Curling and Family, Friends

Up really early today to make the trek out again downtown to meet my aunt and uncle and deliver some curling tickets to the Canada vs Swiss and China vs Sweden semi final game at 9am.

Aunty and Uncle are travelling over the ferry from Nanaimo to Tswaassen then bussing from their to Bridgeport on the Canada Line and I will meet them at King Edward station. I was a little early arriving at the station around 7:30am so I just waited on the bench for them to arrive. As I head up to go to the bathroom I notice the scalpers congregating outside the station so I ask what they are selling single tickets for and they said $100 which is the face value so I decide that once Aunty and Uncle arrive I will just buy a single ticket for myself to catch the game - and I'm glad I did.

They arrived about 8:30 which didnt give us much time to get to the venue and pass through security before the event started. We stood in the line to pass through the security and we only missed the first end which wasnt that bad actually. We are sitting in the same section I'm just up a little higher than them but good seats as we are behind the house.

What a great curling game. Bernard had to make a great shot on her last one to try to limit the Swiss skip to getting just 2 points and forcing an extra end as Swiss had the hammer but on the Swiss last shot she wasnt able to hold her shooter and it spilled out of the house picking up only 1 point and giving Canada the game and a shot at the gold medal tomorrow.

After the event I went with them downtown to get some lunch and see the Olympic caulderon. I was also supposed to meet up with Ron Brinnen and his wife Pat sometime today. It just so happened that as we came up the escalator at City Centre station they were standing waiting at the top of the escalator so the 5 of us went for lunch at a great sushi place called Oisye Oisye. I was a little turned around on my directions and finally stopped into a hotel and asked the concierge for help and got the right address for the restaurant. A point that Ron was quick to give me a rough time about but I would expect nothing less from him. It was wonderful to see them. So after a short walk through downtown we enjoyed a Japanese lunch and had a great conversation about what's been going on. It was great to see them and I had a wonderful time. (Thank you guys for coming over and thanks for lunch)

After lunch I took Aunty and Uncle down to the flame and we took some photos. We wandered our way back to the skytrain and I directed them to the Canada Line and I jumped on the Expo Line and headed back to Teds hopefully in time to watch the Canadian women win gold in hockey.

I am sick and tired of riding the SkyTrain. I much prefer my 2 minute commute from my house to work in Armstrong. Sometimes my commute at home takes three minutes if there is a slow moving tractor in front of me!!!!

I am really excited for tomorrow as I am starting to get a little homesick and am really missing my wife and kids. Three weeks is the longest I have ever been away. I go away for 3-4 days at a time sometime with City business but never this long without them and it is really starting to get to me - so tomorrow that ends as Tami and the girls are driving down on Friday. We have a day in town then head to Seattle on Sunday with my brother Kody and his family then jump on a plane to Mexico for 12 days - YEEE HAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!

Clara Hughes Wins Bronze!

Got to sleep in a little today before making my trek from Cloverdale out to the Richmond Oval. I'm not sure how long this commute will take so I leave a little early to make sure I can clear security in time for the event.

I'm pretty stoked as I have never been to a speed skating event before and watching them on TV looks like the crowd is really into it.

I bus from Cloverdale to King George Skytrain, take the train to Waterfront, switch to the Canada Line then ride the Canada Line out to Aberdeen station. From there it is about a 2km walk along the river to the beautiful Richmond Oval. Proud to say that members of the architectural team that helped build Armstrong's new arena helped to build this massive wood facility and is this building spectacular!

Once I pass through security I find my seat which couldnt be in a better place. Right on the corner by the finish line. The Dutch fans are all starting to pour in wearing their bright orange outfits - they absolutely LOVE speed skating. Many are still depressed about Kramer's unfortunate disqualification yesterday which would have won him his 3rd gold medal but unfortunately his coach told him to take the inside lane on the final corner when it was supposed to be the outer lane and he was DQ'd.

