Trying to plan a trip

So yesterday i sat around online trying to make plans with my German friend Rainer ( Rainman ,Kackvogel ) ...i have a few stories to share about this guy :) but not now .....

Travelling to these tournaments is not so easy , firstly you get the invite and ponder it with almost always an immediate yes response. At this time DO NOT PURCHASE ticket to fly there ! These tourneys get cancelled by organizers all the time !!! This past year alone i had plans to fly to Hawaii and to England for these 2 really wicked tournaments , only to have my heart broken to pieces. Now now don't feel so bad for me as there are always tournaments if you know the right people .

So my last blog mentioned that i had 3 tourneys in 3 countries in 3 weeks...that blog was before my chat with the Rainman . NOW everything is up in the air leading up to this tournament in Fussen ( Germany ) right before Oktoberfest hehehehe.So heres the deal , my Czech tourney was cancelled unfortunately but we are still planning on going , if i can get an earlier flight . If i do get there earlier we have a great opportunity to go to Finland for some crazy party , yeah i know Finland !!! So glad i didn't book the flight months back, and trust me never do !

Travelling San Fran to Singapore

After my trip to Dubai i became an addict at looking for tournaments in foreign countries , i actually suggested to the Malta Pirates that i would find us some tournaments to play in ....and did i ever !!!! I contacted a fellow in Singapore named Greg Blakney and was trying to get the Malta Pirates to come with me . I have never really tried to get players from home ( Toronto) to come as it can be pricey so i have always just tried to stick with the guys that i know will go .....this does not always work .

The interest level in Malta was not too good and i was beginning to lose hope in getting a chance to play in Singapores International 4 on 4 tournament.....so i wrote to Greg Blakney in Singapore and let him know that it was not going to work and if there was any chance that any team needs a goalie to let me know ......eventually the home team was in need of a goalie and i received invite to go play for the Singapore Lions!

You see i have a girlfriend that is very caring and has no problems with me leaving to play in these tournaments but this one time we tried to make it a trip for both of us , so we went together . Planning on stopping in lovely San Francisco for the weekend prior to tournament !

CANADIAN GOALIE

So i was stuck in Amsterdam in 2004 and i was missing the game of hockey , so one day i got myself acquainted with the internet and started browsing.....googling anything and everything to do with hockey , then i began to wonder if there was any hockey over in my families home country of Malta and i googled it as a joke . To my surprise there was a Maltese Ice Hockey League and they had a team of all-stars that travelled yearly to Dubai to compete in their huge international tourney . I had to contact these guys.

I got in touch with a really nice guy named Jan Hallkvist who is a Swede living in Malta , he ran the travel team which was pretty much considered their national team . They had no clue who i was except for the fact that i was a CANADIAN GOALIE !!!  This bought me at least a tryout , which i had to fly out to Dubai for ...

On the way to Dubai i had to stop over in Malta with hopes of meeting my teammates and having time to get spoiled by my family ....if you ever go to Malta try the Pastizzi , devilish little pastry dough stuffed with ricotta cheese , or peas mmmmmm.....in Malta i found out that their rink had been closed for almost a year and their league was no longer in existence ( totally a shame) . thoughts of teammates flopping around on the ice kinda put fear into me going into my first international tournament with no clue what level i would have to perform at ! Jan met me at the airport and filled me in on the situation surrounding the team and we rushed over to the Emirates office to book my flight ( i think they did not know if i was going to show hehehehe) my 3 days in Malta were filled with astonishment as family members were blown away at the reason why i was in Malta!

After those 3 amazing days in Malta i finally got to meet my teammates that were flying with me from Dubai to Malta. Immediately bonding with these guys as we got a bit loud and boisterous on our flight with the help of a few bottles of wine. Arriving in Dubai and going straight to duty free to get us some $16 cartons of cigarettes and CHEAP CHEAP booze ( no taxes at all in Dubai WOO HOO ) we all scattered and somehow all ended up in the same place at our team bus !Arriving at our hotel safely .