Incredibly sad news...

You know it's not going to be a good day when it starts off with your whole team suddenly being summoned to the board room for an emergency meeting. Then to arrive, open the door and see your function managers, workforce grief counselors and Furlong himself awaiting you, ...along with many boxes of klennex boxes awaiting us, distributed around the board table.

Generally, this happens in one of two situations... and since I knew that the games are happening despite whatever protesters may wish for ...we weren't all about to be let go (Option-1). Therefore, it must be Option-2...

They dropped a bomb on us with the loss of an incredible man! A man who not 5min earlier I was upset at for missing an early morning meeting we had. That thought instantaneously evaporated and disbelief set in at the news. Such a young and inspiring individual! Today our studio and the 2010 games lost it's heart and soul.

It was a pleasure and an honor to get to know him and to have the opportunity to work with such a remarkable and indescribable person. It may have only been a short period of time that I knew him, but his impression on me was a great one. The saddest thought for me is that in a few short months from today Leo will not get to take part in the party he created and dreamed of.

Whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed at work I rewatch the Olympic Torch video to be rejuvenated and help me through closer and closer to the games. As I sit and watch it over again tonight it has an even more calming and encouraging impact than regularly.

Rest In Peace Leo.

World Cup Luge... Men's Final... for only $5!!!!

Since early January there's been a world cup sporting event held at each of the 2010 venues almost every weekend. These events are considered as test runs for the real deal next year. The same venues, ...the same operations ...and the same athletes. But unlike next year a minute fraction of the ticket price accompanied by a much higher probability of coming upon tickets! Really can't beat that! Which is why I find it odd that I haven't managed to get out and take in some of the action. Well finally that changed last weekend. Of course it was for the one event that has actually garnered interest and sold out the week before ...the Men's final at the final stop on this year's World Cup Luge circuit.

After hearing about how racers hit speeds faster than my car would ever think of going and pulling corners at 5 times gravity ...I had to see this live! Being physically at VANOC does have some benefits and when I heard about two tickets for the sold out event I jumped all over these $5 tickets ...yeah 5 dollars! ...and wow what an evening of entertainment it was!

The sheer thrill of watching and hearing these things roar past you less than 4ft away while pulling 5G's in the corners and 150+ km/hr in the straights! The organizers knew this track was going to break any existing speed records for the sport, which was previously just shy of 150km/hr ...well they were reaching 152 pretty consistently last weekend. There were even a couple of wipe outs on the corner we were standing at, which I managed to get pics of. Unfortunately for these two guys, the positions I photographed them in ...well they're still traveling at speeds of over 100km/hr. I don't think is proper luge technique.

It was also a great opportunity to play with Elena's and my new camera (we are sharing custody of it and I was glad to have it with me for this). It was great practice for my limited skills; really challenging capturing these guys due to the speed and the night time conditions. I came away with over 1000 photos, which I've already widdled down to ~150. Typically I shot on rapid fire with the ISO cranked and tracked a slider around a bend, getting a dozen or so shots per pass (where maybe one or two actually contained the slider within the frame).

My friend Lior joined me and even found himself getting interviewed while we were waiting for the awards to start. A beautiful facility and an incredible evening of shear fun and excitement!

Robbin Williams on the sport of Luge:

What drunken, German gynecologist invented this sport? What guy went, "I want to dress like a sperm, shove an ice skate up my ass, and ride balls first down an ice chute. Ya. That would be fun." ?

...all I've got to say after watching today is "...yeah, where do I sign-up?!!!"

Further and higher quality pics are available over at Flickr.

A year minus a day to go...

C.

A Post for Tiny...

Apparently I’ve been gaining a TINY bit of flack over at Attackpoint for my lack of blog posting. It’s tough when there’s just so much to do in this adventure paradise by the sea and mountains. I infact just got back from a evening hike up to Dog Mountain with friends, where we had stunning views of the lights of Vancouver and I got to play in the snow for the second time this year; the first being when I shoveled our walk at home during a Toronto weekend visit a few weeks ago now.

I’ve been snapping photos along the way for eventual postings and WOW is there ever a lot to catch up on. So, until I can play catch up, here’s a couple of postings I wrote sometime ago about that weekend visit to Toronto as well as a note about my folks. Simply never got around to posting them after they were written. Hopefully a leisurely Saturday this weekend will bring about an opportunity for me to play a bit of catchup and fill you in …a new place, new set of wheels, and of course make up for a lack of Olympic content on this blog! In the meantime, enjoy!...

