Day 277 to 293: Sir Stacks-a-lot

Well June was upon me... and it turns out that my world tour is almost finished... 3/4 of the way through! Not that exciting things weren't still in store... such as Day 277's visit to the dentist!

Yes it is entirely possible that I get slight accidents such as a cavity. Sadly my dentist has cleared his wall of pictures recently and thus I have missed an opportunity to get back on the wall. Such as it. As I'm writing this after the fact that I had this done I imagine that I probably went and bought some sweets.

Day 278 brought a pattern that was going to rear its ugly head. It was the Wednesday Dive Cancellation (WDC). Which would have been nice, if only to get rid of Day 279's visits to the physician and the podiatrist... so much so that I had to take Days 280 and 281 away just to recover!

But Day 282 was a gorgeous drive up north to go for a dive, a nice little splash, which was nicely preceeded by a bbq! Huzzah for free food, can't really complain. Had to rush back for my first game of Ultimate for the season - as a member of the Hucky Ducks (seems we've got an animal theme going, folks) we notched our first win! Hurrah! And we went out for brewskis afterwards, to celebrate at one of my teammates' homes.

Day 283 and it was back up north for our "shore course". We put this on once a year in the dive club so as to inform those who are top side can ably help us when the rest of us are down below. Although most of the time I'm in the latter, it's still important that I help out with the former. We had a good turnout and hopefully will have some great support this year.

Day 284 and having stayed over the night it made sense to have a picture night - a retrospect of this crazy year I've had. It's the first time I've had a chance to look through my pictures all in one go, and the first time I've actually enjoyed sorting through images since Bort had crashed upon leaving Australia. It was superb just to chat about things that had gone on... speaking of which, I've finally posted my appearance on Des Chiffres et Des Lettres - you can find it at :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qqhxqOqSic

And of course I've put up subtitles for those who don't speak French so they can enjoy as well!

It actually took about 2 hours to do the slides so afterwards I headed home.

Day 285 was a Wednesday, so we cancelled the dive!!!! Not wanting to, obviously. That did give me a chance however to go to a rare (for me) Wednesday night ulty practice, which then turned into Settlers at my house.

Now, if you don't know, Settlers is probably one of the best board games to come out in the last twenty years. It is German and it is brilliant. You can either play with three or four players, and it takes roughly about 2 hours to play but is wonderful in every way shape and form. Vic (the woman) and Cat and I battled it out, with the new Newmarket Ultimate Settlers League (NUSL) standings as such:

Vic (the woman) 1-0

Cat 0-1

Vick (yours truly) 0-1

Given that the previous date actually bled into Day 286, I took it easy that day. But there was excitement that had to be prepared for on Day 287.

Which started with a visit to Big Bone BBQ, just a stone's throw from my house. Now I had been told these guys have great wings, and while I'm sure that they do, I couldn't tell you about them, because I opted for the pulled pork sandwich. At the cost of $8.50 for a sandwich which used its bun as a carrying case for the meat from your plate to your mouth along with fries, beans and slaw, it was practically perfect.

Part two of this day was shooting the video for my application to be on Wipeout Canada. I had developed some ideas, which involved me getting thrown around somewhat, to say the least:

This was actually during "dress rehearsal". I only had three pies so we had one for the dress rehearsal, then two for the real thing!

As you can see, I'm in costume and wet. Guesses?

For the proof, go see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceySN1VHTAA and enjoy!

All in all it was a hoot. Half the fun of applying I'm finding is shooting the video, I've discovered! We all then went out for ice cream to celebrate.

How, pray tell, could I top that? Well, I was off very early on Day 288 to drive to Brampton and the Ontario Speed Stacking Championships! I had recruited my friend Victoria to come as well, and after a few nights of practice, we were ready! Let's let the pictures do the talking, shall we?

Victoria and I were immediately fascinated by the MASSIVE jumbo speed stacks and had they been cheaper we might have taken them home.

We had the opening ceremonies around 9.45 am and Vic and I dwarfed everyone as they were mostly 8 year olds. BUT! There were actually seven adults there! COMPETING! Wow.

