Return to kayaking

Tonight I went to kayaking for the first time in a while… about a month or so. I was in two minds a bit, because I was rather tired today – I stayed up a bit late, and given I had a 10am lecture, subsequently didn’t get much sleep. But once I was there and in the water, my reservations evaporated. As usual it was good; especially so this time simply because I haven’t done it in a while. There were quite a few new faces as well; it’s “Re-O’Week” at the moment so all the clubs are pushing their wares in the Agora and so forth, and people are getting enthused about extra curricular activities now, while class is yet to start in earnest and they still have the delusion of free time. ;)

I was pretty happy with myself. I’m rather tired and sore now, but I did well – lots of rolls, even on my left side which I’m far weaker on. In fact only once did I ditch. We played about a bit with the polo ball as usual, although never really got a game going – with all the newbies in the pool, many without skins because we were running short, we were a bit short on space and willing players. Still, there’s next time. My throwing accuracy hasn’t improved at all over my little hiatus, although I’m getting a bit more power, mainly as a result of having better balance. I’m curious about that though, since I haven’t done any real exercise other than skiing and paintball since I last kayaked. I think we can rule out paintball, so presumably it was the skiing which has improved my agility. Cool. :)

I’d like to go with Laz & co. on their trip up towards Falls Creek, although they’re not staying above the snowline and probably won’t do all that much real skiing. Unfortunately it clashes with WWDC. There’s also a two-day kayak trip Friday week which again clashes. I’m yet to actually kayak outside a pool… people do trips all the time, but only yesterday did email start coming to me from the LUMC mailing list, and I’m too lazy to regularly scan the forum.

Also, on a side note, I’ve decided that with the end of winter within sight, it’s time to shed my extra layer of “warmth”. When I went shopping the other night I bought low-fat everything… well, except for milk. It’ll be a cold day indeed before I go drinking light milk. :) I had become a little distraught when I read how much fat was in the yoghurt I was eating, given the quantity I eat (~400g a day). The low fat version tastes more or less the same and is a good 30% cheaper. Given that yoghurt is pretty much the only thing I eat outside the three main meals now, I think it’s a step in the right direction.

Although having said that, I have had chips about five times in the last three days with lunch and dinners… definitely got enough carbs. :)

Apparently Bobo craves carbs… not chocolate, or coffee, or whatever… carbs. That strikes me as quite odd. I myself have a pretty hard time craving something that isn’t really tangible… you can’t directly eat carbs… sure, pasta might have a fair bit of them, so I’m told, but I can’t empathise…

I’m also going to try to give chocolate the flick. It’s the only thing I’m provenly addicted too; I’ve tried not eating it several times now, but always end up coming back within only a few months or even weeks. Even in the U.S., where they had very little chocolate I would even consider eating, I still managed to keep up a regular diet of it. I think my mistake, however, has been to try to eliminate it completely and indefinitely. That’s relatively easy to do for a few weeks, but then there’ll always be one of those days, sooner or later, where things just suck, and the craving really kicks in. If I simply avoid it where possible, but not especially so, I think I can probably cut my intake by 90% without significant side effects, like increased light sensitivity and a tendency to attack people who intrude into my room. ;)

We shall see, ultimately.

And because it reminded me of it, I’ll now share a quote I particularly liked, from Francisco just the other day:

“i hate how sometimes
its like
everything sucks”

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