Home again but only for a day

I had a final Olympic experience yesterday on the flight home. While checking in at Air Canada ( a breeze BTW at that time of morning) I noticed a couple in my age range with one set of flowers awarded to the athletes after they win a medal. I thought how nice for them but didn't think any further of it. Then when we were boarding the aircraft who sits down beside me but the male of the couple. So I asked him about the flowers and he told me his daughter had won a gold medal for Canada. WOW I said and congratulations. Who was it? He said his daughter is Heather Moyes and she won as part of the 2  women's bobsleigh- that event Canada also won a second medal. He was indeed very pleased and proud and he and his wife were hurrying home to PEI so they could be part of the greeting party at the airport. There was a CBC online report this morning about the greeting at Charlottetown last night around midnight.

Now in our little area of the aircraft were 6 other people who were part of the anti-doping team and I told him he was surrounded by anti-dopers. However luckily for him there is no provision yet for testing the parents of medal winners. Maybe one day if genetic testing ever comes in. We talked a fair bit about the life of an Olympic athlete, how Heather got involved , and a million and one other things. I've become a regular "chatty cathy" - a new aspect for me. An interesting way to fly home and definitly a capper on the whole Olympic experience.

Being at the Olympics has certainly been a fantastic and in many respects a life changing experience. I met many marvelous people, saw  amazing athletes and sights in both Whistler and Vancouver. BTW skiers and snowboarders have to go to Whistler- a beautiful place . My anti-doping colleagues became a part of a new and extended family ( I now have a whole collection of many more Facebook friends) ; we worked hard and long hours and really came together as a team. The people from the US,the UK, Norway, Australia, and Taiwan are now among a new group of friends for me. I have a million stories yet and I'll no doubt be boring friends and family with them ; as well I have a lot more pictures that I'll need to go through and somehow get loaded up somewhere in cyberspace, but that won't happen for a few weeks.

When I arrived home last evening I was greeted at the airport by Denise,who had arrived on a different flight a few minutes earlier , and her son Brandon. Then off to dinner with Geof,Casey, and Jessie who both liked the t-shirts I brought back for them. This afternoon I'm going to Perth to see Lisa,Matt, and Sam and Luke.






I've had one request to keep this blog going but beyond this experience my life just isn't interesting enough to keep inflicting my thoughts on others. Early Wednesday morning I'm going to be up early again and flying to Barbados to be re-united with Deen, who I've missed very much in spite of many many phone calls back and forth. I'm sure there will be some tears when we see each other at the airport .She did surprise by redecorating the bedroom- a great paint job and some other changes.

Life in Barbados has a certain routine that will pretty much summarize our next 2+ weeks there. Up in the morning, go for a pre-breakfast run 4 times a week, breakfast,sunscreen, down to beach to hang with friends there, read,lounge,swim,walk the beach, noon time happy hour, lunch, back to beach, more reading, walking,swimming ,maybe napping,maybe some tennis but my usual partners will all be gone, sundowner drinks,dinner out or a beach BBQ,then back to the room .... start over next day. Interspersed in to this are Ottawa Senators hockey games at Bert's Bar (Deen gets hugged by Bert and high fived by the Sens owner Eugene Melnyk) , catamaran trips, trips in to Bridgetown and other places on the island, Friday evenings at the Oistin fishfry.

There might even be some more karaoke madness but popular opinion will no doubt try to limit that. My brother Peter won't be there to encourage that bit of insanity.
















Well dear readers this is it! Signing off for now - hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing it.

                                                            -30-

Vancouver and going home

OK I found a power outlet down in the food court at Vancouver International Airport  where this post and the previous one are being done. Before I describe the wild  day yesterday I'll skip to this morning. BTW this post was just interrupted by my brother Peter calling from Ottawa on skype - I don't have a microphone on this computer so I could hear him but had to type responses back... weird. They are expecting this to be a very crowded day at the airport so we arrived early - up at 3:45amPST so we could get here well in time for Denise's 7am flight . Mine is at 8:50am so lots of time for me. Long lines for Denise to check in but it was a piece of cake for me. Courtney is returning to Australia via Los Angeles so very long travel days for her.

OK so let's back up a bit. Sunday morning I took a bus from Whistler down the Sea to Sky Highway to Vancouver. The highway is along a very pretty route as the name implies but low cloud took away some of the beauty of the pictures. From Whistler you follow the highway down the mountains to Squamish which is at sea level . Then the highway goes along Howe Sound down to Vancouver. The road is carved out of the side of the mountains so lots of up and down overlooking the water. I hope this picture captures the sense of it.

 

Denise came to meet me at the airport in a rental car and we returned to the rented house in Burnaby to watch the Gold medal hockey game. Very exciting and an appropriate result! Canada Gold! Woohoo! Son Geof texted me at the end of regulation and correctly predicted Sidney Crosby as the eventual winning goal scorer. We skyped Deen in Barbados and got her rendition of the wildness at Bert's Bar. 

