Day 5 - Tuesday Feb. 23rd

Women's Curling - Canada vs GB - 9:00 am

Jamie and Karen - Men's Curling - Canada vs China

Men's Hockey - Canada vs Germany (qualification game) - 4:30 pm A game Canada was not supposed to be playing but had to because of their loss to the US.

Men's Hockey - Slovakia vs Norway - 9:00 pm
Jamie and Karen also at this game

Our first day of rain in Vancouver but no one was complaining because we have been enjoying absolutely gorgeous spring weather. (as Ancaster suffers through their first winter storm of the season). The cherry blossoms are even coming out on the trees lining the streets!

Our host was referring to Vancouver as 'Funcouver' and I'm beginning to realize why. On many occasions, we have caught a whiff of the 'wacky tabacky' walking the downtown streets at night and even in residential areas. On this morning, as we walked through a lovely residential area which surrounds the Vancouver Olympic Centre, home of the curling, 'mary jane' was in the air and it was only 8:30 am!
As we were standing in a long line (I use this word alot) the volunteer announcer asked how many curlers were in the lineup. There must have been close to 500 people in line and Iain and I were the only ones to admit we were curlers! That is what the Olympics are all about - people experiencing different sports that they have never experienced before - and the venue was packed as usual with very vocal supporters form all the different countries and there was even a male fan without a shirt, with 'maple leafs' all over his chest and back and bike shorts! Wow, they don't even allow jeans at Dundas Valley Curling Club! I particularly liked the Japanese cheer!
Cheryl Bernard squeaked out a victory, over those Scots form GB, in an extra end.
Speaking of Cheryl, my brother Will has a huge crush on her, and brother Jamie has commented on the fitness of the women curlers and how they are a pleasure to watch (and I don't think he was referring to their curling skills! :-) )
I would also like to say that the days of the cigarette smoking, paunchy men curlers have gone and I am quite enjoying the fitness level of the men! My favourite is the Norwegian skip...from the waist up - could do without those pants.
My friend Theresa, is quite partial to John Morris (nothing is sacred in this blog!)

Okay, since I'm on the topic of curling, a couple of other stories.
A class of school children sat behind us during this morning draw. The class was very mixed, culturally (mostly Asian and Indian;no WASPS at all) but they seemed to know quite a bit about the game. Iain gave them his giant Canadian flag to wave and his 'foamhead' maple leaf' to wear which sat quite nicely atop the headwear of the little Sikh boy!
At breakfast, this morning, an American woman was commenting on the fact that she had the 'dregs' of the Olympic tickets and proceeded to say that these tickets were to the curling events. I could literally see the hair on Iain's back stand up and the look on his face told the whole story!

Enough about curling....
The Canada Germany hockey game was everything we hoped it would be with Canada dominating, particularly in the second and third periods. The crowd was 'red and rockin' and halfway through the third, the strains of 'We want Russia' could be heard loud and clear.
The tiny, feisty and very skilled Norwegians gave the Slovaks a run for their money - final score - 4-3. I particularly liked#48 on Norway...I think Norway is my new favourite country (refer back to comment about the Norwegian skip!) No Norseman for me though because I have my Scotsman! (and yes, Barbie, you have your Finn!) Have you seen the Bell commercial with Scotsman in his kilt bending over to pick something up??! :-)