Swiss/UK flag bra, Moonwalk 2008/2009
This month I would like to tell you about a charity activity my wife, Katie, and I are supporting. Catherine Luke is going to power-walk the Zurich marathon on April 7th, 2013 in order to raise funds for cancer research. This event begins at 8 a.m. and will have an estimated 3,000 (without Teamrun and 10 km City Run) people participating. The Zurich Marathon also has a reputation for being a very fast marathon.
Why? The reason that Catherine is doing this run is because cancer kills and we are all affected either directly or indirectly by this disease. Catherine lost her brother to a brain tumor 11 years ago. Her brother, Scott, was only 36 years old and Catherine was 35 when he died. He left behind a wife and 2 sons who were only 1 and 7 years old at the time.
Catherine’s previous medals from 5 MoonWalks and 2 Race For Life events!
Catherine is neither a doctor nor a specialist care giver but she loves active sports and wanting to do her part to help fight this disease in all its forms she decided to jump in and help in another active way. Every year she power walks (speed walking without sticks) a marathon for cancer charities.
For the past 5 years her event of choice was the MoonWalk in Edinburgh, Scotland. The MoonWalk is a full marathon that takes place through out the night and involves around 10,000 women in decorated bras walking together to raise funds for breast cancer charities.
Butterfly costume for MoonWalk event 2010
This year’s chosen venue is Zurich, Switzerland. Catherine will power-walk all 42 kilometers or 26.2 miles of the Zurich Marathon to raise money for both Cancer Research Switzerland and Cancer Research UK and, to the best of our knowledge, Catherine is the only power-walker in the marathon!
MoonWalk 2012 costume – still raring to go after the event at 5:30 in the morning!
Her goal time: The time limit set by the organizers of the Zurich Marathon is 5 hours 30 minutes. Catherine is fairly confident of finishing within the required time of 5 1/2 hours around the 42 kilometer or 26.2 mile course!
MoonWalk 2011 event – taken at the end of the event at 5:30 in the morning!!
The Zurich Marathon is not a charity event but Catherine has chosen to power-walk this one to raise money for 2 charities of choice: Krebsliga Schweiz (Cancer Research CH) and Cancer Research UK. Catherine would be thrilled if you felt generous and donated to either of these fantastic causes on her behalf: “Catherine Luke – Zurich Marathon 2013”.
To make a donation you can click on one or both of the following links:
SWITZERLAND: Krebsliga Schweiz (Cancer Research CH)
OR
You can follow Catherine’s training progress for this event and see pictures of her previous efforts on Facebook by CLICKING HERE! Please remember that the Zurich Marathon takes place in one week and it would be great if donations could be done prior to the 7th of April event so she could see all the support that she has worldwide! (Of course, if donations come in after the event those will still be gratefully accepted too!) 🙂
As an added surprise incentive to Catherine Luke (she doesn’t know about this yet so…..SURPRISE Catherine! 🙂 ) I have decided that if she achieves her goal of finishing the marathon within the set time limit of the organizers, 5 hours and 30 minutes, I will double the amount of money that my wife, Katie, has committed to give to these charities. I think that it will be a great achievement if Catherine can finish within the 5.5 hours because that means power walking at a pace of 7.46 km/hour or 4.76 mph. This is a pace that I do when jogging my 10k runs but to do this in a marathon (26.2 miles) is very difficult. So, Catherine, as you’ve just learned you will get a double down if you can make your goal happen! Good luck to you and here’s to raising a lot of money for a great cause!
World Travels: Fiji Islands
Fijian Beach
Last stop on my round the world tour brings me to beautiful Fiji. Fiji is an island nation in the South Pacific ocean.
Map of Fiji
It is about 1,300 miles (2,000 km) north of New Zealand’s North Island. The country of Fiji is made up of more than 332 islands and only 110 of them are permanently inhabited.
Beautiful waterfall in Fiji
The two major islands are Viti Levu and Vanua Levu and they account for 85% of the total population of Fiji which is at almost 885,000 people. Suva, which is on the island of Viti Levu, is the largest city and the capital of Fiji.
Flag of Fiji
Due to the fact that Fiji has an abundance of forests, minerals, and fish resources, it is also one of the most developed economies in the Pacific Island realm. Its economy is mostly run by the tourist industry and its sugar exports.
