A special midnight post...

Well today was definately a memorable one... lots of pins, lots of people asking for pictures... oh ya and one very cool piece of free swag:

Yep yours truly was given a ticket by some generous soul at the Olympic Family Hotel to go watch the quarterfinal game between Finland and the Czech Republic.

Lets just say the tickets were amazing... and the game even more so. It was 0-0 until 6 mins to go in the 3rd period and the Finns added an empty netter to win 2-0. Kipper was amazing to say the least and I think the Americans are in tough against the Finns.

Anyways some more pics:

A special one for Tish:

And just for Ashif:

Finally went to an event

My buddy had tickets for the Belarus vs. Swiss game yesterday and brought me along. It was fun alternating between cheering for Belarus and the Swiss... Be-la-rus sounds a lot like Shia Le-Bouef,while the Swiss did Haupt Suisse... which sounded alot like Hops Wheat... two vital components for beer.

Anyways the Swiss won, though I missed the end because I had to run to my shift... Stay tuned for more updates. Until then some pics... T I have a goalie one just for you :)

On a slightly unrelated note... GM place ... er Canada Hockey Place is a really nicely designed arena. The sightlines are amazing it looks like regardless of where you sit, and none of the bleachers like we have in the Saddledome. Anyways with Canada in for a fight today only one more thing needs to be said GO CANADA GO!!!

I'm burning up

I haven't posted in a few days, so a quick update. It's been a blast, it's been busy, and my hair is on fire... actually no, but it's my signature shot at the Olympic Cauldron. I was there a few days ago and introduced what I call the flaming potato head. It's one where I make people look like they are burning up.

Cheers Y'all

A Great Meeting

So one of the benefits of working at the Olympic Family Hotel is meeting dignataries. Some of the highlights have been the King and Queen of Greece, Prince Ranier of Monaco, Princess Anne, Dick Pound, and by far the nicest person so far Charmaine Crooks.

So after all the dignataries you'd figure yours truly is well versed in meeting famous people... and then today... A brusque VANOC lady comes in and says to me "Don't make a fuss". To which I flippantly reply "We never make a fuss"... which is true, with so many famous people coming through the order for the day is to treat everyone deferentially and expediently... and maybe a little bit of smarm.

So after the VANOC lady my mind begins to churn... probably Jacques Rogge, or maybe some other high official, so imagine my surprise when I look up and the Great one... yep Wayne Gretzky was there. I've seldom been unable to come up with a glib reply... and with the famous people these last few days, I've seldom been unable to greet them politely and hustle them on there way... until now... yep show me a big time hockey star and I'm giddy like a school girl...

So in an instance like this, you'd think a "Welcome sir, an honor to meet you" or maybe slightly gushing "I'm a big fan, you've made my day can I please have a picture" or downright creepy "Would you please autograph my chest please" would be in order... Nope, nothing like that... rather yours truly, the first face and person the Great One talks to on his way in to the Olympic Family Hotel is greeted with... wait for it... "I'm sorry sir you do not have the proper accredtitation..."

After the (Oh sh!t what did I just say to Wayne Gretzky you stupid idiot) thought ran through my mind I seek to salvage the situation... "please go through the security screening"... Yep WTF??!?!??! The one chance I have in my life to have a few words with Wayne Gretzky, maybe a picture or an autograph, and I tell him in effect he's a nobody and please go into the cattle like security scanner... well suffice it to say he took it very well nodded politely and went through the magnometer (didn't set it off) and then chuckled when his companion did... and then he was gone. Yep a chance to meet a Canadian hero and yours truly just did the job... Mama did raise an idiot. Of course after the Great one left others mobbed him a bit and got pictures while I stood there like an idiot at my post... oh well...

On another note Gary Bettman also came in later... I spent the remainder of the day trying to convince a QPP officer that he had a duty to Quebecers to arrrest Bettman for get rid of Canadian Hockey Teams (namely the Nordiques).

Chinese New Year

Hope everyone one is enjoying a prosperous New Year... it's the year of the tiger! A slight delay in the update as I've been busy the last few days, but some pics of the feast prepared to celebrate the new year.

On the menu:

Clams in a black bean sauce
Marinated Beef Shanks
Roast Pork
Buddha's Vegetarian Delight
Steamed Basa Filet w/ Ginger and Green Onion sauce
Stir Fried Pea Shoots
Seasame Rice Balls

Enjoy the pics

Happy New Year All...

So it's a weekend full of celebrations. First off the Opening Cermonies have finally come... to be completely honest based on what I saw on TV it didn't compare to being there. A pity because even during the dress rehersal it was a magical experience. I do have one complaint though... the national anthem... don't get me wrong, the singer is really cute, and a very good singer, but a stylized national anthem?!? I mean how american is that?!? Blahhhhhhh

On another note Gong Hei Fat Choi... yep it's Chinese New Year. I was able to go down to Chinatown today and it was quite the atmosphere!

