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the second most popular Canadian sport
Feb. 19th, 2010 11:35 amI know absolutely nothing about curling. I watched Men With Brooms about 7 years ago, but it was like The Full Monty except about plucky Canadian curlers instead of male strippers. That is to say, not that awesome or interesting. Or memorable. And it definitely didn't do a great job explaining curling, aside from the purpose of the brooms. (It melts the ice a bit so the stone follows the path instead of stopping due to friction.)
I joked that curling was invented by drunken Scotsmen trying to bowl on a frozen lake, but without pins or a ball. Reg said it was a mix between darts and croquet. A coworker said "It's just like Shuffleboard!" which proves he is secretly an 80-yo Jewish retiree.
Nonetheless we watched the Canadian men and women's team first round games. I kind of got the idea of how they scored (getting the stones into the concentric circles), and some of the strategy in blocking the opponents, and I figured out when to cheer. But I still don't understand the fun part. Now this may be partly my own prejudices, in that I don't understand the fun part of most sports/games I've never played. Well, ok, just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand. I understand that it's tricky to get the throw down right, and satisfaction can occur when doing so, but watching someone else do it is even less fun than watching Poker on TV.
I joked that curling was invented by drunken Scotsmen trying to bowl on a frozen lake, but without pins or a ball. Reg said it was a mix between darts and croquet. A coworker said "It's just like Shuffleboard!" which proves he is secretly an 80-yo Jewish retiree.
Nonetheless we watched the Canadian men and women's team first round games. I kind of got the idea of how they scored (getting the stones into the concentric circles), and some of the strategy in blocking the opponents, and I figured out when to cheer. But I still don't understand the fun part. Now this may be partly my own prejudices, in that I don't understand the fun part of most sports/games I've never played. Well, ok, just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand. I understand that it's tricky to get the throw down right, and satisfaction can occur when doing so, but watching someone else do it is even less fun than watching Poker on TV.
I wouldn't dream of it now
Feb. 18th, 2010 01:57 pmThey played a lot of Smiths/Morrissey during the trial ski jumps Sunday morning. Maybe because it's the 25th anniversary of Meat Is Murder. I dunno. I heard a lot of people complaining about how disorganized the herding cats spectators was compared to say SLC, and I would have to agree. Not that I know for sure, but it was incredibly disorganized. But at any rate, we bused up to the Olympic site from Whistler about an hour before the ski jump began, and walked about a half a mile from the bus stop to the ski jump hill. We had the best seats in the house, first row of bleachers smack dab in front. And just before the event started for real the sun came out. I hadn't brought my sunglasses along with me, alas.
Still it was quite nice. Like any sort of sporting event, you get caught up in the enthusiasm of the crowd. Also in general Winter Olympic sporting events are actually interesting, unlike team sports (to me at least). But when it comes down to it, you are watching about 50 dudes in tights ski really fast off a jump, then fly in the air for a hundred meters or so. It can get a bit repetitive. You almost look forward to people fucking up.
Since it was the nordic combined, the ski jump just put delayed starts on the cross-country race later that afternoon. An American was second and a Finn was first. So after the last jumper, Reg and I raced out to the eatery, but we were still beaten. This is actually because we were waiting for Reg's mom to use the toilet, as she hadn't the presence of mine to go during the event like the rest of the party did. So we decided we'd just go to the cafe at the CC race. Unfortunately it started to pour rain during our .75mile walk. Few things are more unpleasant than walking in pouring rain at near-freezing temps in a huge crowd of people.
ONE THING MORE UNPLEASANT - going into the only heated tent after you get your food to find it crampacked wall-to-wall with folk. Also, babies crying. And for Reg, his hot dog being overcooked didn't help. Oh well. As soon as we finished eating the rain stopped, so we went to find our seats. This time we were on the last row, which was ok b/c we were out of the wind. Odd thing was, the people next to us had sat next to us during the ski jump, too. I guess the ticket packages were sold in bulk like that. Weird. They were from Florida and had seen Apollo Ohno the previous day and were PSYCHED AS HELL to be up for the Olympics, and actually wanted to go again in four years. (Whereas I just want to go to X-Games now.)
And so then the race itself. Four laps of guys hurting themselves. If you've ever tried cross-country skiing you know what I'm talking about. It was nigh-impossible for anyone to pass up anyone else but it happened, and the lousy Frenchman pulled ahead of the American in the last 2 seconds, literally. That was pretty intense. I kept trying to snap photos, but the little blobs weren't very interesting. I finally hit upon the trick of getting about four skiers on one side of the track going the opposite direction of four skiers on the other side of the track. Of course I took these photos with Reg's camera, and he's still in Canada, so I can't really show what I'm talking about yet.
So yeah, that was my Olympic adventure.
Still it was quite nice. Like any sort of sporting event, you get caught up in the enthusiasm of the crowd. Also in general Winter Olympic sporting events are actually interesting, unlike team sports (to me at least). But when it comes down to it, you are watching about 50 dudes in tights ski really fast off a jump, then fly in the air for a hundred meters or so. It can get a bit repetitive. You almost look forward to people fucking up.
