Saturday, February 27, 2010

Gold rush

Wow!

Since my last post on Wednesday, Canada has gone into gold medal overdrive in Vancouver. The women duly beat the USA to claim the hockey gold, making it Canada's most golden Winter Olympics in history, and five further golds have been added in the last 48 hours in speed skating (thrice!), snowboarding and men's curling. The women's curlers missed out in their final against Sweden - whose team seemed to be comprised of the slightly overweight relations of Dr Cameron from House - but nonetheless this is now Canada's most successful Olympics ever, summer or winter.

In fact, if Canada can pick up one more gold, that will bring the total to fourteen, which would be the most golds won at any Winter Olympics by any nation, and there will be one last chance in the final event of the whole beanfeast as the men look to emulate their female counterparts by knocking over the Americans in the hockey final. A Hollywood scriptwriter could hardly have crafted a more fitting finale to the Games, and all that remains now is for the team to play their part and finish the deal.



As you are probably aware, I'm not the greatest hockey fan, but I shall be watching tomorrow regardless and I shall probably be on the edge of my seat from start to finish. There won't be any running into the street if Canada wins as it's -20 outside at the moment and forecast to be even colder tomorrow, but I might allow myself to crack open the maple syrup and cook up a celebratory pancake or two if all goes well.

Not that I need an excuse for pancakes and syrup...

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Highs and lows

We've been having some bizarre weather over the past 24 hours. Last night was a balmy -5°C, and earlier today the temperature had risen to -2°, which is ridiculously warm for this time of year, the seasonal norm being anywhere between -21° and -30°, according to Environment Canada. However, the wind picked up in the afternoon, and at the time of writing on Wednesday evening we now have a mini-blizzard outside and a temperature of -25°. It's hardly four seasons in one day I know, but at least it keeps things interesting.

Talking of interesting things, it just keeps on getting better for Canada at the Olympics. Today the men's hockey team pulled off a remarkable 7-3 thrashing of Russia to book a place in the semi-finals, there were silver and bronze medals in the speed skating, and then in the women's two man bobsleigh - if that's not a contradiction of terms - Canada came home first and second to take the country's gold medal tally to seven, which ties Germany and the USA at the top of the table in this Olympics and also matches Canada's all-time best at a single Winter Olympic Games.

If the women's team can overcome the USA in their hockey final tomorrow night then this will officially become Canada's best ever Games in terms of gold medals, not bad considering all the gloom and doom of earlier in the week; perhaps we could start thinking about owning the podium after all. Or maybe we should just lease one.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Patience is a virtue

See...what did I tell you?

Canada has won two more golds since yesterday's post, and all of a sudden Canucks are indeed owning (rather than moaning) the podium, even if it is for just one day. Ashleigh McIvor won the women's ski cross today - no, I didn't know such an event existed either - and last night Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir took the ice dance gold with a performance reminiscent of Torvill and Dean all those years ago. Any Brit of a certain age still has the Bolero routine burned into their memory cells, and I'm sure Virtue and Moir's skate will become part of the Canadian collective memory over the course of time.


And as I write, the men's hockey team are cruising past Germany to set up a quarter final clash with Russia, the women are already in their final (against USA on Thursday), and both the men's and women's curlers sit atop the pile after a series of dominant displays in the round robin - where does that phrase come from? - stages of the competition.

So cheer up Brian, you know what they say...

Monday, February 22, 2010

Woe Canada..?

Despite what I was saying about perspective yesterday, Canada's loss to the United States in the Olympic ice hockey was most certainly a devastating blow to the country. Team Canada can still make it to the last eight if they beat Germany on Tuesday - which they should - but the public's faith in their ability to bring home the gold has been severely shaken.

When results are compared to pre-Games predictions it's not been a good Olympics at all for Canada thus far - indeed, the Canadian Olympic Committee admitted this morning that the five year, $117 million 'Own The Podium' program had missed its mark - but Canada still has four golds, and with a realistic prospect of at least four more to come in ice dance, women's hockey and both men's and women's curling, there is every chance of overhauling the record of seven that was set in Salt Lake City in 2002 and then equalled four years ago in Turin.



