XMAS

Stomach flu
...starting Tue nite. Threw up all my supper I think... then diarhhea every 2 hrs or so. I think it's because I used the knife that was used several hrs before or there's something wrong with the chicken cold cut.
The next day, have trouble walking and going downstairs. Almost didn't have enuf energy to walk towards the doctor's office when my mom dropped me off.
Doctor said it's stomach flu, told me to stay home 2-3 days.
So Tue, I slept for most of the day. Got so hungry during lunch cuz I only had a small box of apple juice for breakfast (which my doc said I shouldn't have since it's bad for diarrhea she said altho I donno y). Thought I was gonna die cuz I thought no one was home and I didn't have enuf energy to bring the stuffs out from the fridge to microwave. Luckily my sis was at home preparing for her interview.
Wed, no more diarrhea but that's because I didn't eat much on Tue. The whole day I only had apple juice, 1 sausage, 1/2 small bowl of congee. So lightheaded when I woke up, so decided to stay home.
Ate a lil more on Thurs, had a piece of pecan butter cookie in the morning. For lunch, had sausage, a bowl of congee, a lil dim sum leftovers. For supper, had only a slice of orange juice and grapefruit. Then I found out that I still had diarrhea.
Fri, felt that I could've gone to work but still very tired and had to help John open doors. Almost couldn't do it, but I'm gaining a lil more energy as time goes by.
Tim came to help us move, such a nice guy. We had lunch at Happy Days afterwards. It was ok. I had beef congee. I wanted to have fried egg and ham sandwich but I was afraid that I would have trouble with digesting the fat.
For supper, had xmas dinner at home with family and John. We had yummy spaghetti and turkey. I made the apple/mandarin orange/lettuce salad. We all had a great time.

Xmas dinner
Went to John's parents place for Xmas dinner. It was SO NICE. Turkey again but with very nice homemade cranberry sauce. Nice salad, pickles, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes with gravy. I had a lil too much for my recently "shrinked" guts. It was so nice tho I couldn't resist the dessert. Pie with rasin and figs inside, topped with homemade rum/butter/icing sugar cream sauce. Yum yum yum. Her mom told me that it's about 1/2 cup of butter, 1/2 cup of sugar, and 2 Tbsp of rum. Mixed them and let them sit over nite. I wanted to make my own someday but I'm kinda afraid that I'd end up eating lots of butter.

Boxing day
Went to church, had lunch at home, then went shopping for only 3 hrs. Didn't buy too much, line up in many stores. Then saw "A Series of Unfortunate event". It's ok. I like Violet's dress and their auntie reminds me of my dad. Then had turkey pasta for supper and cookie and Guylian chocolate, and Mr. Big (just a lil). We saw "Ted, the Bunny" DVD. It's ok, funny at times. I don't like puppets tho, no offense.

Short trip
Very sunny on Mon. Did my running then went to Bellis Fair with John. He did the driving and we didn't get insurance. It's smaller than I expected, and not a lot of boutique. A lot more department store tho. There was no boxing day sale. So weird, we have a whole week of boxing day sale here. But, I did get sth from Victoria's Secret. John didn't had to return the whiskey from duty free since we didn't stay there for more than 48 hrs. It's so confusing.... I'd thought duty free is duty free no matter what. Oh well... Then went to Rogers and rented "Elf" and "Napolean Dynamite". "Elf" is very good and very funny. The other one is lame lame lame. John and I finished almost all the leftovers in the fridge.

Last day of holiday
Did my running then went shopping. Didn't buy too much again. I saw very very nice dress shirt in MEXX but again no size. It was such a good deal tho, only 19.99 for a shirt, normally it's like at least 60bux. Wanted to buy new running shoes, and again no size... and the sales stinks there wanted to get out as fast as possible. Then went to Aberdeen Center, there were sales there too but nothing caught my eyes. Got yummy veggie pork wonton in the food court. It's SO delicious! Then later went to Daiso and got junk food... i'm so bad. Then saw "2046" with my sis at home in front of the PC (what a pain) and it's so boring. I couldn't finish watching it and felt sick afterwards cuz we finished all the junk food. Looks like I'm back to my old self....eating machine.