Fijian warrior
Fiji’s culture is made up of a mixture of Indigenous Fijian, Indo-Fijian, Asian, and European traditions. Indigenous Fijian culture is very vibrant and very ingrained in every day life in Fiji.
Kokoda which is a traditional Fiji raw fish salad with coconut and lime.
The food, just like the culture, in Fiji is influenced not only by the native resources of fish, coconut, lime, and spices but also by Indo-Fijians that have blended into the native population. So you can expect lots of fish, taro root, yams, fresh fruit and a lot of it cooked with lime, coconut, and coconut milk.
The Point, Fiji
While in Fiji I went to this nice restaurant on the grounds of the Radisson Blu Hotel Resort I was staying at called “Cross”. It has won several awards as well.
Cross Restaurant, Fiji
I had their signature dinner which was a crayfish (which is basically a warm water lobster – it’s not as high end as the cold water lobsters from Maine but nevertheless, it was lovely) on a bed of bok-choy with mashed potatoes and lemon-aioli battered onion rings. I had a Nautilus Pinot Gris from Marlborough County to start with which was nice and crisp and then I had an Ogawa Pinot Noir from the same region to pair with my bottom feeder.
Crayfish on bok-choy with mashed potatoes and lemon-aioli battered onion rings!
Just to give you a taste of what Fiji is like take a look at this short little video:
Poker: Skycity New Zealand Poker Open
While I was in Auckland, New Zealand I played a tourney in the Skycity New Zealand Poker Open. First I’ll tell you what I learned from the experience about the way they play here from my perspective. They play pretty straight forward ABC poker, which is very good for me, since basically they play every hand face up. They bet only if they have hit something, if they have a pair, or two pictures cards pre-flop and they fold if they do not hit anything. Still it’s not too easy to play against since you have to make a better hand than what they value bet.
That’s the only (but tricky) task here. No big bluffs or wired plays, so at least you know that you have to be better than they are when you decide to put money into the pot. Another thing is that they don’t change gears, so it’s their standard play from hand one until they drop out or go home. Personally, I like that but there was only a 2/4 game with a $300 max buy in going on…so it was back to grinding…I like to grind but I like it way better when it’s for bigger stakes!
The tourney here went okay. I made the final 2 tables (no pay), but experienced some of the strange things that can happen in this game. After the break, when we consolidated tables to two and we were 18 players left (only the final table got paid), I got dealt IN A ROW: A-J, A-J, A-K, A-Q, and A-2! So I received 5 aces and the first 4 of them were big ones! I only mentioned the 5th one because I had to play it for all my chips!
I lost 4 of the aces in this wonderful sequence that might only come by in that quality every 10 years or so. You can’t really ask for more than being dealt 4 top premium hands in a row in a later stage of a tournament. You should chip up and have a monster stack after this sequence and a smooth sail all the way to heads-up play and top ranks too! Well…so the theory goes anyway!
I was NOT dominated in any of these hands (I was actually dominating all of them so I did not run into a better ace at any time), nor was I in any coin flip situation whatsoever. The opposite was actually true. I was dominating all of those first 4 hands, being somewhere between a 60% favorite (if the guy held two other cards) and up to 82% favorite when I was dominating with my A-K to his A-10…but I still lost them all except A-Q where I got lucky on the river hitting my queen after the guy called with 10-9 and found a ten on the flop which was amazing! So with the one I won I even had to suck out!
Auckland, NZ Skyline
So with about 15% of my stack left, I shipped it with A-2 (when I saw the 5th ace in a row I said to myself that I am almost certain that I will lose this one as well…but A-2 deserves to lose with an open shove since it’s such a below average hand)…however I didn’t want to waste more time and this A-2 after this big aces rundown was the relief for me to either double or triple up (if I got more than one caller) or call it a day after having this unlucky string of events. 🙂
Guess what? The flop came 3-4-5…no kidding! I flopped the world! One guy called my all-in pre-flop holding 7-9 of clubs. One card was a club on the flop and the turn and the river brought 2 more clubs!! Well, in days like that you simply have to leave and be lucky that you had a chance to experience such a thing because if you multiply the probabilities that you would loose 3 out of 4 premium hands you get a 15% probability that this could even happen!
