HELSINKI BABY!!!!!!!!!!!
Had to put that in! There's an explanation for the title in this e-mail
somewhere. The first thing I have to say about this is that if you're
looking for detailed accounts of encounters with my favourite skaters then
by and large you're going to be disappointed. For me, it's enough to know
that they're there, and enough to see them, I don't actually need to get
their autograph, and I don't do photos with them! I do however embarrass
myself in front of them, for details on that read on! First, I'll do the
skater encounters and practices, then the competition, over two separate
emails so I don't crash people's servers!
First things first - we flew from Dublin to Copenhagen, Denmark, to
Helsinki. Remember that. It's vital later on.
Nora and I got to the rink for the first time on Friday the 19th, and
walked into the middle of a compulsory and original dance practice. The
first couple we saw were the Austrians, Furhing and Ellinger, who were
skating their waltz to "Hijo de la Luna", one of my favourite pieces. That
set the day off on a good note for me, and Nora was overcome by the arena,
denouncing her plans to leave me there so she could go sightseeing, and
joining me in thorough rinkratism. We also got some good practice for
sitting through the music for the paso and the tango - any lyrics you may
have heard floating up from the audience ("Y Viva Espana!" and the like)
came from us. How else do you possibly get through so much Spanish themed
music? The same day we also looked at the pairs practice, and were really
impressed by the Poles, and shocked by the real slightness of the little
Ukrainian girl - she really can just about see over the boards! There were
no Canadians, no Russian, no French and no Schwartz and Muller, which was
strange because they were walking around the rink. The Chinese were really
impressive.
But who am I kidding, rattling on about the pairs at practice? Do I give a
hoot about them? No, not really! Nora and I were talking, I can't remember
who was saying what, all I do remember is that I cut across her (or me)
with general speechlessness, round eyes and an "OH MY GOD!" for good
measure. What could evoke such a reaction in me? Gwan, have a guess! <g> I
just looked across and there was Elvis himself standing at the rink boards,
talking with Uschi. Gang, it takes you have no idea how much to render me
speechless. But speechless I was. And shaking. We were four rows of seats
back, and he was RIGHT THERE!!! Once I got some semblance of normal though
activity back (stretching credulity to the limit) I got my little notebook
and went down to get his autograph. (This took approximately five minutes)
By that time, he was talking to the tv girl who was going around mapping
out all the skaters routines, and when he was done with her, he made to go
out of the rink through the tunnel under the stands, right beside where I
was. Now, having spent that much time and considerable effort getting my
courage up to go over to him, it was a severe case of "Oh no sunshine,
you're not getting away from me that easily!" Picture me if you can,
hanging over the railings asking for his autograph. Oh yes, I did, and he
was very nice and very gracious. The ten steps back to my seat were the
longest ten steps of my life. I was shaking from head to foot and Nora was
in hysterics. What's a girl to do in a situation like that? I don't know
what any of you guys did the first time you were experiencing the Elvis
glow, but personally, I whipped out my mobile phone and rang my sister. The
poor girl was at work if you don't mind, and she thought something was
wrong! Picture it......"Bronagh....Bronagh,....you'll never guess who I
just met......" Funny thing was she did, quite easily.
I mentioned Nora was in hysterics looking at me, but I got my own back
later on in the day, when she saw the object of her affection, Alexei
Yagudin, in person. He was there watching Alisa Drei practice, and he was
in the stands later on then too. Let's just say, to spare her
embarrassment, that my earlier speechlessness was made to look like the
height of articulacy (is that a word?) in comparison. She refused to go
over to get an autograph from him. Remember that. It's important later on.
The next day was Saturday, and yippee, we got to see the men practice
(short program)! Disappointment for Nora, no Russians there at all,
although Alexei was floating around the rink. Discovered we really like
Guo's short program to Lord of the Dance. I also discovered that Marcus
"where have you been hiding from me?" Leminen is quite the fine thing, and
we also agreed that Michael Tyllesen (Denmark) just is not done justice to
on television. (Note, when Nora and I agree on a fella, it's rare) Laurant
Tobel was hilarious, but on seeing him, I promptly remembered that I had a
cuddly toy at home that I've had for years and left at home, in the shape
of the Pink Panther. I wasn't happy when I remembered that! Also liked the
German number two, Stefan Lindemann, who skated to the Corrs for his short
program. Between that and the height factor, we promptly nicknamed him
Little Larry Lindemann the Leprechaun.
