Granny in Goal

I am ashamed to say that apart from the five minute trip to the grocery store early (ish) this morning, I didn't leave the apartment until almost five o'clock. Lazy. Majorly lazy. I was semi-productive but still... was starting to feel blah and bored so I went for a walk. The past few days have been colder and windy, and today I had to don my winter coat and toque to stay warm in this spring tempest that is hopefully just passing through. Anyways, there are always kids playing hockey out in the atrium area between four or five massive apartment blocks, and today... somebody's Grandma was playing too. I'd say she was at least in her mid-seventies... and had obviously played in goal before. I slowed down to watch, and wished that I had the camera to catch Granny in goal on film.

So the guys lost their game on Saturday - it wasn't their best show. I'm pretty sure that a lot of them/most of them/all of them don't really care that much anymore - they acheived the goal of staying in the first division, and at this point in the season everyone just wants it to be over. Sooooo, after the game we picked up some pizza, played some drinking games - okay only one drinking game - kopecks (we pronounce it incorrectly - "kopeeks"), that involves bouncing a 10 kopeck coin off of the table and into a bottle cap and then passing it to the next person (the bottlecap - you keep your kopeck), and trying to catch someone with all of the bottle caps piled up in front of them. It's our own Russian invention... very fun. I'd say try it at home but you might not have any kopecks, ha! Just kidding. It was pretty late by the time we made our way to the Summit Club where there was a SPACE SHOW in honour of Yuri and Cosmonaut's Day/Yuri's Night. There were people (that worked for the club) dressed in elaborate cosmonaut suits walking around and these massive, probably eight-foot tall aluminum-ish aliens with long aluminum-tube arms flailing and huge shiny heads with feelers and bulgy eyes up on stage... it was a little scary and VERY impressive. At one point, two guys dressed in red military outfits, all decked out with medals and colours, came out and started breaking it down with the aliens and cosmonauts - I figured that they must be Yuris in plainclothes... or sans cosmo-suits, in regular military garb. It was quite the show. As usual, the smoke and the non-stop techno beats got old before the place shut down, and Steve and I caught a cab home at around 5:30... late. Or early. Too early. Yesterday was a bit of a write off. Neither of us drank enough to warrant a hangover, and we both wondered how much of the gross, blech feeling was related to the smoke... Not that the vodka or the lack of sleep helped but ... ???


Anyways, the team left today for their last game on their last road trip. Neither Steve nor Freddy were excited about making the brutal trip that involves a four hour bus ride to Moscow and then an overnight train (ancient, rickety overnight train apparently) to Kazan, to play a game that won't change their place in the standings - it means nothing.


The flag of Kazan - the capital city of the Republic of Tatarstan

So! This means that we can start to think about planning our trip home... yay! It's been great being here and learning about Russia and everything (I'll probably elaborate later) but we're both really excited to get back home to Canada. I'm really looking forward to seeing family and friends, being busy and productive and.... eating SALAD! This makes me laugh but it's true. Yum, salad. (We went a'looking yesterday and couldn't find any lettuce - not even at the el grande supermarket, grrr...) However, even though we know that the team is finished and that Steve is free to go after the last game on the Wednesday, we have to wait around to hear about financial matters. Unfortunately, professional volleyball isn't one of those jobs that guarantees an on-time, regular paycheck... and the athlete is always fed a plateful of rhetoric (usually excuses) about sponsors being late and new sponsors signing (next week... it's always next week here) and blah blah blah. So... we have to sift through that and hope for an answer that will allow us to bump our flights up. I'll have to come up with a new title for the blog... because I'll keep writing but need something that I won't have to change every few weeks or months depending on where I find myself. If I lose myself. Ha. To finish.... here's a historical headline that has nothing to do with anything that I've written about today.


Today's Canadian Headline...

1912

TITANIC RADIOS FOR HELP

Cape Race, Newfoundland -Two young wireless radio operators, Robert Hunston and James Goodwin, hear the first distress call from the luxury liner RMS Titanic, en route to New York south of the Grand Banks. An iceberg has grazed the ship's side, popping iron rivets and shearing off a fatal number of hull plates below the waterline.


10:25 pm: According to Hunston's first entry in the log, Goodwin "hears the Titanic calling C.Q.D. [Come Quickly, Danger - the precursor to S.O.S.], giving position."
10:35 pm: Titanic calls that they have moved five or six miles and "Have struck iceberg."
10:40 pm: They hear Titanic call the nearest ship, the Carpathia, saying "We require immediate assistance."
10:58 pm: They hear the terrible news: "Have struck iceberg and sinking."
11:36 pm: They hear another ship, the Olympic, asking the Titanic where it is steering; Titanic replies "We are putting women off in boats."