Lei

Football - What the hell happened?

Oui! Fantastique! Italia c'est le meillieur! Q'est ce que fait au France? As I watch all the players celebrate the shootout win I wonder what in the world happened to France?!??! What could have been a story book ending came crumbling down close to the end of regular time when Zinadine Zidane gives a head butt to the chest of an italian player after the two had exchanged a few words. Zinadine had played an excellent world cup having the lone french goal on a penalty kick and coming out of retirement just for this world series at the request of France. All the papers kept talking about his wizardry on the field with the ball and having been chosen the three time winner of the world football player of the year. Where's the class? Where's the composure? What a horrible way to end his career. Comment est ce que stupide du Zinadine! C'est dommage...

Friday Night Hockey At Trout Lake

LPP 2006 - Friday night hockey was alive and kicking down at Trout Late Arena. The current series between Team SixtytSix and Team NinetyNine was deadlocked at three games a piece heading into tonights game. Team NinetyNine jumped out to an early seven to one lead before things started to go wrong. With star player Sean O in the line up, Team SixtySix capitalized on a number of odd man rushes as Team NinetyNine's defense got caught flat footed and horribly out of position.

"I was really tired from work today and it showed. It was tough for us to watch those guys keep putting them in our net from the bench" commented assistant captain Derek L of Team NinetyNine.

Captain Anthony C tried hard to get his team back on top by juggling up the lines. He managed to keep things even until the end when Team SixtySix was just that much better this evening.

Team NinetyNine had numerous chances in the dying minutes but just couldn't get it past the goalie to even things. With a total of seven subs tonight and one center missing, some wonder if the players were still busy adjusting to the new extended game times.

When asked about the game, substitute defenseman Lei responded with "yeah, I didn't know the league had increased the length of the games for the current and past series. In the last thirty minutes, I saw the clock and wondered how we would pull this one out. Some of our weaker forwards were looking pretty slow out there but the captain showed why he's the captain. I'm just happy to get back on the ice and get the blood pumping again. My one goal almost - helped."

Next week the series resumes with more at stake. Team NinetyNine needs to pull up even otherwise Team SixtySix may just walk away with the current ten game series.

The Hired Gun

The Transition is in process. Friday I had my meeting with the former company to settle the outstanding pay and severance issues. An agreement was reached in principle and now I await the paperwork. Things could still get turbulent if the board of directors don't like the deal and I will be forced to play the multiple aces up my sleeve.

Later on I played in a double header ice hockey game. Part of the co-ed team is off on the West Coast Trail for a week and I agreed to fill in a spot. Towards the end of the first game, it felt like I had strained the left side of my liver or kidneys. Despite this, I played on in both games to the end getting a goal in each one. The first game was a great come from behind victory against a team that liked to call themselves the stars. They had modified Team Canada white jerseys with, as you might have guessed stars all over it. For the most part, they led by one or two goals. However in the last minutes of the game, we came back and beat them 6-5.

The second team was much easier. My friends team had played them before except that many of the members were different. As a result, they were weaker and we took full advantage of it despite having already played a tiring game. And to make things interesting, the guy with the reputation for getting penalties was behind the bench chitchatting with the same guy on our team as though they had been best friends for years. Both were out due to injuries. We guessed that maybe they commended each other on things like "you've got a nice right hook. where'd you learn that?" or "I love they way you pushed me into the boards the other day. That was a good one. ha ha ha..." Funny the way things are.

And so for the rest of the weekend, I just tried to rest my tired muscles and bruised joints. I'm still sore and this week there's another three softball games plus one hockey game to fill in for again.

Who Wants To Fight?

I played hookie in the afternoon and went downtown. I went there because I wanted to end my membership at universal martial arts. With softball, some hockey, work and the soon to be photo course, I don't need to pack my schedule with more evenings of exercise.

When I got there, the door was closed. I thought "great...nobody's here." I shook the door knob a bit and within a second or two, the door knob began to turn. Dave was just leaving.
"Hey Lei! How've you been?" he asked in his usual exuberant self. Dave is a stalky sort of fellow having been the former canadian light heavy weight champion in two tournaments some years ago. He's forty years old now and still looks like he's in great shape. Which he is I might add but not as good a shape as he was when he used to train hard five or six days a week.

