2 More Weeks To Maintain Sanity

Alrighty , so 2 weeks from now my friends from England arrive . They will be the first wave of friends coming here for my Ghetto Classic Tournament . This is gonna get really messy . When they arrive i will bring them to my game , while trying no to drink with them i will be feeding them all the bevvy they could want ... then i will join them , then the madness will ensue . Sanity will be a faint memory by Wednesday night when Rainer and the rest of my friends from across Europe joins us . Yes Rainer , the same Rainer i lost in England on my last trip ( he was lost this week also in Spain apparently LOL ) .

This is not just a tournament , it is a huge social event . Today i am hoping to finalize all of our evening party places .... Everything is within walking distance , nobody has to take their bags home from the arena . Just shower , start drinking and walk away ! But leave your beers in the arena hahaha i know the rest of the world can drink on the streets but it is illegal here :) The last thing i want to do is have to bail someone out of jail on Monday morning , yes they keep you for the weekend here if you get caught ! The beds in there are a bit stiff so i wouldn't plan on making it your residence ....trust me i know :P

The other day i had to send some invite to Czech Rep. to help some players get their Visa to come here , first time i have had to do that . i hope to be doing this yearly ! This is gonna be amazing .... if i can i will try to write as much as possible but it may be difficult as i am staying in the hotel with the Europeans ... i just don't think i should be driving on this weekend , every year i do this so it is nothing new . If you are coming to play or watch make sure you come to the bars with us after , that is where the real excitement will be !

For the time being i am going to relish the fact that i know my name and i remember what i did last night ... in 2 weeks that won't be a factor ! 

I think i'm ready ...

1 more month until i embark on my next adventure ... really the adventure starts on June 18th when my friends from England will show up here a few days before my tournament here in Toronto . They will be staying at my house that night and i am almost sure i will have a few more guys staying here over this time before i take off . The night before i leave i am having a party/bbq at my house so i am sure Rainer , Timo and maybe someone else will be passing out here that night . Should make for an interesting hangover flight down south !!! Go big or go home :)

Pretty sure i got all my stuff together ... Brazilian Visa ( check ) , Maltese Passport to enter and exit Argentina ( check ) , flights (check ) , hotels ( pretty sure , check ) ahh oh yeah there is just some small things i have to buy as gifts for my hosts . When we arrive in Punta Arenas we will be greeted by the mayor and we should probably have some gifts representing our countries , i already have an idea but don't want to ruin it in case he is reading this . My squad that i am putting together to play there will have an international flavour ... i have my buddies from Germany obviously Timo/Dr. NO & Andi/Tanzmanian Devil then i am pretty sure my friend from Puerto Rico will join us Philip Painter ... you never know with this guy anything goes ! Then i have a guy from Canada joining us as he is travelling there at the time of the tournament , he came across my blog and wrote to me and now is joining us his name is Tyler Eddy . It is a 3 on 3 tourney so at the moment i have 4 skaters .... if anyone reading this wants to make it down there let me know ????

We will do a couple hockey clinics for some kids in all the countries we visit which should be a lot of fun ... i have gifts for the youngins too ! My local MP (politician) gave me a bunch of Canadian lapel pins that i am sure they will all love . At the moment i am contemplating adding another bag to all my flights to split with Timo .... basically that is the only thing i have yet to do .... book my gear for the flight ! I have to call Air Canada and tell them that Timo and myself are travelling with ice hockey equipment . You should always do that when flying ! The only concern is that we are going to some cold countries , yes it is cold down south in July ... there will be mucho snow ! This means i will have to pack heavy , which tells me i probably will be overweight for my baggage allowance . The only saving grace is that Timo might not be so i might be able to toss gear into his bag , but that is a risk too . Got some thinking to do ......

Ok enough thinking , that was hurting my head LOL !

Starting to work on another trip ...

I know ... i haven't even left for this trip i have next month , which no doubt will wipe out my account . I'm an addict and travelling to play hockey in other countries is my fix LOL . Hoping to take my gf along on this trip i am planning back to Europe !! Looks like we are agreeing on some places to visit at the moment , everything is up in the air .... originally we are set to go with the main part being the Spengler Cup in Davos,Switzerland . I have never played there , so it would be amazing for me and i am sure the view there is breath taking . Hopefully we will be there for New Years Eve with some of my great friends .

IF not i am already looking at alternatives like going to Belgium or going to play on this outdoor rink in Liechtenstein . Obviously i will be in Germany as it is my second home and i love it to bits ! Probably will head there for Christmas with friends and then head off somewhere else , hopefully i can get in on a tournament around this time too . Hoping to make my way south and possibly pop over to Malta for a short weekend type visit then keep going to some destination on the African continent ... possibly Morocco . There is a rink there and i plan to skate on it !

This will be a tough one to make as i come back at the end of July , hopefully work is super busy and i can get a flight paid off quickly . Was looking around online this morning and i hear that cost of flights might dip this summer *fingers crossed * i miss the good old days when i could find a flight to Europe for $800 these days my eyes light up if i see it just under $1,000 ... it makes it tough on everyone i know , but i have to keep on travelling . If i die broke and get to see the whole world i will die happy ! you can quote me on that one , more then likely i will die broke unless i win that darn lottery ... i will probably die broke if i won the lottery anyways now that i think about it LOL ! 

Amazed ...

Yesterday i woke up and checked my blog ... sometimes i like to see how many people are reading it :) To my bewilderment i had more hits then i had ever had before in 1 day . I don't usually have more then 200 blog hits a day and when i awoke i had already 700 !!! Not sure who or how i found these new readers but welcome aboard .

By the end of the day i ended up with over 1,500 hits which for me is unreal as that is more then i have in the average month . Today i wake up and see the numbers growing still  , and it makes me wonder how many people would be reading this if it ever went viral ??? are we talking 100's of thousands ? that would be unreal LOL . It seems that my blog gets a bit more popular every year and i don't mind that , hopefully someone reads this and offers to follow me with a camera , that would be AMAZING . For now i will keep on trying to make this as interesting as possible with me odd rants , goalie tips ( complaints ) and my worldly travels .

My next trip begins in just over a month but just before that i will be holding my own International hockey tournament here in Toronto . A bunch of my wild hockey buddies will be torturing the citizens of Toronto for a weekend of hockey debauchery , i will try to blog about it on a daily basis but that might be hard as i will be in the eye of the storm . I am not even staying at my house , i booked a room with my friends LOL ! So whoever posted my blog on the site that everyone is picking this up off i would like to thank you for the boost in readership . Welcome to the wild world of travelling to play hockey .

Lets Make This Easier

The last couple weeks i have been trying to get as many of you to sign up on The Hockey Community . Apparently it is working :) If you haven't signed up trust me you should ! It is still quite new and will only get better , and will be much better if everyone signs up and tells their friends . It will bring the world of hockey together , hopefully one day i can look on the events page and find tournaments from all over the world posted there and it will be a staple for me , you and all our travelling hockey friends to look into and plan trips . 

As mentioned in earlier blog posts, there have been a few other guys that have approached me over the years with ideas to bring the world of hockey a bit closer . None of them came up with anything even close to this . No offense to any of them as all their efforts were valiant and had a great cause . The moment i saw this site i knew it was what we were all looking for . I have already added a good portion of my Ghetto Blaster squad onto the site ( hoping the rest sign up ) , if they all sign up we can use it as a forum to talk about team on goings , etc... If you do bother to follow my advice and help me help this get going then add me .... I am The Travelling Goalie 

Hope to see you all on this site soon .

Today's Rant

Just woke up , no i am not bitchy but i am sick of people that don't have a clue what a commitment is ! Today i am receiving an email from a team coming to my tournament that are having problems with players that said they are coming and now that it is time to pay they are dropping out . If you are reading this and have done this before then you should have shame as you are a total piece of shit ....

