Kirk vs Cameron Round 1

Wrestling: The new Fall past time!

Weekend Banter

Myself and a few friends went to Toronto for the weekend. Always nice to get out of the zoo for a few days. It was banterous beyond belief!! We mainly just chilled at Amanda’s house watched dvd’s, slept and went shopping.

Here’s to awkward turtle moments, the different stages of the awkward turtle, bbq at John Matthews house, winding down the window for air only for there to be a woman there who said hi (awkward turtle moment!), Arlene and I having continuous competitions, “I’ll rock, paper scissor you for it!”, “What’s your name? Jane, Jane? No Jane, aye Jane? No Jane, Jane as in J-A-N-E? yes jane… aye jane! No Jane… ok I’ve an accent I’m saying the same thing as you!”, If I had not decided to stay on until Christmas I would be on a flight home right now!, John being surprised I could keep up with him driving back up the road, Tim- “So if I marry Claire Ill be in good relations with New Zealand?!” Claire –“NO”, Melissa: “No I will not climb in the oven!”, the van getting stuck on the sailing beach!, the return of Wayne, our pizza eating competition, organizing a girls wrestling competition, me winning 3-0 of my current matches, having to go a mid night trip to Toronto in a thunder and lightly storm, to getting lost in Toronto during a thunder and lighting storm at 3.00am, to having the radio station up and running again, one of my kids having a little accident while mountain biking, “your face!!”, running a half marathon on Sunday and driving into Huntsville tonight reminiscing about the summer.

1/2 Marathon

Today week I will be running a half marathon for the Muskoka Woods foundation. This is a huge challenge I set myself back in June and I have been working hard ever since to be able to complete it. As a team we are raising money to send under privileged kids to camp, raising money for a scholarship programme for staff and for project Romania. If you would like to support me in this challenge by donating money please clink on the link below. I will let you know how I got on next week. Including possibly a picture depending if I can still pose for one when I finish!

Scotiabank Toronto water front marathon.

Scroll down and on the left and click on the link sponsor an individual. Enter my name or search under Muskoka Woods foundation. Remember it will be in Canadian dollars. You pretty much get just over $2 for 1 pound.

New heights

On Tuesday I got trained on how to run the zip line from the tower. The tower is 70 feet in the air. This is the only job on camp I have never done before. It is really nice to do something new even thought there are so many activates. It is however a job that is very scary my heart is in my mouth every time I sent 3 kids at a time off a small ledge with a 70 foot drop! With me being the one responsible for them sliding not falling!! I triple check them before they go. In time my confidence will grow but not too much that ill send thm without checking them at least twice! It is a sweet view from up there and again at times I can be alone as I wait for kids to climb the cargo net.

Pictures: On the right view from the top, left view to the bottom.

Solitude

Until this afternoon I never fully appreciated the act of solitude. Thinking back I have not had any real time alone since winter. Once Spring hit everything in my life has been go go go… work, training, friendships. I’ve been getting less and less sleep and got busier with more friends and more responsibilities. Since the fall started I have craved time alone but never seem to get it, every time I sit alone its not long before people join me or if I go to my room its not long before people are looking for my fellowship it is a great thing to be wanted in friendships but all I want to do at times is sit alone. I got the afternoon off and for about 30 mins of that the house was silent and it was the best 30 mins I’ve had in a long time, I felt so refreshed afterwards. I then remembered a nice little spot that I found in the summer with a great view of the lake and as it turns out internet access! So here I will come and hide away. Read, sleep, listen & watch. Ill not tell anyone of my whereabouts and enjoy my own company. Living in community all the time has its advantages but solitude is not one of them!

Driving and running

I’ve been doing a fair wee bit of both lately. It seems that when you’ve been at Muskoka Woods a while and you are a good worker, you get more responsibility and with responsibility comes trust and trust comes keys to the vans and cool new pick up trucks!! I’ve driven to Barrie a few times, the airport and was sent to Toronto this weekend so get furiture from Ikea and was intrusted with the Muskoka Woods credit card!. I was very pleased with myself when I was able to drive myself right to Lindsay’s door, stayed the night there then went to Ikea Saturday afternoon. I have to go back down to the airport on Monday to pick up Bex, hopefully 3rd time lucky nothing will go wrong I’ve already documented my first airport trip, the 2nd one I was told Claire arrived in terminal 3 so there I am doing laps and she is in terminal 1, then when I eventually found her, she had lost her luggage and had to go back to terminal 3 to try and find it. So 1.5 hours later and at least ¼ tank of petrol less we were finally on our way back up the road with no luggage.

My half marathon is in 2 weeks, I ran in an organized 10k race today to raise money for cancer and I have shaved 20ish minutes off my last recorded 10k race so was pretty happy its nice to see that my early morning efforts in the gym are paying off. If this half marathon goes ok and I’m in the country in May I think I might attempt the full Belfast Marathon, if not maybe the full Toronto one if I’m back here, who knows what’s in store for me…

Here’s to driving through the Mc Donald’s drive through singing along to My girl at the tops of our voices, for the first time to date driving onto the left side of the road, Arlene wreaking herself on the bike in the gym, convincing everyone that Arlene’s bike injury was in fact the marks from a Raccoon attack, michelle and Jono coming to visit, activites being cancelled due to a bear sighting, Matt Pearce and I trying to find the bear, being in charge that night when another one was spotted and having to REALLY go look for it, Joanne, to the woman at the Starbuck drive though telling us way to much about her life story, recognizing teachers and kids that came up to camp last year, Lindsay diving over the boxes on the back of the van, saying goodbye to Tom, break testing the van so Lindsay went flying forward, to running in the rain and to Boston pizza.

