The Medieval Tail

The Tailender bonspiel took on a medieval theme this year, hence the witty name that Sandra coined for the event. Icky had a busy day, having to leave for my 11:15 pm flight to Portugal via London on the say day. In terms of the curling, we kicked butt in game one 12-1, we lost a narrow match 3-4 in game two, and then got trounced 2-9 in the third game against the fantastic junior team, which I part-time coached during the year. The two points we scored were in fact cold draws against 3 and 4. We never seriously thought we could win in curling, but there was a medieval banner making contest that ran while we were not playing.

Shang and I had pre-planned how our banner would look, having done pre-sketches and bought our own materials. While most teams made traditional medieval banners, ours took the form of a poster. It was unique in the sense that we had a medieval fight scene with horses, spears, bow & arrows, and catapults. It used different media, including cardboard, felt, foam and foil. It was 3-D with the castle and drawbridge. And it showed how people ‘curled’ in medieval times – by shooting rocks attached to arrows onto a target (like archery). All this planning paid off! We won the banner contest and received box tickets to a Jays game worth $260. Woohoo! Meanwhile, Aidan has turned into the new Hilda as he has been winning incredible amounts of draw prizes this year (at nearly every bonspiel and usually multiple prizes). He won three prizes this time. On a funny note, there were these two candy lingerie draw prizes and the same guy won BOTH of them! Hilarious!

Much kudos goes to Marc for some fantastic food. Fajitas and Spanish rice for lunch, and dinner was grilled veggies, potatoes, chicken/beef kebabs, and a stand up salad (greens tied with leeks and stood up). No utensils were given so everything was eaten by hand (which is why the salad was prepared as a bouquet). This was by far the best bonspiel food I’ve ever had.

Pearson -> Heathrow

Right after dinner, I jetted for the airport to catch my business class flight on British Airways to London. With business class comes access to the airport lounges which was really swank. Had a great second dinner (turkey, French onion soup, salad, deserts, and any beverage imaginable (think open bar but self-serve). Chairs were super comfy and the ambiance was very relaxing.

Flight was on time. It was the first time in a double-decker plane. The business class seats reclined fully so sleeping was actually possible and we do not sit beside anyone. Half the people face forward and half face backwards, and you have a divider that can be raised to provide extra privacy. I had a pre-bedtime snack on the plane: grilled chicken sandwich with portabello mushrooms. See you in Europe!