General Chat

Well let me see. What interesting events have shaped our Winter Olympics.

First the Olympic village has run out of condoms. They are arranging an emergency supply. Rumour has it that the olympians are souveniring the items. Oh yeaaaaaah!

Hello darling you're home from Vancouver how did the games go. Oh excellent, look at this neat souvenir I've brought home. But darling the packet is open and waaaaaaahhhh!!

Then we have the Canadian girls and the celebration of their hockey win. Go for it ladies!!! You celebrate your wonderful win anyway you choose. You have contributed to your country's best sporting achievement in many years. Ignore the wowsers, and, next time you will take more care with the happpy snaps, won't you??

And finally for this lot we have emerging news about the Australian silver medalist. Yes it is squirrelling its way into our media. Mr Pop Up himself, prince of Spam.

http://spamkings.oreilly.com/archives/2006/02/asterisk_on_popup_moguls_gold.html

Ah the ethical considerations of the achievers does change as one ages. Don't you agree.

Thank you for that. I had not heard. At work all day. How absolutely amazing she was only listed as a third place possibility.

And Holly Crawford the other Aussie in that event came 8th.

Do you know Tora Bright is only the fourth Australian to win gold in the Winter Olympics.

Sooooooooooooooooooooo


AuntyS




Torah Bright won Gold in the Snowboarding Halfpipe!



Congratulations to her!!!

Oooh Janey are you thinking about a move to Vancouver. Springtime in February, no frozen water pipes and a pleasing daze of fuzziness to blurr the consciousness.

I watched a bit of the skating and the skiing stuff. I don't like watcing the skating because everytime I do they fall over. Skaters do much better without me jinxing them.

Had a look at the Aussies scores. Hmm a 16th, a 27th and a concussion. Canadians are doing much better, and so they jolly well should. Pleasing to see the crowds out cheering for their favourites, even though they must be wacky in the head to venture out in that frozen slush. Also good to see that USA have slipped into second place behind Germany. Canada is now fourth on the table, which appears to be a very unexpected result. Few more medals and you'll up in second place, are you still in the hockey. Interesting comment about the Winter Olympics being one big hockey tournament with a few other sports chucked in. Now that made me laugh!!

AuntyS, Deb - in Vancouver - is at the lotusland end of the Canadian end of the world. It really is spring in February, in Vancouver. I get reports from friends who have moved there, from time to time. They went for a bike ride and admired the sprouting tulips. I'm thawing my frozen water pipes.

Deb is probably right. They will get snowed in, right after the Olympics. I hope.

Men's figure skating last night continued the pattern -- another bunch of stumblers and bumblers. Lordy. We didn't see all of them -- only caught the tail end of the Russian who placed first -- but did see the US guy who skated to Stravinsky's Firebird and the Czech who skated to Puttin' on the Ritz. They were both excellent, and I couldn't really understand the Czech's low score for "components", which I think refers to grace and style or some such.

One of my pet peeves with figure skaters is the pointless music they pick and how their routines are completely disconnected from the music. The US guy dressed and skated like a firebird, a modern dance interpretation, and the Czech guy dressed and skated like Fred Astaire. ;)

Hi Deb Vancouver and the rest of you lot.

I take it you are a Canadian. Well you've got to admit I'm pretty bright sometimes!! Perhaps you live somewhere near to the "action".

How are you enjoying the frivolities. I'm having an Aussie hissy fit about sending 30 odd persons across the seas to compete in a sporting event that 85% of our country has never done, and couldn't care less about.

Has our glamour girl had her turn on the snow board yet. The unbiased, fair and equitable Australian Press give her a fair (ha ha) to average (higher higher) chance of winning a medal (they have been practising their screaming for days).

Oh drats now I'll have to go google the lady's name. Do you know I could name more Canadians from history than I could name a present day snow sporting "star" from Oz. Tora Bright. Nice and easy to remember.

By the way hear tell via the local newpapers that the Australian team management think the American team are "a bunch of really nice chaps". Do you think that is damning with faint praise. Actually they said they were a bunch of wallies in newspaper language and I can't remember exactly the wording, but you get the idea.

