Another Trip to Europe in 2012

Couple weeks ago i booked my flight from Berlin to Iceland , paid for my hotel and for my transportation between airport-hotel-arena for the week I put my VISA down for that payment and just this past week i got the bill :( oh the pain .

Last weekend i am assuming that i got sick from someone at my tournament , with all the hand shaking and beer drinking i am sure i came in contact with someone that was sick . I am mentioning this because i am ill at the moment and have been all week . At the same time i am a freelance worker so i have to show up to get paid . With this bill showing up i was not only showing up for my calls but also booking more , yeah i know i hated myself every morning . This weekend is Canada Day Weekend here in my lovely country and usually i get out of town for some relaxing on the lakes north of the city . Got an offer to work Sunday at midnight getting paid time and a half for holiday pay . So i couldn't resist and took the call meaning i had to stay in the city , need the money to pay for this trip !

The worst part is yet to come as i have to book my flight to Germany still , that will cost me another $1200 and at this time i am really starting to with that i could find myself some sponsorship from Air Canada or something . I am going to have to give up a lot of weekends of fun to get this paid for :( i am sure i will make up for it when i get there . Just waiting on confirmations from other tournaments to book dates , i will either stay for 3 weeks or 3.5 weeks and i am still not 100% sure where i am flying into and out of ... all depends on where i will be i guess LOL .

Don`t take any of this as nagging , just think of the last time you saw me and asked me how i do all these trips and remember if you give up a few weekends of partying that you can do it too !

Ghetto Classic 2012 wrap up

I guess the hangover has passed and now the flu that i caught at the tournament has given me the time to rest and reflect on what happened this past weekend .

On the Friday we had the first game vs. Easy Company ( last years champs ) it was a close enough game even though the score might say otherwise as they beat us 7-4 , the next game on the schedule did not end up so close either . There were 3 games then we all headed out to the Midpoint for beers .... we were all pretty buzzed from all the beers we drank at the rink . Honestly i don't even remember how i got to the rink ... i think i walked from Chad's house ( still fuzzy ) . Friday night the bar was rammed , tons of women all the guys that showed up had a blast and apparently the highlight of the night was when one of my refs ( Espie ) met Adriano " the kissing bandit " Belli and went shirtless with him doing crazy things on the patio of Brooklyn , the other bar we went to . Belli is a retired CFL player that i actually went to high school with . If you are reading this i want to get the pictures your friend took !!!!

Saturday woke up on Chips couch , cold and ready to wear the same clothes ... with a killer headache we went to have breakfast at Stavros on Queen @ Sorauren . greasy food for breakfast with BACON !!! Had to go get bbq for the arena and set up ... first game is at 11 am and i have to make sure all the teams get their beer for their rooms , Chip mans the BBQ and Dustin shows up really early to drink beer LOL . All the games were clean and close , we were surprised by the efforts put forth by the 2 teams we played as we thought we would do much better against them as we went 2-0 qualifying for finals where we had to play Easy Company in a rematch of last years final . The B pool Final was yet to be decided with such a closely matched group of teams . Saturday night we all went up to Jason Abrams bar ( which i drywalled a few years back ) he named it the Ghetto Lounge for the weekend  . It got pretty messy  as i enjoyed a nice glass of Ardbeg scotch with a few pints of beer , the staff there were amazing thanks Elliott for all your work .

Sunday morning had to be at the rink for 10 AM game to make sure teams knew what they needed to qualify ... Knuckles needed to win by 4 goals to make final . It was tied 5-5 and for some reason they pulled their goalie ending their chances at making final leaving Boats & Hoes vs. Hack HC .... both finals were awesome unfortunately we lost to Easy Company 6-2 and Boats & Hoes lost to Hack HC 8-4 .... after all that we went up to watch some Euro Cup football and hand out trophies to champions and teams .

Obviously i would like to thank all the teams that came this year Bloody Knuckles , The Imperials , Jokers , Big Stars , Boats & Hoes , Hack HC and Easy Company . It takes effort putting squads together . We have to have to have to thank the refs for being who they are ... rule #1 for making a successful tournament is having party animals for your refs :) also we need to thank McCormick Arena and their staff particularly Paulie !!!! Molson thank you so much for the beer ... Midpoint / Brooklyn / 1602 Dundas ( aka Ghetto Lounge ) thanks for letting us get drunk at your bars . Icetime is already booked for next year ... i think it will be more fun if i can get an international team here , if your team is interested in joining the party next year let me know ! June 21-23 , 2013

PEACE OUT !!!

