Tinkerblue

First Paddle of the Summer

In fact that was the first time I've been kayaking in years.

We used to go all the time. We'd take sandwiches and go after work, we'd pack up the tent and go camping almost every weekend in the summer. Then we bought an airplane (or two) and the kayaks were neglected.

They've been hanging from the ceiling of the hangar for years. Yesterday I brought them up to Sechelt. (Dave kindly lent me his - it's more fun with two).

I'm walking distance to the beach, so this afternoon. I strapped the wheels on the kayak and walked down the side of the highway to the beach. Caught a few funny looks from the passing traffic, but mostly beeps and friendly waves.

The hardest part was hauling 52lbs of kayak over the driftwood and rocks to get from the road to the water. But once I was on the water it was worth the effort.

It's a beautiful sunny day, a little breeze, small rolling waves and quite. Just the noise of the ocean and the birds flying overhead.

I spent about an hour out in the water paddling and floating and enjoying the day.

While I don't mind going on my own, it's better than not going at all, I can't wait until someone else wants to come kayaking. There's two small islands (Trail Islands) opposite us, I'd like to pack a lunch and paddle out to them and back.

I'm looking forward to kayaking fairly often over the summer. I need to buy a dry bag of some sort for my iPhone. Today I used a ziplock bag, not very effective - the last photo was taken with the phone in the zip lock bag, it's a tad out of focus. Also a ziplock bag doesn't float.

Anyone want to come kayaking with me?

BC Lions Home Game Win

I grew up watching Aussie Rules Football. 18 guys in short shorts. Full contact sport with no helmets, and no shoulder pads. Just shorts and a shirt, outside in the middle of winter.

Aussie Rules I understand. Kick the ball through the two tall centre posts, get a goal = 6 points. Kick the ball through the shorter end posts, get a behind = 1 point.

CFL (Canadian football league) or NFL ( National football league) in the US? Not a chance. And hubby is absolutely no help. If it doesn't fly he can't explain it.

Last Friday we had the opportunity to go to a BC Lions home game. Hubby knows a lady at CASARA who has a hubby who works for the Lions. Did you follow that? Lisa was able to finagle some tickets for us. The best part? The game was played at Empire Field.

Normally the Lions play at BC Place - an indoor arena. They are putting a new roof on BC Place and until thats's done, the Lions are playing at Empire Field. A temporary outdoor stadium at Hastings Park. (near the PNE, or near the Pacific Coliseum where the figure skating and short track skating were held).

I still don't understand the game but we had a good night. And the Lions won. Woohoo. It's the first home game they've won this season. Actually it's the first game they've won this season. They beat the Saskatchewan Roughriders 24 to 11.

Melbourne Highlight #1 - Twenty20 Cricket at the MCG



 

Hubby is confused by Cricket. He’s not a huge sport fan. He can tolerate a hockey game – it’s 3 twenty minute periods. But cricket? A game that lasts 5 days? And even then the match might end in a draw. It takes so long each day they actually stop for tea. And both teams wear white. How do you tell who is who?

Unfortunately for Hubby our trip home from Christmas coincided with not one but two test matches. So for almost 10 days there was nothing on TV but the Boxing Day test from Melbourne, followed not long after by the Sydney Test. Australia lost both. Which meant England retained the Ashes. Hubby almost peed himself laughing when he saw the presentation of the Ashes urn. It’s tiny. Nothing like the Stanley Cup.  He was beside himself. After 5 matches (each match 5 days long) they only get a pissy little urn!

 

The rules of cricket. Hubby just couldn’t fathom them. Caught? Bowled? LBW? Run out? Fours? Sixes? No balls? Wides? Overs? It was too much for him.  My family took great pleasure in his pain. To prolong the agony we even gave him Wii Cricket for Christmas and tickets to an actual match in Melbourne. He could hardly contain his joy and excitement. Lucky for him the Test Matches were all done.  So his tickets were for a Twenty20 Match.

 

 See the grass zamboni?

The Twenty20 Series is relatively new. Introduced in 2003 to create a livelier form of Cricket to attract more spectators both at the ground and on telly. Two teams each play a single innings, batting for 20 overs. A match lasts about 3.5 hours.  That’s about hubby’s limit.

 

 He sells hot meat pies from those black things on his front and back.

The match we went to was at the MCG, or The G as locals call it. The MCG is more than just a sportsground, it’s hallowed turf. Cricket, Aussie Rules, Rugby League, Rugby Union and Soccer are all played here. The Pope, Madonna, U2, The Three Tenors, The Rolling Stones, and Elton John have all packed the crowds into the MCG. In 1956 it was the venue for the Olympic Summer Games, and in 2006 the Commonwealth Games.

 

 The KFC Club - Colonel Sanders lives on.

