I started picketing this week at the CBC building in Vancouver, at the corner of Hamilton and Georgia Streets. A pleasant surprise was seeing my name, along with many other on-air personalities, sketched out in chalk on the sidewalk. Today was our ‘Walk A Block with a CBC Star’ effort, and lots of folks turned out to support us as locked-out employees walked the picket line.
It’s a very different vibe walking this line than the one in Victoria. Sheer numbers make up for most of the difference. While Vancouver draws on hundreds of employees to picket and design websites and podcasts and even perform for passers-by, there are only about 20 folks in Victoria to try to get our point across, and the CBC Building in Victoria is not in a high traffic area. Still, we are developing a website there and will be doing a fundraising event soon for a local literacy charity. See you back in the Capital next week, guys.
Back to the main reason I’m writing about the picket line in this space is that I want to let people know about the kind of food that is coming into the lines and my efforts to lose weight while doing my picket duty. First step was to weigh-in. Scary:
I tipped the scales at a whopping 198 pounds. I figure I should be around 175. Now, I was fully clothed for this weigh-in, in the privacy of my own home I checked in at 194, so I still have about 20 pounds to go. Gee, I hope the lockout doesn’t last that long!
I also clipped on a pedometer for today’s strolls around the building. I wasn’t walking all the time, part of it was spent catching up with friends I hadn’t seen in a while, and Mark Forsythe (pictured right) interviewed my for a future CMG Vancouver broadcast/podcast. At the end of my four-hour shift I had logged 5.440 kilometres. I kept the pedometer on for the rest of my busy day away from the line, getting ready to cook at a friend’s birthday party, and added on more klics to get to 9.874. I hope to speak with a personal trainer and a nutritionist over the next few days to get a better idea of what I can do on the picket line to help me lose the unwanted pounds.
Part of the goal includes resisting the urge to chow down on all the treats that constantly show up on the picket line. Today I succumbed to one piece of red licorice and a chocolate chip/raisin cookie. Good things brought to the line included green seedless grapes and what looked like a yummy lentil salad made by my colleague Lisa Christiansen. She didn’t offer me any though…
That’s okay, Lisa, you were almost finished anyway.
Of course our colleagues at Radio-Canada outdid everyone, munching on pate and freshly-made peach tart.
Hmmm….Marie-Helene didn’t want to share with me, either. Maybe my reputation as a fearless food filcher has gotten around…more from the line tomorrow.