Rather fun weekend

Fri nite
Met Jekyl and Hyde in person. Thought I was gonna die on Steveston Highway.
John's car broke down, called BCAA. It was fine after some cooling down.
Went to my friend's church w/o incident. Had a good time there.
They taught us several dance... mostly cha cha. It was fun. I got a lil stuffed animal, a dog. For gift exchange, I got a whole box of truffles. They r very good.
I only had oatmeal (@ 5) before going there, but they had snacks there. I had some honey roasted peanuts and cachews, yum yum yum. In the next day, I found out that I lost a pound. Must be just because I had less stuffs in my stomach.. heheee.

Sat
Woke up late, around 8:40am. Went to church.
Watched skating. Sasha did so bad, only had 2 clean triple jumps. Michelle faltered on her double axel and doubled a planned triple jump. Irina was great, she won.
Ran on the treadmill, forgot how long, probably just 35mins or so.
Had family xmas dinner with my uncle, aunt, cousins and their gfs. It was fun.
We had the set dinner A in Gingeri.
- turkey salad (very thin pieces of turkey w/ skin, and lots of miracle whip)
- veggie with slices of abalone
- lobster and crab
- fresh steamed fish
- kung po beef with celery (my fav)
- fried rice
- noodles with mushroom (kinda blend)
- mango pudding (my fav too, had never had pudding that tasty)
- chinese donuts and almond cookies

Then we went xmas lights hunting. We went to Richmond Nature Park, and ppl houses. They were more beautiful than VanDussen. Oh and we dropped by my friend's place to use the washroom... hehee.

Sun
Did 15 laps running and 2 laps walking. It took about 45mins.
Skipped skating, hanged out with John instead. Went to New Westmin to get John's wallet.

Last lesson

We did
- forward cross roll (1, 2, 3, 4) then hold the left outside edge (5, 6, 7, 8) and repeat the cross roll with holding the right outside edge in the end... and alternate
- backward cross roll (1, 2, 3, 4) then hold the outside edge(5, 6, 7, 8) and repeat
(have trouble with the back outside edge, cannot seem to get into the left outside edge)

Later, Kevin looked at my corkscrew spin and pointed out that I should rise up earlier. Right after he said that and right after I saw his, I could do it. But, again... that's just temporary memory. At least now I have some idea where to fix it.

Then we practiced a lil group number thing.
- 6 of us stand in a line (hands on each others' shoulders) with 3 facing one way and 3 the other way. Then we did lil steps and rotate as a line. It's pretty cool.
- 3 of us in a line (hands on each others' shoulders) skate towards the other 3. Then we dropped our arms and we pass the opposite line thru the spacing in between.
- then we practiced lunges (do lunge while gliding, with most of the weight on one bended leg and extend the free leg behind). I think Kevin wanted to add the lunge while we pass thru the opposite line.

Good workout

This morning woke up early to program the universal remote for the TV. It found the code, can turn power on/off, volume +/-, but that's about it. Can't use the PIP or the menu button. Going to exchange for another one later today.

Was able to put in a 30mins workout afterwards. Could've done more, but in a hurry again....

Went to Kensington during lunch, had a great workout eventho the ice was terrible. They didn't clean the ice after the kiddie section. For some reason, I feel that I have more control. Maybe it's because of all the added-on frictions from the dryness of it. The girl that I saw in 8-rink before (several mths before) came to this one today. She can do good backward crossovers and working on single axle and double salchow. She skated gracefullly. She left early. Another lady (that I see everytime when I go there) said my skating is prettier than the girl's.... i was like.. huh? excuse me? did i hear correctly?... She said that girl had an attitude and it's shown in her skating. I totally disagreed. I think that girl was just concentrating on her stuffs and she's doing everything very well.. not like me ... keeps scratching the ice. I guess sometimes ppl feel intimidated by good skaters. I guess I do too... after that girl left I was more at ease and practiced lots of backward crossovers and single jumps. I'm prerotating on my waltz jump now. I think it's from practicing single axel off the ice. Off the ice, I create my momentum from swinging. So now, my hips r too open when I step onto my forward left outside edge and thus the swinging. Also, I think how I glide backwards affect it too. I should have more inclination while gliding backwards before I step onto my forward outside edge.

Shopping week

The day before yesterday, went to Richmond Center. Bought a nice dress in Gitti, but it's a lil tight actually when I sit down.... it'd be my motivation to loose weight :P. I actually like another dress more but they don't have my size... it's either XS (I can barely fit it) or XL (it dropped on the floor). They said Metrotown might have it since they're opening a new store there.

