Worlds recap

Well... skating withdraw has begun. I am so saddened that this week is over :(
This was an amazing week, I am so happy I decided to do this... all in all it was well worth the cost.

Definitely lucked out that I had a place to stay so I didn't need to pay for that or for most of my meals. I would love to go to another event like this - be it the Skate Canada, Skate America or worlds again. Nationals next year could be cool considering it's a big anniversary year in Ottawa. But staying in Ottawa would mean I have to actually pay for a place to stay, mind you the tickets would be considerably cheaper.

Yesterday, Lisa and Nicole brought back our tickets, all full of skaters autographs! Now I feel bad not getting Kurt Browning's, Mao Asada's or Liz Manley's to fill out the book. Shoot. That afternoon we headed back to the arena for the Champion's Gala. Super cool. All the winners came and stood in the audience, the bronze medalists were all next to us in the aisle. Hah I dont know if I have ever been so "star struck" before.

Kirsten and Dylan

The gala ( I think you can stream it on CBC)was so much fun, there were serious skates and fun skates like Javier Fernandez's and Moore-Towers and Moscovitch. Patrick Chan's was appropriately done with a hat.
One thing that stood out to me was that all the Canadian's except Andrei Rogozine didn't skate even though he placed higher overal than Gilles and Poirier. Don't get me wrong, Gilles and Poirier are delightful to watch! I just was curious how all the Canadians except him.
No matter, just an observation.
At the end Scott and Tessa thanked everyone for coming, and all the volunteers for their hard work. I thought that was really nice. After they all skated around and high fived and autographed the audience. If I was younger, I would have been right up there! But, meh. I might regret it later... but right now I'm not concerned.

All the champions!

Heading home today, sat next to a really nice lady on the flight from London, she was a coach for 33 years and had been asked to come coach in Yellowknife with a bonus isolation pay. She said she came up for a week during caribou carnival to check it out... but decided there was no way she could live there. hahaha. Now my flight to Edmonton is delayed, so I am sorting through the thousands of photos I took :)

Until my next trip - Wexford St. reunion in Calgary!

Last day of worlds :(

Hometown hero Kaetlyn Osmond

After the high of yesterday, I slept in this morning! Granted, the skating also started at a later time today.
I wanted to watch the women skate their practice sessions this morning because I gifted the tickets for the finals tonight to my cousin and her young daughter who is just starting to skate herself.
So, I really wanted to go this morning to see Yuna Kim, Kaetlyn Osmond, the three Japanese girls and the wildcards. The practice was everything I was hoping it to be, plus no one was in the front row!

We showed up when the ice dancers were still practicing so I went and snagged the first row seat in our section to watch Weaver and Poje finish the programme. Then came Virtue and Moir, Davis and White, and Pechalat and Bourzat! Watching in the front row was even more amazing  though I admit, ice dancing needs to be watched from afar to get the full affect. Sure it was grand to be right next to these amazing skaters - I could have high fived each other them when they passed by. The dances were fantastic, considering it was just practice.

The ladies practice was good, and the Italians skates were a thrill to see... if I was landing triples and made of money, hers are the skates I would have.
Watching Yuna, Mao Kanako and Carolina was great... and I am not a huge fan of the ladies skating... but the practice sure brought me over to their side. I will definitely following them leading up to the Olympics.

We had a little break between the practices and the beginning of the ice dance competition. The comments from the crowd around was was a litte more subdued, though still entirely on the negative side. Gilles and Poirier were doing supurb until there was a stumble in their twizzles :( They are so much fun to watch!

Weaver and Poje :)

Followed by Weaver and Poje, who also just had a great performance, mind you I heart their short dance, sooo much more than this long.
Virtue and Moir skated, phenomenal. Davis and White, phenomenal.
Sadly, the falter on Thursday prevented Virtue and Moir from being able to move into first, totally understandable though, the only real way would have been if Davis and White messed up.
I would like to add through how I HATE that the media is trying to make a big rivalry between the two teams. They train together all the time and are friends. Get over it.

Welcome to the ice!!

After we handed off the tickets to Lisa and Nicole at the Skate Canada tent, Kevin Reynolds, Duhamel and Radford and Moore-Towers and Moscovitch showed up for an autograph session, so not only did they get tickets to skating, but they also got all the autographs :) Mum and I stayed for a couple drinks there, but it wasn't what we expected. We thought we could watch it live there with commentary (which we were so dearly missing) and instead were treated to traditional Chinese dancing with the screens muted in the background. We decided then to go back to my Aunt and Uncles to watch in the comfort in a house, with wine, cookies and commentaries :)
Super impressed Yuna Kim pulled off the win, but not entirely surprised... more so surprised by how amazing Canada did in earning herself a top 10 finish at her first worlds and Canada achieving 2 spots at the Olympics!  If only nationals was in Western Canada next year... I'd definitely hit it up!