People have to understand because i am sure it has happened to everyone , i mean there have been millions of times that i have depended on someone to hang out with or go catch a movie with or you know just simple stuff and at the last second you get that phone call saying my dog ate my homework or some bullshit like that . Why can't people just be honest , with themselves and the people they deal with .... i think the word MAYBE is only a losers way of saying no so think about it before you say it to me . Yeah i am kinda jaded from dealing with so many losers over the last 4 years of organizing hockey but i feel as though i have a right to be . 

Now the going out with a buddy thing and him bailing on you is one thing but imagine if you covered me for a few hundred bucks then i bail out on you , actually not even that ... i just stop responding ??? yeah man if you do that shit you totally are a loser and you should go hide under a rock because you are absolutely pathetic !!!! I mean come on , don't tell someone you want to do something and keep talking big game until you are asked to pay up ... that is so lame . Apparently a lot of people apply this practice as it has no effects on their wallets and is the best way to weasel out of paying for anything ... the problem with that is usually the person that does this is so pathetic and knows it so they don't come hang out anymore , they disappear under their rocks . There is a great way to avoid all this , stop being such a bullshitter know your limits and just say NO if you can't afford it or your mommy won't let you go on the trip . 

Yeah i know this is a bit of a rant and honestly it has nothing to do with me , serious ! I am not being affected by any of this at the moment my squad is great , they all pay and they all let me know when they can't make a game . In the past i have dealt with losers like this ... actually quite recently i had a loser that was supposed to bring beer to the last game of the year , he didn't show up and hasn't responded ... some people will know who i am talking about and i am sure they all thought he was a loser too . He probably knows he is a loser too LOL ! if he reads this then he does now :) 

So if a hockey organizer asks you if you wanna play be honest with him because if he has to rent the ice for you to play then he has to pay for the ice for you being a wanker and not showing up or your team mates do and that sucks ..... don't be such an individual this is a team sport . Everybody hates that guy that bails ...

Hockey Community

As of late i have been contacted by a few people about promoting their ideas ... this one was a no brainer as soon as i looked into it ! The Hockey Community is a social network for hockey players. It was started by this guy named Alex Toul who lives out on the west coast in BC. From the sounds of it this website has been circulating around the west coast for some time and they would like to get the word out to the rest of the hockey world .

Alex is from Lille,France . When he arrived on the west coast he had a tough time finding the chance to play hockey so him and his friends began started a blog featuring drop in skates in and around the Vancouver area and they began to gain great success , so much that they all quit their jobs and dropped out of school and began this website . Personally i have been waiting for a site like this to pop up for us all and i am happy to share it with you all ! I have already began adding  my team mates from here onto this website and have been posting pictures and blog posts also , it is pretty much Facebook for hockey players .

From what i have gathered from my email correspondence with Alex there are around 12,000 hockey players using HC as it belovedly referred to on their pages :) Seriously it would be amazing if everyone linked up on their and signed up and got this thing going in full gear globally .... it is still growing but i am sure in the future this will be a great place to find hockey tournaments , pick up games , and a great way to meet like minded people ! There is even a great phone app that you can download for absolutely nothing . Before i keep blabbing on about how great this is here is a link for the website : http://hockey-community.com/ press the link sign up and look me up there :)

Hopefully at some point we will all be able to go on the site and look up hockey games while on the road , there have been many a time that i am travelling and have had no clue how i would get to play in that certain country , the website has a booking schedule for each rink on it but the rink must sign on to update scheduling . If we all get the word out about this site i am sure it will be a hit with everyone and will make hockey an easier thing to do . There have been so many days that friends have called and just said hey wanna go for a skate and we would have no clue where to go until we would research or make a few calls . Now hopefully soon i can just log onto the website and find myself a pickup game in Mexico City per say ... ( yes i want to go play there next year lol )  just imagine the possibilities !!!! After you are done imagining just register and make it a reality . 

Baycrest Pro Am Tournament

For the last few weeks i have been helping out a friend with promoting the tournament he organizes . I have repeatedly told you all about it and i will mention it one more time ! The Baycrest Pro Am started yesterday and a couple days ago Rob Weir sent me a message to see if i could play this weekend as a fill in ... of course i said yes . Here is the crazy part ... every team gets to draft an NHL Alumni player !!! I was needed to play for the Media Team , they drafted Todd Hlushko . 

So yesterday morning shows up and i get a message letting me know that i am not needed , yeah i was a bit upset but i understood that i was just needed to fill in and not to play the full tourney ( which i couldn't anyways ) . After i got that message i went downtown to pick up my Brazilian Visa then i went to pick up my team jerseys from Big Stick Custom Jerseys ... as soon as i got home i got another message from Rob . Apparently the team i was supposed to play for thought it would be funny to tell the organizer that they had a goalie ??? when they didn't , so Rob cancelled me thinking this team had a goalie when they didn't LOL . Yeah makes no sense to me because i could have said no if i made different plans but luckily i didn't . 

Off to York U. to play , basically i threw my bag into car and left immediately ... when i got to the rink i realized how HUGE this event was . There were a bunch of amazing volunteers there that were very helpful ,  for some reason i was named team captain so i had to pick up our team package with schedule , etc ... made my way to my room and there was a goalie in there already ... yeah i was confused , i asked the guys if they were Media Team they said yes and i plopped my bag down in front of the goalie cut jersey hanging on hook  . The other goalie was Greg Zaun former Blue Jays catcher and let me tell ya he was a HOOT ! i didn't notice Todd Hlushko but he was sitting in there chatting away with everyone and Greg was telling a couple of good stories about his playing and broadcasting career . 

Zaun has these great Blue Jays colored pads that are really nice and we started talking about that , then i asked if how he wanted to split the game .... he told me to go out there and do my thing . Greg is new to the game but is really really into it . When game started we needed to add a couple skaters as we only had 6 , so a buddy on the other team Liam and former Boston Bruin Don Sweeney joined us too ! It was a fun game so it didn't really matter what happened in the score line , yeah we lost :) But we had a great time doing it ! There were some snipers on the other team ,  the highlight of the game was when Zaun made this amazing paddle save while rolling around on the ice ... we were all amazed how well he played :) for a rookie ! 

After the game we went up to the bar and it was a who's who of NHL hockey !!! I saw Gordie Howe , Walter Gretzky  , shook hands with Doug Gilmour , talked to Darcy Tucker and had a beer with Marcel Dionne ( also going to make plans to go visit his restaurant this summer so got his contact info too ! ) There had to be at least 50 former NHL stars there inside the arena mingling around with everyone ... i was in HEAVEN .

Next year i am going to try to do some fund raising to help this great tournament out ... everyone i met on my team yesterday were totally class acts and i hope to meet with them again ! Hope you guys get a win today too , wish i could be there for day 2 but unfortunately i had plans already made for today :( i would highly suggest to anyone that loves hockey to try getting into this tournament next year , it is worth every penny ! Good luck to all the participants and thank you Rob and thank you to all the volunteers at the tourney ! 

Promoting

Lately waking up at 3 am and its getting annoying ... there is really nothing to do when you wake up this early , just start watching the shows you would be watching when you should be trying to fall asleep . Problem is that i am falling asleep so early , i think i fell asleep around 8 pm last night . It is mainly due to work as i have had some overnight gigs lately and some really early calls . Today i have to take a nap in the afternoon to break this evil cycle :)

As of late i have also been asked by quite a few individuals to promote their products on my page ... some stuff i am not too keen on but there are some things i might begin sharing with the rest of you over the coming weeks :) The one thing i have really been helping with is this Baycrest Pro Am which is a fundraising tournament to help find the cure for Alzheimer's ... unfortunately this is something we probably have all dealt with . I don't want this to be a downer so don't dwell on the subject too deeply ok :)

This past week i got another call to go out to skate with the NHL Alumni , this time on real ice ! This is another day i had to wake up ridiculously early ... the day before the skate i was asked to bring out some skaters so i reached out to some of my Ghetto Blaster team mates and brought a couple with me for this 6 am skate ... yup i had to get to the rink by 530 am and it was not around the corner , it was at St. Mike's Arena which is a hockey shrine here in Toronto ! Of course when i got to the rink i was sent to the room to find out that the jersey i had to wear was not a goalie cut ... NOTE TO ANYONE ORDERING JERSEYS *** ALWAYS order a goalie cut jersey for your goalies !!! makes our lives a bit easier :)*** so i cut mine LOL , of course with permission .