Canada is not a large country in terms of population, and the despondency being shown in light of America's dominance of the medal table is totally unfounded. The home athletes at these Games have been put under immense pressure to perform by the media, the public and the aforementioned Own The Podium program, and as is so often the case back in Britain, as much attention is being given to failure as it is to success.

So, let's see where we are this time next week, and then let's judge how the Games have gone. After all, patience is a virtue...

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Houses and history

A diplomatic incident was avoided when the Canadian protests over Amy Williams' helmet thankfully came to naught, and this is all just as well as we may have bought a house yesterday! We've been thinking about a move for some time now, and Melanie has looked at umpteen properties over the last few months without finding anything that ticked enough boxes to proceed with any intent.

However, she found something last week and as of yesterday it looks as though our offer has been accepted. Much water has to pass under the bridge before everything is finalised, but it could be that we will be ready to move just a few days after I return home in May, which will also be the first time that I actually get to see the house in person! Melanie has sent me a whole bunch of photos and I trust her judgment implicitly though, which is a good job as it will be too late for a change of mind by then!

Should the move go through, we will be living in the same area just outside of Kingston where John Babcock was born over a century ago. You may not know the name John Babcock, but he was Canada's last surviving veteran of World War I and earlier this week he passed away at the age of 109. Babcock lied about his age in order to enlist in 1916, and whilst he never actually saw active service he was nonetheless prepared to give his all for his country, and his passing leaves Claude Choules and Frank Buckles as the last remaining survivors of those who fought in the Great War.



As I commented back in 2008, the First World War will very soon no longer be in 'living memory'; such thoughts put protests over helmets and hunting for houses into perspective, don't they?

Friday, February 19, 2010

A bone of contention

It's been a veritable gold rush in the last 24 hours; Christine Nesbitt and Jon Montgomery picked up Canada's third and fourth gold medals in the women's 1000m speed skating and men's skeleton - the event where the competitors plunge headfirst down the bobsled run on what is basically a tea tray - respectively, whilst Britain reached the top of the podium for the first time through Amy Williams' wonderful run (or should that be slide?) in the women's skeleton....a random thought: do you think a forensic anthropologist could tell the gender of a dead competitor just by looking at the skeleton?



My loyalties face a stern test in the next couple of hours though as the Canadian skeleton team have lodged a protest over Williams' helmet, claiming that it is too aerodynamic and hence illegal. The protest is likely to be thrown out and no Canadians can actually benefit as a result - the best placed Canuck was only fifth - but were it to succeed I might have to question my citizenship application and perhaps my entire future in the country.

I'd miss my Tims though, so maybe I'll let this one slide.......did you see what I did there? Slide...skeleton racing...

Never mind.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Pancakes and podiums

Canada secured its second gold of the Olympic Winter Games yesterday when Maelle Ricker came home first in the women's snowboard cross, and whilst events such as this and the moguls - which sounds more like an adversary in Star Trek: 'Captain, we are being hailed by the Mogul vessel' - might not be in the traditional Olympic mould, they are certainly highly entertaining to watch.

It was also Shrove Tuesday yesterday, and armed with Melanie's recipe I ventured into the kitchen and attempted to make - and toss - my own pancakes. They didn't turn out too badly, but I will be the first to admit that there would have been no awards for artistic impression:




The proof of the pudding is in the eating though, and they were quite palatable once laced with a bit of jam and a sprinkling of sugar. I did have some lemon juice in the fridge for a more authentic topping, but on closer inspection of the bottle I realised that the sell by date was back in September so I thought better of it. Maybe I can try to pick up a lemon from the store here and have another go at the weekend; let's see how brave I feel.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Going for gold

So, the Olympic Winter Games are now well and truly under way, and Canada has its first gold in the shape of Alexandre Bilodeau in the moguls, the skiing event that requires compulsory knee replacement surgery every alternate year. Bilodeau is the first Canadian ever to win a gold medal on home soil (or snow, or ice for that matter), but for most Canucks the real action gets going tonight when the Canadian men's hockey team takes the ice for the first time. Canada's women have already got their hockey campaign off to a good start, but the men are the real focus of attention, and the public's obsession with, and expectations of, the team is every bit as intense as it gets in England when the soccer team are playing in the World Cup, with one major difference.