Went to Lansdown shopping yesterday. Not much to see there. Bought a universal remote since my TV remote is breaking down for many yrs now. Also bought Gwen Stefani's CD in Music World, couldn't find it in Future Shop. In Future Shop, I saw RF modulator for 29.99 and adapter (can be used as power source i suppose) for ..oops forgot... around 27 i think.

Went home and discovered mom bought lots of chinese pastry again. So after yummy pork chop stewed with onion, I had 1 big slice of Napolean cake, almost 1 pastry with super sweet lotus paste and salty egg yolk inside (so much like a moon cake) - the yolk, 1/2 a paper wrapped coffee cake, 1/2 slice of a piece of bread made with egg. So this morning, forced myself and did 15 laps of running. Still feel bloated now.

So busy

Fri nite
Shopping
Went to Richmond Center and shopped around for new dress for the wedding the next day. Went to almost all the stores, couldn't find one decent dress that fits me. Most of them are too long or too mature looking for me. At last I found it at a formal dress store next to The Bay. Very good service there but very pricey. 115 or so for a sparkly sweater (that goes with pants)??!!!! I bought a dress, a jacket, and a Chanel waistband. Didn't buy the sweater... cuz I saw another sparkly sweater at another store for just 60 bux or so. They like to do mix and match for you at that store. Maybe they want me to buy the whole set. They showed me 3 sets (2 sets for parties and 1 set for office wear), but I only bought half a set. And, there is no refund or exchange at that store. I like the dress and jacket very much, I think it's worth it. I can reuse it for dancing or some other parties :). I think I'll go to that store again when I'm more prepared for it.... like have a budget of 500 bux or more.

John's place
After the shopping, I went straight to see John. We snuggled and wrestled in front of the TV. It was a LOT of fun! In the end, John let me watch what I wanted to watch :). heeheee...I had a piece of bread at his place, with just jam. 2 hrs earlier I had eggnog decaf latte at Starbucks and a gingerbread macadamia nuts biscotti. Light supper for me.

Sat
Dentist
Woke up early, did a 30mins run. Then I went to my dentist for regular checkup. The appointment was at 8:30 but I arrived at 9:10. Still... I have to wait around. It's so annoying. He actually had to leave in the middle and left me waiting for another 15-20mins before finishing up with me.
Since Chapters is just next door, I went there for an eggnog latte and biscotti. I think I'm addicted to it now. It's SO GOOD!

Wedding
In the afternoon, went to my friend's wedding at an anglican church (I never knew that he was a christian...). It's beautiful (nice architecture and nicely decorated) and big. Not a lot of ppl went. The bride was very beautiful. There were beautiful photos albums of the bride and groom at the entrance of the church.

Vandussen Garden
In the evening, John drove us to Vandussen Garden. There were tons of lights, not much design tho (except a lil bit of it besides the restaurant) besides the color coordination. It's like they just cover the trees with lots of lights and that's it. I had never seen that much light at one place. There were so much that when I was looking at the lights my vision was blurred. There were dancing lights too. They changed color and switched on and off with the music. It's beautiful. There was santa too, but I didn't go see him. We had expensive chestnuts, they were very sweet and wonderful. John loved the chestnuts. I was a lil too full to have too many of them, I had a lot of chinese pastry (one whole curry beef bun, slice of napolean cake, half a sweet winter melon pastry...) before going. I also had apple cider. It was very sweet and good and hot. John had hot chocolate. It tasted like plastic cup.

John's place
Interesting thing was after we came back from the garden, I was a lil hungry. Ended up having some more chestnuts and pasta that John made for me earlier before.
We tried to set up the DVD player, but an AC/DC power cable was missing from the RF modulator. So we just watched TV instead.

Sun
Went to church, then went to Aberdeen Center to get card and $$.
Then went running with John. We did about 20 mins running outside. Afterwards, he lifted weight in the gym and I played with the Elliptical/Ellipse and the trampoline.
I found out that I can lift 165 pounds. Cool!
Afterwards, we watched a lil TV and then I went to the banquet.