Somehow i fit into that players jersey and got onto the ice , of course my team mates lit me up and there were a whole bunch of old familiar faces that were there too which made the skate that much more awesome . All the Sgt. Rock guys , Jackie Boy , Munday  was great seeing you all ! But then the real treat showed up , Darcy Tucker . So i guess you are wondering if he lit me up ? I shit you not when i say i had his number . right off the bat i stoned him ... now don't get me wrong he probably wasn't trying at the beginning but he started to put more effort the more i began to stop him . I do have to give him props for taking my pants off on a breakaway though .  Darcy was running drills as we were doing this all to promote the fundraiser on Breakfast Television .

Mark Napier , Dave McLlwain and Curtis Joseph all showed up and there was even a segment where the weather man for Breakfast Television , Frank Ferragine aka Frankie Flowers had a breakaway on me televised .... that was after i stoned McLlwain during same segment , and yes i stopped Frankie :) . Everyone was smiling and laughing and in so much pain from skating for 3 hours with Rob Weir cracking the whip making us constantly play hockey LOL it was great because i was with a bunch of good old friends and NHL'ers .... it was like we rented the ice and got the NHL Alumni to skate with us , actually that is what happened :)

At the end of it all we were dead tired though , we stuck around to watch the other NHL Alumni members skate with the media . Guys like Marcel Dionne , Wendel Clark , Doug Gilmour and even baseball player Greg Zaun strapped on the Blue Jays inspired goalie equipment . I hung around for a good hour or so and went for beers with Derek . There were so many highlights but for me i always get this big smile when i see Marcel Dionne , the guy has this infectious smile and was asking me yet again to go visit his restaurant . He gave me his email to contact him to make sure he is there .... hopefully i can go for a skate with him some day and get some good hockey stories out of him .

That was such an awesome day .... 

NHL Alumni #2

Rise and Shine ! up wickedly early to go skate with the NHL Alumni to support the Baycrest Invitational Tournament which is a mega fundraiser to help with research to help cure Alzheimers ... i am pretty sure we all know someone that has suffered from this , it sucks so if you can send a donation that would be awesome if not no problem ... i am not much a fundraiser that way but i do try :) http://www.scotiabankproam.com/ check out the webpage regardless !

So i have 3 hours on the ice this morning starting from 6am -9am with guys like Darcy Tucker, Curtis Joseph and some familiar names from my last skate like Dave McLlwain and Mark Napier . It is gonna be awesome !!!! I had the opportunity to bring a few friends with me so i got some of my Ghetto team mates to come out to share the experience .... got a beer packed in my bag for after LOL even though i will be sitting around watching guys like Wendel Clark and Doug Gilmour after i get off the ice . Shame i can't get on with them but at least i will cross their legendary paths .

Its just about that time that i head out to pick up guys on the way to rink ... i love playing hockey in the morning !

Gotta run but i promise to get some pics and post them here this weekend ! 

This Always Happens

Of course i am awake sitting around at 6 am bored out of my skull already ... the last couple weeks my work schedule has been how would you say ummm sporadic ! Yeah it is pretty dry out there for anyone that is a freelancer ... i work in 2 different positions and both of them are dry . And of course today i have 10 more weeks to save up as much money as i can for my big trip to South America .

It always happens , i get my flights paid up and hotels booked then it comes down to spending cash and that is usually the last thing i need to save up for ... sometimes it comes down to the wire , but i am hoping this is not the case this time as i have been really prepared as my flights were not cheap to say the least . That drained my account pretty quickly ! I have been on trips before where i needed Kathleen ( my awesome girl friend ) to deposit cheques into my account to keep me afloat LOL ! With 10 weeks i am pretty sure those cheques can go into savings this time :)

Today i am going to book my last hotel in Buenos Aires and everything i needed to worry about , aside from spending cash is taken care of ... well i do have to figure out when we are going to be on the ice in Rio de Janeiro but that shouldn't be too much of a hassle . I also have to figure out this visa for Brazil and get it processed , but i might save that for tomorrow and make a trip to the consulate in person to make sure it is all good ... apparently if there are any errors i have to start the process over again and i don't really want to waste any time on that .

A couple days ago the Facebook invite for the tournament in Ushuaia, Argentina went out and i am super excited as i am quite sure it is going to be unbelievable .... here is the link for it check it out :)

https://www.facebook.com/events/441347682624556/?fref=ts

The last but probably most important thing i have to do is find out if i need my Yellow Fever shots ? I will be at Iguassu Falls and i think i might not need the shot but i probably should get it .... i don't think getting yellow fever is on my bucket list of things to do in South America :)

Working to Travel

Its always a battle trying to save to travel ... i mean i am already planning trips before i have left for the one i have booked and at the same time i am still trying to pay off this one :) i just have to book another hotel and i am set for South America ... but really now its crunch time and i have to save a bunch of spending cash , no doubt the best kind of cash LOL .

It's a good think i work in staging & in film ... it seems they take turns dying down , this month staging is dead and film is alive and kicking but the month before it was the opposite . Every year i plan my next year based on which months were dead the year before but it never seems to work out , you just can't really guess which months are gonna suck ... but let me tell you this much , i really hope this month ( April ) gets better because time is running out :( and thus far this month sucks big time . I just finished working on a commercial shoot but i don't have anything booked and i had a week off already this month . Today i will begin looking for work as i need to crunch some dollars into my pocket or South America might be a bit rough for me , i might have to drink only 10 beers a night then LOL !

I am already planning to travel next April as it is usually a pretty shitty month for work , i know May will be busy and June will be insane until my tournament , i will probably stop working on the 18th of June and i will leave on the 27th ... things will be pretty hectic in between those dates . It is always a bit of a stress once my trips get booked and i start to realize i need money to eat and drink on my travels ... i mean you work so hard to save and then you spend it all in one fell swoop on a plane ticket , then hotels and next thing you wait .... but during this wait time you have to make money to spend ! I am sure all will be fine . but this is the life of a freelance worker ....

The other day i met up with a bunch of colleagues of mine and we were joking about our work and how sporadic it can be then we all started talking about travelling ... i am pretty sure most of us enjoy this work for that simple reason that we have the freedom to leave whenever we want . Unlike those of you that work "real" jobs , us freelancers don't have 3 weeks off with vacation pay ... but we can take off whenever we want !

:) 

Easter Weekend Tournaments

Man i am beat up ... got lit up for 16 goals over 3 games , we escaped with a tie in our last game ... well actually we coughed up the puck with 30 seconds to give up the lead we had but regardless it was another crazy Easter Weekend . Pretty sure this has to be the biggest hockey weekend of the year world wide . We were at a tournament at Chesswood Arenas , bunch of friends were at a couple other tournaments here in Toronto then i had a whole gang of friends out in Bangkok playing . Basically Facebook was a giant tournament update page this weekend :)

My Ghetto Blasters had it rough though , we were in the second division and all the teams had great skaters . We had a lot of rookies on the squad and it was kinda a warm up for our summer season . The first game was pretty rough but eventually as the weekend went on we began to gel and play a bit better ... still some more things to work on but we have a few ice times over the next month to make that work as our summer seasons don't start until May ... i say seasons as we have 2 teams on 2 different nights in 2 different leagues :)

I am hoping and wishing that all my friends are out there having a great weekend and hoping that all of you are playing safely ! Last year we had a few injuries , this year 0 ... which is great as we are still in the playoffs and have a game on Tuesday ... GO GHETTO !

