The Stanley Cup is the FA Cup and Champions League Final combined in Ice Hockey terms. The big stinker for Canada though is that American teams keep on winning it. Edmonton are Canada's representatives this year, who are somewhat rivals to Calgary. I always imagined the good old, warm hearted Canucks to be pretty easy going, but when it comes to hockey rivalry, it's like putting a drunk scouser in the Stretford end on match day!
Lost in the midst of inter hockey hatred and Calgary's sudden allegience to that great hockey U.S state of Carolina, is the World Cup. The football world cup - no, I don't mean the Superbowl, real football - soccer if you wish. There is scant coverage of one of the biggest sporting events in the entire world (although it is slighty better than they cover it in the States), but the local pub in Cochrane is run by a man from Middlesborough, so at 7.00am, the doors open, and in rush a mob of football hungry Brits all from our tiny town!!! It so happens that Cochrane is an ex-pat community of no small number, and when inside the pub it was like time travel to the Old Queen Vic' in the East End!
Canada's lack of interest in the world cup may stem from their not participating in it (they did qualify once in 1990, but failed to score a goal and came home early). And, with the Stanley Cup looking like it's going south of the border again this year, perhaps it's time for me to get my brush out and prep for Canada's most eagerly played game - Curling.
It's a bit like crown green bowling on ice (everyting's played on ice because there's so much of the bloody stuff here!)
Maybe this is not the time to mention that Scotland (that other great sporting nation) beat Canada to the gold in the previous winter Olympics.
I'm pretty sure that someone will point out to me that Owen Hargreaves (on the England team at the world cup) was born and raised in Calgary. This is true - however, then many others will point out that he is like a sack of spuds and without doubt the weak link in the team. Ho hum, maybe I'll stick to searching for those bears..
I have stolen this piccie from a friend's blog (Ken the Yank spends far too much time surfing the web for useless info, but sometimes he comes up trumps and he found this pearler of a picture);
So there's the big scary critter, ready to kill at all costs, sat at the bottom of the, tree. The little ginger kitty apparently become somewhat pissed off when the dopey old black bear wandered through kitty's garden. Kitty, angered by bear's complete lack of respect for kitty's hunting ground, charged the bear which could fortunately climb at a speedy pace (goodness knows what would've happened if kitty had gotten hold of the bear!!!). The bear attempted to descend, but kitty, still in a rage (and still in the belief that she was in fact an enormous lion), roared (meowed) showed those ferocious claws, and forced the bear back up the tree. By all accounts, the owners had to call kitty back in after an hour or so by shaking a box of Friskies, so as to let the traumatised bear down from the tree and escape to safety. Forget bear spray and all that other gubbins when hiking, just take your cat! (Cheers Ken).
As for goings on, the weather is still struggling to find its form at the moment, but we did get out to show mother the sights and sounds of Banff at the weekend and plan to hike up one of Banff's landmark mountains this week (Mt Rundle).
Thought that after a bit of Canadian mockery in this post I'd redeem myslef and show a bit of Canadian national pride by gettin in a shot of the Maple Leaf.
Normally after a hike we'd end up at some greasy spoon cafe, but on the weekend it was a step up as we ended at the Banff Springs -and they didn't serve pints of tea in mugs - or have any slabs of teeth breaking flapjack.
Well, keep your fingers crossed for sunshine - (sunshine here, not England as it sounds like you've had your quota for summer now!).
Keep smiling,
S & S.
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