Two medals

Well yesterday was just insane.
In the morning we went to the rink early enough to catch the last flight of men practicing - super cool. Everyone warming up their quads and routine run throughs. It was sure getting us eager to see them skate that night.

The first event was the pairs finals. Such energy! The Canadians blew me away. They were grand. Sadly it's all sort of a blur. I cannot really remember what happened - other than I was thoroughly in awe of Moore-Towers and Moscovitch and Duhamel and Radford when they skated.
Then came the defending Germans who fell and poped their jumps.

World Champions triple twist

Wow. The crowd around us (myself included) was convinced that Radford and Duhamel had it. Not so, apparently the technical levels were higher for Savchenko and Szolkowy... the judges got booed quite loudly.

Interestingly enough, everything the judges score is immediately online after they are announced so the lady next to us would pull it up on her phone and tell everyone in our area what the downgrades were and why they were scored the way they were.

The last pair was fabulous, minus the trip after the throw schow. And they rightly won! It was fantastic.   And their reactions were just as great to watch! Duhamel and Radford came third! Some would ask why they came third... and would question the judging. I however, am over it.

We finally left the arena for the break between events. Before we hadn't had enough time to leave, and mum found a restaurant review in the county museum that peaked in her interest. Seems that place was super swanky as all the big wigs from US Skate were there for lunch, as well as Toller Cranston. We met up with Uncle Ron and Aunt Maureen at the Skate Canada tent. Seeing it convinced us that's where we should watch the ladies tonight - I donated our tickets to my cousin and her daughter for the Ladies finals tomorrow. I don't follow the ladies enough and both of them are involved in skating... perfect match. The daughter is who we gave our practice tickets to on Tuesday.

We went back into the rink for the men's finals. What a night. We were surrounded by former competitive skaters,  data specialists and other experts who provided their "expertise" comments - what was done, what level they were at, whether they were nice people, blah blah blah. Actually I wanted to ask the girl behind us to zip it because she was being so negative. No matter how well someone skated, she had something to say. Javier, Denis, Yuzuru, Misha, don't even get me started on their criticisms of  Aaron, Chan and Joubert. They all had personal vendettas against Joubert.

Kevin Reynolds entering the ice

The skating was great to watch, and Max Aaron, despite his lack of footwork (when he gets that I think he'll be a great skater) was thrilling! I loved his "clean hit"call in the kiss and cry after he hit the boards. Then Patrick took to the ice. The arena roared! Then he fell, and fell again, and the arena went silent and the energy was sucked out of the place. Honestly, I thought he was done. His astronomical score in the short saved him. And had Denis Ten not doubled his triple flip he would have passed Chan. Not taking anything away from either of them... but Ten's performance was just so entertaining! But, being the great Canadian that I am, I am thrilled Chan won his third championship.

Worlds Comp Day 1

Holy. 

I cannot even begin to explain the overwhelming impressiveness of watching today. Watching live is such a different experience... than any skating I've ever seen. Practices the last couple days were unreal... but competition days! Oh my'lanta.

The energy in the rink when the Canadians skated was amazing.

The warm up session of the last two flights of men were just a billon quads, which are so flippin cool in person, especially right in front of you. Then Patrick Chan had to go and skate a near perfect short program and get 98 points! What!
The crowd was insane. What will tomorrow hold with Tessa and Scott skating?
It was just so intense that I am just going to post photos.

Oh and the opening ceremonies were neat, they had precession teams preform. It made me really miss syncro...

World Figure Skating Championships

So, big trip of 2013 - World Figure Skating Championship in London.
I bought tickets to this a year ago and forked over big money. There was no way I was letting going to Worlds pass me by this year with such great talent! Top ranking Canadians in every category... eons since thats been the case. I have a place to stay and company to go with... so why wouldnt I go, right?
To make it even more enjoyable, I spent the past weekend with Jane and Eric before coming here. Very relaxing, a nice change from -30... and as always, great foods :)
Arrived in London yesterday and went straight into the arena - walking in to hear Kevin Reynolds short programme (love the music!) over the speakers. No way. Made out way to the ice to see Kevin, Patrick Chan and Max Aaron (also like his music).
I was sooo excited to make it to see them, totally unplanned as well. Mum and I then decided to scope out our seats for the rest of the week, I knew they were in a corner section of the lower bowl, but that was it because I didn't get to pick them, they were assigned. We started walking up the stairs and realised the alphabet was going the other direction... turns out we are in the 3rd freakin row!!!! Seriously. I cannot even being to explain how elated I am.

Duhamel/Radford twist lift

We spent the next few hours there ooohing and aaahing over the men's and ice dancing competetors, though exhaustion won over and we left early... also because word around the rink was none of the Canadians or Davis/White would be be practicing that night - I was really excited to see Gilles/Poirier. But we did see Tomas Verner, Brian Joubert and Plutawska/Gerber who I thoroughly enjoy.