If your team is ever in Toronto on Easter Weekend and you are looking for some stiff competition check out the tourney we enter . Its' dirt cheap and good hockey . My body is still aching ... i better go get some ice on some of these bruises LOL . Happy Easter !

Maltese Passport

Finally i got my Canadian passport renewed , well i have just sent it in yesterday so it should be back in a few weeks and then i have to send it out to get my Brazilian Visa . My German buddies were telling me they don't need a travel visa for Brazil and i was hoping that i could save some time and just finally follow through and get my Euro passport since i have duel citizenship ... i am a Maltese citizen :) i gained my citizenship in 2006 after my attempt to move to Europe .....

This is going way way back ! In 2003 i applied for my Maltese citizenship and i think a billion other people did too ... probably much less but it swamped the officials that handled these issues there . Malta was going to become part of the European Union so everyone and their mother applied . No joke i had to get my mothers citizenship back so i could get mine LOL at that point i was planning to move to Europe and in 2004 i moved to Amsterdam with the hopes that i would get my citizenship and be able to work there ... it was my first venture away from home and really it was a huge learning process with absolutely no planning at all .... yes it was a disaster !

In Holland i could not get work and i was constantly contacting the Maltese Embassy there and they were no help at all .... in 2005 i went to Malta , to play for the Malta Pirates in Dubai and on my stop over i decided to visit the offices to see if my citizenship had gone through . I was i had a photo ! Just picture a sweaty office filled with filing cabinets with boxes on top of them and fans barely pushing the sweat filled air around the room , on top of those boxes are stacks of paper and everyone in there looked like absolute office zombies . Regardless they couldn't find my file :)

1 day out of the blue i finally got a letter from the Maltese gov't and it was really not clear at all . I took it to the consulate general and sat down with him and he said congratulations you are now a Maltese citizen .... that was in 2006 .... so when i went in yesterday the consulate had moved and it had more security , things have changed . Regardless i approached the counter and said i would like to get my Maltese passport and the nice lady told me that it would be $120 for a 10 year passport  , i had to ask if i would need a visa to enter Brazil as a Maltese citizen and unfortunately i still would need a visa :( i was there anyway with all my paperwork in hand so what the heck .... finally i am getting my Maltese passport , which i expect to use when i head over to Europe in December . Yes i am going back to Europe this year .... hahahaha !!!!

After i did all that and went out to get a new hockey bag at my favorite hockey shop Goalie Heaven :) then i came home to contact the Brazilian embassy .... they assured me that i should have no problem getting this in time so i should not be so stressed out . The funny thing is the only reason i got off my ass was because i was paranoid that i would not have time for this passport to get renewed and come back with time to send it out again to get visa  ... so i ended up getting another one LOL . Sometimes the things that get me to do things makes my life a little more interesting ... it must be the same bit of crazy that makes me stand in front of pucks .

Ice Hockey Tournament in Chile

To be exact this tournament is way way way at the south point of Chile in a city by the name of Punta Arenas . Yes where is there a better place to find and arena in Chile LOL ! That is what i thought too when i first found that there is some ice hockey there . My friends in Ushuaia,Argentina told me about it and hooked me up with Alejandro Trabas . Now i have not met Alejandro yet but from all the conversations we have had i already know this guy bleeds ice , he really loves the sport and sounds like a party animal like the rest of us hockey travellers .

Alejandro is trying to get a big rink in Punta Arenas and needs to impress the gov't officials there to get them to help him achieve his dream ... they really want an olympic size rink ! When we first started talking i suggested we start a tournament there , he took that idea and ran as fast as he could with it ... next thing you know i was getting an offical invite :) My team name is the Ghetto Blasters , the ice is a 3 on 3 rink so all i need is 4 more guys to make 2 lines .... of course Andi and Timo are on my team , i will try to add 2 guys from Argentina and 2 from Chile to make it an interesting experience . If anyone reading this wants to join let me know as i have a great deal for guys playing on my  team !!!!

The tournament will be 4 teams ... Los Nordicos ( Chile) , Killer Puck ( Chile ) , Club Andino Ushuaia ( Argentina ) and Ghetto Blasters whom they claim is a Canadian team but from the looks of it i might be the only Canadian ... there might be another fellow joining that has contacted me , if anyone else wants to join please let me know soon LOL check out the video they made

Originally i was going to get there on July 11 but now i am arranging with my friends to fly there landing on July 8 ...Yesterday Alejandro let me know that me and my team mates will be put into the best hotel in the city , and have all our meals paid for ... yeah for free !!! BUT he really needs us to do some press stuff like TV interviews and newspaper articles , so we will have a schedule but nothing comes for free :P we will be there to help them get to where they want to be , it will be an absolute pleasure being in Punta Arenas making new friends , helping to promote the sport , and at the same time having lots of fun !!!!

My printer died yesterday , so my attempt to get my passport renewed and fill in my tournament forms for Ushuaia were thwarted :( I know you guys down in Patagonia are reading this LOL give me a few more days and i will get you all the info you require :) I am hoping to have most everything booked by the end of next week .... until then i have to start doing some more research on Punta Arenas , if i am there for a week i might as well do some sightseeing etc .... more then likely that means i will drink in every bar in town ! 

Still Smiling :)

An old hockey buddy of mine works for this huge , huge , huge charity tournament called the Scotiabank Pro AM for Alzheimers they aim to raise $2 million from this weekend tournament ... and i don't doubt they will . Rob Weir gave me a call a couple days ago to see if i would go skate in this promo for the tournament . Many of you know Rob from his work with Hockey 4 Heart , he is The Man when it comes to charity work ! I didn't know Rob was working with this tournament and i am sure for most of you that know Rob you didn't know either ....


Anyway he tells me they built a rink inside of Baycrest Hospital ?!?!? Really ??? Yeah they built a rink inside of a hospital , no friggin joke ! It is synthetic ice , very small pad and its to promote the tournament , there will be press and it will be fun .... and there will be NHL Alumni there too . Ok so i have the opportunity to kill a whole flock of birds with one stone :) I get to play on synthetic ice ( never did that before ) , inside a hospital ( really who has done that ?) and hold your breathe ... i get to skate with NHL Alumni including Marcel Dionne and Wendel Clark ??? COUNT ME IN !!!

I drove out there yesterday and as i was told i called Rob when i arrived at the Bathurst entrance dropped my gear and drove to the back of the hospital to park . The hospital is for patients with Alzheimers , the tournament is for undeniably a great cause and if anyone out there wants to make any donations or help out then check this website www.scotiabankproam.com/toronto/ . The rink they built was probably the smallest pad i have ever played on and when i arrived i met up with good buddies Craig Gagnon and Ron Fine ...Craig was there to help out and Ron was the other goalie ... we all go way back ! So we go in the room and Marcel Dionne is there being interviewed , he was so awesome ... i have to say i was giddy like a kid near him , 5th on the all time scoring list the guy is a LEGEND !!! and he carries himself like one , he spoke to everyone and was laughing and smiling the whole time . and i am the lucky one that gets to play hockey with him today WOO!!!

