Today was a strange day in Sydney. It started out all grey and cold and rainy, but then the clouds cleared and out came the summer-strength sun. Crazy.
Most Mondays, I pick up some of my nieces from school – we pal around, have a nice afternoon tea, talk about our day, do homework (theirs, not mine) and help to make the family’s dinner. It’s one of the highlights of my week and I’m super lucky to have this time with them – while they’re still young enough to think that I’m relatively cool.
Anyways, these last few Mondays we’ve been on a mission. 7-Eleven is having a 13 week Slurpee promotion leading into summer. We’ve taken this as a 13 week challenge – there’s a different flavour of Slurpee each week. We missed the first week (Sour Watermelon) and last week, the machine was busted (Strawberry Citron, so nobody was too upset) and today was Vanilla Cola. Good times. I asked the man if he could let us in on the secret of next week’s flavour, but he said that he’d have to look it up on the system…and then turned away and smiled vaguely into the middle distance…
The Slurpee BaristaEven a cold, rainy day doesn’t stop us. Just pull your school jumper sleeves into Slurpee holders.Afternoon tea. All natural colours and flavours…
I’d never heard of the Color Run until my friend Anne asked if I’d like to join her team – when I checked it out online, I saw that it looks bizarre, crazy, colourful, fun and very very very different to a normal fun run. So, of course I’m in. They call the Color Run (American spelling – it’s really bugging me not to write ‘colour’, believe me) ‘the happiest 5k on the planet’.
According to the organisers, there are really only two simple rules: (1) you have to start the run in white shirts and (2) you have to finish the run covered in colour. I love their big picture explanation: “Runner/walkers begin the 5k at the start line like a brand new pristine coloring book. By the end, they look like they fell into a Willy Wonka… tie dyed… vat of colored goodness. We are the creators of an all new paint race phenomena!” Of course, they had me at Willy Wonka.
So, how does it work? Apparently, “each kilometer of the event is associated with a designated color: yellow, orange, pink, or blue. As the runners/walkers reach the Kilometer COLOR RUN Zones, they are blitzed by our volunteers, sponsors, and staff with COLOR. All products are 100% natural and safe. You can eat the stuff if you’d like (we have tried it and don’t suggest it, it is surprisingly high in calories and leaves a chalky aftertaste). Of course, we save the best for last, ending the race with a color extravaganza of epic proportions.”
Basically, you run 5km and every km, people jump out and shoot or throw coloured powder all over you. This is the first time the run has come to Australia, after being rolled out across the USA. The first Australian Color Run is in Melbourne in November and we get our turn in Sydney in February. I’ve registered and, by the looks of the peeps in this promo video, better make sure I don’t have any appointments for the rest of the day…Let me know if you’re in Sydney and want to join in the colourful fun!
I mentioned a little a while ago that I bought some ridiculously bright pink running shoes in an attempt to run faster. After a reasonable testing period, I am thinking of writing to the manufacturer to tell them that THEIR SHOES AREN’T WORKING PROPERLY.
As a bit of background, I am not what you’d call a natural athlete. It is not a genetic gift with which the children in my family were blessed. I mean, you know, we can all walk without bumping into stuff, but we weren’t really runners or netballers or footballers or gymnasts or swimmers. My younger brother and I were t-ball players (and I don’t even know if that version of junior baseball exists anymore) and I played volleyball and a teeny bit of tennis in high school. Where the coach was the same creepy old dude that had coached my mother when she attended the same school some decades earlier, so it wasn’t exactly Wimbledon.
The Bay Run, Canada Bay in Sydney. [Image from NSW Govt Planning & Infrastructure]Anyways, a few years ago I started to run a bit because it seemed like the thing to do. I felt like I was still too young and too dog-less to be going for walks, and running always looked pretty cool. When I watched other people doing it, that is. I was running a few times a week for a while there (the Bay Run in Sydney was my stomping / slumping ground) and my fitness improved and I remember feeling fairly self-righteous after I exercised. But then I fell off the wagon. And the cruel thing about a long break in exercise is that it’s not like riding a bike – your body (well, at least, my body) doesn’t pick up right where it left off and say, ‘oh yeah, we’re running again – I remember this, let’s go’. Not even close.
