Yesterday a strong Soul flew away with the wind.
He will be missed, but his memory will forever be with me.
A brave man, who fought on the front lines of World War II,
A loving man, who told me stories while I sat on his knee.
With soft hair and a hard head,
We disagreed on many worldly issues,
But our love for each other was unified.
Fly away peacefully my Gong.
One day our souls will meet again.

I can really tell how much more work I need to do myself when others action or words hurt me. It makes it harder when that person is someone very close, because it is a human response to have hurt feelings sometimes.

Today started off like any day, wake up, exercise, eat then go. somewhere in the mix I got my feelings hurt. Then I got to begin the day over with my attitude and the rest of the day was great. Exhausting, but great.

I ate some very nice Ukrainian food, ran around the Golden Dolphin Diving Festival, then to the pool for some intense training. Then a long hungry drive home, upon arrival I stuffed myself with food and I am writing this as I am crawling towards my bed because I am so tried!

Pictured above is an outdoor pull up bar...

Yes it's about 3M high and it's snowing outside, but regardless today is my day for pull-ups. Because of my level I do my pull-up routine with the assistance of my legs so I get to stand on that lovely, wobbly, wooden contraption. As I have said before my exercises are challenging, but presented with tis as my only option to give my body what it needs it requires extra mental drive. I will add that the longest time I have spent in the relative cold in the past eight years was 3 weeks this Christmas on Vancouver Island where the temperature is about 3 C.

Since the World Championships in the Bahamas I have been calling myself a lazy, fat freedivier. I know it's is bad mental talk, but this was brought on by the constant flow of Cheesecake that I was shoving into my mouth. I had my reasons, I was worried about the competition, I was stressed out by my job at the time and Rowdy Boys cheesecake is one of the best I have ever tasted, hmmm guava topping, incredible.

At the time I knew I was over doing the cheesecake, but having a whole on in my fridge I was eating about 2 pieces per day. A friend says "A little of what you fancy does you good" so I was telling myself this too much. On my return to Los Angeles, I went to the Cheesecake factory where they list the calorie content of each piece. There was nothing lower then 900 calories and up to 1700 calories. Wow at that moment I truly realized just how much I was over eating.

Anyway I am slowing working all of the cheesecake off, between the pool training and my dry exercises I am beginning to see the definition in my stomach again. So positive affirmations, hard exercises and choosing not to eat candy every day, I am well on my way to feeling comfortable doing deep no fins dives again.

I started learning to drive when I was 14, I was driving on my own by 16. I used to love driving, I felt free. Growing up in Calgary, I got to experience the four seasons of driving. One night I had to drive in terrible conditions through the Rocky Mountain pass on highway 1. I was caught in a snow storm and I could not see past my bumper. The road was covered in black ice and I remember losing control of my jeep and spinning while watching 18 wheel trucks coming towards me from either direction, luckily I went into the ditch.

Since I have been in Moscow, I have felt similar fear many times, although this time I am the passenger and not the driver. Luckily I can close my eyes and take a deep breath while waiting to hear the crunching of metal, but so far I have not. It would seem that Moscow follows similar driving rules as Canada with a few exceptions.

For starters lines on the road seem not to apply to drivers. If the road is wide enough for 2 or 3 cars then regardless of the lines on the road, cars pinch by each other in a mad attempt to get to where they are going. Secondly if you do not know where you are going, you must have a GPS because it seems they only like to label about half the streets. In general if most drivers from Moscow were in the US or Canada they would certainly be given dangerous driving tickets.

The roads in the center of Moscow feel more like a bumper car ride than a street. I keep thinking that all of these people are crazy and have a wish to get into a car accident, but the reality is most everyone on the road drives this way. The must be the way that the people have decided how to cope with the mass numbers trying to get from point A to point B.

On the flip side, Moscow's public transportation system is incredible. The majority of the underground stations are more beautiful inside then most american buildings. Vaulted ceilings, crown molding, hand painted murals and stone columns are some of the architectural beauties that I have seen so far. I have come to equate subways with homeless people the smell of urine and graffiti, not in Moscow. People are commuting very orderly, standing to the right on the escalator, leaving a clear path on the left for people in a hurry. Considering over 6 million people take the transportation each day, this is something Russia has to be proud of. However if you don't speak or read Russian it may be a little difficult to navigate.

Today I was in the car for over 6 hours...exhausting, I feel worse for my driver.

I love watching the olympic games. Doing this in Russia presents a few challenges. Besides the obvious hardship of the difference in time, making live viewing of events very difficult, since I am 11 hours ahead. The channel that covers the Olympics is covering mostly the European athletes. I get very excited when I see a Canadian start. Plus all of the commentary is in Russian so I understand practically nothing. Most of the interviews are done in English, but they have the Russian speakers over top of the English sound.

It is pretty sad about the luge rider, I think even worse is that they are blaming it on faulty design and construction. I believe that people die when it is there time, it was that mans time and death would have come for him wherever he was. The truth of the matter was he was probably having the time of his life when he died and it happened so fast I am sure he didn't feel much. His soul is probably still wondering above the games and he has the best seat for viewing.

Anyway I am doing my best to plant my butt on the sofa and soak up as much lazy time as possible while I watch athletes struggle and work very hear. I really enjoyed watching the cross country skiing marathons, 10k for women and 15k for men. My favorite part was watching the athlete collapse after the finish.

I completely relate to them. When I used to dance almost every time I came off stage I did the same. Also after a CNF dive I do the same. No fins definitely doesn't seem as hard when I am exclusively training it, but if I do a CWT dive the day before no fins feels like a never ending journey.