Stress

Anyone out there reading this and thinking about starting your own ice hockey tournament my suggestion to you is don't LOL ! If you can't handle stress and last second changes then don't bother ...

Trying to relax today with 4 more days until my Ghetto Classic Tournament but i can't ... i have to collect money from a couple more teams and that is the biggest stress . Really this money should already have been collected and distributed by now . Still have to get money to arena which i have paid about half of total , paid for medallions , have to go buy beer and have to pay refs and timekeeper .... the refs and timekeepers get paid at the tourney but everything else should be paid in advance .

Dealing with all this is not really easy . On top of all this i have to get on people to make trophies for MVP & MVG ( which i wish i didn't have to do yearly ) get our tournament booklet made , organize evening outings with drink and food specials . Have to get a bbq over to the rink ( free burgers on Saturday) and on top of all of this i have to start praying that it won't rain HAHAHA .

I know a couple other tourney organizers that have had a few meltdowns :)

Regardless i am looking forward to this tournament , it is the craziest party weekend of the year ... hope to see some teams from overseas next year . As soon as this is over i will start prepping for next year so dates should be released in next week with a new invite going out :P

if you are on facebook check our Ghetto Classic Tournament page :

http://www.facebook.com/groups/118006761624878/

WOW air

Looks like i am going to Iceland ... actually it doesn't look like i am going , i booked flights ! Yeah last night Rainer messaged me all excited that he found some cheap flights with this airline called WOW . Usually i don't book flights unless it is with Air Canada or another Star Alliance member so i can collect my points . For some reason flights to Iceland don't work that way .

Flight from Toronto to Iceland was around $3000 , yeah ridiculous . So i am flying to Germany to fly to Iceland and it saves me a bundle . Not only did i book my flight but i also paid for my hotel in Iceland too by booking Rainer and Rudi's flights too . It works out better for me to pitch out all this loot now , instead of having to send a money transfer to pay for hotel . Money transfers are not cheap :(

So now that i have booked this i have to pay for it ... yeah money don't grow on trees . I am hoping to pay this portion of my trip off before July then start working to pay for flight to Europe (Germany) and spending loot . From the sounds of it i might have a tournament in Hamburg before Iceland and i might stay over 3 weeks just so i can play in Bratislava tournament . If i play in 3 tournaments in 3 weeks in 3 different countries i will be quite happy . Most i have done on a trip is 2 tournaments , last trip to Europe in January i played about 20 times in 21 days  . I think if i play in all 3 i will set a personal record for playing on 1 trip LOL .

The rest of the trip will begin to fall in place for now i just know that i will be flying from Berlin to Reykjavik from Oct 1 -8 ... sounds like a lot of my hockey buddies are coming on this trip . I can't wait :P 

Rainy Wedding Day

It's been a while since i last made a blog post .... just waking up to see that it is pissing rain outside and the sad news is that 2 of my closest friends here in Toronto are getting married today :(  apparently its good luck for it to rain on your wedding day here so i will stick with that and hopefully it is true .

Lately i've been planning trips and working and getting ready for my Ghetto Classic Tournament . So yeah been kinda busy thus the lack of blogs . I have my trip to Chicago in July to watch my favorite football team Aston Villa play then i have a trip that i am planning to New York City in September to go to, a hip hop festival called Rock The Bells ! To top it all off there is my trip i am planning to Europe which is not just a weekend and not so straight forward in planning ....

Pretty sure i have told you all that these big hockey trips always alter , this was has totally been altered ! Now the plan is to fly to Berlin , Germany meet Rainer jump on another flight to Iceland for tournament then back to Berlin where we will begin driving to Poznan, Poland to play some hockey . After Poland we will drive down to Tachov,Czech Rep. then to Plzen , Prague , etc... basically making our way to Bratislava , Slovakia where we will play in another tournament !!! Yeah another tournament got added onto my itinerary :) Just waiting for all the info from Slovakia , so you never know things may change again .

As i type this out i am planning to meet my good friend from Riga , Viktors ! We are hoping to meet in Prague to watch a KHL game as they have a new team there . Just waiting on the schedule to be released .......

until then i have to start getting ready for this wedding today , where is my flask ?