Doug Leigh was there with Takeshi Honda and Marcus Leminen which gave me
hope that Elvis would be there when it was his turn to practice. My delight
when he was there - well you can imagine. The fact that I moved down the
length of the row to sit right behind where Doug was standing - well we've
all done stuff like that right? I got some nice photos, even if they're a
bit dark, which I think has more to do with the fact that the film was
nearly at it's develop by date at the time. This was the famous practice
where his lace broke when he went to do the triple axel in his run through.
Click click went my camera.
The Americans were there without Michael Weiss, who I heard only got in
town that day. Tim Goebel was there, and I was impressed by him in person.
It was the first time I'd ever seen Trifan Zivanovic (who was duly
nicknamed Cadbury's Choccy Tiffin in the first five minutes) and once I got
over the fact that he bears a remarkable resemblance to an apprentice I
once worked with, I liked him.
Double shock of the day - seeing both Cornel Gheorghe and Dmitri Dmitrenko
practicing! I didn't know they'd be here!
Sandhu - as you may have noticed, we gave nicknames out to beat the band.
His was "Stretchy Boy" and I'm not so sure we meant that in as good fun as
some of the others. The boy freaked Nora out big time, when we saw him
warming up high up in the arena. When he did his "bum spin" I literally
thought that she was going to do a runner from the arena. I'm sure he's a
lovely chap, and very nice to his mammy and all that but eeech!!!
Sylvia Fontana and Diana Poth - really impressed me in person. They're both
as gorgeous as they look on tv, even if Diana insisted on practicing in her
bathing suit! I could hear the comments from Simon Reed and Chris Howarth
and they weren't even there! I was impressed by Sylvia's free at Europeans,
so it was nice for me to see her here. She was in the stands when John
Zimmerman was practicing too. Lucinda Ruh - amazing spinner. Just
incredible. But both herself and Tatiana Malinina are waaaay too thin. I
just wanted to give them a good meal. We saw the three Russian ladies.
Maria looked nervous, Julia looked great and Victoria was Victoria.
I finally got to see my Canadian pairs when they came out for free
practice! Yaay! I thought I was a fan of Sargeant and Wirtz before, but I
really liked them all the more in person. Nora had popped out for a ciggy
break when they came out, and I was sitting where I had moved when Elvis
came out, but problem - Paul staked out a place near the middle of the row,
where I was at the end. I waited until Nora got back and we duly moved.
Unfortunately Paul had noticed me there on my own when he was pacing up and
down waiting for Kris and Kristy, and he heard us moving - we're far from
subtle. I got another one of those "crazy chick" looks, and felt like I
should have stalker emblazoned on my forehead, but I forgot about that
quicksmart. I adore this free, I just love it. I also got a lovely picture
of the opening pose from this practice, which has duly been enlarged,
framed and is hanging on my wall. Favourite moment of the practice was when
they were doing their run-through, and they took a break in the middle,
Chris skated over, grabbed the bottle of water and said to Paul, in a kinda
Bogey-esque voice, "It's just too damn sexy!" Second favourite moment was
when they got back to doing the run through and they made up a new ending -
Kris caught an edge and down he went. Again, click went the camera!
But the thing that made my day can be summed up in two brief words. Rene
Lohse. (WARNING - GUSH DEAD AHEAD!!!!) You may know who he is, the German
ice dance champion with Kati Winkler. I've been a fan of theirs for four
and a half years. I remember when I first saw them, they did the most
beautiful exhibition piece at Skate America in 94 to "Beauty and the Beast"
and I was hooked. I've followed them since then, I think they were like
22nd or something in Birmingham that season, so to see them work their way
up has been really exciting for me. Now Kati is beautiful. That's a given.
