Winnie_20

I remember a large sign at a huge monastery on a hill (accessible by cable car, I think) that instructed people to report any sighting of, I think flying insects like mosquitoes to the authorities. That made me go, Hey... I haven't seen a *single* insect since coming here (I'm so envious, it's late October here and I still get attacked by mosquitoes at night)! I'm very good with food, as far as I know I can eat anything, never had any problems anywhere, and I'm known for trying out anything that other people eat. But, to be fair, half the things I ate in places like HK and Japan, I had no idea what they were. I think the humidity is what my arms and legs reacted to. It was... not fun. We have maybe a few days in high summer every year when the temperatures gets that high here (Netherlands), *but* the humidity levels are lower. They can feel pretty bad here, but I know how it feels in HK, and it really doesn't compare. I knew there was a reason why I like figure skating. I'd rather dress in ten layers of warm winter clothes and let Yuzu and Shoma's presence warm my heart than melt in the sun. ;-)

Nothing wrong with the PR, Hong Kong is incredible. Your post just made me reread my journal of a week in Hong Kong back in 2009. It was an incredible experience, and the seafood, oh wow... I so miss that. (And yes, went to the fishing village, too.) Unfortunately, I only remember the good stuff, and my journal also lists the bad stuff: the heat, the heat, the heat, the utterly disgusting and horribly itchy blotches caused by *something* on my arms and legs that made them all look like a warzone, (never found out what caused it, normal mosquitoes don't cause that kind of rash, and anyway, I never saw a single insect in the entire week) and OMG did I mention the heat. I swore never to go anywhere ever again in the subtropics (never mind the tropics). It was June, and one day there was a heat warning because it was supposed to get up to 33 C, which was like 1 or 2 degrees C higher than normal (?), and I thought, whatever, you won't notice the difference... but man, even that difference was stunning. Never again. (It probably wouldn't be so bad if my head didn't mind, but it does, hence I walked around with a 24/7 migraine and high on painkillers every day.). But, seriously, HK was an experience of a lifetime, something you never forget. If you invite Yuzu over for seafood, plzplzplz can I have an invitation, too? ;-)

WHAT. I'm gonna stop watching Men's figure skating now. I'm sure it's better for my health. I could probably extend my life with at least twenty years.

I hate the world right now. Eurosport TV guide on my telly says it's currently showing a recap of the Men's FS (read: *commentary*!!!), but a bunch of sweaty men kicking a ball on a field of grass doesn't look too figure skate-y to me. My precious ballet Le Corsaire livestream in the movie theater, live from Moscow (!) was a mess, so we left. I knew I shouldn't have gone to see that particular ballet, I jinxed Yuzu and the world hates me. Sorry Yuzu.

