last romanian blog of '08!! to TO we go!

So the guys won a set in Holland (two actually, but one was all they needed), and won tonight... and without Steve! (In a French accent:) Impossible! He was inadvertently honoured with early Christmas holidays, and instead of dressing for the game tonight, sat in the stands wearing a fancy looking headset - so he could communicate with the on-the-bench assistant coach. I'm not so sure what they talked about but it couldn't have been shop - the other team was horrrrible. SO! It's Christmas holidays! We are packing up and getting ready to leave tomorrow afternoon for Bucharest. We fly early-early Monday morning, and land in Toronto around noon on Monday! Fingers crossed that all goes according to plan... from our ride to the BUCH to our final flight segment back to Canada. The past few days have been full of unnecessarily rude and thoughtless gestures, comments and actions from strangers and people we've trusted to follow through on their words and promises. I won't go into detail but here's a taste... Tammy's president and his entourage of secretaries promised that they would get the four of us to the airport (Tammy, Sherisa, Steve, Heather), and was almost insulted (acted that way at least) that Tammy wouldn't/didn't believe that they'd organized everything when she went into the office a few days ago to confirm. And then last night? What? We can't get you to the airport. No sorry, no nothing - really. She got a phone call while she was on a 10 hour bus ride from Constanta straight to a gym to practise in Targu Mures, a town on the other side of Romania. So, needless to say she was a bit peeved... but we've found something else - one of her teammates found two people to take us - a brother and a husband of a player, so it's all good. I hope!



We've been enjoying our tree and the Christmas decorations, and opened a few presents last night! Steve brought me back the most awesome gift from Holland - a pair of Dutch slipper-clogs... they're awesome! I've been wanting slippers for a while, and what's better than authentic clog slippers, eh? I got him a massive puzzle, and Tammy gave us some mugs with an assortment of hot chocolates and coffees, a bottle of wine and a massive box of Toffifees which are yum yum yum. Now it's down to business - packing, tidying up and getting all ready for departure time... I guess I should get back to work! Merry Christmas!!!