Getting my body into shape was never going to be easy but it sure is turning into a nightmare.
Having decided to actually make the big effort to get this lump of lard trip ready I have devised an exercise plan. Since there is still over 3 months to go I have been easing myself in to it all, doing regular long walks, yoga and cycling, and listening to my body when it is tired. But it's driving me bananas! My body feels like that of an eighty year old - aches and pains and stiffness, hobbling around like I've done 10 rounds with Mike Tyson.
The back is probably the area giving me most trouble, with pain and stiffness extending down into my buttocks and hip girdle. Sometimes I'll be halfway through one lot of yoga exercises to discover that my back has stiffened yet again so I'll have to redo the series of stretches and mobilisations I use to loosen things up. Damn frustrating.
Of course I know what the problem is - my stomach muscles are pathetic, as are the rest of the muscles responsible for strengthening my lower back, the result of a few slipped discs thanks to downhauling sails on stiff masts.
Only one option available to me, since I'm stuck with what I've got. It's time to declare war! No more being nice. Yes rests are important, but no more rest days. Those back muscles must be brought up to speed, so they are now on daily bootcamp.
Don't get me wrong, I'm really enjoying the walking etc and pushing myself to go further and faster, despite the nasty blister campaign that my heels are subjecting me to. But if I didn't have a goal, I'd be struggling to keep up the intensity. It just ain't nice hobbling round like an old lady.
Thank goodness for those regular massages.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Why Sumatra?
A few years ago my New York friend Naomi introduced me to the delights of diving in Indonesia. On my first trip - to Raja Empat, yes I started at the top - we watched a fascinating video about a group of young men who followed in the footsteps of an explorer who had travelled Indonesia in the mid 1800s. The video was from the 1970s, and the conditions those young men endured were pretty primitive indeed. It appeared little had changed in the intervening 120 years.
The explorer was a British naturalist called Alfred Russell Wallace, who had travelled throughout the region for 8 years, travelling by boat and land from Singapore right through to Papua. By his own account he travelled 14,000 miles making 60-70 separate journeys. He observed both the people and the flora and fauna, describing both the massive biodiversity and the distinct differences between the islands in relation to the spread and distribution of certain mammals, birds and insects. He concluded that certain parts of Indonesia had been connected to Asia, and others to Australia, that some islands had been cutoff for longer than others, such that animals had evolved differently, and explained why some were only found on certain islands but not on others.
So what? you say, what's new? Well this was the mid 1800s, when a certain English naturalist called Charles Darwin had not yet published his great book "The Origin of Species". Some believe that Darwin may have borrowed some of Wallace's insights to inform his own research, as the two were indeed in correspondence with each other. I imagine the two sitting around at the Royal Geographical Society chewing the cud and discussing their findings over dinner and a glass of port, tossing theories around like two great colleagues of science. Wallace dedicates his book "The Malay Archipelago" to Darwin "not only as a token of personal esteem and friendship but also to express my deep admiration for his Genius and his Works". I do hope Darwin returned the favour!!
I'd never heard of Wallace, which I think is a real shame as I really do believe he deserves equal billing with Darwin. Naomi gave me his book to read, which is a rather dry scientific tome taking some perseverence to conquer. He was quite a man. Off he went into the jungles, with a smattering of knowledge of the local Malay language, employed local people to collect specimens, and wrote some pretty derogatory comments about quite alot of them. He did, of course, kill alot of animals, from orangutans through to birds of paradise, thousands of bugs and butterflies etc etc. My modern sensibilities railed at his innate racism and killing sprees, but over the course of the book you get to follow a journey with this fascinating man, where he questions the west's take on society and wonders whether the life of the simple Malay or Papuan villager is in fact the more sensible one. Next time I visit England, I intend to search out his collections which he donated to the British Museum.
Wallace only went to Eastern Sumatra, in the region of Palembang, where he saw many beautiful butterflies and Hornbill birds as well as rhinoceros and flying lemur. He missed seeing orangutan, because he didn't travel to the northwest "a part of the island entirely in the hands of native rulers". He got his fair share of them in Borneo though!!
What inspires me most about Wallace is his curiosity and eventual compassion, both for the natural surroundings and for the cultures he encountered. Not only did he document the flora and fauna, but he also documented words in 59 different languages throughout the archipelago, with the acute understanding that with increased trade with the west, language and culture would be lost. A man ahead of his time, I salute you Mr Wallace.
The explorer was a British naturalist called Alfred Russell Wallace, who had travelled throughout the region for 8 years, travelling by boat and land from Singapore right through to Papua. By his own account he travelled 14,000 miles making 60-70 separate journeys. He observed both the people and the flora and fauna, describing both the massive biodiversity and the distinct differences between the islands in relation to the spread and distribution of certain mammals, birds and insects. He concluded that certain parts of Indonesia had been connected to Asia, and others to Australia, that some islands had been cutoff for longer than others, such that animals had evolved differently, and explained why some were only found on certain islands but not on others.
So what? you say, what's new? Well this was the mid 1800s, when a certain English naturalist called Charles Darwin had not yet published his great book "The Origin of Species". Some believe that Darwin may have borrowed some of Wallace's insights to inform his own research, as the two were indeed in correspondence with each other. I imagine the two sitting around at the Royal Geographical Society chewing the cud and discussing their findings over dinner and a glass of port, tossing theories around like two great colleagues of science. Wallace dedicates his book "The Malay Archipelago" to Darwin "not only as a token of personal esteem and friendship but also to express my deep admiration for his Genius and his Works". I do hope Darwin returned the favour!!
I'd never heard of Wallace, which I think is a real shame as I really do believe he deserves equal billing with Darwin. Naomi gave me his book to read, which is a rather dry scientific tome taking some perseverence to conquer. He was quite a man. Off he went into the jungles, with a smattering of knowledge of the local Malay language, employed local people to collect specimens, and wrote some pretty derogatory comments about quite alot of them. He did, of course, kill alot of animals, from orangutans through to birds of paradise, thousands of bugs and butterflies etc etc. My modern sensibilities railed at his innate racism and killing sprees, but over the course of the book you get to follow a journey with this fascinating man, where he questions the west's take on society and wonders whether the life of the simple Malay or Papuan villager is in fact the more sensible one. Next time I visit England, I intend to search out his collections which he donated to the British Museum.
Wallace only went to Eastern Sumatra, in the region of Palembang, where he saw many beautiful butterflies and Hornbill birds as well as rhinoceros and flying lemur. He missed seeing orangutan, because he didn't travel to the northwest "a part of the island entirely in the hands of native rulers". He got his fair share of them in Borneo though!!
What inspires me most about Wallace is his curiosity and eventual compassion, both for the natural surroundings and for the cultures he encountered. Not only did he document the flora and fauna, but he also documented words in 59 different languages throughout the archipelago, with the acute understanding that with increased trade with the west, language and culture would be lost. A man ahead of his time, I salute you Mr Wallace.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)