I got dressed and Marcel Dionne sat right beside me , yes i am still giddy about all this LOL ! and beside Marcel sat Dave McLlwain ... Ron sat on the other side and Craig stood around taking pics for us (thanks pal ! ) There was a bunch of introductions and we all sat in the room chatting about things , mostly us asking Marcel and the others questions about hockey and life ... Marcel is intent that we go visit his restaurant in Niagara Falls www.tripadvisor.ca/ShowUserReviews-g154998-d2183695-r114711327-The_Blue_Line-Niagara_Falls_Ontario.html check it out if you are ever around there , great reviews ... i am probably going to drop in some day and hopefully talk him into going for a skate :)

As i said this was a charity game so it was NHL Alumni vs. Doctors . When we stepped on this synthetic ice nobody could skate on it ... yeah it is just like i thought , not ice LOL . regardless it was interesting and we all toughed our way through it . Ron had to play for the doctors so had more opportunities to get lit up by the NHL'ers , and yeah they all still have their hands . Denis Maruk , Mark Napier and Kevin Maguire were also there and man was it a treat to play with all of them ... i would love to see them with a real puck on real ice , yeah we used an orange puck so nobody would get hurt . Still somehow i managed to put one up high on Wendel Clark and i am pretty sure i pissed him off , and you wonder how i know this ? well after the puck hit him in the chest he turned around and rifled one at my head :) Yup what can i say i am a dumb ass LOL .... still managed to get an autograph from him ! i forgot to mention the superstar doctor that lit me up ... Bryan Muir i had a feeling you weren't a doctor LOL !

Pretty sure nobody kept score , everyone was a winner ! There were smiles all across the board , in fact i am still smiling ... i know everyone was there for Wendel Clark and yeah he is awesome , but i was really happy to meet Marcel .... we spoke quite a bit as all the media attention was for Wendel so we hung back and let me tell you , i hope that the kids coming into the NHL meet a guy like Marcel and figure out how to be professional . I got that autograph from Wendel Clark for my friend Phil , and i got an autograph from Marcel Dionne for myself ! Maybe someday i will get the picture below framed with Marcel's autograph ....

Thank you Rob Weir for such an unbelievable day , with such great experiences and ultimately for an amazing cause , i know you are aiming for $2 million but i hope you get 4 !!!! Keep up the great work :)

So much to plan , don't be a hater :)

Didn't get anything done yesterday , i wanted to but my couch was calling ... and i was fully into being with it :) Today i wake up and i have been asked to be in Punta Arenas on July 9th , this makes things a bit different for me as i only had planned to be in Buenos Aires for 3 days in which i would try to get on the ice in that time . Now i might only have a really really small window of opportunity , pretty much might have to jump on ice the day i arrive if at all possible ... it would be a shame if i couldn't get on the ice in Buenos Aires but none the less i will play in Ushuaia , Argentina to earn my flag :) ... i will still try my darnedest to get on their ice in Buenos Aires .

One of the guys i am travelling with is not too keen on driving both directions from Ushuaia to Punta Arenas , i looked at flight possibilities and i don't think i am willing to pay the extra few hundred dollars to fly there ... now i have to find out when my friends from Ushuaia will go to Punta Arenas for the tournament . Also i need to find out if there is room for 2 or 3 of us with all our equipment . This is gonna be crucial , if i can't get us a ride there then we have to arrange to catch bus and the bus schedule there is a bit dicey with early departures , this means we will have to land in Ushuaia the night before to catch the flight .... If all goes well we will have room to travel with the guys from Ushuaia ! Fingers are crossed :)

Today i really have to get my shit together , gotta clean myself up ( shave chops off) and go get a photo taken for my passport .... if i can get that in today i should have my new passport within 3 weeks . I also have to get a VISA for Brazil , not sure if i can attain this with old passport and/or if it will be effected by a passport # change ??? At some point i have to stop by my local politicians office to pick up some Canadian lapel pins to hand out to friends i meet on my travels , i have never done that before and i think it would be nice for me to give out some small gifts to people ... i have seen others do it and i always said i should , so now i will :)

The flight i book today will have us travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Iguazu Falls then from there to Buenos Aires .... after this flight i only have to book our flights from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia !!! only thing left to organize after that is our hotels ... decisions,decisions ! 

Brazil Will Be My Next Flag

The other week i finally booked my flight to Rio de Janeiro :) i leave Toronto with my good friend Timo on June 27th and arrive in Brazil in the morning on June 28th .... it is not a short flight , connecting in Houston but total travel is something like 15 hours !!! I fly back on July 24th from Buenos Aires,Argentina :) So the ball is rolling now ...

This week i got confirmation from the hotel we are booking in Rio , Hotel Entremares in Barra di Tijuca which is a new area not too far from Copacabana and really close to the arena which we will play at . Funny the confirmation i was given doesn't really have a # or anything , it is just a letter with all our names and the dates we are staying there .... yeah i know this is probably not a 5 star hotel but it was suggested to me by my contact over there in Rio . He lives near there so hopefully it will make it easier for us :)

Today i have to book my flight to Iguazu Falls to see one of the new 7 wonders of nature , should be amazing and Andi will hopefully organize our room there while i begin looking for rooms in Buenos Aires and Punta Arenas ....  our friend in Punta Arenas has already begun sending us places to stay but i don't think any of us really want to stay in hostels on this trip so we will probably opt for the Best Western that is there and apparently is the cheapest option for us aside from the $21/night hostel . Don't get me wrong i don't mind staying in hostels but i think we are planning to go a bit more posh on this trip seeing how we are spending a bundle to go there anyway LOL *sidenote* i need a sponsor , anyone know anyone that can hook me up with flight for future ? HAHAHA! yeah i know you probably would be using that connection already if possible !

I just can't wait for this trip to happen ! Things have been pretty hectic for me here lately with a crazy work week , playoffs for hockey , organizing my Ghetto Classic etc.. i haven't really had too much time to write blogs or plan my trip but it is good that i am ahead of the game at this point seeing how i have already begun booking flights and rooms .... i am sure all will be booked within the next few weeks . Hopefully when Andi gets home as i am sure he is bouncing around the south Pacific right now with his gear :) we can get some things done faster as it is hard to get a hold of him right now ... yeah i know you are reading this :P

Can't forget to give a shout out to all my Irish friends today !!! Happy St. Patty's Day Lads !!!!!

better get back to researching hotels ....

Meeting People

Morning ,

So travelling is amazing i just wanted to say that ! Sometimes you meet people and you get attached to them and know that they would be really close friends if they lived back home near you ... i have met a lot of people like this . And then sometimes these really awesome people that you meet have things happening in their lives that end up not working out so well :(

Over the years of doing this i have unfortunately met some really really amazing people that have passed away , and i will never forget them ! I kinda wanted to talk about them and i hope the people that introduced me to these people understand that i miss them .... i will never forget going to Indonesia meeting this crazy guy name Jusuf and his gf ... they took me out for a night of karaoke and showed me a great time there , unfortunately she passed away from some illness later that year . Another friend i met on that trip brought me to his apartment and his amazing wife Sinta ( i think that is how it is spelled ) made me this amazing dinner after watching a Leafs game with Stephane the Habs fan ... sadly she passed this past year from an illness as well :(

When i was in Germany i stayed with my good friend Nate at his grandparents and i will never forget getting driven to the airport by his grandfather who didn't speak any English and i didn't speak any German but we had a fun time together ... sadly his grandfather passed away .... i am not sure where to go with this i can go on and on and it just makes me more and more sad to think about this .....all these awesome people that i have asked about and are not around any more !

This past week 2 of the most amazing people i have had the privilege of staying at my house travelling from Argentina had a really really bad car accident ... i am hoping right now for their speedy recovery , they were lucky to have gotten away without serious injury but were hurt none the less .

Travelling can be an emotional experience , i am sure those of you that enjoy travelling think about somebody they have lost every time they land in a new country ... for me it is my long lost best friend Chris Brzezicki , every time the plane lands i always think that he would be with me when i land somewhere .

i didn't mean for this post to be so somber but at the moment i am thinking about this and it is not the first time i have thought about all this ... i just felt today , now was the best time for me to talk about it :(

I hope Javier and Anita get well ASAP !!!! 