It's been almost two years now since he opened the gym down on Granville street and now the classes are full. Even the Friday night fighter classes.

"Things are alright" I said to him. "I've been busy and just wanted to end my membership." He was a bit disappointed to hear that but couldn't do much about it unfortunately. His mixed australian dog sniffed around me and was quiet.

"What happened to the afternoon classes? Wasn't there supposed to be children's classes?" I asked.
"Not right now. During the summer they all disappear. So I don't even bring my two kids down right now. Here. Let's go in and get you out of the system."
"This computer is slow right now but... here we go. Just sign here and... oh, it looks like you just missed the payment cutoff date for the next month by two days."
I didn't say anything and just stood there looking at him. He looked at me, smiled a bit and said "I'll put in a phone call to the payment processing house and get it refunded."
He began to pack up again before telling me that he was about to head out to grab some lunch.
"Do you want some company because I haven't had lunch either?" I asked him.
"Sure. Where's a good place around here?"
I was a bit puzzled when he asked me this because I don't frequent the places around this area much where as he is here all the time now.
"How about that small thai restaurant where I had dinner with John once just around the corner?" I asked. John is Dave's other instructor at the gym.
"Sure. Sounds good."

The restaurant is in the middle of the block on Davie street. It's small, cheap and alright. The last time I was there, the food was so-so.
"See that monitor there above the cashier machine Dave?...They..." I was surprised. "They used to have the menu taped on the screen."
He laughs. "Thats funny. Whats the point of having a computer monitor if you aren't going to use it?... I never noticed that before but the owners are new. It happened about two weeks ago. John and I were here and the former owners told us that they would be closing in two weeks for some 'renovations'. After that, these new people took over and we never saw the other owners again. Now they've added some small flower ornaments and such on the wall to 'revamp' the place"
"So much for the renovations" I thought out loud to him. The place looked pretty much the same as before.

Lunch was good. Dave ordered the curry chicken and I had a seafood rice noodle soup. The new owners definitely prepare the food better.

"So how's that camera you have working out Dave"
"It's great. After about four thousand bucks, I now have a small set of lenses with the Canon 20D. I'm gonna be taking more pictures to put up around the gym."
"That'll be great" I told him. "I like the photos you have in some of the brochures. I've signed up for a basic photo course and will probably get set up the same as you soon."
"Yeah, I was told to try that also. Do you know Ted down at the porn shop?"
"Uhh, no." I responded thinking which of the many porn shops he was talking about on Granville street.
"Well I was talking to him and found out that he's into all this stuff. He likes to read books. Any night he'll decide to pick up a book on computers or something and learn it right there. At the back of his shop, he's got all the gadgets, cameras and computers which he's into. He told me to do the same but I was like -Ted, I don't want to sit there and read some thick text book. I'll just fall asleep. So he suggested that I take a course. I think I might soon."

"That's cool if you did Dave. I think the basic course which I'm taking might be a bit too basic. I'd be more interested in the intermediate course but who knows. Right now the company I work for is behind in its payroll by about three months so I've been taking a lot of time off. I have some savings so I can coast a bit and try some other things maybe. I like what you've done with the gyms website. The picture of you and John from your fights...I was in Vegas a few weeks ago"
"You were? I was there also at that time." Dave said.
"No. I think you were there another week or two earlier. Mike had already told me that you had gone down for a week long certification course or something.
"Yeah...see, after Song left, there was no one else with the proper credentials to be able to grade students and give them new colour belts at the blue belt and higher level. That other instructor I brought in from Thailand left after a couple of weeks. He ended up getting a full time job at a Thai restaurant nearby. So I asked him if he knew of anyone else I could get to replace him." Song was the original instructor from Thailand. He partnered up with Dave to open the school. Dave got the financing and facilities while Song just taught the classes. Song was a good guy. With many years of fighting under his belt, those days are over. He occasionally does stunt work in the local movie industry having appeared in one of Jackie Chan's films. Rumble in the Bronx I believe it was. Song and Dave had a disagreement and the partnership ended. I was once privy to a meeting of the senior Muay Thai officals where they planned on what they wanted the organization to represent and accomplish in Canada. This meeting took place in a hotel in Trail B.C. with another former canadian champion who teaches in Trail, Song and another Master Instructor from Toronto. Muscular guys who liked to talk about the old days of how they faught all the time. The money or lack there of, the conditions and that sort of stuff. Unfortunately, sometimes they just sound like a bunch of drunks missing the old days after struggling to start a new life in Canada with virtually nothing. Song left his wife and family back home in Thailand by swimming across a river to China in the middle of the night, spending time in the refugee holding camps in Hong Kong where he met a woman refugee. She eventually became his next wife when they both made it into Canada. Things have fallen apart for him now though.

