Once again an unexpected day off

Regular readers are no doubt aware of my whining about the inactivity of the past few days for us in the athlete village. Well after I posted yesterday's blog update they called and said I had the day off. Others were in the same boat - it was a gorgeous day here today and I was able to take advantage of it.

I naturally slept in a bit , had breakfast then later on went for a run , this time taking my camera. I'm getting spoiled running here and the streets of Stittsville will be very boring in comparison. Here are a few shots taken along the way.

 

  

This is the back of our hotel taken from the path on the way back.

After noon my friend Denise from Ottawa and her daughter Courtney, also from Ottawa but now living in Australia, came up for the day from Vancouver. They are both chaperoning here for the games. They did the Peak to Peak and it was sunny and clear for them. We had lunch after that. I had one actual sort of celebrity sghting , Premier Campbell of BC and a Garth Brooks look alike- maybe I should have started one of his classic songs like "I've got friends in low places" to see if it was actually him. After lunch we walked about in Whistler Village and many people were doing the same thing. Here are Denise and Courtney in front of a bandstand with another free concert.

 

There are many colourful team uniforms around and here are two :
 

These mannequins are in the Russian out fit and some stores have big sections of these - $450 for the jacket. 

 

If you can read closely this is the Czech team outfit. Very colourful.

Denise and Courtney left about 6:30pm for the bus back to Vancouver and I returned to Creekside. I met up with some colleagues and we had dinner at the Southside Diner. Neat spot. This next picture is for Deen as you'll see the Mac and Cheese special.

 

Final picture of the day shows Kathy having a press briefing where she explains the chaperone part of the anti-doping program. Did you all see it on TV?
 

A scheduled day off on Saturday and I'm meeting an old classmate and his wife for a suishi lunch - should be interesting. 

All Quiet on the Western Front

Whoever coined the phrase "early to bed,early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise" was clearly a sadist. Nothing healthy about getting up at 4:50am. This is going to be a boring report as no new mountain vistas nor exciting news.

We had one test today and woke up some poor unsuspecting cross country skier at 7am. He wasn't grumpy about it (unlike me). Otherwise we hung around until 2pm then back to the hotel. A nap for me then watch the hockey game with a glass of scotch. My Norwegian roomie keeps sending me trash texts about the game
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I thought I'd share our lunch menu as at least that's interesting to some - the meals are very good there.

We did have some interesting visitors early in the afternoon as two men from the 2012 London Games Committee dropped in to see the operation . Too bad we were idle as that might have given them a better impression but at least they got to see the setup. The following picture shows two of my colleagues hard at work. The lady is a blood collection officer from Vancouver and the man is a UK doping control officer.They are sitting in one of our doping rooms.

This morning in the Vancouver Sun there was an editorial cartoon depicting athletes jumping for joy for gold and silver and a guy lying on a beach chair in the sun reading a book for bronze- in another 2 weeks that will be me.

Final 3-2 Canada in a shootout - way to go Sidney!

WARNING: there may not be a posting tomorrow if things continue to be as dull today....

Bare Naked Ladies in concert

OK I wasn't at a stripper bar where the performers sang - there was a free concert this evening at Whistler Live in the Village Square. The Bare Naked Ladies are an iconic musical group of 4 clothed males but they are very good. They did their classic "If I had a million dollars" amongst many others . It was terrific and lasted just over an hour. A picture to prove I was there and another one of the group - I have lots of these and some snippets of recordings.

 

In the Village itself there is lots of strange things happening. The picture is a couple of Brits on stilts proclaiming the the best games ever inspite of the British press..

 

Today started very early at Dark O'Clock.. My alarm went off at 4:50am (as it will Thursday morning) and I got to the Athlete Village before breakfast at 6am.Our shift started after 7am but we did absolutely nothing all day  - the IOC did not have any missions for us as a lot of pre-competition testing had already been done and the current testing is being done right after the competitions following IOC protocols at the venues. I hope this improves as so many of us are sitting around waiting for something to do (we're kind of like firemen waiting). Our major task was to take inventory!

However I did take these 2 pictures there today - one shows the lunch menu n the workforce cafeteria and the other is my daily scenic mountain shot (this is the view the Canadian athletes have from their rooms).
 

