March 14, 2008, Western Head, N.S. Curling.

I think a person would get interested in anything if given enough information. Curling is much beloved in Canada, I am told. I grew up in Vancouver, then Toronto and some how or other I never learned to curl. But now I know a lot about it because we have been watching the national championship of curling, being played in Winnipeg. The problem is that the terms are unfamilier to us, and these wonderful announcers assume you know all about the game. In truth I did not know how to keep score, let alone understand a freeze. Every so often Ken needs a break but does not need to lie down, so we turn on the TV and watch a bit of curling. Of course there has not been a basketball game in sight, but curling has been on all day and all night. So we have gotten interested in the game and the players. Actually it has been fun. These players are the best in the world with the winning team going on to the international championship where many times they win. They are so good at curling. They make that stone go to within fractions from where they are aiming. When playing, it is all about the strategy, so the players are wired with transmitters. We can hear the conversations between the four team members. Then we watch to see how it works out. The bad thing is the game moves very slowly. The good thing is you get to discuss their strategy, then see how well they did it. All done in slow time. We still would like the announcers to tell us the terminology. Surely we are not the only two people watching stupid about curling. On the other hand, only old hands are watching I bet.

Once while in the Canary Islands, after a full day of sight-seeing and dining out we watched a bit of television. Sazanne and David and Andrew were with us staying in the timeshare. Darts was the only thing to watch on TV. All channels were showing darts. Of course it was the World Championships of darts, but it was still darts. We five watched and actually got interested in the competition, the strategy, the personalities of the players and the scoring. After that hour of watching darts, whenever we got home, someone turned on the TV to check who was winning. The winner of the tournament and world champoin was from Canada, the first time that had ever happened. And we were there. That was in 1994, and it has not happened again, either a Canadian winner or us getting interested in darts.

I think these players in the champoinship are professionals. How can you make a living curling, is the question I ask myself. All I know is Nova Scotia lost 8 games so their team will not go on to the final games. Alberta, British Columbia,Manatoba and Ontario are playing for the championship round. The games continue tonight. We will watch a bit of it!!