O Canada! How glorious to see the beauty of the west coast in all it's wintry spelndour for the Winter Olympic Games 2010 in Vancouver, BC. Amazing scenery and amazing people. Vancouver(ians) embracing the world as if they were members of their long lost extended family, cheering wildly as races were run and concluded with the cheers being just that bit louder for the home team. Well done to the Canadian Mens Ice Hockey Team for their narrow win over the US in the ice hockey final. As men's ice hockey is something of a religion out there I can well imagine the huge sense of disappointment if they had lost. See, being British, we KNOW what disappointment is like - believe me! Here, we are praising our one, yes that's right our ONE gold medal which is all we have won in 30 years and we are PRAISING that? I think it's a disgrace that we are so far behind the rest of the world, winter sports wise, that this is the best we can hope for. Ah well, lets look forward to our next gold medal in the winter olympics of 2040 in whatever host nation there is left on Earth then. Back to the ice hockey for the briefest of minutes, it is a shame that anyone has to lose but personally I prefer silver to gold, whether that would apply to a medal I will, thankfully, never know as being slightly 'over the hill' now I am way too old for all that throwing myself off a mountain on a pair of flimsy looking sticks to land, not on my butt, but on my feet. Although I think I would probably end of up on the former.
Digressing slightly, came across something on one of the sports channels here which was showing coverage of the Winter X Games from Aspen, Colorado. Know what I saw? go on guess? no go on - you'll never get it ... snowmobile aerobatics!!! Had to look twice as guys were throwing these huge behemoth machines off of ramps and completing very difficult acrobatics off the back of them, looping the loop and all. Mad, totally bonkers, but hey each to their own. Looked really good though, has to be said, just glad I'm not doing it .. or know someone who is as I'd be watching from behnid the sofa through closed fingers.
Anyways, if I had the money I would be offski to the beauty of British Columbia. My mother's brother and her sister emigrated to Canada before I was born, and they were trying to encourage my mother to go as well but there was some problem over the £10 passage fee, and so she stayed in Britain, which used to be called Great Britain until 1997 and the 'New Labour' lot took over and reduced it to what it is today; a ramshackle, stumbling, morose and broken excuse for a country. So, imagine if you want to emigrate now; you are not wanted unless you can provide an essential service. Dare to be sick or disabled and you can stay in your own country and fester away there thank you very much - we don't want you!!! I was therefore, a bit miffed at the rousing anthems sung at the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics by good old 'Mickey Bubbles' (that's Michael Buble's affectionate name by the way, apparently his fans call him that), singing away he was about how Britain colonised Canada in the stirring 'Maple Leaf Forever' but try and go over now without huge sums of money to invest in a Canadian business, or in other words, buy your way in, you can forget about coming here. So so different to the way 'immigration' is handled in the UK. If only my mother had gone, I would either not be born (depending on whether she had married my dad and he had gone too), or I would be Canadian.
I long for wide open spaces, the colder the better. I yearn to be in a place of inspiration. Looking out into the mountains draped lovingly by the clouds to keep them warm on the colder days. Where frost is sprinkled finely on the ground, making that pleasing crunching sound underfoot and the incredibly beautiful snow, shedloads of it as far as the eye can see, glistening brightly under the pale yellow gold of the sun in the daytime, and glowing softly, almost lazily, under the night skies with the ethereal milky white of the winter moon shining her magnificence across the frozen land; bliss, utter bliss. So I keep playing the lottery in hopes of fulfilling my dreams, but it's a very long shot, a very very long shot indeed.
And finally a note about the early tragedy that befell the games before they had even started. I'm talking about the very sad loss of the young luger from Georgia, Nodar Kumartashvilli in that awful training accident which claimed his life on the eve of the games. Such is the dedication and spirit of every man and woman there that the games continued as the young man probably would have wanted. Fitting tributes were paid as they should have been but it was a sad time and we must not forget that. A life lost at such a young age is tragic and as this young man died doing what he loved at least there is a tiny modicom of comfort (if that is the right word to use here), but I know that there is no wish dearer than that of wanting the loved one home again. Our hearts and prayers go out to the family of this young man, his family, friends and colleagues.
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