Lets Just Say "see you later "

Having my morning coffee this morning , today will be seriously uneventful ... the day after dropping friends off at the airport and i am kinda sad . Whenever friends visit from overseas it is always a vacation for me too , showing them all my favorite places in the city and eating out constantly going to tourist spots ... yeah i am kinda cheesy but that is what i like ... maybe i should become a tour guide ?

My tours would be strictly hockey related ! Yesterday we had to at least try to get some shopping in for Stephanie , that is where my girlfriend came into play ... the morning started off a mess with a flat tire and 2.5 hours at the repair shop ... that took away 1 hour of shopping from the ladies but they made the most of it while Alex and myself relaxed on the leather seats in the malls men's area (LOL) .

After shopping we had a BBQ at my house ...steaks and veggies MMMM!!! i did the cooking everyone got their filling then i had to drive Alex & Stephanie to the airport ... this is the hard part :( yeah it was kinda quiet with just me doing the majority of the talking . I mean its hard for me but i know it is harder for them as they are the ones really on vacation . The whole day i was telling Alex i would like to come to Regensburg after my tournament in Iceland , so lets just say see you later instead of bye .

When i dropped them off they were both wanting to just turn and walk , i know the feeling ...the longer you stand around the more chance there is of tears appearing .... i will see you both in October , or at least i hope to say so at the moment . But i am pretty sure it is a for sure thing .

If Alex and Stephanie are reading this : I hope you both enjoyed your stay here , it was great having you here , and i hope your flight home was amazing .... Servus 

The Bet :)

A couple friends from Germany seen in the picture above are here visiting Toronto , and me i guess :) Alex and Stephanie are from Regensburg . I met Alex in Cortina D'Ampezzo , Italy at a tournament while playing for the Rainman Allstars ...we won that tournament , and you know the saying when you win a championship you and your teammates are forever linked . This is so true :)

Alex & Stephanie just popped over here after visiting Cuba . There were no plans for Alex to get on the ice with me but when he got here one of the first things he wanted to do was to go buy some equipment . I took him to this great place called Toronto Hockey Repair ( THR ) and buy some equipment he did !!! Of course he wanted to try them out LOL. So the next day ( yesterday) we went to McCormick Arena where i hold my Ghetto Classic tournament and we got on the big sheet of ice .

Big smile on Alex's face playing with his new gear ... he bought skates ,sticks and gloves . There was gear that he left in my garage from last year when he came over and shopped til he dropped . To be particular he left his old pants and helmet which he needed to get on ice , and to top it all off i gave him his Spiders hockey jersey which he gave me when i visited him in January .

The gear worked well and he wanted to have a "game" with me .... so Alex asks me how many out of 10 will i score on you . I said you won't score 4 , and he laughed ..... now i have been through this before with a former DEL coach when practising with the team he coached ( Mitch Pohl ) he ended up doing push ups in front of his team :)

So the first breakaway he scores , i watch him skate away with this cockiness ... i stopped the second one and as he skated away he reminded me it was 1-1 ... i stopped the third and he scored on the 4th shot so we were still tied up at 2 .... stopping the 5th and 6th he scores on 7th to pot his 3rd goal .... it seemed close but really there was no way i was going to let him score that 4th goal . Down to the 10th and final shot and wouldn't you know it .... he missed the net , i won and celebrated . We were playing for lunch which immediately i told him he didn't have to pay for .....

We went to Island Foods for some roti which is Caribbean food mmmmm!!!! i payed for us ... this is what you do when friends visit :) today is their last day here , my vacation in Toronto is coming to an end as it always feels like i am revisiting my own city when i have visitors . Hopefully i will have more friends visiting in the near future .

Winter Season Over :(

Last week my extended winter season ended abruptly ...it was extended when i was picked up by a team in a lower league to fill in for their injured goalie . I helped the team win their division championship and we had to play in the facility championship tournament which was last weekend . We lost our first game in that tourney and lost the second in OT , with a slight shot at still making championship with a win we all went outside and when returning to the arena we were told that the other team just decided to leave without playing !!!

The team that disrespectfully left without playing us was featured on a Budweiser commercial here in Canada , if you have seen it they are the team in white ...the Toronto Generals . They seem jubilant and ecstatic to be playing hockey in front of cameras but when it comes down to the nitty gritty they are misrepresenting each and every one of us that loves hockey !!