Banquet
The banquet was very nice. I was very stupid, forgot to bring my card :(.
We had very expensive nice food.
- roasted pork with very crispy skin
- cold cut: beef shank, veggie duck, jelly fish strings
- steamed geoduck
- fresh fish
- 2 lobsters per table
- 1 big bowl (about 2 cups) of shark fin (2 whole strings about half an inch thick and 3 inches long) soup with chicken and salted pork per person
- fried rice with spring onion
- very peppery shrimp wonton (2 per person) in soup
- squabs
- chocolate wedding cake with purpleish taro filling and white cream on top
- very very tasty yellow biscuit with sweet pecan on top
- white sesame ball with sweet lotus paste inside
- red dates with longan sweet soup
Games that we played:
- Each table brings out an object and the groom has to use it to describe the bride.
There were chopstick(as slim as the bride's arm), kettle(as white as the bride...and in chinese being white is a good thing), diaper (as shiny/watery as the bride's eyes, the mickey mouse on it is as cute as the bride)...
- Groom was blindfolded and had to touch the fist of all the girls (a girl from each table) and the bride and then decide which fist belongs to the bride. He almost got it wrong.
- Each table wrote a few congradulation words on a piece of paper and a person from the table would read it outloud. The kid on our table drew the word "Kissing", and a baby with mickey mouse diaper and something else...
- The bride threw the bouquet of flowers and all the single girls (if they didn't come out their names would be called) in the banquet tried to catch it. And, I caught it! Yay! It's real white/pink roses. Very beautiful.
- The groom threw the leg band (?) and all the single guys tried to catch it. No one caught it.

Today
Ran only 11 laps. My thighs were very tired and my stomach wasn't feeling very well.
I had a pastry with pork inside, a piece of coffee bread, and a cup of milk before running.
Now I'm sick with indigestion.

Stupid staff at the admission booth

told me to put the Disclaimer (this rink is not responsible for ..blah blah blah...) band on the sole of the skate. Another person said it might fall off and asked if it's ok to put it around the wrist. That staff said no it won't fall off and specifically told us not to put it around our wrist cuz otherwise they wouldn't be able to see who'd paid!!! Asking for disaster they r.

So I did exactly what was told and guess what. It fell off the sole and was hanging onto the blade. So when I was doing a forward crossover and was on my left skate only (where the band was on), I slipped and fell onto the side of my left leg. It HURT!!! It was so weird I thought there was a deep gash on the ice. But then I kept on skating (for a few steps) and fell again!! Then I checked my skate and noticed that I'd been stepping on that paper the whole time.

I hate that staff. She knows NOTHING!!!! She is the same one who overcharged me a while back. Before, I was told by the other staff (the regular one) to put that band on my wrist. Stupid stupid person!

Thurs lesson

The only new thing was doing the scratch spin from crossover.
He wanted me to have the right arm movements when doing the spin. That is, as ur hands are meeting from opposite sides (like holding a ball) put left hand in front of right hand and left thumb on top of right thumb.
The problem is I can't really do the spin and all these efforts of getting the right arm positions were kind of useless. I can't even control my edge on the ice and gonna fall any second, how could I have the right arm movement.
However, once I cheated, spinning using mostly the toepick and digging into the ice, that time I did have the right arm movement all the way. Close in and up. But it's absolutely wrong to do the spin this way.... the coach didn't say anything about that tho.

For my clockwise backward crossover, it's finally getting a lil better. I'm more on top of my blade now, however, once I do the cross I'm still scratching the ice too much. Oh well.. better than nothing.

I did not do any workout or skating before the lesson, so I had feet cramp (esp my right foot). Coach said that might be because I don't have enuf potassium in my diet. He said when he sees atheletes like that he'd advice them to take a banana a day and it'd go away. So I wanted to take one banana to work, and there is none at home. Like always, when u don't need something they tend to show up in abundance but not when u need them. Better buy some banana after work.

We have 2 new students today sorta. They will be starting officially Jan. One of them live in Vancouver, and another live in Tawassen!! They are both beginners. They said we're very advance but...mmm... I've seen even more advance... like adults doing single axel and nice camel spin and even double axel and tiple salchow.

We didn't get any time to practice our "group program". Kevin said from now on, we do our own warm up exercise before the lesson really starts. I think we should have done that long time ago.

Tired...

