Night and Day out

Today has been spent ferrying Wife, Mother in Law, and two Stepdaughters around. We ran into snow on the Parkway heading up to Woodgrove Mall, and I had a few nervous moments on the slush, made worse by four back seat drivers as I felt the back wheels twitch and skitter on compacted snow. Despite that, I kept the old Ford under control and we got to where we were going safely. Went home and walked the dog, allowing myself an hours peace and quiet before heading back up to the Mall to pick up my passengers. By noon the snowploughs and traffic had cleared all the roads and it was a much easier journey.

Last night was better. I attended my first ever Canadian Ice Hockey game between the Nanaimo Clippers, and the Victoria Grizzlies. My main impression of the game is that of speed and testosterone. The Fast and furious, with plenty of speed, because ice hockey as a game is incredibly fast. The action happens at a 'blink and you've missed it' pace, and those guys are fast, in both forwards and reverse gear. As for furious, players are regularly sent off for trying to turn each others lights out, rather like these guys pictured below.Picture 1 was taken when two of them got into a barney over a foul.
Picture 2 is when the fight was properly underway.
Picture 3 is where the Umpire and Linesman rugby tackled the combatants to the ground as their scrap was holding up play. None of this tap on the ankle and dive to the ground screaming, like 'professional' Football (Soccer) players. These guys take their lumps and that's that. I'm impressed. I think I shall be going again.