Gold in Hockey

WHEW!We can hear "Oh Canada" from the "stroll" all the way to our hotel on Blackcomb Mountain. There is yelling and screaming and horns and whistles and I can't wait to get down there.

Olympic Spirit

There has been a definite change in the mood of the Athlete's village.  When the athletes first arrived they were sticking close to their teams and allotted beds.  You would only see them training in the streets and basically just sticking to themselves.  We are now seeing them leave the village with us on the no. 10 or no. 98 bus and believe it or not, they too are shopping for the red torch mitts. Many of the athletes have competed and are starting to relax a little bit.  (On a related note, many of the dispensers for Durex condoms we see in all the Athlete's bathrooms and the Polyclinic have been emptied!  I don't think I have seen any balloon fights. Nudge! Nudge! Wink! Wink!)


Canada by far has decorated their lot 3 better than any other country but we did see that Australia has placed some wickets in the rear of lot 5 (the Lodge) for cricket practice. Many countries have also sent a good number of their athletes home.  We are now wondering if the cooks in the "Promised Land" (Athlete's side of the dining tent) will want volunteer tasters to cook for!

We had a visit from Justin who is our Bell "Chef du Mission."  He also ran the torch in North Vancouver and he decided to bring the torch for a visit.  I decided that I had to pose the torch in front of those Australian cricket wickets as if the torch was a cricket bat. 

Justin, for reasons only he knows, decided that he wanted to eat McDonalds in the dining tent of the Athlete's village.  (We only decide to go to Mickey D's when we feel the food is too revolting and I have to admit we are pretty close to being extras in the film "Super Size Me!") As we were waiting for Maurizio to supply enough meal tickets, I held the torch in front of all those dining "smurfs."  It didn't take long before people came up and asked to pose with the torch.  Some of them even asked if I could pose with them even after I explained "the torch is not mine! I'm holding it for a friend!"


It makes me so happy to finally find that the Olympic spirit has filled the nation but more specifically, British Columbia!  I can now honestly say to Fiona, Catherine and their friends that I predicted this would happen (Read my blog from November 15).  I'm not sure if that is their experience as well but I can't guesstimate how many cheers and tears I have witnessed being in Whistler and visiting Vancouver (for my Fin/Ger hockey game).  This is all in witnessing the pursuit of gold medals for our Canadian athletes.  I thought "the stroll" in Whistler was crazy after a Canadian medal but I witnessed "crazy" on Granville Street walking back and forth from Canada Hockey Place (known outside of the Olympics as GM Place)!  After that Friday night (Feb. 19th), police in Vancouver had the liquor stores close by 7:00 pm to try and maintain some peace.  I watched as a reveller needed to be subdued with a tazor.  I declined taking pictures since the police were taking video of their own.  (After all, I know that the police had a box of latex gloves and were not afraid to use them!  Imagine the fun now with tazors!) Closer to the chalet, fierce Canadian supporters were antagonizing American supporters on our no. 6 bus before the famous game on Super Sunday.  When have you heard Canadians doing that, especially in laid back Whistler!  Maybe it's a good thing these Games only last just over two weeks!

Our Olympic Vacation

In California (and one place in Hawaii that I know of) many people talk about surfing in the morning and skiing in the afternoon. In winter, in the Whistler area, people talk about skiing in the morning and playing golf in the afternoon. Maybe it's because there are no places to surf close by. Joe and I contemplated skiing in the morning and personally, I think that was close enough to qualify (it would have been easy enough to strap on the skis and do a few runs on the learners hill). We decided to drive down to Squamish to play golf and take a vacation from the Olympics.

Our life in Whistler has been totally concentrated on this athlete's village and the Olympics. We, more so than the average public (outside of smurfdom) have been watching Olympic coverage almost non-stop since before the Opening Ceremonies, especially since we have the direct feeds from the different venues. The "I Believe" tune, with or without lyrics has been etched into all of our brains. I catch myself humming it when I'm bored or when I'm sleeping, standing up. I also generally have an irresistible urge to hum the theme for the "Smurfs" but that's another story.


