Gifted Typist

Go to my Friday column here.

He’s coming to this parts next week

Richard Simmons is a character you can’t ignore.

For years, he’s been in our faces fighting fat, which has been a personal demon for him since he was young.

In his battle, he’s lost over 100 pounds and gone on to start a fitness movement for people who are overweight.

He’s written books, produced 50 exercise videos and appeared in soap operas and talk shows.

This typist will be working out with him next Saturday during the Bustamove fundraiser for breast cancer.

He will be the last hour in the six-hour workout.

To donate to this cause, go here.

That is the question.

Sounds funny, but it isn’t. (Actually, it’s hilarious.)

Here’s the deal. This typist is prone to the occasional cold sore.

It is located on my top lip and now healing.

But when I smile the scab is pulled and opens up, causing a gush of my exquisitely rare AB-.

So when I greet people, it is with a stony face, the natural  smile carefully suppressed so as not to subject them to a blood letting.

I have attempted to explain, but getting into those details with a casual acquaintance or in a meeting is, well, awkward.

So what do you do?

Smile with abandon and bleed?

Remain stoic and statuesque?

Climb under a rock till the sore heals?

This typist lost a dear friend on the weekend.

Mike was a travel journalist, a biologist, an environmental consultant, a rock climber and a photographer, among many other things.

He inspired this typist in many ways. And he always laughed at my jokes.

About 18 months ago he was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease, a condition that took his body but not his mind.

On our recent trip to England for Christmas, I visited Mike. His body had deteriorated but  his mind shone bright.

We laughed and joked and talked about his condition.

We all knew that time was short. And it was.

But at least I got to say goodbye to a good friend.

Rest well, Mike

You were a good one.

See my herald column here.

On January 30, I’ll be doing the six-hour “Bustamove” workout  for Jann and Lin.

They were two friends from the UK lost to breast cancer in 2003.

I still miss them.

Bustamove is a fundraiser to purchase digital mammography equipment. A thousand people will gather for six one-hour workouts in one day.

It will be a challenge, but it’ll be worth it if we can raise the money.

Help me raise money for the cause.

Visit my Bustamove page to make a donation.

This typist visited Haiti a few months ago, not Port-au-Prince, but another part.

I spoke to locals and saw the children playing in the water. It was a happy day, everyone was smiling, no one was suffering.

Looking at the pictures of Port-au-Prince after the earthquake is heart wrenching.

This little country has been beaten down by natural disaster and political corruption, and now this.

You have to wonder how much more it can take.

Because I’ve been away for a few weeks, there’s been no swimming.

So the first fly set this morning was met with a combination of fear and loathing.

So I took a deep breath, wore flippers and gave it my all.

And guess what?

It wasn’t so bad. I wasn’t as unfit as I thought.

That has to be a good sign for 2010. Doesn’t it?

Here is a link to a previous fly set in the fall of 2009.

What news to receive after spending three weeks in frosty Blighty. I was there for three weeks at Xmas.

Wossy, as he’s known on Twitter, was one of my fave things about Britain during my 7 years residence. Still is.

He is devastatingly funny, has a rapier-like wit and delivers a comeback with lightning speed. Nothing in Canadian comedy comes even close.

He does a Friday Night with Jonathan Ross chat show on TV, a Film show and a Saturday morning radio show on BBC Radio 2.

But his edginess has got him in trouble. Last year with Ross and fellow Brit comedian Russell Brand made lewd phone calls to the answering machine of the grand daughter of Andrew Sacks who played Manuel on Fawlty Towers. Brand played it on his BBC radio show and all hell broke loss.

And then there was Ross’ contract, a cool £18 over three years. This bothered many people in Britain who felt this was too much for a public broadcaster to pay one star while it was laying off journalists and other staff.

There were rumours that the BBC wouldn’t renew his contract so Ross jumped first.

Whatever the story, I liked him because he was genuinely funny and had a talent for making me laugh till it hurt.

He’ll complete the last six months of his contract and then he’ll be a free agent.

Let’s hope his next phase will bring more of Jonathan Ross’s unique talent to these shores.

In swimming, we call it spinning.

That’s when you are sprinting so hard that your arms and legs start going faster than they should be to maximize your potential speed.

I’ve been known to spin in time trials, but i’m working on lengthening out my stroke to harness the power.