Victoria and I then proceeded to the qualifying time trials for doubles. It's very curious only using one hand but we did well. One competitor from Illinois really enjoyed how we talked to each other! We have that kind of chemistry I guess!

That's me right after breaking the Canadian Record for the cycle... but only in the qualifiers! I was pretty psyched though as I hadn't even hit a twelve in competition before...

One of the only downfalls of the day was that we ended up having four bloomin' hours between qualifs and the finals, so Vic and I decided (once Kevin and Jess arrived) to make tshirts! And now, schnazzy views for y'all:

So how did it all turn out? Well, Victoria and I cleaned up quite well! Victoria picked up three medals and three Ontario records, while I picked up four medals and another Canadian record, and the two of us got a joint record for Doubles! SCORE.

We made some calls on the way home to celebrate but after dropping Victoria home I was spent and grabbed some zzzzzzzz.

Day 289 and it was frisbee time. And I've been very lucky as my skills have been improving - including this evening, where I made a behind the back catch!

Days 290, 291 and 292 went by with small highlights - great meals, good friends, and an awesome New Zealand-Slovakia footy match (how about that goal in injury time???). And another update in the NUSL standings:
Vic (the woman) 1-1
Vick (yours truly) 1-1
Cat 0-1
Jess 0-1
Kevin 0-1

Day 293 and I found a most interesting sight:

I pull into the Zellers parking lot, and there's my old car! Gotta be honest with you, with over 217000km on it I never thought I'd see it again. I thought about leaving it a note, but figured that might be a bit too creepy.

Cheers,

Vick.

Day 262 to Day 276: I continue to reach for the top (cue clapping)

So after a busy, and quite hectic couple of days, Day 262 was a relax and catch up day. Frankly, so was Day 263, which did however feature a dive, helping someone do their open water checkout. Day 264 was excitingly busy! I got to help chaperone a field trip to Canada's Wonderland. Which of course as you might imagine was tough... because all I had to do was ride the rides all day! I do believe the order ended up being Behemoth x 2 (line wasn't busy on Canada's highest roller coaster!)

Psyclone (jerkier than usual), Backlot Stunt Coaster (got stuck just before the halfway mark), Spongebob 3-D (they really need to change this, or at least have a second one kicking around), Dragon Fyre (old school) and apart from that, that was the day! The students had to do some physics assignments as well but I stayed away from that!

I had a great time that day hanging out with Mr. McCuaig and Miss Andrews!

Day 265 and it was my good friend's birthday, so I jumped into Gunther and headed up north. Got a really nice relaxing dive, which was great. And got to spend the evening at his cottage.

Day 266 and it was some more diving to do. We did a small wreck off the beach, very relaxing although slightly colder than I of course would have liked! We did a second dive scavenging for golf balls and the like (some people love to drive them off their docks, appparently).

The nice thing that tied the latter part of Day 266, Day 267 and Day 268 was that they all just felt right. I pretty much just camped out at home, didn't really go anywhere. I've loved the travelling this year but sometimes it's just good to chill out at home and putter.

Day 269 and after the holiday weekend it was time to get going again. Lots of paperwork was to be caught up on, and then it was in the pool in the evening for training a new candidate for Divemaster. Good times, the pool is my happy place!!!

Day 270 and as it was a Wednesday and I was up north it was time to run around and get some things done, and then in the drink again for training dives. I got to dive with one of my friends as well as he's leaving for a new job. Nice, and relaxing. That seems to be the theme... which then carried into Day 271.

Day 272 was craziness on a plate. As I had worked for Reach for the Provincial tournament, it was time for the National tournament! I checked in at the corner of Dundas and Chestnut just before noon to start my shift at the check in desk.

It was great getting to meet all the teams. We had two representatives from each of BC, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick, plus one each from Quebec and Nova Scotia. For alot of the teams and their players, it was their first time in Toronto, so they went out exploring at the Royal Ontario Museum, the Toronto Zoo, the Ontario Science Centre (to see the Harry Potter exhibit) and some took in the Jays game as well.