This the right place for this? Dutch commentary on Eurosport E2, Rostelecom 2017, Chopin SP. JP = Jeroen Prins, HL = Haya Leenards JP: Okay, and now, today’s apotheosis. HL: Fortunately a lot of Japanese fans present here in the lion’s den in Moscow, Japanese fans don’t care [where an event takes place], they really go everywhere. Just 22 years old, we shouldn’t forget that. Yuzuru Hanyu. He is able to jump the quad lutz, but will keeps things modest, we think, judging from his training program here, he will go for the quad loop and the quad toe loop combination. [no comments during the skate, which is a bit of a shame, as you don’t get the “immediate” thoughts from the commentators] JP: We kept silent to allow you optimal enjoyment of Yuzuru Hanyu’s *new* (????!!!!! and with emphasis!) program set to Chopin. Oh, look at that, it’s raining here, there are actually a lot more Japanese fans here than we thought, look at that, the ice is full with Pooh bears, that’s his symbol, Winnie the Pooh, as if we’re in Japan. HL: fortunately he skated last! JP: yes indeed otherwise you will spend a few minutes to get all this off the ice. HL: But anyway, *new* program indeed [??????!!!!!!. Both these commentators have been around for a long time, they’ve seen this program a gazillion times before!), set to Frederic Chopin, made by Jeffrey Buttle, old Canadian world champion. JP: a work-in-progress masterpiece, really sublime how it’s skated to the music and performed, with today a few [beauty errors] in the quad jumps. [he laughs] HL: the little boy is thinking, I’m taking my moment, I’m sticking close to him. JP: yeah, a (or the?) mini-Plushenko there handing out the presents. HL: Unbelievable (I think she refers to the Poohs, although again, come on folks, you’ve seen this a gazillion times before, don’t act like it’s new). JP: But yes, with two mistakes, the quad loop which was overturned, and then he fell at the second jump of the combination, but he went for it, he fought for it, also for the landing of the loop where he didn’t put his foot down. HL: yeah, not his free foot, and that is important […. not sure what they’re saying here, something about if you put your second foot down you have more points deduction… or something, they’re talking through another.] JP we’ll see it back, but it was beautiful, especially that axel, phenomenal! HL: yes, that was definitely the highlight. JP: here, watch the landing closely, well, it’s landed on the quart, at the most positive, continues to rotate and immediately goes into the transitions and the choreography. Look he does keep that second foot off the ice, very impressive. HL: very nice spins, too, also he uses the music while doing the spins, like with those arm movements. JP: so he puts in those variations on the nuances of the music, and that is how we want to see it. And here, with a turn [going into the 3A]— HL: we don’t get to see the preparation for the jump, but it was almost a step sequence. JP: Sublime. Here it is a +3, and next season that will be a +5 because it’s not possible to do it any better. And then here the combination, quad toe, deep landing, he didn’t have much speed left for the triple toe loop HL; and then he comes to a stop here at the landing. JP: and he couldn’t save the landing and that’s a fall. HL: a shame. JP: BUT, it’s a work-in-progress masterpiece. HL: exactly, and it really isn’t a bad program for Yuzuru Hanyu at the start of the season, because we don’t really know him any other way than that he has to build this up, [grow into it]. [I guess neither of them had any idea about what happened at the Autumn classic.......] He’s not a robot who can always get it perfect, he executes very difficult programs, very difficult choreographies, and he really needs a few months to get it right and get it into his legs and to combine that sublime jumping technique with that *very* difficult choreography, and I feel like he’s already pretty far. JP: even so, that is one heck of a score, 94.85. Nathan Chen remains ahead of him, but Hanyu has a higher presentation and that’s fair, because the program is much better on a choreographic level. HP: four points higher in presentation, but the technical score of 49, we have to compare with Chen’s 57.50. He had a lutz and a flip, those are two jumps who are also more worth in base value than the loop and the toe loop that Hanyu chose to jump. It’ll be an exciting season.

I have no problem speaking my mind and saying I'm disappointed. Once again. Repeat Chopin, repeat SEIMEI, basically repeat the two costumes... *le sigh*. But, the man wants his Gold medal, and if this how he feels most comfortable about trying to get that, hey, go for it. I'll go watch the Ladies for the pretty costumes instead, and I'll just suffer through the gorgeous Chopin and Japanese music.

I'm very doubtful. I cannot find anything that confirms it. There's plenty of dates on wikipedia, but none that match October 14. It could be they referred to some obscure publication date in the Netherlands, for all I know...

On the way to horse-riding this morning I heard on the radio that apparently it's Pooh bear's birthday, so happy birthday to Pooh. I haven't got the faintest where they got their information, though... *confused*

Awesome, I'll be there (missed all the other streaming parties except for the very first one)! Am taking the evening to watch the gymnastics, too, so will be multi-task-viewing.

That schedule was announced quite a while ago already. Either that, or my day planner can see the future... ;-)

Aw, that's quite a charming routine! He really portrays the character, he is Jack all the way!

*snickers* ... and the good thing of it is, you get assigned seats. Including for the Practices. So no need to pull all-nighters. You can go and come as you please. I watched it this morning, and it just put such a smile on my face. I'm so sorry for him, but those expressions on his face are just too good. And then that shrug, like, Oh well... c'est la vie. And all while managing to not let anyone around him know (well, except the audience, hahaha). Also my greatest thanks for the link to the youtube video of those fans. Holy hannah, I've never seen such dedication. This goes straight to one of my favorite background entertainments on the big TV screen. And now I'm off to see our Pumpkin King, at long last!

Ah, I still need to watch that Nightmare before Christmas FS! *bounces* Thanks for the explanation about the Team event qualification. I didn’t even realize there is a chance that Hanyu and co don’t get to participate in the Team events in Pyeongchang. *face palm* But I’m sure they’ll do fine.

