Summer’s here!

I’m loving this HOT weather. I’ve been spending quite abit of time outdoors training for my Olympic tri- running, biking and now open water swimming. Last night I went for a swim at Half Moon Lake (just 20min east of Edmonton) and there was a moose moose-paddling across the lake- how cool is that?

Thanks to some Transport Canada co-workers, biking training has been raised up notch and now I’m doing long distance rides of ~60km/session. My swim training has suffered abit though as I’ve been traveling for work these past few weeks. No worries- I still have until race day (Aug 23rd) to practice!

I recently competed in a Sprint Tri at the Summerside Lake triathlon early this month. It was great fun! The water was a chilly 14 degrees C, but luckily I invested in a full body wetsuit (I have a sleeveless one, but that didn’t cut it). My feet unfortunately were numb from the cold water and biking didn’t help with circulation. So when it came time to run, it was a pretty slow start (I even had my right calf cramp up which never happened before!). Fortunately I didn’t fall too far behind.

[Me in the transition area at the Summerside Lake Tri]

I ended up in 11/39th place in the female category; 6/17th in my age/female category and 33/80th place overall. My co-worker Kevin, placed 3rd in his age category and 11th place overall! I was soooo jealous. It was well-deserved though- he’s pretty well disciplined in his training.

Work’s been busy as well. Since my return from the UK/Germany, I’ve travelled to Charlottetown (PEI), Ottawa, Winnipeg and Yellowknife for meetings, conferences and training. I’m abit tired from traveling…I’ve now got a pile of desk work to sift through- mostly environmental assessment reports to read that are many volumes long (literally)!

[Parliament hill- attended a tour of the center block- went up the "peace tower" (i.e. big ben look alike) and visited the house of commons' public gallery. Unfortunately, no Harper or Iggy.]

[Oldest part of Parliament- the library, built in Victorian Gothic style, and known as the "most beautiful room in Canada". It is also the only part of Parliament that didn't get destroyed by the fire of 1916. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos inside because it would be too disruptive.. but I can tell you first hand, it was absolutely gorgeous inside with its walnut, cherry and oak interior! Check out the photos here on the CBC website-http://www.cbc.ca/sevenwonders/wonder_library_of_parliment.html]

[Locks of the Rideau canal. Famous canal which Ottawatarians skate on to get to work in winter (not through these lock however).]

[More of the beautiful Rideau canal. Spent one morning jogging alongside the canal and Ottawa River which it flows into.]

[A Real Canadian treat- beavertails. Out west, we call them elephant ears. Basically it's a big flat deep fried donut with brown sugar and cinnamon sprinkled on top. Mmmmm, calories!]

[Had a good laugh at this one! During Obama's visit to Ottawa, he came into this bakery and bought one of these "Canadian" cookies. Now the bakery is marketing them as "Obama cookies!". LOL.]

Other than that-I’ve been just hanging out with family and friends. Most Sundays, I help out my parents at the Good Buddy downtown mall kiosk serving Vietnamese food- atleast one of my parents get a break from working. Not sure how they do it, but my legs are so sore from standing all day long!

As most of you know, Tim’s still in the UK awaiting some news on immigration (I applied to sponsor him as a common-law partner). It’s been alittle over a month since we applied- but atlas, there is hope!! I recently received a letter of approval to sponsor today (whoop!). It’s now up to the visa office in London to review the permanent residency portion of the application and determine the validity of our “common-lawness”. Please let it be quick- I miss my Tim Tim!

[My dad and the girls (nieces) on Father's Day. My siblings and I treated my father out to dinner at...Good Buddy (restaurant)! There was no where else he wanted to eat (sadly).]

[My brothers Kiet and Phong, and mum on Father's Day]