Year Two Day One Hundred and Eighty Nine - Myers - Briggs Personality Test

Dear all, 

Today, I decided to find out more about myself, and I took a personality test! Darren suggested the Myers-Briggs personality test ( apparently it's v famous and very accurate), so I did a quick google search and within seconds I was filling out (what seemed like) a million micro questions. http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp

Questions like: 

Do you like finding the solution or prefer the 'journey' to get to the solution.. (?? the solution ??... i guess)

Do you prefer to stand at the edge of parties or stay in the middle of the crowd (middle of the crowd)

Do you do jobs in a hurray ( yes *and* no... but you can't say that... so no)

etc etc

And after I answered all the questions, they coughed out my personality profile! I am an ENFJ. wooopeeee!

ENFJ

Extravert(56%)  iNtuitive(62%)  iNtuitive  Feeling(50%)  Judging(44%)

• You have moderate preference of Extraversion over Introversion (56%)

• You have distinctive preference of Intuition over Sensing (62%)

• You have moderate preference of Feeling over Thinking (50%)

• You have moderate preference of Judging over Perceiving (44%)

Along with fellow ENFJs

• Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States

• Pope John Paul II

• Nick Nolte, an American actor

• Tony Blair, the Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1997 to 2007

• Katharine Graham, the publisher of the Washington Post

Apparently, my best career choices would be:

1. counselling *hmm, yep, I can see that*

2. psychology *isn't that the same as 1? so yes, good selection*

3. education *oh gosh, 2 years teaching in Japan was plenty*

4, computer programmer *yikes*

5. science [technical] *shudder*

6. politics *NO*

7. management *shrugs and with a sigh says 'yes I know'*

8. Physician *shriek* 

This is me....:

ENFJs are the benevolent 'pedagogues' of humanity. They have tremendous charisma by which many are drawn into their nurturant tutelage and/or grand schemes. Many ENFJs have tremendous power to manipulate others with their phenomenal interpersonal skills and unique salesmanship. But it's usually not meant as manipulation -- ENFJs generally believe in their dreams, and see themselves as helpers and enablers, which they usually are.

It's pretty interesting really....they send you a massive breakdown of your personality and it was 'fairly' accurate. I guess you can read into it what you want...... but it's still quite a chuckle.


I would highly recommend ( Darren reckons I am getting obsessed with doing personality tests haha). 

And in other news:

1. Check out little Dan.... A D O R A B L E

Year Two Day One Hundred and Eighty Seven - Harbour Fish Bar

Dear all, 

Today, Darren and I decided to try a new restaurant in town, The Harbour Street Fish Bar in Cranberry Mews. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Harbour-Street-Fish-Bar/153956264726267

We weren't sure what a 'fish bar' actually meant, was it a 'bar serving fish? a 'restaurant serving fish? a fish and chip shop?? what was this place? Turns out, it was a fairly medium-high end fish restaurant serving things like bacon wrapped scallops and breaded catfish ( ie not a fish and chip shop). 

We started out with the breaded, filo covered prawns (amazing) and I had the catfish with fries and coleslaw  (amazing). And the paper in the photos is 'fake' newspaper - very chic. Darren also had the Catfish ( but in a chic sandwich form). 

It was delicious, very busy ( for early in the week) and definitely worth a visit. Not too pricey either!

Year Two Day One Hundred and Eighty Six - Trail Run

Dear all, 

Today I tried 'Trail running!. The georgian triangle running club is in full swing, and today we meet up at 'three stage' on Blue mountain to run 'through the forest'! http://www.georgiantrianglerunningclub.org/

Karla and I managed to find 'a' car park'.. however all all quickly realized it wasn't the correct car park as there was only one other runner, Darryl waiting. Needless to say, we decided to charge on regardless and see if we could find the other 'somewhere' on the trail. 

