Archive
9-Nov-2013 Saturday Surf Lifesaving
Today I did my 2nd patrol for Cronulla Surf club from 9am-1.30pm. I have had a really bad cough and like cold symptoms but decided to go anyway. Mostly it’s like a tickle in the throat.
I drove round and listened to the radio, the lyrics of one song stood out, which I liked and thought that maybe Michael Jackson should have listened himself – the Man in the mirror:
If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself And Then Make The Change
The day was hot and sunny, well over 30C on the beach.
Luckily no rescues but I did get to swim and go out on a board for practise. Although I swim at Bundeena most days, Cronulla is just better – the water is deeper and the waves add that extra element. A perfect day.
I also met a guy called Herman, who is 85 and pretty much a raw vegan with drinks a lot of fresh juices, runs, swims, walks and does like yoga deep breathing (pranayama) each day. He looks so fit and healthy and has an incredible sharp mind, just a great example of how to grow old !
After the patrol I had a coffee at Grind – a doppio – double espressso and bought some veges. I also had to get a new pair of sunnies as Dawn took my others ones – see photo of me modelling them.
In the evening I cooked a couple of veg dishes for me and Jaz and Dawn – snow peas and mushrooms with tofu chunks with soy sauce and omboishi vinegar. Second dish was cauliflower with mustard seeds in a dry indian spice.
19-Oct-2013 First Cronulla surf life saving
I took Kody and Beni to Engadine pool for 10am to do their Nipper swim proficiency. Lucky it was pretty quick. Beni did it very capably, and Kody passed also, but I would say only just – she needs to do more training !
Then we went home and I dropped Beni off, just had time for a coffee then had to dash out again as I was on my first surf lifesaving patrol at Cronulla beach (South Cronulla to be more specific). I made it just on time (always difficult to park there). Everyone seemed very casual and quite young. The weather was very windy and quite cold, so I didn’t even go in the water.
I was impressed that we had 2 first aid cases on my very first patrol – a kid with a sea urchin spike in his finger and a girl who twisted her ankle. It felt that even my small role in these was more in that one afternoon that 2 whole seasons at Burning Palms!
Here is a photo of my beach:
12-Sept-2013 Lifesaving at Cronulla
One of the good things with having a week off work is you do get time to do stuff you can’t normally squeeze in.
This summer I have decided to do Surf Lifesaving patrols at Cronulla (South Cronulla if you want to avoid confusion with North Cronulla) instead of at Burning Palms. The main reason is that I felt Burning Palms was under utilising us, ie not enough people on the beach. Anyway Cronulla prefer you to go into their office which is open like 10am-2pm during the week. So I had a run of about an hour and then drove to Cronulla to sort out my membership. Their office has a to-die-for-view of the beach.
Today was totally gorgeous & sunny so I went for a swim round the buoy. The water was absolutely crystal clear, but still cold, with the brilliantly clean sand and sparkling sunny day it was just stunning. The fact it was a work-day and I was off work added that extra special touch! There were relatively small waves but you forget just how flat it is at Hordern’s my home beach, however coming back in to shore you still got a decent lift from them. Afterwards I had a coffee at Grind, actually two – a doppio and a soy piccolo. Then I drove to Ikea at Tempe to pick up some stuff for Dawn, then got home just in time to turn around and go out to yoga.
busy busy busy …..
17-Mar-2013 Weekend Activities
It was a busy weekend. On Saturday morning I ran for 4h 30m with Mikey from work. We started at Garie Beach at 06.30 – it was still dark when we arrived but got light almost instantly. It was a long run to Helensburgh and back in a big loop (map here) and we didn’t kill ourselves with speed. I felt ok but tired at the end when it was very warm. (Photo is of us both at Six Foot Track Marathon in the Blue Mountains).
At home, I had a quick 30min doze on the sofa and a strong coffee, then had to go out and buy Kody school shoes, soccer boots etc and then take Jaz out driving to get her hours up in the evening (taking Dawn to work).