And Rene, I mean, you see him on tv, or in pictures, and you go, "OK, not
bad" but then you see him in person. OH MY GOD. Let me put that again....OH
MY GOD. This man should be just enshrined and put in a museum as the
embodiment of the perfect man. Apologies to Elvis, and Victor Kraatz and
Brian Orser and all those who I have previously anointed, but this is THE
ONE. Mere words can not describe the fineness of this most fine of fine
things. Like Leeny once said, I'd follow him on my knees if he asked me.
Now you understand, obsession is not born of just finethingness with me.
Something must spark it. So what sparked it for me? Well, Rene and Kati
were there, I imagine on their way to or just having come from the B rink
to practice. They were standing in front of us , looking at Peggy and Mirko
and the number two Germans practicing. (Love of the team, isn't he a babe?)
So he was leaning against the railings, facing us, with his eyes closed. I
had my superduper camera all ready, I'd been taking photos of people by the
boards all day, so I trained my lens on him, and waited for him to open
his eyes. Well, he opened his (oh-so-adorable) eyes and looked dead at me.
More exactly at the lens trained on him. I snapped the shutter very quickly
before he moved (unfortunately for me!) because just as I took the picture,
he smiled. A very slow, very sexy totally adorable smile. And I blushed. I
admit it, I totally did. Any thump heard in the rink right about then may
have been a jump, or a fall, or a girl landing a throw. It may also have
been me falling hook line and sinker. Said picture was prayed over. You can
imagine - "Dear God, if only one picture turns out, let it be that one".
Said prayers were answered, and the picture was promptly enlarged to 8by6
(the largest they could do at a one hour place, otherwise it'd be bigger,
although I'm considering investing in a mousepad, be still my heart) framed
and hung up on my wall. I have no idea how the boyfriend will take that,
there's not even a picture of him in my room ,but it must also be said that
I don't actually care!!!
Rene Lohse - whatta man.
Moving on to the next day of practices - c'mon, you seriously think I could
function after that?? - we got to see one of the scariest pairs practices I
have ever seen. First were Obertas and Palamarchuk who went splat on a
split double twist. He caught an edge and sat down while she was in the
air, and they both kissed the ice. Steve Hartsell went skid going into a
pairs spin (a la Barb Underhill in Sarajevo) and nearly took Danielle out
with him. While I'm talking about Steve, you know how we gave nicknames?
Well, we both agreed he didn't really look like your typical skater. So in
true Jeanine style, I came out with the statement that "he looks like one
of those high school guys you see walking around in films wearing a
letterman jacket and who's called Brad or Todd or something." Ever after,
he's been Brad to us. Then when Laura (does that girl ever smile?) Handy
and Paul Binnebose were doing their run through, she slipped doing
crossovers near the boards and Brad had to jump to avoid her!
Remember how I said I embarrassed myself in front of skaters? Well this is
how. We were sitting in the front rows of the stands, and Nora wasn't
paying attention because Alexei was in the stands to the right of us. So
out comes Neil Wilson for the warm-up. Neil as you know is the British guy
who was favourite for nationals, but was injured so he couldn't compete,
but because they had two slots for worlds, they were able to send him and
Clive Shorten who won nationals in his absence. We decided, at risk of
disownment by our respective fathers, that we were going to root for the
two Brits, or as we called them, our sweetie pies from next door. We went a
little further than that though - Neil is actually from Dundonald, near
Belfast, which is Northern Ireland, but he skates for Great Britain. We
decided that since he's from Northern Ireland and we're from Ireland that
we would repatriate him for the week. He didn't make it out of qualifying
so maybe that wasn't such a good idea! Anyway, Nora wasn't paying
attention, so I nudged her and said, look, there's Neil. As you do. However
I must've said the Neil just a smidge too loud, because didn't the little
sweetie pie hear me and look up to see who was calling him. Yes I was
embarrassed, yes I went red, yes Nora was in hysterics. But did I mention
that Neil is oh-so-near to getting the triple axel and that Clive is
practicing the triple loop triple loop combination?
Moving swiftly on.........
Nora was thrilled when the Russian men came out and Alexei was there too!
