27 Sleeps

A little over two years ago, I chanced on a forum discussing overlanding from the UK to Australia.  The idea was fascinating - slow travel, no airports and get to see places I had only read about.  After a couple of months of reading, dreaming and trying to come up with any reasons why we shouldn't try this, the question came up - where next after we get home from Iceland?

"If I can get a year leave, what about overlanding from London to Australia?"  Why not?  So, in July 2012 we put a deposit down on Odyssey Overland's Istanbul to Singapore six month overland trip.

Over the last 18 months I've discovered that Canadians don't generally do things like this.  It's been an ongoing exploration for the necessary pieces to make this happen.  First was applying for a deferred salary leave at work (it's been in our contract for six years, but apparently I was the first person north of Edmonton to think I wanted to do it) and literally having to convince my employer that they wanted to create the process.  Then it was finding medical and trip cancellation insurance for a year when you are approaching 60. I knew I had found the right insurance agent through the advantages of small town networking, when he didn't even hesitate to say that we could be covered for the journey and did I need terrorism insurance? We don't. Finally it was finding a travel agent willing to help with planning the last six months of our trip because apparently Canadians only travel for three months or less and directly from home :)

What has been fascinating is where and how you pick up knowledge by asking curious questions.  One day I was looking at backpacks and mentioned we were planning to travel for a year, and got a great lesson in what kind of sleeping gear I wanted from a fellow who had just come back from backpacking in Nepal!  Reading all the Lonely Planet books I could borrow from the library led to ideas for things to do in Australia or New Zealand that aren't in the regular tour guides.  Sending emails to places got even better on the spot advice - advice I was given in 2009 when one of our guides asked why we hadn't consulted the area website before coming.

Since January, it's been a bit of a whirlwind as pieces fall into place.  Now, with only 27 sleeps before we head toward the airport, it's down to the tiny details.  Rescue the passports with their visas somehow from the Fedex office in Edmonton.  Pack the backpacks.  Confirm a few more hostels.  Arrange to make the final payment for our last six months travel.  Give house keys to our friends who will be watching the house and take the plants to their temporary home. Pray that the one unconfirmed trip will go as planned.  Catch the plane for Istanbul.

Did I mention that we are missing winter next year?  And that there will be no driving for a year.

Expert advice of the visual sort

I've known for years that the best way to get good advice is to ask someone who is knowledgeable and passionate the right question. It's worked to buy good hiking poles, boots and socks, backpacks, sleeping bags as well as my lovely faithful sewing machine. I've just discovered that the same thing holds true for glasses/contact lenses.

Full disclosure here. I have worn glasses since I was two (my mother said I should have had them years before but my father wouldn't believe I wasn't perfect) and spent a number of years going weekly for therapy (exercises for the eyes) as well as wearing patches over the good eye. Along the way, I've asked a lot of questions about the equipment that was helping me see and function.

• At 16, I asked for contact lenses and my opthomologist who had been there since I was two, gave the answer "You can try them, but I'm not sure if they will work for you". He was wrong and I wore hard lenses almost exclusively for twenty years.
• In 1992, I asked why my contacts weren't as comfortable as they had been and was told that gas permeable lenses would work better and the new way of fitting them would help, too. I was also told that I could expect that bifocals would be the way to go in a few years (actually, I was a year later).
• Over the next few years, bifocals then progressive lenses came into my life and all was well until I got to 50. "Well, you could wear reading glasses with your contact lenses if you can't read the fine print" was one answer. The other question I asked was whether surgery would be the route to go, to which I got the answer "You are old and you are stupid to think that bifocals will work for you, you need to have many pairs of glasses" - Needless to say, I will never go back to that man.

I had a lovely experience this week. I went in for a checkup and to replace my glasses which have literally worn out over the last four years. I specifically asked for the older very experienced optometrist and told him my problems.

• my glasses have worn out, they've never fit very well and I know that the problem is I didn't think I would be wearing them full time when I chose them.
• I've stopped wearing contact lenses because they aren't comfortable because my eyes are so dry and because I couldn't see closeup details and couldn't see distances well.
• I REALLY like the prescription sunglasses I have that someone helped me choose last year.
• I'm going travelling for a year and going to be doing some exciting things and I need to be able to see well.

Here's the thoughtful and helpful answers I got:

• Your eyes are in great shape and very healthy. The best way to keep them healthy is to keep active.
• I will make sure that one of our experienced technicians helps you pick out glasses frames that fit and are sturdy and that are shaped to give the best vision.
• Have you thought about daily wear contact lenses for those activities (like whitewater rafting or snorkelling or swimming or even hiking on uneven ground) where you want to be able to see, but not necessarily close up details, and not risk your very pricey glasses. You could add a pair of inexpensive readers so you could read a map, or see the settings on your phone or camera. You could even add an inexpensive pair of sunglasses. You should find that the soft contact lenses are more comfortable even if they can't give you everything you need, and they don't need solutions because you dispose of them every day. NOW THAT MADE SENSE.

