Home and away!

Well,


We DID get up at 02.15 to watch Katharine "slide" in the Skeleton event at Sochi.  Way to go NZ!  Katharine is the daughter of dear friends back home in England; she went to NZ on a work visa some years ago, liked the place and became a Kiwi!  Then she took up skeleton racing - in a country that doesn't have a sliding centre!  We have an idea of how hard her journey has been - but only an idea.

And now here she was sliding at the Olympics!  I have to tell you, it is really, really weird to see someone you know - however little (she's a bit older than our kids) - and sort of wondering "does she know what she's doing"... just because you know her.  And then you see her competing against world-known names who obviously DO know what they're doing.  Weird.









Back to bed; and then up at about 9.00 to carry on with the painting in the bedroom - not before I'd  sanded the  first coat of filler on the ceiling.......  With predictable results.  I am NOT as grey as this - at least, my hair isn't!






Thursday ended in a blaze - should have warned us about Friday!

The States (four hours drive south of here) has been hammered by a real winter storm.

We woke to gentle snow - St Valentin!  The snow continued most of the day really, ending at about 3.30 when we'd had about 4 inches / 10 cm - when B Skyped us to tell us that they have chosen - and had an offer accepted on - a house!

Wow; that was QUICK!



Well; before that; Katharine had finished the rest of the racing season in 10th position in the world (!), and to be fair, her earlier runs were not at that level.  But by the end of the Olympic competition (Friday) she made good and ended up exactly (to the hundredth of a second) equal to the Canadian, Melissa Hollinsworth in equal 11th.  Which made life MUCH easier for us - not having to divide loyalties.  And of course, Lizzy Yarnold annihilated the field to win the Gold - so when we go back to the UK, there's that to be proud of as well!

(Thanks to G and his wizardry) here are a couple of shots to remember the day by!

As a side-note; Yarnold's total time was 3:52:89; Katharine's was 3:56:21, just under 4 seconds slower or a second a run.  From the BBC Sport website "Why do Britain do so well at Skeleton?"
"British Skeleton received £2.1m of National Lottery and Exchequer investment from UK Sport for the four-year cycle leading up to Vancouver.  Williams's (sic) gold medal (there) saw this rise to £3.4m for Sochi, making skeleton the most funded British winter sport."  There are six British sliders listed as being in the World Cup team.  In terms of outcome, so far, £M3.4 / 6 = £566,666 per World Cup racer (I know this isn't really fair as there is a large team behind them and other racers in the programme). Nevertheless, the difference between 1st and 11th is 4 seconds; that's £141,666 per second!  Wow!

Meanwhile, the most expensive item around here at the  moment (apart from paint and decorating tools) is bird-seed.




 A total of 22 Blue-Jays on the feeders at one point today!








But they are so beautiful!




At the end of theday, Yves came to clear the snow.  This one's for the boys in Redfield!