Category: Random

A quick note about my header photo.  Local Whistler photographer and general excellent person David McColm shot that photo on the evening that Sarah died.  He shared it on his FB page.  Go take a look, it’s stunning…

Moving on, after this not so fantastic week, it’s time to dwell on a new topic.  I have notoriously terrible taste in music and given that I spend a lot of my running and triathlon training solo, it means I listen to a lot of it (hello, Beyonce!  Why, yes!  I’d love to listen to you on repeat!)

I’m expanding my musical horizons and listening to lots of artists that are new to me and, well,  so far so good.  My ears aren’t bleeding and I haven’t listened to Rick Springfield in weeks.

So c’mon people, what’s on your iPod?  Fire away your best play lists, preferably ones with songs that are fast and furious.

In other news, I discovered that my treadmill tops out at 16 km/h.  I guess that’s a good discovery?  I didn’t even fall off the back of it!

Training ticks along… slowly getting back into the rhythm of it.  Running’s consistent, swimming still sucks and I haven’t fallen off the rollers.  Yet.  Half-Marathon in 20 days…

Spare time around here is taken up by keeping up with these:

And negotiating with this one:

If you are familiar with toddlers then you’ll know which activity I’m having more success with.

http://www.giveforward.com/sarahburke

 

Yesterday we learned that a friend of ours, Dave Brolin, was killed in a helicopter crash.

I’ll always remember him as the guy who took the time to fly me, Jay and our 2 big dogs to Whistler from Pemberton during the 2003 floods.  He flew the “long way” to show us the destruction the washouts had caused and he did it all for in exchange for a ski suit for his kid.  You just knew that he was someone who took pride in what he did and was very, very talented.

A nice tribute here:

http://www.whistlerisawesome.com/2012/01/18/remembering-legendary-heli-pilot-dave-brolin/

 

Life in this part of my world has returned to our version of normal.  The excitement of “Mom’s home!” wore off in about 8 minutes and the sensation that I had never actually left set in about a hour after getting home.

Here’s a few random shots of what life holds for me these days.  It’s pretty simple: kids (weee!) /kitchen duty (ugh) /getting back to training (ow…)/catching up on life.  I will be posting a longer and more detailed update soon…  There’s lots of other stuff going on that I just don’t feel like writing about.

In no particular order:

In the meantime, I am pondering what my next adventure should be.  I have a few ideas… but I’m open to suggestions!

 

It’s 6:15am, I’ve been up for about 45 minutes…  It’s dark outside, snowing and I am staring at a pile of kids’ ski stuff and unwrapped Christmas presents.  If it weren’t for the jet lag, it would be hard for me to believe that 4 days ago I was wrapping up our final day at the Hamad Aquatic Centre and packing up to leave the Middle East after 6 incredible weeks.

It’s hard to even process the whole experience right now.  I left in such a rush, traveled for 24 hours and arrive home to full blown Christmas chaos that I haven’t really had the time to sit and appreciate what just happened!  As thrilled and excited I was to get home and see my family and friends, I was equally sad to leave the friends who essentially became my family while I was away.  Summer camp is over!

The final days in venue were very successful.  It was a pleasure to work in a venue with people who were passionate about their jobs and had a vested interest in seeing the event succeed.  It was great to hear the cheers of the Tunisian fans (deafening at times!) and watch the star of the Games, Oussama Mellouli capture 14 medals.  In fact, there was one night during which we planned our entire ceremonies schedule around his race schedule!  I could not have asked for a better way to finish off my experience at the Arab Games.

My final hours in Doha were spent saying goodbye to my team of medal and flower bearers and escorts, whom I will miss dearly.  Doing something I never thought I’d do and will never, ever do again (more on that later).  Racing back to the hotel, packing.  Grabbing a final beer and saying another round of goodbyes to the Auditoire team at the wrap party.  Heading to the airport for a 2am flight.

As I headed to the airport, I could feel the adrenaline leaving me and the fatigue settling in… as expected, it was a very long trip home – during which I had an incredibly difficult time staying awake, never mind trying to focus on any one thing!  I had a layover in Germany and had the very odd sensation of feeling out of place in a Western environment, and missing the sound of Arabic…

Things I won’t miss?  The Marriot food.  Air conditioning.  Traffic.  Hermetically sealed rooms.  The ring tone of all the Auditoire phones.  Weird elevator lady.  People asking me if they could have a medal.  Champions.  Cigarettes.  The fact that after 6 weeks, I still couldn’t figure out the layout of the city.

Things I will miss?  The people and friends I made.  The souq.  Morning runs on the Corniche.  My roommate.  The daily recaps and catch-ups.  The experience.

Time now to settle back into daily life and enjoy my family for a while!

 

The locals kicked off their celebrations in earnest last night by causing traffic jams and abandoning their weirdly decorated vehicles in the middle of 4 lane roads.  Throw in some silly string, shaving cream and some flags and you have yourselves a party.

This was the scene outside the hotel at 2am.  None of these cars were moving, engines were being revved and backfired and drivers were just generally being obnoxious.  I did, however, note the lack of women present in these “celebrations”…

After getting a bit of much needed rest (thank you, black and white party) we got up early to check out the Qatar Day Parade.  It pretty much consisted in a show of military strength and not much else.  Horses, camels and tanks.  What more do you want?

