Guess who's back!

Lately I have noticed my affinity for air travel. I find myself yet again on a plane. This time from Winnipeg back to Calgary. The past week has been a fantastic time spent with my grandmother, aunts and uncle. The week involved a glorious return to the golf course where I hit the ball, then grabbed a new ball and hit it again. Losing a total of only 9 golf balls I thought I did pretty good on 18 holes. 

A case of strep throat and jet lag set me far back in my activity levels. This was something I was thoroughly looking forward to. With pollution, and humidity aside I relish in the Canadian sun and fresh air. Finally after 7 months I have had the opportunity to go for a fulfilling run. Fully recovered from everything, I took in the incredible scenery that is found around my Amma’s (grandmother in Icelandic) place in Gimli, Manitoba.  Sites of newly flowered canola, and stretching fields of wheat graced my eyes. A run goes by much faster when you can enjoy the beauty of your home country. Canada is a country so large that it is nearly impossible to grow tired of the incredible landscapes.  Yet, you can sometimes forget about what you have until you miss it. The return to my glorious reinvigorated my love for the land.

I noted on facebook recently that running 10 k when you haven’t run that kind of distance in a while can have devastating effects. Maybe a slight exaggeration on my behalf, but JELLO legs is the best way to describe them after a run. I finished in just under an hour. Which is truly not that bad, but a solid 14 minutes slower than my norm. I want to get back in this saddle.  7k a few days later was certainly much more tolerable.

They say you never get used to the heat in SE Asia, and I truly believe that I am not meant to spend my entire life in that environment. My body adapted though, to the humidity at least. The 10 k run, despite pushing myself I didn’t sweat. Well I did, 3 beads. That’s it. A 28 degree day in dry heat I had very limited need for sweat. It is kind of cool to see the change in how the body processes, in its distribution of heat. 

An update on my modeling world is probably due as well. Just because I have returned to Canada doesn’t mean things stop. I  have an audition this coming week for a movie, a meeting with FORD models and a meeting next Monday with my agents to discuss more Asia options, I am hoping for Korea, Japan or maybe Hong Kong.

And the ground shakes beneath you

 I need to get back on track with regular updates for you guys. I am finding it more difficult to have stuff to write about when I am not super busy with modeling stuff right now. It’s the most interesting stuff I have to write about too. 

My continual goal has always been to meet more people and have fun. If I am not busy working, I will be busy making this adventure more than just that but an Epic Adventure Deluxe.

Today I went to a new area of town and met a new friend from Japan.  She loved answering all my questions on Japan. Naturally I had a lot of questions about earthquakes, World War 2 history, culture and food.  I found out that earthquakes hit Tokyo probably every second day. Most quakes are hardly even noticeable, just a stutter step, then there is the odd one that really shakes you. Ha-ha literally and figuratively. It can be difficult to communicate in much or Japan outside the major cities, but in Tokyo and Hokkaido it’s not too difficult. 

After this I went to go find some lunch at a new hawker. After wandering around I found my destination. It looked like a dump, most the hawkers were either B or C health rating, and I would rather not. So I went back to my trusted Tijong Bahru market. I picked up Bak Ku Teh. This is a pork bone soup, with many different spices. I had difficulty communicating with the woman my order, but a gentleman in a suit helped me order and explained that the woman didn’t want me to burn myself on the clay pot. It was pretty good, not my favourite thing though. I am not a fan of soups for the most part and now I have had soup 2 meals in a row.

My afternoon was slow, so I went for a run in my new riverside parkway. It was beautiful the whole way through. Running for close 2 hours, I managed to see a great portion of the parkway. It was incredibly hot out. I am glad I had so much water before my run.  I hate running with water in my hand. This was likely one of the longest distances I have ever run, somewhere in the 18 km range, so my legs are actually a little sore. No pain though which is good. 

My evening plans were to meet up with Aska for steamboat and some beer. Too bad the lineups and waits were close to 45 minutes, so we went and had Taiwanese food.  I had a pork rice bowl, it was pretty good.  I was hungry so forgot to take a picture. 

The cue room was our next stop. Aska and I decided to shoot some pool and have a few beers. Tiger is always the beer of choice here. I wish our National beer wasn’t terrible whether you talk about Molson or Labatt they both are sub par at best.  Aska put up a number of good games but I managed to edge him out in many of them. Most games came down to just the 8 ball. 

I am doing my gym/pool routine then will fill you in on yesterday. 

Flying through beauty

As of my last update, I left you while I was flying over the Bering Strait. Things took a turn for the worse before getting better. Our flight got delayed while we were in the air. A huge thunderstorm hit Narita and caused us to fly in circles over the ocean for an hour.  It was a rough go for most the people around me on the flight. At least 8 people in my vicinity tossed their lunches. They conveniently fed us an hour before all this turbulence.

It’s been a few months since we saw Dr. Andrew Weil for this Body of Knowledge lectures but he taught us a breathing technique that I surely put into practice. 4-7-8 breathing helped me a ton from not losing my composure myself.

Upon our hour and a half late arrival into Tokyo, there was a sign with my name on it.

Hold up this is where everything gets good. My entire experience in Japan was awesome. And this flight so far, mind blowing. After departing my Air Canada plane, there was a well-dressed man to give me all the details and directions for my next flight, but on Singapore Airlines. 