"Mike told me that you were in Vegas for the camp."
"Yeah. It was a small class. And the other thai instructor who left gave me the number to this Thai Master in Las Vegas. We had a conference call where he interview me and that was alright. Then we had problems trying to get our schedules to coincide so that I could take a week off to go down there and train with him" Dave said.
"Master Tong must have thought that I was some young kid wanting to become a master really quickly or something because I cancelled the first two dates we tried to set. Then, I can't remember what happened as I couldn't make it even though I told him I'd be there anyways. And I did. The classes were small. Mainly just me and this other guy from Florida wanting to be a certified instructor. Master Tong is a no nonsense guy. He's all business and told me never to share personal stuff with the students."
I can see why given what Dave was about to tell me I thought to myself.
Dave continues, "His classes are all full and you get everyone there. Nobodies off the street, celebrities, CIA and FBI agents, the whole variety. He ended up telling me more than I wanted to know or didn't want to know. I had told him that I was considering going to Thailand to train and fight again to get more credentials. Then bring some fighters back to my gym."
But Master Tong said to Dave "Why? What for? Lots of other schools tried the same thing but failed. The problem is that the Thai community doesn't speak english and the fighters that are brought back can't talk to your students. Meanwhile you've paid thousands of dollars for flight and their salary for nothing. The reason I've been able to succeed is because I learned english. Now I brought two thai instructors over and they do the bulk of the teaching in my school. This works because I can translate for them. Later this year, four of my students want to go to Thailand to compete."
This wasn't surprising but what was, was the fact that they were his female students. No men. I was surprised at this.
"I'm not kidding Lei. Most of Master Tong's students are women and want to fight. Plus they're all in really good shape and are good looking" Dave insisted. The school sounded like it was a gym for the stars and famous people.

"Mike told me he just became a blue belt in John's grappling class." John teaches all the Jiu Jitsu and pancracean classes. This style of fighting has gained widespread popularity and can be seen in the Pride fighting series in Japan and the UFC series in the states.
"So are there any tournaments coming up for your school?" I asked Dave.
'Yeah. In a couple of weeks I think we're going to hold our own in house. We have enough fighters to compete now."
"That should be good. Is John still active in getting his black belt?"
"Well that's a bit different. It takes a long time to get a black belt in Jiu Jitsu. Plus, someone from the head group down south needs to be able to see him instruct and all the training he does." I had a feeling that there was more to it. The reason is that most Jiu Jitsu black belts that I see in the tournaments are all southern in origin. South America that is. I'm thinking that you have to be down there in their schools training with them all the time. Like hanging out with the Hoyce Gracie clan in Brazil. Again, that's just my theory.
"What ever happened to your coffee shop? I thought you were about to close up shop and move to europe because your wife was about to be relocated? by her employers?" I said.
"That almost happened right up until the last minute. I sold the Blenz downtown, our house and kept the gym. My wife's company had hired two guys to manage the new expansion offices in europe. So for about three months they appeared to be just sitting around doing nothing while being paid an exorbitantly high salary. When they got wind of my wife and some others plans to drop in, they got their butts in gear. So we booted our tenants and are living in our rental house. Our new home is being built right now."
We continued talking about franchise businesses, and abit of each other work backgrounds. We also found that we had some other things in common with our previous side businesses before leaving.
"I have to go Lei." We settled the bill and left.
"Keep in touch Lei. I mean it."
"I will. Maybe I'll come back in a year and train again. I'll see how things are with stuff." I wouldn'd mind seeing his new house when its done.
"You should take the Jiu Jitsu classes. It's a bit easier on the body. Doesn't have all the impact from kicking the shields and bodies as in the Muay Thai classes. Just look at Song. Did you ever notice his knees are always puffed up. The guy can hardly walk."
"Yeah, that I don't want. I think I'd dislocate my back or hip. Save that for the kids." I've got other things to persue. Taking Muay thai was like trying to vent I think. And now I just don't have it in me anymore. The last few classes I took, I would think to myself what am I doing here?" I've already spent a few years learning Tae Kwon Do reaching blue belt before quitting. All that intensive training we did for the tournaments. I think I'd do better now than before. I think I will come back and take some action photos. The first set didn't turn out very good with the camera phone.

