Lamaze GOLD! Live in Hong Kong!

Eric Lamaze has just won Canada's third gold medal of the Beijing Olympic Games!

In Hong Kong!

Not only did he win the gold, but he did it on his final jump, competed in a jump off showdown with the favored Swede, and all this under the T3 Typhoon warning signal! How good is that!?

Visitors have said the horse jumping venue was great, but it's being torn down as it was only temporary. A good thing too, as one of the strongest typhoons since 1999 is approaching to rip everything to shreds!

Good job Eric!

p.s. I still think horse jumping is a lame Olympic event...

Worst Commentary EVER!

Last night was the highly anticipate match between USA and China in men's basketball. Of course the US went on to totally smash China in a pretty lazy effort. I wonder if anyone will really challenge them this year.

Anyway, the best/worst part of the game was the garbage spewing from the mouths of the two Pearl TV commentators. (Pearl TV is one of HK's local channels) It's kind of hard to describe, it's one of those 'you had to be there' moments. The commentary was so bad, I can't give it justice by bitching about it. It sucked. It blooooowed. It was garbage. Total waste of breath...etc...etc...etc.

I can't believe these guys are actually being paid to talk. They should be paid to shut up. Two drunken Aussies in Wan Chai would do a better job than those two did last night. If was GAAAAAAAAAWD AWFUL!

They were much worse in the moment, but here are some zingers from last night,

"There's something about Carmello Anthony...he just makes me...uncomfortable." Thanks for letting us know you racist.

"You know why, it's physcological, he looks a lot like Alan Iverson." So you think he's a goon also, thanks for letting us know you racist.

"I wish they wouldn't have so many tatoos." Thanks for letting us know you racist.

"Chris Wade plays for Miami, he is also from there." It's Dwayne Wade, and he's not from Miami.

"Yao Ming looks like he sprained his foot. Yup he's hurt his foot. I think he's hurt his foot." Um, why is he walking perfectly fine then.

There's so much more I can't go on, it makes me angry/laugh too hard. The fact Pearl TV cut out numerous bits of the game because they were late getting back from commercial also didn't help. Next game I think I will watch on the Chinese channel.

Ya, it was THAT bad!

Macau Rugby 10's - The Mud Bowl

It's Hockey Season!

Hmm, somewhat hard to believe it's still hockey season when the thermometer reads +30. There is only one Canadian team left playing for The Cup, but I'm pretty sure it has less Canadian players on it than others. In any regard, I will never cheer for a hockey team from a city that never gets snow. Go Canadiens!

In this time of puck slapping, I remember my favorite chant from a hockey crowd. It occurred at the World Junior Hockey Championships in North Dakota, USA. I stress, it was in the USA. Team Canada was playing Team USA in the final, gold medal game. With the Canadian team winning, and the USA team skating up ice with the puck, the crowd was chanting,

"OVER RATED!"

Only a bunch of Winnipeggers would have the nerve. The chant of "US SUCKS!" during the American anthem in Vancouver also ranks pretty high-up (although pretty classless).

Bangkok 'Rugby'

Backtracking a little here, I haven't reported on the events from Bangkok back in February.

I was in BK for 4 days with my rugby team, The Typhoons, posing as Mockingbirds under our touring name. I think it's a means of covering up our identity so charges can't be laid upon our return to the Big Lychee. Not that anything out of the ordinary happened...

This tour was all about 'rugby' ... ahem.... I said rugby... We arrived late Thursday night the last weekend of February. Getting to the hotel at 1am sure didn't mean we were going to sleep. We found a club close to our hotel and partied a good part of the morning. Friday wasn't a play day so we didn't need any energy for hitting and smashing the opposition. The majority of the 'birds slept till noon, then it was off to go-carting. Lucky us, it was indoors! The weather was about +30 during the day, not ideal for playing rugby. The indoor track was quite well done. The cars were fast, the track was a decent length with at least 6 turns, and it was dirt cheap for 10 minutes of racing. I managed to break the steering column on my cart the first time out and brilliant Thai design meant that I almost blew myself up by cutting the gas line. The 2nd race was much safer, and my car did not falter.

Friday night was the opening party for all the teams competing in the rugby on the weekend. It was also a chance for us to get a look at who would be dishing out the pain. The tournament was apparently of a higher standard than what we are used to, with such players as the ex-captain of South Africa suiting up for once team. So much for the winning part of the weekend. With our new found realization that we were probably going to get pounded anyway, the 'birds went out to all hours again around various parts of Bangkok.

The Bangkok International Rugby 10s (aka Slaughtering of the 'Birds) commenced sometime in the morning, and I think we made it on time for our first game. It just happened to be against the New Zealand Legends. I think we touched the ball, or at least made a lunge at it once or twice. Final score was 5000-something to nothing. The rest of the weekend we played 4 more games, and no, we didn't win any of them. None of us cared much as were has consumed more beer than air. We did however manage to score once.

