The Virtual Postcards of the Virtual Camino - Mar 26

I love getting mail!! But nowadays... the only mail we tend to get is junk mail. Nobody sends real mail anymore! So I was a bit excited when I signed up for the Virtual Camino trek (through The Conqueror Challenges) to learn that I would receive 14 postcards on my epic adventure.

Turns out they're not not "real" postcards. They are virtual postcards. And they are not "to" me, but "from" me... which is kind of odd. Sending myself virtual postcards?

Although... maybe the idea is that I send them on to my friends and family? Or post them on Facebook? Huh... never thought of that! 

The first postcard I received was from St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port - the starting point of the 800 km Camino Frances.

My rusty French would translate St. Jean-Pied-de-Port as St. John Foot of Bridge (or Bridge of Foot). But it actually translates as St. John Foot Pass. Which makes sense as this place is the starting point of the Camino... and pilgrims have been coming through here for over 1000 years.

The postcard says:

Bonjour,

I made it to the start line and I'm ready to begin my 480 mi journey to Santiago, walking in the footsteps of the past.

Time to start counting down the miles. See you at the next stop.

So... maybe I will post that on my Facebook feed... although it is a bit out of date now!

The second postcard came less than a week later.

This one says:

Phew, that was such a rigorous hike, it just kept going up and up and up for a full 12.5 mi. My legs are wobbly but enjoyed walking in the footsteps of Napoleon and Charlemagne. I think I'll have a nice long rest in Roncesvalles.

I completely missed Roncesvalles as I did my daily walks. Although... as I write this... I am coming up to Pamplona, famous for the running of the bulls. And it turned up... right on time!

This postcard says:

Hola Giselle! (addressed to me?? from me??)

Whose bright idea was it to go running with the bulls? It was the longest 800m of my life. Next time more sprint training first.

Ole!

Giselle

Meh... given that I am doing this in February/March and the running of the bulls takes places in September... this doesn't seem like an appropriate postcard! Hmph...

And... another postcard came on Feb 14! I was apparently trekking through Estella at that point.

I must admit, I do like receiving these postcards. They help to make the experience a bit more exciting.

And it's nice to see some of the places that I am virtually hiking through.

That bridge over the river in Estella looks super cute! I'm not sure how fast I would be able to do the Camino if I kept stopping all the time to take photographs!!

And... just last week, I inched my way through Logroño. My pace has slowed quite a bit what with various other life commitments. But as the weather gets nicer... and the sun gets up earlier, I am hoping that I can reinstate an early morning hike, which should really help my mileage. I am coming ever closer to Burgos and am about 30% of the way through the Camino. Small steps make a difference!

I haven't given too much thought to what to eat along the Camino. As a person with gluten intolerance... and who is trying to eat less meat... I think this might be an issue. But the food looks sooooo yummy too!

What I Let Go of during Week 4 of the 30 Day Minimalism Game

This is getting super hard. And I'm going to have to bump Day 28 into the next blog post as I didn't quite make the cut-off for writing this post!

Day 22

Today, we have a number of odd things... 3 more aluminium pie plates (from the stove drawer), 1 light-up trident toy, 3 doll clothes, 1 randome piece yellow ribbon, 2 jars lavender bath salts, 2 tiny stockings, 1 zipper plastic bag (not a ziploc), 2 pieces felt, 1 bent piece of wire hanger, 3 empty jars, 2 massage oil containers, 1 glass bread pan.

Day 23

It's getting to the point, where I can't take a group photo of the larger items sooo...

1 picture mat

1 batik wall hanging

1 picture frame broken

1 mitre saw

1 toy ball

1 weird velcro strap

1 purse handle

1 frisbee thingee

2 plastic store hangers

1 duvet and 1 rain jacket

10 pieces of clothing

1 tray

 And yes... that is 23 things. Ugh... getting seriously hard here folks!

Day 24

1 wool blanket - gifting it to a friend.

1 tripod - will try to sell on FB Marketplace

1 bag

1 bag - my Grade 8 sewing project - it's tiny and... it can go.