If your team can't win the championship do you just leave and decide not to play your last game ? NO ! you don't you play the game and enjoy it instead of being a sore sport and packing your shit to go home . Toronto Generals you guys are a bunch of wankers ...thanks for ending my season with a default shutout win . I hope all of you look the commercial up online to see how phony people can be in front of cameras .

Aside from the big end of season let down i can say this winter was really awesome and a lot of fun . My Ghetto Blaster team finished 2nd overall only to go out in the first rd of playoffs , on a personal note i had the best GAA in my division ....with help from my team :) . I won a tournament in Estonia , got to play in Latvia ,Germany and Sweden as well . Did alright in a few tournaments here in Toronto , nothing spectacular but a lot of fun regardless .

Summer season does not start for another few weeks , this is some well deserved time off the ice . It is just so unfortunate that the last game i went to go play got cancelled ... thanks again Toronto Generals , next time i will bring a camera so you guys can feel more comfortable playing . LOL ! 

No Rest For the WICKED :)

I think its been like a month or so since i have made any posts ... sorry been crazy busy here in Toronto ! The last month has seen my home team get eliminated in playoffs :( then i was picked up by another team for their playoff run ... which we just won the championship and now have a tournament to play in next weekend . Also had a tournament this past weekend which we did not win but had a very respectable record of 1-1-1 ... very tough tournament much tougher then the one we used to play in ! and way more fun :)

So many tournaments going on around the world ... there was a tourney in Tachov , Czech Rep. which starts a series of them over the next month which my good friend Rainer runs . There was a tourney that just happened in Bangkok which a whole load of friends were at  ! Pretty sure the Dubai tournament was this weekend which i was invited to play in last week , had to turn it down as i am pretty broke trying to pay off the rest of my last trip still LOL ! The team that invited me was the Qatar Qanucks , thanks for the invite hope you guys did well .

On the subject of getting invites , i have been getting quite a few emails to go out to Hawaii ... man i wish i could do it ! Unfortunately i can't afford to constantly skip out on work and fly around the world , if any teams can afford to fly me out and put me up at someones house i am always willing to do that but at the moment i have to pick and choose my trips and the last trip was probably my only big trip of the year ... at least that is what i think for now ... yeah kinda sad to say that but this is the time of year that i get busy with work . Apparently this year is going to be a record breaking year for the film industry in Toronto , that is something i want to take full advantage of !

This is truly my favorite time of year as tournaments at all levels are at full swing ! Belgium just won their IIHF division , UAE won the Challenge Cup of Asia ... Stanley Cup playoffs are about to begin ! even without the Leafs i am still excited ... don't blink at this time of year , you might miss a key goal :P

After next weekends big tourney i might shut it down for a bit ... i need to repair my gear and my body . I hope you all have a Happy Easter weekend and keep your head up

555555555

Ice Hockey Bahamas ?

I hate having to back out of any tournament , unfortunately i have had a minor dilemma .... 2 of my closest friends ( that i have never mentioned on blog before ) Tara & Mike are getting married . I went to high school with both of these people and they have been dating and living with each other for quite some time so they have finally decided to get married :)

The problem being that i was going to go to a tournament in Las Vegas with my friends from Hawaii , that would have been long weekend in May and Mike is planning his stag for the weekend before ... yeah i know they are not at the same time ! The problem is that Mike's stag party is in the Bahamas , which means i can't afford to go to both .

Now i am pretty sure there is a rink at the Breezes resort in the Bahamas :) and i already told Mike that IF i go i will want to take my equipment and he is understanding of this ... i mean how many times am i going to be in the Bahamas ? probably never again .... i am not really interested in going to resorts , they are boring . Yes you heard me , they are absolutely insanely boring as shit to me . I know free drinks ( that you prepay for ) and beaches ( which i don't care for ) and water ( i don't swim ) ... sounds great ? NO ! That all being said it is for a good friend and i know that the guys that will go will be a lot of fun to hang out and drink with , but the hidden reason that i will consider going is that i am pretty sure there is a rink there ...

If anyone out there is reading this and have any connections to this rink please let me know . I have sent the resort an email this past weekend and have yet to receive a response ( i am quite impatient ) . I really hope my friends in Hawaii understand my dilemma , if they paid for my trip to Las Vegas i would definitely go as the only reason i can't go is because i can't afford to pay for both trips . I WISH I WON THE LOTTERY LOL . but i didn't ....

