tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-219780872006-11-13T19:49:24.625+01:00Mike LaverdiereBlogger22122tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21978087.post-1141087170613315962006-02-27T16:28:00.000+01:002006-11-13T18:27:59.408+01:00

No. That title's not supposed to be some lame metaphor. That's essentially what I literally did all day today. After leaving Frankfurt at 12:30pm (UTC +1), I arrived in Vancouver at 2:00pm (UTC -8). The whole way we were following the sun all the way back. By the time the sun sets tonight, I will have been in sunlight 20 hours today. Speaking of that flight from Frankfurt. What's really cool is

Mike Laverdieretag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21978087.post-1141034295188703372006-02-27T08:39:00.000+01:002006-11-13T18:27:59.192+01:00

The last couple days have been quite busy. Saturday night the relief crew got together for a big dinner at one of the more popular restaurants in Turin. (The name of which escapes me at the moment.) For €30 a person, you get a full Italian 4 course meal, all the booze you can drink and actual GOOD service. Which believe me, is hard to find in Italy. People don't go to a restaurant for service,

Mike Laverdieretag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21978087.post-1140889492562245922006-02-25T17:22:00.000+01:002006-11-13T18:27:58.943+01:00

I know I promised photos from the Automobile Museum, but they don't allow you to snap them inside. I was only allowed to snap this photo outside. Inside this old "fascist" (as the Italians told me it was called) or Mussolini era builing are old, mostly Italian and new concept cars. This wasn't a great museum, really. It's more like a giant garage. The cars are on display for you to see but there

Mike Laverdieretag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21978087.post-1140776199463882092006-02-24T10:06:00.000+01:002006-11-13T18:27:58.845+01:00

The weather in Torino has been cold and cloudy the last few days. Yesterday it cleared up enough to let the sun through, but today it's raining again. We keep putting off going to the Mole because of one thing or another. Today it's the rain. We're going to hit up the Fiat Car museum this afternoon. Susan Young stopped by yesterday for a bit...she flies back to Vancouver today. We took a little

Mike Laverdieretag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21978087.post-1140636076406933492006-02-23T11:07:00.000+01:002006-11-13T18:27:58.731+01:00

Not much exciting happened in the last few days. Other than Canada losing to Russia 2-0 and getting eliminated. Good thing I didn't bet on the game. The other night after 2+ weeks of pasta and pizza it was time for something different. So we explored around the Media Village some more and found a little Indian place. An oasis of curry in a desert of marinara. It was pricy (of course, Indian food

Mike Laverdieretag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21978087.post-1140527742218522482006-02-21T14:13:00.000+01:002006-11-13T18:27:58.637+01:00

I've posted about 120 photos that I've taken here at the games in the photos section of my website. If you wish to see them, click here. I couldn't post all the photos on the blog for obvious reasons. Not all of them have comments on them yet. But enjoy anyway. (Photos posted are approximately 93% new content. +/- 7% Some photos void where prohibited by law. Not all photos available in

Mike Laverdieretag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21978087.post-1140457471591920812006-02-20T21:57:00.000+01:002006-11-13T18:27:58.530+01:00

The last few days we (a handful of relief crew) have had two goals in mind. Go see the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit at La Biblioteca Reale and the Mole Antonelliana (which is pronouced "Mole-ay" but we've been calling it the "Moooole" from Austin Powers). But in both cases it's been a no go with us ending up at Via Po doing shopping/window shopping. Last Night We arrived, in the pouring rain, at

Mike Laverdieretag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21978087.post-1140457170021706852006-02-20T20:30:00.000+01:002006-11-13T18:27:58.439+01:00

Sorry about the lack of posts the last few days. I had the laptop stashed away for a few days. Despite what some have thought, I actually still haven't been assigned to anything. But I have done a little more sightseeing. But one of my installments today is a little different... While my experience here at Torino 2006 has generally been a positive one...I do have some gripes about Turin and

Mike Laverdieretag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21978087.post-1140201095081634942006-02-17T18:19:00.000+01:002006-11-13T18:27:58.336+01:00

CTV Vancouver 5 o'clock Director and Olympic Curling Font Extraordinaire Susan Young stopped by at the IBC today. It was her day off and she wanted to see Canada House and explore Downtown a little. With my mastery of the Turin public transit system, I got us downtown by Porta Nuova, the main train station and we walked from there. In our effort to get to Canada House, we accidentally overshot

Mike Laverdieretag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21978087.post-1140109668950302952006-02-16T17:58:00.000+01:002006-11-13T18:27:58.250+01:00

Took the 45 minute bus ride to Pinerolo today. Managed to watch the Canadian Women's Curling Team get beat by Switzerland. Stopped in to say "Hi" to Vancouver colleague Susan Young who is working on the curling coverage. She told me that there are no relief EVS/Tape operators for curling...this may be the end of my workless streak. I didn't have long to talk to her because I had to take the

Mike Laverdieretag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21978087.post-1140108969788613482006-02-16T16:48:00.000+01:002006-11-13T18:27:58.116+01:00

While I've been lucky with so much down time and being able to do some sightseeing. Some of my colleagues from CTV in Vancouver have been working their asses off shooting, writing and editing stories and don't even know what city they're really in. It also sounds like their workload has gone up even more too! Last night I trekked via the GTT (Groupo Torinese Transporti - Turin Transit