The Canadian hockey team actually have a chance of winning!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Standing on ceremony

It can't have escaped your notice, especially if you live in this part of the world, that there's an Olympic Games on - the Olympic Winter Games, to be exact; it always used to be the plain old Winter Olympics when I was growing up, but there seems to have been a law passed without my knowledge that the word Olympic now has to come first.

The Winter Olympics - sorry, Olympic Winter Games - have never had that high a profile in the UK, save for Torvill and Dean and Eddie the Eagle (I've met him, by the way), but now I'm living in Canada I feel I ought to make the effort to get more involved, at least as a spectator. Yesterday's opening ceremony was overshadowed by the tragic death of Georgian Nodar Kumaritashvili - I was quite shocked that his horrific luge accident was shown ad nauseam on the news over here, initially without prior warning of the distressing nature of the footage - but the Games had to go on, and Vancouver would get its chance to showcase Canada before the rest of the world with a well organized, sleek and to-the-point opening ceremony.

Didn't quite work out like that though, did it?

The evening got off to a shambolic start when the late arrival of the four first nations chiefs left the half-empty VIP box in disarray - the chairs were still being rearranged as Michaelle Jean made her entrance - and Nikki Yanofsky then proceeded to assault the national anthem with a performance that was more a celebration of her and her record company than the country to whom the anthem belongs; had Simon Cowell been in attendance, I'm sure the word 'indulgent' would have been used at least once. Ms Yanofsky is undoubtedly a supremely talented young girl but I'm sorry, you don't mess with your country's national anthem on a stage like this.



The parade of athletes was as enjoyable as ever (it's always fun to rank the uniforms of the various nations; way to go Czech Republic, by the way!), but we were then treated to the 'cultural component' of the evening, which didn't half drag. There were some highlights, don't get me wrong - I liked the giant white bear, the big guy who read the poem, the spouting whales and KD Lang's rendition of Hallelujah - but the whole thing seemed unnecessarily long. I do hope London has the courage to deliver a streamlined ceremony in 2012: anthem, parade, quick song from Status Quo, oaths and Queenie cutting a red ribbon to let the Games begin.



Back to Vancouver though, for the best was yet to come. After the diva with the mad hair and the cat up her dress had finished breaking most of the glass in the stadium with her interpretation of the Olympic Hymn, we finally got to the lighting of the Olympic flame, the moment that should have been the crowning glory of the evening and Vancouver's chance to plant an indelible, iconic image into the collective mind of the watching world.

Umm, yeah...about that...



The hydraulic system that was meant to raise the the ceremonial cauldron failed, halting the ceremony and leaving one of the official torch bearers unable to carry out his duty as his part of the apparatus had failed to emerge from beneath the stadium floor, and then Wayne Gretzky had to leave the stadium and take a ten minute drive through town in the pouring rain so that he could light the 'official' flame down on Vancouver's waterfront. The temptation to stop for a Tims on the way must have been immense.



Three and a half hours after it had started the ceremony was finally over, and the Games could now begin, Vancouver weather permitting of course. Hopefully there will be plenty of golden moments for Canada over the next couple of weeks (and, who knows, maybe for Team GB too), but I think the first medals of the Games should go to all those who managed to sit through the opening ceremony without losing consciousness. Go on London, do the right thing...

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Watch the skies

The whole town was without internet access yesterday and half of today, but everything now seems to be back to normal, touch wood (not that there's much of that up here).

As a footnote to my previous post, Tuesday's power outage did have at least one positive result, in that we were all afforded an even more beautiful view of the night sky than normal. The night time vistas in these parts (or should that now be night time Windows 7s?) are pretty spectacular at the best of times due to the minimal street and house lighting here, but on Tuesday the view was even more crisp and the aurora was in full, stunning effect.

In fact, the view was so clear that at one stage you could quite clearly make out the distinct fiery trail of a Toyota as it streaked across the night sky, inexorably picking up speed as it accelerated its way toward escape velocity.



