A golden trio from Canton

What do they put in the water in Canton, Michigan?!

Igor Spilband and Marina Zoueva must be getting requests to coach nearly every dance team in the world, but they've kept their team small and nurtured them well.

It was never in doubt that a Canton team would win gold in Moscow, but who that team would be was a mystery right until the final score was counted.

3rd from last to skate were World debutantes Maia and Alex Shibutani. These young siblings were a breath of fresh air to their Charlie Chaplin themed programme (Smile/Lets face the music and dance) they really did dance in a way that made you forget this is a sport of technical marks and split-second timings. However, the shock on their faces when their scores came up showed that they never in their wildest dreams expected to win a podium place, they pipped the french team Pechalat & Bourzat by just .15 overall but by over 4 points in the free dance. These two are 'the future'...

Next to skate were the olympic champions Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir. One word for their fiery samba free skate - WOW! They were innovative, powerful, fast and furious all the way through. Whilst this programme was new to the audience (at least everything from about 30second onwards), Tessa and Scott had been skating this programme and had complete confidence in it. and it showed. Cool calm and collected as the scores came up, they looked unbeatable.

Last on the ice, having no doubt heard the reception the canadians had got. Meryl Davis and Charlie White skated calmly to their starting position. They skated their tango free skate as faultlessly as they have all season. Fast, technical and with feeling. Igor Spilband was seen bouncing up and down in celebration as his third team of the last 10 minutes skated their socks off. It was going to come down to the wire.

The Eurosport commentators thought Tessa & Scott had it, I thought they did to.
We were both wrong, a first and very deserved world title for Meryl & Charlie to cap off an undefeated season. A good ending, it keeps the friendly rivalry alive between these two fabulous teams ready for next year.

What this does mean is that Marina and Igor will have a busy autumn, their teams will be competing at EVERY Grand Prix Event!

Would I wish anything more from these dancers for next season?
Maia & Alex - a bit more power
Meryl & Charlie - a bit more fire
Tessa and Scott - just more please :-D

What an end to a fabulous championships. Well done Moscow!

Ups and Downs of the Ladies Free Skate

I'm not quite sure what to think of the ladies event yet, but at least I had a chance to watch the last 2 groups live. So here is the event as I saw it. Be warned- Subjective opinions abound!

Kanako Murakami: This young thing is a talent and a joy to watch. She looked very ready in the rehearsals and was (according to the commentators) gutted to be in 10th after the short programme. Her free skate was full of energy and performed up to the crowd. She won't reach the podium this year, but bet she will in the future.

Mao Asada: This programme is beautiful and Mao's skating quality is virtuoso. Unfortunately her technical weaknesses caught up with her again, her triple axel was under-rotated as it has been much of the week, the 3Salchow deserted and she had a flukey entry into one of her spins. Thankfully she didn't look too disappointed in the kiss and cry. It wasn't to be for Mao this year. Would it have been different had the event been in Tokyo?

Mae-Berenice Miete: This young lady has risen quickly to be the leader for France. She deservedly won the qualifying round here. The jumps were a bit of a disaster in the free skate today but she has promise because she performs her programme well. Her interpretation seemed real and not simply regurgitated from memory. She's not ready yet but she has scope to improve.

Rachael Flatt: The first time we've seen the consistent Flatt have a disaster out on the ice in competition. The reasion is obvious. She has a stress fracture of her tibia and a foot injury which were playing on her mentally and physically. The question is, why was she sent out to compete in that state. She earned her spot back in January after narrowly beating Mirai Nagasu back at US nationals. But Mirai would likely have been much more competition ready and if things had been different, the USA might have their prized 3 spots back for next year. I feel for Flatt (particularly as she put off attending Stanford to focus on skating this year) but why have alternates and not use them?