On Sunday I ran down to Burning Palms as I was on Patrol but the beach was closed, grrr, although it was really rough. In the afternoon I ran back up, then went running with Dawn later. Unfortunately as so often happens, we went fast and I was knackered when I got home. A swim in cooler water afterwards was lovely.
I am considering using Instagram to publish photos on my Bangla-Dash run, so was fiddling around with that – here are some I took:
My Instagram page is here: http://instagram.com/kevintiller
17-Feb-2013 Sunday
I was up approx 8am. Didn’t feel great as was still a bit tired from yesterday. Picked up beni & dropped her & kody at nippers at garie beach then I drove & jogged down to burning palms for surf lifesaving patrol – arriving just in time.
It was a perfect day but very quiet on the beach, few if any people. There were a lot of bluebottles. Eventually I tried a swim and it was fine (didn’t get stung).
For lunch I had 2 apples and a small bag of mixed nuts. Quite healthy.
Kody & Beni got dropped at the top of the hill & walked down & went swimming & played with a big blue ball (like an exercise you sit on). Eventually they both got stung by bluebottles. I also got stung on the lip when I went in the big waves.
After the patrol we walked out – always hot work. At hone I had a coffee & read the Sunday paper.
Approx 1830 jaz drove us all to Parramatta / Harris Park – Wigram St if you are interested – for dinner – we went to the Taj Restuarant – actually very authentic. Cheap & cheerful is our style but the food was good. Very impressed that the kids ate quite a lot of spicy food & enjoyed it. Home then bath & bed.
16-Dec-2012 Weekend update
Saturday by the time I got up (late – gone 9am) and did a heap of chores, it was approx 12 noon by the time I went for a run. 2hrs. to the burnt steps at the top of little marley beach and back. with a swim at Hordern’s beach. Was very tired & dehydrated, just like the old days !! Had a relaxing afternoon and went for a surf ski a bit later on (approx 5pm). I am getting much better and went around the buoy at the north end of Jibbon Beach. There was a biggish swell running so that was a new challenge !
In the evening I had put myself down as a parent volunteer at the primary scgool movie under the stars night – the Christmas Grinch movie. Its good to do the right thing sometimes.
Sunday I was on Surf Life Saving patrol at Burning Palms (10am-4pm). It was a hot & sunny day and I caught the sun. Went out on the boards a few times, and did a run-swim-run to keep a guy company AND was a rescue dummy for his proficiency. No real rescues though. I was well sweating by the time I got back to the car after the climb out. Lucky Jaz and Ko were going swimming just as I got home so that cooled me down.
9-Dec-2012 Weekend update
Saturday I got up late, did some chores then swam at the beach. I had to go to Surflifesaving from noon till 3pm and dashed off approx 11.15am. At the beach I was delegated to ride the IRB to Garie to drop off some nipper equipment for Sunday – this was a rare thrill for me, and the sea was fairly rough although safe.. Whilst we were there the Westpac helicopter came past and circled back then flew low and hovered over the sea. There was talk of a body in the water. We drove back towards Burning Palms and saw the body of a dead whale – we knew it was dead as it really stank. Soon after the other beaches at Era and Garie were closed due to large numbers of sharks but thankfully it was all clear at ours. The marine rescue boat towed the shark out to deeper waters. The day was pretty good, and I went out on a rescue board for the first time in months it seemed. I did ok by my own lowly standard.
In the evening we went to see the Twilight – Breaking Dawn film. That was mainly for Dawn as I don’t like that type of film. It was ok, just not my scene. The kids said it was “true love” to see a film you don’t want to see just to be with your loved one. yep.
Sunday Kody did nippers, but got a lift from Vitoria, so I did some chores, read the paper and went for a swim. In the afternoon I went running in Maianbar where I met Dawn doing her run, so we finished off together at a decent pace, much faster than I would have by myself. Then I went for a kayak on the surf ski.
22-Oct-2012 Monday
After the weekend’s exciting activities, it was back to the daily grind of work, even worse of course on a monday.
I missed my swim this morning as I was very tired and wanted to get to work early. Actually I am normally a late-starter 0930-1000am but I got there just before 0930 today, so most people wouldn’t call it early.
