It’s been a very busy day!  Things are going on all over the place.

First of all, at 9am tomorrow morning the ceremony of handing the Olympic Torch over to Canada will begin.  Since October 22nd the Olympic Torch has been on a tour through Greece, but tomorrow morning Nikki Georgiadis, a figure skater from Pickering, Ontario, and a Greek descendent will be the final Torchbearer in Greece!  Then the Olympic Flame will be boarding a Canadian Forces jet for its trip to Canada for touchdown Friday morning in Victoria, BC!  If you can’t make it to Victoria then it sounds like we’ll have some activities going on in the Olympic Superstore in Vancouver.  So far I’ve heard about a Coca-Cola pin launch and a fashion show!  Hopefully I’ll get a more precise schedule tomorrow and I’ll post it up so you know what’s going on!

Next up – people are excited about bear bells!!  While the three-bell bear bells I wrote about yesterday will be available, there are only 12,000 of them made and they’ll be on sale December 1st at various North Shore locations with partial going to a local bear awareness association.  You can find more information on them at the North Shore Spirit of BC website.  The official Olympic bear bells however, are currently on sale for $8.99 at the Vancouver2010.com website and will be available in the Olympic Superstore soon!  I do love that Ilanaaq, the official Vancouver 2010 Olympic emblem, is on this one!  It will be quite the keepsake, particularly if we can get everyone on board to wave their bear bells!

Next, I walked past David Lam Park in Yaletown, the host of the LiveCity Yaletown Olympic venue today and boy is there a lot going on there!  They’re completely recontouring part of the park right now!  There was a nice gentleman from the City of Vancouver Engineering section that I got to speak to as well and ask a few questions of.  They’re working on the soccer field area at the moment but as of this Monday the courts (tennis & basketball) will be shut down to visitors as well to begin prepping that area.  He mentioned the pavilions that will be set up: Coca-Cola, Samsung, Acer and Panasonic as well as the Vancouver Pavilion!  It is going to be so exciting.  Here’s what it looks like right now!

I took this photo today at about 3pm from where the Vancouver Pavilion will be and looking to the east.

Also – today our Canadian bobsleigh and skeleton World Cup teams were announced! Congratulations to everyone!  On the men’s bobsleigh we have Canada 1 piloted by Pierre Lueders pilot of the 2- and 4-man sled rounded out by David Bissett, Justin Kripps, Ken Kotyk and Neville Wright.  Canada 2 will be piloted by Lyndon Rush with Lascelles Brown, Dan Humphries, Chris Le Bihan, and Bret Bresciani.  The women’s team will be composed of: Canada 1 piloted by Helen Upperton, Canada 2 piloted by Kaillie Humphries and Canada 3 piloted by Amanda Stepenko.  The teams will be rounded out with bobsleighers Shelley-Ann Brown, Jenny Ciochetti, Heather Moyse, Amanda Moreley, Heather Patterson, Veronique Fortin and Sabrina Notarangelo.

The Canadian skeleton team will consist of 2006 Olympic Silver Medallist Jeff Pain, Jon Montgomery and Mike Douglas for the men and 2006 Olympic Bronze Medallist Mellisa Hollingsworth, Amy Gough, and Sarah Reid for the women.

Good luck bonne chance to all of our bobsleigh and skeleton competitors!  We Believe!!

Kallie Humphries, driving, of Canada, and teammate Heather Moyse set a track record in the fisrt run of the women's Bobsleigh World Championships in Lake Placid, N.Y. on Friday, Feb. 20, 2009. Peter Morgan/The Associated Press

OK, somehow it’s gotten late.  I know I posted ‘and more’ in the title but I’m afraid the more will have to be sleep tonight!  Tomorrow will be another day of adventure and fun in the Land of Vancouver 2010!  Cheers, santé!