Miki Ando: Skated her socks off. The technical content was all there and she put effort into her choreography. I may be biased and many will likely disagree with me, but she would win more fans if she put more real expression into her performance and threw it out to the audience. Her arm movements are pretty, but they still seem to be there for the sake of it and not because they add to the programme. That said, she says she came here to make the people of Japan smile and she has don that. She deserved her high marks and her win on the day today.

Alena Leonova: There have been many nay-sayers to this skater but all credit to her. She picked her theme and she SOLD IT. She will never be the most graceful skater with the best lines (just as her number 1 fan in Moscow, Irina Slutskaya never was) but she performed her programme the best of any skater today and who can blame her. It may be her last chance to skate a major championships in front of an adoring home crowd, with the strength of Russia's tiny teens coming up from the junior ranks. This (in my humble opinion) was the performance of the night.

Yu-Na Kim: is likely kicking herself right now. Her Homage to Korea programme is a piece of skating art and should be appreciated on its own merit. But the jumps that she has been hitting consistently all week let her down just enough to see gold slip from her fingers. One mistake and she still would have pipped Miki Ando, but two was too much to get away with. She popped the double toe on the end of combination, popped her nemesis flip jump and recieved a level 1 on one of her spins. Whether she was let down by a lack of training, a mental blip or something else we may never know. I hope we see this gorgeous programme and gorgeous skater back in competition again soon though.


Alissa Czisny: I thought for a second the Czisny of old was back in  the building. She fell on her first triple lutz and it could have all gone horribly wrong from there, but it didn't. Czisny should be very proud of her US and Grand Prix titles this season, and of the vast improvements she has made in consistency and artistry. We're not sure yet how much we'll see of her next season. But I certainly wouldn't be sad to see her back.

Carolina Kostner: She wasn't perfect, but that was the most consistent we've seen Carolina Kostner in a long long time. The people of Russia may never forgive her for pipping Alena Leonova to the bronze (I too would have Alena ahead, but what can you do?) Still, congratulations Carolina on a long-awaited return to form.

Ksenia Makarova: Russsia wanted a world medal, and they wanted it bad! Makarova is a lovely skater with great performance quality. But with her lack of technical difficulty (she doesn't do a lutz) she had to be perfect and she wasn't today. Her triple-triple was under-rotated and several other errors knocked her score down the pack. Keep at it though Ksenia, and keep working on that Lutz for the future!

So it's Ando, Kim and Kostner. Not how many expected this podium to look, but good news for Japan at last.

Oh dear Jenna, oh dear :-(

Exploring Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Dutch isn’t Dutch; the name comes from Deutsch (German). In the 18th Century this rolling farmland of Philadelphia became the home of the Amish, the Mennonites, and other German and Swiss immigrants escaping religion persecution. Today their descendants continue to turn their backs on the modern world and in doing so attract the world’s attention. In summer, buses jam route 30, the main thoroughfare. But there is still charm on the back roads, where you will discover Amish farms, hand painted signs advertising quilts, fields worked with mules and horse drawn buggies.

The People’s Place provides an excellent introduction to the Amish, Mennonite and Hutterite communities in a multi-screen slide show and interactive family museum. Several farmhouses offer simulated up-close looks at how the Amish live, including the Amish Farm and House.

Olympic champions take the lead.

With the men's and pairs competitions complete, all eyes in Moscow turn to the ladies and the ice dancers. Again I have been without live coverage for most of the event so I will keep my coverage brief and speak only of what I know.

There has been much excitement about Korea's Queen Yu-Na returning to competition for the first time since Vancouver. Yu-Na Kim's new programmes and costumes have been kept almost as secret as Kate Middleton's wedding dress in the run-up to the championships. Kim delivered a steady but not spectacular programme to the music of Giselle. She stepped out of her planned combination jump on the 3Lutz but managed to add a double toe to her flip jump later in the programme. The programme was smooth and easy on the eyes but lacked the fire and performance of her previous 'Danse Macabre' and 'James Bond' short programmes. Many tweeters (no names) felt that she won the short programme based on reputation rather than performance, but there's very little not to like in this programme.