444 days to go...

C.

Weekend In Toronto

Modern day travel is amazing; I climb into an metal tube in Vancouver and 4.5 short hours later I step out of it in Toronto! ...I won’t mention the 3hr delay and 4:20am arrival in Toronto, that’s just an Air Canada ‘bonus’.

Having only just arrived in Vancouver ten days earlier I turned around and headed back for Ontario last weekend. Elena’s uncle from the UK was flying into Toronto to visit with us and meet me for the first time. Due to unmovable events last May, uncle Bill, was unable to join us for the wedding. As his visit had been arranged prior to even being contacted by VANOC I was absolutely decided to fly across the country so soon after having arrived to meet my new in-law.

It turned out to be the meeting of travelers in Toronto, as uncle Bill came from London, Elena from a business trip to Boston, and I from Vancouver. Unfortunately, uncle Bill would be the first of the three of us to arrive to our house in Toronto. Kindly Elena’s mum met her brother at Pearson and accompanied him down to our place on Friday evening. They enjoyed dinner on King street, she showed him where to find the coffee in our place and tucked him into our guest bed ...my taxi dropped me off at 5am and I snuck upstairs so as not to wake him. A short nap later I came down to meet my new uncle-in-law, still wearing my jammies. We enjoyed a nice morning coffee by the fireplace and awaited Elena’s arrival home from Boston. She’d been on the first flight that morning (she got up at 5am as I went to bed) and arrived home in good time for a nice brunch at Jamie Kennedy’s new place, Gilead Cafe, literally around the corner from us. We followed this up with a great trip to the AGO. Wow, really cool new entry and the Thompson collection was incredibly interesting to see; especially with Bill as he seemed to be an expert on everything in the collection. He was even supplying the gallery guide personnel with information they didn’t even know.

The evening was a trip to our favorite neighborhood restaurant, Rodney Bower’s The Citizen. Like Elena, Bill is a foodie and enjoys the carefully prepared meals; ...as he always does, Rod certainly provided the goods. He was even there that evening and sat with us for a bit, giving Bill a chance to not only sample the cooking of our wedding’s chef, but also to meet the great guy that Rod is; when he first came over to the table he even provided me with a short back massage ...how many other fine restaurants does the head chef provide that kind of service?!?

Sunday was much more casual with a trip to another local favorite, Morning Glory. Excellent Sunday brunch spot; but don’t pass that info around as it’s tiny and we don’t want to have to wait for a table in the future. ...seems to be catching on though as we had to wait this time. We then treated uncle Bill to an afternoon at the farmhouse. Penelope joined us as we ventured west down the 401 and lit the wood stove and brewed some hot tea at the snow covered farmhouse. Heaven in my mind! This trip also gave Bill a chance to also see where we got married and have a nice walk in the Ontario countryside.


Monday morning came all too fast and next thing I knew I was saying goodbye to Elena, standing outside Pearson at 6am, on our six month wedding anniversary. It was a tough goodbye and I don’t anticipate the goodbyes getting any easier. Atleast that magical metal tube can help to alleviate some of our sorrows given those short 4.5 hours, plus a little patience.

444 days to go...

C.

Word from 'the other' coast

Unfortunately I was unable to catchup with my folks while in Toronto, as they were off enjoying the eastern Canadian coast. The two of them were visiting their heaven-on-earth in Duncan’s Cove, Nova Scotia; a small community to the south-west of Halifax. They spent a number of years living in this small community B.K. (before kids) when my dad was running Neptune Theatre and my mum work for television news at CFCJ. They visit as often as possible the small community of ramshackle houses, held together with rusted nails and duck tape, to take in the Atlantic ocean, seafoods and rugged beauty of the cove’s surrounds. My mum has been sending updates and by now, they will have made the return drive back to Ontario.

Despite missing the chance to see one another, they left me an early Christmas present in Toronto. Thanks so much! I’ll never be late for work again (well I’ll try).

444 days to go...

C.

Return to the island...

Wow, so much has been going on since my last post... two more days of work, a killer tempo run on Thursday night, which saw me drop off the back of the pack mid-run. But this entry is to focus on this past weekend...

