Nationals

It's about that time again. Nationals championships are under way, and all the top teams in the country are here in one place, vying for the top spot. I'll keep it short, since it's late, and we have an early match tomorrow morning. We're going into the tournament with the 4th seed, and we're looking to come out of it with number one. But it will in no way be a cakewalk to do so, as there are several teams that could contend on a good day.

Anyone who's in Toronto and interested in coming to check us out, here's our match schedule:

Friday:
9:00am - vs. QC (/Ouellette)
10:00am - vs. QC (Allaire/Fecteau-Boutin)
2:45pm - vs. ON (Podstawka/Goss)
Saturday:
9:00am - vs. ON (Gatto/Hauser)

Cheers,
Ben Jammin

Friday the Thirteenth

Don't worry, this isn't a horror blog. No hockey mask clad, chainsaw wielding psychos were present today, though I suppose the night is still young, and who knows where Jason Voorhees is these days. If anyone can bypass the hefty Norwegian prices, it might be him.

But enough about that, like I said earlier, that's not what this blog is about. In fact, I only have good news to give. Finally. For those of you who read a couple days ago, you've probably already guessed at the info. My luggage finally decided to join me in Norway, just in time for me to head on out to the island of Aland, in between Sweden and Finland.

It's not the first time the number 13 has been good to me. For some, the number is an ill omen. For me, it has brought nothing but good things. For volleyball in particular.

Looking back on my indoor volleyball career, every time that I wore the number 13, the team I was on won a National Championship. 18U Club Nationals with Canuck YQM in 2006, and twice with the Golden Bears in 2008 and 2009. The fact that I wore 13 had absolutely no bearing on us winning or losing, but it's an interesting coincidence.

Thirteen is my favorite number, and it's only fitting that a Friday the Thirteenth would be the day to turn a rough week into a positive start to the weekend. The trip to Aland starts tomorrow, so I can only hope things keep getting better and better.

Now before you get off your comp, I suggest you give this maze game a try. I bet you can't get to level 4.

maze game

Cheers,

Ben Jammin

Bad things come in 3's

It's a saying that someone said to me very recently. Here's a question, if more than three bad things happen, does that falsify the statement, or does that mean the bad streak will continue until I hit 33 bad things, or 3^3, which makes 27, so I guess I would prefer that. I may never know the answer, but I have learned something. Many bad things happening in a row tends to make for a pretty ugly week.

It started off well enough. I used some upgrade coupons on the first couple legs of my flight. From Vancouver to Toronto, then Toronto to London, I was riding in style. When I showed up in Toronto, and my luggage hadn't made it, I wasn't overly worried. They told me it would make it on the next flight and be in within half an hour, which was fine, I had plenty of time until my next flight. I took it as a good thing because odds were, that if it didn't make it on this flight, then they shouldn't get lost again, right?

Wrong

I landed in London with 4 hours until my next flight on to Norway. The first hour was spent waiting and speaking with baggage services. According to them, there were no flags put on my bad, which caused me to wait around for yet another hour as alerts were sent throughout the airport looking for my bag before I finally filled out a baggage claim form and headed to my next departure. Things have not looked up from there.

Here's a list of all the problems we've had since passing through London:
-Steve's bag also got lost on the way
-This is the one time I decided not to pack my playing shorts in my carry on, so I was forced to play with shorts that say "Schalk" - Thank goodness there are other players on tour with shorts similar to ours, and thank you Chaim for lending them to me
-We got a very good draw to match up against very beatable teams in the qualifier, and then played just awful
-Norway is so expensive and we are losing money fast, especially since hotels cost about 200$/night, and a cheap meal is 25$
-Thanks to the above, I'm very close to maxing out my credit card
-Thanks to no luggage, I've had to wear the same clothes all week

Saturday morning we leave for Finland, and I only hope I will at least have my luggage by then. As soon as that bag gets here, I will be extremely excited, hopefully it will make for a much more pleasant next week.

Cheers,

Ben Jammin

My New Haircut

For those of you who weren't in Kelowna this past weekend, here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for. I took a few pictures of the best pre, mid, and post haircut moments.
So, without further ado:

Yes, the mustache was necessary. It completed the look.
Hair stylist: Steve Marshall
Hand Models: Top - Ben Saxton
                       Back - Ben Chow

Cheers,
Ben Jammin