Today was broken up as I had a bunch of meetings in a different building in the cbd – you could call it good planning but really it was pure dumb luck (and saved wasting too much time walking to and fro).
I had 15mins for lunch and got some sushi from the downstairs food court – 2x tofu satay and 1x avocado.
I had to leave approx 5pm as I was doing a silver medallion life saving course at Wanda tonight at 6.30 and it takes the best part of 90mins door to door with some buffer for travel issues.
I made it with about 5mins to spare. The course is all book learning & discussion ie no water – with people from bondi & cronulla. It’s mean to be a 2 day course mon/tues but is now mon/weds. Home at 10pm.
21-Oct-2012 Seems like a long weekend
It started Friday night with Advanced Bikram, which I kind of love and hate both at the same time. I love it as it looks simple and I come out of it really having felt like I have stretched, pushed and pulled every muscle, bone and ligament I have. I feel so good. However I am just not very good at it and at least half the poses I either can’t do or do my own modified variant. A real bonus is that I can now do a headstand against a wall without collapsing. This person demonstrates my style in photos.
Afterwards I was up until nearly 2am helping Dawn with a work assignment (formatting graphs).
Saturday started too late to swim at Cronulla so went for a run along the Eric St Track and Jibbon Beach then swam at jibbon. It was hot and sunny and felt like summer – just perfect.
In the afternoon we went to buy boxing stuff for the girls – they seem to be turning the garage into a gym – and then clothes shopping for Ian’s wedding at Miranda. Aaarrgghh!
Back home I went for a proper swim at Hordern’s then did some more of Dawn’s work. Lucky we have a colour laser printer at home!
Sunday I was lifesaving at Burning Palms. I have to be there at 10am and left at 0920 – I seem to leave it layter and later. The sea was rough and still fairly dangerous. One of the guys was doing his proficiency today as he will away when the rest of the sessions are on, so a few of us decided to do it. It’s embarressing to report that as the seas were so big, out of the 3 of us, I was the only one who didn’t complete the swim – the sea was so wild I couldn’t get passed the waves. We did the rest of the proficiency – signals & resusitation. In the afternoon I retried and completed the swim – just – as they were still massive waves. Clearly I need more practise in big waves ! The high tide was very high and we nearly lost the IRB and flags a few times !
I dashed home afterwards as I had to finish of the last print of Dawn’s work before she left at 6pm. I was by now completly buggered, so read the paper. I snuck out for a quick 20min swim just before it got dark.
After dinner I cleaned up and watched some youtube on the big screen – clash remixes and the ramones.
I’d had a chance encounter with big chris stephenson at Miranda and mentioned my water sports to him when he suggested the Royal Challenge event in december – this was on my radar already, so I started to checkout some second-hands surf skis. Then I nealy fell asleep on the sofa (as per usual).
7-Oct-2012 Sunday
Daylight Saving kicked in last night, so I lost an hours sleep. I was surf lifesaving again and needed to leave by 9.15 but didn’t get up until about 8.50 so rushed around getting ready. It was a sunny morning and I dashed to Burning Palms to find monster swells and a closed beach. It was also quite cold in a string wind. It didn’t change all day but approx high tide at 1.30pm the water was up and under the Boatshed.
(Note the fantastic blue skies !!)
The good news is that as the beach was closed we got off quite early. I went home and immediately went out for a bit of a jog/walk along Bonnie Vale beach and picked up some rubbish. It was my first run of any kind for more than a month so it was a watershed moment and it made me very happy, even though I took it very very gently!
Afterwards I went for a swim at Horderns Beach where the water was warm enough but very rough with a huge rip running westwards. Luckily I made it out in one piece !
Very tired in the evening….. corn thins, homous and chili sauce to eat.
Reading this : AMANDA PALMER’S ACCIDENTAL EXPERIMENT WITH REAL COMMUNISM a fascinating read about music, the music biz, crowd sourcing etc.
