Tuesday, March 29th - the island was a busy spot this weekend

Well, this week was a little busier. Hope everyone had a happy Easter and a great long weekend. Easter at our house was pretty much a none event. I volunteered at the Canada East Speedskating Championships on Friday and Saturday. I was lucky enough to meet some friends of Patti and James' as well as one of the coaches from the Cambridge team.  It was a pretty busy couple of days but enjoyable. I also connected with a couple of parents of PEI skaters whom I'd met in Riviere du Loup a couple of years ago. In fact, one of them remembered James by name so I guess he must have made some kind of impression! 

Unfortunately the PEI team didn't win any medals but they still had a great time and the host team put on an amazing event. I was really impressed with just how organized and efficient they were - there was nothing they hadn't thought of. They had great sponsorship from Irving as well as other community businesses. All in all a really great weekend. The parents of one of James friends have already decided they are coming back on vacation so we hope to all get together when they come back. That would be really nice.

This weekend Charlottetown hosted the Canada East Short Track Championships, the biggest competition of the year for Eastern Canadian speed skaters ages 11 to 15.

It is the first time in 19 years P.E.I. has hosted a speed skating event of this significance.

"It's a big deal for our home club of course. Our skaters are very excited to be doing this level of event on home ice," said Rob Binns, the host committee chairman and president of Speed Skate PEI.

"From a development point of view for the sport, it's huge. Creates excitement, gets some buzz in the community and we're hoping to see more people come out and see some short track skating and perhaps join."   

The young skaters were looking for personal bests and winning times as they skated around the oval.

Sometimes there was a bit of jostling for space and some spills on the ice as 122 speed skaters took part in the weekend event.

Binns says since the peak age for most speed skaters is in their mid-20s, many of the participants may be dreaming of the 2022 Olympics.

"This competition, in the previous few years there's already been alumni who have gone on to senior level world cups and world championships representing Canada," he said.

One of those speed skaters, William Preudhomme, a World Cup medal winner and ranked 7th in Canada, attended the event. 

"Maybe one of the youngsters that is skating here looking up to me might end up training with me later, so I think it can give them a little bit of inspiration," said Preudhomme who is a Short Track Speed Skating Canadian National Development team member.  

While there were no medals for Island speed skaters, many achieved personal bests in the competition.
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Apparently I was also a winner this week. I got the answer to the trivia question correct one morning on the radio and  didn't my name get chosen so I was the lucky recipient of an Ocean 100 coffee mug! When I went downtown to the station to pick it up, I was asked to have my photo taken. This is probably as close as I'll ever get to being in the winner's circle.

While James didn't make it to the island to skate, he was otherwise occupied. He and the Guelph Pipe Band were in a competition in Toronto on Saturday. He was in a quartet that played and came in third out of ten, so they did well and the whole band came in fourth. This is them performing in the above youtube video. James is in the second row, as they come in but he's easy to spot being the shortest piper, in spite of how much taller he's gotten over the past few months.


I was talking to the kids on Sunday and Tristen has a special Karate event the same weekend as Meghan's recital so I'll be able to see both of them at their best.

This busy week was not without it's relaxing moments. On Thursday evening, Brenda and Sharon came over and we watched a movie and had some snacks. Since no one had to get up early on Friday morning, we were all able to stay up past our usual bed times, so it was a nice evening.

While I was busy away from home most of the weekend, Lloyd enjoyed some quality time out in the garage working on several projects. On Thursday he picked up fencing materials so that as soon as the ground is dry and frost free he can start putting up the fencing for the goats, and then hopefully, we can start on our little barn so that they'll have a place to live besides the garage. All it takes is time, lots of time, and a little help from Moither Nature. Hurry up, Spring!