2) for charity (and even then I'll take the walk option if it's available)
The Sunshine Beach Run is a fabulous event, and the seventh annual run (with optional walk or shuffle for people like me!) is coming up on Sunday February 18th to raise money for Red Nose and save little lives.
Nine children die unexpectedly every day in Australia. Red Nose (formally SIDS and Kids of the Red Nose Day campaign fame) started as a grass roots group helping bereaved parents who had lost a child and has developed in to the advocacy and research phenomenon it is today. They work tirelessly to educate on safe sleeping practices and research in to the possible causes behind sudden infant death syndrome.
Joining in and raising money will help save little lives. So far they've raised $920,000 - let's help them break the $1million mark in 2018!
The burly blokes from the West Coast Eagles will be there for a celebrity sprint, then you can run or walk your preferred distance - 1km, 3kms, or 5kms. If West Coast aren't your team, you could always try to beat the Eagles players in attendance to prove a point.
You can dedicate your run to an angel babe if you wish, and place their name on wings available on the day. Or you can just run for research and support of bereaved families, knowing how much of a difference your contribution will make.
There are prizes for the biggest fundraisers, the biggest corporate teams, school teams and family teams, plus of course the place winners.
Event registration is open now, and if you want an extra 10% off your entry fees, use the codeword GLOW at the checkout. Combine it with earlybird pricing to save more. You can register here sunshinebeachrun.com.au/register/
It may go down as yet another thing I've started and never finished (oh, hello half finished coffee table from my woodworking days), or it may turn out to be that I've finally found something to get me moving, but I've started Zen Do Kai.
I hear you. WTF is Zen Do Kai?
It's mixed martial arts. Bits of lots of styles thrown in together to suit the environment you're in. It started in Australia in the 70s.
Twice a week I learn how to kick ass. I've been doing this metaphorically for a while (heh), but now it's literal.
I've been going for about six weeks now and I've learned a whole bunch of moves and sweated from places I didn't even know had sweat glands.
MapGuy and I joined up together when the dojo that Tricky trains at had a half price special on. MG was looking for a new activity after growing a little bored with squash and when this 50% off deal came up I flicked it through to him via email saying I'd found his new sport.
He was very in to it and said I should join too.
Which of course, filled me with absolute dread. Sport and Glow do not mix.
Chronic pain, a fucked up brain that always tell me I suck at everything, and I'm gonna sign up for a six month contract? Pffft you're kidding, right?
I'd already been to one class with a friend a few months prior to see what it was like, and I went so hard trying to keep up with the others, which was a huuuge mistake. I had to come off the mats, and then puked on my way home. Everyone tells me that spewing when you work out is "weakness leaving the body" and I'm all "no, it's my lunch leaving the body".
But I joined anyway thinking it's six months and let's give it a whirl.
I was absolutely petrified at my first real class. To the point of tearing up. It was a mixed level class so I was in there with a few other beginners but also some people going for black belts. It was super intimidating at first.
Then I met everyone and those huge guys and gals with their green and brown belts that you would not want to cross turned out to be bloody lovely people who would give me hints and tips whenever the poor bastards happened to be paired with the overweight, middle-aged woman shitting her pants.
So I've learned to take some people down and I gotta say, that feels kinda cool. I'm getting stronger slowly, and, um, I'm actually enjoying going. I come home sometimes with bruises, bloody toes, and grazes... but it's really fun being able to beat people up!
Tricky thinks it's great that his parents are both learning the sport he is dedicated to... and I'm pretty sure he's well chuffed he's an orange belt while we're still white belts. But we're catching up, Tricks!
I got to head to the launch of indoor skydiving facility iFly Perth this month and I spent most of the evening with my jaw hanging wide open in disbelief. I am now in the background of hundreds of photos looking like I'm catching flies. Attractive!
I was so awed by the set up and the performances of the skydivers (and they really were performances!) that I squealed and clapped like a kid at her very first circus. I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing.
Amazingly choreographed routines. Guys zooming around. Spinning up, up, up almost 15 metres off the ground in a vertical wind tunnel. Check these guys out:
I was going to call it ballet in the air, but the speed these professionals were flying it looked more akin to those 'wheel of death' motorcycle cages sans the motorbikes. In. Sane.
I came away from the party feeling pumped, and wondered if just watching others do it was so good, how extreme would it feel after I had a go?
