Alhrayth's story:
a great start for the New Year

It seems that 2002 will be a very good year for me, at least if I have to judge from the beginnings: it's 23.18 of Thursday, Jan 3rd. Three hours and a half ago I was in Courmayeur (north of Italy, almost on the French border) talking to Philippe!!!! (after waiting to see him back in my country for 4 years - from Euros 98 to be exact!). But it's better to start from the beginning:
The first e-mail of the year for me was one saying "Philippe is coming to Italy"... some friends had got the news that Philippe was skating in Courmayeur in two days' time! One thing was sure: I had to find a way to be there! I was so desperate that I was seriously considering the opportunity of going there alone, but thankfully I found a friend who was willing to come and we headed for Courmayeur (it's a two, two and a half hours' drive from Milan) quite early, because we wanted to see the practice too (little luxury we could have because of our friendship with the rink's owner - it was him who had started telling the news to my friends, when calling to wish a good new year!).
Unfortunately we had to wait a lot before seeing Philippe come into the arena, because - as we later learnt from the Italian coach who had picked him up at the airport, and appeared to be a good friend of him - Philippe's bags got lost at Malpensa airport, but thankfully they got them and he was able to come & perform. Then I know they also stopped a moment to eat at the airport, because it was already quite late and it was better to grab a bite and then drive straight to Courmayeur (if you want to know all the details I learnt chatting with the coach: they had a pizza slice in a popular takeaway place and some fruit salad; it appears that the service was not very good, because they had run out of the right boxes for the pizza and the glasses for the Coke & the fruit had no lid... they ended up eating in the coach's car).
At the practice Philippe did not do a lot - tried a few jumps, but mainly he learnt the choreography for the introduction and the finale and gave instructions to the Celtic group who had to come on the ice with him. He also had to spend some time organizing how to use the music for Braveheart, because he had brought it with the initial voice speaking in French & in English, and then they decided to translate it in Italian at the moment and have the presenter talk when the Celtic group was on the ice, with live music from a bagpipe. So they had to try this a few time, to switch on Philippe's music at the right moment. He tried once the program, and my friend and I (I'm tired to call her like this! Her name is Silvia) took note of the best spots to take pics.
Here is Philippe in the morning practice:
(I'm sorry, I know that these pics are terrible! I hadn't the time to buy a better film!)

. . .

Silvia & I talked to him just for a second when he was almost leaving, as he was looking for his blade guards and they had been moved by some men decorating the rink, so we passed them to him (he had put them on the rink's border, but they had now been placed on a table that he couldn't reach from the ice) and he said "Grazie!" (ok, so we know that he can speak a couple of words in Italian. Surely he can understand it, because the coach he had come with was mainly talking to him in Italian and he understood, even if he answered in French.
He then disappeared for a while, getting ready. It was almost showtime, so Silvia and I got a couple of chairs and sat right at the borders (again, another luxury we got just because we were there as "friends of the rink" - we didn't even pay the ticket!), in perfect position to watch the show & take pics.
He appeared for a moment before the show's beginning, as he was being interviewed by a tv troupe (local tv of Val D'Aosta - I can't see this channel but we'll se if we can get something from the rink owner's daughters...), and Silvia and I rushed to hear him, and he was telling the journalist about the Braveheart he was going to skate with the Celtic group... when he left I'm pretty sure he glance at me (probably thinking "oh my god, this girl keeps appearing from nowhere!" - Silvia and I were the only ones at the practice, and we were taking pics; now we were in the part of the arena where the public couldn't get...) He did the introduction dressed all in black, then reappeared at the end of the firs part of the show to do Braveheart.
As the skaters before him where bowing to the crowd at the end of their number (Leonova & Kavalkho) I noticed Massimo Scali (a young dancer from Italy. He placed second at nationals just before Xmas and he's really really good. He and his partner will be in Lausanne as the second couple in the dance event, with Fusar Poli - Margaglio) sneaking into the rink and putting down Philippe's stick. Then the bagpipe started to play and the group came in walking slowly, with Philippe among them, covered in his tartan cloak. As the presenter read in Italian the introduction, Philippe crouched down and started the program, with the Celtic group around him in a half-circle. Then the bagpipe player stopped and Philippe's music started, and he started skating as the Celtic men went out of the rink. The program was very nice and he skated well, doing various jumps & spins very near to where I was staying. At the end of the program, when his character has to die, three men from the group came back on the ice, and two of them blocked him and made him kneel, while the third one took out a sword and mimicked cutting his head, while Philippe collapsed on the ice. It was an incredible performance, really charming... I had never seen something like that (and in the last years I've seen plenty of skating, both on tv, tape & live) and even if at first when I heard he was doing the same two numbers I've seen a thousand times I was a bit sad, now I'm really happy for his choice because this number was really something special. At the end of the number (he was closing part 1 of the show) the presenter came back in and thanked Philippe and the group, explaining that they were locals with this passion for the Celtic culture, and that they had brought on the ice this sword directly from Mel Gibson's film. (later I talked to a couple of them, and he explained me better. It seems that the only people who are allowed to make copies of William Wallace's sword are the descendants of the Wallace Clan, and they made 50 copies of it for the film - just to be sure, they could be broken, etc - and at the end of the film they distributed them around the world, with every country having the right of getting just one sword. The Italian one was kept near Courmayeur by this group, and they decided to put on this extra in the show with Philippe. If I'm not wrong I read in the sword, in Roman numbers, that it was number 45).