It was amazing! The weather was perfect and I felt like Katniss from the Hunger Games bolting through the forest on completely secluded trails. I didn't manage to take many photos in the bush as it demanded a huge amount of concentration to move one step in front of the other quickly... 

......In fact... it turns out that I am not a particularly good trail runner... I fell THREE TIMES! Gaaaaaa. Here I am icing my hand!!!

But I really enjoyed it and would highly recommend people to come out and join the club -whether beginners or advanced runners, there is something for everyone!

And in other news:

1. Here is my latest '6 degrees of separation' project... 2 done, 4 to go! Each taking inspiration from the last!

Year Two Day One Hundred and Eighty Five - First Swim of 2012

Dear all, 

Today we travelled up to the cottage, hurray! We wanted to get the dock installed as we are now firmly into summer. 

It didn't take long at all, after paddling the floating dock in place, Darren managed to screw everything together while I held the floating dock in place ( I don't have photos of this stage - I was holding oars and anchors and such things)

It didn't take long at all: the dock is in!

It would be wrong not to test out the water... I have a video of my first swim of 2012... but am experiencing problems with the formatting... I'll endeavour to get it uploaded soon1

Hurray, it's summer at the cottage! 

And in other news:

1. Practising my flower photography...

2. We stopped off at The Firehouse for a lovely snack and chat with the fabulous Anita http://www.firehouseresort.com/

Check out our Chicken Sandwich and Bean & Feta wrap *yum*.

It was such a gorgeous afternoon.. 

 

and there is always time for a lovely cold ale too... http://www.muskokabrewery.com/

Year Two Day One Hundred and Eighty Four - Exercise Roller

Dear all. 

I am still hurting from the half marathon on Sundy so, after high recommendation from several people including lovely Karla, I have purchased a foam roller! It's *much* cheaper than a weekly massage ( after the half marathon, the lovely lady massaging my legs asked me how 'often' I received physio and/or massages and I said... 'uhhhhh, never?' Apparently my legs are in a dreadful state. Well I could have told you that!). 

Anyway, the roller is a new innovation that softens and massages the muscles, helping to prevent tears and abrasions. My legs were one big abrasion after the mara so i was desperate to find a short and long term solution ( and be able to walk downstairs again). Here are some more tips: It can be used for all sorts of things! http://www.livestrong.com/article/512029-how-to-roll-out-sore-muscles/

Here I am working on my quads.. I am bascially rolling the roller backwards and forwards on my quads, using my arms.

 And here I am working on my calves... VERY sore to begin with but getting SO much better with daily reps.

 It's literally fantastic - I am delighted and hoping with yoga and the roller, I can banish all my injuries and run stronger and faster, hurray!

And in other news:

1. I have re-vamped one of my abstracts.. I am much happier with it now!

Year Two Day One Hundred and Eighty Three - Buffalo Burgers

Dear all, 

Today, we were able to experiment with some of our wonderful purchases from Nicholyn Farms http://www.nicholyn.com/ so tonight for dinner we had Buffalo burgers!

Buffalo meat is known to be very lean although the burgers themselves looked like 'normal' burgers. Darren cranked up the BBQ  (it's waaaay too hot to have the oven on inside) and we got he burgers ready. 

And here you can see the fresh kaiser rolls (also from Nicholyn Farms and SO squishy)  getting a quick blast from the grill. 

 Hee hee - D concentrating!

And the burgers are nearly ready! 

Delicious! They were so tasty, juicy and lean - I would highly recommend!

Year Two Day One Hundred and Eighty Two - Nicholyn Farms

Dear all,

Today we 'attempted' to meet an electrician at the cottage **see below, and on our [early] return, we popped into Nicholyn farms, a farmers market loved by so many, we had to check out why....

http://www.nicholyn.com/

Nicolyn Farms is literally immaculate - they had even just re-paved the front of the main building ( we could smell the asphalt and not just because it was 34oC). The fields surrounding the farm are beautifully maintained, they have solar power panels everywhere, it's fantastic. And inside was even better... 

