Aaron’s view on things… Not always entertaining to others, but it is to himself.
I had decided that i needed a bike to get around town on. Unfortunately once you have been on good bikes, it’s top hard to go back to the old $150 “campus bikes”. So i lashed out on a new Ridley Cyclocross bike. It’s super sweet to ride, and i am hanging out to take it off road. If you want to see pics look here.
It was my first experience watching the AFL Grand Final at night this week. Here in Vancouver there were a few pubs that were showing the game (including one a few blocks down), however I headed to Burnaby where the Vancouver Cougars were hosting a party. I thought i better get to know my team mates a bit better ahead of next weekend’s US National Championships, but that’s a different story.
They probably had 150 people at the rugby club out there to watch the game. The beer was cheap and the pizza plentiful. And the crowd growing restless as it drew closer to game time that maby Australian’s in the one place all starved of decent football coverage made for an entertaining evening. A rousing rendition of the Australian National Anthem filled the Rugby Club and it was time for the festivities to begin. It wasn’t to bad a time either with the game starting at 9:30pm Friday here in Vancouver.
Half the crowd at the club had decided to side with the West Coast of Australia, the other the Eastern. So early on it was the red and white crowd was making all the noise. But as i am sure was the case anywhere in the world it came alive in the last quarter. The highlight of the night seemed to be the VB raffle. God knows why but it seemed to be well received. Had they been raffling off Coopers I would have bought all the tickets. At the end of the day if you ignore the fact it was decided by four points it was a very disappointing game of football to watch and very typical of the crap football that Sydney plays. Even over here on the other side of the world that was more than evident.
At the end of the game the Club had ordered 3 SUV Stretch Limo’s to take the revellers back to the city and that made getting home quite easy, and sure beat standing on the Sky Train station after 1am.
The rest of the staff from Forerunners travelled to the Frog and Firkin to watch the game with the Australian that worked in the store that I replaced. For the last few weeks i have been commenting that Hockey (of the ice variety) was insane. Well after Friday night Todd reckons that Hockey is nothing compared to the craziness of Australian Football. He said the way people go charging into packs, cop a couple around the head, no real penalties for rough play, people coming off bleeding and nothing done about it during the game was nuts. I had to explain to him that instead of sitting in the penalty box for 5 minutes, they sit in it all next week and more if anybody does something really illeagal. It was funny to see his reaction to it all. Compared to the Football they play over here, Australian Football is in a world of it’s own.
Next week: Aaron travels to Milwaukee for the US National Australian Football Championships.
I had watched a few Canadian Football Games on TV and thought I’d better go along and watch a game while the season is on. It was also helped as (my new team) the BC Lions had been on a hot streak and had been tearing teams apart and were undefeated.
I had liked the look of the game on TV. It’s similar in nature to American Football, but with some modifications that make the two games different. The rules of Canadian Football tends to make the game a lot more offensive then American Football. It goes without saying that the CFL is full of NFL rejects and college players who couldn’t get a start, although like Australian TV there are local content rules.
Anyway I decided it was time to go and on Saturday night the BC team returned to BC Stadium and were playing those arrogant frenchy types from Montreal. Just to make it more interesting i dragged Karl along. Mel and her friend Paige also were in attendance. The Lions were 10-0 going into the game. Needless to say a lot of people are jumping on the bandwagon (myself included). The previous week the Lions had beaten a team 64-27 and everyone was expecting big things.
Somethings are the same all around the world. Like paying way to much for crap beer at sporting events. Karl and i expected to pay a bit, but $7.50 for a Molson Canadian (the Canadian equivalent of VB) left us pretty much speechless. So to did the 2 drink at a time limit. The other thing that really was odd was that the huge stadium only had one giant screen, and of course from where we were sitting you could not see it! No wonder it only cost me $15.
It was time for kick off. Straight from the kickoff return the Lions returned for nearly 90 yards and went close to scoring a touchdown all on the first play of the game. All was looking good for a game that would provide some excitement. However that was as good as it was going to get. For the next three quarters it became a battle of the punters as both teams continued to turn the ball over. Until the last few minutes the most exciting thing was the races during time outs that included two guys dressed as giant coffee cups racing to the donuts, and guys seeing who could assemble the giant subway sandwiches the fastest! This was all making cricket look like a fast game!!