Savchenko/Szolkowy death spiral

This morning I gave our tickets to my young cousin and her best friend to spend the day there while mum and I were off scoping out this house that they are eyeing up for a potential relocation down south. Beautiful house, in Woodstock? I find it an odd location, but great house! Once that was over with, we headed back to the rink to swap tickets with my cousin.
Perfect timing again! We showed up just as Canadian super stars Duhamel/Radford and Moore-Towers/Moscovitch took to the ice.
Wow.
Watching skating in person dosent compare to tv (mind you the commentary is great and seeing different angles is grand). Being right next to skaters landing triples is amazing. Let alone watching them do throwing jumps and twist!

Mao Asada entering triple axel

The Germans came up next and.... ahhh just amazing.
Our night ended after watching Kaetlyn Osmond, the American and Japanese women.
So far, after two half days of practices.... the tickets have paid for themselves in experience alone. I cannot wait until competition commences tomorrow - Pair's and Men's short programmes. Eep!

NWT Road Trip

Well, it's been forever since I wrote... I haven't really travelled since coming back from Finland (which I never wrote about - whoops).
And I have  travelled, I was in St. Thomas for a week right before Christmas followed by a weekend in Calgary to see Blue Rodeo.

Anyways, Patrick's home for a week and mum has been on for a while about driving up to Whatì... so we decided to go! I took off yesterday, we packed up the truck with lunch and snacks, gassed up and off we went! We made it to Edzo and turn off to the winter road. When we scoped out the DOT website, the road was open only as far as Whatì, that's where we planned to go but the sign at the turn off indicated that the road to Gamètì was now open... the first part of the road was in great condition so once we reached the junction, the decision was easy to continue the 120km north to Gamètì and add another NWT community to my list!

Just after the junction we stopped for our picnic lunch and were so intrigued by the lack of wildlife on the way. Really. We saw a grouse just after Marian Lake and that was it. Luckily us bringing that up must have convinced the animals to come out cause then we saw a bushy little red fox!

The way to north was much different than around here - really hilly! Not mountains by any means, but not flat either like the drive to Providence. I'll have to ask Tom about the storys around there. Ton of massive boulders too! I'm sure there are some great Giant Beaver explanations for them.

We reached Gamètì around mid afternoon. (We had stopped a lot for photos and to change drivers), drove around the community, then headed back to make it to Whatì so Patrick and mum could add that to their list.

Sadly by the time we made it there it was dark :( so they couldn't see how pretty it is - I think Whatì is a wonderful little place after my week there.

All in all it wasn't an exciting trip to go on and on about, but it was a nice way to spend the day, and show Patrick some NWT he's so greatly missed out on. Plus I am now at 19 NWT communities. Whoo!

Moscow

So Moscow is one of those cities that emits a certain kind of feeling.

We arrived in Moscow amidst the pouring rain, which was followed by a walking tour I had enlisted us for because I was feeling sluggish - I haven't been for a run, or done any means of physical activity in three weeks... my body is screaming at me! I digress.
We set off in the rain to ride the metro - beautiful metro system!  Many of stops are made of marble walls and columns, they have intricate chandeliers and marble engravings. One of them must have been built around the time of the Olympics - the station was full of engravings of all the Olympic sports, both modern and ancient. Another had huge mosaics of Lenin, there were huge statues of soldiers, and countless images hammer, sicles and wheat!

The walking tour was nice because we were walking, but crappy because of the rain, and honestly we only walked down one road to the Red Square. Obviously that was because of the age of the tour group... but still... not what I was anticipating. REGARDLESS! Red Square was great! It was so amazing to think of all the history that happened in the square! It was so vast and grand! At one end was the magical St. Basil's cathedral, to the right is the Kremlin and Lenin's Mausoleum, to the left the extravagant GUM Department Store.

Our second day in Moscow we went on an excursion to the Orthodox Church Holy City - Sergiev Posad (or Zagorsk during the Soviet times). That day was freezing! The place was very pretty, we observed part of a service and I lit some candles for Nana. The best part was that they have a Miracle fountain there!
I misunderstood, originally I thought it was Holy Water, the fountain was crowded with guys filling up litres of the water for their grandmothers... I pf course want Holy Water! Mum didnt trust it, so wouldnt let me drink any to see if it really created miracles....

That night we went to see a fantastic Russian Folk Orchestra. They were great! A bunch of students just having fun, playing their instruments.  They played Lara's Theme to end the night... of course... I think every Balalaika player must know that one.

Wednesday we had a tour of the Kremlin and its Amoury - we got to see Faberge eggs, coronation gowns, carriages like the ones from Cinderella and soooo much gold and silver! The Kremlin itself was meh... lots of golden churches and office buildings. There were a couple "biggest in the world" items - Bell and Cannon, which both have silly histories, the Bell never rang, it cracked when being cast and the cannon was never fired.

All in all Moscow was neat and I feel like I missed at lot being forced to stick to the pre assigned tours, or only having a few hours on our own. Mind you, my lack of understanding the Russian language was really intimidating... I'd have to study the alphabet first.