NHL Hockey comes to Barry's Bay

Sometimes you just know you're ready. Having laced on the skates twice in the past three months I knew I was ready for my first game of hockey. (Nobody calls it ice hockey here as no other deviation of the national game exists.)

It was the inaugural St John Bosco Staff V. Students game held at the Paul J. Yakabuski Community Centre. There was tension in the air, bragging rites were at stake and the staff team were taking no chances on the outcome so they enlisted the services of all able bodied skaters on staff and then sured up the playing ranks by enlisting the services of the local school bus driver. They then invoked the one non-Canadian import rule and signed me up before I could really think of good reason not to participate. (Reasons such as; not being able to stop, turn or keep up with those speedy little kids.)

It seemed only natural then that I would be put in as centre. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_(ice_hockey) This way I got my stick on the puck occasionally and I could finally get a good look at some of these kids before they returned to being speeding blurs on the ice. Sadly I didn't get to score. At first I thought my team mates were conspiring against me. I kept calling out, "I'm free! Pass it to me," but to no avail. Then I was told that you must be in the opposition's half and preferably in front of their goal before utilising goal scoring opportunities. By the time I reached the opposition net a goal was usually scored and it was back to the centre for another faceoff. I was starting to settle in to my role on the team and by the start of the second half I was dominating the faceoffs. For my next game I think I'll work on how to skate after the puck after winning a faceoff.

In the second half the students got crafty and found their own non-Canadian import. This little Aussie all rounder, who glides on the ice like a native Canadian, was kitted out at half time by a couple of his classmates' wonderful mums and strode out to the endzone faceoff. With fire in his eye he skated out to take on the star centre of the Staff team and, like so many before him, he lost the faceoff - and then skated off after the puck while I stood there trying to work out how to get my skates to go. That moment was my career highlight and I'm happy to retire with that.

Easter (Yes - they're all relatives!)

Coming from Australia where my relatives are scarce Canada has been quite a revelation. Here, I'm related to half of Toronto and Oshawa and even have a distant relative in Barry's Bay!!

We went to Oshawa on Holy Thursday, at the start of Easter break, to meet some more relatives. We met and stayed with my dad's cousin, Iva and her husband, Frank . There we also met their four boys and their families over the course of the next few days. We also met dad's other cousin, Ivan and his wife Ljilja, and three of their six children and a host of their spouses and children. With my head starting to spin we were then introduced to Iva's brother, mother and family. Iva's mother was amazing. At 94 she's still spritely and imbued with the fine Croatian work ethic. She takes it upon herself to make herself useful. Her special talent now is knitting intricately patterned slippers and Mar was given a couple of pairs to take home with her.

We stayed two nights with Iva and Frank in Ottawa and were treated to the typical Croatian hospitality which involved copious quantities of delicious food, drink and good company. This was probably a perfect lead up for the next couple of days in Toronto with Lenka and Veselko where we were treated to the typical Croatian hospitality which involved copious quantities of delicious food, drink and good company. The only downside of all this was that I came down with a cold and wasn't much company, especially when I had to go off in the afternooon for a lie down.

The upside, though, was meeting so many friendly, welcoming people. We can hardly wait till a few of them take us up on the offer to visit Australia.