Anyways have a one day break just made a psuedo traditional Chineses meal and about to crash. Another shift tomorrow... I have to say things are much busier now that things have started but some minor annoyances which I will get to in due time in a blog. Until then...

One giant ass flag...

The Italians apparently have taken over one of the construction sites (no not a mafia joke... okay maybe kinda one) and have made their loyalties clearly known:

Anyways off to another shift. Keep the comments coming! And for T&P no the touque is not mandatory, but with the cold and wet weather coming it may make an appearance.

Wow...

With most sincere apologies to VANOC... I believe this one picture will not give away any secrets of the opening ceremonies... and neither will this post.

I will say this though my hands and voice is a little sore... from all the clapping and cheering!!!

I highly recommend and encourage people to watch it, I really felt it reflected Canada and as you can see Mike and Jade are also in the pic (the people I'm crashing with this month and stealing broadband access from to report this blog to you) and they were totally enthused about the opening ceremonies. No I don't know who the torch bearer is going to be and the last 20 mins is still a complete mystery, but if what we say was any indication it's gonna be a gooder!

Of special note the Mayor, Premier and Prime Minister showed up to say thankyou to all the volunteers... yep Stephen was in the house... and his French was atrocious as ever. But that is all I will say until after the opening cermonies!

Why I like Vancouver

So aside from the plethora of toned attractive women (who always seem to run away when I try to take a picture... or it could be because they are out jogging), the wonderful weather (pretend I'm writing this blog entry on Saturday when it was clear, sunny and +10), is a wonderful special place that I call Ben's happy land, but locals refer to as Granville Island. To get there from where I'm staying, we have a 5 minute walk down to the Yaletown docks, and then a 10 minute Aqua taxi ride to Granville. While we were waiting for the taxi, the buddy I'm staying with Mike and I decided to pose with Miss Ling a 100 foot china white thing of beauty:

I think we would look much better on deck, but alas the crew couldn't be convinced. Anyways back to Ben's happy land... first off I would encourage two of my friends who will be joining me next week to enjoy the Olympics to visit a particular store in Granville. I won't mention their names, but imagine in between the fresh produce you stumble across what appears to be a quaint bookstore and then upon closer examination of the titles:

But the best part of Granville, and Vancouver in general? The fresh food! I've been having fun cooking with so much wonderful fresh food... some hi-lights of the past week:

Roasted Vegetables in Phyllo Pastry

Pan fried 3 treasures in black bean sauce (it's shrimp paste stuffed into veggies and fried)

Jambalya w/ Jalopeno corn bread and hickory smoke ribs

French Toast done w/ Walnut Bread and fresh blueberry compote

I'm think fish tacos for tonight with a fresh pico de gallo... anyways that's why I like Vancouver :)

Oh a parting image of the food market on Granville Island each of the stalls are independant so nice to support local:

First Day

Anticlimatic...

I don't know why, but I had expected things to be hopping, that we would be in the thick of things. Rather it became an mental exercise of trying to stay alert in the face of blinding boredom. Of course this being my first shift, the second shift of my team leader and 3rd shift of the team supervisor may have contributed to the confusion and general lack of action.

As many of readers out there know I do a fair amount of volunteer work and have held a variety of roles from being a worker bee to manging teams of volunteers. So I think I have had enough experience to come up with what I call the Cardinal Sins of managing volunteers:

1) A volunteers time is precious, don't ever waste it

2) You don't always know the volunteer's background, always assume they are smarter than expected

3) Volunteers aren't paid, so even if they make errors you can't treat them like a regular employee

Anyways griping aside, I have decided to reserve judgement... just like anything else you will always have a spread of people with different motivations and different quality of people.

I appreciate comments, makes me feel like people are reading and actually care (fake it if you must!) so in response to reader demands (Tish...) a self portrait of me in my uniform... yes I used a mirror and am to lazy to flip the image back around so no my uniform is not printed backwards.

Apologies...

Things have been happening over here and I've been busy relaxing so much that I forgot about all my faithful readers! (Are there any out there?) Anyways I will go back and provide a quick update of the past few days. Hopefully in chronological order.

Free Swag of the Day

Continuing on the theme of yesterday's post about free swag... in addition to the free tickets to the opening cermonies, the official supplier of wine (now that is kickass a title to have... official supplier of wine... no not whine... wine...) gave a gift of a bottle of wine!

Yep VANOC is encouraging it's volunteers to drink... I'm not sure if I am reassured or concerned about that... oh ya a picture of said swag:

Well I'm off to training shortly... I may have a second post later this evening.

Day of a thousand lineups (okay slight exaggeration)

Day 1 in the books... or is this Day 2? Hmmm...