 

Things have gotten slightly batty here lately, hence the lack of posts.  I tend to end most days in a mild state of disbelief, fatigue and usually with a major case of the giggles.  It’s all good!  What follows will no doubt make little sense and be completely disjointed, but it’s all par for the course here at the 2011 Arab Games.

It’s a bit hard for me to put into words what the experience here has been like.  I suppose it could be summed up by saying this: if you can’t be flexible here, you might as well pack your bags and get out.  Every day we get thrown curve balls but it hasn’t phased me all that much.  I am enjoying the challenge of trying to keep ahead of the changes and thankfully my sense of humour remains intact.  If anything, I find things are getting funnier and more ridiculous by the day.  As much as I am really looking forward to rejoining my family and life at home (9 days – woo!) I am having a good time.  It helps that I am surrounded by incredible people and I am thankful for that every day.  I can’t say enough good things about our crew here.  Despite the frustrations, chaos and weird organization, I have made some lifelong friends and colleagues, rekindled old relationships and have laughed harder here than I had thought possible.  It’s an honour and privilege to work with such an experienced and talented bunch and hope to have the opportunity to do so again some day.

There are so many things and stories that have happened here that are not “fit to print”.  You’ll just have to wait till I can sit down over a glass of wine so I can fill you in!  Believe me when I say it would all be worth it.

The Games officially kicked off a few nights ago with an opening ceremony that, unsurprisingly, started about 45 minutes late.  It was entertaining nonetheless and I’m happy to have attended. Falcons, horses, LED lights oh my!  Produced by David Atkins, the ceremony held quite a few touches reminiscent of Vancouver 2010.  Except for, you know, the camels.  And machine guns as part of the “traditional dance”.

The events themselves are running fairly smoothly despite low attendance (and by low attendance I mean 8 people at the tennis final.  I believe the spectators were all related to the players). Organizers have now made all the events free access which will hopefully encourage some people to visit us!  It’s a little weird doing a ceremony and all this production for an empty stadium.  Despite this, our team is still delivering such quality work that it still makes it fun to do.  I kind of think of it as practice for next time!

I thought it would be interesting to compare and contrast this experience in Doha to my international experience in Vancouver.  A few examples… First, Podiums.  In Vancouver, these were hand made from wood imported from across the country, a top secret design unveiled during press conference.  Stored under lock and key in venues.  In Doha, they are spray painted plywood, branded 2 hours prior to ceremony.  Stored under some stairs!

And how about Medals?  In Vancouver, they were made at the Canadian Mint in Ottawa, engraved per event, hand packed and counted by management, delivered by armored vehicle, handled with white cotton gloves…  In Doha, although they were made at the Qatari Mint, they were delivered in the back of an unlocked pickup truck!

Let’s chat about schedules…  in Vancouver, competition management sets the timetable months in advance.  Precise to the minute.  Changes require major involvement from all departments.  Doha sport management enjoys changes at a moments notice!   2 days of official competition squished into 1 morning on 12 hours notice!

Finally, Medal Presenters.  In Vancouver, we received a book weeks in advance listing all possible presenters, including their titles, contact info, photo.  They were selected well in advance of ceremonies, we had plenty of time to meet and brief, they were honoured to be part of the event.  Doha?: No lists, names scribbled on napkins seconds before ceremonies, Arabic names being mangled by me into a headset to my producer.  But somehow we pull it off!  Oh – and they get super special parking.  The list can go on and on…  but I’ll save it.  These aren’t criticisms or complaints, just mere observations at how different it is here!

Oh wait – one more.  Beer.  Vancouver: Plentiful.  (though I was pregnant).  Doha: Expensive and a bit awful.

A few random stories about the past few days…

Tickets?

I went to buy tickets for the Opening Ceremonies at the kiosk in the mall.  Met a character named Hamid who told me they could no longer sell tickets.  I asked why – were they sold out?  Nope.  They just were told not to sell any more.  BUT!  Hamid took my number, said he was working the door, he’d call me and get me in.  And low and behold, he did just that, calling the day of the opening, delivering tickets to my hotel and calling later to make sure I got in!

A smile gets you anywhere

At the Opening our “VIP” tickets had us sitting behind the stage – so poor visibility for the show.  We got up, walked clear across the stadium and somehow talked our way into the media section.  I hadn’t brought my accreditation (rookie!) but I smiled, Dave kindly introduced me as his boss when we were stopped by security – and voila!  Access granted.