We parted in opposite directions on the sidewalk. I stopped at the next intersection waiting for the light to turn green. John was standing at the other side of the road where I was heading.

Lei holding a set of kicking pads in a punching and kicking exercise. Photo courtesy of Dave and Universal Martial Arts. Canon EOS 20D.

The Series Comes to a Close

*LPP 2005 - The final game of the latest MDHL ten game series wrapped up friday night to a lone crowd of one, a person reading a novel as both teams played on.

The game was close until two thirds of the way in when things started to fall apart for team Feast. Aside from goalie Calvin Cheung being stripped of the puck and scored upon, team Beast charged on with co-captain Chris Archibald feeding Albert Chang multiple times in front of the net. It was all in Gretzky to Currie like fashion. The mood was jovial as players on Team Beast's bench shouted out comments all night. The tension of the series loss two games ago had dissappeared as team Beast was just enjoying the moment.

Young forward Aaron Oye made an end of season appearance subbing for Lawrence Lau to add presence to Team Beasts offence. One day he'll grow up to be like his older brother who used to dominate this league in pretty much every category except that of the goaltender.

Although initially worried when team Feast jumped out to a two nothing lead, Jay Estoque played well this evening despite being unable to hold off the opposing dynamic duo of Anthony Chang and Jason Lai. The two combined for a total of six goals in a losing cause. Team Beast won by a score of 14 to 10.

The summer solstice is just days away and its time to leave the Igloo for just a little while. So don't forget to clean out the stinky gear and have a great summer folks. See you all in the fall.

Woohoo...

San Antonio continues with their second win this evening and by a large margin. Woohoo...

The hike got cancelled due to unsettled weather. Memories of my friend and a fellow hiker being left to wait for four and a half hours in the rain many years ago still linger in his mind today. So I spent the better part of this weekend doing more tile repair for two other bathrooms. Boohoo...

Today we notched a pair of wins in a double header softball game back at Kensington Park. We even came back in the last inning to get the second win. It was a rather quiet game as our opponents were mostly deaf. I first thought that the team was just using baseball signals excessively until I was told that they were all speaking in real hand signals.

So far we have three wins for the season. This is three more than the number of wins we had last year in the other league. Woohoo...

Game 6 of 10 - The Beast Is Alive

LPP* 2005 – With the series on the line Team Beast received a huge break in what could have been certain death. The tables turned as Team Feast played without key set up man Anthony Chang and captain Derek Lowe. Team Beast on the other hand bolstered their line up significantly with the return of substitute Pavel Dosanjh. Team Beast captain Ron Pong sat out the game allowing for seasoned defenseman Brian Kindrachuk to take his place. These two along with assistant captain Chris Archibald had speed, power and chemistry as they racked up the points all night long. The Beast came back to life in a most triumphant refusal of a possible series loss with a 16 to 8 win.

When asked about the game, Pavel was modest in their accomplishments and commented that the other team did have many chances. He was right. It was just that Team Feast couldn’t quite get those chances to work in their favor as was evident when assistant captain Travis Wong had what some thought was a goal only to be denied. “It went in and just bounced back out” he said while others thought that it had only hit the post. Even goalie Jay Estoque commented that the sound was not the same as it normally is when a puck hits the post as opposed to somewhere else.

Captain Ron Pong’s choice of putting Jay Estoque in between the pipes proved key as netminder Calvin Cheng looked tired and slow to react playing for Team Feast. “He looked burnt out after that last goal. I asked him how he felt and he just sat there staring into space” noted defenseman Leanporklei.

So the question now is can Ron Pong and Team Beast string together another four games just to tie up the series?

In other news but not completely unrelated, rookie Dennis Chan kept his goal scoring streak alive stretching it to six games. It was noted by league organizer Jason Lai that this may be a first for the MDHL league.