On Day 273 we were down to business. Everyone headed up to Royal St. George's to start the round robin game! (thanks alot for that, Tino Monte). Each team had to play every other team - so 11 games were to be done. As Ravi was away, I was given the position of co-judge which I happily took to! Less challenges than at provincials but still important nevertheless. Again with the cartesian planes...

As we totalled up the scores, it was very exicting as we had teams that were looking very strong, and as a result we had Kennebecasis (NB), Cobequid (NS), St. Paul's (MB) and Gloucester (ON) sew up the first round byes, with everyone else slotted in behind them. Unlike the Ontario provincials, everyone did move on to the second day of competition (little easier to do that with 12 teams than with 40!)

On Day 274 we moved from the classrooms to the GORGEOUS chapel for the national playoffs. Everyone had a good time... including yours truly, who got to host two games - what a thrill! Here's footage of my first five minutes in the round of 12:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=movwQxp0FpI

It was a bit nervewracking but exciting nevertheless! And look, Assumption is singing again :)

At the end of the day, we were down to four teams - the same ones that had gotten their byes. Not without some close competition however!

I got back to residence and started writing. I had been told that there was a possibility of writing some last minute pop culture questions for the games the next day, so that's what I did.

And that is why, on Day 276, I found myself at 6.20 am in the morning, at the FedEx Kinko's copy shop on University Ave. Printing out my questions.

Arriving at Royal St. George's and it was time for the first semi final game. Kennebecasis was playing Gloucester. It was a close game, but for the third time in four years, KVHS was going to play for their first national championship.

Then the second game came up. Guess whose questions got used? Yeppers! My four question category entitled Really Current Pop Culture involved answers including the winner of Eurovision (happened two days before), Betty White (happened two weeks before), the break up of Speidi (happened four days before) and the series finale of Law And Order (happened one week before) were all answered correctly much to my delight!

I actually had a fifth question that came into play, that was somewhat of a nod to our wonderful players. Assumption was on their Total Eclipse of the Heart swing and as such, given that it went viral, with the original year and artist, we posed the question of who was the artist - and no one got it! Ah well, everyone still enjoyed it.

And as if that wasn't enough, something happened about a week before. Here's Richard, via email:

Richard: Hey Ryan, I'm bringing in my Olympic torch as a visual prop for one of the games. Will you be its custodian?
Ryan: Ah... YES.

Then three days before:
Richard: Hey Ryan, do you mind holding the torch during the game?
Ryan: OH MY GOODNESS YES.

Then the day before:
Richard: Hey Ryan, why don't you run the torch in?
Ryan : speechless, crickets chirp
Proof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-V8htc0fc4
That, right there, had to be one of the biggest thrills of my life. While not an "official" run, I'll take it! I was so scared that I would drop it!

Following the game, where Cobequid defeated St. Paul's in another close game, I was officially "keeper of the torch", and quite alot of the kids got a picture with it. Here's just some samples!

I took some time to grab some other pictures too...

This is with the kids from Assumption (of Burlington)

These are right before the final game...

And all of a sudden, it was time for the national championships, which, for the first time in quite a number of years, was without a team from Ontario - the prize was heading East. It was an extremely close game all the way throughout, although just before the speed round, Cobequid was up by 40 points.

At this point I became the self-appointed contestant coordinator. I went up to KVHS and Cobequid and just shot the breeze with them, helped them relaxed. Here's the thing: when I was younger I always wanted to be the host, and yes, I still do. But if I could get a contestant coordinator job I'd do that, for sure. Having done that for three years at OUPIR and now a few times this year at Reach, I really enjoyed it.

Which brings us to the end of the tourney - KVHS stormed back to win the game in a very exciting speed round. They were quite thrilled as you might imagine! This marked the first NB win since Fredericton in 95. I also got to conduct the "postgame interview" with KVHS and the kids were speechless.