 

This hockey victory ,as well as Canada's other Gold medal successes set off a nation wide series of celebrations. Even Toronto ,which has not had a Stanley Cup presentation since 1967, had people out in the streets celebration. Downtown Vancouver of course was the epicentre of the wildness. 

After the game Denise and I went on a tour taking the skytrain to the Vancouver Athletes Village. It was very cool although I like the Whistler village better. I had no trouble getting in to the place even with my Whistler credentials. No athletes wandering around as they were  all at the closing ceremonies across from the village. Nonetheless this is a picture of the Canada residence (my apologies to my non- Canadian readers of this blog but I'm taking all opportunities to brag).

 

Denise and I went in to the lobby of the Canada residence and met a guy working there from Ottawa. I didn't know him but we knew people in common and he ,like me , is a 3 morning a week old timer hockey player. This is the lobby.

We went into the Olympic store there and couldn't resist a bargain - a red hat and tshirt for $10 with the purchase of something else (for me a package of gum) . With the red and white Russia hat Denise picked up for me I now have 3 new hats to add to the collection. Which of my existing hats will have to go????

We then headed downtown to see the Olympic flame before it was turned off. This is a picture of some of the crowd and it was crazy with people all hooting and hollering and having a good time but no signs of alcohol problems (at least while we were there).








Finally we got down to the waterfront for a picture of the flame - very majestic and lots of people.

 

In spite of the controversy about the fencing around the flame this is the closest people have been able to get to any Olympic flame and it was magnificent.

Last picture but not least a picture of the Olympic rings in the harbour. All very stirring.

 

All in all a great experience. This afternoon when I arrive back in Ottawa I'm going to see Geof and the girls for dinner (Jane is sea kayaking off the coast of Mexico with a group of 9 other women) and I'll be very happy to see them. Tuesday is unpack,laundry,repack day then I'm going to Perth to see Lisa, Matt and the boys and also dinner. I'll be very happy to see them as well. 

My next post,which will also be the last one in this series , will either be done this evening if I'm not too tired, or more likely Tuesday morning when I'm a bit fresher. I hope then to give an overall sense of the experience.Wednesday morning I'm up at 3am for my flight to Barbados and my darling Deen and all our Bajan family.

my last full day in Whistler

First off an apology to my many readers for not having a post Sunday morning. I know for many of you it's a first thing to check with your morning coffee "just what wonderful and wacky things did Randy do yesterday". Well wait no more faithful readers this is a bonus day : 2 posts for the price of one. When we got back to the hotel Saturday evening after our day at the bobsleigh 4 man final we grabbed a dinner and some drinks but didn't make it back to my hotel room until midnight. It seems there was a party going on on another floor and jello shots were involved. No further explanation should be required.

This last full day for me was at the 4 man bobsleigh final. There had been two qualifying runs the previous day and now two final runs today with all 4 runs counting in the score. The sleds get up to 150 km/hr and do the 1.5 km track in just over 50 seconds. The Canada 1 team lost a silver medal by .01 seconds. Over the 4 runs totaling 6+ kms  it's hard to fathom the actual difference(inches probably)that this would make.

We were to do 16 tests that day : 2 selected at random from each of the top 5 finishers and 2 randoms from each of three other random  sleds. To do this we needed 16 chaperones to assist in the notification of the athletes .The attached picture shows our crew being briefed prior to heading off to the finish area.

 

Because of the distance between the finish area and our station we need to use vehicles to transport the athletes and their representatives to the station. Luckily there is a large fleet of GM Chevie and Buick SUV's available for use in the Games and we used some of them for this purpose as well as official use in the doping control administration. Here are some of them :

 

Up at the finishing line itself there were many good photo opportunities before the final round - I had to be back in the station for the final round. 

 

 

The top picture shows the Swiss team arriving and the second one shows one of the Canada sleds in the finish area just prior to being weighed .Notice the wooden runners under the sled to protect the blades. Each sled has a maximum weight including the drivers who as I mentioned before are all big very strong guys. One pilot showed me scrapes on his side from the guy jumping into the sled right behind as they take off.

When the results were known and athletes getting identified my roomie Chris who served as chaperone coordinator at this venue was as busy as a one legged man at a butt kicking contest. However he and his team succeeded and got the athletes down to us for processing. Here is our hero in all his smurf suit glory ready to work...

Sunday I'll be catching a bus and going to Vancouver . My plan is to watch the Gold medal hockey game with Denise, Courtney, and Gary (a guy from  Ottawa who rented a house during the games and worked as a chaperone volunteer) as did Denise and Courtney. I'm running low on my battery for my laptop and need to find a plug somewhere to do my next post .