The strange stick fiasco continues around defenseman Lawrence Lau as his stick seemed to explode on an attempted slapshot from the point. In a previous game there was a mixup involving the same Easton Z-Bubble stick belonging to LeanPorkLei which he had mistakenly taken for his own. Is this karma?

The three stars for the evening are as follows

1. Pavel Dosanjh – With the built in chemistry between him and his longtime linemates from previous teams, he helped lead the way to the win.

2. Allen Leung – Had a strong game in the offensive zone as it looked like the positive effects of his teammates spilled over into his play this evening.

3. Nixon Tham – The most noticeable player for the losing team at both ends of the ice. A great two way player.

Game 5 - The Beast is Dying

*LPP 2005 - Friday night evening at the Igloo proved to be the most competitive games so far this series. It didn't take more than a few minutes before Team Feast got back to business putting the numbers up on the score board. Ace forward Anthony Chang or 'skate' and speedster Jason Lai both finished with five goals each. Despite having to use a backup goalie and seeing their team captain leave less than halfway through the game, Team Feast was able to pull out another win by a score of twelve to nine.

When asked what had happened, mobile defenseman captain Derek Lowe said that a "rib injury from a previous game was still bothering him".

His absence left a gaping hole on the blue line for Team Beast to exploit and this they did. With Team Beast captain Ron Pong's decision to put substitute defenseman Leanporklei on the second forward line, a second dangerous line was formed to match that of Team Feast. Winger Tommy Wong netted two goals with his linemates, Terry Wong and Leanporklei. Together they generated many great chances and more importantly, they got the puck in the net at least a few times.

However due to a "series of unfortunate events" in what would probably be considerred key turning points, Team Beast was not able to capitalize on their new found depth of strength. Two turnovers at Team Beasts own blue line on identical breakouts and a couple of botched gimme's in front of Team Feast's net was all the difference that was needed in the 12 - 9 loss to Team Feast.

It was heard that Team Beast defenseman Gordon Chan was seen lying face down, banging his hands on the ice and crying while the sounds of Leanporklei yelling explicatives could be heard after missing two nearly wide open nets from close range.

Other notables include the return of Team Beast Captain Chris Archibald who was out with a foot injury. His play was good but when asked, he said that "he had been off the ice for too long and needed to get back into form."

Travis Wong abandoned his foward wing position and donned the goalie gear as Team Feasts regular goaltender Jay Estoque was absent. "He looked good in net" commented a few players on both sides as this was only his second time between the pipes in this league. Despite the nine goals that got by, he looked pretty smooth flopping around like a regular Hlasek.

Opposing goalie Calvin Cheng looked more human than his normal self for Team Beast as he watched the puck go in twelve times. On Jason lai's five goals, it seemed at times that all he had to do was just make contact with the round black piece of rubber and it was almost guaranteed to go in.

With the series sweep on the line next week, Team Beast has to make some changes. The halfway trade deadline is this week so let's see what Captain Ron Pong of Team Beast can do to turn things around. It's do or die.

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What a busy weekend filled with errands and people. The list of things needed to be done does not shorten and I need more time. We had a softball tournament to get the team back on the field before the first official season game on Tuesday. Practically half the people got injured. There's no hitting or body checks like in hockey but with most of us being inexperienced newbies, we all pulled our quad muscles attempting those quick sprints around the bases and in the field without warming up. Even players on the better teams had the same problem.

My friend told me that during the summer, the majority of injuries, maybe sports injuries are from softball and baseball. Pulled muscles and bruises from being hit by a grounder or something like that.

Afterwards it was back to fixing other pipes at the nursing home and continuing with the education of the weekend staff on how to use the new dishwasher. I was the appointed teacher. Man this thing is high maintenance compared to the Hobart. The only thing I do like about it is that it has an automatic liquid detergent dispenser for the wash and rinse cycles. No more measuring the cups with those powdered detergents or pucks and spilling things everywhere.

I didn't make it to the Swarovski shop in time to pick up the mothers day gift like I was supposed to. So I'll have to try to get to the store on sunday morning instead. I think I spent most of saturday just driving back and forth between places doing errands. Even while heading to the tournament at 9:30 in the morning I had to turn around and cross another bridge because the police had closed Patullo bridge for some unknown reason.

