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.