Path to Mosman Bay. [Image from Sydney Diary Star]So now I’m starting again. Along a beautiful track, with my new shoes, the Pinkies, for motivation. And since I’m a bit older, I don’t want to risk getting injured or collapsing on the side of the road, so I’m following a training program called Couch to 10k. I had started with a Couch to 5k program a few years ago and I liked the gradual increase in intervals, so that the running kind of snuck up on you. And I also liked the way they encouraged you to take a day off every other day.
I found an app called 10K for Pink – it’s a free app that someone somewhere had recommended and it’s pretty good – I’m up to Week 6 of the 14 week program now. It’s great because I can just concentrate on breathing while I play my music and a lady in an upbeat voice interrupts at intervals to tell me what to do – “start running”, “start walking”, “you have one minute left” and my favourite: “start your cool down”.
If the Pinkies aren’t exactly making me faster, at least they’re super-light, which must surely mean that it’s a little easier to lift my feet. And it also means that I have no excuses when I go on a couple of trips later this year – the Pinkies will be coming with me, tucked into my suitcase and ready to run in the northern hemisphere. Since the first trip is in a few weeks, I thought I should introduce the Pinkies as (a) it will help to keep me running, now that you know and (b) they may post from their travels if they run across any everyday sparks. And if you’re thinking of running, you can check out the Couch to 10k program that I’m using here. It did seem like a good idea at the time!
I was recently talking with my lovely friend B about how I think I am suffering from some disorder that means I can’t keep track of time. B’s a med student, so he kindly considered my rambling description of forgetting or confusing birthdays, due dates, holiday departures and other calendar events and timeframes. Then B distracted me by asking about tv shows and, given that I also suffer from a short attention span, that was the end of that consultation.
Now, I’m not sure if it’s ironic or coincidental or just a sign of my advancing calendar-itis, but I’ve just realised that the Hope 2012 blog relay was due to end on Monday. And I haven’t run my leg of the relay yet. Not wanting to let down the lovely Jo, of the fabulous This Sydney Life, who passed the relay baton to me, I’m going to run it today. As a bit of background, the relay was started by blogger Melanie Crutchfield, inspired by all things Olympic. Melanie decided to blog about hope and then pass the baton to some blogging buddies, who would in turn blog on the same theme and then pass the baton along. A pretty cool way to spread words and ideas about hope around the blogging world.
Hope Necklace by Chic & Sweet on etsy
So, with that ridiculous amount of build-up, I now need to write a little something about hope. My first port of call for inspiration is, as always, etsy. Turns out you can buy Hope jewellery, bookmarks, iphone covers, t-shirts, prints, prayer books – etsy is a veritable hotbed of Hope.
And then I looked through the Camera Roll on my phone – lots of different people and places captured over the past year (or so). Lots of Hope there too. Hope for sunny weather, hope for bright futures for amazing little people, hope for safe travels, hope for new directions. So, I’ve picked my top few photos that say something about Hope to me. (This is likely to be sappier than my usual posts, but please be assured that normal EverydaySparks programming will resume shortly.)
Last Thursday I flew across the country to see some of my family, who live in the West. I was very excited to see them and it was such a beautiful day that I couldn’t help snapping a pic as we headed towards our landing in Perth. And then the thought crossed my mind: it’s actually pretty amazing that flying has become so humdrum – we just jump in a giant metal bird and fly up beyond the clouds til we reach our destination. No big deal anymore. Except it is a big deal – and it’s kind of the ultimate in hope – we’re totally reliant on a bunch of random strangers (engineers, pilots, service staff) doing their jobs well so that we travel safely. Up in the sky, past the clouds and the birds.
And here’s the EverydaySparks herb garden. Except I fear that this ‘garden’ needs not just hope, but faith and charity as well. The seeds (coriander, parsley, basil) were planted last month and some strange things have been happening in these pots. But I have hope that what looks like a mess of weeds will soon somehow magically start looking like the herbs that I buy from the shops. I’ll keep you posted…
Then there’s my home town of Sydney – full of hope and promise, especially on a sunny day. Sometimes I forget how lucky I am to be here – as I whinge about a late running ferry, or a slow barista, or the traffic. Waa waa waa. And then some days, I catch a view like this one and stop for a minute (ok, probably fifteen seconds) to try and take it in. And I hope that people who are visiting the city are having a great time; and that people who dream of being here will make it; and that we won’t do anything to mess up the beauty of it all. (Ok, and I also hope that the ferry will be on time and my coffee will be made quickly. I’m not Buddha.)