She was delighted and all ready to move to wherever Tatiana was standing at
the boards. Well, Tatiana came out and stood right in front of us. Nora
could hardly believe her luck. She wasn't so happy at the end of the
practice though, it was obvious Yags had an injury, he was in a lot of
pain. Plushenko was on, landing everything, and Urmanov was doing his look
at me I'm such a stud routine. Ahem. Nora and I laughed through the run
through, we couldn't help ourselves. Takeshi Honda looked great - I can't
believe how much he's come on since I first saw him. Doug Leigh is a God!
Laurent Tobel is great in person, but he was practicing double axels very
near to the boards, and he wiped out on one of them and slid right into the
boards! Marcus Leminen had to jump to get out of the way and Laurent was a
long time getting up. I'll never forget the sight of Doug and Robert Tebby
peeping over the boards to check if he was still alive!
But the thrill of the day for me was Elvis. I loved what little I saw of
Merlin that day - even Nora liked it! (Note, this is the Sunday practice,
the day before qualifying, the day before Elvis's birthday) Even Nora
loved it, which is a real feat! I remember though, much as I love Elvis,
his practices didn't go especially well, it looked like real work for him,
whereas Plushy and some others were blowing through it. I did my usual
trick of wherever Doug is I am too, and moved to where he was standing. I
had a card for Elvis for his birthday, which I wanted to give to him,
rather than throw it on the ice the next day. Like I said before, that's
not something I usually do, but I was in this little novelty shop in Dublin
one day, it's got all this weird unusual stuff, lava lamps, puzzles, all
that kind of stuff. It also sells these great cards and pictures, beautiful
ones, I can't really describe them, but they're metallic, shiny colours on
them - if I can get a scan of it, I'll send it to you. Anyway, I love
looking at them, and on this particular day, I found one with a picture of
a magician on it, billowing blue cloak with stars, and along white beard -
and I saw it, and I thought of Merlin straight away. Like I say, I don't
usually do this kind of thing, but I also don't believe in coincidence,
and this card was too perfect not to give to him! It was blank on the
inside, so I just wrote a little message and signed my name. And then,
there was a lot of space on the card so I added a little something - hope
none of you mind! I just wrote down something like "Best wishes also from
Donna and Jane and the rest of the Elvis List" (There wasn't a chance in
heck of me remembering everyone or even fitting a lot of people in, so that
was the best thing I could think of!) When he came off the ice, I went over
to the barrier, and called him. I doubt he remembered me, but reporters
were after him to talk to them ,so I just handed the card to him and said
that it was for him, for tomorrow, and happy birthday. He looked kinda
embarrassed over it, and said thank you. I saw him giving an interview a
few minutes later on the other side of the rink, and he still had my card
in his hand, so I went away happy.
Without going into the details of the competition, what else can I tell you
about? Part of the fun of the week was spotting either Tatiana Malinina and
Roman Skorniakov on their own and then finding the other! I've since had it
confirmed that they are seeing each other, but it wasn't half obvious. IF
she was practicing/competing, he was at the boards, and vice versa. If
neither were on the ice, they were watching together. Not that I blame her
mind you, she's got good taste!
We went to the free dance practice on Friday morning, something I'm very
grateful for, because the chemist lost my reel of photos from the free
dance (with Shae and Vic and Anissina and Peizerat on it - I replaced the
film then, so I have K&O and the medals, but the rest of my photos come
from that practice) The Russians were up to their usual tricks - when Shae
and Vic were skating around, near the corner of the rink, right beside us,
K&O cut across their path, and made them serve. But they were right beside
the boards as it was, so there was nowhere else to go. Victor ended up
doing a perfect Ito over the low part of the boards into the camera bay.
Funny to look back on now, but at the time, I was very concerned for
Victor's dicky back, and I remember saying to Nora that I hoped that wasn't
an omen. As it turned out, it was!
One other funny part of the mens competition anyway, which you may have
seen on your tv was the Mexican wave that swept the stadium. That was
started by the recipient of the Jeanine and Nora award for the fastest
recovery ever from stomach flu, Paul Binnebose. I'm telling you, Laura
Handy may never smile, but Paul is what we in Ireland call a mad yoke. He
was hooting and hollering with the rest of the Americans, when he decided,
and I was looking at him when he yelled it out, "Let's start a wave!
