A year in Vancouver!

False becomes true when the boss decides it…

And this Saturday saw downtown Vancouver transformed into Germany! The streets all had German signs and names, the cars all had German license plates, the road signs were displaying German symbols and instructions, the Poliezi were out in force, as were all their cars and vans, the bill boards had German commercials flashing on them, and the buses were all white and green with German destinations…

Yes, it was movie time again!!! This week I had managed to walk into the set of the new “A Team” movie, and I had managed to time it just right. Instead of being able to cross the street I was moved into a safe area while the cast and crew had a run through of a gun fight and then proceeded to add moving vehicles. This built into a car chase and culminated in head on collision with water being poured down the road to enable the cars to slip and skid more effectively. I was too busy trying to take some pictures of my own, and even discovered my camera can make movies- who knew- to have any idea of the different performances of cars of various surfaces! Apparently, the crew on movie sets get a little uppity when you try and take your own pictures of their set, especially if you insist on walking through areas they are trying to clear, so I have to say, my photos may not be quiet the same quality as those produced by Twentieth Century Fox!

The rest of my weekend was much more normal. The Nike 10K Human Race finally came around and so I donned my running shoes again and aiming to put in a better time than last year I took off. All in all I was pleased with my time, 47 minutes, 58 Seconds, not staggeringly fast when you realize the women who placed first was in Japan and ran it in 34 minutes, and even less impressive when you hear that the fastest man was in Spain and ran it in 29 minutes. Nonetheless my time did put me in 2811 place out of an overall total of 86,877 runners and 162 in the women running in North America. Unfortunately I can’t get a reading on everyone’s times so I only hope there were more than 162 women running in North America! And I now have approximately 360days to start training for next year’s. (Yes, I do know how many days are in a year, but they move the date a little each year and I don’t know when it will be held.)

Mixing up my order of events slightly, I did also have a wander around the Snow and Ski Expo in Canada Place, mainly while the filming was going on outside. I couldn’t believe how cheaply they were selling off some of the old equipment! Not that I needed anything, and this year it did actually stop me buying things. I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t get any new skates and this was starting to appeal more and more, I guess I should have worked that out from the name of the show- skating not being mentioned and all. So, I have done the next best thing, dragged my old ones out of the cupboard, loving polished them and made sure the blades are in tip top condition so I’m all ready to go… My one purchase at the Expo was a lift pass. Bargain of the day at $140.00, so now I can get up the mountain without having to walk up the Grind every week. Lucky as it will only be open for a few weeks. Or as was pointed out the man in the queue who asked when he could start skiing- “when it snows”, is also when the Grind closes.

My excitement at getting my skates out the cupboard again may not be limited to just the idea of lift passes and snowshoeing (how much do I want to try that?) but also the fact that I finally got around to seeing “Whip-It” at the movies. I’m not going to turn this into a movie review, but it was an awesome movie. I loved it and can’t wait for the DVD to be released so I can watch it again. (Just for you Mom, the lack of TV doesn’t mean I can’t play DVDs on my laptop) I would wonder if you could have similar sport to Roller Derby on ice, but they already do and they call it hockey!