Inside the oval the track officials are setting up for the race and the Dutch fans are already singing, chanting and ringing their cowbells. They are located 1 bleacher over from me. Two young speed skaters take to the ice to test the timing system and as they pass on their 2 laps to test the Dutch are standing and cheering for these volunteers. Then the Zamboni/Olympia machines pass to flood the ice and the Dutch stand up and cheer for the ice machine drivers - I cant imagine what they'll do when a dutch skater actually passes.

Time for the race, Cindy Klassen is in the first of 8 pairings, she puts on a gutsy performance but you can see that she simply doesnt have what it takes to be a legitimate threat for a medal and ends up in 12th place after the racing is over. We see the next 3 pairings each one featuring a Dutch athlete and the crowd goes wild beside me everytime they pass by.

After the 4th pairing they flood the ice again so more cheering for the Zamboni drivers. They have a commentator wandering around the stands with a jumbotron cameraman interviewing people in the rink. So the interviewer picks a couple sitting a few seats down from me. She asks them some questions like 'Where are you from?' 'Are you enjoying the games?' 'What events have you seen' and they both answer all the questions. Then she asks the guy if he has any other messages to his friends and family at home and he says yeah and he reaches into his pocket gets down on one knee and proposes to his girlfriend. Well the Dutch fans see this and they start singing and chanting and cheering and of course the girl said 'yes' so that was kind of neat.

Back to the racing. Clara Hughes is in the first pairing of the final 4 pairings. She skates an absolutely unbeleivable race. On her final lap you can just see the anguish in her face as her legs are burning as she glides down the ice. It is absolutely unreal how fast these people skate. Watching it on TV doesnt give it any justice as it is hard to judge the length of the straightaways and how in about 6-8 strides they are down the entire length. Clara pushes right to the end and posts a 1st place time and she is yelling and fist pumping and screaming in the oval and the crowd of Canadians were yelling just as loud - it was electric.

There were 3 other pairings to go. The next group finished under Clara Hughes so she kept her 1st place position. The next group had Kristina Groves and Bechert from Germany. Groves tried hard but I dont think this event is her strongest and she finished in 6th while Bechert beat Clara Hughes time to bump Hughes to 2nd. The final pairing features the world champion Seblikova of the Czech Republic and a girl from the USA. Seblikova doesnt look anything like the other speed skater girls. The other girls have these massive thighs and big bums that are pure muscle. Seblikova is this slight long legged girl who skates like she is floating. She holds the world record and has the track record. She skates an unreal race beating everyone by a couple seconds and is way ahead of the American in her race. So now all there is to watch is to see if the American is fast enough to put Clara Hughes out of a medal spot - she finishes the race and Clara Hughes holds onto the bronze medal.

I can see the whole Canadian Team along with the coaches and everyone jumping and hugging as she captures her 6th Olympic medal and ties Cindy Klassen as Canada's most decorated Olympic athlete. She does her victory lap with the Canadian flag and the crowd was going nuts. The Dutch were still jumping and singing and chanting for her as they cheer on everyone but they really appreciate good performances and they were clearly cheering for the Canadian girl.

A very cool afternoon to say the least.

I headed home to catch the Canada/Russia hockey game and the day got even better as we were leaping off the couch everytime Canada pumped another goal in on the Russians - what a fun game to watch.

I'm heading to curling tomorrow, however, I had talked to my cousin Paulyne in Duncan and mentioned that my aunt and uncle who are there too might want to come over and watch the curling and that I would let them have my tickets. She called me during the game and said that Uncle Omer and Aunty Carrie decided to come over so I am going to meet them out at the SkyTrain station on King Edward early Friday morning and give them the tickets.

A great night.

Sorry for the bad photos, I was by myself and had to ask someone to take picture so my eyes were closed and I didnt want to bother them for another pic. Also, speed skating pic is a little blurry as you cant run flashes in the venue.

Once I was the King of Sweden..Now I eat Humble Pie

Royalty - what a life! I could have named this post "From Russia with Love" as well as you will learn...