Incidentally, our TV coverage is predominantly via pay TV. We didn't wish to pay extra above what we already pay in order to view. Another illustration of our enthusiasm. Imagine our surprise/horror, when we discovered that due to our contribution to the pay TV empire over the last few years, they have kindly given us free access to the games.

Our joy at this announcement was immeasurable, particularly as the letter advising us of the fact arrived in our letterbox on day four of the games.

PS. You are wearing shorts????? Oh don't tell me you are from the West Indies. It is not short's weather in the Canadian end of the world. Surely one wears an overcoat at all times or maybe a double layer of thermals in the really hot days of summer.

As far as the red mittens go...............they don't look that good with my shorts :).

Most of the plants in the yard have awoken early. I guess they think that it is spring.

Any bets that we will have a ton of snow when the Olympics are over?
Plus, OH took my snowies of the car. If that doesn't mean that it is going to snow, I don't know what is.

Congratulations to all medal winners.

Deb

ooops!



WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

another Canadian has won Gold ....... in Snowboard Cross (and if you haven't watched that ...........you should!!!)

And Maelle Ricker is the daughter of friends and ex-colleagues of OH's. We remember her being born, although we don't "know" her. We have followed her career in snowboarding for many years.


She didn't get a medal in Turin ..................... she fell and slipped off the course and got a concussion! She was credited with coming 4th!




sylvia

"Marketing ploy"?? The Olympics *is* (uh, are?) marketing. Duh!

There are various official souveniry things. The $139 jerseys aren't selling as well as the mittens, which have apparently reached iconic status.

I'll bet the interviews you're reading with Mr. Big Head are in the Aussie media, AuntyS. ;)

He refused to speak to the Cdn media before the event.


Yes, Sylvia -- speed skating is our other favourite. Except for having to put up with Apolo, and the hamster on his face.

Oh, and tsk, Sylvia, that was pairs. Ice dancing is another matter, comes later I guess. You can tell them apart because in pairs the women are generally tiny and the men hulking, and in ice dance they tend to be more evenly matched.

Interesting. I known nothing whatsoever about the man. Saw quite a lengthy interview with him after his medal win. Can not remember any questions about his business interests. Clearly remember the emphasis was on, "why didn't you win gold". He seemed very self assured and answered pointed questions quite diplomatically.

Olympic mittens. Sounds like a marketing ploy to me. I'm sure they would sell well here in about 4 months time. Right now with a forecast of around 30C today, and tomorrow and the next day, this place resembles hell to a snowball and mittens just aren't appropriate. Try the New Zealanders, it's always cold over there!!

Hi you two!


Yep, that Canadian/Australian is a bit of a jerk!

He grew up in West Vancouver, just across the harbour from Vancouver, so we've heard plenty from and about him over the last few years.

At the age of 18 or so he wanted to snowboard AND run internet companies. The Canadian team coaches wouldn't let him skip training and guarantee him a place on "the" team ........ he wanted to do that so he could concentrate on his "work.

Soooooooooooo ........ he quit Canada and went down to Australia, where the coaches did let him do that.

He is now a multi-millionaire because of the internet companies, many of which are spam-producing apparently, and he does just what he wants to do whenever he wants to do it.

He was a bit put out that he had to stay in the Olympic Athletes Village if he wanted security ........ he prefers to stay in hotels because Athletes Villages are too uncomfortable.

Why did he want securtity? To keep the media away from him, 'cos he don't talk to ANY media except the Aussies, and most especially not the Canadian reporters who love to ask him about his businesses!



I see from our local media that overseas media are finding plenty to pan about the Olympics .... including we are not being polite enough because we are daring to say we want to win medals, especially some Gold. The English media is being particularly vicious.


I watched the moguls and saw that young Canadian win ......... he was great. AND his hero and inspiration is his older brother who has cerebral palsy.

I also saw bits of the ice dancing ........... it seemed that every team made errors, the one that won Silver was clsoest to being perfect.

We've been watching speed skating ..... that's exciting!

You need some Olympic mittens to keep you warm!

Our own, now US-owned, Hudsons Bay Company. The East India Company of the west. At one time it owned half of North America.

Even the foreign media have taken notice. ;)

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/vancouver/2010-02-16-olymittens16_ST_N.htm

Aha -- my man Joe Biden is wearing 'em!