We borrowed a vehicle from Dave and his media centre crew. It was something we didn't know we could do! We grabbed the van (and the Sea to Sky permit) and just drove south in the bright sunshine watching the outside temperature rise. It was conveniently displayed on the dash. The snow became a memory just after we passed the "WOP" (Whistler Olympic Park) and we arrived in Squamish to calm winds and 12 C temperatures. Perfect day for golf. Scores didn't matter, especially because they were poor and we couldn't blame them on our rentals (Nike Sasquatch--We thought it would be funny if we scratched in Quatchi, but we were on an Olympic holiday and Squamish Valley Golf and Country Club might not have thought it was that funny). I would have loved to have had my spikes (and my own clubs) but let's face it, we were playing golf in Canada on the 22nd of February. It was a good antidote to Olympicitis.

Beer Belly Gold Medal

As usual, Joe and I came down off our mountain and went for our morning "stroll." We got to visit "Celebration Square" today. Let me remind everybody that we had to work the 2:30-23:00 shift and the real medal ceremonies start in the evening. Our visit was a little more special because somebody (name withheld in case we get unnamed person in trouble) just gave us an all access pass. I, of course, was the entertainment and at the time of this writing, the only recipient of the Beer Belly gold medal. Actual medal to follow, once I can find a gold coloured metal can to crush and bend into a weird shape.

We also managed to find a real gold medalist today. We found Jon Montgomery showing off his crushed gold can, bent into a weird shape. He is such a ham:)!
If he stops exercising and stops launching himself head first down a ribbon of ice on a food tray, I will personally invite him to become the second recipient of the Beer Belly gold medal (BBGM). I watched him on TV training for the BBGM and I must say that he needs work. A true BBG medalist would have finished that jug of beer in a single swig and not allow the beer to get warm as he walked down the "stroll" being interviewed and in general, hamming it up.


We also found the memorial for Nodar. I'm not sure how it got there but many people visit and some leave things but most just pay their respects. An artist from Calgary decided to paint a memorial painting over one of his own canvas paintings. He drove in all the way from Calgary with no idea how he was going to get it to Nodar's father. He did find a "smurf" that could help him and I expect this painting will make it to the closing ceremonies. (Handy, those "smurfs" in a tight situation! Just don't expect to get in through the out door of the welcome tent.)

Not Tea, Just Burnt Toast

We were just getting ready to go to bed on Tuesday night (since we had the early morning shift on Wednesday) when the fire alarm went off. Realizing that my best buddy Jeff might not be able to hear this (since he was in the shower and listening to music at about 125 dB), I decided to knock on his bedroom door. He has complained to me before about my "courtesy rap" on the bedroom door to get him up in the morning and now I might know why. Through the sound of the fire alarm, the loud music and the shower, he was able to hear my life saving "courtesy rap!" Maybe I should use an open hand to execute the "courtesy rap" from here on in.

Now back to the fire alarm. We have a variety of guests at our "chalet" these days. We have several people wearing Russian uniforms that appeared coincidentally at about the same time the press announced eight athletes were caught on doping. I think they might just be reporters because we also have a large contingent of reporters, all from different countries. Of note for this story, is that once the fire truck arrived (basically to turn the alarms off), the reporters from Germany came rushing out to get to the bottom of this fire alarm story. If they put the camera any closer into the faces of the firemen, they would have come away with their DNA sequencing! Courtesy of their in-depth probing (one reporter asked, "What happened?"), we found out that a Russian from the sixth floor burnt some toast. I guess those Russians don't know toasters! Thank God they didn't try to turn the oven on!

Joe and I have been trying to spend alot of our spare time on "the stroll." We typically start from the IGA (or iga as Laura and I say when we're in Quebec) and walk over to the bus loop. Along the way we will try to "vogue" for the CTV, TSN cameras (and even the "beauty cams") that are planted along the way. Joe is getting pretty good at picking a spot over Kelly Vanderbeek's shoulder to have his moment on air. We have found that the "scalpers" stand around Celebration Square (just behind IGA) to buy and sell Olympic tickets but we aren't too interested in their wares. We happened to be near the Polish cross-country athlete Justyna Kowalczyk talking to reporters about her silver medal win. She was totally surrounded! (We also saw Alexander Panzhinskiy, Russia-silver and Nikita Krivkov, Russia-gold) Joe turns to me and says "Hey, there's Trevor Linden!" Trevor like us, was trying to figure out what the fuss was all about! It's funny that he is just another face in the crowd when it comes to the Winter Games.

