Stoked!!!!

Ok so as you can imagine the winter olympics dont recieve heaps of attention here in Australia.... or so one would think. But I must say I was impressed by this years coverage.

Since Sophie and I are living WAAYYYYY out in the middle of nowhere, we dont have access to basic cable tv as I had back in Canada. We have a total of 2.5 channels (I say .5 because the one channel is pretty fuzzy and you're lucky to get reception half of the time.....yes I said "reception" we roll old school, rabbit ears propped up on the window ledge....the way to have it!). Of these 2.5 channels we get WIN, GWN, and some of ABC (the australian equivalent of the BBC). Now WIN got the rights to the winter games, something I was very excited about because WIN is out clearest channel!

The games were well covered considering I didnt have pay tv and I'm living in the Outback. Coverage included highlights from the days events and medal ceremonies. One thing I didnt count on was coverage of the mens or womens ice hockey. However, WIN didnt dissapoint. I was (reluctantly) able to watch the Canadian mens team lose 5-3 to the Americans and breeze by Germany in the preliminary matches, as well as catch the quarter, semi, and gold medal games in full. This was something I wasn't expecting. The reason for this is this: Australia doesn't do hockey as Canada does. They don't even call it "Hockey", for "Hockey" as they know it is what Canadians would call "Field Hockey". Here it's known as "Ice Hockey". Now this would be obvious as their most popular sport is either cricket or Australian Football (a great game if you get a chance to watch it, much faster than American Football (0r "Gridiron" as they call it) with less protective equipment) depending on the time of year. But this winter games the Aussies (or the network) embraced it. Covering every game Canada played in full. Albeit the games were on at 9 am and they broadcasted the 3rd and overtime periods of the gold medal game first (because it was still live) and then proceeded to show the full game again immediately after that, at least they were "on".

So lucky for me I had the day off on monday since it was Labour Day (we are at the end of Summer, while Canada is at the end of winter). I got up early (monday morning in Western Australia is sunday night in Vancouver) and was able to watch the 3rd and overtime frames and then watch the whole game again!

I will be honest and say it wasnt the same. I would rather have been at home watching the game with my family, or at the pub watching the game with my second (a close second mind you) family, my best mates. I didn't have any Molson Canadian, I didnt have any Tim Hortons coffee, and there wasn't any snow (Vancouver didn't have any either), but there was the game, and for a couple hours I was back home.

Here's a photo of my post game celerbration. Yes that's me raving like an idiot and yes I was sober, but also proud. I think the reason was that I was the only proud one around. I know of only one other Canadian that lives in Newman. And I take great pride in the fact that when we see each other and "talk hockey" no one around us has a clue what we're on about.

Way to go Canada.