Yet another challenge

Throughout the past few years I've set myself up to a few challenges, sensible or not. These challenges, almost all related to exercise, were of varied degrees, realistic goals or even with a fair timeframe. There was the I'm going to start biking to work, no matter the weather - a challenge that worked out pretty good and lasted much longer than I expected. Three months later there was the I'm going to bike to the summer house work trip and back and shortly after that the I'm going to participate in the 60 km Blue Lagoon mountain bike race. All of these within the first 6 months of starting exercising on a regular basis again. I managed all of them with varying success of course. But I finished. The following two years brought on a 10 km run, another Blue Lagoon challenge, biking between two glaciers and biking the most popular hiking trail in Iceland. All finished.
And now, I've challenged a colleague to a fitness feat. This time around, it is the 100 day burpees challenge. In this, we aim to do a 100 burpees within 20 minutes on the 100th day of the challenge. In the days leading up to it we start by doing one burpee, adding one every day after that until we reach those 100. What is a burpee you ask? Well, a burpee is a full body exercise that tests both strength and aerobic ability. To perform, you start in a standing position (as per above photo), squat down and put the hands on the ground in front of you, kick the feet back to the starting position of a push up, lower your chest as you would in a normal push up, up again, kick your feet forward and then finally jump as high up as possible. Then repeat. 99 times. In 20 minutes.
This challenge is quite popular these days in the CrossFit scenery but has also been used extensively in marine training from what I can gather. There actually several very good exercises that follow a similar philosophy in CrossFit but most are of a similar degree, i.e. murderously hard!
We started on the 21st of February and so today was day 14. Now, 14 burpees might not sound like a lot, but believe me, I'm starting to feel them.
Wish me luck... I'll need it.

Labels: day2day, english, exercise, Jeddah, Saudi-Arabia

as written by Tobbi G. at 11:06 AM GMT

Blues
They call it winter blues, or winter depression. A mood disorder otherwise known as seasonal affective disorder - or, more brilliantly, SAD. I'll leave it up to you, beloved reader, to read more about it on various websites but if anyone is looking for a cure, there are special light therapy lamps that help battle the accompanying mood troubles.
...
And so it was, a couple of weeks ago, I went on vacation to Iceland. Yup, first time I ever went to Iceland for a vacation. And how great it was. I met up with a ton of family and friends, ate a shameful amount of food and cursed the crisis. A normal day in the life of an Icelandic person. I find it hard to describe the visit to my country as it blends together a bit. We did try to do some shopping but unfortunately the prices in that bloody country have just risen too high. Even with American dollars under the belt.
Flor had left Jeddah a week before me as she was doing the bi-weekly rosters for the cabin crew and chose to use the chance to do them in Brussels where we have a small outstation. A friend of hers is working over there, one who we met in Brussels back in November, and Flor could stay with her there. This also allowed her to jump over to Paris for a weekend to meet another Argentinean friend who is working there. I traveled up to Iceland alone but as luck would have it, my flight from Brussels to London was delayed so I missed the Icelandair flight home. I therefore had to spend one night a the Renaissance close by Heathrow which, incidentally, was smack full that night due to three weddings. Not a quiet night. As I had worked quite a bit in the week leading up to it I was absolutely dead which could mean only one thing. Oversleeping. Add to that some confusion in my head about the time difference so when I finally woke up I was certain I had missed the flight. I rushed to the airport and found out that check in had closed. I pleaded with the lady to let me check in who reluctantly agreed after the sobbing story of mine that I had been away from my beloved country this long. As the economy seats had filled up during check in she was forced to put me in business class. I didn't complain but she felt compelled to let me know I didn't really deserve it since I was this late.
As mentioned before, the trip was made up of events of eating. I can't even imagine how much I ate, all I know is that I added some kilos to my belly. I did also manage to hit the gym a couple of times and go for two runs or so - more to enjoy that part of my old life there than to actually exercise. I spent a couple of days in the studio, updating the computers there and catching up with the arty people. Met up with most of my friends and the major part of the immediate family. Took a quick trip to the movies, to see Inglorious Basterds - a movie my father, my brother and me enjoyed quite a lot while Flor was hindered to enjoy it as much due to Icelandic subtitles and foreign spoken languages. She did get a nice nap out of it though! The one thing I couldn't do was take a quick drive in my old car, a dearly missed friend.
Towards the end of the trip I was lucky enough to get a couple of shifts covered so I could add two days to the trip. Much needed although it meant I had to travel again through Heathrow (horrible airport now a days), wait there some 8 hours and finally travel on Saudi Airlines in monkey class for the nearly 7 hour flight down to Jeddah. Added to that I was homesick as soon as the aircraft took off from Iceland. Can't wait to go again, whenever that may be.
...
As for SAD, I wish there were lamps that brought on a little bit of SAD when desired. Call it a mix of being homesick and a masochist.