And just like at the hockey game, I had lots of energy although my eyes did not agree.

The Vegas trip with the gang is postponed to sometime around November now but I may still go as Gambit is heading there in June. The rest of the gang is planning a road trip to San Fran around the same time I believe. Another road trip back down this year? I may choose a different destination. The world is my oyster right?

Game 3 of 10 - The Feast Continues

LPP* 2005 - Friday night MDHL hockey down at the Igloo rink in Richmond and Team Feast faced off against Team Beast. The series has been rather lopsided to start and because of this, a trade was made before the puck was dropped.

Looking to find some scoring in the lineup, Team Beast traded away fill in defenseman Leanporklei for substitute forward Simon Wong. Leanporklei was originally filling in for co-captain and forward Chris Archibald while Simon Wong was filling in for the absent defenseman Sherman Woo. This trade cost Team Beast as with the return of speedy forward Jason Lai combined with foward defenseman Leanporklei only served to bolster Team Feast's continued dominance of the game. Both sides were relatively even until halfway through when Leanporklei walked in from the blueline around everyone right up to the goalie before trickling the puck in off his backhand in his first for the evening. The floodgates opened and Team Feast filled their appetite to a 9-3 win. All this despite Team Feast being without their star forward and setup man Anthony Chang.

Injured foward Jason Lai made an impressive return by contributing three goals for Team Feast. When asked how he felt about the game he just said "'good" sitting on the bench afterwards.

Captain Ron Pong of Team Beast commented post game that his players just "didn't have the legs". This was true as the skaters that skated pretty much just skated away with the game. All those left watching just became pylons.

Other notable performances came from defenseman Jackson Chiu in a losing cause. He played a physical game as was seen when he took down Stan Quan numerous times despite the difference in size. Stan was able to get some redemption in the last minute of the game with an assist, setting up the last goal for Team Feast.

Other notable absences included forward Eric Lun for forward Tom Jong on Team Beast while aging defenseman Michael Chang filled in for Anthony Chang. It was said that Anthony Chang was at the Killer's concert this evening.

In other news, continued trade rumours grow as talks between the two captains appear to involve many of the new players. "Only a few are contributing to the score sheet in any way but those few tend to be on the team with the strongest veteran lineup. This could be one of those huge block trades of no names" noted one person close to the source.

*LPP - Leanpork press

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Man, hockey was fun last night. In the dressing room prior to the game, I had noted that it had been a very long time since I was able to play on a winning side in this league. So as luck would have it, I got traded and voila. After lots of skating and a few goals from me, the first win all year! After the game, a bunch of us went to California Hut for some drinks but they were going to be closing in a half hour so we went to the otherside of the mall and ate at No.9. A late night, 24hour hong kong style joint popular among the young asian crowd. There was the usual group of people smoking outside and inside it is always pretty busy especially after one in the morning. The late night crowd and/or the clubbing crowd.

Inside it feels like a madhouse. Brightly lit with lots of people. One wall is covered in tv's, half showing sports highlights and the other half airing some cantonese soap opera. We were given a typical large round table with the spinning centre. The table beside us was filled with a whole group of highschoolers. All women but dressed up. It was close to two in the morning and we couldn't figure out where they had just come from. Especially since they also had tiny little sparkly stuff thrown all over their hairdo's and fancy dresses. Just add a wand and you've got a table full of pretty fairies. This just gave the guys at the table more stuff to joke about before I finally figured out that they probably just had their prom night. It didn't seem like they were having that much fun because they seemed rather quiet and there were no dates.

There was eight of us including one of the league organizers and three players who all work for Telus. The league organizer was buying for those three because they helped save his butt when the internet connection for the online website of one of his clients went down during a weekend conference.

The food was good and these folks were pretty nice. It was the first time that I had hung out with this group. Previously it was a different group within the two teams except that those guys are mostly parents now with wife and kids at home. Most of us at the table didn't have families except for one. I'll see what wrath he incurred from his other half(heh) and kids, if any.

Among us were the two captains, one assistant captain, the score keeper for the evening and one of the league organizers. Hence talks of trades was all too common.