Two and a half hours later, I've picked a very stylish sturdy frame that has the state of the art progressive lenses custom/computer built with sun and night vision clip-ons. For most of the time, they will do everything I need them to do. I've also been given a quick lesson on putting in and taking out daily wear contacts and chosen a pair of readers. They're comfortable, I can see great at the middle to long distance, and with a pair of reading glasses, I can see to sew, read, work on computer. And if I fall out of a boat, I will loose a small bit of mostly water that costs about a dollar.

From time to time, I meet with people who carry a small to medium backpack full of medications, or equipment necessary for managing their health. I used to smile and shake my head at the absurdity of being so dependent, but I have become one of those people - stay tuned for a picture of my new glasses and all the other items that will keep me going.

I believe I will be carrying fewer changes of clothing!

Unswimmingly

I went lane swimming Saturday for the first time in almost four months.  It was great to be back in the water, but I still miss my early bird swims before heading to work.  In September, the Town of Fairview decided to cancel all their morning pool programs – not enough staff was what was said, but the undercurrent was that the pool was losing money (what sports facility doesn’t) and the adults who used the pool during those hours weren’t important.  In this era of “active living” and “life long fitness”, to remove a core fitness program for adults brings to my mind the Nike “If you let me play sports” campaign of the 1990s which stressed fitness for girls.

 

800 free World Masters Games 2009

Would never have made it if not for all those lengths of the
 Fairview Pool

I’d had an annual membership since September 2006 and was one of the core supporters of the early morning swim (I probably swim 120 times a year, always at that time).  This time is ideal for the working adult, particularly those with families and commitments in the evening. With the cancellation of the early swim, there is no place for adults who wish to have swimming as their fitness activity.  Early morning lane swimming is a core program at every pool I am familiar with, not only in Alberta, but elsewhere in Canada as well as in other countries I’ve visited.

If you look at the current schedule, you will see the words “lane swim” added on to other types of swim programs, but that doesn’t mean that it is actually possible to swim continuously and for fitness/skill building.

In the present schedule, there are theoretically three times where it might be possible to swim:

·       I attempted to swim during the noon to 2:00 Family/Adult/Lane swim.  There were several families and a number of adults leisurely enjoying the 4 open lanes.  The fifth lane, where we were supposed to swim, had three swimmers in it, of vastly different abilities, which meant you could not swim continuously and certainly could not do drills, starts or turns.  In addition, any adult who works during the day will not be able to attend this session.

·       I attempted to swim during the evening 6:00 to 7:00 Family/Adult/Lane swim.  Again, the 4 open lanes were filled with families and adults enjoying the water, but not swimming in any consistent manner.  For a time, I shared the one lane with a young man who was a great deal faster than I and I have no doubt that it frustrated him.  I was told that I could not do a dive start, even though I was the only one swimming in the lane and it was made very clear that the guards were not happy with me trying to complete my swim right up to 7:00.  Indeed, public swimmers were in the water well before the hour, and the lane rope was removed at 6:50.  When I arrived before 6:00, I was told I could not enter the change room before 6:00 “because the guards are on their break”.  In essence, this means that there is at maximum 45 minutes where it might be possible to swim.  The other problem with this time period is that it conflicts with the college’s group exercise programs that run from 5:30 to 6:30 or from 7:00 to 8:00.  As well for any parent who has children in sports or extra curricular activities, this is not a time where they could be at the pool.

·       The third time, 8:30 to 9:30, is also likely affected by the need to remove lane ropes/replace lane ropes.  Personally, it is too late at night for me to have an effective training swim.

I understand that sometimes hard decisions need to be made for financial reasons.  But removing a core fitness program for adults is wrong.  If lane swimming needs to happen at a different time of day, then it needs to be given a space where adults wishing to swim for fitness can do so – at a minimum a full hour (preferably longer) to swim, with lanes for different abilities (and the expectation that continuous swimming will happen in these lanes) and at a time that will not conflict with working hours of adults.

I’m angry that this decision was made and frustrated that there is nothing I can do about it.  I know it is my responsibility to take charge of my own fitness, but in a country where it is dark before and after work for six months of the year and freezing for much of the same time, swimming was the perfect choice for me.

Can I still call myself a swimmer if I have no place to swim?

I still have the "If you let me play sports" poster hanging where I see it as I sew.  I first brought it home when my daughter was in elementary school and many of her classmates were discouraged from participating in sports at the same time as unlimited amounts of money was available for their brothers to play hockey.