Labels: day2day, english, Jeddah, Saudi-Arabia, travel

as written by Tobbi G. at 12:19 AM GMT

I've stumbled upon driving heaven

So, on my crawling around the internets I've stumbled upon a beautiful piece of road for driving enthusiasts. This windy stretch of tarmac, set in a mountain close to the largest stretch of sand in the world, is simply too tempting. Located the Jebel Hafeet Mountain near Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates the road covers roughly 12 kilometers and offers 60 corners over 1200 meter elevation. UAE, that is practically in my backyard!!!
Getting to Al Ain is not the hardest thing in the world. In fact, it is about an hour's drive from Dubai, and 20 minutes more if you are in Abu Dhabi. It just so happens that Dubai is roughly 2 hours and 30 minutes from Jeddah by plane.
Of course, my research went on as I actually got quite excited about making the effort to try the road out. The shame about Dubai these days is that it has gotten insanely expensive. With a destination like the Jebel Hafeet mountain road you do want some nice accommodation but that won't come cheap. I hear however that there are far fewer tourists than before so maybe the Burj Al Arab has special offers going on.
However, a bed won't be the most expensive part of the journey. With a road like that, the car will have to be something good. I found the site of a car rental, Top Drive UAE, which offers some nice cars. Ticking off the measly models first I soon found myself looking at their Executive class which offers something like the BMW Z4. Of course the boyish nature in me wanted more so on I went to the Business class. The Porsches show up there offering close to the desired performance. But bump it up a class, to the Royal-eeee, and you finally have a Ferrari on offer. But just as the BMW Z4 was not the most desirable option, the price of the Ferrari is not really for one's wallet. 2,450 US dollars per day. Exactly ten times more than the Z4.
So, assuming sleeping will be done in the Burj for three nights (in a suite of course), the Ferrari F430 is picked for a day and a flight taken from Jeddah, the total cost would only amount to about 6,000 US dollars. Of course, with cheaper accommodation and the Z4 total price shouldn't have to exceed 600 US dollars. That is tempting. Tempting indeed.
For more photos and info on the Jebel Hafeet mountain road, visit Edmunds.
Another interesting piece of tarmac is the Stelvio Pass (famously declared the greatest driving road in the world by Top Gear), but obviously not as well located for me.

Labels: day2day, english, Jeddah

as written by Tobbi G. at 4:14 AM GMT

Tips on being in Saudi Arabia
During one of my numerous online searches for familiarity in Jeddah I ran across the following "review" of one's stay here. The reviewer puts forth some tips on being in Jeddah:

#2
If you're driving, find a way of looking in all directions. It's every man for himself.
#3
Traffic lights are there for GUIDANCE only. If you're waiting at a red light facing two busy lanes going across, don't be surprised if the guy next to you fancies his chances and makes a break for it.

Oh, how true this is. But man, it is fun to drive here.
Another interesting fact is that there are millions of rules here - yet no one seems to know what they are, when and how to follow them and what happens if you don't. More on that later.
And while I'm at it... I found a dedicated site to rating restaurants here in Jeddah. Say what you want about the place, it certainly isn't lacking when it comes to dining out! And the site looks quite good to boot. I better get cracking on reading reviews and then head out for some taste bud exercising.

Labels: day2day, english, Jeddah

as written by Tobbi G. at 3:28 AM GMT

Weather for the next few days

Labels: day2day, english, Jeddah

as written by Tobbi G. at 8:38 AM GMT