No big deal! 15% happens quite often actually but what really puzzled me was the probability that I would get dealt 4 premium hands in a ROW, which is 1.0972E-07 or .000010972%! Now that’s really small (it’s like one-thousandth of a millionth or a billionth percent) which is very close to impossible actually so you can see here the impossible can and will happen! If someone can experience such a thing in real life it’s always worth the price! What a ride! Maybe I should start to play lotto if I can hit such (impossible) probabilities! 🙂
City Hopper: Auckland, New Zealand
Auckland, New Zealand
The next stop on my round the world tour is Auckland, New Zealand. Auckland is on the North Island of New Zealand and is the most populous and largest urban area in the country. Auckland has the largest population of Polynesians of any city in the world and although a great majority of the population has European roots, particularly from Great Britain, a good percentage are native Maori people.
Native Maori man performing in a kapa haka group.
One of the things that you will no doubt see somewhere in your travels through New Zealand is the Maori performing the Haka dance which is an ancient war dance used to prepare for battle and to scare their enemy. This dance is deeply ingrained in the Maori culture and you will see it performed by Haka dance troops, the NZ military frequently does it to see off their fallen war heroes, and most famously is the All Blacks Football team who perform this before every one of their games. Here is a short video with some history of the dance as well as a performance of it.
Auckland is one of the few cities in the world to have harbors in two separate bodies of water – Manukau Harbour on the Tasman Sea and the Waitemata Harbour on the Pacific Ocean.
Sunrise in Cornwall Park, Auckland
Auckland has a warm-temperate climate with warm, humid summers and mild, damp winters. It is also one of the sunniest and warmest main centers of New Zealand with an average of over 2,000 hours of sunshine per year. Auckland is also very well known for its perfect early morning calm and that’s when you’ll see most out people walking and running.
The ‘City of Sails’ a.k.a. Auckland
Auckland is popularly known as the ‘City of Sails’ because the harbor is frequently dotted with hundreds of yachts. It has more yachts per capita than any other city in the world with 135,000 yachts and launches. Also, about one in three households in Auckland owns a boat.
Albert Park, Auckland
There is plenty to do here in Auckland. First off, there are many parks such as Cornwall Park, Albert Park, Myers Park, and Victoria Park to name a few.
Auckland Art Gallery
For arts and entertainment there is always the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra that have regular performances as well as the Auckland Art Gallery with a collection of over 14,000 works. Another wonderful thing you can do is go up to the top of Skytower and see Auckland from there:
Skytower, Auckland, NZ
The view from the top of Skytower!
It’s a long way down!
Here’s a great little video that gives you a good overview of all the wonderful things you can see and do in New Zealand:
Charity: Change Heroes
This month’s charity I want to spotlight is one called ‘Change Heroes’. This organization has a really simple premise but it gets fantastic results. Basically you and 32 of your friends (for a total of 33 people) pledge to donate $3.33 a day for 3 months which is the cost of a cup of coffee a day. At the end of the 3 months you have all together donated $10,000 which is then used to build a school to educate over 1,000 children in Kenya!
My wife and I joined a friend of ours named Ron Neal who started his own campaign on Change Heroes and together with 32 others (okay we overachieved and got 35 people all total) we raised the required money to build a school (actually with the extra people the remaining money will go towards another school so feel free to join us)! I find that absolutely amazing and gratifying to know that such a small amount of change a day can make such a big difference in the lives of thousands of children in Kenya! Wow!
This is how it all works. Once you’ve either donated to someone else’s Change Heroes campaign or you’ve created your own campaign with your 33 friends and raised the $10,000 – the organization called Free The Children organizes the rest. They pick the village where your school is going to be built and they begin construction. All throughout the process you and your friends are all sent progress reports on how the project is going and when it will be up and running. Another really cool thing is that once the school is done you’re welcome to go and visit it yourself anytime.
So as I said previously I joined my friend, Ron Neal’s campaign. It currently has only a few days left of the campaign so if you feel compelled to join our team we would love to have you. All you have to do is CLICK HERE to go to Ron Neal’s Change Heroes campaign and join us!
Another way you can join Change Heroes is to create your very own campaign and get your friends, family, and co-workers to join you in building a school. You can create your own campaign with Change Heroes by CLICKING HERE and you’ll be taken to their website where you can do that. Also, on either of the links you’ll get more information on exactly how it works.
