A co-worker let me know that there will be a rugby match between Cyprus and Azerbaijan teams this Saturday, March 6th, 2010. The game will take place in Pafos at Paphiako Stadium, which is opposite the McDonalds restaurant. The kick off is at 14:30. The entrance is free!
The weather forecast is warm and sunny with scattered clouds, which should make for a good day outside and easy photo opportunity.
Boston.com’s Big Picture blog runs a collection of more than 40 amazing photographs from Vancouver Olympics. Hard work, dedication, pain, and pride – both from the sportsmen and photographers. Stunning!
Updated: There is a second post with even more stunning images.
Glove Shoes (photo from linked article)
Daniel Lieberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University, says:
People have been running barefoot for millions of years and it has only been since 1972 that people have been wearing shoes with thick, synthetic heels.
Well, they weren’t running on asphalt for million years. And they weren’t running for the pleasure or the healthy effect of it either, I guess.
There are a few other things I disagree with in the article, but it makes an interesting read non-the-less.
I love it when people who can do something really well start to fool around. Here is a good example, a discovery of the week, so to speak -- comedy gymnastics by Paul Hunt.
There is more on YouTube if you search for Paul Hunt. Here is another example.
As I mentioned earlier, Masters of Dirt – world-wide known group of free-style motocross riders – were coming to Cyprus for a few shows. I went to see their show in Limassol yesterday.
Masters of Dirt (photo from Cyprus site)
In brief, I had an excellent time. There were a few people who were trying to spoil the fun (DJ Mousaka) or were not quite up to the par with the show (The Fuel Girls), but that was easily compensated by the Masters of Dirt.
Taking the unimportant out of the picture, imagine this: loud hard rock music (Rammstein, Marilyn Manson, AC/DC, and such), fireworks, and motocross bikes jumping off the rump one after another, doing all sorts of crazy stuff in the air! Pure awesomeness!
The show started with some warm-up tricks, which looked like anybody can do them, slowly progressing to more difficult ones and to group jumps in pairs and “trains” of four. After a little break they went totally insane. It was non-stop action from four riders, who were later joined by a quadro-cycle rider.
My favourite bit was when they did the back-flip progressions. I am not very familiar with the free-style motocross sport, so I learned a lot. They were calling for the name of the trick (“tsunami”, “cancan”, etc) and had two riders – one was doing the original trick, and the second one was doing the back-flip variation of it. That is the same jump and move while the motorbike was doing a back-flip in the air. Some of the original tricks looked very difficult. However their back-flip variations were in the “impossible” range.
If you haven’t seen their show yet, here’s your chance. They will have another show in Limassol tomorrow, Sunday, June 28th. I suggest you catch it. And if you have any kids – make sure they see it as well. Tickets are 30 EUR for adults, 25 EUR for minors, and entrance for kids under 6 years of age is free. I had Maxim (4.5 years old) and he enjoyed the show quite bit too.
Highly recommended.
OnThisIsland.com lets us know that Masters of Dirt are coming to Cyprus. According to the Masters of Dirt Cyprus web site, there will be four shows – two in Paralimni (Saturday, June 20 and Sunday, June 21) and two in Limassol (Friday, June 26 and Sunday, June 28).
(Photo from Masters of Dirt Cyprus site)
Tickets are 60 EUR for VIP, 30 EUR for regular adults, and 25 EUR for 15-year old and younger. There will be the bike show, fireworks, more show, and I guess the loud music, because the word DJ is all over it too.
We have a few people from work who want to go, so I think I’ll go too (Friday, June 26th preferred). I am still thinking if I should take Maxim (4.5 years old) with me or not. And there is always this question of tickets availability.
What about you? Are you coming?
Yesterday I went to see WRC 2009 FxPro Cyprus Rally Special Stage 6. It’s a 30 km long stage, which pass by the famous Kelefos Bridge. Usually it’s packed with spectators, and once the stage was even cancelled because the proper safety level could not have been achived. Instead of watching the rally at the Kelefos Bridge view point, we went to the Finish of the stage and walked down a few turns from there. It was an asphalt road with a few patches of gravel. Weather conditions weren’t the best from the spectators’ point of view – cold, windy, with occasional rain drops. But that could not have stopped true rally fans.
As always, I made a few pictures and uploaded them to my Flickr photostream.
Yesterday I attended the official opening ceremony of the WRC 2009 FxPro Cyprus Rally. It was a pretty big event with TV coverage, cars passing the podium, FxPro girls, and a concert of Sakis Rouvas – some kind of Eurovision star.
I didn’t take any good pictures, but the FxPro press center were kind enough to share. Click here to see more.
The surprise of the evening was that FxPro is not only sponsoring the Cyprus Rally, but also an FxPro Rally Team.
Disclaimer : FxPro is trade mark of EuroOrient Securities and Financial Services Ltd, the company that I work for.
Homeboy Media News lets us know that the Cyprus Rally is back this year ( official web site confirms the news). The even will take place between Friday, May 16th and Sunday, May 18th.
Takis Kyriakides, Cyprus Rally Head of the Course, said “the new route will incorporate old tracks, which have been kept in fine condition through re-grading operations and regular maintenance, and the new ones designed and constructed this year”.
However, the event will not be a part of the World Rally Championship (WRC) as it used to be during the last few years. There was a chance that Cyprus would come back to WRC schedule this year, but it just didn’t happen. Next year maybe.
Finally, my Christmas / New Year break is over. The gym was closing for a couple of weeks, but, as always, I had some troubles getting back to my P.T. The resulting two and a half month break devastated all my previous achievements…
Before I left the gym for Christmas, I weighted about 109 kilos and could run 3 kilometers for the first run, and another 1 kilometer after a short break. Today, when I got back to the gym, I weighted an ugly 116.5 kilograms. My running was even worse. After half a kilometer down the way, I noticed a really old woman in black coat with a hood over her head running nearby me. When I approached 1 kilometer, this woman picked up a really scary scythe, which was standing against the wall nearby. At that precise moment, I decided to stop.
I went downstairs for some belly pain. Here I managed to catch up with my previous results of 4 attempts of 30 exercises (whatever they are called), and then another 3 attempts of 10 other exercises. I had to take longer breaks though, and it was more painful than I remember it used to be.
Going back upstairs for the second run, I felt really tired. And noticed that the woman in black was still there, and still with the scythe in her hands. She looked like she was waiting for someone, so I decided to skip it this time.
Overall summary: 116.5 kilograms of fat, bones, and flash. 1 kilometer jog is almost fatal. That will need a lot of work to get back to the previous state. And considering that the previous stage was far from perfect, it feels like there is really a lot of work ahead of me… Ouch.