1 duffel bag

1 office bag

So that is 6 plus the remainder... 1 belt pouch, 1 toy ball, 1 camo scarf, 1 pile black fabric, 1 pile camo fabric, 1 fat cat harness, 1 cat gift box, 5 balls of cat hair from our previous two cats (sniff), 1 pile hazelnuts (they were cat toys), 5 fridge magnets

Day 25

OK... I think this is Day 25! As I took pics, I generally took one with a piece of paper in it that had the day number on it. But such was not the case here. But let's count:

2 over the door racks, 1 puzzle, 1 snowman, 1 tin, 1 donut cushion, 1 bathroom bag, 1 old sheet, 1 plastic container, 1 bag old Advils, 1 empty container, 1 piece of black foam, 1 card, 2 small puzzles, 1 magnetic Story Maker set, 1 wet suite, 1 mermaid tail, 5 stretch bands, 4 craft thingies (cardboard patterns and piles of yarn). Done!

Day 26

For this day, we went out into the garden shed. There's always something in there!

2 lounger chairs (broken)

1 old mat

1 old chair cushion

A kite (going to sell or donate)

1 broken compost bucket

2 balls

1 boating safety kit

1 plastic yogurt container

2 gloves - found one first and the other later (no pic of second one)

2 handle-less tools - ax and hammer

1 broken faucet cover

1 lost wine goblet

1 rope ladder

1 pile old metal wire

1 baggie with old scrubbies

4 old gloves

1 broken plastic tub

2 broken sawhorses

Day 27

Once again, I should have written these out but I'm hoping this adds up to 27!

3 throw pillows, 4 old lotions, 4 write-on fridge magnets, 3 other magnets, 3 rags, 4 cloth napkins, 3 random cutlery pieces, 1 necklace and 2 pieces jewellry (can't see them well in photo).

Alright, that's a wrap!

Day 28

About half way there for collecting Day 28, but will wait until I post Days 29-30 for this one.

How to Drink Enough Water??

I know, I know... I wrote about this months ago, well... years ago... and I thought I had this problem licked. How the heck does one drink enough water in a day?

The recommended amount is 2 litres per day. That can come from drinking or from eating foods that are high in water (e.g. watermelon, cucumbers).

When I go for a hike, or if it's hot and sunny out, I usually have no trouble remembering to drink water. But in the winter... and when I am more sedentary, I really have trouble remembering to stay hydrated.

I had this great system a while back. Every time I went to the bathroom, I would drink a cup of water. That would then make me go to the bathroom more often, where I would drink another cup and... voila... I was super well-hydrated!

But that little hack fell off after a while. Not sure why... possibly because it seemed like I was going to the bathroom every 10 minutes! My partner says my body will adjust after a while but... I don't think I stuck with it long enough to reach that point!

I do have water bottles full of water sitting around my office and... do I drink them? No, I do not. Unless I get a tickle in my throat and then I'm all over them!

Hacks to Drink More Water

There must be something that will help me to remember to drink water??? So I turned to Google and searched for tips on how to drink more water... here are some of the top ideas...

1. Add flavour - add lime, lemon, strawberries, cukes, etc. I'm not a big fan of that. I want my water to taste like water.
2. Tie it to a routine - like drink when you go to the bathroom. Tried that... didn't seem to work.
3. Challenge a friend - yeah... no... my partner drinks water like nobody's business... there's no way I can keep up with that!
4. Set alarms - throughout the day, to remind me to drink water. Maybe... 
5. Track it - well... that's possible. My Garmin app that goes with my fitness watch allows me to track how much I drink. 

I'm usually not a big fan of tracking things - it just seems to add a whole extra layer of work to things but... given how connected I have been to my Garmin app while I'm doing the virtual Camino... then this might actually be the time to try this.

Tracking Water Intake

OK, I am going to try the tracking tip. First step... set up my Garmin hydration tracker...

My Garmin, allows me to set my goal for the day and I chose the standard 2000 ml (2 litres). (I know the image shows 2129 ml - but I changed it to 2000).

