Hump Day!

Urban Dictionary  - Hump Day

"The middle of a work week (Wednesday); used in the context of climbing a proverbial hill to get through a tough week."

To help us all get through the week I thought it would be nice to celebrate hump day with a little something every Wednesday to help us smile through the pain that is the grind stone of life with a funny picture/cartoon, video, interesting invention/gadget etc to help us see the good in our week.

 ________________________________________________________________________

Zumba by "Zits".

I celebrate the fact that I get to go to Zumba every Tuesday at my local gym. Zumba in a nutshell is a fitness class aimed mainly at women (and gay Latino men I bet), using music and choreographed dances moves reminicent of a Ricky Martin meets Beyonce music video. So theres lots of remixed Latin, RnB, Soul, Pop, Ethnic music going on with moves that involve a lot of hip thrusting and boob jiggling. 

I realise that I look incredibly silly during these classes and it took me a good solid three weeks to not blush over the (however uncoordinated) sexualised danced moves that I was doing in public, then by the 4th week I noticed I had lost 5 kilo's from doing no diet or gym regimen other than Zumba, so I decided to keep at it.  

Yes I look silly, and yes I bet my husband would laugh til he wet his pants if he saw me, but you know what? Its FUN!! And unlike a Step or Pump or Spinning class that leaves a slightly overweight person like myself comatose for two days afterward, Zumba leaves you pleasantly tired but not horribly depleted and aching, so long as you don't push yourself too much at first.

So if you're having a hard week, go find a gym or community centre and try out a free first time zumba class! Pull down the iron wall you keep up around yourself during the week, and be silly with 10 other women who look just as silly as you do! You'll feel great afterwards. 

Trust me.

Weekend Starter

Heres a song to kick off the weekend by a Kiwi band called Zed who incidentally are from my hometown Christchurch and started at Cashmere Highschool. The album Silencer was released in New Zealand in 2000 and achieved Triple Platinum status and the song Renegade Fighter was the number one song of that year. They have other good songs as well that I encourage you to check out on youtube - Starlight, Glorafilia, 

Oh Daisy, She glows, Come on down, Hard to find her, Drivers Side.

Sadly they never made it past their second album "This Little Empire" which did pretty good as well within NZ but everyone knows NZ is not exactly the world stage of music careers, the US is. I don't know if they ever tried to enter the US or UK market, if they did they obviously failed up against huge competition from other garage start up bands. Though a word of note you may recognise someone familiar from their song 'Starlight.' Regardless of that, there are very few New Zealanders who don't think of Zed and their songs fondly and thanks to Rebel Sport ads that keep reminding us of them :D

Renegade Fighter - Zed

Weekend Starter

Ive decided that in celebration of this great invention called the weekend I will start putting video clips of songs every Friday to kick off the weekend. Some will be bands and artists from New Zealand which I feel the world has a right to hear but don't often get a chance or have no idea who they are or whether or not they're Kiwi in the first place. And other clips will be any other artist or band that take my fancy whose music I feel is encouraging or thought provoking...

This first song is by NZ band called Six60 called "Don't forget your roots." In the video my college town Dunedin is shown with all its assets - Otago University, Castle St, gross student flats (houses) and of course those lovely Scarfie students. Ahh the memories.. Not to mention the lead singer has a fantastic voice. Check out their other tracks on youtube/itunes. They have a similar reggae/electronic sound to The Black Seeds, Katchafire, Salmonella Dub and Fat Freddys Drop.

Enjoy!

Grouse Mountain

For more information on Grouse Mountain and its winter and summer activities, click here

Grouse Mountain is one of the North Shore Mountains of the Pacific Ranges in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Approximately 1,200m high, it is a well used and known ski area with chairlifts and 26 ski runs in winter and in the summer showcases lumberjack shows, a wildlife sancuary, First Nations led education programs and the notorious and formidable 'Grouse Grind' hike trail nicknamed Mother Natures stairmaster.

View of Vancouver from Grouse Mountain

Pictures taken on July 1st 2013

This trip was planned by my husband Steven as a present and celebration of our second wedding anniversary :D

View out towards West Vancouver

Stanley Park and Lionsgate Bridge

View towards Mt Baker in Washington State

Grinder and Coola - Resident Grizzlies

(excerpts and profile pictures taken from grousemountain.com)

"Grinder was found in 2001 in Invermere, BC. He was wandering alone on a logging road, dehydrated, thin, weak and weighing only 4.5 kg. His mother was never found so we’ll probably never know why he was alone. Grinder is outgoing and high-spirited. And he has established himself as the dominant bear despite his smaller size. If you see Grinder and Coola play fighting, you can bet he started it."

 

"In 2001, Coola was found orphaned on a highway near Bella Coola, BC. His mother had been killed by a truck and, of her three cubs, Coola was the only one to survive. Coola is an easygoing bear who’s content to let Grinder take the lead in new discoveries. He can usually be found submerged up to his neck in the large pond, carefully feeling around for his underwater 'bath toys' - a log, large bone and favourite rock."

My pictures

Birds of Prey

North American Red Tailed Hawk (I think lol)

Turkey Vulture - Natures rubbish dump collectors

Spotted Owl - Only 12 left in the world

Peregrine Falcon - Fastest Bird

Baby Bald Eagle - So cute and so ugly at the same time hahaha

Baby Falcon

Chainsaw wood carvings in and around Grouse Mountain