Apart from Mike Lansberg, Kelly Vanderbeek and the CTV/TSN crews, we also found the "Access Hollywood" crew (as well as a huge assortment of European crews). It's funny watching the different filming styles as the 'AH' set was like filming a movie. We had Billy Bush doing a couple of lines and then Maria Menounos taking over the set and doing her lines. (FYI; I had to Google their names because although they look familiar, I wouldn't know them from Adam). There were cuts and retakes with Maria asking where her hot tea was in between takes! The CTV set went live, on air with just a "heads up" from Mike to Kelly to let her know what they were going to talk about.

A Good Gold Day

I had the early shift Sunday and to make it worse, it was raining. It was monsoon raining! We normally get a lift from Maurizio on these early morning shifts but since things are slow now, he has changed management shifts to more decent hours (8am-9pm).

Joe and I made our way to work and I convinced him that if we stayed on the no. 6 to the bus loop and then picked up the no. 98 to Squamish (this bus also turns into our Athlete's village), we would get to work sooner, but more importantly drier. One of our team was also on the no. 6 bus and she decided to stick with the no. 10. Well, I was right on one count but I think it was the most important one. Joe and I arrived, just minutes before 6:00am, fresh and dry. Our team mate did beat us by a few minutes but she also looked like a drowned rat!

We hunkered down into our trailer and hoped that we wouldn't have to go out on the "Gator" in all that rain! Then things started looking up! The rain subsided and out of boredom we jumped onto the wet "Gator" and went for a ride. We found about a half dozen black cars in a section of the Village called "Plaza Entry." We figured these were for Nodar, our fallen Georgian luge athlete and suddenly felt uncomfortable being in this section of the village. Back to the trailer, just in time to avoid another downpour! As it turned out, all those cars were for our Governor-General, Michaelle Jean. Back out in the rain and the wet "gator" to get as close as we dared and with all the security we felt uncomfortable reaching into our pocket to grab our cameras but we did manage to take a few pictures. The entrance to the "plaza entry" has a checkpoint and while standing out of the rain there, none other than Steve Podborsky walked through. He was shorter than I had imagined!

Since Joe and I had not done much sight seeing at Whistler during the Games, we decided to go to the walking village to celebrate Jennifer Heil's silver medal. We were told to visit our Bell Store because they were handing out branded cow bells. Sure enough we got them! We found our GLC (where Much Music sets up shop) was brimming to the rafters so we turned around and went to Merlins. We did happen to get a table on the upper level and set up with a plate of their famous cheese nachos and beer. Men's Freestyle was on the tube and the place erupted when Marquis and Rousseau were leading in first and second. Right about then the band that was playing started the Canadian national anthem. Everybody stood up and started singing. Our Bell "cow bells" were coming in handy. There was booing when the American Bryon Wilson took first and then more loud cheers from the Australians when Dale Begg-Smith took over first. I can't describe how loud it was, not only in that bar but throughout Vancouver, Whistler and Canada when Bilodeau placed first when all was said and done! His victory speech at the bottom of the hill, extolling his older brothers drive was icing on the cake.

We decided to go back to the walking village to celebrate and see if we could get on camera someplace and maybe get some pins. Again, those branded cow bells came in handy as the race results and Alexandre Bilodeau's run was played over and over on all the TV screens throughout. The walking village was packed! In typical Canadian fashion, a hockey game broke out in the middle of the walking village. I loved the look on the little guys face when "Luonglegs" got a penalty for high sticking! We also got a picture of our Bell team on the Omega 4-man bobsleigh but I liked to call it the Canada 1 bobsleigh. I got a picture of our mens luge team in front of the CTV studio. Sam Edney (Canadian men's Luge) placed seventh in an event that is measured in the thousandths of a second. They were signing autographs and hopefully inspiring another batch of future Olympians. It just turned out to be a good day!