Mike Laverdieretag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21978087.post-1140021130010911312006-02-15T17:18:00.000+01:002006-11-13T18:27:58.001+01:00

Didn't do a whole lot today. Just watched a bit of the Men's Canada-Italy Hockey game at Palasport Olimpico this afternoon. Canada won 7-2. One wee thing that kinda bothered me. In Italian Soccer, they whistle at the player of the opposing team when he has the ball. During the hockey game, they did the same thing for any Canadian player with the puck. Is it just me or is that just a no-no for

Mike Laverdieretag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21978087.post-1139939738518228782006-02-14T18:50:00.000+01:002006-11-13T18:27:57.876+01:00

Several people have been asking me about WiFi access here. In an earlier post, I mentioned that they were charging for the wireless internet access at the media village. Since I've been spending a lot of time at the IBC, I haven't been using the internet access there. Instead, we (the relief crew pictured left) are poaching WiFi access from Korean TV whose compound at the IBC is right next door

Mike Laverdieretag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21978087.post-1139937047461078942006-02-14T15:41:00.000+01:002006-11-13T18:27:57.779+01:00

Being the "B" or relief team on the TV coverage of the Olympic Winter Games has it's advantages and it's disadvantages. A disadvantage is that we have a lot of downtime while we wait for a call to a venue to relieve someone. The advantage is that we have a lot of downtime while we wait for a call to a venue to relieve someone. So to kill some of that time today a small group of us decided to go

Mike Laverdieretag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21978087.post-1139820920905775172006-02-13T09:22:00.000+01:002006-11-13T18:27:57.675+01:00

Last night we dipped into a little pub that's a 5 minute walk from our Media Village. The place was PACKED...and for good reason. Juventus, Italy's #1 "football" team (who plays in Turin) was on the telly. They were playing Inter-Milan (the #2 team). People were chanting at the TV like they were in the stands at the game. The score was tied as we sat down and Juventus was just about to get a

Mike Laverdieretag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21978087.post-1139756564888515922006-02-12T14:44:00.000+01:002006-11-13T18:27:57.566+01:00

For the Olympics, TOROC (Torino Olympic Committee) has setup a very efficient and elaborate bus system to cart around media, athletes and their families. A bus will take us from the Media Village to Lingotto and the Main Media Centre in about half an hour. There we can connect to other buses that directly connect you to the medals plaza, local venues and mountain venues. It's pretty easy actually

Mike Laverdieretag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21978087.post-1139743952985437252006-02-12T10:44:00.000+01:002006-11-13T18:27:57.469+01:00

The MMC is the home to the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) and the Main Press Centre (MPC). This model of combining both in one place started in Salt Lake City in 2002. They liked this model and the Italians decided to do the same. This photo was taken outside the main gate to the MMC at Lingotto. This is the site of an old Fiat car factory and the roof of the main building (not in frame)

Mike Laverdieretag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21978087.post-1139500837222723732006-02-09T16:24:00.000+01:002006-11-13T18:27:57.360+01:00

Last night a handful of us fellow relief workers; Steve (Miami), David (Melbourne), Jerry (Los Angeles) and I stopped into a little trattoria near the media village for dinner. It had to be the best Italian food I have ever tasted! Definitely the best we've had so far in Italy. We started with a pizza and bruschetta (pronounced Brus-ketta, the Italian-only speaking restaurant staff corrected us)

Mike Laverdieretag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21978087.post-1139498391125931552006-02-09T14:55:00.000+01:002006-11-13T18:27:57.209+01:00

Sorry about a lack of a post yesterday. It was my first day working...if you could call it that. I'm on the relief crew which means if someone drops out at a venue, we're sent to replace them. So far about half of our crew is assigned to a venue for the next few days; but the rest of us are sitting at the International Broadcast Centre waiting to go out. Like being a firefighter. Needless to say

Mike Laverdieretag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21978087.post-1139345604963161242006-02-07T21:49:00.000+01:002006-11-13T18:27:57.118+01:00

Well after a longer-than-it-was-supposed-to-be layover in Frankfurt and 12 hours of people speaking German to me, I am now safe and sound in Italian speaking Torino. It's been a mess trying to get everything together here. There was confusion with my room, took forever to find the accreditation office, got kicked out of the IOC office because they said I wasn't supposed to be there, but I was.

Mike Laverdieretag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21978087.post-1139260045297852742006-02-06T12:53:00.000+01:002006-11-13T18:27:56.998+01:00

Well, it's the day I've enthusiastically anticipated and nervously dreaded at the same time. My first trans-Atlantic flight. (It sucks being a hermit from Alberta sometimes) Actually I think the first day on the job at the International Broadcast Centre will be more nerve wracking. It's like starting a new job again. As I write this, I'm at Vancouver International Airport waiting for my plane

Mike Laverdieretag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21978087.post-1139197475346120362006-02-05T20:32:00.000+01:002006-11-13T18:27:56.896+01:00

Biglietti, denaro, passaporto... How's my Italian? I've been studying for weeks now. But it will probably be for nothing...it's the Olympics and everything will be in French or English! I leave for Torino tomorrow afternoon and I feel like I have to get everything done before I leave. Including this introductory blog entry AND the crap I've been putting off since last year. Why I do this to

Mike Laverdiere