Back in Moscow

Well we just ended our tour and are back in Moscow, returning soon to Canada. Times were short on the tour and I wasn't able to blog at all.

St. Petersburg was the most beautiful city to date. Previously known as Leningrad, it was the former capital of Russia before Moscow.

Pictured is the Hermitage, one of the world's foremost museums with over 3 million art artifacts in their collection. Interestingly, during our 4 day stay in "Peter", several art pieces were stolen by Hermitage staff. One curator took his own life as police continued their investigation. Very KGBesque.

This square is where Lenin led the Bolsheviks to overthrown Tsar Nicholas II. The granite pillar in the center of the square is not in any way rooted into the ground. A bomb or two would be sure to send it tumbling.

St. Petersburg is also home to the Russian mosquito, an extremely aggressive breed rivalled only by their Saskatchewan cousins.

Peter was a very beautiful city but also racist towards non-whites. While we never encountered anything beyond the odd stare, we were told numerous times to be wary on our own in the evenings and in the subways. During our stay, 4 white skinheads were acquitted of beating a young black man to death, and the local minority organizations were furious though not surprised by the verdict. Most people were nice to us on the streets on the whole.

One of our tour guides described the Russian culture as one of contrasts - I'd have to agree.

da da Canada

We're in Russia now, home of the grumpy receptionists, indifferent salesmen, and large caucasian folks.

I was struck immediately by two things when I landed:

- fatigue from jetlag
- large caucasians and extremely rude customs officials, and indifferent service staff

Still, it's pretty neat being here. We're in Moscow and it's a huge sprawling city. The most noteworthy thing so far is the Kremlin and Red Square which is very historic and quite scenic but way too much walking. We need bikes except we'd be murdered on the streets by the drivers.

I seriously thought we might die on the taxi drive
from the airport to our hotel but we were saved by my fervent prayers to my God and the confident but highly illegal driving skills of our driver, Vadim. (At one point, I sucked in my breath audibly, to which Vadim responded, "Don't worry, when I do that, I close my eyes and just do it, it's no problem"). At times I wondered whether they keys to his taxi were not, in reality, the same keys he used to operate the rollercoaster in Gorky Park during his other day job, "Carnival Ride Attendant".

Turns out the travel company screwed up our reservation and we ended up at a hotel with no reservation. It was a poor way to start the trip after 16 hours on planes and in airports, but we found our way eventually so all was ok.

Da Da Canada!

3 innocents slaughtered outside our home

A few days ago, my cat set a new personal best and slaughtered 3 innocent mice outside our place.

Mouse 3 was the first to die by the paw. Mice 1 and 2 appeared the morning after, also by way of the feline. I discovered the mouse burial ground as soon as I stepped out the door and headed for church and was immediately met by a legion of flies, dutifully fulfilling their duty to waste away meat before the worms took their turn.

When I returned from church, I realized to my horror that Mouse 2 was still alive. It had a shallow breath though didn't move even when I poked it so I'm pretty sure it was unconscious. It also hadn't moved anywhere for several hours. I noticed also that mouse 1 was about 1/4 eaten, so part of its hind portion was exposed (and hence the reason the flies were already around). I will refrain from giving the gory details - suffice it to say that were it to recover miraculously in the hospital from its injuries, it would have been in a mouse wheelchair.

I was forced to put Mouse 2 out of its misery which I really hated to do but knew it was the right thing. I then cleaned up the carcasses and washed the concrete off.

When I went back into my place, the cat was sleeping peacefully on the bed. That's what you do after you slaughter 3 innocents.

My dragonboat team is a gigantic butterfly

I coach a dragonboat team, RGL United (Ridiculously Good Looking United). Last season, a buddy of mine on Team SUCCESS moved out east and was looking for a replacement for him so I started coaching RGL United about a year ago.

On the whole, it's been a very rewarding experience though there have been times I've wanted to pull my hair out and quit. The previous coach had done an excellent job of developing the team, and it made my job a lot easier to step in and take over. However, I saw this season as a real chance for me to put my stamp on the squad.

I've tried to get them to use their legs and backs much more effectively but it was slow in coming. I've been trying to work with them on their strength and flexibility to use the proper paddling muscles - a lot of new paddlers think the sport is mostly a 'back-pulling' exercise but this is definitely not true.