Since it was the nordic combined, the ski jump just put delayed starts on the cross-country race later that afternoon. An American was second and a Finn was first. So after the last jumper, Reg and I raced out to the eatery, but we were still beaten. This is actually because we were waiting for Reg's mom to use the toilet, as she hadn't the presence of mine to go during the event like the rest of the party did. So we decided we'd just go to the cafe at the CC race. Unfortunately it started to pour rain during our .75mile walk. Few things are more unpleasant than walking in pouring rain at near-freezing temps in a huge crowd of people.
ONE THING MORE UNPLEASANT - going into the only heated tent after you get your food to find it crampacked wall-to-wall with folk. Also, babies crying. And for Reg, his hot dog being overcooked didn't help. Oh well. As soon as we finished eating the rain stopped, so we went to find our seats. This time we were on the last row, which was ok b/c we were out of the wind. Odd thing was, the people next to us had sat next to us during the ski jump, too. I guess the ticket packages were sold in bulk like that. Weird. They were from Florida and had seen Apollo Ohno the previous day and were PSYCHED AS HELL to be up for the Olympics, and actually wanted to go again in four years. (Whereas I just want to go to X-Games now.)
And so then the race itself. Four laps of guys hurting themselves. If you've ever tried cross-country skiing you know what I'm talking about. It was nigh-impossible for anyone to pass up anyone else but it happened, and the lousy Frenchman pulled ahead of the American in the last 2 seconds, literally. That was pretty intense. I kept trying to snap photos, but the little blobs weren't very interesting. I finally hit upon the trick of getting about four skiers on one side of the track going the opposite direction of four skiers on the other side of the track. Of course I took these photos with Reg's camera, and he's still in Canada, so I can't really show what I'm talking about yet.
So yeah, that was my Olympic adventure.
Yesterday we watched the Men's Downhill till it was a foregone conclusion (about at #32) then walked all over the village. I got myself a stylish non-wintery hat, and lots of chocolate. We couldn't decide where to eat, so we stopped at Longhorn's, Whistler's answer to Senor Frogs. It was loud and silly and the service was shit, but the portions were huge and the waitresses were hot enough. We also stopped in a few art galleries; I need to ask ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tyrven what the painter's name we liked was, but he's the only modern painter I've seen in years that's moved me.
Today was skiing. We woke up to snow, the first time since we've been here, and it was lovely. It calmed down by the time we got up to near the top, and the sun came out for a bit. It went away by noon, when we stopped near the Blackcomb Rendezvous for lunch. But by 1:30pm it was back, and we had some lovely runs. Except at the peak, where it was foggy as Hades. And then around 3:30pm, near the bottom. The odd thing about Whistler-Blackcomb is that it's so very huge, the runs take 30 min even if you're fast. And I am not. I guess we went downhill about 3 times, but the last run was all the way to Whistler Village, with the fog and slushy runs. The only time I fell was on the slush.
Anyway. We got back and I showered, and soon we are heading to dinner. Mongolian Grill, I think. Tomorrow we will sit around moaning about how sore we are, then I fly home.
tyrven what the painter's name we liked was, but he's the only modern painter I've seen in years that's moved me.Today was skiing. We woke up to snow, the first time since we've been here, and it was lovely. It calmed down by the time we got up to near the top, and the sun came out for a bit. It went away by noon, when we stopped near the Blackcomb Rendezvous for lunch. But by 1:30pm it was back, and we had some lovely runs. Except at the peak, where it was foggy as Hades. And then around 3:30pm, near the bottom. The odd thing about Whistler-Blackcomb is that it's so very huge, the runs take 30 min even if you're fast. And I am not. I guess we went downhill about 3 times, but the last run was all the way to Whistler Village, with the fog and slushy runs. The only time I fell was on the slush.
Anyway. We got back and I showered, and soon we are heading to dinner. Mongolian Grill, I think. Tomorrow we will sit around moaning about how sore we are, then I fly home.
the rain just stopped
Feb. 14th, 2010 07:28 amIt's obnoxiously warm up in BC. I'm hoping it turns colder, but oh well. We are about to head out to watch the Nordic Combined, two events that last pretty much all day. We have lots of blankets and an umbrella. Hopefully the rain didn't wash out too much of the snow and things won't be postponed.
I rather like it here but it's TOO WARM and I would like to come back when it's below freezing. At the moment the train isn't running, but when it is I figure we can take it up for a nice weekend of skiing. We'll go skiing either Monday or Tuesday. Then I fly back Wednesday night.
Edit: The website was wrong; ski jump was first.
I rather like it here but it's TOO WARM and I would like to come back when it's below freezing. At the moment the train isn't running, but when it is I figure we can take it up for a nice weekend of skiing. We'll go skiing either Monday or Tuesday. Then I fly back Wednesday night.
Edit: The website was wrong; ski jump was first.