Oh... I had no idea this qualifying also goes for the Team event????!!! Yikes, thanks for the reminder! How does that even work, qualifying for the team event if nobody from Japan is even skating at Nebelhorn? *bit confused*

So what was wrong with the gloves? Two right gloves? That explains SEIMEI then, I’d be annoyed and not concentrated, too. And obviously he cannot tell the world about it (you’re not gonna blame your skating on missing gloves and/or perhaps even put your mother in a bad light!!!), so... there. No problems with that FS then. Next time it’ll be fine. *the above shouldn’t be taken too seriously* ;-)

I just played Chopin's ballade no. 1 again for the first time in, oh, over a year, at least. I'd forgotten how scarily difficult that piece is. My fingers so hate me right now. But one day, one day, hahaha. I already pity my poor piano teacher. This will be the third time I'm going to approach him with the words, "My favorite figure skater is skating to this piece this season, so I need to be able to play it a bit better, too." *queue eye-roll* I hold no illusions. At the end of my life I still won't be able to play this perfectly. I'm not that musically skilled and I don't practice eight hours a day. But every little bit of progress is acceptable.

I haven't the foggiest about jumps, new or not, but... wow, what a thing of beauty! Well done, Mikhail! Now land it in competition, too!

Oh good, that gives me plenty of time to catch up with JGP Minsk *and* half-watch the European Aerobic Gymnastics Championships. <--- no, seriously. I hadn't even heard of it before today, but the livestream crossed my facebook timeline, and like those Japanese Men's Rhythmic Gymnastics, it sure is an eye-opener! Well, you need something to keep you entertained and distracted.

I'm too migrained to translate myself (I do well enough with French), but google does a decent job. This bit, though: "former world champion Brian Orser, a six-year-old Japanese trainer at his school in Toronto." Poor Brian.

I'll be honest, half my family think he's a girl, too. I have this gorgeous wallpaper of Yuzu in his swan costume on my iPhone lock screen (made by the queen of wallpapers, Pamigena), and even just last week my brother looked at it and went "Why do you keep having a photo of that girl on your phone?" Oddly enough, it's always the men who think he's a woman. It's never women, in my experience. We understand and see the difference clearly. For men, there seems to be some genetic factor that makes them mostly incapable of accepting that some men don't have to look like body-builders to be a man... <---- somewhat generalized, of course, but the general idea is there.

I think it's also partly due to how well someone knows the music. Did you know the SEIMEI music before Yuzu skated to it? I am willing to bet very, very few people here did. I certainly didn't, and the music cuts sound brilliant to me. But, I did have a problem with Hope and Legacy. In my opinion it is a good example of extremely bad editing of two very different music pieces. But I was already thoroughly familiar with those two pieces. I just cannot feel them as a different piece and the cuts are jarring as heck! I haven't actually seen Boyang's Star Wars program as I have this thing about saving new programs for the GP series, but cannot wait to hear it. Might be very awkward indeed. But at this point I am happy enough that SW will be present at the Olympics! ;-)

The man in charge of the ISU knows a lot about media, sponsorship, getting audiences to come etc. IIRC he made a big deal of all that stuff back when he was candidate. I can totally see it now. Watch out, before we know it, we will, in fact, have three *separate* events: athletic, artistic, allround. You wanna experience it live? You pay three times. And people will, because fans are willing to pay.

I exhibit no surprise whatsoever. You put a Dutchman in charge of the ISU, and next thing you know, they want to have multiple medal events: events where you focus on one particular thing (read: distance!) and even an all-round (!!!) event. I hate speed skating. To see its influence show up is the worst news imaginable to me.

Star Wars program! Boyang Star Wars program! A day later and I am still bouncing around with excitement. I am a huuuuuge SW junkie, my biggest regret is never having seen Satoko's program in real life. This will be terrific!!! He should get an Olympic medal simply because of the choice of 🎶. SW & John Williams for da win!!!!

Lol that reminds me of Nathan at Helsinki. I was with a group of Yuzu fans standing around in the concourse and saw Nathan walking by... and I was like, wow, *nobody* in the whole group was interested (or even noticed). Then a few minutes later, he walked past again and same thing. We were too busy talking about more important things, obviously. ;-) It just makes me chuckle every time.