Can't seem to stay out of the city. Went up last weekend just for fun - which completely flabbergasted the border guy. "You're going TO the city? Are you crazy? What on earth for? I'm staying off that island for the rest of the year!" he declared quite animatedly. "Well, there's a multicultural festival we want to check out, as well as the Biodome..." He wasn't impressed. A few years older than I, he had just been to the U2 concert the night before - which he proceeded to tell me all about. Never mind that there was a car behind me, and then another, then 3 more (and this was the only lane open)... there was apparently a lot that needed to be said. I got a rundown of the concert itself (awesome and loud); heard just how close to Bono he had been (never gonna get that close to him again); and how getting home through all the traffic had taken the poor man over 3 hours (what the heck had he been thinking?). I couldn't get a word in edgewise... so i just grunted and smiled and ooed when it seemed appropriate. Eventually he gave us our IDs back, but still kept talking.. and tho i tried inching the car forward and giving the signal that hey, maybe it's time for me to go...he was having none of it. I toyed briefly with the idea of just gunning it forward but decided against it. If the man wanted to talk, who was I to deny him an audience? Eventually he had to take a breath so i jumped in, wished him a pleasant, quiet rest of the weekend and continued up to that awful island of traffic horror (on a Sunday morning.. really rather pleasant!).
Anyway... enough of that digression.
Hard to believe we only have two competitions left in the season.. one next weekend and the other at the tail end of September. Coming up is the Montreal International Dragon Boat festival - where we will have the added challenge of racing against all sorts of premier women's teams rather than in our usual division. It'll be tough, but soooo good for us. Plus I love this festival.. it's where G and I both got our first taste of what dragon boat racing is REALLY about... where we fell head over heels in love with the sport... and where we've made some amazing friendships. We've competed in it every year since - and our summers are generally measured around it. We're also hoping to again join a second, mixed team to race with, just for a little extra fun and action.. otherwise it ends up being like a very looooong track meet. Anyway, we'll see. In the meantime.. the day is wearing on and it's almost time to head to practice. Yay!
No comments:
Post a Comment