2nd place went to Miki Ando, who showed more effort in her performance to 'The Mission' than I've seen in the past (ie she looked up and performed directly to the audience, which helps!). Russia's Ksenia Makarova sits in third, hiping to emulate young team-mate Artur Gachinski and take home a medal from Moscow.

I can't really comment on the rest as I haven't watched them yet. Mao Asada is down in the rankings after her triple axel was downgraded, but not out of reach of a medal.  Also the US ladies are on track to earn 3 spots to next years championships (for the first time since 2007) which will please the folks at home.

In the Ice Dance, as ever it is the teams from Canton, Michigan leading the way. Virtue & Moir hold a slight lead over training mates Davis & White, but it could go either way in the free with the Americans having clocked up much more competition experience this season. It will be a deligt to finally see the 2nd half of the Canadians free skate though!

Bicephaly

As it says in Wikipedia, "The red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) is a semiaquatic turtle belonging to the family Emydidae. It is a subspecies of the pond slider. It is the most popular pet turtle in the United States and also popular in the rest of the world. It is native only to the southern United States, but has become established in other places because of pet releases."

What Wikipedia doesn't mention is that very, very occasionally this animal species will produce two-headed offspring. Both heads can often function and feed and these freak creatures can sometimes live to maturity.

After zooming up the modernistic Kula Lumpur Tower last weekend, I descended to the tower's base and there in the shadow of that four hundred metre high telecommunications structure, I entered Animal Kingdom where, much to my amazement, I spotted a two-headed red ear slider turtle. I never knew such creatures existed. I am sorry my photo is a bit blurry. It was taken through smeared glass. Here's another by someone else:-

Femininity and Feminism Meet for Coffee

In my head, Femininity and Feminism meet at a cafe to talk every once in a while. They need to clarify some stuff. Here's how it usually goes down...

Feminism: Hello, Femininity.

Femininity: Hello, Feminism. I admit I'm scared to have this chat.

Feminism: Really? Why?

Femininity: I'm scared you hate me.

Feminism: Why would you think a thing like that?

Femininity: Because I shave my legs and blow-dry my hair straight and pluck my eyebrows and wear make-up and high-heels.

Feminism: And you think I disapprove of such behavior?

Femininity: Well, yeah... I mean, at the very least, you disapprove that I do it to fit in to social standards of female beauty.

Feminism: Is that what you do?

Femininity: Not always, but often. Like, sometimes, I wear a skirt, and it's just because I want men to look at my legs. I do want to look good for my sake, of course, but I also care about what other people think, and I care about being attractive to men. And not scaring people.

Feminism: So you think I don't care what people think, or about being attractive to men, or about scaring people?

Femininity: Yeah. Isn't that the case?

Feminism: Not always. I wear skirts too. And I like to be admired. And I worry about scaring people.

Femininity: You do?

Feminism: No one likes being compared to nazis or being asked if they've burnt their bra yet. As far as I'm concerned, all females are feminine, and all females are feminists, whether they know it or not. A woman with short hair who wears flats and doesn't pluck her eyebrows can still be feminine. A woman with long, blow-dried hair who gets a manicure every week and wears heels can still be a feminist.

Femininity: But there are stereotypes...

Feminism: Sure, they make it easier for us to talk about each other.

Femininity: But you don't wear things in order to fit into social standards of beauty, do you?

Feminism: Sometimes, I do, yes. Just because not shaving one's armpits works for some women, doesn't mean it works for all women. On the same token, just because wearing a dress works for some women, doesn't mean it works for all women. Once upon a time, women didn't get to decide what worked for them or what didn't. What we fight for is a world where no one feels obligated to look a certain way.

Femininity: How do you know if you feel obligated or not?

Feminism: You are conscious of the choices you make regarding your appearance, aren't you?

Femininity: Yes.

Feminism: And you're conscious of when you do things because you feel you have to, or in order to get a certain result or reaction?

Femininity: Yes.