In the second half of the show Philippe was again the last one to perform, and he did the Spanish/matador thing... I kept staring at the skaters' entrance and I noticed him standing there with the cape in one hand...it was very nice, entertaining as usual... he swooshed his cape over a tv cameramen, and later went to hug an old lady among the group of paramedics that were at the rink for safety; I hope I managed to take a good pic of him when he passed quite near to the border where I was staying after he had took off his shirt;

. . . . . . .

It was a very enjoyable number, and his encore was really funny because he went on the ice called by the presenter who thanked him for coming, and then gave him the microphone - he started thanking the audience in Italian, then said to the presenter "now you translate" and kept talking in French, saying he was really happy to be there, etc., the usual things; then he was supposed to skate again, but he stopped the presenter on the ice and said "skate with me" and started choreographing him "now we do this and then this and then turn here, turn there..." it was funny to see, and even more for us after we had seen him in the morning being choreographed for the finale... he was almost imitating the presenter in the morning!
They did a couple of moves one next to the other, then the presenter went away and Philippe skated some more by himself.

. .

He finally left the ice, and Silvia & I were already going back to our chairs when he appeared from nowhere, passed right in front of us (I had already put down my camera!! no! NO! no!) - he was retrieving the cape he had dropped down a couple of meters to our right.

For the finale he had put the jacket back on (but not the red shirt) and was really nice, he and another skater (a Russian I had never heard of who had done a couple of funny numbers on hockey skates, one on the music of Swan Lake doing a parody like Laurent Tobel does, but this one was a bit more elegant - I feel that sometimes Tobel is a little excessive in his gestures) went to help the vocalist who had sung a couple of songs for the performances of a couple of Italian girls walk till the center of the rink, for the final bows. When everyone was going in circle waving at the crowd he politely accompanied the girl (who had high heeled sandals, not skates) off the ice and then joined the other skaters. He was the last one to step off the ice, but Silvia & I didn't manage to pass the girls who had sneaked in front of us to ask him autographs... but as they were shy and were waiting at the end of the tunnel which brought to the dressing rooms (this summer I had been into the one where Philippe was yesterday!), Silvia & I marched straight in, and chatted a little with the Italian skaters (we are friends with all the athletes of our National Senior Team) while Philippe was getting changed.

He then came out dressed in grey sweatshirt & pants, with his hair tied back. A couple of girls asked for his autograph first then I managed to catch his attention and I started to introduce myself - only I didn't know really what to say (I wanted him to recognize in me the girl he had wrote to); I said something about e-mail and he looked at me and immediately asked my name I said "Paola" and he smiled, saying "Oh, yes, I remember you, I know who you are" - I was really, really happy. I told him that I was really happy to see him there, that I had been waiting for almost four years to see him skating after Euros in Milan, my hometown. I gave him the prints from the website, and explained him that I had printed just a selection, to give him some example of the work I've been doing, so I had printed some pages in English, some in Italian, some in French, but the site is identical in all three languages... (I guess that by now he will have read your story, Kaori!). I had put in my business card with e-mail, websites & everything at the end of the pages, so I showed it to him and he said "Perfect, so we can keep in touch by mail" I was smiling always more.
My friend asked him an autograph, and then I gave him my notebook too, and Silvia said to address it to our friends (the ones who had told me about him coming to Courmayeur, and who had asked to have his autograph taken for them)... I had to spell the name of one of them, while he wrote perfectly the second (and longer!) one. But I had been actually asking the autograph for me, so I told him, and he turned the page and in a new one wrote "To Paola, bisous, Philippe" ... Then I asked him about his tour coming to Italy, as Nina Petrenko had told me about it, and he said that he wanted to come but he was just beginning to get the first positive income from the tour and coming to another country is a lot of money, he has to pay all the skaters, so he was trying to find it... He was talking about this with the producer of the show that I had gone to see (who was also the presenter, btw), and that he hoped to be able to come at least to the biggest cities like Rome, Turin (picture me here smiling, with a face that was saying "and???")... and Milan (big smile here, as to say "Don't even think to miss my hometown!")... and I told him "please, let us know if you're coming, I know lots of people in Milan who are waiting for you to come with your show"... and he showed me my card and said "yes, I'll write you"... Then I asked him if he could finally pose for a pic to put on the website, and Silvia took it, then of course she wanted a pic too and Philippe was very kind and posed again. We finally let him free sign the other autographs and said bye when he went back to the dressing room. I had my picture taken with these dancers I had been talking about before, and when we went back to the dressing rooms Philippe was out again, posing with the Celtic group - I took a pic with my camera and then with theirs (later we exchanged e-mail addresses so I could send them the pic and that's when they told me about the sword), and I was taking again Philippe's pics (he had put on the tartan cloak now) when the Russian skater who had done Swan Lake arrived and asked if he could have a pic taken with his camera (he had been taking pics with Philippe in practice too) so I took it and shot one pic, and he asked for another and this time he smiled putting his hand quite visibly on Philippe's shoulder (there was a Celtic woman between them I think), and Philippe had this huge smile, he was almost laughing - I shot the pic and handed him back his camera, telling him "this was a good one!" . Philippe disappeared again as I was talking to the sword-holding Celt (when I sent him an e-mail with the pics of them, he was really nice about Philippe, saying he had now become a favorite of them too ^_^), and soon after Silvia and I decided to head back home- just pausing half a second to snag from a wall the skating order as a little souvenir... ^_^

What else can I say? I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for Philippe coming to Italy with the tour, but at least I can't say "I haven't seen him fo four years" anymore...

P.S. Some Days Later
Philippe is always so kind! When he got home he sent me a nice note by e-mail thanking me for the card I had sent him for Xmas, and saying he had been happy to meet me in Courmayeur. He also repeated again that we'll "keep in touch" about the website... ^_^ The year seems to be going on really well!