The Sublime.....and the Ridiculous

The Sublime:
Canada won Gold in the Men's hockey!!!!!! - in a game that was extremely well-played between both the Canadian and the US teams, and despite the fact the US snuck in one more goal in the last 25 secs of the third period, to even the score to 2-2 and take the game into overtime. It's been over 2hours since the game wrapped up and cars are still driving by with horns honking, people cheering on the streets...and the images from downtown still show everyone in full party mode.

Lorne and I seriously considered going to a bar to watch the game but since it started at lunch and we have no self-discipline once we're confronted by so much beer, we decided to watch the game at home......and then heard that people were already lining up (queuing) down several blocks outside the bars at 8am this morning(!!), hoping to get a seat for the game. I don't doubt the atmosphere must have been amazing....it was when Canada won the gold in 2002's olympics....when I dutifully swilled beer and cheered with the rest of 'em. (Yikes, I'm in the midst of renewing my Canadian passport - hope my citizenship doesn't get revoked for not dressing head to toe in patriotic paraphenalia and watching the game in a bar.)

The Ridiculous:
So, when somebody asks me in 10 years time, "Do you remember what you were doing when Canada fought for hockey Gold in Vancouver?", I'll have to confess, I was at home....squatting on the living room floor....and rolling my right butt cheek back & forth over a couple of tennis balls stuffed in an old sock! Seriously....and I can guarantee you no-one else is gonna have that same answer! Yes indeedy.....that was me. And after 20 minutes of that (which was really quite painful actually), I really pushed the boat out and enjoyed a glass of beer and 2 ibuprofen.....seated atop a red-hot heat pad.

Alas my glute (aka butt cheek) is still in rough shape and feels incredibly tight/sore/painful even when just sitting. Even though I paid some woman to knead it with her pointed elbow and then shove a bunch of needles in my 'cheek' and leg last Thursday (a practise otherwise known as physiotherapy I'm told), I'm still in a certain amount of discomfort. (Mind you, I should be grateful she at least remembered to take out ALL the needles this time around. Last year I was given a few acupuncture needles during a session for lower back pain and it wasn’t till I went to the washroom 2hrs later that I discovered one last needle still embedded in my bum-cheek, having been pushed further in from my wearing jeans and walking around town – which suddenly explained why the heck my bum ached so much!)

Anyhooo, I have to work this muscle out of it's current spasm or I'll never get back to running, and my aspirations (or rather 'ass-pirations) of running a half marathon will evaporate like money on a Vancouver mortgage. Time to try the tiger balm again.

Ahhhh, the Olympics is drawing to a close and I hope to dear God that they (please) stop playing that infinitely painful song, "I Believe" and maybe we can even hear of other (non-olympic) news.

So much talent

Aaaah, so nice to have a couple of days off work - away from manic deadlines and such. Of course all my good intentions of things I intended to achieve these past couple of days seems to have slipped a little by the wayside......where DOES the time go??? That said, I've managed to upload quite a few photos to my new spot on Flickr.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/katrinaspix/ and have even had some positive feedback already - I'm very flattered :-) In fact, I can already feel the twinge of wanting to keep going on Flickr to load more pics and check for any more comments - is this how fresh blood Crack-book addicts start out, I wonder? Thankfully I haven't yet ventured into the world of Facebook and, despite those around me who've succumbed, chanting "one of us...one of us....", I've so far maintained my dissidence in that regard. There's something inherently creepy about it to me. Besides, I read Orwell's 1984 several times, with its sinister Big Brother espionage. (Not to be confused with a bunch of losers sat around bitching and sleeping together in front of 24/7 CCTV cameras at some remote studio/house.) I digress.....

Okay, Olympic stuff. It's almost over (yaaayyyy) and I suspect the city's going to slump into a period of 'mourning' after this, firstly because Vancouver has been so busy and just buzzing with excited crowds and passionate shows of patriotism, moreso than I've ever seen here - it's been quite contagious and secondly, because the bills for it are gonna start surfacing and that's when the brown stinky stuff will really start hitting the fan. Maybe we should soak up the next 24hrs of feigned ignorance and hope that Canada at least scores the gold for men's hockey (as did the women already!) to let us go out on a euphoric high.