In any case, as I worked with them over the year, I've seen the team slowly gel together and convert from a large group of individual paddlers to a real team. I always felt that a good dragonboat team working together behaved more like an 'organic being' than a collection of individuals.

In the 2 weeks prior to the Alcan Dragonboat Festival, we'd been hammered in a tune-up regatta race. It revealed serious issues with our timing, individual technique, group technique ("blend"), race plan, race preparation, rate, and in my coaching. Race 1, in particular, was terrible as every single seat was rushing every single seat - the resulting caterpillar effect was actually quite pretty from an untrained eye's view, but from a coach's view, it looked similar to what my beloved Oilers must have felt staring at the Stanley Cup just after they lost in game 7 - it looks so pretty, but ultimately demoralizing. Having been humbled, I sat down that weekend and planned like mad for the next 2 weeks in an effort to try and pull everything together into something cohesive. I was a little worried and a little disappointed in myself honestly - not positive thoughts, but fear has always been a major motivator for me, and it definitely helped here. I devised a pretty detailed practice plan for the next 2 weeks. To my surprise (I admit), during these 2 weeks, the team came together as I addressed all the issues I'd identified in the regatta and saw the team transform.

I didn't realize until a few days before the Festival (ADBF) that the races would be done on a point system based on placement, but also on time. When I found out, I prepared the team for each of the first 2 races, so they knew we couldn't afford a poor race showing. It paid off, and the team responded very well with 2 - 2nd place finishes. We lucked out a bit too. If Hampton Woods didn't veer off course and have a caterpillar of their own, we'd be 3rd.

We didn't know when we'd race on Sunday because it depended on seedings. Our goal was to win Rec "A" this season. So...my buddy called me up on Saturday night and left a message saying we were in Comp C. I remember that when I heard the message, I started to jump up and down hysterically with my wife watching. I was so wild, I landed awkwardly on my ankle and I think slightly twisted it but didn't care.

It was cool phoning and telling everyone we'd made it in Comp. The reactions ranged from "Oh, ok see you tomorrow morning", to "YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH".

The next morning the euphoria had worn off a bit but I told the team we had another important race. Now that we were in Comp, I knew we were mostly outclassed. I viewed race 3 as a chance to see how the team reacted with a strange seating plan (people on the wrong sides and in different seats). We stuck to the same race plan though, and I saw some things on video to address. We finished last by a hair but I was confident we'd have a good showing in race 4 against teams of our calibre and with a few adjustments in mind.

Going into the final race, someone wrote down the times of the teams who'd be in our heat and showed it to me. I stared at the paper, and started to shake. I knew if we ran a good race, we had a chance to medal. Already, our season was a success because we were a division higher, but to win hardware would be the ultimate high. With the data in mind, I let the team know what to focus on and let them ready themselves. I was happy with their demeanour - light, relaxed, calm. I was confident they were prepared.

As they went to line up, I couldn't shake the feeling of nervousness. To make a long story short, the team execution the race plan perfectly. Our drummer did a great job, and the steersman took the shortest line possible. It was a heck of a race with all 9 teams finishing within 2 seconds of each other. I didn't know the outcome until someone went into the judging tent and asked about placement. When he told us they said, "2nd", I started jumping up and down and screaming. My memory is a little vague at this point, but I remember leaping onto my buddy and pumping my fist in the air, and hugging various people. I think a few of them were strangers, too. It was cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-DEUdsbIHI&mode=related&search



(We're in lane 1)

As we went to the team tent, I went with one of my paddlers to verify the times, so we went back to view the race results. I was so elated I couldn't see anything clearly, but he found the race sheet and saw the placing. Again, we started screaming and hugging each other and then headed back to the tent. My injured paddler, who in reality had a serious chest cold, called out for me and told me to slow down though, and I remember stopping and waiting in excitement.

When I announced the results to the team, they erupted in cheering.

I still get the giddy feeling as I sit here thinking about it. That caterpillar from race 1 in the regatta had become my butterfly.

:)

Quotable Quotes

"Don't trust anyone, even if they're oriental"

- Mother-in-law

Go Oilers

Oilers lost another game to the Canes. The Oilers have done well enough just to get this far, and they've really overachieved to get here.

The Canes are looking really awesome. They will be a force for years to come with Ward in net, and Staal & Cole running the show.

First Blog

I think everyone is supposed to have a first blog, right?