On Saturday I headed out to Tsawwassen ferry terminal to catch a lift over to Vancouver Island. Immediately upon walking up the terminal ramp to the berth I got chills from the view. Across the water, below a clear blue sky I saw the familiar horizon outline of the west coast gulf islands in the distance. It felt good to be back as I boarded the ferry. I spent a good amount of time wandering the ship and then after passing through active pass and too many photos taken, I headed for another much missed aspect of the west coast ...BC Ferry french fries! But much to my horror, the old curled spiced fries that I used to order with every crossing have been replace by White Spot french fries!!! ...sacrilege!!! However, I still managed to get through an order.


Once across I was met at Swartz Bat by Angus and his now three year old son Taiyo. We had a long car ride home as we had to stop off to watch airplanes, helicopters and some guys on go-karts at the end of the Victoria International Airport runway. Angus is a waterbomber pilot and Taiyo definitely shares his dad’s interest in planes. To the point that Angus had seen enough and was ready to go, while Taiyo probably would have setup a tent to live and watch planes round the clock ....really what more entertainment do you need at three than planes taking off and landing.

A special treat was dinner on Saturday night. Kumiko had prepared an unbelievable Japanese feast for the four of us and a couple of their friends; Mayumi, a former ELS student that had stayed with them for a 6 month period when she first came to Canada, and Ken, a commercial tuna fisherman from Victoria. It was an excellent meal with great people and great conversation. After a bit of chocolate cake and ice cream we were treated to our own personal piano concert. Mayumi is a very accomplished pianist and it was very relaxing to sit back in the living room and listen to her twinkle the ivories through some Chopin and a few others (that I did not recognize, but certainly enjoyed)

This morning after a morning tea around the Forsyth kitchen table we all parted ways and I headed out for a run. I hit up a bunch of my old haunts around Victoria, starting with a run up to the summit of Mount Doug, which unfortunately was found fogged in by low lying cloud. The last time I was up there was back in September 2007, down on one knee proposing to Elena. ...wow, how SO MUCH has happened since that day; you can never predict what direction life’s going to take around the next corner!

After my long run which also included a visit to see the new construction at the UVic campus, I hooked up with my former MSc partner in crime, Laurie and her husband (Ian) and their two year old son (Logan). Laurie always makes me laugh and she and Ian are doing an amazing job with raising Logan. I only hope that someday I can be half as good a parent as these two are. For our visit we hit up the pet food store in the new Tuscany Village at MacKenzie and Shelburne (yeah, I felt just like I was in Italy! ...including the Starbucks and Blockbuster for that authentic Italian flavor) for some duck food and then Starbucks in hand we walked to the duck pond at the end of Feltham. What an incredibly cool place to take a kid! I had no idea this little pond existed and have criss-crossed the trail network in that area many times ...including during my morning run! We had fun with the ducks and then continued our stroll through Gordon Head area, before I headed off back to the Forsyth’s.

Kumiko was kind enough to feed me another excellent meal and Angus schelpt me out to Swartz Bay. Currently, I’m sitting on the ferry enroute back to the mainland. Although it was only a short 24hrs I spent on the island, it felt like a multi day vacation. I look forward to future weekends of popping over to the island for visits, runs and cycling. Infact it will only be another couple of weeks before I cross the Strait again, however, that trip will be limited to the retrieval of my stuff from the storage unit I’ve held for almost three years.

469 days to go...

C.

First Day

After an weird night of waking up every hour in a panic of "it's time to get up" sort of way, I found my way to the VANOC2010 offices on the edge of Burnaby.

The day started with paperwork, an RCMP background check, and a bit of a tour as the new employees were dropped off to their respective departments; sort of like a bus drops of passengers along a route. When I arrived to the Branding and Creative Services work area and was introduced to the team a cheer went up in a sigh of relief. They've apparently been awaiting me to become their savior as the map-guru; I hope I can meet their lofty expectations. The group is full of young and enthusiastic people, who I look forward to working with. However, my first day was spent over in the Transportation Department helping out where I could on a few drawing updates. Another great bunch of people that I will be interacting regularly with.

The evening commute home was a bit of a gong show, but after a couple of missed buses, a lesson on zone fares, and a missed stop (which on an express bus means a 2km walk back), I made it back to my friend's place in Kerrisdale in a bit over 2hrs. Will try and do better tomorrow so as not to miss the Thursday evening group run that goes at 6:30.

473 days to go...

C.