Pretty uneventful journey. Just the last leg was a problem when the taxi driver dumped me and my luggage in the middle of a crossroads in Nice. ( A lot of Nice is all a one way system). 'Eez down zere' he says helpfully. No no mister ...e waz ze other bloody way!

It was very warm when I arrived. Did I mention the view as you fly into Nice? No? Oh well it's totally fab, you break through the clouds over a mountain range. ( I guess it was the alps? PML!) then over country side and then you fly out over the coastline onto the glittering Meditterean and fly back in to land. Lots of Japanese in luggage collection. Got v. excited when see all the 'Welcome to Les Championnats Du Monde du Patinage Artistique' signs.

Anyway, back at the hotel; Pierre escorts me to my room and asks where my friend is. I explain that she will be arriving later, he offers to share the room with me if she doesn’t arrive. Dirty old man....LOL.

So, after unpacking, getting a wash and changing clothes, I get fidgety and decide I am bored so I go down the street and have a coke at a pavement cafe.

I arrive back, and who is there but our lurvely Shells. I help her up to the room with her luggage (lots more than me, of course you N. Americans have to do things bigger...PML!)

She doesn’t unpack (I think...'Oh, OK, she's tired' but more on that later) Then we just sit there chatting and watching the men’s quali on Eurosport. The hotel was nice. Not first rate or anything, but it had character and shutters that opened up onto a little balcony. (Handy for that late night/early morning fag!) Well at about 4pm Nice time, we decide that we were falling asleep, so we decide we'll set off to find the arena.

Pierre gives us directions, which we eventually slagged off, but then found out that we made the very first mistake at the first corner.

I almost get run over and shouted at by some old French bat (bloody people driving on the wrong side of the road) have to stop for coffee and a fag after that, ask nice bar owner for directions (he was a bit vague) so we set off again.

To cut a long story and walk short, we eventually (with the aid of a map- who knew?) found the arena.

Watched zzz opening ceremonies and speeches. Got excited that Uncle O was there and bowed down in homage. The skating well, it was OK, LOL but you know the results and I’m not going to list all the elements couple for couple (well, I didn’t write them down...PML!!)

Saw Ulrike, whom I had met at Lalique and said Hi. Intro’d myself to Emma Abraham (A&P list) who starts chatting away. I think to myself: 'Why did I do this? I’m too tired, I can't make any sense'.

Competition ends and Shock! We go straight back to our hotel and bed. Excited at the prospect of Compulsory dance in the morning....NOT.

Walked in the door and Pierre says to me, "Oh, you're the Canadian", which was a little freaky. But, he tells me that Sharon has phoned and will not be arriving for three days, but is going to pay for my stay till she arrives. I was ready to collapse on the floor and his joke didn't come off as a joke. Of course, she walked in just then which ruined his surprise. I didn't unpack right away because I didn't know that there was anywhere to unpack into. There was a closet of some sort, but it didn't really look like a closet to me (in my crazy delerious state that is). We had Eurosport on and were watching the mens qualifying rounds when I decided that if we didn't get up and do something I'd be asleep in no time, which is NOT a good thing. Sharon went to ask directions to the rink (10 minutes LOL), while I changed out of the icky plane clothes.

Sharon leaves the directions in the room, and we get lost. I saved her life...I notice she left that part out! LOL After that we went into a bar where she had coffee to calm her nerves and I had a coke. Asked the bartender for directions and he says, oh walk to the top of the street then ask someone. That's helpful, isn't it? At any rate, we were going in the right direction on a number of occasions till we looked at those damn "vous etes ici" boards and got ourselves all turned around. Finally we bought a map and got there just in time. (Our journey was not 10 minutes, it was 2 hours)

That was Pairs short, I think. The results are all known by now, but I couldn't believe it when Jamie screwed up on her sbs spin. I was just in shock. Then there were those ignorant Americans who were on about how Jamie looked scared to death and that every other pair out there just WENT for it. I didn't agree with them then, and I still don't (after seeing my tapes). But the kicker was when they say, oh Naturally the Canadians will say that they deserved to be placed where they were...AND that's why they have a rep. I swear you could see teeth marks in my lip where I was biting it to keep my temper. LOL Sharon luckily dragged me off and I didn't turn around and show them what a rep we REALLY have.

Made the walk back to the hotel ok, didn't get lost thank God, although we did have the map out on quite a few occasions to make sure we weren't going in the wrong direction. Finally I said, what are the street names?!? LOL That helped more than just turn left on a big looking street...

I was quite wary of the evil A&P crowd the first day, and wasn't introduced to any of them (which is fine, because for the rest of the week I was known as "Oh, this is Michelle, she's a B&K fan." To which everyone nodded politely and got the hell away as fast as they possibly could! LOL)