Feminism: Then there's no reason for me to hate you. With consciousness, we have a choice. Without it, we are robots. As long as you're not a robot, we're not rivals.

Femininity: So you don't think it's bad that I spend an hour and a half on my hair every morning and hundreds of dollars on beauty products every month?

Feminism: I think it's bad if you think it's bad. If it bothers you, then it bothers me.

Femininity: I'm not sure yet if it bothers me or not.

Feminism: Then I'd say it's your responsibility to find out.

Femininity: Okay. So we're cool?

Feminism: Yeah, we're cool.

They smile at each other, sip their lattes, and live happily ever after.

Image from here.

Flying The Flag

Hurray- today marks the wedding of our future King, Prince William to Kate Middleton. Another reason why it is great to be British.

(Just be thankful I didn't use this image LOL)

Drench in to the world of music

Hi friends here goes a post for all the music lovers who either listen to music as a hobby or would like to persuade it as a career. There are different types of music like classical music, rock music, jazz, hip-hop and each people would love to listen to their favorite ones. There is a concept called backtracking which is used in most of the music genres which gives a great feel and a soul touching effect.

The concept of backing tracks is that an audio or MDI recording that the singers or musicians use when they perform live. It is basically pre-reordered and added stuff when the musician or the singer performs live. You can purchase backing tracking for singers at affordable rates. The purchase can be with lead vocals or with background vocals or even without background vocals. When you shop online you can choose any of these. It is high time to drench yourself completely into the world of music.

The crazy, tiny, bendy body of Yuko Kavaguti

As you may have guessed from my past postings and not-quite impartial coverage. I love this pair. They have a great commitment to their sport, a fierce desire to win, and the guts to try new things. Yuko is tiny, fragile looking (remember Sasha hugging her on the podium in Bern as she was shivvering from the cold in the arena!) but with nerves of steel. She was willing to give up her Japanese citizenship to persue an olympic dream.

It didn't quite work out for them in Vancouver 2010, or Moscow 2011. Yuko is still fighting her way back from a shoulder injury, but these two will not be happy with 4th place, and they'll be back fighting next year.

Germans Uncatchable

Coming into the free skate there was virtually nothing in it between the top two pairs, Pang & Tong of China and Savchenko & Szolkowy of Germany.

The Germans came out and skated their Pink Panther programme better than they have all year. It was up to Pang & Tong to skate their very best to catch them. Sadly from the first jumps it wasn't to be. He singled his first side-by-side double axel and put his hands down on the second. Gold was out of reach and silver was in the hands of the 2 Russian pairs still to go.

Young pair Bazarova & Larionov channelled a bit of Yagudin magic skating to the olympic champ's Man in the Iron Mask music from 2002. Like the Chinese, and like their Russian team-mates Kavaguti & Smirnov they skated a lovely artistic programme but had to count a fall. It was left to the final pair. Volosozhar & Trankov of Russia. The pair had both been on or close to the podium with previous partners but in their first season together put out a near-perfect skate and pipped the Olympic silver medallists, Pang & Tong to second place on the day. Russian pair skating looks as strong as ever on the road to Sochi 2014.

The Quad Kings Rule!

Congratulations to Patrick Chan, Canada's second world champion in 4 years. Also to silver medallist Takahiko Kozuka of Japan and bronze medallist, Russia's Artur Gachinski.

All 3 of these young talents are young (Chan is 20, Kozuka 22 and Gachinski just 17!) and will have their sights set on medalling again in Russia at the Sochi olympics.

Disappointment for reigning champ Daisuke Takahashi who had to stop his programme mid-way through when his blade broke away from his skate boot on a quad attempt. ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta was caught on camera having a little laugh at Takahashi's expense - miming them screwing the skater's blade back onto his boot. Tres Harsh!

Also some controversy, I didn't believe it until I saw it. France's Florent Amodio came out and intentionally played the 'exhibition' version of his free skate music, complete with Black Eyed Peas and Michael Jackson vocals, and didn't even get a penalty for it! Perhaps the judges were so shocked they didn't know how to react! He should at least have got a point pemalty like Brian Joubert did for his short programme in 2008 (and that didn't even have words...)

