15th and 16th of Feb - sleeping on a yacht, and curling

I woke up actually quite early, in spite of the late night before. The credit card was playing on my mind, and I was also wondering who I had kept awake with my talking on the phone in the lobby of the main Manor house.

I had been asked to call mastercard back to get confirmation of the credit card replacement, and planned to do this after breakfast.

The previous day, I had spoken to Jason in the kitchen about maybe getting some pancakes for breakfast. He seemed reluctant, indicating that if he did them for me others would then want them. He said he could, since it was my last day and he didn't want to disappoint. I thought this was good of him, so when I came down he said to me  a knowing "Ah, yes...." I played along and didn't say anything. He waited for the kitchen to empty - we get all of our breakfast items in the kitchen - before making them. I think  he doesn't do them as much because it is slow. He can only make one at a time, and typically you want two or three depending on how big. With an omelette you'd only need one from one pan.

They were really good, with syrup of course and whipped butter.

I had a light lunch, and then packed and phoned mastercard. They eventually gave me a day for delivery but would need to contact me. There was an issue with my aunt and uncle's Dockside address - it was their post office address with a box, to which UPS would not deliver. Numerous phone calls later, and I had their actual street address. Problems solved, I said my goodbyes to the manager David at the Manor house to make my way across the city and down to the Tsawassen Ferry Terminal to start my stay on Vancouver island. On one ticket, I was able to go all the way to the teminal. It was a two zone pass instead of the cheaper one zone pass most people buy. I had bought the pack of ten of them at the airport on arrival, and although I was always using them usually within one zone, they came in handy today.

I took the Canada line to Bridgeport station, where I had to wait for my bus to the terminal.

I needed the washrooms, and the guy told me to go into the Casino of all places to take a leak. As I walked through the various walkways and ramps, I heard Bill Cosby endorsing the casino company: "Hi, I'm Bill Cosby. When I'm not out gambling at River Rock and winning lots of money, I like to go into the foyer and ride the escalator up and down". What was Bill Cosby doing endorsing gambling in this way? All manner of celebrities clearly decided they had to join him.

It was an odyssey finding the toilets, sent on a wild goose chase past numerous receptions and gambling machines before I could go.

The bus that took us to the teminal was clean and was a bendy bus. It stopped at numerous places - I later learned of an express bus that doesn't stop and takes half the time.

The Ferry terminal itself is quite extensive. I had to take a moment to figure out where I was going, and used the automated ticket machines to buy my ticket with my now only piece of plastic - my debit card. Fortunately I would be able to keep track of how much money was in my account by getting a combination number for the account from Liz, who would press the button on my behalf in the UK and tell me the number.

I had a long wait for the ferry. Once it came, people piled into a long bridge to board. I wondered how well the bridge was built to take this many people because they wereseveral deep all along the length. I got on without a hitch, and was suprised to find it was actually quite a big ship. There were shops, restaurants and a private lounge where you could pay $10 and get a leather reclining seat and as much drinks and snacks as you please. I headed in there, and it was also very quiet and relaxing. BC Ferries had a selection of Banana loaf, flapjacks, nuts and various teas, hot choc, coffees and cheese/biscuits. There was also yoghurt and newspapers/magazines. I later learned it varied throughout the day.

I had tried to sell my curling tickets earlier in the day in order to not have to take this ferry at an ungodly hour of the morning to make the 9am session in the center of Vancouver. I was of course unsuccessful - everyone I spoke to seemed to already have tickets - so I chatted to the guy behind the tea urns about getting to the mainland. He said there'd only be a 7am sailing, altough there was a 2am sailing as well. Great! I could sleep in the streets near the curling center.

The journey on the ferry passed through some beautiful parts of the islets around Vancouver island. The ship maneuvered in and around these islands and the journey was very pleasant. The ship was called the Queen of New Minster, and appeared to be an old ship refitted. Indeed, I came across the plaque commemorating this as I exited the ship.

On entering the arrivals area of the Swartz Bay terminal (essentially half an hour from Victoria), I phoned uncle Dennett and he came in his sporty car with the mechanical roof to pick me up.

I had a scenic ride up to their place, where they live in a house boat on the water of Fishermans Wharf, a small collection of such homes. They also have a Mainship 400 that I would be sleeping in. It is basically a yacht - a gin palace, if one was so inclined. So to add to my experiences, I have now slept in a yacht.

I got up relatively late and banged my head on the protrusion above the bed. I filled the toilet with water and had to hunch low to see my teeth in the mirror. The shower was good, but the hot water ran out after a small while.