Once everyone had packed up, we headed over to Hard Rock Cafe for the gala luncheon/award ceremony. I got to run the raffle, which I did with my usual vim and vigour :)

What a great weekend - hanging out with so many cool young people, as well as some great coaches (specifically the ladies from Dawson!) and the AWESOME reach staff. I look forward to doing this more and more as they years go on!

As it was around 4.30 pm, I decided to go hop the first go train home. And who should be there but the GO gang! Awesome. Sharon even gave me a ride home, what a sweetie!

Now heading into the home stretch of the world tour - June - but plenty more to be done!

Cheers,

Vick.

Day 252-261: Hello, Gunther, it's time to Reach for the Top

Day 252 and here's what it looked when we started out car shopping.

This was the second weekend of May, might I remind you!


But a decision had to be made, and it was. Here's Gunther, the car I bought!

At least you get the idea. Great price, not too many miles. And its official name is Gunther der Vickers Wagon but you can just call it "Gunther" for short if you'd like.

Basically it came down to the fact that I couldn't actually get it then and there so it would be a few more days yet!

That evening my parents and I went over to my sister's house. We had dinner, we played Scrabble, I lost in the dying seconds of the game. Credit where credit is due mind you. Although my sister enjoyed it immensely and said she's taking a photo of the game board and putting it up on her fridge! We were going to have more of a game night but seeing as her friends cancelled (when a tree falls on your house, you're entitled to do that) we headed back to the 'rents house for an early night.

Day 253 and it was time for more quality adventures on the bus. Which actually wasn't that bad, nice ride as there was basically nobody on it. I do like the Northlands bus; always peaceful I find.

Normally I wouldn't have rushed home and would have stayed to watch the finale of The Amazing Race but I was off for another tv adventure of my own.

Now wake up call on Day 254 came a weeeee bit too early for my own liking - 4.30 am. 4.45 am cab to the bus station, 5.02 bus to the city, 5.55 subway to Eglington, 6.30 am bus to another stop, then a wee bit more of a walk to get to set.

Set?

Yep. Scored another day on another Canadian television icon - Degrassi! Season 10 of the current incarnation and I had a day as an extra. I immensely enjoyed the day. I was a "Queen Street" shopper which means that I had to look active all the time while main characters were all acting out their own scenes. I had a chance to talk to a few of them who were very kind. It was pretty neat too to walk through the set to get lunch, between scenes, etc.

It was also a fun day in that all the extras hang out in the
same room and thus I bonded with a few of them who were very down to earth. One even gave me a ride back to Finch station which saved me an hour! Thanks!!!

I also got to catch up with K who got me the job for the day. I delivered to her some Australian chocolate as I said I would!

Thanks again K! You rock my world. And Stuart's, of course, too.


Seeing that the previous day was a long one I took it easy the next day. Day 255 quickly molded into a day of running around to get papers signed, insuranced cleared, faxes sent so that I could get Gunther to park himself in the driveway!

Day 2^8 (look it up people!) and the first stop was the dentist. Hurray for not too many dental problems! And then up north for a dive. Always nice to have a dive and the dive itself was low key even working with a student. I did learn however that it's much easier not to dive in a dry suit in 5 feet of water, talk about your challenges! BUT! I found a mesh bag with golf balls in it that we had lost last year! SCORE.

I stayed the night over at my friend's cottage and thus Day 257 was a very relaxing morning until we realized that we were late for an appointment! Such as it is I suppose. We then spent the afternoon just getting a few things done before taking it easy that evening.

Day 258 and it was time for another dive. No complaints. After taking the bus home I repacked and headed out to Toronto. I spent the night at my friend's house which was filled with a great dinner, a fun drive down from my house, and excitement at the Apple store! See if you can find out which one doesn't belong.

I'm not telling.

Day 259 and it was off to be a volunteer for the Reach for the Top provincial tournament in Scarbourough. Now, for those of you who don't know what Reach is, basically think quiz bowl - four players on each side, with buzzers rewarding the fastest and most intelligent. I played for four years when I was in high school and started a program in 2002 at a local school, coached for six years, and coordinated my region's league last year. So sufficient to say I have a good amount of experience in this field!