Men's Final Results

10 Ways to Feel Better... or, What 5 Weeks in Brazil Taught Me

1. Bake chocolate chip cookies from ultra-scratch... (as in, go out and get eggs from a real live chicken and make butter from fresh cream and all.)

2. Watch The Big Bang Theory and laugh till your ribs hurt (bazinga!)

3. Go out with all your cousins- the extended ones, the ones you haven't seen in ten years, the ones you forgot about! (this is what facebook is for!)

4. Read some Marian Keyes. I resisted it for so long, but thanks to my cousin Gugs, I finally gave in. I hardly ever read novels that are just for pure entertainment, and hers are by far the only ones that were worth my time.

5. Blast some really bad music- I'm talking Spice Girls, Britney, Backstreet Boys, Savage Garden. Dancing to bad music is a lost art.

6. Paint your nails the color of candy.

7. Wear a long skirt.

8. Watch "My Best Friend's Wedding". Cameron Diaz singing at karaoke, Julia Roberts talking into a giant mobile phone, and Rupert Everett acting straight are priceless moments. 90's rom-com at its best.

9. Go to the beach. Preferably a semi-deserted beach, and go in for a swim. You might not feel it right away, but the ocean will cleanse your soul. Do it at sunrise for extra mood boosting.

10. Make funny faces. If possible, photograph them and share it with others; it'll make them feel better too.

See?

Chantastic!

Patrick Chan blew away the field today in the men's short programme. The canadian's score set a new IJS record, beating that of Evgeni Plushenko from the 2010 Europeans. The best of the rest were the Japanese men followed by mini-Plushenko, Artur Gachinski of Russia who hit a clean 4T-3T combination.

What is eye opening is the generosity of the programme component scores for Chan's programme. While his skating skills and artistry have earned Patrick acclaim, it's the first time I've seen the judges give out anything near a 'perfect 10' in any area! Perhaps someone had a word in the judges ears that it's ok to reward the world's best skaters for being the world's best skaters.

Barring major falls/disaster. Patrick has his first world title partially sewn up. (I hope I don't eat my words.)
What do you think? Was Chan over-marked? Are you happy to see higher scores being rewarded?

Also in the pairs event, Olympic silver medallists Pang & Tong hold a narrow lead over pre-competition favourites Savchenko & Szolkowy.  The Russians are 3rd, 4th and 5th with (surprisingly) the most experienced team, Kavaguti & Smirnov behind after a freak fall from him on their combination spin. An impressive worlds debut from Japanese pair Takahashi & Tran, who sit in 6th (It feels as if they've been around for ages now but this is their senior worlds debut.)

Samacheer Kalvi Text Books

Hi everybody, from this year Government of Tamil Nadu is introducing Samacheer Kalvi for all standards from Std.1 to Std. 10. So in Tamil Nadu all students studying in the Std.1 to Std. 10 will have the same text books and same syllabus and only one Board Examination. Hereafter no Matriculation, Anglo Indian, Oriental Schools will be in Tamil Nadu.

Now the parents, teachers and students are very eagerly waiting for the X Std. books. During the summer vacation, all students have some time to go through the text books for the next year board examination. So you can go the site textbooksonline.tn.nic.in where you will see the new Samacheer Kalvi text books.

Intriguing Scent Products

Hi friends, the interesting aspect of having candles producing comfortable scent smell that too without a wick will be something astonishing. Actually this product is designed in such a way by the use of a light bulb that is introduced to melt and evaporate the scented wax form candles. It looks so good and the above melting process is done with the help of light bulb is called warmer.