Uruguay + Ice Hockey = ????

Basically i know my dates , still have to book flights but there are some grey areas in between .... i am trying to book everything based on keeping everyone in my travel group together . There may be some discrepancies but nothing major . Andi is not too intrigued about travelling to and from Ushuaia to Punta Arenas by ground vehicle ( bus or car ) as it is about 10-12 hours to travel and he is looking to fly from another city in Chile whereas i feel as though it is important that we go to Ushuaia and pick some guys to join our team in Punta Arenas travel with them there and back ... since they are coming to play with us we might as well have fun on the way there and back too :) ... i can't blame the Tanzmanian Devil for not wanting this so he might go one way on his own and myself and Timo will tough it out travelling both ways .

This may loosen up some time and actually based on Andi's flights we might have time to go to Montevideo, Uruguay .... we have seen a web page for an ice rink at a mall there . And on the web page it advertises ice hockey lessons !!!! Is anyone reading this in Uruguay ???? if so can you put me in contact with whoever knows or is in charge of this ??? It would be unbelievable if we can add Uruguay to our trip since we are right there pretty much , such a short trip from Buenos Aires !!! I had asked my friends in Argentina to look it up but haven't had any success from that :(

Now i do know that there are some falsely advertised websites around the world and the picture they have of ice hockey on this particular page shows 2 guys with no equipment on , but they have sticks and skates on ... so is this real ?

Here is the link :

 http://www.google.de/imgres?um=1&hl=de&sa=N&biw=1280&bih=843&tbm=isch&tbnid=_rvyO0En4V-t-M%3A&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.montevideo.com.uy%2Fnottiempolibre_84764_1.html&docid=utjor4pvtH9tZM&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.montevideo.com.uy%2Fimgnoticias%2F200906%2F240858.jpg&w=420&h=238&ei=88eXUMfkH8Tf4QSXmIDIBw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=125&sig=106368178797724065190&page=1&tbnh=109&tbnw=193&start=0&ndsp=23&ved=1t%3A429%2Cr%3A1%2Cs%3A0%2Ci%3A75&tx=93&ty=46

If anyone can help get me in touch with whoever is organizing it would be greatly appreciated ... there is always the chance i just show up there with my gear in hand LOL ... probably better to have organized a skate beforehand ... i don't wanna have another Slovenian experience ( Ljubljana ) it would be a shame to spend another day begging to get on the ice ..... 

Its' on !

So its' gonna happen :P i am going to South America this summer !!! Impatiently i have been awaiting the federation making its decision for their tournament in Ushuaia and finally they have made their public announcement ( which i hope they don't change ) the dates fit for Timo , Andi and myself , well Andi will have to leave a day or 2 before the tournament ends but at least we will all get to compete in it ! 

The tournament is from July 17-23 and Timo must leave to go back to Germany from Toronto on July 26th so it is perfect as we will travel to and from Toronto together . I have to get my passport renewed and start working on getting my visa for Brazil as i will fly there first . Last night i was having a couple beers with my buddy Mike and he mentioned the Confederations Cup which will be in Brazil ... final is in Rio when we are there so we are looking at getting tickets :) Also have to book flights still LOL ... so much to do before i head out there .

I will have to figure out which dates we can play in Rio and then everything is pretty much settled aside from travel from Ushuaia-Punta Arenas and back . Punta Arenas will be awesome too we will play in the 1st ever Southern Zone Cup there as the Ghetto Blasters :) looks like we will get a bunch of press down there as they are going to make this event as big as they can . We will have a couple Argentine and Chilean skaters join us to make fill out our team ... it is a 3 on 3 rink so should be fun ! I am really hoping our host there Alejandro puts a concert on for us as he is in a Bon Jovi tribute band  .... how much fun will that be ? drinking listening to my hockey buddies sing Bon Jovi songs LOL ... i can't wait . 

Plans on Hold ...

Welcome to the wonderfully stressful world of trying to organize a crazy trip including 3 countries with 3 tournaments !!! Our friends in Chile are really really eager to have myself and my 2 travelling buddies visit them and enter a team into their inaugural tournament ... the Southern Zone Cup ! This is huge for them as we will probably be the first to visit them for hockey ... they just got an arena and are just fighting their hardest for sponsorship and funding to make this work ! They are really pushing to make this event big :P

The first tourney we will visit is in Rio de Janeiro , which the organizer is very relaxed and has not been pushing for a date . They are setting up a mini tourney for us there with local teams and are putting us into a nice hotel there also , its gonna be pricey in Brazil but the bottom line is staying somewhere safe ...if we have to pay premium money for a safe residence then i am all for it ! Obviously i don't wanna break the bank but the bottom line is safety over there .... i have heard some horror stories as i am sure most of you have heard the same .

The BIG tournament that we are dying to go to and the original reason we started to talk about going to South America is the one in Argentina .... this is the tournament that can't give us a date ! And the other countries are put on hold organizing theirs ... obviously they are not happy and we are not exactly pleased that we can't get a straight answer from them , but we are willing to wait . The problem is the more we wait the more the flight goes up , if it gets to a certain point we will have to cancel ! We don't want this to happen so more then likely we will wait 2 more weeks and just pick our own dates .... i am not a fan of doing this because more then likely we will miss the tournament that we originally wanted to go to so badly . So hopefully we pick our dates and they work with ours ... if not oh well we tried ....


keep your fingers crossed , hopefully they can decide on a date in the next 2 weeks :) 

Red Light Commercial

So as you all know roughly a month ago i was telling you all that i was going to be in a commercial . I signed a contract and was not allowed to speak about it until it was released and last week it was released during the Super Bowl . It was a Budweiser Commercial .... the guy in the picture above probably looks really familiar to most of you , he is Paulo Colaiacovo ...his twin brother is ex Maple Leafs defence man Carlo Colaiacovo . 

The shoot day was odd to begin as we were told we would have to be there on ice at 8 or 9 am , i can't remember . I woke up too late for the apparent time for the shuttle pick up at Sherway Gardens so i started to drive out to London on my own , then got a text about half an hour into my journey finding out we were meeting at Shane's place at 11 AM and had to be there for 1 pm .... ARGH ! so i turned around and sat in traffic for over an hour :( went to Shane's and waited for the rest of the hockey team/cast to show up . 

We carpooled and i have a little Mazda so it is best to get in the big vehicles :) i got in with Paulo ... Paulo is a now retired former pro goalie so we had a lot of good stories to share , i was particularly interested in his stint in Holland where he had some success winning a championship and some personal hardware too !!! The drive seemed short as we joked and talked about hockey the whole ride , thanks for the ride Paulo it was great meeting you . 

When we arrived i actually knew most of the people working on set there as i work in the commercial industry as well , most of them were baffled when i walked in with my gear as they probably had no clue about my goal tending ... or maybe they were just surprised i was cast as talent on their shoot , regardless it was odd for me too . We were on the ice for 9 hours with a break half way through , it was really awesome to actually skate on the ice there in London at the Budweiser Gardens , where the London Knights play ... great rink , the ice was beautiful ! 

Well i guess you all just really want to see this video so here it is .... clink the link and if you wanna crack a joke about me just leave a comment ... ENJOY !!! 

http://www.budweiser.ca/RedLight/

last but not least our good friend Shane Nuttley-Kirby was injured in his Crashed Ice event yesterday , i am hoping he has a speedy recovery ! Shane cast myself and the rest of the hockey team for this shoot and does a lot of great stuff in the hockey community in Toronto . Get well soon buddy ! 