Mike & Tara's wedding means a lot to them and they mean a lot to me so i have to go to the Bahamas to enjoy the sun and alcohol with some great friends .... hopefully the rink is still open :) 

If i won the lottery

Another Saturday morning being wasted away day dreaming of travelling ...well maybe not wasted :)

Every week ( most weeks ) i play the lottery here . Every week i dream of winning the lottery , and every week i lose the lottery ....what if i won the lottery ? hmmm... i think the first thing i would do is pack my hockey gear and drive to the airport . If i won this weekend i know i would want to head out to Bangkok for the City of Angels Tournament which starts in a couple weeks , then i could fly to Tachov ,Czech Rep to play in the tournaments there at the end of April and beginning of May . I would probably just keep flying around for who knows how long . Probably for the rest of my life .

Yeah i would probably buy some stuff , like new goalie pads , new hockey bag ... you know things that people really need . Nah a house would be useless aside from it being a giant trophy room i would never be there , and who would need a car with my lifestyle i would just need taxi and if i won enough possibly a private jet ... not sure if i could afford it if i won 50 million dollars ? maybe i could , regardless first class would be mine !

Of course i would donate some money to charity ... but that charity would have to be hockey related :) i would like to see children from obscure hockey countries to be able to learn the sport , so if anyone knows of a charity to donate equipment then let me know . Well let me win the lottery first then let me know , i think i am going to win this week or next . It is in the plans , already marked it on my calendar . What a dream come true that would be .

Some say that money can't buy you happiness but right now at this moment i can call bullshit on anyone that says that ! If you give me even 100 thousand i would be happier then a pig in shit .... until then i will continue dreaming. In my world happiness = travelling + hockey , to do this money is needed which means that money would bring me happiness .

If you know the winning numbers , maybe you are a psychic or something ... let me know and i might cut you in on the winnings . Until then i am going to keep daydreaming ... it is hard not to with all these tournament invites coming my way these days . I wish i could go to them all .

Tournament that i Organize

4 months until the tournament i organize here in Toronto will be ending , getting really excited about this ! When i started this tournament all i wanted was to provide my friends with all the best things i have experienced at the great tournaments i have travelled to around the world . My favorites have free alcohol or at least alcohol on hand , evening events where most if not all the teams will be and of course food readily available .

We provided most if not all of that last year , with a couple minor shortcomings which were overcome by all the FREE beer :) this year will be the same with a few breweries pitching in some free cases for us . The one thing i was not able to do last year but hope to do this year is start to involve teams from outside of Toronto . Obviously the 1 team i really want to come are the Rainman AllStars which i know are working on coming http://www.facebook.com/events/274557435943791/  , if they come this tournament will be one hell of a crazy party . Aside from them if any team from out of town that i have played with or against shows up i am pretty sure it will be a good time . 

Don't get me wrong , last years party atmosphere was excellent . I know i got pretty inebriated LOL , and there was this one ref that slept behind a dumpster at the rink with some other crazy ongoings during the tournament . We are adding to the atmosphere by holding events at more then just the Midpoint . Our Friday night will be at the Midpoint http://www.facebook.com/groups/155707541124410/ , Saturday will be at Brooklyn http://www.facebook.com/Brooklynnbar and Sunday conclusion party will be at 1602 Dundas St. W. http://www.facebook.com/groups/275494642502015/ ( no name bar ) . There is a bbq on Saturday with free burgers at the arena with food service at the no name bar all weekend ( 10 min walk from arena ) actually all the places we will go to are within walking distance and yes we can leave our gear at the rink :) 

This year we are going from a 6 team tournament to a 10 team tournament with 2 divisions . The tournaments popularity is growing every year and i think next year we will have to add another arena to accommodate more teams as i feel as though i may have to turn teams away this year , which i don't like to do ! If your team is interested in coming to play in my tournament it is June 22-24 , we do not have a website but here is our facebook event  http://www.facebook.com/events/246866558691466/  check it out ! Just leave a comment here and i will contact you asap ... if you can't make it this year we hope to see you all at some point in the future ! 

Easy Company
Ghetto Classic 2011 CHAMPS