Oly oly mpic free!
Yes, there are fireworks every night. Nice!
So I've managed to see Canada's first two gold medal performances live, and completely by happenstance. I haven't really been paying attention to Olympic scheduling, and I haven't been watching too much coverage on TV, mostly because I've been running around the countryside running errands and working and generally acting like a chicken with my head cut off. But on Sunday night, I got home from work at my usual random time and decided to flip on the TV while I made dinner and I jumped in about three runs before Bilodeau's gold medal freestyle performance. Great moment. And then today I had to pick up a few things at Lynn Valley mall, and I decided to walk over to the square because I heard they had Olympic-related events running there every day. I got there about three minutes before Maelle Ricker won gold in the snowboard cross. That was pretty cool . . . there weren't a ton of people there (about 50 or 70), but it was still fun to watch with everyone cheering and clapping.
Speaking of cheering and clapping, in approx. 16 hours I will be at Creekside, in eager anticipation of TCR. Ste-phen! Ste-phen! Ste-phen! Sweet mango chutney, I'm excited. I was kind of hoping I'd find somewhere to buy a small American flag so I could combine it with my small Canadian flag, but you just can't find American flags for purchase anywhere in North Van. Odd, that . . . .
Other things I have seen today:
- a man riding a bike with a bright pink parrot on his shoulder. A real, live parrot. Avast!
- a lot of official Olympic buses (ferrying people to Cypress and Whistler) going up and down Lonsdale. They're . . . . they're kind of beaters. Wow. And they all have California license plates. I just looked into that now and yes, like almost everything else in the games (crappy Canadian pavill-- er, tent, hello!), it was contracted out to the U.S., which peeves me even more than all the official 2010 merchandise being made in China (because what ISN'T made in China?). Well, that would explain the rumors I hear about how some of the buses can't make the climb up Cypress mountain.
- while cutting through Zellers' Easter section, I saw chocolate soccer balls on a scale of 1:1. Actual sized chocolate soccer balls! And chocolate pirate ships and trains THE SIZE OF MY HEAD. Sweet mother of fructose! When I was a kid, we had the 1 kg solid chocolate bunny, and that was about as big as it got. Oh, and they also had these chocolate cats (ALMOST as big as an actual cat) with these green candy eyes, and let me tell you . . . those eyes followed me right down the aisle. Creepy!
- NORWAY'S CURLING PANTS! OMG! That . . . wow. Just wow. Those are four brave, brave men who have either missed their old timey golf tournament or . . . the official Wonderbread Jester's Club? I don't know. Maybe it's strategic. Curling is a game of concentration and those pants are very, very, very, very distracting.
Hmmm. I think there were some other things, but I got distracted by the internet. Why can't I type for more than five minutes without "flipping the channels", so to speak? STUPID ADD BRAIN!