I was busy today, planning
for a pedicure, facial waxing, and haircut.
But, even before I did that, I went to Shoppers Drug Mart (in
Scarborough this time) and ordered another prescription that I needed. After that, I bought myself a modern cell
phone, something I’d promised myself for Europe. I’ll mostly use it for picture-taking and
listening to music, but at least I now have a new phone. Then, I went for my beauty treatment, but
still had lots of shopping to do. Since
I was at the STC, that part was easy for me.
I bought a dress from
Dollarama that cost next to nothing. It
looked like something I would wear in Europe because it was both pretty and
longish. I just had to make sure it
would fit so, I tried it on when I got back to my hotel and it did. Then, I went back to Shoppers and picked up
the prescription that I’d ordered earlier in the day. I bought two pocket books from Indigo Pop-Up
at the STC after investigating three other places where I thought I could buy
them. I really need something to read
next week at Brent’s place when I go there to babysit James one last time. And, I went to try and buy some comfortable
running shoes since I am getting new orthotics in a couple of weeks and
desperately need new shoes that aren’t falling apart like my current ones. I finally found an affordable pair at Payless
Shoes (thank God!) as well as ankle socks, which were on sale there.
When I finally got home
to my hotel, I tuned into the Rio 2016
Olympics, of course, and discovered that the women’s gymnastics individual
all-around competition was finishing up.
I had wanted to see that so much.
Fortunately, it was re-played on Olympic
Games Primetime and I saw every routine in detail. I am so proud of our top competitor, Ellie
Black, who came fifth overall. That’s
quite an accomplishment!
The women have pretty
much the same requirements on their apparatus as the men do on theirs. The apparatus are somewhat different for
women: floor, vault, balance beam, and
uneven bars. The tricks that have to be
performed, essentially, have the same characteristics – twists and somersaults
on floor, balance beam, and vault. On
the uneven bars, primarily swinging and re-grasp movements in addition to
twisting and somersaulting are required.
This is the reason gymnastics is not an easy sport to excel in for
either men or women. Those who do
deserve the accolades they get.
Tonight, I am watching
swimming semi-finals and finals and that involves both men’s and women’s events
– the 200 m IM for both, for example.
These are not the only final swimming events, just a couple of the major
ones. Michael Phelps of the USA will be
competing again and making history while he’s at it. He’s competing in two events tonight – the
200 m IM final and the 100 m butterfly semi-final. It’s just too bad he doesn’t compete for
Canada – oh well! Ryan Lochte of the USA
will be competing alongside Michael and is expected to finish either first or
second. As it turns out, Ryan did not
even make to the medal podium in the 200 m IM final, but Michael won it and he also
came second behind Laszlo Czeh in the 100 m butterfly semi-final. The final of this race will be tomorrow
night.
Being the loyal
Canadian that I am, I’m extremely interested in the one man and four women who
will be competing for Canada tonight:
Santo Condorelli, Kierra Smith, Hilary Caldwell, Dominique Bouchard,
and, most of all, Penny Oleksiak who will be competing in the 100 m freestyle
final and in the 4 x 100 m medley relay final.
Penny, in particular, has made all of us Canadians proud already because
of her multiple Olympic accomplishments (medals) so far, having done it at the
tender age of sixteen. What a future she
has in international swimming competition!
I’ll be looking for her at the Tokyo
2020 Olympics. As it turns out, she won a GOLD medal in her 100 m freestyle
race, sharing the same result with the swimmer from the USA, Simone Manual! That is a truly amazing feat! And, best of all, her infectiously cheerful
attitude seems to be rubbing off on the other Canadian swimmers!
I have to check out of
my hotel on Sunday morning – two-and-a-bit days from now. I still have to plan my trip and I am hoping
to visit a travel agent in a day or two, before Brent comes here to pick me
up. There is nothing to stop me from
planning my trip now. I thought I would
do it through a travel agent instead of on my own so that I could get my two
planned guided tours booked properly. I
might be booking a few things on my own (like a trip to Helsinki, Finland) and
I can do that through Expedia, I believe.
However, for such a comprehensive trip as putting my lengthy itinerary
in Europe together, I think a travel agent would probably do a better job than
me and it might actually cost me less than if I did it myself. I guess I’ll find out this weekend just how
complicated it is.
copyright 2016 - Anne Shier
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