Flashmob

The worst kept secret in Doha, our Flashmob almost didn’t happen!  We were meant to do it on the 8^th but technical difficulties meant we couldn’t do it (no one tested the giant speaker that was wheeled into the mall in a shopping cart).  Nonetheless we ended up doing it in the bar that night and got it done – with great success I might add! – the following night.  I didn’t dance but had a great time filming it and then bolting from the scene.

check it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phb8UX-iV3Y&context=C24e26ADOEgsToPDskLh34YMNUSmwIYlmO6ZW6Hn

Bodybuilding

By far the weirdest experience so far has to have been working at the bodybuilding venue.  Although it’s not my venue per se I’ve been helping out there when I can.  The Federation there pretty much does whatever the hell they want and we just kind of adapt and go with the flow.  Those people are some freaky looking dudes…  the fact that they were greasing each other up, smoking and eating baby food in the back of house did nothing to improve my opinion of the “sport”.  It was eye-opening to say the least…

I can come up with about a zillion more little episodes like this but should get back to it… and I don’t like how disjointedly crazy this is all making me sound anyhow!  I think it’s going to take me a little bit of time to take a bit of a step back and get a better perspective on what this has all really been like.

9 days!

When I arrived in Doha, I had a pretty firm (uneducated) notion in my head of how I should behave, speak, act, etc – particularly around men.  I was told that things are done very differently here, relationships are not what they are in Canada.

From day 1, I did what I thought was expected of me.  My first 10 days of work here I was quieter, meeker and much more deferential around my Arab counter-parts than I would normally be around colleagues.  And guess what?  I was getting nothing done.  People were ignoring my requests, talking around or over me, addressing my male colleague when I had asked the question.

So I gave up.

I went back to being my normal self, treating everyone as equals and throwing high-fives all over.  You guessed it: my old self is killing it.  Everyone is helping me whenever they can, I’m catching rides home from venues with Mr. Abdullah, Mr. Mohammed calls and checks in nightly and Mr. Vikram bends over backwards to fix my podiums on the spot.

See?  Canadian friendliness is UNIVERSAL!  HIGH FIVE!

On another note, we successfully completed rehearsal number 1.  Really looking forward to the real thing!

I walk to one of my venues as it’s faster to walk than drive.  I have seen a grand total of 1 other pedestrian and 1 cyclist with a death wish on my last 4 walks there.  I shot this little video which should illustrate why jay walking here is dumb.

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

Look both ways, kids!

When I first got here and was about 8 days into this contract, I was whining to my colleagues that I was missing home because work wasn’t keeping me busy enough.  Well.

Didn’t that little comment come back and kick me in the ass!  Of course I still miss my family and home, but now I am generally doing so whilst trying to decide which of the 3 places I have to be in at once will actually get my physical presence!  It doesn’t help that it takes about 45 minutes to get from point A to point B, regardless of where those points may be on a map!

I am not complaining about being busy – in fact, I quite prefer it – but the frantic pace and disorganization that seems to trickle down from the organizing committee is both comical and frustrating.  Luckily, our team of contractors is an amazing group of international talent who don’t seem to get phased by much and is generally able to roll our collective eyes at the ridiculous requests and changes that crop up hourly.  The fact that we can procure wildly overpriced beer in our hotel bar at the end of the day helps, too.

For the last 3 days we’ve been assembling and training our teams of medal bearers and escorts.  When these people first arrived on day 1, I had very little faith that we’d be able to pull this together.  Cast members (as we call them) were recruited by a temp agency and sent to us with no screening.  99% of them had no idea what they had signed up for.  Let’s just say that the woman running the show on their end has a management style that differs wildly in my own and we ended up losing several cast members in the first hour.  To be perfectly honest, if someone treated me the way she treated them, I’d be the first one out the door.  Anyhow…

Miraculously, by the end of the first night, we’d managed to not only build 11 separate teams but they were all able to execute some pretty decent ceremony run-throughs.  I was  astounded and pleasantly surprised.  Even more so when they all showed up for day 2!  I suppose the real test will be to see how many show up for in-venue rehearsals in a few days.  I am finding that bribing them with chocolate and promising mobile phone breaks seems to work wonders as these kids simply cannot function unless they are texting at the same time as they are doing something else.  If you are looking for your next business venture, I think thumb physiotherapists could make a mint here.

I’ll be interested to see whether our military partners come through as our flag bearers.  Lucky me, my flag supervisor at my venues doesn’t speak a word of English.  When I asked him – via translator – if he enjoyed being part of this and doing ceremonial flag stuff, he deadpanned: “No.”  Ok then!  Look forward to working with you, sunshine!

A few random thoughts… Since our “hotel home” is so western and I am surrounded by 98375 other nationalities, I sometimes forget I am in the Middle East.  That is, until we were told that the Sheikh (don’t ask me which one, this country has a few) was introduced during a venue tour to a woman in a v-neck t-shirt.  She was given 24 hours to vacate her job.  So!  I never leave home without a scarf.  Just one of those little cultural differences I sometimes forget…  On the flip side, I was standing curbside waiting for my shuttle when one of the Qatari venue managers spotted me.  He wandered over and asked what I was doing.  I replied that I was waiting for my bus.  His response: “No.  I do not like you waiting.  Get in my car, I will drive you”.  And so, one quick Cadillac Escalade ride later, I was deposited on my doorstep by Mr. Abudullah Abdullah.

The next few days will be interesting and yes, busy.  Rehearsals, deliveries, training, start of competition…  provided we can get a start list… The competition manager is still waiting for confirmation as to which countries and players are coming.  The tournament starts in 4 days.  Fun times and long days ahead!