Now if you’d like to know some more of the history of how Change Heroes started here’s a great video from the TED conference where the founder of Change Heroes, Taylor Conroy, explains how and why he came up with this idea to begin with. It’s really informative and he’s really passionate about this project too.
City Hopper: Impressions From Sydney, Australia
Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Opera House
Sydney is beautiful and I wanted to share with all some of the pictures I took while there so here we go…
This building was really great with the greenery climbing up it!
And the architecture in this city is beautiful and clean…
The Star Casino, the only casino in Sydney!
The Credit Suisse Tower, Sydney
More Sydney skyscrapers!
Even some older architectural elements here too!
Of course, no trip is complete without a city bus tour and some views of the harbor bridge and those crazy people who like to walk on top of it:
City tour bus
Cool bridge picture…just don’t stand up!
The beautiful harbor bridge…
…another great picture of the beautiful harbor bridge…
…and these are the crazy people walking the beautiful harbor bridge!
Some more of the bus sightseeing tour
And, of course, there were some really great harbor pictures:
The Queen Mary 2
View of the city from the boat!
If you missed my City Hopper: Sydney, Australia blog from a couple of days ago CLICK HERE to read it. Next stop….Auckland, New Zealand! See you there!
City Hopper: Sydney, Australia
Sydney Opera House and Skyline
My next stop on my round the world tour is Sydney, Australia. Sydney is the capital of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia. It is on the south-east coast of the Tasmanian Sea and it has a population of 4.6 million people. People who live in Sydney are called ‘Sydneysiders’.
Hobart Yacht Race, Sydney Harbor
Sydney is the financial and economic center of Australia and as a result it has become a wealthy and prosperous city. The biggest economic sectors in Sydney are business services, retail, manufacturing, health and community services. Sydney also provides about 25% of the country’s total GDP and it is the 16th most expensive city in the world.
Sydney Securities Exchange in the financial district.
So what’s there to do in Sydney you ask? Well the answer is a lot! Sydney has over 70 pristine beaches including the famous Bondi and Manly beaches where you can sun yourself, swim, or surf.
Surfing Bondi Beach, Sydney
If you’re the more adventuresome type you can do a Bridge Walk across the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Here’s a little video to give you a taste of it. 🙂
Or you can go to the top of Sydney Tower!
Sydney Tower (a.k.a. Centrepoint Tower)
Sydney is also the home to the University of Sydney which was established in 1850 and it is Australia’s oldest university as well as the largest in Sydney so that’s something that you might want to see because it’s a beautiful building.
Sydney University, established in 1850
The most well-known attractions in Sydney besides the beaches, opera house, and bridge are the Royal Botanical Gardens, Luna Park, and Sydney Tower.
The Royal Botanical Gardens
Here’s a nice little video to show you the city. Enjoy!
City Hopper: Singapore, Singapore
Singapore Skyline
My next stop is Singapore which is located in Southeast Asia off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. The name Singapore is derived from the Malay word Singapura which means ‘Lion City’. It was named that because the person that founded and named Singapore, Sang Nila Utama, saw a animal he thought was a lion. In actuality there have never been lions here and the animal that was most like seen by him probably was a tiger. So you will see references to lions throughout the city because of this.
Beautiful sunset in Singapore
Singapore consists of 63 islands including the main island which is usually referred to as Singapore Island but it’s actual name is Pulau Ujong. Singapore has a tropical rain forest climate which means that it has no distinctive seasons. The temperature is uniform all year long (around 30 C/86 F) and it has high humidity as well as abundant rainfall.
Marina Bay Sands Casino Resort, Singapore
Singapore is consistently rated as one of the least corrupt countries in the world along with New Zealand and the Scandinavian countries. The economy of Singapore is known as one of the freest, most innovative, most competitive, and most business-friendly in the world.
Sentosa Island, Singapore
The country is the world’s fourth leading financial center, the world’s second-biggest casino gambling market, one of the world’s top three oil refining centers the world’s largest oil-rig producer, and a major ship-repairer.The port is one of the five busiest ports in the world. The World Bank has named Singapore as the easiest place in the world to do business and ranks Singapore the world’s top logistics hub. It is also the world’s fourth largest foreign-exchange trading center after London, New York and Tokyo. [Source: Wikipedia]
The Fountain of Wealth, Singapore
Singapore also has the world’s highest percentage of millionaires with one out of six households having at least a $1 million US dollars in disposable wealth and that doesn’t include any material possessions such as houses, cars, or property.
