Oh Canada!

Posted by Helen Whitaker at 23:40 on 2 Mar 2010

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So I've had an exciting weekend, one so brilliant that I started to believe that there's someone ‘up there' listening to my begging pleas.

I'll explain: I spent the last three weeks moaning about the fact that I wasn't in Canada watching the Olympics. You see, nine years ago, my best friend and I spent a gap year bumming around in Whistler, working for minimum wage in a five star hotel and spending our days off snowboarding and drinking pitchers of beer with a load of other ‘seasonaires'. Basically, it was great. And to top it off, while we were busy doing that Whistler and Vancouver won the Olympic bid.

"2010," we marvelled, "By then we'll be almost thirty and be proper grown ups with well-paying jobs. We can come back and stay in this hotel when the Olympics happens."

Needless to say, 2010 rolled around and neither of us could afford the plane fare, nevermind a fortnight in the swanky hotel. So instead I sat in my living room in LA, watching the half-pipe competition and complaining about how unfair it was that it was all happening without me.

But then on Friday, fate (or an Australian magazine, if you prefer) intervened. Did I want to go and interview a gold medalist in Vancouver on Saturday? Er, yes!

So that's what I did. I got on a flight and spent 36 hours interviewing the very chuffed gold medalist (and yes, of course I asked to hold it), posing next to the Olympic flame, drinking Kokanee beer and generally being in awe of how grown up I was, not only for making it back to Canada for the Olympics but doing it in an all-expenses-paid ‘business' capacity. As a wise person once said: I love it when a plan comes together.

Perhaps this ‘sending it out into the universe' thing actually works. Hope so. My desire for lots more jetset commissions is being sent out pretty hard right now, so I'll keep you posted.

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