Back to the airport first though. I had to take a pee incredibly bad when walking through the airport en route to my gate. And boy am I glad I didn’t have to take a #2. They have these weird toilet stalls on the ground; you must have to squat or something. I have no idea how one would go about using those. Other interesting things were crazy vending machines and goofy little treats at the duty free.

Total cerebral explosion has been going on for about 3 hours so far and I have 4 hours left on the flight. Singapore Airlines is incredible. Upon seating there was a big pillow and comfy blanket, not that shit Air Canada gives. All the stewards (both men and women) are gorgeous and ear-to-ear smiles. This makes one hell of a difference.  I received a Givenchy bag with socks and a toothbrush (more free ones in the bathroom too and a comb).  The on board snacks were peanuts and wine. The onboard meal was poached salmon with sea vegetables as the main, some sort of tofu/ edamame appetizer. And get this without even asking they served buckwheat noodles. I couldn’t eat the dessert on account of the gluten, but it looked great nonetheless. I feel like a celebrity already and that’s sitting in economy. The staff has been friendly to chat with as well. 

I am going to try and get them to snap a picture for me. In the meantime however, my ass has been up for over 24 hours and I really need to catch some z’s we arrive in Singapore at 4 am :S

The first time I have been an immigrant. Haha. 

Carving a Magnificent Landscape

I have been on the plane for about 3 hours now. It’s rather interesting to see how everyone just mellows out on the plane when they know they are in for the long haul. Its about 5:30 pm Vancouver time and the first baby has started crying. Everyone else is absorbed in crosswords or the humour of bad teacher on their seatback TV’s. It doesn’t appear that anyone is sleeping although I am sure some are.

Efforts to establish an easier transition to time change has fallen off my radar. I am basically in the state of do whatever keeps the mind going. Its 10 am in Singapore at the moment and I should technically be starting my day. But with 1492 miles down and 3282 miles to go, I have got plenty of time to nap.

After finishing my first movie of the ride and dining on some rather unattractive Dijon chicken, I peeped out the window and saw what I least expected. Mountains! Covered in elegant layers of snow, these beautiful works of rock sliced waves across the landscape. I was in awe. What I didn’t expect that en route to Tokyo that we would not head directly across the ocean but take the route north following the coast from Vancouver up to Anchorage. Which a few moments ago I spotted a city below, which I can only assume, was Anchorage.

Back to these mountains. I spent easily half an hour admiring their beauty. All summer and all winter for that fact I try my best to bask in their glory. This view is completely different from anything I have seen before. With their permafrost conditions, the snow sparkled even from 34000 feet. When off in the distance something began to catch my eye. My forehead pressed again the windowsill I saw her in all her beauty. For the first time with my own eyes I could see one of my goals. Denali, it's the pinnacle or North American. Flying past Mount McKinley I thought back about how high she really is. Standing somewhere just over 21000 feet McKinley is the highest point in North America.

Flabbergasted I reached into my bag and whipped out my phone. I say phone because that will be my camera during these adventures. In what seemed to be an eternity it booted up. The sides of my lips hit my ears I was so excited to see this mountain. And snap! Here it is way off in the distance. I am not exactly sure how far McKinley was at this point, but that matters little, it was there. Bouncing back and forth between window and screen of our location I was begging that we would get closer. And we did, but only to be hidden by the unfortunate closing in of clouds and a ding followed by the message “ The pilot has activated the fasten seat belt sign, please return to your seats and ensure your seatbelts are securely fastened.

Whenever I hear this message, whenever that preflight safety speech is being preformed, I think of one of my favourite movies. You got it Fight Club. I can’t help but laugh at the images of smiling people as they put on their oxygen masks or that the much a seatbelt would really save you from a 500 mph impact. Considering hitting a wall at 100 mph is enough to rattle all your nuts loose. This is all meant in a rather amusing tone however. I like to think positive and that kind of stuff will not happen.

After that quick post out of Vancouver, you know that my delay in Calgary made me miss my flight to Hong Kong. So the reroute has sent me to Japan. I am excited, although I won’t be able to set foot on their turf, it is something awesome to experience.

I think in the Vancouver post I wrote about the wrong song. I think I will edit that. As I write this post I am powering through one of my favourite playlists closing my eyes periodically to grab rest and imagine pulling sick lines of some of those mountains. Aha got it. You never know by Heiroglyphics. One of the lyrics is “maneuvering through Vancouver and onto Japan where they put majors grands in my hand” about 3 minutes in.

The post ends with our plane sailing over the Bering strait we are now 1765 miles into our trip. I can’t believe I wrote for 250 miles. According to our little map thing, we have also climbed to 540mph and it’s a frigid -70.6 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Delayed Gratification

A fortunate few I had time to contact will know that my flight was delayed leaving Calgary. This means I have been stuck in Vancouver for about an hour so far. The good news of course. My reroute takes me through Japan. Immediately an old hieroglyphics song I rock every time i go boarding.

Shit gotta run. Unfortuantely I won't get into Singapore until almost 4 am Monday.  Good news is that its only 8pm Sunday night cowtown time.

Will try and post an update from Tokyo. Hopefully with a picture of their airport!