In my life as a typist, I’ve been spinning a lot lately.

Too much work, not enough time.

Throw Christmas into the picture and a gifted typist becomes a spinning typist.

Things suffer, like this blog and my visits to your blogs.

Ach!

Hate that.

I’m thinking it’s just a phase. And if it isn’t a phase, then I’d better make some changes soon.

Anyway, just to say I’m not gone, just spinning.

And I hope to lengthen out those stokes and get some good momentum and balance going soon.

This week yours truly appeared on Haligonia.ca to wax on things GT.

The interview covered fundraising efforts for breast cancer, the newspaper business and new media.

Oh, and I talked about this blog and you, my dear bloggies.

Here is the interview on YouTube.

Yes, THAT Richard Simmons.

It’s all part of a charity effort to raise money for breast cancer.

It’s called Bustamove. (It should be called Bust a gut.)

THAT Richard Simmons will lead the last hour – when we are all on our last leg.

One thousand people will gather in the local sports arena and do six hours of yoga, pilates, zumba and God knows what else.

This happens on 30 Jan 2010. Each participant will raise money.

My team is called #halifaxchicks. We’re a group of  local Twitter gals.

Together, the thousand will be raising money and breaking records of some sort although we aren’t yet sure which ones. Guinness Book of Records referees will be present.

We are trying to create an integrated breast cancer care delivery program in our city.

Check out my webpage and if you feel inclined … drop me a donation.

Click to my Herald column to see her picture.

She was seven when the Titanic sank and nine when World War I broke out.

She was 13 when women in Canada got the right to vote and 24 when women were recognized as “persons” in Canada.

She was 58 when JFK was assassinated and 64 when Armstrong walked on the moon.

She was 96 when the Twin Towers fell.

What a life, eh?

The party is tomorrow.

105 years ago today, my grandmother was born in a rural community on the coast.

Her knees are bad and her hearing is patchy, but she’s still in pretty good health

There can’t be many 105 year olds around, but if you looking Nova Scotia is a good place to start.

Apparently this province is a cluster for over-100s.

And my Nan qualifies.

So wish her happy birthday everyone.

That many years is an achievement however you look at it.

This is fun, especially when you think that fear sells. This list was compiled by Newsweek.

Have a look and tell me what they’ve forgotten

1. Y2K
2. Shoe Bombs
3. Vaccines Cause Autism
4. Immigrants
5. Bloggers
6. SARS, Mad Cow, Bird Flu
7. Web Predators
8. Teen Oral Sex Epidemic
9. Anthrax
10. Globalization

See my Herald column here.

Had H1N1 in the house this week.The younger typist went down with it.

It wasn’t pretty, but it was manageable, just about. He has no underlying condition.

At one point his temperature zoomed up to 104F. That scared me and we almost went to hospital.

But the fever meds knocked it back and we didn’t have to make the trip.

After about 8 days of being sicker than I’d even seen him, he started recovering.

Just about back to normal now. The other little typist had it the week before but not so severely.

So we’re out of the woods now, unless H1N1 comes knocking at my door.

Originally posted on GT couple of years back.

“Heroes” by David Bowie is one of my fave tunes of all time.

It is a song about two lovers who meet at the Berlin Wall beneath an exchange of Cold War bullets.

They know their relationship is doomed because they are from opposite sides of the wall, yet they find a way to seize the moment and extract the joy.

The lyrics are ambiguous (some say improvised) but for me “Heroes” is a song about passion and optimism. But it’s not a misguided optimism.

It’s practical – heroes, yes, but just for one day. Perhaps this message of practical optimism is the reason a 1977 song has stood up so well over the years.

If you can find passion and optimism in the ho-hum reality of the everyday, the song seems to say, if you can find a way to block out forces over which you have no control and take the moment like the two lovers, then you are truly inspired, a hero.

The other reason “Heroes” makes my top-song list is, of course, musical brilliance.

The song is based on a simple chord progression that builds with intensity, gradually reaching a driving thrum that spools and spools, tighter and tighter until Bowie’s voice cracks, and in that moment the raw human passion spills out creating a sensation that exceeds the sum of the music and the lyrics.

Without fail, that sensation makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Very fews songs can produce such a response.

“Heroes” is a pop masterpiece.