MLB Christmas

Thunder Rapids - China Style

These couple of pictures are from my staff trip to Zhuhai back in October. We went go-carting to start, and it was quite fun. The track was fairly long and the safety level was low, so you could do pretty much anything you wanted, which I enjoyed after 4 years of stupid 'rules and regulations' in Canada (at Thunder Rapids where I used to work).

The second photo is of Holly, who went around the track at a blistering pace of about 2 km per hour.

Bribing the Ref...

...is what the Police must have done.

We started off out match well against the fat old bastards, but couldn't score due to the referee denying about 4 trys we scored. By half time we should have been ahead well in control but I think it was tied. Either way it was nice to see us dominating most parts of the game. But the one thing we were not dominating in was bribes and payouts to the ref. He was absolute rubbish, horse turds, disgraceful even.

The end to the game was the best part. We were ahead 17-12 with the clock ticking away rather slowly. Very very very rather slowly. 3 minutes left turned into I think 15. Everyone on the pitch heard the referee's timer go to end the game, which usually means when the ball goes out or no one is attacking or the ball changes possession in a neutral area the game is blown over. Not in this case. We kicked the ball out twice I believe, the ball changes possession at least twice, still no whistle. The bench was erupting in calls for the refs head.

To make a long painful awful display of 'reffing' short, he didn't blow the game over until about 2 hours later, and by then the Fat Piggies had scored and converted to go up 2 points. Less than 2 seconds after they kicked the winning points the ref blew the whistle. People have been beaten and mauled for less.

Anyway, here are a few excerpts from the club chairman Sir Chris Roberts.

"The start of the game was evenly matched and we had some good phases of possession taking the ball forward. Despite giving away a small water buffalo, a couple of rhino and a mouse in the scrum we were holding reasonably well, until Scott glass neck head butted the floor. Scott was subbed for Tom who lasted until the next scrum and managed to pop his shoulder."

"The defence was good all game, we had either the charging elephant attack or some good lines and runs from their backs. Each was usually brought down in short order."

"A lot of effort was put in during the first half, with players looking out on their feet. Luckily police were in a similar state and were also carrying round walrus blubber overcoats as well, something we tend not to have as a team with the exception of Pavroti Clarke, who is quite frankly a fat freak of nature."

"Half time speeches and a spittle drenching were supplied from Captain Claudio. The Latin American aggression was evident in all of Claudio's speeches. The liberal use of the "F" word with that accent and a lot of talk of unspeakable things to the oppositions back door.. It has been suggested that the speeches of Mrs Thatcher should be consulted for his inspirational and motivational drive to players, rather than five minutes on smashing the back doors off male opponents. "No, No, no, the scrum is not for turning" has a much better ring to it than "eh you stinking bendecco, I iz feck yo mother and ave your father". Through all the spittle and sweat it is good to see the passion."

Game On! - HKRugby Season Starts

Yes the picture to the left is an x-ray. I had it taken earlier this morning actually. Lucky for me that there is nothing broken (according to the doc today) but it is still in a bit of pain and hard to move. I can put a decent amount of pressure on it and slightly grasp things so it's most likely just a sprain.

As for luck we could have used some in the first game of the season. For any newcomers I play with the Rouse and Co. Causeway Bay Typhoons in the 3rd division of HK Rugby. It's nothing too serious (usually) and the games never end in brauls or anything crazy.

Our first game was against the DEA Tigers. They had just moved up from 4th division so we SHOULD have had no problem with them. This is Hong Kong though, and apparantly 3rd division means you can pull in ringers from the HK national team to boost your squad. We counted at least 3 or 4 HK Nats on the opposition. 3rd division? Give me an 'ffing break. Many clubs have complained about the lack of enforcing rules for who plays where etc. but it seems to still go on. So we were in for a tough game thats for sure.

The 1st half was absolute rubbish, so I won't talk about it.

To start the 2nd half we were all a bit pissed off about the # of 1st division and Nat players etc. and we showed up with a bit more attitude in the 2nd. I don't know what the score was, but we tied them in the 2nd half (maybe) so that's something we pretended to be proud of. One of our players was illegally tackled by one of there players, who just happens to be the centre for HK's National team. Our player hurt is hip and was taken off in an ambulance for xrays. Their player should have been kicked out of the game and fined by the HKRFU, but that'll never happen. I think he maybe got a yellow card. After the game the ref mentioned something about this player getting sited for the tackle so with a bit of wining from out side he may be suspended from his national team duties. This is Hong Kong though, and nothing fair ever really happens.

So we lost the game, but it was a good learning experience and playing against better players always makes you better. It's still a load of horse turds that national players are allowed to play in 3rd division games when everyone knows clearly who they are. I did manage to catch one of their better players with a high tackle round the neck and drive him into the ground without the ref seeing so I came away witha grin afterwards at least (and no broken hand!).