Yep, today I finally got a new post and what a posting it was. Today I was at the Guest Pass Centre where all of the guests to the village must enter by picking up the appropriate accreditation. In order to do so, they must be accompanied by an accredited person to enter, they must leave their passport with the accreditation folks and must leave the village no later than 9pm in order to retrieve their passports.

So the posting is quite interesting with lots of VIP people, media and athletes passing through here.

The evening started with quite a lot of hullabaloo as the head volunteer honcho guy came in to brief us all that the King of Sweden was arriving by motorcade at around 4:30pm. Just prior to 4:30 quite a few plain clothes CSIS security started arriving as did the Village photographer and several other VANOC people to greet the king. Sure enough right at 4:30 a motorcade of about 6 black SUVs with flashing lights on the front came driving into the driveway and lots of security RCMP/CSIS guys jumped out along with the King dressed in Team Sweden gear. They whisked him through security and through our post and into the village in no time.

About a half hour later I had an interesting encounter with a very burley Russian man. He was in his 60s I would say, a huge man, very sullen. He tried to pass through my post. As I scanned his accreditation it came up red on my computer screen which means that he is denied entry. He looked flustered at me as I told him he wasnt allowed to enter. He grumbled something in Russian to me and pulled out his cel phone and started calling people. After about 10 minutes of calling he finally left and headed back to Sochi House. He retured about 1 1/2 hours later. I once again scanned his accreditation and it still came up 'red' so I denied him access. I told him "No Access" he responded in a deep Russian accent - "No Access"! He grumbled a bunch more and pulled out his cel phone and began speaking with someone. Then he passed me the phone to speak to the person on the other end. It was a very polite girl who spoke perfect english who asked me nicely if I could just let the man pass. Of course, being the good blue jacket volunteer, I explained that he wasnt allowed to pass without permission. She said that she was giving permission and I kindly replied that I dont know who she is and what her position was and that only my superiors could grant permission for someone to pass. The girl on the phone said she would make some calls and get back to us. About 10 minutes later we get a call from Frederica our boss who grants permission for the Russian man to pass. Afterwards she explained to us that he is the Russian Minister of Sport in charge of the Sochi Olympics in 2014!! Oh well, we take our jobs seriously I guess.

The day went by quickly. During my lunch break I headed over to the ticketing office to see if there were any tickets for events available and I lucked out.

Some of the athletes who purchased tickets are selling the tickets through this office so they post signs up by the desk with the details of the tickets, prices and dates. All of them are being sold at face value with no service fees so it is better than buying from scalpers.

I notice 1 ticket for women's speed skating 5000m at the Richmond Oval tomorrow. I absolutely love speed skating and this was one event that I really wanted to see so I purchased that ticket. Then I noticed 2 tickets for womens semi final curling for Thursday so I purchased those two tickets.

So now I am actually going to see some events.

So with that luck I ended my evening excited about the coming two days off as I get to take in some events. We were dismissed from the job at 9:30 which was nice and I headed home on the long trek on the SkyTrain to the Gomorra of BC aka Surrey Central SkyTrain Station. This place is hell. Nothing but drug dealers, gangsters, scumbags - a really lovely place to wait for a bus at 11pm!

Oh how I love Armstrong!

Day 17 - O Canada - Damn!

Prepared all day for the big hockey game Canada vs USA.
Ted and I did some shopping and I picked up a new pair of prescription sunglasses as I need them for my Mexico trip and my old ones have been stepped on by your truly too many times.

What a frustrating game to watch!!!! What was with Brodeur and the cricket paddle clearing attempt and then the Ken Dryden style save attempt that looked like Owen Siddall on a Tuesday night 11pm drop in hockey night at the Nor Val!

Oh well, they did out chance the US and they hit a very hot goalie in Miller. My personal feeling is that playing another warm up game against the Germans isn't such a bad thing as they get another chance to play together and work on some chemistry.

My hope is that someone steps up in the room and really puts a fire under them as they need an Esposito like '72 rant to help them put some passion into their game. Oh, and bench Pronger.