By 2:30am or so, we were given the boot. The staff needed our table for other customers and so we just hung out in the parking lot before finally splitting. I cruised home only to find that the only road to my house was blocked off by the police which was just four blocks away. There had been an incident. Some sort of family dispute as the police had been waiting for a small dodge colt to drive up this small hill. There, they rammed the colt from the side and pushed it halfway back down the hill before arresting the person. It was 3:40am now and the crime scene investigator had only just got there.

One other person and myself were forced to leave our vehicles parked at the bottom of the hill and walk our way back home. I had all my hockey gear to lug around and this other guy just left his dirty work clothes in his vehicle. He was big. Probably 6'8" at the very least. And he didn't care too much about his items because his shoes were size 15. Who else is going to steal some workboots that big and still fit in them?

Two hours later, I was still up and decided to walk down the street to retrieve my truck. I looked from a distance and the flashers were still there. The officer had told us that they would need at least two to three hours to examine the whole scene. Reminds me of CSI except for a few inconsistencies. When I had arrived. I was able to watch the scene investigator drive his small van straight through the area and over all the broken glass and debris on the road. Plus the officer let me and the other person walk straight through the scene. As we did this, I could see the investigator looking at stuff on the road and taking pictures. Now I'm thinking, shouldn't he have been more careful by driving to the other side of the accident scene using the road from the side instead of driving over everything?

I went to sleep a little after 6am.

Burnaby Mountain

We sat around the entrance to the trail on our bikes wondering where Martin was. Half the group was getting edgy as people wanted to ride. Not too far up the road we could see three other mountain bikers practicing jumps off a grass slope before Martin finally came out of the science lab building behind us with his bike. As he approached us, some of the group started getting into a debate about who was supposed to call who when. etc. etc. Ten minutes later, we started on our way. There was seven of us following each other in single file through some very technical trails. The four guys took the lead as we were all faster while the three women started off at the back much slower.

I felt very sketchy. It's been many years since I last rode so this first venture back into the trees wasn't very smooth. I bought a brand new full suspension bike last week and didn't have time get used to it until today. A few minutes into the trail I started to get the hang of it again. The group had already split up with all the guys going much faster in front of me and the women falling back behind me. I was soon alone between the two but not too far behind the guys up front. They have been riding these trails for a while so they were used to it. Plus one of them had a freeride bike which could take the big hits better in addition to wearing body armour in case of a fall.

I rode through the tight turns amidst all the bumps and obstacles. There were tree roots everywhere, rocks all over the path and some man made obstacles. Small inclines and jumps or narrow planks connected to logs in the air. No one in the group tried these obstacles except for the ones which just went up and down really quick. You could ride down the drop offs slowly by shifting your weight behind the seat to the point where you look like you're sitting on your rear tire or you could just let the speed of the hill launch you. If you landed safely that's good. But usually, you would have to prepare for another small jump right away as they were spaced quite close together.

For most of the ride, I had my brakes on almost skidding everywhere. Most of the path was downhill and while I managed to make it through the steep drop offs, there were a couple of hickups. When attempting to scale and descend a man made teepee(like riding over the roof of a tiny dog house with an average slope), I crashed. On the way down, my front tire turned causing me to stop abruptly. The fall wasn't bad but my shin was bruised in multiple places. Doug had just caught up to find me picking up my bike. He passed me by before I started onward again only to hear one of the women scream in terror as she came up to the same obstacle. Two thirds of the way down, we met up and exchanged places. The women went first and only seconds after they disappeared around a tree, there was another scream. The same woman had crashed. This time the injury was much worse. She had a tear in the flesh of her inner thigh and her right brake lever was bent forward.

We could all see this coming. She in particular had just bought a new bike a week before me and she was throwing herself down the hill much too fast and out of control. She walked her bike down the rest of the way as it wasn't very far to the end while the rest of us rode down. One by one, we met up, all covered in mud as it had rained the night before. The trails were filled with small mud puddles and the rocks and logs were slippery. I looked down at my leg to see the blood which had started to coagulate but still running. It was slightly painfull and as I squirted water on it, the blood ran down my leg soaking the dirt with it on my skin. A tiny piece of flesh was missing. My friend had told me during the week that I should get some body armour. Now I will.

Next up, the North Shore Mountains...