We started by checking forty (!) teams into the residence on the Centennial College campus. Once that had finished we all went over to a local high school to start meeting everyone. Good thing there was great weather so that we could be outside!

My job was associate producer for this tourney, which meant alot of different things, as you'll come to see. First off was to distribute packs to the teams as they got called up one by one. And just learning the ropes as well. Teams got to play two "fun games" just as a warm up and to acclimatize themselves to any last minute jitters.

And here's the trophy that they were all playing for!

Later that evening we had the gala league dinner of champions. It was tons of fun as I got to meet alot of the teams during the evening and the kids themselves really enjoyed the trivia contests that were happening all night long. I was happy to have a room to stay in as it would have been a bit of a trek home!

Here's Fraser from UTS hosting the true/false trivia game.

And here's some yahoo the closest that he's ever come to the provincial trophy!

Day 260 and it was time for me to judge the situation. Seriously. One of the judges couldn't be present that day so I became a judge. We had seven rounds of games that day, which meant that after every game Ravi and I took in the packages and if there were challenges, we had to document them and research them. Which for some cases were a bit of a conundrum for me - if I don't have to see anything about cartesian planes again for awhile, I'll be a happier person :)


When all the dust settled we had 10 teams qualify for the playoff round on Monday. They checked back into the residence, while other teams returned to all areas of the province. It was great to have them, including the crazyness of Brian and his team from Oakville Trafalgar SS who could easily play Guy Smiley if Sesame Street ever needed him to.

Day 261 and the other regular judge, Pat, was back so I helped out where I could elsewhere. I did get to host one game which was quite exciting! (As some of you know I'm a bit of a game show junkie) It was also doing little tasks here and there.

It was also an interesting time in that the tournament provided many surprises. The defending national champions and another strong team from Ottawa didn't make it through to the playoffs. One team from Toronto, ranked #2, lost in the round of 10. A team that went 7-0 and was first out of 40 on Sunday lost in the round of 10 as well. It was not a dull day!

When we made it to the semifinals we were left with four teams and it shifted to a nice ballroom and although it was not taped for TV it was taped for use in the website (so if any reach kids are looking at this blog, be patient!!) so it was a bit more ramped up.

And the crowd was into it! We had two very tight semi-final games in which one of the teams to get eliminated was the champ in my region last year. In the end, Gloucester SS of Ottawa beat Assumption CSS of Burlington (one of the "upset" kings), complete with Assumption's rendition of Total Eclipse of the Heart during one of the interview portions and one of their players doing push ups before the game!

Here they are during a break before the game started.

Here's me and Vijaya, one of the other associate producers.

And here's a couple of the Assumption kids doing their warm up.

Gloucester, as you can see, were the winners, but Assumption advanced to the finals.

I spent the evening with a friend out for a brewski at the local Irish pub and then had a nice sleep... had to get some rest before Nationals two weeks down the road!

Cheers,

Vick.

Days 244-251: Hello, May

Day 244 was upon me and it was time to head off to Cleveland!

My day started, of course, by meeting up with the GO gang on the way down to catch my bus. Always a great time with that crowd.

It turned out to be a very good thing that I took that train; the bus was packed on the way to Buffalo. So much so that they had to turn away some customers! I quite enjoyed the ride, and had a wonderful chat with my seat mate who was from the Ukraine.

Now this was the second time that I was crossing the border by bus. The first time was in 2003 on the way to see The Price is Right - at 2.30 am in the morning. This occasion went a bit smoother, although they really do question you alot!

A short stopover in Buffalo followed by another express bus to Cleveland later, I arrived around 5 pm with Caleb waiting in the station to pick me up. We had a nice dinner out on a strip of restaurants downtown and walked the theatre district (for lack of a better term).

Following dinner we travelled to John Carroll University where Caleb works as a volleyball coach. It's a really nice small campus.

First, the great gym space:



The sun was just setting as we got there and thus the light reflecting on the steeple was just perfect.