Everything was way back started by the duo namely Heidi and Orville Thomson in the year 2004 and subsequently this wickless process of attractive warmers producing excellent odor of scent and duly named as Scentsy Company. What has been so imposing and advantageous will be to those is that many would love to join the scentsy team as consultant. As the company is offering their staff all the possible know how about their products through its online network. At present there are vast number of scentsy consultants spreading the experience and ideas throughout United States, Guam and Puerto Rico. The above consultants have been enjoying comfortable working time from home and earning enormous money. Those wishing to join as scentsy consultant are offered web sites at free of cost, online processing methods to conduct the business in a smooth way. So it will be a hit and proceed to join hands with scentsy.

Halfway

I am halfway through my time in Thailand. Time to take stock.

The school remains a delightful place to work in. The children continue to smile, to work hard and to show me unquestioning respect. They are also very nice to each other. They always have pens and I have discovered that all have USB memory sticks or what they prefer to call "flash drives". Very handy. My timetable remains so light that I can easily get all of my work done during the school day. I never take anything home with me and have nothing to feel guilty about. Perhaps foolishly, I have taken on board the responsibility of promoting, editing and arranging the publication of a collection of students' poems. It was something that I felt I wanted to leave behind but it remains to be seen.

Back at the Serene B&B in Ratchayothin, I feel like a member of an extended family. There's Staborn and Thida - the owners who are currently on holiday in Europe. There's their daughter Lisa who was born in New York City and can down a bottle of tequila in an evening... so she says. The lovely receptionists are called Leila and Bic. They live in cramped little quarters on the ground floor of the building. On Monday, I walked down to Kentucky Fried Chicken to get Leila some "chicken with bones". Bic always greets me with a handshake and a hefty pat on the upper arm. The youngest member of our family which also includes maids and nannies is Princess Serene herself - Lisa's three year old daughter who has just started pre-school. When ever she sees Uncle Yorkshire Pudding, she gets to me to draw her little cartoons. "Miaow!" means I have to draw a cat.

I have enjoyed trips to Koh Chang, Kanchanaburi and the Bridge on the River Kwai, Ayutthaya, Chiang Mai, Laos and most recently Kuala Lumpur. I have more ideas for trips. Two long weekends are coming up in May and after term ends at the end of June I want to spend a week somewhere very different before returning to England for Frances's graduation at the University of Birmingham. I have always loved to travel. To be somewhere different is ennervating. It makes me feel like a child locked in a sweet shop at night.

What do I miss? Above all I miss Shirley and our life together in Sheffield. I miss seeing our son Ian regularly and I miss the local pub with its characters - Gibby, Janet and Roger, Murray, Irish Joe, Bert, Arthur, Ron and Margaret and yes, even the often obnoxious Leeds Mick. I miss lovely Tetley's bitter slaking my thirst. I have missed springtime and watching our garden grow again. I miss watching the mighty Tigers at the KC Stadium. I miss decent mugs of tea and I miss cooking things in our kitchen. Eating out can be such a chore. But it was only ever going to be for five months. The missing won't have chance to become desperate.

I came for the adventure and I came for therapy. Those last years as a Head of English in England left me battle-scarred. Every day you had to steel yourself for what was to come. A hypocritical headteacher, piles of official A4 binders with action plans and small-print to trip you up, minutes, spreadsheets, crying women, assignments to level, league tables and then dozens of recalcitrant youngsters without pens or much understanding of what it means to be a student, no interest in the illumination and joy that learning can bring but plenty of interest in mobile phones and salacious gossip. It was hard, so hard but I am pleased to say that the Thai therapy I self-prescribed has helped to heal those old wounds. As I always thought - there is another way to be.

Enlighted Heart!

Those Fireworks Were So Beautiful
I Felt Their Warm Loving Embrace
Though It Looked Pretty In The Sky
It Gave A Pleasant Happiness To My Tender Heart.

Colorful Lights Decorated The
Hearts of Thousands of Individuals
Who Had Gathered Waiting For
Longer Period of Time, Gave
Unlimited Happiness, Joy.