So on Friday January 14^th, we made our way to The G, bought food and drinks, found our seats and settled in for an entertaining evening.  Hubby was most amused by the pieman, the KFC club seated below us (KFC were the sponsor), the cricketing version of a zamboni and the shooting flames.  He did actually manage follow the game too.  It was a close match and best of all – AUSTRALIA WON.  Woohoo.

 

 Australia batting. England is bowling.

 

 

Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race

The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race has been one of the biggest sporting events in Australia for the last 65 years or so.  It starts in Sydney at 1:00pm on December 26th, Boxing Day of each year and finishes in Hobart.  It is 628 nautical miles of frustration, fear, exhilaration, excitement and more.

 

The first year hubby come home to Australia with me was 1998.  The worst year ever in the history of the race.  6 lives were lost in a storm that decimated the fleet.  When Sayonnara sailed in to Hobart as the line honours winner the celebration was muted.  There was no champagne etc to greet the crews. It was more relief that they had made it.  There was a minute of silence for those who did not.

 

2006 was the next time we were home over Christmas.  And the first few yachts came in around 3am. Dad and I tried to get hubby out of bed to watch the finish, but it was no go.

This year... We were down at the Taste of Tasmania having dinner.  According to the official website and the news reports the first boat, Wild Oats, was not expected until 1:00am. Hubby was not sure he could stay up that long.  After dinner we were walking back to the car, and there was an announcement over the loud speakers at the dock, that Wild Oats had entered the Derwent River and was expected to cross the finish line at 830pm. 

 

With only 30 mins until the expected finish we decided to wait it out.  We walked along to the CSIRO pier with about 50+ other people. The CSIRO pier is right at the finish line.  First we saw the news helicopters, then we saw the flotilla of boats start to move and then hubby saw the top of the mainsail and finally we could see Wild Oats. She was still a fair way away. But come up the river fairly quickly and in no time she was crossing the finish line to cheers from the crowd, the canon firing  and the horns of every single boat out on the river.

We then walked back round to Constitution dock where all the media were waiting and watched them do their lap of honour.  it was not as crowded as we expected. We guess that the earlier than expected arrived (830pm as opposed to 100am) caught quite a few people unaware.

 

Snow, Skis, and Guns

Way back when Steph and I were talking to our husbands about the Paralympics. Neither hubby or Scott believed there was such a thing as the visually impaired biathlon.  So Steph and I bought 4 tickets to the Paralympic Biathlon.   Then Steph and Scott up and went to New Zealand instead.

 

So yesterday hubby and I headed up to Whistler Paralympic Park.  It was kind of weird driving in.  I was in my own little car, with no Vehicle Access Pass and no accreditation.  And it was kind of sad.  Our tent has already been removed.  It used to sit right beside the ticket box office.  And look now there's a big empty space.

During the Olympics , there were 3 stadiums at Whistler Olympic Park - Ski Jump, Biathlon and Cross Country.  For the Paralympics only the cross country stadium is in use.  Both the cross country and the biathlon events will be held in the one stadium.

 

• Athletes are categorized as standing, sitting or visually impaired and compete against athletes with similar disabilities
• visually impaired skiers ski with a guide
• Paralympic biathletes always shoot from the prone position
• Visually impaired skiers use a an acoustic system for shooting that uses differing tone as the rifle is aimed towards the bullseye
• The bullseye is 15mm in diameter, there are 5 targets all in a row, the distance between the skier and the targets is 10 metres.

Yesterday we watched the qualification and finals of the men's and women's 2.4km pursuit sitting, 3km pursuit standing and 3km visually impaired. I'm pretty sure there were no Aussies in any of the events, but we did get to see a couple of Canadians, including Brian McKeever and his brother and guide Robin. They finished 6th.

 

After the event was complete we headed into Whistler to have a burger and beer at the Brewpub.

 

 and stopped in briefly at the Medals Plaza to say hi to the boys before heading back to Vancouver.

 

 

 

Ski Jump

What in the world makes someone want to take up ski jumping?  The thought of it terrifies me.  But it's exciting to watch.  The ski jump stadium is one of the venue where I am responsible for the retail tents. 

Our first day of competition, the qualifying round, was Friday morning before the Opening Ceremony.  The medal round was this morning.  In fact ski jump was the first gold medal of the Games.

I'm pretty sure there weren't any Australian jumpers, but there were definately some Aussies in the crowd.

And our ski jump kiosk was busy for most of the day.  Spectators bought a lot of cowbells.

 

 

Whistler Olympic Park - home of Ski Jumping, Nordic Combined, Cross Country and Biathlon

(it's not a blurry photo, that's snow on the letters.)

I have been at Whistler Olympic Park for the last 3 days overseeing the setup of the retail kiosks.  they are looking good.  So now's a good time for a mini tour of the venue. 

