Olympic Hangover

The Athlete's Village has felt very different this week. Part of it was because only half of our village team remained while the other half went home for a well deserved rest. All of the athletes were gone, with some leaving even before the closing ceremonies. We lost McDonalds for the time being which will improve our diet but forces us to stand in a cue for food that can at times be repugnant! We're all wondering when the boxcar of sausages will be emptied and if "they" believe "they're" tricking us by calling them bavarian sausages one day and italian sausages the next etc. We even lost our Olympic rings this week. As far as I know, they have not been replaced with anything for the Paralympics. Our "smurfs" have been busy removing all signs of the Olympic rings and the 2010 Inukshuks from our venue and replacing them with the Paralympic logo (part of the logo reminds me of somebody swimming in ocean swells).

The Love Lounge is different too because although many people left we also gained a few people that transfered from Vancouver. The poker games are all but over and one of the guys that transferred is a hunting channel freak! This guy is always in front of the TV and since our TV is first come first served, we have been watching alot of TV in our rooms! You can only watch so much deer, moose, duck, rabbit, gopher, crocodile, gerbil (pick an animal) hunting. God I miss the days when I would bring a bottle of brandy, Tony would bring a bottle of scotch and Ken would bring a bottle rye and we would all be drinking bottles of beer and/or finishing our bottles of wine from dinner!

Many days ago I said that we were ready for the Paralympics. We knew then that we still had to move a few IP phones, HDTV's and computers to new locations and box all the extra hardware that these Paralympic games would not require. Enter the "smurfs!" We have not yet conclusively found out who it was that directed these loveable beings to remove all the HDTVs and IP phones to our trailer, but when I saw all this hardware, all I could say (in my best Russell Peters accent) was, "Some buddy gonna dead!" Our four days were spent trying to ready all the buildings by undoing most of what the "smurfs" had done.

Many actual rock-pile type inukshuks have been made by people with too much time on their hands at our venue and all along the Sea to Sky highway as well. I would like to blame the "smurfs" for the inukshuks but I think some have been built by our security forces as well. There are many officers (with stripes) at our venue and there have been no incidents where we required them. I'm not sure but I think it would be too difficult for a "smurf" to build an inukshuk while juggling an IP phone, a computer and an HDTV.

There are rumours that we will be eating in the "Promised Land" for at least part of the Paralympic games. We were treated there for an Olympic Wrap-up party. I had third helpings because one never knows when one will ever be entertained in the "Promised Land" again. First course, two slices of pizza and caesar salad. Second course, chinese stir fry with two types of dumplings. Third course, a skewer of shrimp, mussells and half a piece of steak. Oh yeah, I forgot the piece of celebratory cake. It was nice to eat food that was tasty and not cooked to death on a steam table (or containing sausage in whole or in part). We even had beer tickets and when the beer was done we started drinking wine. Suddenly, the transgression committed by the smurfs didn't matter so much. After all, they are all so cute!