Sunday, February 28, 2010

Ann Arbour

Dawn, February 28th, Ann Arbour Michigan.
Looks cold huh?
I left Hong Kong what seems ages ago and it was a muggy 27 degrees Celsius with humidity hovering around 85%.
I went to bed yesterday at 5:30 pm after travelling roughly 22 hours to get here.
I got up at 5am.
The flight to the US stopped in Vancouver for a crew change and we were all herded into a transit lounge playing the last 4 minutes of Canada- Slovakia.
Huddled around the TV were a dozen security guards who cheered the Canadian victory and smiling came back to life.
Carry-on bags were emptied, the contents laid out on long trellis tables.
There's a weird voyeuristic feeling looking at other people's stuff in these sorts of circumstances.
Everyone was then frisked.
We'd just got off the plane and were still air side.
The intense security in Hong Kong had been as strict as I'd ever seen it.
What was the purpose of this?
How much more invasive would this have been had Canada lost?
I'm jet lagged and a bit fed up, rotting as I am in an industrial park Holiday Inn here in Metropolitan Ann Arbour.
When I woke up this morning I found myself cursing the hotel as I couldn't seem to find any bottled water to use in the coffee machine.
Wait a minute I CAN use the tap water here. I'm the US right?
Old habits die hard.
This afternoon I'm looking forward to settling into a sports bar somewhere downtown and watching Canada crush the US in the gold medal Olympic hockey.
Hockey is pretty much the only thing I'm interested in watching in the Olympics though out of sheer boredom at 6 ish this morning I watched the replay of Canada's curling triumph over Norway.
Riveting stuff.
No......... really.
One last thing.
I'm as sure as I've ever been of anything that if I don't watch myself carefully, I'm going to turn into a fat bastard living here.
In the past 24 hours I've eaten an ungodly amount of crap.
Its all just so......... available........everywhere.
Deep fried, processed everything in mega portions conveniently packaged and served up with a "you want fries with that?" smile.
That's it for today.
Stay well everyone
T

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well! We didn't exactly crush them, but we did win. As nerve racking as it was, it was also storybook and Sid "the Kid" Crosby from Cole Harbour (yes, that is the correct spelling of "harbour"), Nova Scotia did it. It still is our game (but we do share it with others). To my US friends, your team played great, but I am so glad we won.

Terry - I hope you saw it.

Your friend David - from Toronto.

Anonymous said...

I think you are lost dear boy, you are supposed to be in Ann Arbor, MI.

Take care

TR-HW

Kevin Serpanchy said...

Brrrrr...looks damn cold T! Congrats on the big Gold Medal Win for the Canadians! Good way to start your week in A Arbor - I'm sure you'll find a way to give it to folks over there. On the gorging side, take it from "Tinky", stay away from those fatty nibbles otherwise you'll end up with more Chins than a Hong Kong phonebook - bit wrong, but kinda funny :-)

Be well...