A Night with Me, Nancy, Bill Gates & U2

Irish rockers U2 wrapped up the second leg of the 360° Tour in Vancouver last night. It was the last full concert show for 2009 and brought out many emotions from a hugging U2 to a grateful Black Eyed Peas. The emotions became evident when Bono, who actually looked touched, paused to speak to the crowd about the end of the 2009 leg of the tour. It was certainly an evening of hysteria and excitement for the massive audience of 55,000, including Nancy, myself and some guy called Bill Gates. Turned out he was in the audience and it was his birthday - Bono sang Happy Birthday to him with crowd participation.

The band worked its way through more than two hours of songs from eight of their albums on a magnificent stage that can only be described as a claw-shaped. Nancy described it as something that looked like it was out of the District 9 film, but the carousel HD screen provided a perfect view of the concert. The majority of the tracks were from their latest No Line On The Horizon. Although the crowd noise was strong on the newer tracks, it was the classics, like Sunday Bloody Sunday, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For and With or Without You that really got everyone on their feet. My personal favourites and highlights were Stuck in a Moment, Beautiful Day and Elevation.

Opening act Black Eyed Peas were exciting to watch. Their short set had all their top hits, the performance was fun and it got the crowd pumped for U2. Fergie’s performance of her solo hit Big Girls Don’t Cry was a standout, as it was obviously heartfelt. I have to say best warm-up act I have seen at a concert.

Was it the best concert ever.... U2 definitely went out with a bang with the place coming alive and everyone sharing this band's amazing music together. Bono at one point took a moment to describe his own feelings about this particular tour and expressed that no tour had ever quite given him this feeling and that he was literally in awe of the support that had been given back to the band. We definitely won't be forgetting this show anytime soon.

Light the Night Charity 5km Walk

On Saturday evening, the "We're with Bob" Team completed the 5KM walk to celebrate the fantastic fund raising effort. The team raised $11,000 (with more pledges still to be included), which meant that we were the number one sponsored team at the Victoria Light the Night event. Nancy, as team captain, raised $1,150, however Wendy achieved the highest amount at $2,860. Great effort all round! The team was supported by over thirty people completing the walk and as the photos show everyone signed the team banner. Bob achieved the complete distance and enjoyed the post-walk party with a cheeky glass of wine.

Light The Night is an annual walk and event hosted by The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada (LLSC). The Society’s mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.

Thank you to everyone that donated, provided support and came on the walk.

U2 in Vancouver - Best Concert ever?

Nancy and I are seeing U2 in concert next Wednesday in Vancouver! Some might say it will be the best concert ever.....

Nothing to Report!

The low cloud cover outside my window and the recent heavy rain, in addition to Nancy being away in Northern Ireland is about all the news that I have from Vancouver. The past week has seen me travel to Calgary and experience my first snow of the season - about three inches was covering the city. Also I have meetings planned at the MB head office next week in Toronto for a few days.

So all there is for me to do is get outside and complete a Sunday morning run. Especially, as I have seen from the blog that Anthony (aka ex smoker or Marlboro Man) has been stepping up the pace and getting a number of runs on the board.

DON'T FORGET TO SPONSOR NANCY or MYSELF THIS WEEK!! Bob's charity walk is NEXT Saturday (24th Oct) and so get your sponsorship in NOW! Thank you for your support.

Canadian Thanksgiving

This weekend was my first Canadian Thanksgiving in Canada, which we spent enjoying the company of Bob, Wendy and Scott Marks on Vancouver Island. We had a turkey dinner with local neighbours, the Player family and Abi the dog, on Saturday night. Sunday was the Marks thanksgiving dinner which as an alternative was roast beef. Both were great events and good times.

However, what are Canadians thankful for???? The American thanksgiving holiday is famous for the celebration of the Pilgrim Fathers and the Mayflower ship landing on the East coast of the USA. This was the much discussed question at the dinner table from the only Brit and the less than convincing answer seemed to be linked to harvest festival. On further research, i.e. a search on Wikipedia, I discovered that The history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Pacific Ocean. Frobisher's Thanksgiving was not for harvest but homecoming. He had safely returned from a search for the Northwest Passage, avoiding the later fate of Henry Hudson and Sir John Franklin who died.

Hey, whatever.... the important thing to me was that I get an extra day-off work! Here's to Canada Thanksgiving.

Highway Fire and Quad Bikes

A busy week at work involved me taking a long drive to a place called Kamloops for a grand opening of a new Mercedes Dealer. The four-hour drive through the mountains is usually scenic, but pretty dull, except this time, there was FIRE! We came across a logging-truck that was ablaze, surrounded by emergency services, who were all standing around watching the fire. It would seem the truck driver was smoking, threw his cigarette butt out the window, onto the wood and created the fire. DOH!