Oh-hey!!!" Every time it got stuck, he'd look real exasperated and start
again until finally it got going. He did the same thing the next night in
the free dance.
You might have been confused by the strange title on this email. The reason
for it is that Quick Soup is a nickname we've had for Nora for ages -
Nora changes to Nore, which sounds the same as Knorr, the soup
manufacturers. So why has she nicknamed me Twinkle you ask? Very simple.
We were looking at the pairs final, and during the ice resurface, Nora went
out for a ciggy and I was talking to a French girl in front of us, who was
staying at the same hostel as us, and she pointed out that Elvis was
sitting in the section to the left of us in the very top row. So I turned
oh-so-casually to have a little look, and when Nora came back I pointed him
out. Whereupon she got her stunned mullet expression on her face. Now I
know Nora, and Elvis doesn't have that effect on her. Alexei however does,
so I turned around, and sure enough, there he was, sitting three rows below
Elvis on the aisle. Now that was Nora done with rational thought for the
foreseeable, and she kept looking over to look at him when you were trying
to talk to her. Even when this very nice Swiss gentleman came over to talk
to us, she was doing this. And I knew there was no way in heck she'd go up
to Yags herself, and that I'd be in for yet another round of "I should have
gone up to him, I'm such a coward" for the rest of the night. Something
snapped in me, and I grabbed my notebook and pen, turned around to Nora,
and said in my mother's best no-nonsense sensible Dublin woman voice, that
if she wouldn't do it, then I would. I was gone at that, climbing over
seats to get to the aisle, and the poor girl hadn't a clue what I was
doing. I had my camera around my neck so she thought I was going to get my
photo taken with Elvis. Not this little girl! I went straight over to
Alexei, in full teenybopper gush and grovel mode, and said that I was sorry
to disturb him, but would he mind signing this for my friend, she's sitting
right over there (I pointed when I said this, and the Nora one took that
precise moment to look over and realise what I was doing. The shock
could've killed her) and she's too shy to come over herself. I spelled out
her name and he signed it "To Nora" then this big scribble, which we think
is Yags, and then added "With love Alexei" Cue Jeanine in still more gush
and grovel, "With love, oh she'll be thrilled, thanks so much" I am
thoroughly ashamed of how worshipful I was.....the things I do for Nora! So
I went back down, and the girl was thrilled. I got a hug for my troubles
,and a new nickname because she thinks I'm a little star that twinkles
brightly in the sky.
You get my favourite story to finish on. Part of the fun of the week was
seeing who you could pick out in the crowd - you all know that right? Well,
one person who we saw all week was Michael "the best thing to come out of
Denmark since bacon" Tyllesen. Nora and I agreed (rare) that tv doesn't do
him justice, and he's a bit of a fine thing really and not a bad skater. He
didn't make it past the short program, but believe you me, he was
everywhere! Practices, events, the boy looked at everything! It became a
joke to us - "look, there's Michael, what a surprise!" Picking him out was
like reading one of those "Where's Wally" books. So we nicknamed him Wally,
then decided not, because he's not a wally, so we nicknamed him Waldo -
"Where's Waldo?" (The things we do to pass the time) He was there all the
time, but we never got around to meeting him or getting his autograph. But
we developed quite a fandom for Michael.
This is the point where if you can't remember, you go back to the top and
read my flight plan to get there and back.
We flew to Copenhagen. So I told Nora that knowing our luck, Waldo would
probably be on the same flight home as us. So we were keeping an eye out in
the airport on the Monday morning and in the departure lounge, telling each
other he was going to miss his flight and he'd be late and so on and so
forth. So we board the plane, settle down, and wait for everyone to get on.
Nora's looking out the window, and I look up, and who's little curly bonce
do I espy getting into a seat 6 rows in front of us? I swear to God! I just
said "Nora" and that was enough. She followed my line of sight, and the
pair of us cracked up. Talk about your perfect end to a perfect holiday.
Like I say, I don't believe in coincidence. I do believe however in fate
and destiny, and in the face of those beliefs, I had to go up and get his
autograph! He was really nice, and said he didn't mind my annoying him on
the flight and signed an autograph for me and another one for Nora. And
he's left-handed, which just makes him even more perfect!