that performed this task on a daily basis and a mild intervention needed to be had. Could you imagine being part of that coup to overthrow the addiction to coffee enemas?! ;) I was surprised, shocked and confused all at the same time as I covered my gaping open mouth.

So after getting my oil changed I felt fantastic, a little lighter and a little brighter ;) It was a strange experience sharing what I would consider 'alone time' and one very private act with some stranger who shoved something where the sun don't shine. Almost feels strange paying for such things ;)

All in the name of good health and good movements ;)

Questions on the daily...

I wanted to revisit a practice that I lost sight of and share it with anyone that hasn't had the chance to reflect on three very important questions to your well being.

And there is a practice which I follow every night before going to sleep. It is very simple, but it has helped me immensely, and it can help anyone who uses it. It involves only three questions: Have I lived? Have I loved? Have I laughed?

Have I lived? Have I made the best use of the time provided me during the day to grow, to learn, to develop?

Have I loved? Have I reached out to everyone I met and made them aware of the love in my heart and eased their burdens of self-mistrust and self-doubt?

Have I laughed? Have I seen the humorous side of even the most painful incident?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, then it is a matter of remorse. One more day passed and I am another day closer to my death and I have not exerted myself to my fullest potential. This is enough to make me work harder then next day and try and make amends.

Three questions that must find a home within your daily rituals...