This Old Blog

Hello, folks! Though life has been exceptionally busy over the past few months, we thought it was high time we blew the dust off this ol' blog, cleared out the cobwebs, and posted a quick update. What has been keeping us way too busy to blog? Training, of course! We promise we'll try to post more regularly throughout the summer as training (and life in general) gets more interesting.

James and I are well into the "build" phase of our Ironman training, where we ramp up the distance in each sport until we reach (or surpass, yikes!) the actual race distances. We've been seeking out new and interesting bike routes and are starting to mentally prepare ourselves for the first icy cold swim in Thetis Lake. The weather in Victoria has just started to improve, which has brought locals and tourists alike out of hibernation and into the downtown streets. The great farmers' markets will be starting up again soon, and every Saturday we'll be able to fill our bags with local organic produce and our bellies with fresh samosas. And I assure you, there is nothing nicer than a Sunday morning vegan brunch, followed by coffee to go and a long walk with Disco along Dallas Road. Though the grey winter sometimes makes us wonder why on earth we choose to live on this rock, the first glimpse of summer sun reminds us what paradise this place can be. We have a lot planned for the next few months and we promise to blog about it, so stay tuned for updates!

In the meantime, and in honor of spring's arrival, here are some pictures from our visit to Butchart Gardens with James' parents in April. Early spring is a great time to see the gardens because, though the weather is usually nice and the place is bursting with blooms, it's still pretty quiet. Disco particularly loved Butchart Gardens and was a hit with all the tourists. One Japanese couple, resplendent in their fanny packs and oversized cameras, was especially taken with her. They didn't speak much English but they managed to ask us the name of our dog. When we said "Disco," they exchanged a puzzled glance and some Japanese words, then turned to us and said, "Dees-co? Like...?" At which point they put their hands on their hips and wiggled back and forth in what we could only assume was a Travolta-esque pantomime. When we confirmed their suspicions that our dog had indeed been named after a particularly tacky style of dance, they collapsed in giddy laughter and petted her all the more enthusiastically. I could only imagine what they would have thought had we been able to communicate her full name: Waycool Days of Disco.