dear God please help me

Please help me with the day today, i know that so many people are suffering and all i want is to just let go please god, just help me let go of A. , just help me be at peace with myself, please dear God. I’m so fucking drained. I’m so drained of Gossip and people pleasing. i just want to do the best I can. do your step work Krisen, commit your burdens to me

trying new things - Improv meetup group

Yesterday I attended a meetup group for improv. It was scary and fun and I really had to motivate myself to attend. It's hard to try out new things, especially where I have to put myself out there. I texted my friend Reena to make my commitment. Highlights from the class: participating and laughing with a couple guys. Lowlights, being emasculated by a young lady during the scene where we are stranded on park with a bear. I wanted to leave after an hour into it but I stayed for practice till   5 minutes to the end. so that was good practice for me to break out of isolation.

Quote on Albion library window

Albion library is a beautiful Toronto library.  Ita got a nice design and it's a pleasant surprise given the low income rexdale area that I live in. The library is very youth focussed and there are quotes from youth on the window. Here's what's in front of me now.

Why is it that everytime 

I turn on the news 

Theres another tragedy,

Another man shot

And ripped away from his family?

Why is it that everytime

I scroll through my feed

Theres always a "pray for this country"

Because innocent people

Are suffering through brutality?

Why is it that we have accepted this as our reality?

Why is it that we suffer in silence?

Why is it that we don't break this circle of violence?

        - Ahanti

pics today

I discovered a burnt out corn field next to a runway at pearson intl that I can get some cool close ups of planes landing. It was a bit damp from all the rain we've been having but I will get a pair of galoshes and try again later this week. I'm fascinated by planes, they look so majestic, truly one of the best inventions of human species. Today's pics was more of the flowers and colours. I'm using a canon eos5d (original one) and a wide angle lens. Next time i will break out my telephoto lens but gosh that is heavy to carry around.   I'm happy to find this field, it seems abandoned and I wonder when it will be developed. 

Biking for the first time in March

Today is the first day where it will be actually decent to take my bike out. for the first time this year! After a brutal winter and it's still quite brutal in the maritimes, poor Perry's flight may be delayed back to halifax because that region is going to get pounded with up to 30. I've decided to take my mountain bike out, i'm not in the mood to take out my tri bike, got to change in all the fancy garb. Here I go, time to get bundled up. It's about 5 degrees outside, but it feels more like minus 10. I'm going to go to port credit, stop at the second cup, grab some lunch and then head back. I am really motivated to do a half iron this year. I've kept up with my  swimming after tearing my bicep from repetitive strain injury but am willing to keep at it, doing physio really helps!!!]  I had fun riding my bike during some spin classes this winter so overall I feel in good duathalon shape :)

meh mountain bike, been rusting on the balcony all winter!

A weekend in Frankfurt.

I left Toronto on Jan 2nd en route to South Africa but as usual I wanted to pack as much as I could in Europe before going to SA. over the years, I've made many stops in London, Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt. Since my friend Ingo moved to Frankfurt a few years ago, I've enjoyed stopping in Frankfurt to visit him and his family and see a bit of germany. it's a fascinating country,rich in history and very organized and efficient and now diverse. About 15 years ago I made a trip with my friend chuck to visit Berlin and Ingo's parents place in Bergisch Gladbach, it was quite fun and at that time it was cool to be the only brown people in the town. I've never explored franfurt and was keen to see it now.

On January 2nd, I was thrilled to discover I had been bumped to business class on the lufthansa flight. It was the first time I flew business class on a trans atlantic flight, and the seats reallly do recline all the way down.

    I'm very excited to leave Toronto!

Arriving in Germany - I showed up early at 6am, half hour early. most airlines are now quoting longer fllying times so that they meet their quotas for on time flying. Ingo showed up on time although he was rushing to meet me when he checked and saw that I arrived early. I joked this it was a result of German efficiency!  First stop....bakery. nothing like a good german bakery at 6:30am, the smell of fresh bread...yummm. 

a real treat for me, good caffe and german bakery to start of my german adventure weekend!

Next stop meeting Ingo's family, my lovely and warm friends.

Ingo, Eva and Philipe.

So it's 8am in the morning and the first thing I notice is Ingo's staircase Bar. hmmm sign of things to come :)

We have breakfast and catch up for a couple hours and then we decide to go into Frankfurt for some clothe shopping ( I want to get a cool  pair of jeans) and some sight seeing on the hop on - hop off bus.  

A good Sunday and Monday Morning

Yesterday morning started off with a lovely swim in my pool. The first time I've used the outdoor pool in my building and definitely not the last. I did a few laps to get the cobwebs out but I also enjoyed lying on my back and looking at the sky surrounded by the 2 towers and wondering if anyone was watching me or was I making too much noise cause it was 7:30am sunday morning or worse still was someone going to spit on me ;-)  After a while I let go of those thoughts and just enjoyed the swim.

Pic of the pool just before stepping in, I had the whole pool to myself. usually there's tons of people suntanning and a few people in the pool, was happy to do some laps.

After the swim, had some breakfast, did some laundry and song downloading for my sister and prepared to watch the holland Mexico game. I have been upset with Holland since the south african world cup. I thought they were unsportmanlike and played a dreadfully physicall game against spain. Plus you never know which holland would show up.  And true to form, they almost lost against Mexico but got a late penalty from a drive from Robbin, very classy indeed. The next match was truly a gem: Costa Rica beat Greece in a nailbiter that went to penalties. Again a questionable red card call against a costa rican player reduced them to 10 men for most of the second half. But their keeper kept them in the game by making some amazing saves including one in the penatly shootout.  The shootout was one of the best kicks i've seen, all confidently struck and but for the one brilliant save, it would have kept going.

PURA VIDA!! I have a fondness for Costa Rica since visiting and it really is a Cinderella story for them to proceed this far. Now let's see if they muster up the confidence to face the Dutch.

The night was spent visiting Vash at the airport as she ended her trip. It was great to see her and she came baring gifts which was really sweet. Stay tuned for a pic of my cool looking panama hat. All I need is a matching Cigar ;)

Today at the office I came in to be greeted with a beautiful site of plants that I rarely notice but Today I did and was grateful for the message on the walls behind. Very inspiring.

a little garden at the entrance to my office

Good inspiring words to start the week.

I put up the licence plate of Costa Rica that Vash gave me yesterday , makes my cubicle look brighter and more welcoming. Pura Vida!

My desk area. Yes I'm still using a really old CRT monitor. if it ain't broke, I can still use it!