On Wednesday, we had a team "bonding" session with senior management at Whistler mountain and the main activity was quad biking. I have done quad biking before in the UK, but certainly not up the side of a mountain and through dense forests. A great laugh and experience had by all, plus as a bonus we got to see the new bobsleigh track for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

Nancy singing at the Seattle Baseball game

Last weekend was my first trip to Seattle. Although Nancy has been there many times in the past it was a trip we both enjoyed as a shared experience, in the remaining Autumn sunshine. We stayed with friends, who live in White Rock, on the Friday night as there are only minutes from the border crossing. On Saturday morning we headed for the USA border and due to my British passport, had to wait about 45 minutes and pay my six bucks.

Once in the US, it was an easy highway drive down to Seattle, stopping off only for the premium outlet malls - very similar to Potomac Mills or Bicester village. After a couple of bargain buys, we reached Seattle itself and on the Saturday evening we watched the flicking city lights from the top of the Space Needle. As the photos show it was an impressive vista across the ocean and city. The next morning we wandered around the area, including the local market where the world famous Pike Place Fish Market is situated. This involved watching the guys throwing fish and shouting at each other - very theatrical indeed. Following brunch we heading for the baseball stadium, called Safeco Field, and enjoyed the Seattle Mariners beat the Texas Rangers 4-3, in their last game of the season. Great enjoyment and good seats in the sunshine, near third base. A baseball was hit into the stands a few rows in front of us and so watched a big crowd scramble. However, the main highlight was Nancy's singing in the seventh inning - check out the video! She reminds me of the finger-pointing girl in some wedding video I've seen somewhere!!??!

Mr Smiley Face! Golfing Fundamentals

Just to show how serious I am about learning the golfing fundamentals, I even allowed myself to be videoed for training purposes! Check out the enclosed video clips for a bit of a laugh. These are now available for your viewing pleasure on YouTube as well!

These videos were taken in the early days of my golf coaching from my coach Brett and Mr Smiley Face is helping to establish my golf swing.

1. Mr Smiley Face..... "Don't move your head!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw6_czGHYOw
2. Elvis has left the building.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agsE4gnOozo

We're with Bob! Your help is needed

As many of you know Nancy's father, Bob, was diagnosed with Lymphoma cancer (actually two types of Lymphoma) early this year. Since his diagnosis, Bob has been undergoing a regime that includes an experimental chemotherapy cocktail. This cocktail literally didn’t exist a few months ago – so we can attest that medical research is producing advancements that benefit current and future patients.

So it only seems fitting that Nancy and myself contribute to this ongoing research into lymphoma. Accordingly, a small group of us, including Bob, will be participating in the Light-the-Night fundraising 5km walk in Victoria, Vancouver Island on 24th October.

If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation and sponsor my participation, please make a secure online donation using your credit card by clicking the following link:

http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=697185

If you would like any further information please let me know. Thank you for your support.

Stroll round Fort Rodd Hill

With the great summer weather continuing over last weekend, we ceased the advantage and went for a local walk on the Island to visit Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse. This is a National Historic Site which is a coast artillery fort built in the late 1890s to defend Victoria and the Esquimalt Naval Base. The Fort includes three gun batteries, underground magazines, command posts, guardhouses, barracks and searchlight emplacements.

The waterfront sites at Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse are extremely photogenic, especially with the scenic backdrop of the Olympic Mountains in neighbouring Washington state. The Strait of Juan de Fuca offered a wide variety of ships, from small sailing vessels, to enormous cargo ships, and close proximity to the Canadian Navy base with military craft of several different nations at close range.

Grouse Grind - 2830 steps!

My challenge training took an interesting twist today, as I completed the Grouse Grind. You are probably wondering what the Grouse Grind is....

Often referred to as “Mother Nature’s Stairmaster,” the Grouse Grind is a trail that winds it's way up the side of Grouse Mountain. This is the mountain that is directly opposite our apartment and makes up a large proportion of the view from our sofa. More than 100-thousand hikers a year take on the challenge of the rugged terrain and steep climb, up an approximate 56 per cent slope (30°), which starts at the Valley Station of Grouse Mountain and finishes at the Peak’s plateau. In length the Grind is 2.9 KMs or 1.8 miles, the elevation gain is 853 metres or 2,800 feet and the summit is 1,127 metres above sea level.

On average this hike takes up to an hour and a half, however, the official record to date for men is 26.19 held by Michael Simpson, set in 2007. I was happy in simply completing, but managed a respectable time of 1 hour 11mins for the total of 2,830 steps. Although I was spurred on by a couple of young kids passing me on the way up!

The Challenge is On!

Following the successful Anthony and Scott weight loss challenge (combined loss of 42 pounds) prior to the wedding of the year, it has been agreed that the next challenge is the fastest 10KM run before 1st May 2010.