In the end it got exciting during the last few minutes only because the game was so close. Montreal almost snatched victory but ended up going down by a point. It was hardly a glowing endorsement for North American sport. I’ll be back though as i have tickets to the Grey Cup (the Grand Final) and of course there is every chance that my team will be playing in the big one.
Game on!!!!
The Hockey is only just over two weeks away and the locals are going crazy. It’s all the talk on the sports news over here. Even i am starting to get excited. I have tickets to two games already, which is sweet as the last season and a half all the games in Vancouver (like 40+ a season) have been sell outs!!! One of the games i have tickets too is the Edmonton game, which i have been told will be a good one as the Canadian v Canadian games take on all new meaning.
Go Lions!!
The following is an inaccurate account of my shopping experience as narrated by some Canadian.
AB…
********
IKEA Nationals, 2005
Operation: ANB (Aaron Needs a Bed)
It all started as we left Kits at 5:30pm heading into Richmond to find the closest IKEA, which, oddly/ironically/wierdly enough, is on Sweden Way… Aaron couldnt have picked a better time to leave as we were escorted by everyone else trying to get out of the city, thru the guts (Granville), which was more or less like a parking lot. A solid 40 minutes later and we are ready to go! WOOO!
Aaron’s Ikea shopping list:
YSTENVOOG
STRAAMER
which, in loose swedish translation is: bed and frame.. its Go Time..
The start of Ikea provides all the necessities: a tape measure, a map, and a pencil with a wish list tobe filled out. When all they really need is someone to tell you no, you dont need that, put it back, its cool - but its not that cool.. and everyone else and their dog has it. If only…
Aaron was a big fan of the tape measure (ooh, numbers on plastic…) and although he hadnt taken any measurements from his new home, it didnt stop him from getting in there and trying to look like he knew what he was doing..
Hmm.. just a smidge to wide… yes.. that so wont work… A big fan of the Bunk Beds, but not of the price, Aaron had a bit of a sulking session..
We moved on to bigger and better things, like this note on one of the floor-room toilets… in case anyone wasnt sure… I just hope that there were no previous incidents which then required them to put this note here to ward off future events… Johnny Knoxville anyone?
But back to the beds… Too soft? Too hard? Too short? Only one way to tell.. time for Aaron to give the test drive. He definitely got comfy and gave all the beds.. all of them.. every single one… a solid try.. each try consisting of three sleeping configurations, my personal favorite being the Passed Out Starfish as demonstrated here (note he is still wearing the measuring tape):
It seemed that Aaron’s favorite by far was the circular bed with the girlie netting. I think he was there for a solid hour.. and he kept making these odd “meow” noises… people were looking at me in a “Does your friend need help” kind of way…
At a close second was the motorized unit. I’m sure that if the price been right Aaron would have chosen this bed. Mmmmm…remote… must have remote… mmm buttons… whats with guys and remotes anyways? “It goes up, It goes down”.. good job Aaron. You get a cookie.
After all that hard work, rest was definitely in order. Aaron seemed quite at home in this set up, and Im sure passerby-ers were hoping that the bloke was included in the $597 - “He just looks so natural there, can we take him home? He would go great by the harth” etc etc..
Once Aaron had decided on a bed and frame, it was off to the bedding department and then to the warehouse to pick up the goods! We found a trolley, picked up some things along the way and..No! it cant be?!! The bed Aaron was pulling for was OOS (out of stock) which made Aaron SOL. Bring on the dilemas. So I sat in the warehouse as Aaron paced, hummed, hawed, itched, did some more humming.. and finaly decided against getting another bed, and to just wing it, as something was sure to come up. Yes, thats right folks, Operation: ANB failed miserably… dun dun dun dunnnnn… However (can you sense the big turning point?) it all worked out well in the end as his room’s predecessor was looking to get rid of her bed… et voila!
And not being a total loss, Aaron was keen on getting a solid start to his room and managed to pick up a clothes hamper, a shelving unit, a duvet (quilt) and pillows.
And I’m now convinced that the only way to shop Ikea is with an entertaining Australian.
