The torch was traveling to Richmond's O'Zone last night and I got sucked into the "once in a life time" hype and went with my girlfriend. As we walked to the spot where the torch was scheduled to show up we saw quite a lot of people but it was expected, it was "highly anticipated" after all. As we got closer the road forked, both leading to the O'Zone, logically we took the route that’s the shortest. We walked all the way to the end only to be greeted by two VanOCs (Vancouver Olympics Committee) telling everyone to "turn around, you cant come this way!" I just want to take this opportunity to thank these bright volunteers (god forbid we pay these two idiots) to stand not at the beginning but the absolute end to tell people to turn around...
Finally we arrived at the entrance to see an enormous line up. Props to my girlfriend and her skillful line cutting techniques, we managed to walk straight to the front. I peaked past the entrance and realized that the hold up was due to security checks and pad downs. These people seemed seriously, they had metal detectors, and three different stations. Eventually it was mine turn, I was ready to be mildly violated. I was disappointed, it was the WORST security check ever. They not only did not empty my pockets, they didn’t even pad me down. I was wearing a big coat and could have easily hid a blade within the jacket. I absolutely hate these VanOCs and their lack of ability to do virtually anything. By the way, the guy with the metal detector was just playing with it on his watch. I laughed, but it defiantly was not with him.
After the enormous line up we were greeted by an even bigger line up. The staging wasn’t particularly impressive norm was it fancy. There was a MC trying to hype everyone up by slutting and I mean SLUTTING out each sponsor’s logo every chance he gets. At one point this idiot asked “ARE YOU READY SURREY!” we were in Richmond. VanOC succeeded at failing once again. RBC is one of the major sponsors, at least I hope they are after last night’s distasteful attempt to push the sponsors. I can not remember how many times I was asked if I was ready to make Canada a better place (which I was informed it was the slogan for RBC).
We managed to push our way to a decent spot where we could barely see the stage but able to see the giant screens on the sides. All the sudden this white ninja threw a smoke bomb on the ground and magically reappeared in front of us. It turned out to be an elderly old lady and boy was she aggressive in line cutting. Not only was she cutting lines she had a very large personal bubble radius. She maintained that radius by rocking back and forth on her tip toes. Every time I get comfortable at the spot she would emerg her large and surely stupid head into my line of vision and as soon as I readjust she would move. She managed to keep this up and periodically turning around to wave her friends in. Throughout this time the idiot on the stage has kept asking the same slogan question while the crowd do the minimal to respond with one exception. This exception happens to be right behind me and doing the ridiculous loud whistle. Loud whistles are not a sign of enthusiasm and its just simply annoying.
After what seems like an eternity the count down begun. What everyone believed was the arrival of the torch count down turned out to be just a random count down. We all counted down to 0 only to have NOTHING happen. At this point we admitted defeat, and left. White ninja was about 20 feet ahead of us, she was good.
Oh yeah… we saw the torch on our way home…it was just peachy.
Finally we arrived at the entrance to see an enormous line up. Props to my girlfriend and her skillful line cutting techniques, we managed to walk straight to the front. I peaked past the entrance and realized that the hold up was due to security checks and pad downs. These people seemed seriously, they had metal detectors, and three different stations. Eventually it was mine turn, I was ready to be mildly violated. I was disappointed, it was the WORST security check ever. They not only did not empty my pockets, they didn’t even pad me down. I was wearing a big coat and could have easily hid a blade within the jacket. I absolutely hate these VanOCs and their lack of ability to do virtually anything. By the way, the guy with the metal detector was just playing with it on his watch. I laughed, but it defiantly was not with him.
After the enormous line up we were greeted by an even bigger line up. The staging wasn’t particularly impressive norm was it fancy. There was a MC trying to hype everyone up by slutting and I mean SLUTTING out each sponsor’s logo every chance he gets. At one point this idiot asked “ARE YOU READY SURREY!” we were in Richmond. VanOC succeeded at failing once again. RBC is one of the major sponsors, at least I hope they are after last night’s distasteful attempt to push the sponsors. I can not remember how many times I was asked if I was ready to make Canada a better place (which I was informed it was the slogan for RBC).
We managed to push our way to a decent spot where we could barely see the stage but able to see the giant screens on the sides. All the sudden this white ninja threw a smoke bomb on the ground and magically reappeared in front of us. It turned out to be an elderly old lady and boy was she aggressive in line cutting. Not only was she cutting lines she had a very large personal bubble radius. She maintained that radius by rocking back and forth on her tip toes. Every time I get comfortable at the spot she would emerg her large and surely stupid head into my line of vision and as soon as I readjust she would move. She managed to keep this up and periodically turning around to wave her friends in. Throughout this time the idiot on the stage has kept asking the same slogan question while the crowd do the minimal to respond with one exception. This exception happens to be right behind me and doing the ridiculous loud whistle. Loud whistles are not a sign of enthusiasm and its just simply annoying.
After what seems like an eternity the count down begun. What everyone believed was the arrival of the torch count down turned out to be just a random count down. We all counted down to 0 only to have NOTHING happen. At this point we admitted defeat, and left. White ninja was about 20 feet ahead of us, she was good.
Oh yeah… we saw the torch on our way home…it was just peachy.
When is the next one??? Are you busy or something?
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