It is FABULOUS! Massive, clean, well organised, full of scrumptious organic food and cool (very relevant today). We picked up some mange-tout peas, rolls, buffalo burgers and buffalo steaks - YUM! I'll keep everyone posted on our unusual purchases... BUT in the meantime, if you ever find yourself on Horseshoe Valley Road, I would highly recommend a visit!

And in other news:

1. The official photo from the half mara!

2. It's a long story... but when we arrived at the landing today, the boat didn't start! The battery was dead *sob*. The electrician (we had arranged to meet) was so resourceful, he pulled the battery 'out of his own car' to see if that would work. It didn't... *wail*. Ahhhh well, good excuse to go up again later in the week. BTW - here is D carrying the Electrician's battery down to the boat.

Year Two Day One Hundred and Eighty One - Turtle in the Park

Dear all, 

LOOK what I ran past this morning in memorial park, two Turtles!! They were heavily disguised in the earth, presumably trying to keep cool? 

I only managed to catch a glimpse of the first one, by chance, as he raised his head slightly as I ran past. I only noticed the second one 5 minutes later after close observation of the first. 

Isn't he cute? Also very large. 

 I am not sure what they were up to, but they were both emerging from the area beneath one of the small bridges in the park ( next to the sign alerting everyone to poisonous wild parsnip ironically).

And here he is again - such a handsome fellow!

And in other news:

1. And now over to another little cutie..

Year Two Day One Hundred and Eighty - The Barrie Half Marathon

Dear all

Today was an EPIC day: Karla and I were competing the Barrie Half Marathon! The weather was perfect - not too hot with a sprinkling of rain to cool the air..... when we arrived at 7:30am - things were already starting to get busy at the start (and finish) City Hall. 

Here we are pre-race... just off to collect our kit and time-chip. 

And here we are at the start... starting to get nervous.. 

There were hundreds of people running and I was unsure how I would do ( 21km is far), but my little I-shuffle was full of tunes and all you can do, is hope for the best.

And we're off! I felt great, I immediately tagged behind the 1hr:30minute pacer, he seemed to know what he was doing. 

I was feeling good... but my goodness this was a tough course. I hadn't actually run a half marathon in a few years so was a little out of my depth.. and the course turned out to be VERY hilly. Although I (weirdly) like hills ( good opportunity to run past people), I was not quite mentally prepared for the frequency and gradient that we encountered... nevertheless, I battled on and and only counted a couple of girls ahead of me after we turned back on ourselves at the half way point. 

What made this race even more interesting, is that half the field were running the Half mara 'as a relay'!!!! So after 10km, this (really fast guy) in front of me, dropped out and was replaced by a another (really fast) guy! Why didn't we think of that!

Anyway, at 17km, I went into tunnel vision due to the hitting of 'the wall' (nasty) and literally sprinted towards the finish. I did this *thinking* there were no more hills... 

But look at the final stretch up to the finish line - a flipping MASSIVE hill. Yuk. I *fell* over the finishing line, and preceded to nearly barf over two stewards. I didn't fortunately. A nice man escorted me over to a nice white tent where a nice lady called Melinda gave me a banana and a massage. 

I am still yet to confirm my time - I am thinking around 1hr 35 mins ( I was too delirious to check), and certainly first lady in my age group, maybe 4th overall? Not sure (due to relay entrants). Karla also did brilliantly! She beat her PB and got under 2hrs!!!!! 1hr 59 hurray!!!!

 It was awesome and now I am exhausted!!!! Karla and I went straight to the spa for a gorgeous afternoon relax *bliss*. Thank you Jay for coming out to support us too ( Darren would have come but the 5:30am start was a little too early!). We did it!

And in other news:

The wonderful Dam Pub in Thorbury was on TV!

http://www.foodnetwork.ca/ontv/shows/you-gotta-eat-here/episode.html?titleid=265117&episodeid=265117