Do It Myself Blog – Glenda Watson Hyatt

Do you know how many times I’ve heard, “’You’re so lucky! I have always wanted to <fill in the blank>”? That blank may be write a book, visit Harpo Studios (or home base of another idol), watch the RCMP Musical Ride and countless other aspirations.

Luck?

Luck has nothing to do with it! Living life to its fullest means living without regrets; that means stepping out of one’s comfort zone, taking risks, making sacrifices, following through and many other clichés.

All of this is not always easy; for example, my solo trip to Chicago for last year’s SOBCon: Biz School for Bloggers. A few weeks before I was due to fly most of the way across the continent, alone, I was in bed, in the fetal position, bawling out my eyes. I was terrified! All of the “what ifs” were flooding my mind. I desperately wanted to abort the trip.

Once I was cried out and dried my eyes, I ran through getting from Vancouver to Chicago step by step in my mind:

1. Take a taxi from home to the airport – I’ve done that before; the toughest is saying goodbye to Darrell.
2. Check in at the airline counter – I’ve done that several times before, fairly straightforward.
3. Get through security – Somewhat hairy with my possessions beyond my reach and even out of my sight, but…deep breath…survivable.
4. Board the plane – I’ve have also done that many times before; getting me onboard is in the hands of staff, I know the drill.
5. Fly umpteen thousand miles – Nothing for me to do.
6. Be without free access to a washroom – Causes trepidation in any middle-aged woman, but I did my research and was prepared with precautions, just in case.
7. Deplane – Again, something I’ve done before.
8. Find the nearest accessible washroom – I’m getting good at that!
9. Take a taxi to the hotel – Beth Rosen was kindly pre-arranging a taxi and might even meet me (which she did!).
10. Check into the hotel – Hell, if I fly alone across the continent, then I could surely check in at a hotel!

Suddenly what laid ahead wasn’t terrifying! A few weeks later I flew to Chicago without a single glitch.

Had I given into my fears, I would have missed out on my  trek to Harpo Studios, rocking SOBCon with my presentation and meeting the wonderful people who I met. I would have missed out on saying “I did it!” And that’s what living life to its fullest is all about!

Yesterday afternoon, amidst a wintery downpour, Darrell and I headed back to Surrey’s Celebration Site; this time to meet Mom in line in hopes of getting tickets to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Musical Ride. We succeeded! We enjoyed!

Thanks to Surrey’s Mayor Diane Watts, our Holland Park will have hosted 21 showings of this Canadian heritage experience during Olympics. Without Mayor Watts extending an invitation to the RCMP Musical Ride, this internationally-recognized piece of Canadian identity would not have been present in the area during the 2010 Winter Games. Go figure!

Also praiseworthy are the measures taken to make the entire park accessible to individuals using wheelchairs and walkers. The tent arena, used for the RCMP Musical Ride and the Agility Dog shows, has a wheelchair seating section with plywood sheets covering the ground, preventing wheels from getting bogged down in the thick sand. Sitting in this section, we had an unobstructed view and couldn’t be much closer without being atop the horse, to which I would not have objected!

The rest of the park has been covered with rubber tiles – no mucky dirty or grass fields with unexpected dips to navigate. The hard surface makes for easy wheeling!

Raised platforms – both in front of the main stage and inside Surrey House – provide wheelchair users with an improved vantage point for enjoying the many performances.

Overall, I am very impressed with our Holland Park and the work put forth by the City of Surrey in organizing and hosting this 13-day event, giving Surrey and Fraser Valley residents an alternative to dealing with the crowds in downtown Vancouver to celebrate the Olympics and Canada’s outstanding athletes!

Wow, what an incredible night for Canada! Figure skaters Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir made history by winning the first ever gold medal in ice dance for Canada, for North America!

I held my breath during their amazing program; more nervous than they were. Watching them skate their flawless performance, I wondered what music kept them motivated on their journey to the Olympic Gold? Which songs repeatedly got them out of bed and kept them practicing when their bodies didn’t want to go any further?

I then thought of the songs that keep me going, striving for my gold. and came up with this list:

1. Never Give Up On Dream by my fav Rod Stewart

2. John Parr’s St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)

3. Tina Turner’s Simply the Best – who isn’t reenergized after this one?!

4. Whitney Houston’s One Moment in Time

5. Peter O’Toole’s The Impossible Dream (The video’s audio isn’t the greatest quality.)

Which songs keep you striving for your Olympic gold – whatever that may be? What is your Olympic soundtrack?

Saturday afternoon – yet another beautiful day during the first ever Spring Olympics! – found us back at Holland Park. This time we went to see the Kee-Gigg K9 Agility Team.

I shot this rough video to share the experience with you, my readers. These dogs (and their owners) were definitely having fun!

We then grabbed a quick bite at the Jamaican food booth; Jamaican patties are flat meat pies with a spicy kick! Good though.

We headed home before the expected 20,000 arrived for the evening concert. I’m impressed with our small park in Whalley!

Wednesday afternoon – a spring-like day here on the west coast, not unusual for this time of year – I ditched watching Oprah in exchange for going back to Holland Park, currently Surrey’s Olympic Celebration Site, with my husband Darrell.

I’m loving being able to capture moments, from my eye level. I haven’t used a stock image for a blog post since my hubby gave me a Nikon Coolpix for Christmas ‘08. Me, a photojournalist – who would have thought it? But, that’s what blogging is all about!

Unlike LiveCity Downtown on Saturday, there was no lineup to wait in. Darrell and I wheeled right on through.

The first noteworthy sight was the long row of pot-a-potties, including two wheelchair accessible ones. These facilities aren’t the most pleasant to use, unless absolutely necessary, then they’re such an relieving experience!

The Surrey site has a winter carnival atmosphere, complete with cotton candy, pizza and hot dogs. The mini doughnuts were calling me! I’m still munching while I type, which means I’m twice as long on the bike while watching Oprah tomorrow. Oh well. We live once, so live it!

Unfortunately, tickets for the evening’s RCMP Musical Ride were already gone. However, the horse stable was open to the public. I introduce my current scooter to the inside of a barn! It has been a while since I’ve seen tack boxes, mucking outs and horse blankets. Seeing the city kids holding their noses was quite amusing; such woosies! I even got horse goober on my coat – yes!

I’d be ecstatic if the barn and the riding arena became permanent fixtures of Holland Park as an Olympic Legacy! Imagine being to ride again only five or six blocks from home. That would be so cool!

An outdoor ice rink allows for some good old-fashioned family fun time! Kids, young and old, don skates for the first time is entertaining to watch.

A clear day meant a clear night sky. I captured the moon for the first time. A beautiful sliver of the moon.

Inside Surrey House is where I’ll likely be should Canada play in the men’s hockey gold medal game on the 28th! Hockey and Randy Bachman – it doesn’t get any more Canadian than that!