Have to run. Late shift today.

Day 16 - Party in the Downtown

We did some shopping today in Everett before making our way back into Canada. We decided to try and beat the long border lineups and go to the Aldergrove crossing - oops. We waiting in line for close to 1.5hrs to get back into Canada.

Once we got back I met up with Iain who is a business consultant working with Askew's and we hit the downtown for the evening. He was incredibly gracious as we drank some wine at his place in Yaletown then had dinner and tried to get in the line up to see Sam Roberts at the Yaletown Live Site but there must have been 15,000 people trying to get in there. We crowd surfed for a while and ended up at a bar in Yaletown drinking very over priced drinks.

We caught the awesome fireworks show which started right after the Sam Roberts show. What a spectacular show.

After the show there must have been 250,000 people or more in the downtown area. A hockey game was out, Victory Ceremony got out at BC Place plus thousands of people partying downtown on a Saturday night made for chaos on Transit. I walked from False Creek at the Yaletown Live Site up to Stadium skytrain station but the line up was about 2hrs long so I walked from there down to Main Street station and waited for a short time and crammed myself onto a train. Ted was nice enough to wait up for me and picked me up around 1:30am.

I was supposed to be up at 4am for an early shift, however, I'm not going to make it on Sunday and am taking a day of rest tomorrow.

Day 15 - Lacrosse at the Olympics?

Yep, in my dreams but even though it is still winter I can still take in my favorite sport while down at the Olympics!!!!

I'm was off today and once Ted got off work we headed into the USA to catch the Calgary Roughnecks and Washington Stealth play in Everett.

Had a fun time even though the Stealth team didnt show up to play until the 2nd half with the score already 10-1 in Calgary's favor. Met up with Chad Pieper down there and had a few drinks together.

Day 14 - A Golden Day!

What a beautiful day today!

I got to sleep in, have a shower and leave for the bus around noon as I've finally figured out my timing for getting to the village.

The sun was bright, not a cloud in the sky and by noon it was already about 12 degrees and feeling like spring. The grass is green here and the krokuses are up in people's flower beds.
I had a great sleep last night. I went to bed around 10:30pm and didnt wake up until around 9am. So I was very rested and ready for a fun day and it was a really fun day.

I was deployed to the Welcome Centre again today which is a little slow now that the games are on and most of the athletes have already checked into the village, however, a lot of athletes use this entrance to get dropped off by their drivers and all the hockey teams including the Canadian men and women use this entrance when returning from their games as it is closest to the Canada House residence here at the village.

One great thing about this post is that there is a TV located at the back exit to the village so I try to get there right away so I can catch olympic coverage while I'm working. So I got to see Christine Nesbitt's gold medal skate in the 1000m long track speed skating event which was made even better when at 9pm tonight she came through my post with her coach as she returned from her medal ceremony where she got her gold medal. She was absolutely beaming with joy and she asked me if I wanted to see her gold medal. She carefelly removed it from her Team Canada jacket and unwrapped it from the felt she had it wrapped in - it was beautiful. Inscribed on the back of the medal is the event, date and her winning time. She said she was still in shock. It was a pretty cool moment.

Shortly after she left then Team Canada hockey team came through and Sidney Crosby passed through my post so I got to say 'great goal' after he scored the winning goal in the shootout tonight over Switzerland. He just smiled and said 'Thanks, I wish I'd scored on the first one" then headed off with his buddies.

I'm off for two days now and am heading down to Everett Washington with Ted tomorrow afternoon to catch a National Lacrosse League game between the Washington Stealth and Calgary Roughnecks. We are going to drink a lot of cheap American beer and stay the night and come home on Saturday. Should be fun.

(Sorry for the lack of photos lately, they have put a complete ban on anyone taking any photos in the Residential area of the village. This came into effect as soon as the pro athletes arrived. So I'm hoping to break the 'law' next week and snap some pics in and around Canada House and some pics of the village with all the flags everywhere.)