The thing about winning Gold in an Olympic event over and over and over and (YAWN) over is that you might start to assume that it’s your birthright, which, I suppose, this one, uh, kid, with the red shirt thinks.
You forget all the work involved and your belly gets flabby and you won’t want to even walk the dog anymore.
“You have to win. Hockey is what you do,” is how a parent from South Africa put it to me. This, at morning coffee at the kids’ international school before the Winter Games even started.
The same friend just sent me this photo, doing the internet rounds, apparently, the one kid looking like he has severe constipation, the other looking like he just got over it.
But we still have American friends in Uganda and it was my American friend, yes that’s my GOOD FRIEND FROM THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – Washington, DC, in fact – who invited me to his embassy home in Kampala not just once, but TWICE IN THREE DAYS to eat pizza and drink refreshments, this second time while watching Canada take Gold against the Swedes, all via a special US Embassy line normally given to Americans in the armed forces, apparently the only cable feed in Uganda with this big game.
Team Uganda, the Ugandan hockey team I will own, manage and coach in the 2018 Winter Games, was not there.
It was just myself, My Babe and Jon and Liz, (Hannah had other interests), plus a Swedish friend – another parent from school. I think we’re still okay with him (although I won’t get under his car if he asks me to help change a flat tire.)
The event highlight for Jon was betting the Old Man 5 bucks that Sidney Crosby would score. When Crosby did just that, I told Jon I’d give him 10 bucks (about 253,397,385,627 Ugandan shillings), Crosby’s goal was that pretty.
The other highlight was The Froese Fam going out after the game to celebrate with chocolate fudge cake AND ice-cream sundaes AND fruit smoothies, something My Babe wouldn’t tell you, before driving home with Jon proudly holding the Canadian flag to fly briskly out of the truck window all the way down the highway.
At home we then stood in the living room and sang Oh Canada, then a second time on the phone to family in Canada. Really. Like the last time we saw Canadian Gold in Africa, it was that special, a real memory.
It was like Canada qualified for the World Cup. Just better.