I am currently off for 3 days so I took Friday to sleep in a little and just relax. I waited excitedly for the Opening Ceremonies to start on TV and enjoyed watching them as much as I enjoyed attending the rehearsal.
There were a few changes to the program that I noticed from the rehearsal on Wednesday night. After some publicity on the national anthem being a little over embellished I did notice that it was toned down a little which was good.
Several of my predictions were correct:
Who would light the cauldron?
My guess was always Gretzky and I was mostly correct. However, I did like the symbollism of having a team light the torch together (despite the fact that Catriona Lemay Doan's pillar didnt rise up).
Who would bring the torch into BC Place and who would they hand the torch to in the relay inside BC Place?
My prediction was Rick Hansen, Nancy Greene, Bobby Orr, Steve Nash, Gaetan Boucher, Catriona Lemay Doan and I was mostly right on that one.
Who would carry in the Olympic flag?
My prediction was Bobby Orr, Betty Fox, but not Ann Murray, Donald Sutherland, the astronaut and the humanitarian.
What/Where is the cauldron? My prediction was that the caldron would be located outdoors as I couldnt see a large burning flame lit inside BC Place as the dome would fill with noxious fumes over time so I figured it would be outside somewhere. Also, every media outlet in the world wants to film the olympic flame burning outside in their evening shots so it had to be located outdoors somewhere. I thought that they might put natural gas jets all around the perimeter of the roof of BC Place and have the whole circumference of the dome alight with flame - which would be pretty spectacular...but the artsy iceberg calderon down in Jack Poole square is cool enough.
During the rehearsal, the part where the aerialist runs through the wheat fields of the prairies to the Joni Mitchell song 'Both sides now', was performed using canned/recorded music. As all of the other songs during the ceremony were performed with actual artists present I thought that was a little strange. It made me think that perhaps the producers were holding back one performer from us perhaps an internationally famous French Canadian female artist who spent a lot of time in Las Vegas, initials CD, would make a surprise appearance but I was wrong on that one too. I think we'll see Celine at the closing ceremony. I also think, although it is horrifically cliche, that if the men win gold in hockey, Stompin' Tom Connor will sing the Hockey Song sometime during the performance - just like at the Sydney games with Waltzing Mathilda was sung by some folksy performer of theirs.
On Saturday we headed downtown to see some of the various pavillions that have been set up. We started at the Russky Dom where the Russians are promoting the 2014 games in Sochi. Quite a large pavillion. Lots of promo stuff in there with a media centre and bars of course. I got to see Vladislav Tretiak and took a picture of the top of his head.
We went through the Saskatchewan pavillion and the Quebec pavillion and waited around for about 1.5 hrs to see a 5 minute 4D movie at the Ontario pavillion. Nothing to write home about. Perhaps they'll be interesting for people from outside of the country.
We then wandered up town and had dinner at a sushi restaurant recommended to me by one of the volunteers who lives in Yaletown and it was excellent. That restaurant was only a few blocks from where the olympic cauldron is located by the International Broadcast Centre so we walked down and took photos by the flame. I have to say that I was a little disappointed with the 10 foot chain link fence keeping people back about 200 feet from the cauldron. I guess with some of those black masked anarchy cowards wandering around town acting like clowns they have to be careful. (I liked the guy on the news tonight who stepped into the street and picked up the newspaper stand that was knocked over by those idiots and said 'come on let's go get 'em' trying to rally the pro olympic people to do some vigilantism.) I fully respect peaceful protesters and their right to have an opinion but those bandana wearing cowards should be rounded up and put in jail.
We hit the skytrain and ended up in Surrey at their Live Site event and watched with a few thousand other people as Jennifer Heil won a silver medal tonight. People were disappointed that we didnt win our first gold medal but even she was gracious in winning silver and gave full credit to the American girl who clearly skiied better than her tonight.
Anyway, not much planned for tomorrow. We were going to head downtown again and see some of the stuff we didnt see today but it is supposed to rain pretty hard tomorrow and I have to work at 6am on Monday while Ted and Lesley have the day off on Monday so I dont mind just chilling, calling my wonderful wife and wish her a happy Valentines Day (I am very fortunate to have such a great partner and friend who lets me go on these little adventures and I love her with all my heart)
No comments:
Post a Comment