Souvenir Sheet to be issued on Feb. 15 honoring Canada's first Olympic gold medal on home soil.
It was quite a day here in Canada as everyone celebrated the nation’s first Olympic gold on home soil. Canada Post was certainly not caught unprepared as tonight I received an email from Canada Post announcing that a booklet of 10 stamps and a souvenir sheet of two will go on sale tomorrow at post offices across the country. Oh … and I almost forgot to congratulate the winner himself, Alexandre Bilodeau, for his gold in the Men’s Freestyle Skiing Moguls.
On other fronts, this was our first full day of the Olympic Games. It began with a rousing good time at the Richmond Oval, home to Olympic speed skating. Today’s bill of fare offered a menu of the world’s best women at 3,000 meters. This included the likes of Canadian’s Kristina Groves and Clara Hughs, Nancy Swider-Peltz of the US, and Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic. As each of the 14 pairs raced it was clear that the best were saved for last. In the end Sabilkova, who raced in the 11th pair, managed to stay on top of the standings. Stephanie Beckert of Germany took the silver and Clara Hughs muscled her way in for a bronze, propelled on a wave of bleacher rockin’, foot stompin’ encouragement from the predominantly Canadian audience.
Canadian Cindy Klassen & American Catherine Raney-Norman trying to gain the edge in the women's 3,000 m.
It was certainly surprising to me that the Dutch girls couldn’t do any better than 7th. Don’t blame their orange clad fans for a lack of support. Even well-known traditional Dutch band, Kleintje Pils, was there to entertain the audience.
If you weren’t at an event, the place to be was either standing in line outside of Hudson Bay Company’s main store waiting to enter the Olympic Superstore, or wandering around the upscale Yaletown district with its funky shops and pubs. I always find that an Olympic Games are as much about the sports as they are about enjoying the colorful atmosphere swirling around you. One never knows just what might be around the next corner. One pedestrian thoroughfare bordered by cafes and boutiques became a stage for a troop of young Canadian girls putting on quite a display of their double-dutch jump rope prowess.
Vancouver, decked out in all its Olympic finery, couldn’t have looked better!
Nice report Mark. Were the new souvenir sheets available in the local post offices on Feb 15 as promised. We looked forward to more reports!
Hi Mark, really good your blog. And so we “temporary Vancouverites” know too what you do, because there are only very few chances to meet.
Add on to your comment: today – 18.2.2010- the official FDC arrived in the MPO. Even the days before the postal staff allowed collectors to use the “common” Olympic postmark backdated to 14.2.2010- a courtesy, of course. This should be considered in the evaluations of these FDC if they later appear at the collectors’ market.
Regards, Thomas