*The End*
In a classic “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” move, i have started working at Forerunners, which is a high level running shop about 5 minutes walk from my place. A lady i met in Penticton through Karl’s friends knew someone who owned a running shop who had an Australian in there who was leaving and might have needed some staff. She then spoke to the owner about me, leaving me to then go in and see them when i returned to Vancouver from Penticton. Well it all worked out and i have now done 3 shifts at the shop, and all is going well. There is a mountian of shoes on the wall to get on top of and once that is out of the way it should all be sweet. The other staff members are really great people and it all seems to be working out nicely. So now i have just about got everything sorted.
Saturday was Grand Final Day for the North West Pacific AFL. Three teams lined up for the round robin style tournament with Burnaby, Vancouver and Seattle talking to the field. Victoria had been in the line up but were a last minute withdrawal.
Alice had arrived in the morning straight from the final day of her Contiki tour of South Western USA and was suffering from a lack of sleep and a fair degree of seediness. Her sentence - a full day of boredom sitting in the stands at Thunderbird Stadium and photo duties. Luckily a friend Mel turned up later in the day to give Alice a drinking partner.
The day started with the singing of the three national anthems, and game number one, Vancouver vs Burnaby which was from all reports likely to be a precusor to the final games of the day. However nobody counted on Seattle turning up ready to play and they went through the day undefeated to run out a few goal winners over Burnaby in the final and thus becoming NWPAFL Premiers for the second time. As with any night sporting event when the lights go down and the beer comes out so to do the streakers and what sporting event would be complete without the streakers. From reports i have heard Alice couldn’t get her Camera out quick enough and as you can see from the photos in all her excitement couldn’t hold the camera still. Which is probably a good thing as the men in question can still maintain a slight aura of dignity.
I had the honour of starting the first ever night game played in North America with a perfect bounce, and despite leaving Canberra half way through the season i still got a Grand Final under my belt for the year. I am more than likely to be heading to Milwaukee in a few weeks to umpire at the US AFL Nationals. So that should be sweet as well.
For Mel, who it was the first time she had witnessed Australian Football - well she was too traumatised by the streakers to form an opinion of the day.
Well yesterday it was time for a visit to the fair. The annual fair at the Pacific National Exibition is the equivalent of the shows back in Australia, but without the heavy emphasis on the Agricultural stuff. Sure they still had the farm yard animals but there didn’t seem to be the whole awards for stuff like Best Cow on Show and Best Fruit Cake that you see at the Australian shows.
The PNE (showgrounds) is in the middle of the neighbourhood of Hastings so Parking is at a Premium. The offical lots are $15 a car, and the surrounding streets are mainly permit parking for residents. Those steets that weren’t were well taken by the time we arrived at 2pm. Don’t despair though because on every corner in the streets in the area are the local residents, who were mostly asian, holding signs that read PARKING. Yes they were selling parking on their properties. With so many of them one is able to barter for the best price on parking with all of them were undercutting the $15 dollars offered by the PNE lots to varying degrees. Mel managed to get one elderly asian lady down to $10, and she parked Mel in her back yard! $15 probably got you the driveway. There were already 3 cars in there so she had probably made a pretty lazy $40 bucks for the day. Extend that to the 14th day of the fair and she would have made a few hundred dollars for next to nothing.
One interesting fact about the PNE is it is the location of the 1954 “Miracle Mile”. The Miracle Mile was the 1 mile at the 1954 Commonwealth Games race when John Landy and Roger Bannister first met over the Mile for the first time. It was to become the first time two runners would run sub 4 minutes in the same race. John Landy looked over his left shoulder with 90 yards to run, and at that moment Roger Bannister came around John on the right held on to win. Bannister would run 3:58:8 with Landy second place finish came in 3:59.6.
Anyway back to the fair. The fair had all the usual trade exhibits, petting farm, farm animals, crap over priced food that you eat anyway, rigged sideshow games and feral “Carnies” working the rides - more on that later.
The first big thing was the Superdogs show. I was wondering why there was nearly 4,000 people in the Pacific Coliseum to see this show, and evidently that had been the norm for the whole previous two weeks of the show, but left the show entertained and with a better understanding why. The dogs were cool, and did their tricks and were entertaining. However what wasn’t entertaining was Herb. Herb was the host of the show who had been doing this for over 20 years. For those of you who have seen the American version of The Price is Right, Herb reminded me of Bob Barker, that being a guy who just doesn’t seem to know when to give it up. (For those that haven’t seen the American version of the Price is Right Bob is the celebrity Adam Sandler has a punch up with in Happy Gilmore - which is Emmy award winning stuff compared to his efforts on the Price is right, Alice will confirm this). Luckily this was the last year Herb would host the show. Unluckily Herb spent 15 minutes at the start of the show crapping on about how much of a legend he is, or more likely was. Someone in the crowd had enough and yelled out “Just bring on the Bloody Dogs”, it was good timing and bought some serious laughter from that section of the crowd. And i know you are all thinking it was me being a typical Australian, but i can assure you it wasn’t and besides i would have added “You old fart”.