I Wish I Get Another Chance of Viewing
That Special Firework Show, Which Exhibited
Nine Planets, A Heart, Flowers & Many Many More
I Extremely Loved Fireworks, In Disney Land[Las Angeles].

Worlds Day 2: Prelims Results

The preliminary rounds wrapped up in Moscow today with France's Mae Berenice Miete leading the ladies qualifying. 26 Ladies competed, with only the top 12 joining the 18 direct entries in the short programme.

Notably low scores came from Estonia's Elena Glebova, who usually manages to put out pleasant programmes but is rarely spectacular. Also Korea's Min-Jeong Kwak just failed to make the cut. While I never expected her to challenge for a medal it's a shame to see her place so low. She seemed to bloom under the brief tutelage of Brian Orser but seems to have taken a step backwards with the return to Korea. Not for me to say though I guess.

In the ice dance, Canadians Kaitlyn Weaver & Andrew Poje took an easy lead. I was happy also to see Brits Louise Waldon & Owen Edwards (pictured above) making the cut. They stepped up at the last minute to fill big 'shoes' after the retirement of the Kerrs.

Competition proper begins tomorrow with the Men's and Pairs SP. Full Results Here.

Royal Wedding Chat

Conversation between a Teenage Girl and a Bubble Buster:


Teenage Girl: OMG! I'm soooo excited about the Royal Wedding!

Bubble Buster: Really?

TG: Totes! Kate is like our Diana!

BB: I sure hope not.

TG: Huh?

BB: You know Diana was bulimic and suicidal right? And that she, like, died.

TG: Whatevs! She was a princess, she was beautiful! Everyone loved her!

BB: Everyone except her husband and his whole family.

TG: Yeah but like, Will loves Kate, you can totes see it in their eyes.

BB: You can?

TG: Uh, yah.

BB: You know Kate will have to walk three steps behind Will when in public from now on, right? And she can't wear ankle boots or dark tights or too much make-up anymore?

TG: Who cares, she's going to be a princess!

BB: Clearly that's a bigger selling point for you than it is for me. We'll talk in ten years and see where we're at with all this, ok?

TG: (rolls eyes) Uh-huh.

BB: (rolls eyes) Enjoy the wedding.

TG: I will! (updates facebook status to: OMG, I never want to be old.)


image from here.

Hi

Hi Dear Bloggers,

From Past Few Days I'm Very Much Irregular Here. Me And My Parents Had Been For A 5Days Trip To Sandiego and Las Angeles Along With My Sister & Brother-Inlaw.

Very Soon Will Share The Photos of Balboa Zoo Park, Sea World, Coronado Island And Disney Land.

I Shall Visit Your Blogs ASAP. I Missed All Your Writings.

Japan Reborn

From Universal Sports: The Japanese skaters at Worlds are wearing black ribbon on warmup jackets for the people of Japan who died in the earthquake and a patch with the message 'Rebirth Japan- we are always with you' for the country.

Good Luck to all the Japanese skaters, and best wishes to all their fans back home.

A familiar rivalry

Alongside the figure skating Worlds, another world title will be decided on ice this week.

The Women's IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships conclude today in Switzerland. As has been the case in every championships since the tournament was founded, the final will be between the USA and Canada. 

Canada have the advantage of being the reigning olympic champions from Vancouver and definitely have the lead on World titles, but USA have won the last 2 - setting up a close competition as ever
.

1990 - Canada
1992 - Canada
1994 - Canada
1997 - Canada
1999 - Canada
2000 - Canada
2001 - Canada
2004 - Canada
2005 - USA
2007 - Canada
2008 - USA
2009 - USA
2011 -??

The bronze medal will be decided between Russia and Finland. 

Results and competition report from Wikipedia.

Worlds - Men's Qualifying Round

The 2011 World Championships is officially underway!

To be honest I was pretty surprised to see Japan's Takahiko Kozuka in the qualifying round, given he was 4th at Four Continents and 10th at Worlds last year. He won this round with ease and should place very well in the main competition starting Wednesday.