I can then preset 3 different types of containers. So the first one is my morning tea mug (473 ml). The next one is my small blue water bottle that easily fits into the side pouch on my office backpack. It's the one I am most likely to take with me when I head out the door. And the last one is my bigger water bottle that rides in my backpack on longer hikes.

Given how much I am walking... I'd also like to bring the small blue water bottle along somehow. I don't really want to carry a backpack though for a 30 minute walk. But... I do have a waist belt that has a holder for a water bottle. I think it's time to dig that out, wrap it around my waist and bring the water with me. It might actually help me drink more water. At this point, every little hack that helps is something to try!

I know that so much of this is rooted in habit formation. The trick is also to make it as easy as possible. Right now... this feels doable... and it's one more of those small steps that help me to build healthy habits.

What I Let Go of during Week 3 of the 30 Day Minimalism Game

Alright, let's be honest here. This is getting HARD!! While the first 2 weeks were moderately easy... this third week is when the pedal hit the metal. This week required both my partner and I to do some serious decluttering.

Day 15

First up... we have 1 game, 3 puzzles and 1 meat grinder. 

We also got rid of a stack of egg cartons... 4 of them (yes I am counting them individually... this was a hard week!)

A bag of cloth masks that I bought as part of an SPCA fundraiser during the first months of the pandemic. We all know how cloth masks turned out... so 6 masks.

All for a grand total of 15... I should also mention here that, as the week progressed, we got rid of a bunch of gluten stuff (vital wheat gluten, real bread crumbs, dried bread, couscous, farro, etc) none of which made the photo cut. So if this week seems a bit skimpy... add that in here!

Day 16

This was a solid day... 5 picture frames, 1 black tub, 1 candle holder, 3 binders, 2 bags beading supplies, 1 guest book, 1 sachet of weird tea, 1 set of three movie posters and 1 empty Body shop box. Seeee... coulda counted those movie posters as 3 but... didn't need that today.

Day 17

Note to self... write all this out as I am taking the pic because... this is hard from the photos!! Today we have: 1 set of mugs, 1 bath salts, 1 beading kit, 1 lunchbox, 1 stained glass hanger, 1 candy sucker, 1 empty phone box, 1 set silver boxlets, 1 gold Christmas decoration, 1 pair pic frames, 1 bundle of Christmas jewelry, 1 key ring, 1 baggie beading supplies, 1 tin, 1 bag weird lip balm, 2 yellow mystery objects, 1 incense box. (I could have broken out the jewelry bits - 4 of them - but I can also assign them to Day 15 too!)

Day 18

Another challenging day... 3 small frames, 1 pic holder, 5 CDs, 2 boxes bagua mirrors (in two boxes), 1 packet weird red candy, 1 CD, 1 packet stickers, 1 wall hanging, 1 pic frame, 2 cloth masks.

Day 19

This was another tricky one... so 4 puzzles and then... well... I'm going to have to just say this includes a bundle of paper bags (we didn't count them before they went into the recycle bin) and a variety of food stuffs that just got tossed into the green bin without photos being taken! (ugh!)

Day 20

Today was an interesting day... we are obviously rummaging through kitchen cabinets and finding all sorts of things that have been hanging around for years and that we think we will get to "some day" but... nope!

4 maple syrup bottles, 3 random glass jars, 4 coffee mugs, 3 glass jars with weird tea, 1 jar coconut oil, 1 jar fermented black garlic that a guest gave us (ick), 1 baggie weird tea, 3 big glass jars. And yes... double check and that does add up to 20! 

Day 21 

Alrightee...  2 empty plastic containers, 1 maple syrup bottle, 2 empty jars, 1 small metal jug, 1 bag mystery food item, 3 pineapple peelers (we bought them in SE Asia), 3 aluminium pie plates, 5 glass jars, 1 glass pie dish, 1 smoothie container, 1 canning jar on the pie plates that a stand-in for the couscous that we let go.

And that's a wrap on Week 3. I'm not sure how Week 4+ is going to go. We are really having to dig deep for these ones. Mind you... we still have the garden shed as a back-up and I know that there are some things in there that we can definitely shed (LOL!!).