“Puddle Jumping: the act of crossing over a body of water, or any allegorical puddle, in the most entertaining way possible, resulting in a joyful experience.”
Hi,
Our names are Ingrid and Neil, and blogging is new to us. We live in New Westminster, BC, Canada, which is part of the Greater Vancouver Regional District. We’ve started this page specifically as a kind of travel journal for our European vacation that we’re taking in August this year. However, we’ve also got a trip planned to Hawaii in September and another in May to the Bahamas, plus there’s stuff we’d like to share with family, friends, and anyone else who might be interested.
As for the hamster wheel, we’re jumping off it! We’ve been running on that stupid thing for years now, and when we finally looked up and saw the same mound of shredded newspaper that’s been piled up in the corner of the hamster cage for awhile now, we figured out that the damned wheel has no traction. So we’re off and running, exploring life off the hamster wheel and leaving the cage with the hamster kibbles, tipped over water dish and shredded newspaper behind! Freedom!
Hope you enjoy seeing the evolution of our blog as much as we’re looking forward to it. Hey, we might even inspire a hamster wheel abandonment revolution.
Now, to introduce your hosts (and their furry four legged friend, Freddy)….
NEIL:
Neil studied Shotokan Karate for about 8 years and got up to a brown belt, but stopped when he started studying to be a professional stagehand and theatre technician in 1991. Here’s a picture of him with his green belt when he was a kid. He’s the little guy facing the camera:
14 years later he decided to start training again, and on Jan. 22, 2006 he graded for and received his black belt. This was a very proud moment for him, and he worked very, very hard to achieve this accomplishment. He got lots of blisters on his feet, Charley Horses and bruises from free-sparring, but it was all worth it when he was given his black belt grading. While in training he decided to join his sensei, Andy Holmes, in the annual Jan. 1 training session on the beach in Belcarra, outside, in the rain, shine, snow, sleet or otherwise (…crazy!…). This New Year’s Day 2006 was a drizzly winter’s day, and here are some pictures of the hearty souls who showed up to participate. Neil is second to the left. You can just make out his ponytail.
Yes, after the hour-long training session, they finished by walking, step by step, into the frigid waters of Indian Arm, and then plunging, head-first into the water, with their “gis” on. Then, they completed the training session with a stretch and meditation, their gis now soaking wet and cold. The Polar Bear Swim has nothing over these guys!
Karate is Neil’s biggest passion, but his second biggest passion is motorcycling. Neil is the proud owner of the “Green Hornet”, a 1980 Honda CX500, which he bought off his friend Greg, who had taken excellent care of it and did a beautiful job painting it a nice 1997 F-350 emerald green. Here’s the Hornet when she was still new to Neil:
Here’s a picture Ingrid took of Neil as he was leaving for work one day:
Greg’s a bit of a fuss budget, so it was in mint condition three years ago… Neil’s a bit more relaxed in his need for aesthetics, so now the Hornet has a certain “petina” and character, shall we say. Never the less, she’s a great bike.
Neil is also a comic collector. He’s been collecting comics since he was a kid, and has a huge collection, maybe as many as 10,000 comics. He even tried to get Ingrid interested in them, and she bought a couple of issues of “Man Eating Cow” which she thought was funny, but never quite understood the desire to collect comics. Rocks on the other hand… but that’s for later.
When Ingrid told Neil that her friend Vicky, who she met in one of her art classes at university, has a sister who is a comic book artist, he was happily surprised when he found out Vicky’s sister is Pia Guerra. He’s got a drawing of Pia’s from a comic convention he attended in Vancouver quite a few years ago. Pia’s comic “Y: The Last Man” (Wikipedia Y: The Last Man) is becoming quite acclaimed. Very cool!
