Aaron’s view on things… Not always entertaining to others, but it is to himself.
The prediction is for snow over the next few days here in downtown vancouver. So i am looking forward to that. Locals say that it only really snows here in town about once a winter. So it is nothing like the other parts of Canada, but i am hoping it does purely for the novelty.
Yesterday was the 93rd playing of the Grey Cup - the final of the Canadian Football Leauge. Think of it as the Canadian Superbowl. This year the game was being played here in Vancouver at BC Stadium. Last week in the Western Conference Final the local BC Lions were beat by the Edmonton Eskimos and thus missed out on making the game. Making the final from the East was the Montreal Allouettes. I was lucky enough to have a ticket thanks to Mel buying them a while ago.
So yesterday we headed down early to the stadium to soak up some of the atmosphere before the game. I guess it is a bit like being in Melbourne before the Grand Final where they have the build up all week with stuff like the parade and parties, breakfasts etc. There was a bit going on down by the staduim but at the end of the day it was just a lot of food vendors and free handouts that usually end up in the bin anyway.
So i decided to hit up the merchandise stores seeing what merchandise they had for either Edmonton or Montreal. However there was not one stall selling team merchandise anywhere, plenty of Grey Cup Merchandise that was generic and not real interesting, but not one item of either Edmonton or Montreal. I found that slighty odd, but after telling anyone who would listen to me go on about how they were not selling team gear for about 2 hours i gave up trying to buy either a Eskimos or Allouettes Touque (beanie).
After seeing everything that the “Street Party” had to offer we walked a few blocks back into the city and grabbed a much better and cheaper food option then on offer outside or inside the stadium. Finally we headed back to the stadium about 1:45 with the game starting at 3.
The teams went thought their warm ups and then the ground was invaded by all the “Dance Teams” - the politically correct way of saying cheerleaders, or more appropriately “exotic dancers” doing their thing. After that the Mounties carried out the Giant Canadian Flag and unfurled it inside people forming the shape of a Maple leaf. The teams were then introduced admit fireworks, smoke and flames, and O’Canada was sung. One thing about the National Anthem is that everyone seems to have a licence to sing it in his or her own fashion, meaning that each time you hear it you get a different version. So some suck and others are really good. This one was so-so although it was the first time i had heard the English/French version so there were a few lines that i didn’t know the words too.
Then came the kick off. The game was under way. Canadian (and American) football i find tends to be played out quite slow, for a non football fan the only hope you can have is that the game remains close, as it seems to really only becomes interesting in the last 10 minutes of the 4th quarter if the game is tight. Anyway the game got off to a slow start and the score being 10-1 at the end of the first half with the crowd favourite Edmonton being in front. I had gone to the game hoping that Edmonton would win, but with Edmonton out playing Montreal and hoping for a close game i found myself starting to support Montreal. Especially as the Edmonton fans around us were jerks and the two guys who had flown from Quebec to support Montreal complete with faces painted and signs written in French who were sitting on the other side of us minding their own business were totally being worked over to the extreme by the drunken Edmonton fans.
After the half time entertainment (the Black Eyed Peas sung a few songs) i was hoping for Montreal to return some fire. It happened with Montreal getting back into the game and the games coming close. Finally with 10 minutes to go the game it started to get interesting. The game was close and going down the wire. With 1 minute left to play in the 4th Edmonton scored to take a 3 point lead. On the last play of the game with 10 secs left on the clock Montreal kicked a field goal to tie the game and send it to overtime. So the final 30 minutes of a 4 hour marathon were exciting. The game ended up going to a second overtime with Edmonton finally running out 3 point winners 38-35.
It was a great experience to be at the game with a full house at the stadium. Although not exactly comparable the AFL Grand Final, or even a big game at the MCG (such as ANZAC day) it was still fun and something to say that I went to. Next is trying to get a ticket to an Canucks Playoff Games, but i think i’d need to sell a kidney to do that!!!
Some Photos and small movies are also online.
Update: Ok so the movies are not there yet. I’m working on that one…
Ok, so not counting the new bike i bought and the next one that i am thinking of purchasing - see the N+1 theory of bike ownership - the cheap merchandise through the shop so far, tickets to the Hockey and related gear; the best purchase i have made since i arrived in Canada has been the Crock Pot.