After work, went to John's place. Wrapped my sis's gift. I don't think I did a good job of it but John said it looked great. Should have wrapped my parent's gift too, just too lazy to take it out of the car. Had a piece of whole wheat bread with no sugar added blueberry jam and a lil peanut butter (since there is only a lil left in the jar). We then headed down to the gym, there was no one there. I did a lil biking. It's too big for me, even after I botched down the seat to its minimal height. So, I stopped after a few mins. Then I just practiced some of the skating jumps imagining that I's on skate. It's quite different since I don't have heels on my runners. Also tried to do the ballet thing that I saw other skaters do at 8-rink, just jump up and spin several rotations in the air (I think it was like 3). Of course, I can't do it, but still it's good exercise. We spent about 25 or 30mins in the gym. It was a good workout for me, just jumping around. Oh.. and I tried to do a split. Not to my surprise, cant' do it. I was like a feet off the floor. Getting old....
Afterwards, John did some reading and watched a lil Jeopardy at the same time. I changed the shoelace on my skate. It fits perfectly :).
We then watched "Lost" together. So many flashbacks in that series now, kinda annoying.

After I got home, although I's not hungry I had a few pieces of beef with bok choy, 1 Quakers blueberry oat yogurt granular bar (sis and mom bought it), 1 chocolate caramel rice krispy square (sis and mom bought it), almost half a roastbeef with cheese and lettuce sandwich (sis and mom bought it). After all that junk, I was just full not stuffed at all.

This morning I was so tired. Woke up at 6 then was informed by my sister that she needs the bathroom at 7. I was planning to workout and use the bathroom at 7... so then I stayed in bed (oh well not before I went down to feed my fishy before I forgot again) for a lil while then a lil while turned out to be a lot longer. I ended up waking up at 8am!!!! This is record time for me. I also had a big breakfast when I went down to feed my fish. Don't worry, I did not eat the fish. I had 2.5 cups of skim milk and 2 blueberry yogurt granular bars. Also had 1/2 a vanilla cream filled butter cookie. It's not as good as the Quaker's bar so I stopped after only a bite and went back to the granular bar. Hahaha I'm really an eating machine. I weight myself after all that food.... and guess what I lost 1 pound (compared to last week where I gained 1 pound). I guess I did a lot of exercise yesterday, first running, then skating, then jumping around in the gym.

Interesting thing is after all that sleep I'm still tired. I think I need a day where I can sleep till noon. My arms and legs were also a lil sore.

Have to clean up my shaw email account. I have emails from a yr or 2 ago. It's warning me that it's 91% full. While I was checking out which one to delete, I found a 2004 horoscope. It's pretty accurate. Mainly it says...
- All the good stars are heading your way! Good profits will turn in this year. However do not use this money lvaishly nor to plough them into dubious projects. Improve on the security aspects of your business.
- It's a good year to get married. Your charm and beauty will attract many suitors but you have to choose one. Your partner horoscopes include rooster, ox and monkey.
- You also have good side-luck this year and strike lottery but please get a ticket first.
I'm still waiting the 3rd point to materialize...

:O

This is my 7th day w/o coffee. I seem to be succeeding in getting rid of it from my diet ^^. Even if I do get coffee, I'll only get the decaf one. However, I still have too much liking towards those yummy chocolate wafer sticks. I purposely brought lunch today so that I won't get hungry too soon but still ended up eating 6 of them. I tend to be getting more sleepy during the day too donno if it's because I'm getting back to my morning workout or because I really do need coffee....ZZZZzzzzz...

BTW, you should try Starbucks Eggnog Latte (and of course I got the decaf one). It is SO GOOD!!!!!!

Nice...

Went to 8-rink instead of the Loonie skate in the Burnaby Lake Arena. So nice this time, altho it's the same rink with lots of trees. They must have recently cleaned it up with the zamboni. I have the whole ice most of the time :). Yay. And, it's free this time for me, u get 1 free skate for every 5 skates.
Took a bathroom break in between and when I head back in I saw the guy that I saw in the Kensington and Burnaby Lake Arenas. He was just standing at the entrance for a whole 5 mins or more and then left.
I went to the skate shop there and bought shoelace for my left skate.... it's a lil longer than the original one and a lil skinnier too. I'd prefer a thicker shoelace. It's about 4 bux. I'm sure it was overcharged as well.
My left ankle hurts most of the time :( esp when I try to do backward crossover. I hope to return to 8-rink to practice on Friday. But then... it might be extermely crowded.

Shopping

Went out last nite and bought some xmas presents for John and parents. Turns out that I should have bought the coffee maker + grinder set.