The Helix Bridge at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel & Casino, Singapore
So what’s there to do here? Well, because tourism is a big part of their economy the government legalized gambling and allowed two casinos to be built here so there’s plenty to do there if that’s what you like. There is also the Fountain of Wealth where many people go to make a wish as well as many beaches, shopping and, of course, great food to enjoy!
Here’s a little video to show you a bit of Singapore:
City Hopper: Macao, China
One of Macao’s Beautiful Resorts
My next destination on my around the world tour 2013 is Macao (also spelled Macau). It is part of the People’s Republic of China. It is located on the western side of the Pearl River Delta with Hong Kong across from it to the East. Macao’s economy is mostly dependent on gambling and tourism and it is considered the ‘Vegas of the East’.
Casino’s of Macao
Because it was a former Portuguese colony you’ll see that influence in Macao everywhere from the architecture to the food to the street signs (which are in Cantonese, English, and Portuguese). Portugal has been the administrators of Macao since the mid-16th century and that rule only ended in 1999 which made Macao the last European colony in China.
Street signs in Macao reflect the Portuguese Influence.
Macao is run under the ‘one country, two systems’ policy (as is Hong Kong) which means that Macao maintains it’s own legal system, police force, monetary system, customs policy, and immigration policy but it is still part of China. Just like when the British turned Hong Kong back over to China, when the Portuguese turned Macao over to China it was under the condition that it could maintain its autonomy. China agreed and the policy ‘One Country, Two Systems’ was born.
Ruins of Sao Paulo Cathedral
There are so many things to do here in Macao such as seeing the Ruins of Sao Paulo Cathedral or the A-Ma Temple which is the oldest religious temple in Macao dating back more than 500 years ago.
The 500+ year old, A-Ma Temple
The food here, like everything else, is a kind fusion between Chinese and Portuguese with the use of lots of spices. They tend to bake, grill, or roast foods which are methods that are not used as much in China. Tapas are an integral part of Macanese cuisine. The most popular snack is the pork chop bun and the most popular desserts are ginger milk, pastéis de nata (egg tarts), and almond cake.
Pasteis de nata or Egg Tarts are very popular in Macao
To give you a better sense of what it’s like in Macao here’s a really great video that I found online. Enjoy!
Culinary Experiences: Hong Kong – Dim Sum
Traditional Dim Sum, also known as Yum Cha
Here in Hong Kong Dim Sum is a traditional meal that consists of small bite-sized or individual servings of food. Dim Sum is commonly known as Yum Cha which is translated as going to ‘drink tea’ because tea is typically served with Dim Sum.
Dim Sum literally means ‘Touch The Heart’ because originally it was meant only as a snack and therefore only meant to ‘touch the heart’. Now it is a staple of the Chinese culture and especially so in Hong Kong. Many restaurants begin to serve Dim Sum as early as 5 a.m. and it is common for the elderly to gather for Dim Sum after their morning exercise. In many regions Dim Sum has a tradition of being a family meal on the weekends, particularly on Sundays.
Dim Sum usually includes various types of steamed buns, dumplings, and rice noodle rolls which contain an endless variety of vegetables, beef, chicken, pork, and shrimp as well as vegetarian items. There is also a customary egg tart that is frequently served as dessert.
Most Dim Sum is steamed but it can also be fried as well and it is common to be served family-style where everyone can try many different things due to the small serving sizes.
The wonderful lady that brings the Dim Sum on the cart!
Dim Sum are traditionally served in small steamer baskets that are usually stacked and brought to your table. In many places these baskets are put on a cart and rolled around the restaurant so that customers can look and choose what they want right from the cart.
Tea is usually served with Dim Sum and with it there are some bits of etiquette to know as well (they apply when having food other than Dim Sum in Hong Kong too). It is proper to pour everyone else’s tea at the table before you pour your own. A unique custom to the Cantonese when someone else pours your tea is to thank them by tapping your index finger (if you’re single) or your index and middle finger (if you’re married) on the table. This symbolizes ‘bowing’ to them.
The Swiss Rock 