No Name

I was not sure what too call this post.

We never really know what life is going to throw at us.

"Jenny, I don't know if Momma was right or if, if it's Lieutenant Dan. I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it's both. Maybe both is happening at the same time."

That's some Forrest Gump for you. A fan told me I was getting lazy with my quotes so there yeah go.

Well I hurt the good ol' trusty ribs again so here I am sitting at the courses Cafe with my cappuccino typing away, but this post isn't about my little sob story about how much pain I am.

This post is about something that happened last night.

Last night for dinner, Mike, Lina, Jessica, myself and of course little baby Erik all went to this place in Penrith called the Stone Grill. Its an excellent little place.

It wasn't about the food though even though it was fantastic. It's about the conversations we were having, the smiles, the laughs, the whispers. It all seemed to good.

It made me sad that yet another adventure is coming to end. But with every ending, a new beginning.

It's a little hard to explain but its one of those you had to be there moments.

I always hear stories from Mike, Paul, Jess, Cam, just everyone. I am always jealous because I don't have any cool fun stories too tell the group but it doesn't matter because my adventures have only just begun, and I am looking forward to the journey ahead.

A short story movie producer on Vimeo once said in one of his movies, called The Dark Side of the Lens, said "I may not make much of a living, but at least it's a living worth scraping"

Hope all is well

Aj

Aus

Looks like I might be back on the sidelines everyone.

Last night during a technique session I hate a hole sideways and got tossed around pretty good. I ended up tweaking my ribs and they are in a bit of pain this morning. Plan is to ice all day today and see how I feel tomorrow. If its bad tomorrow still, maybe its time to just come home.

Anyway,

I hope all is well,

Aj

Raceing

As the legendary Michael Jordan once said "I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I cannot accept not trying."

I basically lived this quote yesterday as I paddled the race I went into with high expectations and equally high hopes. I was felling good and thought that today was going to be the second of a few good races.

Unfortunately it was not. I ended up having one of the greatest learning experiences of my life.

But the funny thing was it wasn't from my failure.

Here's the story;

At the end of the day, Mike and I were walking back to the car, not really saying much when one of Mike's old coaches, Shaun Pierce, ran into us. Shaun and Mike had a quick chat and I stopped to hear the chat. Mike asked how the day went for Great Britain, and Shaun's answer was quite positive. Except he said they lost one man. The sad thing was an unnamed paddler had missed out on Semi Finals by two seconds. That two seconds was a touch penalty.

I then thought to myself, I had a lot of penalties, I mean a lot. But I wasn't shooting for finals. I was simply shooting for a good race and I was putting myself down because of a race that didn't go the way I wanted it to. I then took the words my mom had earlier said to me, I was out for a good 2 and half or three months from injury. It wasn't because I was being a lazy bum. I had legitimately lost three months. I was putting to much pressure on myself when really I just needed to relax and race the race I could.

My mind was in the wrong place but thats just learning.

Hope you are all still fans after this little bump!

Hope all is well

Aj

Funny Story

Hey everyone!

I have arrived safely to Australia.

With the blistering 40+ degree weather, the jet leg, the 6 am run every morning on top of two more work outs is running me down already. So much for youth being invincible

Unfortunately I have come down with a bit of a cold. Oh well. I am in Australia and that is all that matters.

Now for the funny story

I am unsure with how up to date you all are with the cyclone that just hit the Eastern Coast of Australia but it hit hard. The good news is no one died just severe damage done to infrastructure.
The source of Australia's Banana's is actually local. Unfortunately the largest banana plantation's got hit and totally destroyed. The supply of bananas might be out by the end of the month. On top of this, banana prices are expected to triple in the next week.
Now for the funny stuff.

The other day when Mike and I were driving back from the course we heard a couple of jokes on the radio about the banana situation.

"Bananas have become so valuable that Ke$ha is going to start spelling her name with a banana instead of a dollar sign"

"Bruno Mars wants to be a bananaaire"

Say it with an Aussie accent and its ten times better.

Anyways,
I hope you guys are freezing in the great white north!


Aj