Ceremony Parade

A terrible accident happened today involving the Georgian competitor, Nodar Kumaritashvili, at the finish line of the Sliding Centre. I had taken a few pictures near that spot with Joe and Mike a few days ago. My new camera takes four pictures every second. The slider was in only two of them. It just illustrates how fast the slider was going. My heart goes out to his friends and family.

There was alot of pageantry today as the athletes dressed in their parade uniforms gathered together and made their way to the buses under the direction of Christian. It made me smile (and proud) to see our beloved "smurfs" line the pathway that the athletes used to get to the buses which took them down to Vancouver. They clapped and cheered as each country, big or small walked past. It looked impromptu, so I hope it's something the athletes remember. I know I will.

I still can't talk about the Opening Ceremonies, but nobody said that I couldn't post some pictures of the uniforms the athletes wear to them!

Eve of Games

We have all looked at our schedules and we realize that the beginning of the end of our time in B.C. is marked with the start of the Winter Games. We have taken stock of all the "stuff" we have accumulated and wonder how we will get it all back home. Joe has looked in his freezer and found that his search for bargains at the butcher shop has put him in peril of not being able to consume his stock before his trip home. Joe figures he should have just enough as long as he becomes a "meatatarian." The rest of us have volunteered to help him with that noble quest.


We are all looking at the number of days left on our "Edge Ski Pass" and counting up how many days off we have left on our schedules. We are also looking at doing some of the things we wanted to do at the outset. Bill, Jeff P. and Maurizio drove down to the ferry and went to Tofino (on Vancouver Island). Neil and my best buddy Jeff went snowmobiling on the Pemberton Ice fields. They were able to look down from their mountain top to the mountains of Whistler and Blackcomb. They were sledding at an altitude of 8,300 ft. Their pictures were incredible! At some point you will be able to see some of his pictures on www.totallyawesomeadventures.com. Even if you can't find Jeff on this web site, I think you will get the point!


On our day off, Joe and I met up with Bill and Jeff P. who were skiing down the "Learners Run" for a few hours before they had to go to work. This slope is at the base of Blackcomb and is totally free! It is serviced by a couple of "magic carpet lifts" and by one triple chair. The runs are green and are about as long as any runs you have to pay for in the Toronto area! More free stuff the guys have found in Whistler!

Apres ski consisted of a visit to the nearby Whistler Sliding Centre. We were lucky enough to watch some training runs in the Men's Luge event. It was amazing to walk down the course and see how high the sleds etc. climbed up the vertical walls of the banked turns. These guys hit speeds of 150 kms/hr when they reach the bottom (turn 16--Thunderbird). Turns 14 and 15 are chicane-type turns and are nicknamed the 50/50 turns for obvious reasons (you have a 50/50 chance of making it). I was lucky enough to have an excellent camera with me (which was supplied and transported to me--even with all my objections, by my lovely wife Laura).

Pins, Pins and more Pins

Most of the athletes have now arrived.  With that comes calls for no connectivity and worse yet, moves and change orders!  Generally, in "payment" for these inconveniences, we are offered national team Olympic pins.  Now, although this is my second Olympics, I still really don't understand the need for all these pin exchanges.  I gladly accept them but I'm still wondering what I will do with them once the Games are over.  In the heat of the moment though it's hard not to become a "pin monger!"  (I was going to use another word but I figure I stretched the limit with my last post) Our shifts have changed from working every day to working a morning shift one day (6am-3pm), afternoon the next (2pm-11pm) and a day off on the third. Originally, Brian (AVTCM) had us coming in on the afternoon shift then the morning shift and then a day off but that would have been hard with only 7 hours between shifts. This seems like a break from all the work we did to get us here.