30-Oct-2012 First Surf Lifesaving of the season
Today was the 2nd weekend of the season, but my first rostered on. I had to be there by 10am, so would need to leav by approx 9.15am, but got up at 8.45am and had a coffee and left at 9.20am. grabbed some apples and a pear and some tamari almonds and 3 medjool dates for lunch. I couldn’t run down the hill, due to my ankle, but still went quite quick. It was very sunny and there quite a lot of bushwalkers and surfers/people in the water. But no rescues. I think they are a rarity at Burning Palms.
One of my mates John picked up a load of rubbish from the Figure 8 pools and I agreed that after the shift I would carry it out and bin it properly. He is a fisherman and hates rubbish – like I do.
During my shift I went for a swim and as always the waves were big and dangerous. I swam out with a tube and did a practise rescue then took out a board and managed to catch a couple of waves back in. The water was very cold and I wore my wetsuit (short sleeves & arms).
After the shift I dumped the rubbish in a bin at Garie Beach and went home, then drove to Beni’s and took Kody and Beni down for the Pie, Mash and Pea & Ginger Beer night. Dawn came down a bit later (just gone 6pm). It was a good night and we left just before the 8.30pm locking of the gates so we could get out and home.
09-Apr-2012 Easter Long Weekend Blur
The weekend started off on Thursday night with Yoga, which was a good way to let the stresses of the week go (and there were a lot of them … much not achieved!). But in a way it was a bad way to start as it made me tired.
Up fairly early on Good Friday as I was on Surf Lifesaving patrol at Burning Palms beach. It went off quite well ie no rescues but we were buzzed by the helicopter advising us of a 1.5m Hammer head shark cruising just past the break. We didn’t bother to clear the water as most people were shore side. There were some big waves and I took a board out and swam a bit also. Afterwards I went for another swim in the big waves and started the laborious task of carrying out the family surfboards for the winter as this is my last weekend on patrol. Got home and promptly went for a swim and a boogie board with Kody and her friend as the waves were up on Hordern’s beach (a rarity!).
Saturday I got up early and drove to Cronulla to swim round Shark island (1.5km or so). The weather was great, the water was 21.1C according to the sign and the waves were MASSIVE. The group had approx 20 swimmers and we got smashed swimming out and eventually trod water and dived under as the waves came until eventually the set died and we swam madly out. Big waves at Shark Island too with lots of boogie board riders. Coming back thru the “washing machine” was tricky and round the point. I made the error of following someone who cut too close to the break and we ended up on the wrong side of the surfers – luckily made it out before we got smashed against the rocks. Had time for a quick coffee at grind (aka the best bloody place to get a coffee EVER. ANYWHERE). Drove straight to Burning Palms for patrol again. This time the wind was up and the waves were shite but still made it swimming.
Sunday I was back again for the club championships – I amazed myself by competing and finishing all events and not coming last in any! The Swim was cool (and I got soundly thrashed coming in 2nd or 3rd from last out of approx 15) and I nearly didn’t enter the board ride due to the big surf and pommy background but I did ok and even rode a BIG wave in. The “marathon” run was up the beach, tap a rock and come back, I thought I’d do well in but came in 5th from 6 – its a lot harder on sand. There are some fit people there! In the afternoon we saw a whale and Dawn plus kids came down. (actually Kody was there all day). Did Skype with Mum/Dad in the UK and also Ian my brother who is there on holiday.
Monday I had a lie in as I felt stiff & sore all over (just like running!). Made it out of bed to do the washing up as Dawn was working last night then went to Miranda to see The Lorax in 3D. I was very impressed and especially as it had such a strong environmental message.
Am not looking forward to the real world of work tomorrow!
19-Feb-2012 Busy weekend
I think I can safely say that this weekend I did exactly the sort of things I love.
- Advanced Bikram Yoga on Friday night – am improving (from a low base!)
- 3hr run on Saturday from Bundeena to Wattamolla & return. Hot. With Ipod and cool down dip in the sea afterwards.
- Dinner out with the family (Japanese, Hurstville)
- Surf Lifesaving patrol on Sunday at Burning Palms. Lots of dolphins. Crystal clear water, board riding, run on beach and swimming “after work”. Short bushwalk there & back.
- Totally cactus in the evening
Saw this video. I like it:
Kevin Tiller 
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