NO MORE, NO MORE!!! In the last 2 weeks: Johnny left for Columbus…..with no warning and we got nothing in exchange the way he handled it. That sucked. Yuzu announced his change from competitive athlete to professional athlete, in other words, he retired from competition. Expected, but that sucks. Then to top it off, Chucky said no to a long term deal and we lost him to Florida. This sucks too. Each event makes “Elvis has left the building” seem pretty trivial.  This off season sucks!  Back to Yuzu. That’s it folks, that’s an end to a golden era in figure skating that in my opinion ..read more

Only 2 days later, whether we were ready for it or not, the long program was set to start. Had most of the figure skating world recovered from the shocking events of the short program event yet? No. Was I nervous about the long program? Yes. Did I expect Yuzu to win his 3rd gold medal from the start? To be honest, given his stated goals (primarily to land 4A), no, I didn’t think he could win (even more so once he was in 8th place after the short). I’m not being disrespectful, I’m looking at it without any emotion of “who” is my favorite. Of course, I want Yuzu to 3-peat, but I’m being realisti ..read more

Streaming Video link ready, check. Additional TV channel on for CBC coverage, check. Cell phone to keep track of social media, check. Kleenex close by in case I need to cry, check. I was ready for the Mens’ Figure Skating Short Program of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics to begin! Here are the highlights from my perspective that I wanted to write in my blog so my future self can reminisce later. First, there were practices but of course we didn’t hear much about them other than some photos which I am just posting a couple here that I like. Some of the practices were streamed but I didn’t have ..read more

Ok, that’s a wrap folks on the 2020-2021 season, a strange one that will go down in history. Sorry, I don’t really count World Team Trophy as part of a season since it’s a “team” thing. Anyways, I wrote my thoughts about the event while it was happening. First, congrats to Shcherb, Empress Liza, and Trusova for sweeping the podium!! That was great to see!! I didn’t wake up early enough to see the first 2 groups, although I toyed with the idea in order to watch Boyang. But, in the end, I am relieved that I didn’t have to watch his performance as I read it was pretty painful. Boyang needs to bou ..read more

Here we are in 2021 now, and we are still in the midst of a global pandemic. While I really didn’t think they would actually go through with it, the ISU and Swedish Skating Federation decided to host Worlds. They need to learn a lot about so called “bubbles” from the NHL, but that’s not what this post is about. I’m just happy that we had some top caliber skating to watch after a dismal season of cancellations and what amounted to local competitions. A recap on my thoughts as I watched the men’s SP. So used to no events, I forgot that Worlds was this week, and I booked a dentist appointment for ..read more

All Nighter: Day 2. Survived the 2nd all nighter. Once again, thanks to those who put up streams for the fans outside of Japan who don’t have access to the rights to Japanese tv stations. It is very much appreciated! The long program final group – I like the simplicity of the final group being in reverse order of the SP standings, makes it so simple, and make sense! Hopefully we can see this more often. My impressions of Yuzu’s Heaven and Earth program. Keyword: SOFT. Yuzu’s pastel costume top looked very soft and delicate. Every landing of every jump was soft, with beautiful knee bends and la ..read more

Hey everyone! Wow, it’s basically been a year since I posted my last blog entry and now that I’m typing, I’ve missed it. Problem was, 2020 started out pretty normal, but went downhill ridiculously fast after that! But, here we are at the end of the year, and I’ve had new inspiration from Yuzu to start writing again!! By March, we were all in lockdown, and I recall the weeks and days wondering if the World Championships were going to be held in Montreal or not. It was unbelievable to me that the organizing committee waited so long to cancel it, but in the end, they did the right thing, plus ref ..read more

New Year’s Resolution: Get caught up on blog!  And go through tons of photos that I took. When Yuzu was assigned Skate Canada, I was thrilled.  My friend and I decided to drive to Kelowna and enjoy the scenery as we drove through the Rocky Mountain pass.  The last time I drove to Kelowna was for Skate Canada in 2014.  It’s been a few months since Skate Canada now, and I realize how much I have probably forgotten since then and with that, the realization of how important this blog is to me.  So based on a few notes I took while I was there, here are the things I took with me from this event. M ..read more

You know how life just takes over and time goes by so quickly?  Well, I’ve been super busy and didn’t get a chance to post my ACI thoughts until now.  For awhile I thought I might as well forget about it since so much time passed, but when I re-read what I wrote during the event and on the plane ride home, I couldn’t help but want to save this experience on my blog for future reading.  So, sorry this is so late.  I also have Skate America and Skate Canada entries to write as well, but better late than never.  And a couple of my comments in this blog entry already have updates in my Skate Canad ..read more