So yesterday MapGuy and I headed to the brand spankin' new iFly Perth to find out. I can tell you, our first taste of indoor skydiving did not disappoint!
We suited up (almost attractive as my slack jawed stare on opening night) and had our introductory lesson from our instructor Danny, a highly experienced skydiver with around 520 jumps to his name. We learned how to hold our bodies, the hand signals used (you can't hear anything in the tunnel), and all the safety details.
Then it was go time.
Do you think orange is my colour?
There were six of us in our group ranging in age from three to mid fifties. Yeah, that wasn't a typo. One of my fellow students was a toddler. Because the speed of the wind in the tunnel is controlled in real time by another skydiver, it doesn't matter how big or small you are. Plus the instructor in with you has a level of fitness up there with elite athletes so they can help everyone from littlies to big burly blokes, all while being blasted with air.
It was brilliant.
Wendy, I can fly!
The feeling was so completely foreign that I had to work hard to concentrate on following Danny's hand signals, and I had no idea if I was putting my legs in the right spot or not because I couldn't really feel where they were, but his thumbs up said I was doing OK.
We each got two flights, the second of which was better because that unknown element was gone and I felt I could follow instructions better.
I can see my house from up here!
The wind blasting up my nostrils was a bloody weird sensation. They could legitimately add "complimentary sinus clean" to the list of services they offer.
There really was no down side to the experience. It's short, and there are options to go for longer, but the general time is the same as what you'd get with a freefall from 14,000 feet. Then you just pop out, let someone else have a turn and you're up again. No flight, no ear pressure worries, no parachute worries!
MapGuy was a natural
It's so controlled and it on top of actually being very safe, it felt safe - I wasn't scared at all, and at no time did I feel like I was about to drop out of the sky.
I don't know yet if it has made me want to jump out of a real plane, but I definitely want to go back and have another go. Even Tricky says he wants to have a go, so I've promised he can go for his birthday next year.
This is iFLY High and is $10 extra
If you're stuck for a present, a voucher for experiences is always great, but indoor skydiving is just next level awesome.
iFly has locations in Sydney, the Gold Coast and Perth, and prices start at a very reasonable $89.
If there is one thing that has struck me in the first few days of the London 2012 Olympics, it's the way the Australian media is crucifying athletes who don't "perform".
This snippet of a piece on James Magnussen being the favourite for his next race, by staff writers at News Limited, is just one example:
"But that is all under doubt now after he and his teammates bombed in the
final of the 4 x 100m relay, finishing a disappointing fourth despite
heading into the race as hot favourites."
Sorry, what? When did training hard for years, making the Australian team, qualifying through the heats to make the OLYMPIC FUCKING FINAL and coming fourth constitute bombing out?
These people are the best our country has to offer and yet we're being told they are not good enough. I'm not suggesting they all get participation medals like a school sports carnival where no one is allowed to lose lest our kiddies get upset, I'm suggesting a little credit where credit is due.
And now I'm going to pull the what-is-this-teaching-our-kids card because surely that's what a Mummy Blogger should do. What type of example is this to all the kids watching the Olympics? If you win at the highest level you will be held up as the golden girl/boy of Australia... and if you come second or heaven forbid don't even make the podium, you're "disappointing".
How is promoting the "If you're not first, you're last" and "Second place is the first loser" mentality ever a good thing?
From these types of statements, which are all over the media right now and being made by the commentary team, am I meant to conclude that anyone who didn't make the final is a loser? That anyone who didn't make the Australian Olympic team is pathetic?
No wonder they're all breaking down this year! They're being told that unless they're perfect, breaking records, weighing the right amount and winning gold IT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Give them a break already, last time I checked they were human.
And yet, only a few hours earlier though, the exact same media outlet slammed a US comedian for joking on Twitter that the female Australian swimmers had "amazing cocks". So it's not OK for a comedian to make a joke about our Olympians but it's just fine and dandy for a journalist to crucify them? Double standard, much?
What ever happened to the Olympic Spirit?
Do you find it "disappointing" when someone tries their hardest and doesn't win? Or are you just in awe at the amazing talent of these people?
Every year Perth hosts a mixed teams tennis event, the Hopman Cup. I used to go every session because I worked there... as a ball kid. Yes, I held the unpaid position that could have been done by a labrador with the promise of a liver treat.
I hadn't been in years so last week, after seeing my Twitter stream full of tennis talk, I decided to schlep my non-sporty ass back to The Dome and this was the result:
