We took a day trip to Whistler, which has skiing although very little snow when we were there. We spent our time at the Olympic Sliding Centre and the spa. As I've mentioned previously and as any of my friends could tell you, I'm a huge Olympics fan. It is one of my biggest dreams to be in the Olympics but I know that like my dream of being a member of a pop girl group, it will never be realized as I just don't have the talent. This doesn't stop me from loving both the Olympics and pop music ardently.
We discovered that we couldn't walk to the Sliding Centre from the village so stopped to ask for a taxi at a hotel. While there, Cathy was telling the valets how we would like to do bobsled but there were only three of us so we'd need another person to join our team. One of the valets asked for her name so she said "3 + 1." This was a pretty good bobsled team name to come up with on the spot but he was actually asking for her name so he could call a taxi for her.
When we got to the Sliding Centre, we discovered you have to make reservations ahead of time. Blast! However, we got there in time to watch others do the skeleton which was still quite entertaining. You pay 169 CAD, and get to do two runs on the skeleton. Each run takes 32-33 seconds and most of the people get up to around 100 km/h. Somehow, only two people screamed when they were sliding down; the rest were silent. You know I would have made it three if I had been part of the group.
While watching the sliders, we made a couple of friends. There was Scott, who had bought the experience for his wife, Christine, for her birthday. He liked how we cheered on the sliders and asked us to cheer really loudly for her. He even took a video of us cheering her on. He told us while skeleton looks scarier than luge, it's actually easier. He said when he tried the luge, he fell off the sled and then the sled ricocheted back and tried to get him again.
Then there was Graham who was photographing the sliders for work. He evidently (you know I have to use that word C!) has superhuman patience because Cathy and I can be a lot to take in. Basically, take me at my most energetic and crazy and multiply it by about 3.5 when we're together. He mostly seemed entertained by us though as he laughed a lot.
We (Cathy & I, DeVi left the poor man alone) were peppering him with questions. We couldn't place his accent, so he had us guess. My response was, "Kiwi, why not?" While this amused him, it was incorrect. Turns out, he's from the UK. And not only that, but London. I don't know why this was so hard for us to guess. Downton Abbey has clearly ruined my ability to pick up a London accent.
Other things that made him laugh...
He said he photographed extreme sports, so I said he should tell people he photographed "the X Games, you know."
We asked him if he liked Bastille (Cathy's plan was to ask him if he has Dan Smith's hair since his was under a hat) and he said he wasn't sure; he'd have to hear 3 songs. I played him 3 songs and he said they were average. We were a bit shocked and I said maybe they're average for the UK, but for us Americans, they're elevated.
Since he was British, we decided his last name was Shakespeare, of those Shakespeares. Now you see how annoying we can be and still he didn't ask us to leave him alone so he could do his job in peace.
And finally, I met another Nebraskan! I was wearing a Creighton shirt so he asked me if I was from Omaha. He's from northeastern Nebraska but lives in Houston now. The state has less than 2 million people but I meet Nebraskans nearly everywhere I go.
No comments:
Post a Comment