Canada 2, GB 0

You’ll have to excuse me that it’s been a solid week since I’ve last posted; you might understand that it’s been quite busy at the Olympics for me!

Wednesday was a bit of a cool down game.  Emily and Chris were able to get up to Eton Dorney to see Great Britain’s first gold medal of the games which was awesome for them!  I met up with Emily’s friend Abi for a tour of the BBC on the Wednesday afternoon. It was a good tour but the problem was that most productions have moved up to Salford City but that being said a) the pilot for Lucky Sexy Winners with Bob and Vic was taping a b) they had a game show in the interactive studio at the end… and well, take a guess.

I lost in the tie break though!

We then all dashed off to see Wicked.  Yes, I saw it again… but it always has something different!  (This is time number 10, if you’re counting).  This time it was a bit bizarre… they did it with English accents (note: most if not all productions require American accents to keep ‘true’ to the original Broadway production).

Thursday was even more low key… although I did get to the House of Hellenes (the Greek Olympic House) courtesy of my friend Richard, who had a connection through the International Olympic Academy.

Hey there IOA, I’ve got to show you how much I need to be a part of your organization…

We then met up with his other friends and went out for Mexican in Leicester Square.  It was a great meal.

Friday was the first of a few ‘double days’.  Or at least I would hope it would be!

I headed out early to the Olympic Park in Stratford.  I was SO excited to finally get in and see an event! 

I was walking in and got stopped almost immediately… by Reuters!  I guess my costume got their attention. I found out on Saturday that it aired across the US on several stations!

(thanks to DM for the vidcap)

 

The walk in Olympic Park was very inspiring.  I noticed I even had a hop to my step! First up was basketball.  It was Angola/Croatia (blowout for Croatia) and Australia/Russia (really close, win for Australia).  The basketball arena is a “pop up centre” – so it’ll be taken down after the games are done.

One of the most flattering things that happened was midway through the second game.  A father and daughter were walking in my row.  I thought that I might be in their seats… nope! Turns out that the daughter was trying to “collect countries” and I was going to be Canada’s representative!  How fun!

Shortly after basketball ended I booted it out of there.  I did briefly stop and see the Today Show (NBC) set up on the way out (50 feet from Al Roker!) but I had to get going.

Going?

Well, the day before I decided on a whim that I was going to head up to Coventry and try and see the Canada/GB women’s footy quarterfinal.  Also I knew that I had two more events at the park, so I’d have the chance to walk through next week.

I went to London Euston station and picked up my train ticket.

“Hey!”

“Hey!”

“Oh my goodness, hi!”

Claude, a friend that I had made (who went to high school not 30 minutes away from me!) at the Newcastle game, explained that she had an extra ticket.

Oh, really?

“Yeah, you can have it if you promise one thing… YOU HAVE TO CHEER REAL LOUD”!

“I think I can do that!”

I made plans to see her at 6 pm at the ticket booth.  On the way up on the train I ran into Ernie and his crew again!  It was a good time to see them again.  “Why are we not surprised!” they said.

We all took the shuttle over to Coventry.

I also noticed something else… Canadaman was getting asked for a photo, over and over again!  Someone joked that I should get an entertainment lawyer!  I just laughed it off… I was flattered to take pictures with people.  I also got interviewed by the Coventry Telegraph.  Fun times!

Claude led me into the seating section.  It turned out that I was going to get to sit with the family and friends of the team!  What an awesome experience!

And to boot, we were up 2-0 after 20 minutes.  I was holding my breath for most of the game… especially as we were down 2-0 to Sweden earlier in the week before tying it up.

But the ladies were so strong and were able to handle it… and we won the game 2-0!  It was pandemonium from the Canadian crew.  What a wonderful, wonderful experience to be part of it first hand!

After the game we hung around and got some pictures, and got to talk to the team again.  Karina Leblanc remembered me too!  Again, quite flattering!

Following the impromptu photos and chatting we finally got on the train to get back to London… I think I crawled into bed around 2.30 am in Gidea Park!  Totally worth it though.

Three events (plus a bonus one) down, six to go!

Cheers,

Vick.