We got out early and made the ferry without 15 minutes to spare. I got to the curling venue with an hour nearly having passed of the heat, and I eventually found my seat after buying a curling tshirt and pin.

I wanted some food, but saved myself for the lunch I was intending to have afterwards.

I was sat in the audience next to a lady from england and I also had a real curling fan who knew his stuff sitting in the row in front. I noticed the lady had a nice camera, and I asked her where she was from and whether she knew the rules of curling. She replied "No", which flabbergasted me since she was sitting in what the older guy said were some of the best seats in the house (and highest prices - but you could see all of the ice sheets, and thus every match) so I started to explain to her what little I knew. We then got the chap involved, and he patiently answered our questions.

Curling is very tactical. There are 4 players per side: lead, second, third and the skipper. They each take two stones in turn based competition with the opposite side, and in the order listed - so skip shoots last. The game is split into 10 ends, and the objective is to have your stones as close to the center of the house as possible in order to win points. The house is a series of 3 concentric circles, 12 foot, 8 foot and 4 foot. The very center is called the button. The first two stones put out are called guardstones if they don't enter the house, and cannot be peeled off until after the 4th stone has been played. The team to shoot last in an end are said to "have the hammer", meaning they have last stone. The hammer is a position of dominance, but a team loses the hammer in the next end if they win the current end. One wins an end by having N stones closer to the button than your opponents nearest-to-center rock; when this happens, a team scores N points for the end. A team may choose to blank an end if they have hammer in order to keep hammer for the final end; blanking an end is hard, and can only usually be done if the opponents first rocks both enter the house - these rocks can be peeled off, leading to a blanked end. This allows them to have the dominant hammer position if they need it in order to have last rock in the final end, and this is especially good if you are tied going into the 10th.

With all of this in mind, Norway took Canada to a nail biting finish on the 16th of Feb. Canada have the best Curler in the world called Kevin Martin, and as the intensity built up and Canada drew with Norway coming out of the 10th end, it forced an 11th end. A log jam of stones both in guard and around the button forced Martin to perform a god shot on the hammer stone in the 11th end to raise the audience in stupefaction from their seats, as the most closely watched piece of granite did what is called in curling "drawing into the button", meaning he negotiated a chicane of stones and sailed it past all others to sit closer to the center than any other stone on the ice with no stones left to play. He sure played it well, and as everyone was on their feet watching it a sort of "yes, yeS, yES, YES - COME ON WWWWAAAAYYYYYY" erupted in the stadium and the roof I'm sure lifted a few inches. Canadians are fierce curling fanatics and the exhuberance and excitement were enough to make you palpitate. Canada winning on Canadian soil is, as I've said before, a great thing for a Canadian to experience. And done in such a way makes it all the more sweet.

The match ended on a high, and I exited feeling happy to have seen a master at work. It was now time for lunch, and I went into Queen Elizabeth Park in search of a gem I had found on the internet - the Seasons In the Park restaurant.

It sits atop an overhang in the park overlooking the trees to the city and mountains beyond. I went in, checked in my coat and bag, and headed to what must be one of the best tables in the whole place on the left with excellent views of the city and mountains. I ordered just a starter and explained I would maybe eat another if I wasn't full. The service was friendly and excellent, and very prompt. I had asked the girl what she recommended and she suggested the Dungenness Crab cakes. I went with this, and it was actually one cake. Quite large, with an amazing salad of fork sized pea shoots in a dressing that complimented the cake perfectly. There was a balsamic glaze and it was just heavenly.

I decided to order a second starter, and I was treated to the most delightful salad. It was simply their Mixed green salad. It contained the salad leaves in an awesome maple syrup vinaigrette, with candied almonds, strawberries and a very granular but smooth softened goats cheeses. The mixture of very simple flavours and textures made this the best salad I had ever experienced. The crunch of the sweetened salty almonds, the tangy silkyness of the goats cheese crumbled over and spread around, the unctiousness of the strawberries and the sweet and piquant vinaigrette cobined effortlessly and each complimented the other perfectly. Every mouthful was taken of the fresh salad with as many of the ingredients together as possible. Incredible.

I toyed with staying in the city longer, but needed to get unpacked and relax while I have some free time.

I journeyed back by ferry, in the private lounge again.

For a curling match I had tried to get rid of the day before, I was sure blessed with an experience I won't forget in a hurry. I got therlate, and it all really hinged on Kevin Martin's hammer rock in the 11th. Some great things do happen if you are patient and persistent, even if you are late with it. I had a great time in the space of a small amount of time, and I had journed 7 hours round trip for the priviledge.