All of my crew were lucky enough to win tickets to a single event and also the Opening Ceremony rehearsal.  Neil and my best buddy Jeff were voluntold to look after things at our Athlete's village so I feel bad for Jeff because I know that he wanted to go.  Things would have been better if everybody but two on our crew were given tickets to the Opening Ceremony rehearsal.  Once in Vancouver, we had to sign a contract that we would not disclose anything that happened and we had to surrender all devices that could take a video or photograph. I did notice some flashes going during the show and I wish that I could have taken my camera. I think you guys will love it! My other ticket was for a hockey game in Vancouver (Finland/Germany).  Again, my best buddy Jeff was ready to sell his soul for that ticket but I think I will keep that one. It did get annoying hearing him make plans to watch this hockey game in my place while I was still holding the ticket. I was on the verge of just giving it to him but many people told me to hang onto it even it I didn't go. Something else for me to put into my drawer in the garage.

We were treated to the other side of the dining tent on a couple of days.  Once for breakfast and once again for lunch.  The athletes really do eat much better than we do.  I wasn't on shift for the breakfast but I was on shift for the lunch.  It makes eating our lunch that much harder because we know that steps away from our meal, there is a really tasty "athlete's" meal happening.  Joe and Maurizio got their picture with the famous "Micheal Smith." For those of you that don't watch the Food Network, he has four programs on it whose titles all seem to start with "Chef at..."

The final transformation of our village has been completed.  It started out as a garbage dump and now we have watched the paving of our "road to Beirut and the road to Kandahar." Our venue now houses the most elite winter athletes of our day.  Every room has been turned into a bedroom and I mean every room. Pairs of althetes sleep in the garage, kitchen, dining room and some even manage to sleep in actual bedrooms. I feel bad for the athletes that have devoted their whole life to training to be the best to compete at the Olympics but sorry, the only room we have for you is here in the garage! Yeah, they're carpetted and look like bedrooms but even the dullest of athletes would see that they are actually sleeping in a garage!

We have watched the athletes perform their dry land training and it's amazing.  The Romanian team uses the incline on one road in Lot 17 and does something that resembles a wind sprint up the hill.  They extend their stride so that it looks like they are leaping from foot to foot with their follow-through having their foot touch their bum.  I guesstimate each stride to be about twelve feet!  The athletes are really focussed and seem antsy. It's hard to get them to see you never mind greeting them in any way!

Joe and I drove through the venue after it got dark to try and take some pictures of the lights.  Although it really is a prison we are in, the lights take the edge off.  I travelled around during the day and wondered what some of the flood lights were for.  It was revealed at night!  Vanoc is projecting messages onto the landscape.  "Believe! Inspire! Courage!" The Canadian team is also trying to liven the place up.  All of the teams have their flags on their housing units but the Canadian team have stepped it up a notch.  Firstly, they have their moose.  In the rear of the units, we have a Canadian flag created with white and red lights.  We also have a single red arch. Both of these are visible from most of the village.  In the front of each unit, we, of course have a flag but we also have two lawn chairs. Each lawn chair has something Canadian, like a maple leaf and all of them have a space on the arm rest for a can.  How Canadian!  The only thing missing was a can of beer but I think that was implied!

Joe and Lou's Excellent Bus Adventures

Joe and I decided to take the bus to try and get the full effect of these 2010 Games. We have become acquainted with the routes up and down our mountain to our "chalet." We know that the no. 6 bus will take us down Blackcomb mountain to Merlins (for apres ski at the base of the ski run behind our hotel) with the terminus at the bus loop (just at the bottom of Blackcomb and Whistler gondolas.  This is also where you can find the "GLC"  (Garibaldi Lift Company) or the "Irish Pub" that other people on our Bell team seem to like for apres ski). We can take a variety of routes through town by bus or by car and generally we know that all the roads are two-way in Whistler. We also found out that the no. 10 bus will take us directly to our Athlete's Village venue. Take our beloved no. 6 to the no. 10. Spit, spot! Bob's your uncle and Fanny's your aunt!

Enter the Games! Apparently, Whistler Transit does not have enough staff to handle the crowds for these Games. They too have imported drivers from across Canada to try and move people around town and to the variety of venues in the region. There were droves of buses scooting around town which were "out of service" as the new drivers were learning their routes. There were scores of drivers also riding the active buses (ghosting), again trying to learn the routes.

Enter the problem! Just in time for the Games, the bus routes have been modified. Also, just in time for the Games, some roads have turned from two way traffic into one way traffic. Let's not forget about all those new bus drivers trying to keep the bus on the correct route! Then there are the locals (of which I now include myself) that thought they knew the bus route (before it changed). What you get from any passenger waiting for a bus are rumours which turn into advice which become legend!