The group of contenders includes, Nancy, Scott M, Ross, Emily, Kris, me and of course Anthony.

The rules are simple:
- Need to complete an official, timed 10KM run before the 1st May 2010.
- The timed result needs to be on offical paperwork from an organised run or from the organisers website.
- The FASTEST TIME wins the challenge!

A handicap system is available to those who want to use it and is based on their BMI score. Enclosed is a link to a BMI calculating website http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/. This is purely optional.

Eyes of the prize - major bragging rights are awarded to the winner! Also a few people are asking for a betting book to be run on the winning time, so we may look into this at a later date and donate any winnings to a cancer charity. An embarrassing punishment for the loser has also been mentioned in passing and so we will see how that develops over the next few weeks.

So if there is anyone else you wants to join in the challenge then please let me know, however, if you just want to watch our progress keep an eye on the blog for updates. Furthermore, you can track our run training via the blog through the Nike widgets on the right-hand menu bar. These track the distances run in training and related timings.

Anyway, enough of the talk for now and down to the training (minus the ice cream). See you all at the finish line! Good luck and eat my dust.

Friday Night - Keane Concert

After a busy week at work and the Vegas trip, Friday night saw us taking in a concert with the English band Keane. This was Keane's third concert from their tour of North America and it was a privilege to see them in such a great venue. The Centre for Performing Arts was high quality in its seating, accoustics and view of the stage and we felt really part of the atmosphere. It also helped that the lead singer, Tom, was on fire - full of energy and adrenalin for the occasion and really got the audience going.

Keane tracks were on our wedding reception playlist, so it seemed apt that the concert tickets were one of my wedding anniversary presents to Nancy earlier in the year. Turned out to be an enjoyable gift with both of us coming away looking to rediscover albums by Keane. Although, this was the first of two concerts for Nancy this weekend as on Saturday she went to see Neil Young, Sheryl Crow and various other artists at Ambleside on the North Shore.

Sin City Trip

It has now been a few days since our return from Las Vegas, aka Sin City, and we had a great visit with the clear highlight spending time with the new Mr and Mrs King. We enjoyed Vegas to its maximum including shows, bars, gambling, swimming, beaches, dining-out and M&Ms. The newly married couple are certainly enjoying their honeymoon travels across California and we heard all about San Fransisco, Yosemite Park, drive through Death Valley and Grand Canyon.

Once we met up with Emily and Kris, we all headed for the -5 degree ice bar, which could have proved a trauma for someone with small finger syndrome! Despite this, we had a real laugh in rented coats, drinking vodka cocktails from ice glasses and even a quick drink from an ice statue of a lady's chest (not quite sure what that was doing there). On Sunday morning, we enjoyed a gospel brunch with was as much food as we could eat at the House of Blues, but the real entertainment was from the gossip band which got the crowd on their feet and even on the stage. This set us up for the day with lots of energy and we then toured the strip, including the M&M brand store - I think the colourful pictures tell their own story.

That evening the Beatles Cirque du Soleil show called Love, was simply spectacular! The show combined the best of the Beatles songs with amazing acrobatic displays. There is no easy way of describing the content of the show, but suffice to say that everyone thought it was a fantastic highlight of Vegas. This was followed by us walking back to the hotel and admiring the Bellagio Hotel dancing water fountains - check out the video for the full experience, shot by my video assistant Emily.

The next day saw us relaxing at the lazy river and wave pool at the Hotel, followed by a late brunch and Kris discovering the joy of maple syrup on pancakes and bacon. Sweeeet....! We then popped along to the Little White Wedding Chapel which seemed to be in honour of Elvis, with the realization that you could get married at the chapel drive-thru. We all decided that it wasn't the best place to renew our wedding vows on this particular occasion. Dinner later that night was at a Rainforest restaurant, which involved sitting very close to a noisy elephant (I will leave the rest to your imagination). The remainder of the trip was spent drinking, eating, gambling and swimming until we said our farewells in the hotel lobby - with Emily and Kris heading onto LA and us returning to Vancouver. Good times!

Sitting at Vancouver Airport... Next stop Vegas

Well, not quite... we have a stop over in Seattle on the way through to Las Vegas. However, the important thing is that we have cleared US customs and currently sitting in Vancouver Airport awaiting our flight. Exciting times ahead and really looking forward to see the new Mr and Mrs King for some fun and gambling.

Vegas, Baby!

With Emily and Kris now officially on their honeymoon road trip in California, the days are on countdown for us to join them in Las Vegas.

We are looking forward to four days in the entertainment capital of the world and especially spending time with the new Mr and Mrs King. Although, Kris and I need to ensure that we do not come home bankrupt, thanks to our wives gambling!