Don't Cry For Me Argentina

The past week has been absolutely insane for me as i worked on a commercial shoot and i did my best to help my friends from Argentina the best i could without seeing them really , stuck on set :( 

I just wanted to recap the amazing couple weeks i have had with these amazing guys & Anita :P ... Anita & Javier stayed with me the first couple days and i showed them around but it really was mental when i was leading the whole group around ... first stop was to take them hockey shopping . I took them to Toronto Hockey Repair/Goalie Heaven and they went buck wild buying gear from head to toe it was absolutely crazy but the staff there handled it amazingly and everyone was very happy at the end of the day ... i think we were there for about 3 hours ... then we went to King Slice next door for pizza !

The next day i went out to skate with them at their hockey school ... World Class Hockey . It was fun and the instructor was good , Jules actually has a few mutual friends with me and we shared a few laughs . He really worked them hard on day 2 .... I also took the guys to Katz's Deli down the road from The Rinx which is where they had their camp . Both myself and Jules were very surprised at the skills the Argentines showed us on the ice ... they were pretty good and definitely not beginners ! So on the weekend we set up a match between Team Argentina and my team the Ghetto Blasters !

I had to get them a goalie so a good friend Aaron Brophy stepped in and he played amazing , thanks again Aaron ! We didn't have refs and i thought we beat them but someone else told me the same score but with an opposite result so lets just say it was a draw . ( actually last night we played a real game but i couldn't make it due to bad weather ) After the game i brought the guys back to my place for the Super Bowl which nobody cared about but they did gobble up all the chili and sausages i cooked and actually left me with 2 cases of beer that they hardly touched LOL . They left after the first quarter and didn't really get to see my commercial :( which i promise i will write about in the next few days !!!

Anita & Javier dropped by this week to say bye and i was very sad to see them leave , they are truly an amazing couple and i am definitely looking forward to spending more time with them in July . I know i have made some true friends for life with these guys ... I really hope the rest of my hockey family gets to meet them all some day . This trip i will be going on will hopefully bring them and the rest of my friends together in the future for some great hockey trips and tournaments .

LAST but not least ... i tried my hardest to get some media attention for these guys and got nothing at all . I am personally disappointed that not one media outlet replied to any of my emails or calls . I am guessing that it is not morbid enough to report on such a great story like this . They are still here so if you are reading this and you are in the media then do something about it , please ! I have no clue why nobody jumped all over this to put in print or on the air ???? How many times has a team from Argentina visited Toronto to play hockey ???? My guess is 0 ....

Regardless i enjoyed meeting the Argentinians and i am sure everyone else that met these guys were just as intrigued so if you didn't get the chance to meet or skate with these guys then guess what ? that is your loss ! 

BOLUDO ! 

Skating With Argentinians

Alright so the past few days have been hectic to say the least .... aside from work i have been taking my Argentine friends shopping for equipment and showing them around .... yesterday i finally got on the ice with them . You are all wondering can these guys skate ? yes they can ! are you surprised ? i bet you are ... i was surprised to say the least and i think their hockey instructor from World Class Hockey was totally shocked .

Most people think of Argentina and hockey and first thing that pops in their heads will be ... have these guys ever seen snow ? Yes they have some of them are actually from a city called Ushuaia which is near Antarctica ... you know that giant slab of uninhabited ice we call a continent ! yeah they see snow LOL and they see ice ... their rink is outdoors and is the only Olympic sized rink in South America . This is what i have been told , i should research it more but i do know it is biggest out of all the countries i will be visiting when i head down there at the end of June .

So yeah we had an hour and a half on the ice yesterday which might i add was hell to get to ! Yesterday we had a flash freeze and highways were closed down for safety reasons so it took me 1.5 hours to get to the arena just on time for ice , good thing the instructor was late too due to the same reasons ! When i met Jules one of the first things i wanted to talk about was getting them some press as i am still trying my darndest to get them some help with getting a zamboni or a scoreboard or some equipment shipped down ... anything ! Its really crazy , they are not looking for this stuff and are happy to continue playing the way they have to . I am the one that feels these guys should have the necessities we have !!!

Today i wrote to an old hockey acquaintance Dave Bidini to see if i can get some assistance in getting these guys some press , fingers are crossed as Dave has the same travel interests as i do ! He has travelled to a few tourneys to compete and follow up with some great books ... if you haven't read The Tropic of Hockey then head out a grab a copy . Fingers are crossed that all works out , the group went out to watch the Leafs last night and i am sure they had a good time . I will find out at the rink today :P

If anyone lives in Toronto , has the day off today and wants to see the Argentinians in action we will be at hockey school at The Rinx around noon ... i can't wait to get on the ice with these guys today again :)

Still Trying

Yesterday was a great day . I had to drive Kathleen to work in the AM so when i got back i sat around trying to make contact with all the newspapers and sports networks in Toronto . Sent out probably 10 emails asking to see if anyone would be interested in getting the Argentine hockey players on tv or in the newspaper ...unfortunately nobody responded :( , actually i am lying . An old hockey buddy here that has some media influences showed some interest . 

As i said yesterday these guys flew all the way up here to experience hockey in Toronto , with their hard earned dollars . They are here for a hockey camp with the other 16 skaters due to show up on Jan. 29 .... i am hearing stories about some of the old equipment they use and the fact they don't have a zamboni and have to go out every night and shovel the snow off their rink to keep the ice good and that they have a small old tv as their scoreboard ... and it kills me , i wish i had the money to send them a used zamboni down there .These guys have the hockey heart we always talk about and it really tears me up that they don't have this stuff that we have :( 

So we went to see the Leafs practise in the morning at the MasterCard Center and they were so excited to see 4 rinks in the same building ... there is a HHOF office in the rink so we went in and i told them about their story and asked them if they could get us any media attention and they basically asked me to contact them via email and they will give the Argentine team discounted entrance to the hall when they choose to go .The big thing is that they are going to donate a jersey to the hall of fame and it will be placed in the international section :) i am sure Javier wants his #7 to be in there .

 After that we went to my favorite hockey store in Toronto ! Toronto Hockey Repair /Goalie Heaven , i love this place so much  .It is not a big name shop , family owned and its always had the best service and they have always given my friends great discounts on gear when i bring my overseas hockey buddies that are visiting . Javier & Anita bought brand new gear head to toe ! It was their first time ever in a hockey shop as they don't have that luxury in Argentina ... mainly they do all their shopping for gear online and repair their own equipment , they have no choice ! So think of it , they have never tried on gear and then bought it !!!! you could only imagine the looks on both of their faces when we walked in there . 

After they got all geared up we went by High Park as it was snowing out and it looked really beautiful and i wanted to show them an outdoor rink . They saw a zamboni took some pics and were really excited ... we then went back to my place and ordered some Chinese food and decided to go for a skate . I called Mike Takacs and a few other buddies ( that did not show or respond) and we walked over to the rink down the road from Mike's . There were a lot of skaters out there , i think there was a good 20 or so skaters . We played for the full hour and Anita scored twice :) she was pumping her fist and all the guys at the rink were amazed to be playing with 2 people from Argentina . To be honest i was quite surprised with their skill level as it was not that bad . I skated out which for me is super duper odd ... not my cup of tea but i wasn't gonna suit up outdoors LOL . 

Today i think our friends are going to try making their way to Ottawa to see the nations capital . If anyone reading this knows anyone in the media please let them know about our hockey friends from Argentina ! If we can help them in anyway i know it would be very much appreciated ... their local gov't does not do enough for the people that really love hockey ... the game that we all love ! 

Can Anyone Help ?

Last night 2 of the Argentinian hockey players arrived in Toronto :)

I went to pick them up from the airport and brought them back to my place to stay the next few nights . When we arrived we began talking about Ushuaia and the Argentine Federation . It sounds like i will be going to play for the host team when i go to Argentina in July to play in their tournament ! The one thing that really stuck out for me was when they were explaining their rink and what they need to maintain it ... i want to help these guys as much as i can .