And last, but most definitely not least, a photo of the shoes of some of my most favourite people (with one small shoe missing – the teeniest feet were too little to stand in this pic). I know I’m a biased aunt, but the kids who stand in these shoes are just amazing – funny, smart, thoughtful, quirky, silly and sweet. They are soccer players, netballers, tennis players, fashionistas, dancers, cellists, wrestlers, pianists, drummers, and singers. They have ambitions of being doctors, vets, pet shop owners, acrobats, chefs, face painters, fairies, waitresses and teachers. For me, these peeps are what Hope is all about. (Granted, sometimes, it’s just hoping they’ll be quiet or go to sleep.)
And with that, I collapse at the finish line. That’s my part of the relay run. I hope I wasn’t too late!
I’m excited. I love a good Festival and am proud to say that in Sydney, we’ve become pretty reliable as awesome Festival-runners. I say ‘we’ using the royal plural, of course, as I do nothing more than buy some tickets from time to time and turn up to be entertained by super-talented people. So last weekend when I was at the Opera House with my mum seeing The Pearlfishers (one of my all-time favourites – sooo beautiful), I noticed a collection of newspaper-like ads for an upcoming festival. The Festival of Dangerous Ideas. It’s on at the Opera House from 28-30 September and the topics are thought-provoking, to say the least. “Have an opinion” is the request / demand of the curators, although if you don’t yet have one – am sure there will be plenty on offer for you to borrow.
Among the heavy hitting topics is The Devil is Real, featuring a Catholic priest (Fr Julian Porteous) talking about what it might mean if the Devil is real – “an active presence who moves among us every day”. Not sure if he is referring to the bus driver who sees you running down the street and drives off anyway, or the bank teller who ignores you in the queue and pretends to count a stack of envelopes and rearrange their pens, or noisy teenagers lounging around the shopping mall. But if he has suggestions on how to deal with those everyday devils, it could be worth checking out…
Then there’s the topic guaranteed to set HR professionals’ hearts a-flutter: My Workplace is a Cult. The speakers are a journalist and the Creative Director of Google’s Creative Lab in Sydney. Make of that what you will. They ask: “Are you expected to devote inordinate amounts of time and energy to your work? Do you spend more time with your work colleagues than anyone else? Has your work taken over your life?” I’m guessing that most people would nod along in agreement, so I’m intrigued to hear the proposed solutions to “set us free”.
I’ve interviewed with a few cult workplaces in my time – #1 was a firm that I’ll call Flandersen Consulting, which has since morphed into a different organisation (and perhaps that says a lot), back when I was a fresh uni graduate. They even took 50 of us from around the country (and a few from NZ) to a beachside ‘conference’ where they convinced us we were Leaders Of The Future, who should undoubtedly join their firm. To harness our combined super powers, I guess. It’s a memory that’s seared in my brain – after I asked some frank 20 year old kinda questions (I’m sure they weren’t actually that confronting) in one formal interview, the next meeting I had with them began with the very senior female interviewer picking a post-it from my file as if it were gum on her high heeled shoe and saying slowly, I understand that you have some concerns with the Andersen lifestyle. Uh huh. That was probably a sign that it wasn’t for me – well, that and two other things: every time I visited, the firm’s elevators were full of eerily similar looking Barbies and Kens in conservative navy or grey suits; and a selling point was that they often worked ’til midnight, but at 9.30pm, someone would say, “hey, let’s order pizzas”. And they would. Crazy kids.
Anyways, back to the Festival. Bono & Bob – Get Out of Africa features award-winning British comedy writer, journalist and author, Jane Bussmann. Jane claims that “mainstream media is burnt out by “Bono and Geldof’s Poverty Industry”, which deliberately painted Africa as depressing for two decades to line its own pockets.” And as far as I can see, this is the point of the Festival – to throw ideas out there for you to consider, poke you out of your comfort zone and challenge what you thought you knew to be true. All in an hour-long presentation. Sounds good to me!
There are also some delicately titled panel discussions: All Australians areRacists; Children are Not Inncoent; Abolish Private Schools; All Women Hate Each Other. And the closing event of the Festival sees the panel of experts solving all of the world’s problems in an hour. Technically, that particular show goes for 1 hour and 15 minutes, but I’m sure that doesn’t sound as cool in the title.
If you’d like to find out more about the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, you can check out the Sydney Opera House website here. They’re also on Twitter and Facebook, so you can join in the fun from wherever you are.
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