I have to say I’m pretty happy with my regular updates un like some… *cough EMMA cough*

Picture: Something to mark Tom's departure & Bex and I at the Ho down dance the last night of classic.

More summer

I miss super Saturdays, I miss going into town on our nights off, I miss the tuck staff giving me abuse, I miss my Friday night flurry date, I miss being too hot, I miss soul house, I miss impact, I miss the radio station playing all day, I miss the BBQ on super Saturday, I miss chilling on the maintenance docks with the nurses, I miss walking up past the health care centre and having a chat with whoever is outside then moving on to chat to the senior high staff on my way to my room, I miss being the designated driver for the healthcare centre, I miss beechwood banter, I miss walking in on the girls watching the oc, I miss breakfast with Calais, I miss daily hug time, I miss the tuck girls always asking for free stuff, I miss the office calling me on the radio, I miss the all staff meetings, I miss there always being people sitting outside the office and Ferndale, I miss a lot about summer…

The fall is ok once again its hard not just only to settle after the summer but after having such good times last fall, winter and spring and adapting to a new leadership that are new and don’t really know what they are doing at times, Its hard not to just take it by the scruf of the neck and sort it out as I know it can be SO good here- Its frustrating, I have offered my advice at times and told them to use me whenever and for whatever so hopefully Ill be able to get involved even more as they find their feet.

Here’s to not being allowed to use our laptops at meals, all the anti social jokes, Tom going back to England tomorrow, always thinking that Rebecca’s name is Joanne, watching the Ireland match with Andy and Matt, “Kirky Turkey”, to pee races, my wrestling match with Arlene [current score 1-1], Hazelwoods free t-shirt competition, Lindsay coming for a surprise visit, going to Bent River for dinner, finally catching a mouse and to going to visit friends at the end of the month.

Pictures: Top myself, Steph & Sammy, below all the tuck crew, Bottom we have myself, Mike and Johnny this pictures makes me laugh the boys [both from N.I] just look so unimpressed!! [granted they did just play wet & wild] Plus the sky in the background is pretty sweet!!

Unsettled- But im sure it will be all good in the hood soon enough.

The first week of Fall crew is drawing to a close. There have been more bad times than good times [but the good have been pretty sweet!] The summer is a hard season to recover from... and its hard not comparing this season to past seasons with my old beloved bosses [The left :-( ]. The thought of my road trip over to Alberta and Vancouver will help me through. I do know deep down that I'll be fine and given a couple of weeks ill fully be in the swing of it. It is nice to know the place and people so well and not being out of my depth.

Here's to the Kirk smirk, driving the new pick up truck to Barrie, for some reason not catching any mice with the current 12 set traps, repeating a prank, running 18 k tomorrow, the return of "that's sick, not like sick sick but sick!", anti social, remembering how much I hate ropes and to my new wee bum chum.

Pictures: Just a couple of the good times in Spring.

End of summer, sad times...

I’m well gutted that the summer is over… There was a mass exit on Friday night. I went down to Toronto with some friends for the weekend and came back up here for Monday lunch time. Had a sweet weekend in Toronto stayed with different people each night but we all hung out during the day together was great banter. Went to a Toronto Blue Jays baseball game they played Seattle and won. Ate in a few Irish establishments, walked and took in the sights of Toronto. Was nice to chill in the city with good friends that will be surely missed, thankfully a good few of them live in Co Down so we will be re united at Christmas [one will sadly for them, have to wait until March!! Ha ha ha you know who you are]

Driving back in through the gates of the woods yesterday it was like a ghost town, no kids, no noise and a lot less familiar faces. But the new fall staff seem nice enough and a few summer people have stayed and a few old rec staff faces have returned so I think ill be in for some more good times.

Here’s to “the beach is that way…”, Mark losing one flip flop in the underground, the tubes being cancelled and having to walk half way downtown, staying in a nice hotel downtown one night the next sleeping like a hobo, to missing the tuck shop banter, escaping the dreaded bug, being in denial, “avec that’s french for with”, getting my own room for Fall, depressing ourselves listening to all the summer beats, Sophia, missing the daily nurses hugs, running up a considerable phone bill, saying goodbye and hoping one day to say hello again, mouse trapping out Hazelwood, singing Irelands call at the game, “Laying down the craic”, to having Matt Pearce and John Matthews back at the woods, “You’re a FRUIT!”, winning the team challenge last night go team A.B.T.U!!, "Seriously Bex... Road trip!", hitting the gym even more hard core in prep for the half marathon in little under a month, Bex waking me during the night to catch a mouse, “Aye!” the last night of classic dance party and to Fall crew 2007!!

Pictures: Top- Mark, myself, Dave, Tash & Andy. Mike, Stu and Justin are in the background- you just need to know where to look!, Below left- Myself, Mark & Andy. Bottom- Shot of the game.