Anyways as the title may suggest, today was a day full of lineups. So much so, that I believe queuing is a national sport here in Canada. To begin, I spent most of the morning in a line that stretched 3 blocks long...

You see there are certain perks to being a volunteer at the Olympics... namely you get free stuff!

YAY!!!! FREE SWAG!!!!

So... as part of your's truly continuning coverage of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, I'm please to introduce, what I hope will be a regular feature on these blogs... The Free Swag of the Day Moment!

Today's moment: Opening Cermony Dress Rehersal Tickets...

Yes while the rest of you will have to content yourselves with watching the opening cermonies "live" on CTV, I will have already experienced the pagentry, the color the spectacle...

Ahhhhhh... it's good to volunteer :)

But back to the theme of today's post, the day of thousand line-ups... I waited in line to get my ticket and as today was the first day it was available for pickup in Vancouver the line was long... very very long... how long you ask? well... I'll let the pictures tell the tale:

Of course made some new friends, and got interviewed by the cutest blonde from CBC... sorry Ashif no pics... and at the end of the day... 3 tickets!


3 tickets you say? Well each volunteer is allowed to buy 1 extra ticket, and MJ was kind enough to give me hers because she could not attend, so I ended up with 3... Mike, Jade if you are reading this blog... guess where we're going on the 10th?

Of course the line up outside was just to get in the building... then the line up for the elevator, line up to have id verified, line up to have MJ assignment of her ticket for me to be verified, line up for ticket payment (for the extra ticket), line up to get said tickets, line up for some other stuff, and then line up for the elevator down... phew!

Then it was on to the Olympic Uniform and Accreditation lines... again line up to get id'd, line up for picture, line up to pick up Accreditation, line up for uniform fitting, line up for change room, line up to pick up actual uniform, line up to check out for uniform... at the risk of sounding repetitive... phew!!

But all that is done now! I am officially accredited and uniformed out... who knows maybe in a future post you may see me sporting my very stylish olympic threads :)

Until then... smoke 'em if you got 'em

Must remember to take pictures

Flew into Vancouver last night and the airport is geared up for the Olympics. Actually it was a really nice night to fly in... +8 slightly overcast... much better than sub zero weather! But this post is really to remind myself to take pictures!!!

Writing is hard work and it's tough to be witty the whole time so pictures will have to provide a sense of what is going on. Of course I'm a child of the ADD generation so actually remembering to pull out a camera is sometimes too much for me to handle. But in the interest of providing a more immersive experience I promise the next post will have a picture... the relevance may or may not be there, but a picture there will be!

Alright, time to get dressed and head off... on the tap today, Uniform and Accreditation.

Why this blog?

Due to the overwhelming demand that I keep people informed about my Olympic hijinks (i.e. a couple of people asked) I have decided that this world needs yet another blog full of self promotion and hubris! Yes, yours truly is about to embark on an adventure of slightly more than average uniqueness sure to be replete with perils and dangers (Hey slippery sidewalks and hangovers are scary in my book).

I keep my goals lofty... hopefully I'll give you a few chuckles, maybe a groan or two, and well for those not lucky enough to make it out to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics a vicarious experience through the eyes of one of the innumerable grunts (aka volunteer) at the Olympics. Yes this intrepid soul will delve deep within the machinations of the 2010 Olympics and provide you a glimpse that you will not see on CTV, TSN, Sportsnet, or APTN (yes the last one is one of the official Broadcasters). Most of it will likely be inane musings... a tax on your precious time but hopefully a few nuggets will spring forth!

So to beging how did we (yes I will occassionaly refer to myself in a royal third person... part of the whole hubris thing) get here? Well about 2 years ago I applied for a volunteer spot and after a bunch of interviews, a few meetings, some begging, some bribing I was offered a spot as a volunteer at the olympics! Sounds simple right? WRONG!!!

At this time I should thank some of the people that made this possible... first and foremost Mike and Jade. By offering me a place to stay they are making the dreams of this little boy come true. While I realize I may be treated slightly better than an indentured servant a place to stay is most welcomed! Next... Alex and Murray... Always good to have bosses who think nothing of letting you take a leave when the workload is overwhelming... and I'll thank other people at a later date because this is starting to read too much like an awards acceptance speech. Suffice it to say a lot of people did a lot of a things to make this possible. So thanks everybody, especially you the reader! (did that come off sincere, or did I push too hard... I pushed too hard didn't I... )

If you have made it through the whole post to this point, I congratulate you... you obviously are not very busy at work and I have been suitably entertaining (hopefully more the later). I bid you all adieu now, I'm leaving work shortly for the flight out to Vancouver. I promise future posts will have some photos. Until then, I leave you with this deep thought... is it only me, or does the Olympic motto Citius, Altius, Fortius have a double meaning this year?