Woke up early and was able to complete my usual 30min run (altho my left foot and my left hip joint ligament is still hurting). Like always, I felt that I could have run more. Like always, I was in a rush. Also managed to cleaned the changed the water for my fish, and threw out all the water plants by accident. I just realized that I haven't named him yet. Maybe I should name him John... nah.

Having microwaved wheat bread now.... yum yum. It's a lil like toast w/o the carbon.

John made a cool comment

comment

Ouch...

I think I'm hurt from skating. My left shin hurts, just above the ankle, from doing the Salchow with Mohawk entry. The bottom of my left foot hurts from crinching while practicing backward crossover in the clockwise direction. :( I'm gonna ask my coach to see if it's ok to change it with an outside 3-turn entry. And, my right hip inside joint hurts (if there is such a thing). It hurts when I sit on the toilet (when the seat pushes against my thigh and lifted the bone and moved the joint a lil...is that too much info?) and when I sit hard on my chair. It was like that when I practiced Bracket a lot, but I didn't do that this time.

Time just flies by

Is it just me or is time passing us faster and faster? I remember that when I was a kid, I just wished that it would go faster. After school and homework I remembered that it would still be bright outside. Now, it's like... oh it's monday.... and then...it's monday again!!! See the difference there? Before I was counting time by the hour... now I'm counting it by week.

Hmm... maybe I need a break. But, break is expensive and I'm cheap.

Bad skating

Very very bad skating lately. Altho I successfully get rid of the bad habit (rotate before I'm in the air for the waltz jump) that I gained from the axel preparation exercises. After watching another skater did a few good backward crossover for the clockwise direction, mine got a lil better immediately. I think I should spend more time practicing those.... but they r SO tedious and they hurt my feet. Still haven't gotten my backspin back. *sigh*. But, it's very hard to fix something that is automatic. For many of the spins, I was not crossing my feet enuf :(..i.e. having trouble centering the spin. I think the problem is that the time I spent on the inside edge entry into the spin is not long enuf. And, I have to keep reminding myself that I should let the right side of the body catches up and not force the left in front of the right. That is, should let it occur naturally. This is a trick that I googled from the internet. I sometimes wonder the usefulness of my coach.

Very bad habit lately (besides skipping my morning run)... there is no food at home... and I'm too lazy and cheap to buy some myself... so ended up eating chocolate waffle sticks for lunch and for the whole afternoon... I think I ate like 30 today. It's a wonder that I'm not sick or stuffed. It's our big boss's 20th aniversary at the company today. So, there was a lil celebration. I got a cinnamon powdered donut. After just eating that, I felt sick. But then, after skating, I felt ok and was able to eat some more waffle sticks. Like John said, I'm an eating machine. Definitely should do some running after work before going out for shopping. But then... lets just hope that I didn't not get tied down to the couch by the TV.

Fun weekend

Fri nite
Friend's bday party. We went to Ginger & Garlic. Very good, esp the "Malaysian Charbroiled Pork Toro". Later we all went to the bday girl's place and had bday cake, Napolean cake, the best bday cake I have ever had. I was very sleep when I was driving to her place and then went into auto pilot mode and almost drove home instead....
The kids also came, they were very busy as usual. Matthew grew a lot, looked so much more mature now, so is Ashley. Lucas was a baby and now a kid.

Sat
Woke up early, did work out, went shopping with John. Had decaf gingerbread latte from Second Cup. Bought sis's xmas present and Amanda's present... still have to buy my parent's, John's present, and friends' presents (..still owing a Nov bday person's present). Maybe I'd do it sometime during the weekday. Hope the malls open late. They should be rite? It's xmas time.
Later went to Amanda's house warming party. Mmm...it's interesting. Never went to a party like that before. Lots of ppl we don't know, we shy ppl ended up just talking to each other. Lame. Good food tho. Love the chocolate covered biscuits, had 3 different layers inside.... tasted like mocha, milk chocolate, and coffee crisp. Yum Yum. I had 3 at least. The Macadamia nuts chocolate chip cookies were also very nice, I love the nuts but not the chocolate, too bitter. John had a cup (instead of a shot glass) of tequila. He was all red, but wasn't drunk. Gotta see who Patrick is.
The dancing pole in the middle of the room was nicely decorated w/ xmas lights. I'd love to try that someday, looks interesting.