During the US primaries I viewed a series of videos of one-on-one interviews with the various presidential hopefuls consisting of five totally unexpected questions. One was: If you couldn't live in the US, where would you choose to live?

I think one of them did say Australia. Dennis Kucinich said England, if I recall. They all thought deeply. Hilary Clinton, of course, could give no answer - she's just such an Amurrican girl she couldn't imagine living anywhere else. (She's actually French-Canadian on a grandmother's side.)

Joe answered immediately and firmly: Canada! Heck, I'd have him as PM if it meant getting rid of the Harper. I know Joe's wife's name. ;) And she even has a job of her own.

Anyhow, HBC is in the process of having a million more mittens made up, I hear, because they're selling out.

And did I not say somewhere that Australia imports its sporting talent from around the globe to fill in the blanks where we have nothing home grown.

Basketball, soccer, gymnastics, and now cold and wet type sports.

Must admit the scenery is quite watchable and the spectators look very happy in their colourful winter gear. Is there anything else I should be looking at???

No.1 tells me that the Aussie who won the silver is a jerk. ;)

... Of course, he's really a Canadian anyhow.


Yes, Bilodeau was the first to win gold on home turf -- Canada won no gold in Montreal (summer) or Calgary (winter).

We watched the pairs figure skating last night. No.1, gun-grabbing girly-man that he is, likes that event best. (He gets it from his mother, I can only thank my stars that the affinity for watching car racing on TV seems not to be genetic.) What a bunch of sloppy mistakes those people made! I didn't see all the short programs, but the ones who won silver really did the best in the long program, it's just that the gold pair had done much better in the short. So the Chinese have started to own figure skating.

As the troops marched in, in the opening ceremonies, No.1 remarked as how this really is the white man's (er, person's, he corrected himself) games. The North/South divide certainly is on display.

Of course, the winter games are really the rich people's games, and the North is the rich people. The stories of young snowboaders whose parents relocated cross-country so they could train. I don't think mummy and daddy then went down and applied for shifts at the nearest Tim Horton's doughnut shop.

Here it is day three or four of the games. Still plenty of snow to be seen. Let me see, where is Australia in the medal tally.

Down, down, down the list. There we are in 15th place. One medal.

And they are arguing the toss about that one.

Ah isn't the media wonderful. You can rely on them to put hope of success, fame and fortune into the chest of every young man (and/or woman).

I would like to see reporting on how our team did the very, very best they could do in each of their events. How they bettered their personal best times and how they enjoyed the experience.

And what is reported. Reporter questioning our silver medallist. "Don't you think you should have won the gold, and are you disappointed you didn't?" Aaaaaarhhhhggg!!!

Edit. And the Canadian who won that gold medal did his absolute best, his performance was outstanding and he was, I believe, the first winner of the medal in Canada.

Yes, you can hardly talk about such tragic news under the title Olympic daftness. How sad.

Re St Trinians. Well at least you know where my thoughts were going as I pictured you in your gym slip, filing your nails, and chewing on a wad of gum while eyeing off the talent!!!

And I am pleased to say Google, so far, is not surrounded by kangaroos all carrying a torch and waving Aussie flags. Well not on my computer, anyway.

I have to go. Be back later.

B***** H***


Google has changed the top of its page ............ the image is now of mountains, trees and the "l" of Google is an Olympic Flame


Only in Canada??????

I'd posted here about the death of the luger, but decided to remove it and open a new thread for that as this thread seemed too "light" for such bad news.

AuntyS


I only live in Canada, been here since 1968, and have been a Canadian citizen since 1974

BUT


I was born in England.

Lancashire to be precise. Didn't leave until after we married in 1967.


so yes, I do know ST Trinians


and yes, there could be some comparisons :))))


I even had to wear a badge (a tie clip) that said "Girls Vice-Captain".

I had a male counterpart "Boys Vice-Captain", and we had to work together a lot of the time.


My dad nearly wet himself laughing when I came home from school and told him about my new "position".

So you were one of the St Trinian's (Canadian version) leadership team. Hmmm I've heard all about you lot!!!

Do you know of the movies??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Trinian's_School#Films