Jazzy!

Jazzy, you say?! What the heck is she going on about? I always find it hard to think of some sort of "jazzy" or catchy title, so why not just title it as it is.

So, Jazzy:
adjective, jazz·i·er, jazz·i·est.
1. Pertaining to or suggestive of jazz music.

2. Informal . active or lively.

3. Informal . fancy or flashy: a jazzy sweater.

Well, I have truly had a "jazzy" end of June/ July on all three levels.

Starting off with the first meaning and first occurrence (end of June) where I thoroughly enjoyed an evening of Trad Jazz out at Mosely Park. Pure mid week after work bliss: sunshine, picnic, Pimms, Lynda/Tracy/Brooke, and some well-groovy-old-school-big-band jazz. It was a mid-week teaser that Tracy found on the Internet, and being able to go to this sort of thing is another reminder to me that I made the right decision this year to work closer to home. The work-life balance is in check! Or maybe more the life-work balance, which is why I came this way.

End of June turned very quickly into another "jazzy" week in July where we went to London for a jam-packed four days of fun... well, in my head it was going to be fun. Not so fun is dragging someone around London when they don't want to be there- lesson learned. Four days of fun= seeing friends, Canada Day in Trafalgar Square, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Regina Spektor at the Royal Albert Hall, and Wimbledon. 

Second lesson learned- don't bring a non-Canadian to a Canada Day event. However, it was nice to see that we can take over The Square and it was really fabulous to see the number of people that turned up to the festivities in an array of hockey jerseys, red and white face paint, flag-capes and various Roots Canada shirts. Next year I will go back with some of my native friends and stay for the bands.

Slightly disappointing was the weather over the four days in London, which literally put a damper on our Wimbledon experience. We were lucky to see Andy Murray in action as his fourth round match was split over two days due to rain and we also saw the start of Agnieszka Radwanska's quarter final match. The grounds are truly impressive and so where the prices on some of the merchandise- £500 for the official Official's Jacket- you know, the navy blue and white trimmed one. Ugh! I really wanted one, as well. 

On the positive side of this summer's London trip- Regina Spektor was truly fantastic, as expected; and, I have put the V&A Museum on my official Must Do List for London. It houses impressive material items like sculptures, tiles, ironworks, furniture, display rooms, period clothing, and casts of some of the world's most detailed and renowned sculptures. 

Getting back from London, I had a team treasure hunt through work where I had to put together a pretty "jazzy" pirate outfit. I bet you can guess who decided to make the work team dress up for their event (hee hee). I really recommend such events for group activities in the future. It was more of an Amazing Race type activity, rather than a treasure hunt; but it was super good fun running around the city centre dressed as a pirate unlocking clues via GPS and accumulating points through different questions and picture challenges.

Continuing on with my jazzy (active and lively) July was my fourth half marathon- it was the third time I raced this particular event, and you might remember the near-disaster I had getting to the race the first time. Well, I would say now that I am a seasoned participant and seem to improve 10 minutes each time I do the race! I am really proud to say I finished with a p.b. of 1:53:38 and I feel that this goes back to getting this life-work balance thing right. 

Running half marathons is a funny thing for me: I see sports people on TV that get emotional (happy tears, fist pumping, celebratory arms in the air...) and have never really understood that feeling or show of emotion. I think "get on with it, it's your job. Surely if you are training, this result is not a surprise". I can never think of a time when I skated where I finished something and an immediate reaction of celebration was made- sure I bawled when I knew I screwed up, but never fist pumping. To me it was like: I've trained for this and a clean skate is normal. End. Or, I've been throwing myself around for a year trying to land a double axel, it's about fricking time I landed it. Where when I finish these races, I have some sort of emotional reaction- I was teary my first time and as I crossed the line after this race, I double fist pumped. I didn't think I was capable of double fist pumping. Maybe I have been watching too much football/soccer. I can say I feel the fittest I have in probably four years- I'm not even "training" per se- it's more that I am able to lead an active life and it contributes to my overall fitness level. Unofficially, I have also met my goal of the year to run 10km in under 50 minutes, as at the 10km marker, my time was 48ish minutes. Now I just need to enter some 10km races to get this to an official time.

July of course is birthday month which is the last bit of fun to report- this year I hosted a Chilli Off to really test who has the best chilli. You know the story- "... I make the best chilli..." oh yeah, is that so? Let us put it to the test. This is my kind of event- a cook off mixed with a bit of Sensory Science: 11 3-digit coded entries + mayhem in the tasting area + a mix up of two numbers + some ranking statistics on a spreadsheet= winners Si and Lou. My Mom's secret recipe officially came fourth (behind a can of Stagg Dynamite Hot Chilli)... I like to think it truly came third. 

The rest of July is to be a lot less "jazzy", but I can say I have some "jazzy" DIY projects to get going on: wedding hairpiece to build (I am going to be learning a new skill with this), cork-board project, and some painting inspiration I have taken from the V&A in London... so watch this space for Arts and Crafts August.

p.s. apologies for the formatting... don't really know what the heck is going on, but I am tired of fighting with the website.