Merry Christmas everyone. Hope it’s not to exhausting.

Merry Christmas to all, posting will pick up after the holiday.

Thanks for visiting.

Quite a few trips on BC Ferries across the Strait to Vancouver recently but never have quite enough time there, even on the rainy days.

Another Perogy Cat stamp on a cup of coffee from Street Level Espresso.

Arnold Lim, A. P. Hovasse and myself before the closing ceremonies at BC Place Stadium

Well, it’s all over and it was quite a ride. The early bus rides and wet wet weather are fading memories and I’m left with a vague depression now that it’s all over. I’m sure a few others are feeling the same.

The closing ceremonies were, I thought, pretty cool although they dragged out at the end. A lot of people didn’t enjoy the Canadian Icon production but I thought it was great.

Now it’s back to the real world but I’ll post a couple of last images. A crash,  jubilation and dejection.

Great help from Nick Didlick and all the photo staff at all the venues and from all the volunteers, known as Smurfs because fo their blue uniforms.

A. P Hovasse, photo venue manager at Cypress mountain got used to being wet

The past few days I’ve shot snowboarding and speed skating and today I’ll do the closing ceremonies. Not the hockey game as I’d hoped and had been originally skedded to do. It’ll mean a late night and then up early tomorrow and then back to Victoria and the real world.

Nick Didlick, 2010 Winter Olympics Photo Supremo

It was fun, challenging and I think I did pretty well with my images.

Now to the closing ceremonies which will feature a famous Canadian writer whose name can’t yet be revealed but I have his cel number.

Cross country was yet another new sport in a new venue. Weather changed and kept changing through the event, heavy snow, fog, sun breaking through, back to fog etc. Canada finished 7th so okay pix but no dramatic images.

Thanks to a cool bus driver who radioed ahead they held the 4pm bus to Vancouver for five minutes so we got out an hour than expected.

Because of the big game on the streets were deserted, normally you’d be in rush hour at this time but no traffic and out on the streets, almost deserted of pedestrians. Last night in the jammed restaurant we were in, watching the Canada Germany game the crowd absolutely erupted at the end of the game even though it was a blowout. Hockey fever not Olympic fever has taken over.

Yesterday back in Cypress where we had heavy wet snow but ended up with a gold medal in the women’s ski cross.

This big event is winding down, only four days to go. At one point it looked like it would never end, now it seems like it just started.

I was having trouble last night double checking my schedule which is too bad as I could have gotten in another hour of sleep or so.

We’re heading up to Cypress a little later today and we ae going to get wet again today. It is pouring rain out and it’s certainly not going to be dryer up on the mountain.

We’ve divided into two teams (reporter/photographer for these games) and it’s funny the way things go. So far the other team has got all the good (or at least dry weather) and the events where Canadians have won medals. Grant and I keep getting the rain and our athlete crashing (well out of photo range) and end up out of medal contention.

A few observations. The Olympics seem to have everyone in a good mood, at least in the core area. There’s a noticeable difference on transit from last week. People are smiling and talking to each other far more and it’s all Olympics (well, and weather, but then it’s always weather here).

Sometimes it’s the little details that stand out. Everyone wants to make an good impression on the visitors here for the Olys and then you see something like the bus stop on the West/North Vancouver entrance to the Lions Gate bridge. The media bus was full on a return trip from Whistler and we were slowly merging into traffic so we had a good long look at the bus stop/shelter which was decrepit and had litter scattered all around it and not just a few fresh pieces of paper but old garbage. You think the municipalities would have cleaned up and kept clean all areas along heavily travelled routes. It  just looked bad.

UPDATE: Ooops. Just found more negs , the ones that were from that GS shoot, not sure what these were from, maybe just fun.

Chuck, Randy, Joe

Randy Rampage armed with beer and cig