Sun
Woke up early, finished watching taped Ice War, went to church. Napped an hr or so then work out. Then went skating with John. It's so very crowded. I was told not to do spin or jump in the middle :(. John didn't want to try crossover at all. After skating, we went to Nando's chicken and used up the coupon from the Entertainment coupon booklet that I bought from my friend. It's very very good. I would like to try it again sometime later.
John is winning the football pool so far. Too bad there isn't a prize for the winner.

Waste of time....

Coach seems to have completely forgotten that he sorta taught me those axel preparations.... just told me to do the basic waltz jump 3 in a row instead.

For the "show", Kevin wanted me and Aaron to do the waltz/falling leaf/mohawk/salchow/toe loop at the same time towards opposite side of the rink (since Aaron is a lefty). Problem is I'm scared of falling leaf altho it's only a half-turn jump, and the salchow I donno how to do it with a mohawk entry. However, by the end of the class, I was able to do the falling leaf but not the salchow. My salchow tends to be too forward even before I start to jump, i.e. my toe pick is scratching on the ice. Since it's already scratching the ice, it slows me down and I had almost no speed for the toe loop jump that follows it. Kevin said at the beginning it's like that, nothing to worry about... yeah rite.

As a group, we tried just walking down the ice in one straight across the ice. Then we tried going left and right together and then it's all messed up, no line at all in the end.

Kevin also paired me up with Aaron to do the sorta ice dancing step. It's very basic just go left, right, left, right, then crossover... Already forgot how many long I'm supposed to do the crossover. I think it's harder for Aaron since I'm much shorter...

My waltz jump sucked today after all those waltz-backspin exercises. I now automatically force myself to rotate even before I leave the ground. My waltz looks so woody now :(.

Andrew, the 50yr or so man, decided to quit today. So we're one person short now.

:(

Tried and tried the waltz-backspin with no avil. Although now I have the free leg in front of me, but when I'm landing my landing edge is always sorta not in line with the direction that i'm travelling and making a big gash on the ice. Most of the time almost impossible to start a backspin. And the loop-loop-loop-loop-loop jump always turn into a loop-loop-loop or just a loop-loop. And, can never do waltz-loop.

I've lost my backspin. Last week, I had just learned how to make it really fast. But after several hrs of practicing on ice that is softer than the usual (with intention of getting more practice for my waltz-backspin), I had destroyed it.

Arghhh....

Found some tips on Axel

"Entry and takeoff-- as you set up for the jump, look over your left shoulder, and pick a spot on the wall/bleachers/whatever to jump towards. Step onto the left forward outside edge and keep your chest up. Jump, bringing your arms and right leg through, towards that spot that you picked.

Make sure you are not swinging your right leg around in an arc, as that will make it more difficult for the rest of your body to "catch up" to it in order to convert into the rotating position. In other words, don't think about rotating before you're in the air--it's actually counter-productive, because you will be off your axis of rotation.

Make sure that you are not letting your left shoulder drop on the takeoff, as that will pull you inside the circle (and away from your axis of rotation).

Do not let your free leg turn out on the takeoff. (This may have been a problem that is particular to me, as I have very naturally open hips and I was turning my right foot out as I kicked through. I had to think about pigeon-toeing in order to straighten that out)

If you are skidding a lot on the takeoff, or if you are having trouble with pre-rotation, and you don't think it's your shoulder or your free leg, then think about pressing your left big toe into the ice as you jump into the air. I didn't think I was pre-rotating the jump at the time, but now I know that I definitely was, and that I was jumping inside the circle (because I was more worried about the rotation).

The "axis of rotation": You must think about rotating over the RIGHT side of your body. That's the "backspin" that everyone talks about...for some reason, saying "backspin" never clicked with me (and yes, I could do waltz-backspin, waltz-loop, etc). When you bring your arms in, bring them in over your RIGHT side. This was tremendously helpful--for the longest time, I was bringing my arms in over my left side (because that's the direction of rotation), and I could not get into that nice "backspin" position in the air. Only when I started thinking about getting my whole body over my right leg did I begin to feel that "backspin." (Actually, this probably helped me out more than any other piece of advice)

When you're in the air, push down with your right leg and point your toe so that you're ready to land on it (this is crazy, but for about two weeks, I was getting everything right about the axel, in position, etc, but I wasn't thinking about actually landing it on one foot, and so I never did).

Otherwise, there's practice, perseverance, and prayer...and padding."