Six Months Already?

Hard to believe isn't it? For some of you, I bet you've already gotten used to the fact that I'm not there and have easily moved on - chumps :P Truth is I've gotten over not having some of you here too :p You know, once you're in a routine you kind of forget that other things used to happen in certain situations. But thanks to all those people that send me an email, or facebook, or bebo, or myspace comment me once in a while. It helps me to remember how things were/are continuing :D

Some of the kiwi's comment on the cultural differences between here and home. Sure there are some, but it's not like they are worlds apart. But maybe I have just gotten so used to them and forgotten how it is in NZ, that things seem pretty much all the same. Of course I still correct Americans on their English - rubbish bin, boot of a car, drink bottle, etc., but I don't think the people are that overly different.

In another two months or so, California will take the #2 spot as place I have lived in the longest for. The thing is that it doesn't seem all that long. I guess as I have gotten older time spans just seem to get shorter and shorter. Before I know it my visa will expire and it will be time for me to leave..

Swimming

So last week I had a four day swimming competition out in Clovis, near Fresno. It's like in a very large valley surrounded by hills. It's incredibly obvious when you get there, that it gets very, very hot in summer. Over the course of the week it ranged over 30C-40C of dry heat during the day time!

So onto the swimming, I managed to do my best times of the year, and few life time personal bests while swimming freestyle in the 4x100m and 4x200m relays. I was a little off making the final in the 100m Breaststroke, but was quite close to my lifetime PB, which I was happy with, considering my training has been a lot different to what it was when I did that time, i.e. I think my training was a little easy compared with then. However the difference in training certainly showed in the 200m Breaststroke where I was about five seconds off my lifetime best. So I had the speed, but not the endurance..

Cool thing about the trip was that my team is sponsored by TYR. So I got some new racing shorts, cap, t-shirt and track suit all gratis! I think the TYR track suit jacket in particular is a nice piece of fashion ;)

A quiet weekend

So gearing up for my swimming competition this week, I had a relatively quiet weekend. I prepared my legs, stretched, saw transformers (a good movie I thought), bought some shorts and swam (of course).

Transformers was a rekindling of long forgotten memories of when I used to watch transformers (I remember having one toy). However this version was enjoyable, not quite true to the cartoon series, but using the words of the little kid sitting next to me at the movies "Wow! That's so cool!" :D

Oh I also got to play with the iPhone. The interface is pretty cool, and it looks really nice, however it doesn't really satisfy as a phone all too well. I wasn't able to confirm the things that were said as I didn't have too long with the phone, however I spent long enough to say that I don't need a toy like this yet. It needs to be more phone functional..

It Rained!

So after the most overcast day in a while, moisture finally fell from the sky last night. This would be the first time in months, well to my recollection about 2-3 months since there was anything like rain. However as with the rain here, it didn't pour down or rain rain, it was just a very light sprinkle. So my dusty car now has splotches, rather than being washed as I hoped it would be..

Disneyland

So last weekend was a trip to Disneyland - The Happiest Place on Earth apparently. I went down with Ms H. (pronounced haych) and her friends from college. The drive to LA takes about five hours, however I wasn't driving so I was able to sleep for the most part. However what must be said about the main big motorways here is that they are very very straight and usually the only thing you have to watch for is for other traffic. So really Im glad I wasn't driving, it would have been pretty boring otherwise..

We were staying at O's place, as he lives down in LA. Which was great as it meant that we didn't have to fork out for accommodation :D We got there pretty late, after stopping off for dinner at the world's slowest Carl's Junior (a Burger King like place). We might as well just had sat down at a restaurant, because the food wasn't very fast at all..

Since I have the skills we got nicely discounted park hopper tickets. Park hopper you may ask? Well they built another theme park next to Disneyland - California Adventure. It's more of a thrill park with more intense rides - however they are still very tame, like the roller-coaster. It did a loop, went highish, spun round, etc., but maybe it just takes a lot more to scare/excite me these days..

We stayed at least twelve hours at the Disney site. Sure this meant that when we got hungry we gave into the exorbitant food prices and minuscule portions.. anyway the day was quite fun, getting wet, getting fooled by the optical illusions on the Indiana Jones ride, having a laugh on the rides, etc.. The only thing that bothered me was not having comfortable enough shoes. Getting one pretty soaked didn't help, but it didn't spoil my day :) I think I also had my Disneyland fill for the next couple years so hopefully by that time the finding nemo ride wont have a two+ hour wait so I can actually go on it..

Being Sick :'(

So thankfully on the Monday following the swim meet, I got sick. Namely a fever like I haven't had in years, along with feeling like crap.. However it took me a while to reach the conclusion that I shouldn't be working. This was done after realising that jumping into a hot car (30C+) with trackies, tshirt, sweater and hoodie on and NOT sweating or feeling the heat at all, was probably a sign that something was wrong with me.

For those that don't know they have different medicine here in the states.. Namely paracetamol is called by another name - acetaminophen. So after I had figured that out and managed to explain what I wanted I finally found relief..

So today I have no temperature, but am still not 100%, which should hopefully come round by tomorrow..

Santa Clara International

So last weekend starting on Friday I participated in the Santa Clara International swim meet. To those who don't know, this is part of a grand prix swimming circuit here in the states, and this particular meet also attracts some big names in international swimming. World record holders like Phelps (pictured below), Jones, Hansen (pictured above), world champions, other Olympic medallists (think Sth African freestylers) and of course myself hehe..

As for my results I swam fastest I have all year, which is good. So I am on track to beat my PBs in a couple weeks when we really start to taper..

Since I didn't make finals I came into watch them instead. Michael Phelps makes everything look easy. His splits are very even, i.e. when everybody's first 50m is two seconds faster than their second 50m, his splits almost even! In the 100m Backstroke final his last 50m was faster than his first - amazing! Anyway I managed to get a photo with Phelps, as well as his autograph :D

I did also literally rub shoulders with with another world record holder and Olympic gold medallist Leisel Jones. It was warm-up on Friday morning, I was waiting for some space at the end of the lane, then other people join me and it gets a bit cramped. I then realise that the person next to me is infact Leiesl Jones.. hehe