Whistler Olympic Park (WOP) is a huge venue.  There are three separate stadiums - the Ski Jump Hills, the Biathlon Stadium, and the Cross Country Stadium.

WOP will host 28 Olympic events, that's 1/3 of all Olympic events.  Whistler Paralympic Park (WPP) will host 32 Paralympic events, that's 1/2 of all events.

Ski Jump - there's the normal hill, the long hill and the men's team event.

 image VANOC

Nordic Combined - as the name suggests is a combination of Ski jumping and cross country.  There are three events - two individual and one team.

Biathlon - is a mix of cross country skiing and target shooting.  Athletes need endurance, speed, a steady hand and accuracy. There are men's individual events, women's individual events, men's relays and women's relays.

image VANOC

Cross Country - Did you know there are two different types of cross country? No?  Well there is.  Classic or Free.  There are men's individual events, women's individual events, men's relays and women's relays.

During the Paralympics there will be Biathlon and Cross Country events.

I am quite excited about being at WOP.  There will be a lot happening.  I don't know how much of the events I will get to see, but I think the atmosphere will awesome.  And the venue team that I work with is a really great group of people.

A little more about the venue.  Venue capacity:

• 12,000 at ski jumping
• 12,000 at cross country
• 12,000 at biathlon
• 6,000 during Paralympics

WOP also has it's own website, go check it out.  www.whistlerolympicpark.com

Getting there:

• From Vancouver take the Olympic Bus Network.  The departure hub is BCIT in Burnaby.
• From Whistler take the Whistler Olympic Park Express from Whistler Village.
• There is no BC Transit to this Venue.
• From bus drop off point, there is a 500m walk to the decision point.  At the decision point, you will chose the path to the Ski Jump (400m), Cross Country (600m) or Biathlon (700m).

 image VANOC

There is a lot of interesting information regarding the terrain, the equipment, the snow making, the trails etc.  Take a moment to read it at Vancouver 2010 or at the Whistler Olympic Park website.

Mum, Dad, Dave and Morag have tickets to the Men's Long Hill Ski Jump on February 22nd.

Tate has tickets to the Women's Cross Country on the 25th.

Dave and I have tickets to the Paralympic Biathlon on March 13th.

Pretty sure Australia is not a medal contender in any of the Nordic Sports, so we'll be cheering for Canada.

 

Olympic Event Pages from Our Local Paper

 

My mother-in-law sent me this link.  Since the beginning of January the Victoria Times Colonist and the Vancouver Sun have been publishing a poster series on the winter sports.

There are 16 individual posters in the series and if you collect them all, you can create the bigger poster as seen above.  

 

Sponsor Commercials

Not only are the banners, posters and building wraps etc starting to show up downtown, around the venues and on transit but there are a lot of new sponsor commercials showing up on TV.

The Government of BC has a short and long version of the new You Gotta Be Here ad.

I like the Nike Destiny ad. It was the first new ad I noticed a week or two ago.

The new Molson "Tapped" ad

He Shoots, He Score is the new ad from Coca Cola.  It made me smile.  Actually I wanted to go to the pub and have a beer.  Odd that the Coke ad made me want a beer, and the Molson ad didn't.  (I liked the ad just didn't make me want to drink a beer). And neither made me want a can of coke.

And a new Coke Open Happiness ad, titled "Snowball".  Canadians causing trouble at the village.

This Wonderbread ad was actually run during Beijing 2008.  Isn't it adorable?

I swear I've seen a new CTV Believe ad with a bunch of people in it, but I can't find it, so I must have imagined it.

I did find the Channel Nine (Australia) Promo.  I like the ice hockey on Sydney Harbour, speed skating on the reef, and the ski jumping at Cradle Mt/Lake St Clair.

1 Month to Go

 

1 month to go, are you kidding me? I have so much to do. 

Organise the home office so hubby can sleep on the futon in there. 

Clean our room so my parents can stay in there for a month

Finish the craft room so Morag can sleep on the futon in there

Decide what the hell I need to take to Whistler for 5 weeks and what I can live with out

Work (don't even get me started on what I need to do at work)

Friends ask am I excited?  I am excited to see my parents. I am excited to see Morag.  Right now the rest is just stressful. Ask me again in about 3 weeks.

 

On to some more interesting news. 

To celebrate 1 Month to Go, why don't you try out some Olympic Winter Sports.  You could even win some prizes - A Panasonic LCD TV, an ACER laptop or a Panasonic camera.  Details are here.

 

And finally a pin winner.  All you had to do was post a comment here about the pins you collect to win a Coca-Cola Pin Trading Centre Opening Day Pin.  Apparently they are now sold out.  And a random winner was selected.  # 11 which is Chrisina Wallaert.  Christina send me your address and I will send the pin to you.