Damn clever, those Japanese.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Powering down

We had a power cut yesterday - only the second since I've been in Kangiqsujuaq, which isn't bad going as we had them all the time in Inukjuak - but unlike the one we had back in October this one was at night and lasted a fair bit longer. The power went down right at the end of House and I also missed the whole of 24, which was most annoying. I've been recording 24 with the intention of viewing all the episodes en bloc at some future time, but I guess that plan's now scuppered.

It was during this period of total darkness that I realised I don't have a torch - I still find it hard to call torches 'flashlights' - or any candles up here, but thankfully I downloaded the flashlight app for my iPod a little while ago (hey, I said 'flashlight') so I was able to patrol the house whilst listening to music that was guaranteed to be correctly filed and sorted. About an hour later the power came back on, but within ten minutes it went off again, only to come back on after a couple of minutes, after which time it failed again....



After about an hour of this the power finally stopped coming back on, but by this time I had already got fed up and gone to bed. I found it hard to sleep though as I was very aware that my alarm clock probably wouldn't go off in the morning, and this was a situation that I found unduly stressful for some reason (oh for the days of huge wind-up alarm clocks, now only seen in old cartoons or dangling from Flavor Flav's neck). A few hours of spasmodic sleep followed, and it was 3am when I finally became aware that the power was back on; the clock was duly reset, and I am happy to report that I managed to make it to work on time this morning.

Considering the fact that I spent the previous post relaying my tales of boredom, I suppose one could say that at least this week has started with a bit of excitement, but when the only excitement here is an event that stops you watching TV and makes you go to bed early....

M'lud, I rest my case.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Bringing down the house

Another boring weekend here. I remember that time seemed to freeze (along with everything else up here) last February, and the same thing is happening again. Maybe it's got something to do with Groundhog Day at the beginning of the month. I watched that film with my students this week, and I was tempted to show it again to them the next day, and the next, and the next. In the end I decided that, as much as I love the film, you can have too much of a good thing, although it would have made planning for the rest of the year a far easier affair.

In other news I see that David Kiely, the banker caught on camera looking at those naked images on his computer screen last week, will be keeping his job, but in future he has to keep his employers fully abreast of what he downloads at work (that joke copyright Dan Roberts). And I loved this story; Canada's finance minister, Jim Flaherty, partly destroyed an igloo at the G7 summit in Iqaluit when he made a mess of trying to exit through the narrow doorway. It takes hours to build an igloo but it took Flaherty seconds to wreck it; kind of a nice allegory for what's happened to the North over the last fifty years.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Bare faced cheek

Continuing the bear/bare theme that has unwittingly bestowed itself on the blog this week, I just had to share this with you. It would seem that a banker in Australia was having a quiet day in the office earlier this week and decided to alleviate the boredom by perusing some, shall we say, alternative figures (try 34DD) on his computer screen. On a normal day he would have probably got away with it; trouble was, one of his colleagues was being interviewed at the time - on live TV.

Keep your eye on the guy behind the speaker's right shoulder...



That was one hell of a boob (or two)!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

The bear facts

Whither yesterday's polar bear?

Shot. Skinned. Eaten (and no, I didn't get any).

Such is life in a northern town.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Grin and bear it

It's not every day that you get a phone call warning you not to leave the house because there's a polar bear outside, but earlier this evening that's exactly what happened. My first instinct was to get outside and go and look for the thing, but then I took time to consider the situation and decided against it because:

a) it's pitch black outside
b) it's about -30
c) all I'd have with which to defend myself should I actually encounter said bear would be the set of mini screwdrivers that I got in a cracker at Christmas

So consequently I remained indoors, and indoors I remain - obviously, as I wouldn't be typing this otherwise - awaiting news of the fate of the bear. Maybe it will remain on the run all night so that we won't be able to go into school tomorrow, but I wouldn't bet on it. A more likely scenario is that, in the next day or two, I might be able to add polar bear to the list of foods that I've tried since I've been in the North.

Maybe it'll go with Kraft Dinner...

Blogger template 'SebiruDaun' by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008