Special mentions to young talents Joey Russell of Canada, who stepped up as an alternate after the withdrawal of Shawn Sawyer, and also to Misha Ge of Uzbekistan who, coached by Frank Carroll, is making his senior worlds debut. Ge (pronounced like the letter G) finished an impressive 12th at this years 4 Continents.

Comiserations to those who just missed out, including Austalia's Mark Webster and GB's David Richardson. I do wonder at the state of GB skating without even John and Sinead Kerr to lead the way.

A quote from icenetwork's Lynne Rutherford on Twitter - Skaters are coming off the ice saying it is extremely hot, making it difficult to sustain energy. Bern was too cold - now Moscow is too hot. Yu-Na Kim also said after her practice yesterday that the ice felt softer than she was used to, and the arena won't even be full yet! I hope this doesn't affect the level of performances in the later competition.

Champions defend at Japan Nationals

The 2011 Japanese gymnastics championships in Tokyo mark the beginning of the road to recovery for Japansese athletes. (See my article from earlier this week).

Last years champions, Koko Tsurumi & Kohei Uchimura defended their titles in style, cementing their status nationally and making a statement about the readiness of the deep japanese teams to challenge at the upcoming world championships, hopefully in Tokyo.

Uchimura, the 2009 and 2010 World all around champion posted the highest score recorded under the current scoring system in the first round of competition. It was also great to see Tsurumi perform upto standard, she had a difficult worlds in Rotterdam and could not live upto the promise she showed in 2009 in London.

The consistency of high scores in both the male and female results though are perhaps the greatest testament to the resilience and quality of the Japanese gymnasts. Compete to the same level in October and they should have no trouble qualifying teams to the Olympics.
Full Results - International Gymnast

Flash-back...

Just for interest, here's a look back at the last time the World Figure Skating Championships were held in Moscow, 2005.

• The 'new' scoring system was still very new, 2005 was the first Worlds without a perfect 6.
• This was the last time we saw Michelle Kwan in competition. 
• 2005 also had qualifying rounds. All singles skaters competed in one of two qualifying groups and their qualifying score counted (a little bit) to the final result.  These were done away with for the 2007 worlds but now appear to be back again in 2011 as a way of weeding out the lower ranked skaters and producing a smaller field for the main competition. 
• In the ladies - Irina Slutskaya swept the competition, winning the qualifying short, and free programmes. Silver went to the error-prone Sasha Cohen and bronze to the youngster Carolina Kostner. 
• Michelle Kwan was 4th and off the podium for the first time since 1994! Eventual 2006 Olympic Champ Shizuka Arakawa finished in 9th place.
• In the men's event there were 3 first-time medallists.l, Stephane Lambiel, Jeffrey Buttle and Evan Lysacek, with Johnny Weir just outside in 4th. 
• Eventual 2006 Olympic Champ Evgeni Pluchenko was 1st in his qualifying group but finished 5th in the short programme and withdrew due to injury.
• Russian pair Totmianina & Marinin won their second consecutive world title, ahead of team-mates Petrova & Tikhonov, back in the time when Russian pairs were completely dominent. The chinese power house was on the way up, with Zhang & Zhang 3rd and Pang & Tong 4th.
• The Ice Dance Podium was the only one to completely match that of the 2006 olympics.
  1. Navka & Kostomarov (RUS) , 2.Belbin & Agosto (USA), 3. Grushina & Goncharov (UKR)
• Competitors in 2005 who are still in the mix in 2011 include;
  Ladies - Miki Ando (6th in 2005), Cynthia Phaneuf (20th), Jenna McCorkell (22nd) & Elena Glebova (17th in qualifying group),
  Mens- Brian Joubert (6th, ), Kevin Van Der Perren (8th), Daisuke Takahashi (15th),
  Pairs - Pang & Tong (4th), Savchenko & Svolkowy (6th),
  and Dance - Pechalat & Bourzat (19th)

Here are the full starting orders and results from 2005 and 2011