Yes the humble Crock Pot. One of those things that were popular in the 70’s, usually sporting a pretty interesting orange colour that were relegated to the back of the cupboard and not seen for a while. Well here in the kitchen the crock pot is going through an Aaron led revival. Although this one is a classy white number, i thought about the the stainless steel model the memories of attempting to keep stainless clean while working for 5 and half years at McD’s still continue to haunt me.
Nothing beats coming home from work after 6:30 to a house full of intoxicating aromas and dinner ready to eat. And as a bonus the fact that the crock pot cooks so slowly means that being on a budget is not a problem as you can turn the cheapest meat into wonderfully tender meat that just falls apart in your mouth after 8 hours on low. And with the store not opening to 10am the time is there to prepare the food in the morning set the crock pot on low and head off to the store. Stews, bolognase sauce, mexican casseroles, curries and roasts have all been cooked in the crockpot so far.
Thats not to say that i’m all about set and forget cooking. I have started to make my own dough for home made pizzas. Oh and nothing beats the old vegemite sambo.
The house had a party last night. It was a sweet deal although i am not feeling to flash today. The pizza i had at 5pm at work certainly helped.
Anyway for those who were waiting to see pictures of my housemates, the wait is over… Here they are… More photos of the evening are in the gallery. here…
Alex, Meagan, Laura, AB
A few weeks ago a customer at the store and one of the stores clinic members asked me to participate in her Haney to Harrison team. I had no idea what the Haney to Harrison was so i’d said that i’d have to think about it. With some time bought i was able to ascertain that the Haney to Harrison was a 100km road relay made up of 8 legs ranging from 7.97km to 15.5km in length. It’s the last big event on the BC athletics calendar and is traditionally followed by a big party. I was hesitant at first but after some more persuading from Jackie I was roped in. I was not to excited about this as I had been told that Jackie liked to put together fairly competitive teams.
Anyway the day had rolled around. I had been given a 13.3k leg which i wasn’t looking to forward to. I had warmed up the previous weekend with a 42:26 over 9.5km at the Seawall race around Stanley Park. However, when the alarm went off at 5am i was still unsure of what i had gotten myself into. Renee picked me up at 5:40 and we were meeting jackie at 6am. The rest of the team was meeting us in Haney. Arriving in Haney, jackie started to get a bit flusdtered as the other two cars with team members hadn’t arrived yet and were calling to ask how to get to Haney. This was at 6:50 with our team due to start at 7:10. By 7am Jackie was beginning to worry, and decided to drive out of the car park to the start line as she had all the race numbers and stuff. Jackie’s car however did not want to start and she would require a jump start. Renee went on foot to the start with the race number and timing chip for the first runner.
7:10am and our start time had passed. The first runner had only just arrived and in a flurry of activity headed off after the other teams to also start at 7:10 only 5 minutes after the rest of the field. We all headed to the first transition. Jackie was next to run, only when Lee arrived at the end of the first leg she was inside the port-a-loo so the team was looking pretty disorganised. The day was slowly to improve with Travis being ready to go for leg 3 and myself ready to go at leg 4. The biggest decisions so far had been what to run in with the ambient temp topping out at 6 degrees Celcuis, overcast and looking like ti would rain at any moment. A lot of the surrounding hills were topped with a fresh dump of snow. I finally decided on leggings and a long sleeve t-shirt and gloves.
My leg was described as steep down hill then flat. After climbing a long gradual uphill for 2ks i was wondering how accurate that description was. That changed just after that when it became like running down Red Hill (for those of you in Canberra) even steeper in part. It went down hill to a valley floor and after about 5ks with the quads burning it was then 8.3km of painful flat to the finish of my leg. The gloves came off not long after the down hill but i was glad i was wearing the leggings as the slight breeze off the hills was not to pleasant. I was able to complete my leg in 62:24 which i was pretty happy with. I feel like i am running ok at the moment considering i am not really doing all that much and not really a strong runner.
Anyway the rest of the day pretty much unfolded without much drama. Renee finished leg 8 into Harrison Hot Springs in a team time of 7 hours 58 minutes. We did lose Renee just after the finish amongst the 50 people that muct have been at the finish line in Harrison at the time. After finding Renee we decided that Harrison was to cold with the now stronger wind whipping of the lake and it was time to return to Vancouver and Jackie’s for beer, pizza and the hockey. By 11pm it was only Jackie and I left at a club in town still partying. I could only last another hour and left Jackie to party on as the last surviving member of the team.