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Sometime in september
I was asked, with other friends of mine enrolled like me in the volunteer
program for Torino 2006, if we were interested in helping out in the
Spectators' service function for this event, which came at the end of
a week of practices for the Canadian team and some of our Italians.
We set out for Torino
quite early... well, a bit late on our timetable because when we called
Manu to see why at 1pm wasn't at out meeting point, he answered:"but
weren't we suposed to meet at 3.30pm??", so we had to wait for
him. We also had some problems with the road as usual - we ALWAYS have
problems with the directions around torino - episodeds to report? A
near-death experience caused by me trying to look at the map myself
because Melly wasn't particularly useful and no-one was helping her...
but I went back to my lane immediately, and apart from a scare, no harm
was done... A badly illegal U-turn outside palavela while looking for
a parking spot, right in front of some policemen who took no notice
of it, barely indicating us where a free parking spot was to be found....
We went to get our uniforms (some blue sweatshirts with the Lancia logo
- the lady giving out them recognized me, but I my mind was totally
blank- I have no Idea of who she was!), sat through our briefing, discovered
which sectors we had beenassigned to, and after a quick break ( and
a dash to the car to drop down some things, with a casual encounter
with Fede's parents and Massi's mum) we took our places and waited for
the public to come in. I ended up being on the second level, in a quite
central sector.
Iremember taking notes of the gala for an article, but I must have lost
them somewhere, and I can't say I recall everything... I was quite tired,
my back was killing me and I could not sit down anywhere. The public
in my sector was quite well beheaved, and apart from some groups arriving
late whom I had to stop from getting to their seats while some skater
was performing, I had very little work to do. I gave indications, checked
the tickets, but no problems arose in my zone. I discreetly enjoyed
the show.(of course I have no photos, I was working there!!)
My personal favourite of the night was definitely Stephane Lambiel and
his gorgeous "You ar Beautiful" exhibition... a perfect mix
of masculine grace and elegance, it was breathtaking for me.
Barbara and Maurizio did for the Nth time their Killing me Softly number..
probably their best performance so far of this exhibition which I am
not too fond of, but it was nice to see them skate.. after their announcement
of the 21th about their return (which of course we'd known about for
months) it suddendly felt so "real", to see them skate in
the Palavela....
Massi and Fede did their "tugurio" number (impossible to translate
- it's a joke from the Italian version of the Big Brother reality show),
now set to some extracts from Carmina Burana...lovely. No matter what
some silly critics with limited experience might say.
Carolina skated a lovely "Ave Maria" with her usual grace,
with the most un-explicable costume.. training pants with holes around
the skates, a cheap-looking white tank and some sparkly flesh coloured,
crystal beades gloves....
Karel did his Safri duo number, which is nice and energetic, and got
the whole crowd to support him.. I only still have to figure out why
was he dressed like a sailor....
Irina did a couple of numbers whose musics I can't recall... one might
even have been something alike Britney Spears.. the more "pop"
one was my fouvorite, she looked like she was really having fun and
was in great shape.
Plushi... what on earth did he do?? I can't recall... I must not have
been supremely impressed...
Of all the Canadian bunch I surely recall Emanuel Sandhu doing a slow
program, virtually jumpless, but he is so beautiful on the ice, with
such a great elegant presence, he really showed how good can skating
be even without jumps...
After the end of the show we waited for all the public to leave our
sector, and then we met in the backstage as usual, to say hello to our
skating friends and our connaissances in TOROC... We
had not seen some of our friends for a while, so it was a very happy
occasion. Babi, and mostly Giorgia, wer the stars of the show... Mauri
was quite in a hurry (his brother was more talkative than him!)... It
was a pleasure to see Fede and Massi, whom whe had not met for a good
month now... When we finally set out to walk to the car, we found again
Babi with lovely Giorgia waiting for Diego with the car... As soon as
she saw us approaching she asked for help.. Giorgia is so heavy now,
and her arms were close to giving away! I immediately jumped to the
rescue, and I was still holding her while they packed the car, when
Massi's car arrived with Fede, Roberto and Milla; Milla immediately
waved for Barbara to come and say hello, but when she saw Giorgia she
motioned for Babi to move aside (LOL!) because she wanted to kiss her..
of course I obliged and leaned closer, to let her kiss the baby, while
simultaneously confirming to Massi a phone meeting for the next day...
Finaly we got to
our car, and for once we had no problems at all navigating around Torino,
and reaching Milano!
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