  

Now this Old Timer , as my roomie Chris (he's 37) calls me , needs to take notes throughout the day so I can have my stories ready to go when I do this post. Here you can see me hard at work....
 

OK inspiration comes with the help of a beer or two...

Deen will be proud of what I did not do when I returned to the hotel bar. I did not have another beer but more importantly I did NOT join the singer in the bar who asked me several times to help her with some Jimmy Buffett songs. I told I was brutal and would help to clear the bar- however for my Barbados readers I can't make that same promise when I'm there in March.

a Canadian celebrity sighting and picture

I'm not really in to the whole celebrity thing but when the opportunity came up to have my picture taken on the bus on the way home from the athlete village ( no it's not Sidney Crosby) I couldn't pass it up. Some of you will recognize this guy immediatley but for the others you will have to go to the bottom of this post for the answer. Hint - I'm the guy in the blue.. I told him his picture was going on my blog and that he would then be famous.

I was going to title this entry "Another Day in Paradise (winter version)". Most of you know where my non-winter paradise is.I went for a run this morning along the winding trails just behind the hotel. Beautiful small lakes and ponds, snow covered trees, mountain vistas, and gorgeous homes. No wild animals so far but lots of people walking dogs. I could easily live here except for 2 reasons: I couldn't leave my family and my life in Ottawa and my gov't pension, while adequate at home, would be no where enough to live here. Many of the people who work in restaurants have 2 or more jobs.

I won my $2 bet with my roomie Christain from Norway about the men's hockey. I had told him if Norway won the game I'd try to find then wear the pants the Norwegian curling team wore this morning in their loss to Canada. A very colourful fashion statement.

The bus network they use here around Whistler and back and forth to Vancouver is very good. I have a feeling many are imported directly from the 1950's. But really many come from the US as VANOC has a contract with an American company.

This next picture is one of our chaperone volunteers in doping control. The lengths our volunteers will go to ... he may have a problem with VANOC and the IOC about using their brand. His name is Bradley and he's from Vancouver.

OK now for the celebrity answer. He is a star of a Food Network Canada TV program called Chef at Home and his name is Michael Smith. He has appeared on Hell's Kitchen and is a very entertaining and engaging person. For a non-cook like myself his show is interesting to watch. He is working here as the head chef at the Whistler Olympic Village- no wonder the food is so good. BTW there is a McDonald's in the meal area as well and for some strange reason people actually get food there as well.

Well it's just after 10pm PST and I have to get up at 4:50 am PST for a 6am shift start . Doing this for the next 3 days then my shifts are much more reasonable start times. At least I'll get back to the hotel at a reasonable hour and maybe have a nap. No maybe about it!

a day at the top of the world

My day had a pedestrian start , laundry (surprise I did not shrink my uniform) and grocery shopping (why are most of my food products on a 7 day cycle but English muffins only come in packages of 6?). People who know how dependent I am on my darling wife are probably surprised I've managed to cope so far. OK Geof, Jane, Matt, and Lisa you can all stop laughing now.

At noon I met up with Chris(my roomie from Hamilton), Allan (a retired police detective from Wales), and Arnold (the head of anti-doping in Taiwan and whose real name is beyond all of us so he says just call him Arnold) and we headed off to Whistler Village to buy tickets for the Peak to Peak Gondola Ride. With our credentials etc for a discount the price was good. The trip up Whistler Mountain by gondola to the top(over 6000') was very nice. Then we changed to the Peak to Peak Gondola for the trip across the valley. These pictures capture some of it.

 

I have lots more of these kind of photos. The view is spectacular!  As I know Deen would not like this type of trip (she would be hiding on the floor) I had to phone her and give her the play by play while we crossing the valley. I'm not sure how much she enjoyed that. We landed  at Blackcomb Mountain and went in for a very nice lunch at the top.Great spot. THis next picture was taken at the top of Blackcomb.

We also did a variety of group shots. There were of course skiiers and snowboarders all over the place. While it's been over 30 years since I last downhill skied I may have to try it again- maybe a lesson and a rental of a snowboard . And yes Deen my life insurance is still fully paid.  Great afternoon with a lot of laughs with my 3 friends.