It was an early start on Day 245. Caleb's girlfriend Megan was playing her last regular season game of her college softball career, so we were out of the city by 7 am. First stop with Megan's dad driving was to get gas, and to find out what was McGoin' on. Obviously.

We arrived at the town where the game was going to be played and settled behind the centre field fence. It was great and a wonderful setting. Unfortunately Megan's team lost both games, but this is what happens sometimes.

On the way home we stopped in New Philidelphia, OH for lunch, and boy was it filling! Sadly radio's Don Howard was not in town.

Caleb and I popped over to Liberty, uh... Legacy Village when we got home. It's a bit of an upscale shopping complex so some things are a bit pricier but it's still fun to at least window shop. Dick's Sporting Goods was stop number one where Caleb tried on a PFD for some odd reason.

We also popped into the Apple Store... where I got to tryout an iPad before it got released in Canada! Here's me holding an iPad with a picture of me :)

We were out for awhile but then we took it easy that night, and due to the late lunch I don't think we went out for pizza until about midnight.

Day 246 and we went on an expedition. For nothing in particular, but still it was a good one. We did end up at Taco Bell... man that place has an interesting selection of food.

In the evening it was baseball part II. Megan and Caleb were playing on a slo-pitch team with its intramural game that night. They didn't luck out with a win, but the excitement was over on the other ball diamond where one guy was going postal when a call didn't go his way. These things do happen...

Day 247 and Caleb headed out to work on some papers for his upcoming end of semester and I hooked up with Wickliffe's own Mike Klauss. We went out for lunch and caught up on all things teaching and game shows. Plus, I got to meet BANOODLES!

Banoodles is Mike's cat but the trick is knowing that's the nickname for the monkey that appears in the 50 cent case on Aussie Deal or No Deal.

Following the visit with Mike, Caleb and I headed back downtown to grab some last minute souvenirs, and then dinner. Which came in the form of KFC's new Double Down sandwich. Where the chicken is the bun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk_WKGSI2CM

Then it was off to Jacobs field to see the Indians play the Blue Jays!

We actually got to the ballpark around 5.30 and you couldn't get in yet, so we went and enjoyed fan fest that was set up next to the ballpark, sandwiched in beside where the Cavs were playing in the second round of the playoffs.

That's one big ball.

We started our visit at Jacobs field in the back of the complex, visiting the historical plaques, follwed by trying to catch balls at batting practice.

Jacobs field was very impressive. Very fan friendly I found, and a great atmosphere.

The picture above was actually the view from our seats. We payed $25 and sat eight row back! NICE. And to boot, we ended up sitting to two Canucks from Victoria, and there was a couple from Hamilton two rows back. Plus the fun family behind us kept us entertained throughout the whole night.

PLUS! The jays picture actually brought a perfect game into the seventh, but sadly didn't keep it. Still though, great game, Jays won 5-1.

I did of course grab a minute with the Indians' mascot. Why not?

And they have this bizarro hot dog running contest. Not really sure what was going on, to be honest.

It was early start to Day 248 as my bus left around 8 am. With all the delays (including hold ups with several people at the border) I didn't get home until 8 pm. Makes for a long day!!!

While Day 249 had original plan it got scrapped so I went for a dive instead. No complaints!

Day 250 and I headed up to North Bay to see the folks. It was time to start car shopping! First stop was the VW dealership to look at a 2008 Golf City. It drove well and was definitely in the lead. Basically because it was the only candidate.

Day 251 and after Dad had finished work for the day we went for Car Shopping Part II: Electric Boogaloo. Hyundai Elantra. Toyota Matrix. Ford Focus. It was all a bit of a blur! Mom, Dad and I settled on Greco's for dinner which was enjoyable and then I went and joined my friends Kate and Tracey from the Kids in the Hall shoot for a third friend's performance in Jacques Brel is Alive and Well (and living in Paris), which was quite enjoyable!

Will I get a car? Oh... only time will tell!

Cheers,

Vick.