Later it was time to see the Duck races. The sight of 8 ducks leaping out of the barriers just like it was the start of the Melbourne Cup was very entertaining. Even though it was the duck that braved the slide first that took out the race not the fastest.
Finally it was time to hit up the rides. The PNE has a semi permanent rides area. Made up of a combination of Full-time themepark level rides being operated by responsible staff and temporary “Carnival” back of a semi-trailer type rides being operated by Carnival folk. All this added up to an interesting mix of rides. One bonus compared to the show back home is that you can buy a full day ride pass, rather than having to pay for each and everyride.
The pick of the rides was by far the old wooden rollercoaster that was built in 1958 closely followed by the log ride. But riding the log ride several times at 11pm made for a cold ride home in the car. I was wondering why the line on that ride was so short. I stopped short of having to pay an extra $5 to ride the hellevator, which is an extremely poor cousin of the Tower of Terror at dreamworld.
One of the rides was being operated by real stereotypical “Carnies” - Feral looking guys that didn’t seem care to much about what they were doing. In hindsight i really should have started to worry when one of them was drinking Windex! Yes Windex! Now i know these people probably don’t earn a lot of money but jeez - Windex straight from the bottle???!!! Judging by the look of him, Windex seemed to have a pretty high Calorie count.
Finally when you think you have spent just about all you could spend on one day at the fair, you walk past the Casino. A fully operational Casino, with all your favourites, blackjack, roulette, Pai Gow and all the rest. I was quite disappointed at the lack of a two up pit. About the only thing missing was a bookmaker taking bets on the Duck Races.
Despite all my stinging critism (and poor grammar) is was a good day out and i had a good day at the fair. And thats all for now, i’m off to enjoy the rest of the public holiday Monday, by doing some grocery shopping.
As much fun as i am having here in Vancouver if there is anywhere in the world i could be this week it would be Adelaide, South Australia. This Saturday night the City of Adelaide will come to a virtual standstill as the Mighty Port Adelaide Football Club will go head to head with cross town rival Adelaide, in the first time the two teams have met in a Final. This could possibly be the biggest game in the History of Football in South Australia, which i’ll admit is a big call to make, but after all that has gone down in the short history of Power-Crows rivalry this could lead to Civil war in South Australia… and at the end of the day isn’t that what football is all about…
Go the Power!!!!
Well I am back in Vancouver. The week up in Penticton was great. The weather was warm including a few days over the 30 mark which unfortunately for the athletes included race day. The house that the heidens had rented had a spa so i spent a lot of time in the spa drinking a few beverages right in front of the boys as they prepared for their race.
Race day was a long one and supporting an ironman can be as brutal as racing. Well probably not that bad but brutal all the same. From race start at 7am through to 9:30pm when i couldn’t support anymore it took it’s toll. After watching the swim start at 7am it was to the cafe while 2200 people battled it out for 3.8k in the lake. With Coffee done we were just in time to see the first athletes out of the water heading out of town down one lane on main street. They only had one lane because the crowds took up the rest of Main Street watching them leave town. We then drove to about the 140k mark of the bike on the Climb up to a lake called Yellow Lake and were there for about 3 hours as riders busted themselves up the hill. Prior to them arriving we had turned our little area into the Australian HQ’s. See photos.
Then it was back to town where i borrowed a clunker of a bike from the house we were staying in and rode out along the run course. Lots of athletes had been reduced to a walk and it certainly did not inspire me to have a go at one of these myself.
Then back into town to see both Heiden boys finish just on the wrong side of 12 hours (a tough day out for both) and then continuing to support the constant stream of runners and walkers heading towards the finish well after dark. (Official race finish is Midnight).
Anyway now i am back in Vancouver and about to move into my new place and hunting for some work. Hopefully that won’t be too hard.
Some photos from Penticton and Ironman will be online shortly…