Afterwards we we recrossed to Whistler then descended back to the village. A short walk over to the Excalibur gondola at the base of Blackcomb and we rode up to the Whistler Sliding Centre to watch a qualification round of women's luge. It was tough to get good pictures as they come by so fast (speeds over 140 km/hr) but I think this is one of my better ones. Arnold got some great shots which I'll have to get from him. We were literally just a few feet away from the track when the athletes went speeding by. Now that I've seen some of it live I have amuch better appreciation of it but will happlily watch it on TV to see more.

Today in Ontario was Family Day but more significantly in Canada it marked the 45th anniversary of the Canadian Flag. I was recalling to my much younger roomies (37 and 25 ,Chris called me Old Timer the other day and I of course won't let him forget that) and friend Kathy (less than 45) the controversy over the whole flag debate - I even got to march in a military parade in 1965 the day the Maple Leaf flag became our flag.

Tomorrow back to the Olympic Willage starting in mid-afternoon. Hopefully I'll have some interesting stories (assuming my faithful readers find these meanderings interesting) to pass along.

another day at the Willage

I received a one hour reprieve today so started my shift at 1:30pm. Doing a number of blood screens - a somewhat different process. Met a couple of Swedish athletes and told them one of their countrymen is a god in my city as captain of our hockey team. Weird weather to start the day - reminds me of that old story that if you don't like the weather wait 5 minutes and it will change. At the Willage I got a picture of the two aussie flags including the controversial one...









Also a picture of the view outside the doping control station in the village - I have this mountain fixation.

 

 As I mentioned before the food in the village workforce area has been good. For the third time since I've been here I've had bison. It's very nice.

 

Most of you know the expression "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" - well it's been re-applied here to the following "what happens in Whistler ends up in Facebook or someone's blog" . I give credit to this to my Welsh friend Allan who is a retired Wales police detective who does UK doping control and lives near the Celtic Manor in Wales (home of the next Ryder Cup). Allan and I both have the day off on Monday and are planning to do the Peak to Peak Gondola ride between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains then we have tickets for the women's luge qualifying round  at 5pm PST. Should be an interesting time and tomorrow's blog entry should have some great pictures. Stay tuned to this station.

As my darling wife knows I always buy a baseball cap and a T shirt wherever I go and this place is full of swag of all sorts. Between the stuff I've bought and the stuff we've been given as volunteers I needed to buy another bag just I can bring it all home. Hard to believe we've been here two weeks now and another 2 to go. 

On a closing note congrats to Alexandre Bilodeau and his gold medal. A great story there!                                 

An Unexpected Day

I slept in a bit today as my shift at the Village wasn't going to start until 12:30pm Sometime after 9am a call came in from our command centre telling me I have the day off as they aren't expected to be busy today. My roomies quickly became tired of my hooting and hollering for joy.The 3 of us hung around in the morning watching the ski jumping as Christain from Norway knows a lot about it including the athletes. Chris from Hamilton and I were cheering for the Austrian we had met the other day. With all the Scandanavian athletes Chris asked "who is your favourite Bjorn?" He has now posted this question on Facebook. My response was  Bjorn Ulvaeus from ABBA but I am more partial towards either Anni-Frid or Angnetha (sort of a Betty-Veronica or Ginger-Mary Ann preference question).

I've mentioned before that security is tight. The attached picture is from the hotel window showing the screening tent for all the inter-city buses used to transport people. Serious business.
  








In the afternoon I took the bus up to Whistler Village. Crazy place in spite of the rain . Lots of people of all nationalities wandering around. There was also an Austrian musical group playing at the Whistler Live stage.

 

  

Later in the evening I went with a friend Kathy to an Irish pub for beer and dinner. Very crowded but fun - they had a group playing there called Murphy's Lagh . We watched the ladies moguls on TV - mixed emotions I'm sure for Jenn Heil. We walked around Whistler for awhile then took a spin down the bob sled track in the sled - that was wild but fun......

 

Back to the athlete village on Sunday for an afternoon and evening shift. We'll see how the athletes celebrate Valentine's Day!