I know it's a little off topic but before I go any further I have to say that both Joe and I have had our fill of the food at our venue. It is not that it is unpalatable, but we both like a little more flavour in our food and let's face it, even though "Michael Smith" is the master chef, we are still eating cafeteria food. Anyway, Joe decided to have his own lunch that day and I would have too but I'm not that ambitious about lunch. I went down to the lobby at the predetermined time and found that Joe had not yet arrived. That wasn't a big problem because I knew that he wanted to have a wholesome lunch before heading out. It wasn't a problem until I saw the no. 6 bus come around our loop. In a panic, I called Joe to get his ass down to the bus stop or face missing that no. 6 bus. When he answered the phone I know he had a mouthful but I heard him say he would be right down. The bus still hadn't left when he got down and with sweat on his forehead we made a run to the bus stop. We caught the bus but we didn't have time to talk about how we were going to make the no. 10. The bus driver just handed us a bus schedule but a "ghost rider" explained what we had to do to catch the no. 10. It was only after we had sat down that Joe admitted he had scalded his entire mouth wolfing down hot pasta. The sweat on his forehead was not just from rushing down the elevator but also from pain!

Our trip home on the bus was just as eventful, but it had nothing to do with the buses.  After we took the shuttle to the entrance of our venue, the "smurfs" (smiley, happy volunteers in uniforms of blue including hats, God bless them) directed us out a fenced in walkway which led to our beloved no. 10 bus. Just like cattle, we followed their direction because they haven't lied to us so far and because they are just so cute. It was all a ruse though because the gate which led to freedom had been locked at 9:00 pm and it was 9:05 pm. In any thriller movie, that's typically the time that panels come down on the fence and something evil enters to smite some of the good guys!  In that vane, I grabbed hold of the locked gate and exclaimed "I want free!  I want free!" (That was me re-enacting a scene from a movie) We now had two options to escape our venue.  We could either go through the tent where the scary RCMP officers sniff out our vehicles or we could go into the Welcome tent where the "smurfs" typically scan (yes, just like an airport) visitors.  The Welcome tent seemed more appealling as I had heard a rumour that the RCMP had a new box of latex gloves and they weren't afraid to use them.

We banged on the exit side of the Welcome tent door and somehow the "smurfs" seemed perturbed!  "This door is exit only!" ("So is my butt," I thought, "now let us out, I want to go home!")

"You must exit through the gate!" 

("Twenty grown people have tried that and lived to tell the tale" I thought!  The way is shut!  It is constipated! Get a hold of the RCMP! They have new latex gloves and they're not afraid to use them!") 

After much pleading, the "smurfs" finally agreed to let us walk in through the out door.  There were several brooms and ice-scrapers in a garbage pail at the entrance to this Welcome Centre!  There were handles on the outside of the entrance doors that conveniently looked like D-rings.  I joked that I should take some of these brooms and ice scraper handles and slide them through the D-ring door handles and lock them in for a while!  I bet the gate would be opened up pretty quick when it was the "smurfs" turn to go home!  I don't think I can trust a "smurf" any more!

We found that there is a short walk from where we exit the no. 6 bus to where we pick up our no. 10 bus.  Since the bus routes intersect, it would have been too convenient to have a bus stop near that intersection point.  We needed to cross at a side walk and found a "crossing guard coach" showing what I was assuming to be a volunteer (in civilian clothes wearing a high-vis vest) how to wield a "stop sign."  He was telling the young lady to be assertive and make sure that there is no indecisiveness in the raising and lowering of that "stop sign."  I thought that in itself to be amusing but I am easily amused these days riding the bus routes of Whistler!  We heard an ambulance siren wailing in the distance and the crossing guard coach jumped into action!  He ran into the middle of the intersection and started screaming orders at his crossing guards!  "Let that car pass! You, move over there and stop that traffic!  Come on people!  Look alive!"   I guess our crossing guard coach must have felt that 20 minutes of instruction on how to raise a stop sign was somehow invigorating for volunteers!