Stories that still need to be shared

Okay, time to put to words some of the things that went on with my last day. During the night we had the move in and move out of the teams which went relatively well.  Dave and Dano ended up waiting for the men’s team as they were reluctant to move out of CHP. I believe Dano found the floor at his apartment shortly after 5 am… And you may be asking why Dano is sleeping on the floor??  Well, in his good heart, he has given up his couch to JR and his bedroom to DB and his wife (former employer of Dano)…  So when he got home, the air mattress was flat so the floor it was..  Oh ya, he also got a little wiser and kept a sleeping bag in the vehicle which did get used as a bed at least once more before I left Vancouver.

So the first team to get on the ice was Team Latvia – very nice and polite players…  Aivars – I looked for your brother but apparently he wasn’t on this team.

Then came Team Czech…  Within a very short period of time, they had blown a breaker in their dressing room and their team host had managed to get under my skin. I was very nice and polite when the word amateur competition (his definition of the women’s tournament) left his mouth. He also wanted a separate warm up room for his team (didn’t exist in our venue), a designated box for his team officials (didn’t exist in our venue), and daily schedules(that we could do). But the best part was when I was showing him and the security official from the NHL around the rink while the CHN-SVK game was going on, we were about to enter the rink and I said “we’ll just wait until play stops and then I can show you the area around the back of the rink”. The three of us stood watching the game for about a minute when he says to me, “why are we waiting for a stoppage of play?” In a very calm and controlled voice, I replied, “because it’s the polite thing to do?” I couldn’t believe that he even asked. When it was all said and done, and I was left with the NHL security guy, the first thing he did was apologize for the Team Hosts behavior…  funny…   Needless to say, you know who I was cheering for in the LAT –CZE game…   and woo hoo..  hats off to FIN and Kipper for that win….

And then the final women’s game in our venue – SUI vs RUS…  and I was given tickets for myself, Irene and Uwe so off we went to the game. It was a good thing that our seats were with the SUI family members as we were cheering for SUI of course…  And somehow, within 2 minutes of getting to the game, Uwe met the gentleman with the large cowbell (I really don’t know how it got through the airport and venue security)…  They gave Uwe a flag and we were off with chants of Hopp Swiss…..   way too much fun..  and as Irene and Uwe say we also got the full meal deal – tied after regulation time (SUI goalie was exceptional), followed by 10 minutes of OT with chances on both sides, to finish with a Shoot out and a SUI win….

So, the day off was spent trying to find some last minute gifts to bring back (yes, last minute as I haven’t had time to shop until this day). I also choose not to stand in the crazy line ups at the downtown Olympic Store. The day before I was leaving, the store was staying open 24 hours a day – I guess the hours of 9 am to midnight wasn’t enough. But after going to 3 bays, 2 zellers outside of the downtown, I get why they stayed open…  Every type of shirt/souvenir was picked clean…  absolutely amazing. The Bay has had to have made so much money…  Incredible..  What I also knew was that some of the Olympic gear was also available at Sport Mart (and it was buy one, get a 2^nd at 50% off)…  So I went there instead.

There have been some other stories that I’ve inherited from others and one I have to mention goes to Jenn C from Ottawa (turns out this is another case of 2.5 degrees of separation in hockey as Jenn was coached in Ottawa by Sue who is Coolie’s partner…  Anyways, at one of the women’s game, some boys with a great sense of humor came dressed as bunnies and then sat behind the bench…  True puck bunnies…  I loved it….

So the last post will come tomorrow after the hockey game…  I’m heading to a local sports establishment with some friends as I couldn’t imagine watching it anywhere else (unless it was CHP)….

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