I've actually watched quite a bit of the coverage (not least because it's dominating TV here) and was lucky enough to see some of it first hand last Tuesday night, when my sis' (via her husband's boss) scored 2 free tickets to the women's figure skating short program. It was great to go together, especially since we both spent several years figure-skating many moons ago (and giving it up at about 15 is the one thing I've ever really regretted). I understand it so much more now than I did back then - if only someone had explained to me just why I needed to do figures, why my program needed a step sequence and how to utilize my near double-jointed limbs to enhance my spins and jumps.

When Canadian, Joannie Rochette took to the ice and skated so beautifully, I literally felt choked up. Watching her was awe-inspring and quite moving - her artistry, courage, determination and incredible talent were a privilege to behold. What amazing strength to still perform - and to skate soooo well, winning a bronze medal - after the tragic and sudden loss of her mother just a couple of days earlier. Now that's an Olympian!

Yes the 2010 Winter Olympics is almost over for Vancouver but, for better or worse, this city will be forever changed.

Let there be blog.....

And so my blog is born. Something I've ummed and aaahed about for ages (with a little poking from my sister too).....let's see how this goes :-) Seems weird putting my thoughts and daily trivia out there for people to read even though I actually kept a journal for over 15 years when I was younger.....but never really intended anyone to read it (least of all the twisted ex-boyfriend who worked his way through each one).

So today was another gorgeous and unusually Spring-like day in Vancouver - a bizarre reprieve and stark contrast from the regular grey & dismal November-thru-July monsoon we've had every year since I moved here. The daffodils and cherry blossoms are already in full bloom, which is literally 2 months earlier than last year. Crazy weather for a city in the midst of hosting the "Winter" olympics.....to the extent they literally had to truck in snow for one of the local ski hills, and even that hasn't totally survived the unseasonably mild temperatures.

The weekend was great too - always a bonus. (When I first moved to Vancouver someone asked me, "What comes after 2 days of rain in Vancouver?"....."Monday!") Such a lovely day yesterday that I went for a long-ish run......since I recently took the plunge and entered myself for Vancouver's Half-Marathon on May 2nd (What was I thinking?!...not least because it's the day after my birthday.) Alas, a nagging hamstring problem decided to show up again and after half an hour I felt like someone was squeezing my leg & bum cheek hard in a vice....so the aspirations of a fab run quickly descended into a peeved run-walk-hobble followed by perching myself on a bag of frozen peas for the next 2 hours. Ho-hum. Maybe I'll have to book myself for a massage and hope some swedish hunk called Jurg will rub his greasy hands all over my bum......though knowing my luck I'll get a moustachioed brick-sh*t-house of a 'woman' called Olga Ripyalimzzov, who'll no doubt twist me into a pretzel.

Well, since I alluded to it earlier, I guess I could talk more about the 2010 Winter Olympics going on in Vancouver right now.......but to be honest, I voted against it back in a 2003 referendum and haven't changed my opinion since. Not that I'm against the talent and sportsmanship of the Olympics (quite the opposite in fact), but it's become an arrogant and extravagant 'legacy' in Vancouver that the average person can ill afford and it's at the expense of so many social/community/hospital & arts programs (not to mention remotely affordable housing) that I find the greed and excess of all that Vancouver has created around this ridiculously expensive TWO-WEEK event quite distasteful.

While I truly admire all the hard work some of these outstanding athletes have put into it and I can't deny there's a huge (red&white) party spirit around town right now, on a personal level I can't help feeling the true spirit of the olympics has been lost somewhat in Vancouver's excessive spending on this major ego-trip and I personally struggle to support any of it.

That said, I'd be lying if I said I'm not envious of the fact my sister, Victoria, has managed to score tickets to both the men's and ice dance figure skating finals in the past week........lucky mare! :-)