>Stars on Ice…

>On Thursday morning I was driving into work and on the radio they were talking about how “Stars on Ice” was here that evening at the MTS Centre at 7pm.  It made me think back to the first time I saw the “Stars on Ice” performance–20 years ago, for my birthday gift I went with my Mum and her friend Barb (my choice to bring a friend).. to Peterborough, Ontario.  I had been a skater for years…and being able to see KURT BROWNING up close and personal…well it was a dream come true for any skater to see an ‘idol’ skate.  I still remember when he did a backflip in front of us, and ice flew up into the stands!  (yes, those were the days that he was still doing those!).  Fast forward a few years, while living in Toronto…I got tickets for a few other ‘stars on ice shows’!  My mum and went to see the performance where Andrea Bocelli sang live, and then again when the Barenaked Ladies sang live.. and the other performance we saw was the “Stars on Ice” that was Brian Orser’s final show.  All were pretty awesome to get the chance to see! 

I went to work… and found out one my co-workers, sister and mum were going to the performance.  At 4pm just before I left I wondered out loud…I wonder how much the tickets are… another co-worker went online to Ticketmaster… and well I got myself a ticket..and off I went! 

This performance featured: Kurt Browning, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, Jeffery Buttle, Joanne Rochette, Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, and Cynthia Phaneuf!!…

The skating was amazing.. and I was able to get a few photos…but mostly just took in the performance! At intermission I looked around–and two rows down on the other side of the stairs was my co-worker, sister and mum, what a small world eh!?

Here are some of my photos!!

Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon…they have such incredible beauty, grace and lifts!!!

Jamie Sale and David Pelletier…they were pretty awesome too… Jamie fell at one point–missed David’s hand…the rest of the performance was interesting.. the looks between this married couple!  But in the end the rest of the number was perfect!! They also have all kinds of crazy lifts and tricks up their sleeves!!

Joanne Rochette…was amazing!  The strength this woman has…wow… so beautiful!

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir…they did some ‘fun’ numbers… a ballerina and a ‘tough’ hockey player… pretty funny… but also had some pretty cool ‘tricks’ for ice dancers… u can see how they totally got the GOLD in Vancouver!

And then there was Kurt Browning… what can I say?! He can still rock the skates!  He did one whole performance in a pair of ‘hockey’ skates….and yes, he still can do all that crazy footwork in those skates–without picks!  

 

It was an awesome evening… only thing that would have made it perfect was my mum sitting beside me…but well sometimes you cant’ get EVERYTHING you want!! Cheers!

>..the Olympic Trap…

>

Yes, I’ve fallen into it… hook, link and sinker….sooooooooooooooo LUV watching the games… and this week have ended up staying up TOO late.. watching events on my tv. 

I so wish I was out there…. but I’ve been cheering on our Canada from my couch!!

I can’t believe how ‘close’ some of the times are… that separate gold, silver and bronze… sometimes it’s just .01 of  seconds… that is the difference between first and 15th!  Crazy… it’s nice to see the joy in all the athelete’s faces after they have a really good time, or run or whatever!!  The uniforms are fun to see too….

I hope everyone else out there is enjoying the “olympic trap”!!

>GO Canada GO!..a brush with the Olympics…

>Last night I watched the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics.. and was on the phone with my mum throughout the evening!  She reminded me of my ‘first’ Olympic experience… it was the Winter Olympics of ’84… I had turned 4 in December.. and had started figure skating… apparently I was doing ‘patch’ and did ‘fall school’ then the regular winter season.  After watching some of the figure skating on tv, my mum put me to bed.  Apparently I looked up at her and said, “Mummy,  don’t sign me up for TV yet… I’m just not ready for that yet!”  Then my mum realized that all the ‘extra’ stuff was maybe a bit much…..

In November I had the opportunity to be a part of the Olympic Torch Relay…. I blogged about it at my old blog (you can see the post HERE)… I was in Resolute, Nunavut at the time… and it was prety awesome to take part of something so HUGE!  A few days after arriving in Winnipeg, the torch was making it’s way through..but I didn’t go to see it…I had too much stuff going on at the time!

Today I headed out to the Canadian Mint here in Winnipeg… I had heard that the Olympic Medals would be on ‘display’ and you could go see the up close, but not TOUCH.  So I headed off and check it out! 

Here’s Milo…in front of the Canadian Mint!! He’s a bit dirty! 

There’s a really cool driveway that you go through all these international flag… It was such a nice SUNNY day…. was pretty awesome!! 🙂

On the outside of the “Mint” the medals are displayed! 

Inside the Mint there were quite a few ‘interactive’ displays….and I got to pretend I was a GIANT quarter.. how cool?!

Have no fear…there was LOTS of security around……… even some ‘men’ in Red….

Here’s me with the Medals… the set on the right are for the Paralympics…

Here’s a close up of the Paralympic Medals…

Silver, Gold and Bronze!

Then there was this really cool table set up… and it showed ‘how’ they were made… with the template thingys and stuff…. it was pretty cool!  I got to pick up a medal that hadn’t had the final stage done to it… so it didn’t have the ‘etching’ on it!  Here’s a copy of that silver metal…it was sooooo heavy and really neat to touch!!!  here’s the front, and the back is below!!

Here are three medals that are completed… the Bronze and Gold are for the Vancouver Games and the Silver is for the Paralympic Games!

No two medals are the same. 

“Canadian industrial designer and architect Omer Arbel adapted large master artworks by Komoyue and Tlingit artist Corrine Hunt. Hunt said she chose the orca to represent the Olympics because a whale’s pod demonstrates teamwork. A raven, she said, represents Paralympians rising above physical challenges.”*  

Pretty awesome.. that means the ‘hockey’ players that will win GOLD, no TWO of those medals will be the same–they will be truly a one of a kind thing!!

Here is the a copy of the Orca artwork that the Vancouver 2010 Olympic medals were inspired from. 

And here is a copy of the Raven artwork that the Paralympic Medals were inspired from!

I also did a ‘self-guided’ tour of the actual Mint… I learned about how coins are actually made, and saw all the machines that do the jobs of making them!  Sadly, I couldn’t take any photos–apparently this money making stuff is ‘top’ secret…who knew?! I also ‘traded’ in an OLD loonie for a brand-new Vancouver 2010 Olympic one!!

This was an ‘ice sculpture’ that was at the main road entrance to the Mint…. it was pretty cool… as I was leaving I saw that another car had stopped and took some photos… I asked them to snap these of me!

So that was my brush with the Olympics…. now only if my mum had ‘pushed’ me a little more… maybe I could have been a super-star skater!! 

Hope your weekend is going well… I need to get back to my ‘Olympic’ TV schedule… I think I’m going to watch nothing but them for the next 16 days!!