Javier & Anita told me they have to shovel snow off the rink which is the only Olympic sized rink in South America , and that their scoreboard was a small tv screen they have . Immediately i started to think that it would be great if someone would donate a zamboni and a scoreboard for their outdoor rink ... unfortunately i can't think of anyone that has any of these to donate off hand .... but how awesome would it be if i could help them find someone who could help them ????

The only way i can see myself helping my friends from Argentina would be to get them on TV or some form of press ( newspaper or online interview ) and then maybe someone out there would see this and see how much they love the sport of Ice Hockey and help them out .... today i am writing this and then i will send some emails out to some tv stations to see if there is any interest in helping these guys and gals :)

If anyone reading this has any connection to anyone that can help me help them it would be greatly appreciated , we should help our brothers and sisters that love the game as much as we do !!! We are all one big international family when it comes to the game we all love . Please leave a comment below if you know someone in the media or someone with a spare zamboni kicking around and hopefully we can help our friends in Ushuaia make their ice rink more complete .

Team Argentina

As most of you know i do a lot of travelling and i also do what i can to make other hockey travellers comfortable when visiting Toronto . I will be heading out to Argentina in a few months so these next few weeks are pretty key to me . You see i will be in Patagonia for up to 10 days between Argentina and Chile in July , when i go there i really don't want to get caught in the tourist traps as i am sure there will be those opportunities . There is a group of hockey players visiting Toronto beginning Jan.24 .... i am hoping to make sure they have the best time possible here .... and i am hoping to extract as much information about their home cities to find a good place to stay and great things to do . The best part of it all is that i will have about 19 new friends after they visit here , which usually makes my trips more fun as locals will show you the best way to have fun in their cities AND most of all the cheapest :)

Javier and Anita will be the first 2 to land here and i am pretty sure that Javier is the president of the FAHH which is the ice hockey federation in Argentina . I am hoping to keep time off work to go pick them up and take them to the place they have booked to stay at . There is a bit of a language barrier between us but i am sure we will work it out in person as it is much easier to communicate with facial expressions and hand movements :) From the sounds of it they are travelling without a goalie so i am going to try joining their camp as much as i can and in fact i am trying to find a goalie to fill in for them .... apparently i might have a goalie coming from Montreal as he is very interested in playing with the Argentinians as his bloodline comes from there but we will see what happens ...

Also have to take them hockey equipment shopping and have booked some icetime for them to play against/with my Ghetto Blasters which should be a great experience for everyone . I am really looking forward to having some guests here in Toronto . Still not sure when the rest of the skaters show up here ....  hopefully all goes well while they are here and they enjoy it enough that they will want to return . I know there are 2 friends of mine really hoping i can extract as much info for our trip as possible .... Andi , Timo i will let you both know when i know more ..... then we can start booking our flights !

Today i have a Ghetto Blaster game mid day then i have to get ready to go to London tomorrow for that commercial i will be in .... the next few days should be very exciting ! i hope all of you are having as good a 2013 as i am ....

Peace ! 

Another Commercial

Friday morning here in Toronto , i have the day off as my shift was cancelled last night ... under 24 hour notice of cancellation means a day off with 4 hours of pay to stay home :) that my friends is a really good way to start a weekend ... unfortunately i am not so young and spry anymore and i really don't go out and party too much when i am home in Toronto . I much rather pocket that cash and save  it for my next trip ( south america ) .

The shift that was cancelled is not my film work , it was a staging job ... we are actually shipping the show Warhorse to its next destination via shipping containers . My next day of work will be on the ice !!! Yup you heard it right i am getting paid to step on the ice with some former pros and act ... Last year i did a Smart Car Promo which aired online under the name Smart.Studio  that happened because someone i work with in film ( Dennis Beier ) knew of my blog and all my travels playing hockey and was in need of some hockey players for a hockey segment they wanted to shoot so he contacted me . I put him in touch with an old hockey buddy named Shane Nuttley-Kirby who played pro in Germany , the crew was from Germany so it made sense that they all might have something to relate too ... Dennis actually asked if i knew any pros that played in Germany so it made perfect sense .

That was last year ... move to the present and Dennis contacts my friend Shane now to do another one , Shane in turn calls me for doing him the favor last year and blam !!! Monday i will be shooting this unknown commercial and hopefully i will be able to share the link with you all in a few weeks :) There is a good possibility that i have to wear my own gear , but in all honesty i am hoping to get the chance to score some new pads ... i know that whatever they buy will be much easier to give away rather then returned . Keeping my fingers crossed but not getting my hopes up .

2013 is definitely off to a good start now if i can only get my Ghetto Blasters a win .....

2012 The Review

Happy New Years Everyone :) hope you all had a great time out and i hope you all have a great 2013 !!!

2012 was a pretty decent year for me ... it started off with me heading out to Germany to meet Rainer on Jan . 2nd and jumping onto another plane to fly to Sweden to catch the ferry to Tallinn ,Estonia to play in a tournament there ... The trip to Estonia itself was awesome , getting really drunk over 2.5 days of travel and meeting a bunch of interesting people on the way . When we got to Estonia we met our friends and won a pretty tough tournament by beating a division 1 club twice in 1 day to capture their trophy ( which i broke ) . That was truly the highlight and start of 2012 , great way to start the year .

I stayed out in Europe going to Estonia,Latvia,Sweden and Germany on that trip for 3 weeks of debauchery ... we played in every country on that trip and honestly it was the best vacation i have ever been on :) After that trip i came home and played some good hockey but overall hockey in 2012 ( in Toronto ) was not a good year for me as i had a personal record below .500 and didn't have any trophies to show off :( but this isn't really about my hockey life in Toronto ... this is about the Travelling Goalie !



While i was out in Europe we found out about this tournament in Iceland and we all decided to head there in October so when i got home i was pretty focused on saving up for this trip , my second trip to Europe during 2012 . This trip originally was going to be BIG , but it got dumbed down to basically the new experience of going to Iceland and playing in their tournament ... which totally sucks and i still don't recommend anyone going there to play in this particular tournament !!!! I got sick there and we headed back to Berlin , there was a lot of drinking and watching pro sports which was totally amazing , don't get me wrong Iceland was amazing too , just that tournament kinda ruined a lot of stuff for me there but whatever LOL ! The rest of the trip was composed of us travelling too Iceland , Germany, Czech Rep. & England which i played in all over the place had a great time in Plzen at a hockey camp and got to meet and have a fun night out with the Maltese National Football Team !

That 2nd trip to Europe was not as good as first simply due to the fact that we didn't win the tournament , and i didn't really go to anywhere new that i haven't been to before aside from Iceland and Berlin i had been everywhere else before ... i mean there were a couple cities in Germany i haven't been too before but all i was doing was visiting the hockey rink or football pitch :) It didn't help also that i lost and never got to say bye to my travelling companion ... you all know who he is HAHAHA !!!!

The year was not over as i had a tournament in Victoriaville , Quebec to travel too at the end of November :) that tournament was ridiculous hard !!!! Toughest and best competition i have ever been involved in , and to my surprise i did quite well :) First game was rough had to get up to speed but the rest of the tourney i did quite well helping to get my team to the semi final ( which we lost in a close one ) the team i played for was an honour to be with ... the team was Les Stingers and they all had played for the Concordia Stingers . It was also an honour to play with former Montreal Canadiens and Augsburg Panthers defense man Francois Groleau . Unfortunately as i mentioned earlier , we did not win but the winning team sent us a message saying that we were much tougher competition then the team they beat in the final ... which was definitely a consolation . I brought home some awesome poutine and made some really great friends , gotta thank fellow Ghetto Blaster Alex Charette for hooking that trip up for me .....

2012 started off AMAZING but as you can see the slope went downward at the end :( i was planning to go to Puerto Rico to play in December and i couldn't do to monetary situation i am tied into back home with my hockey club .... when you run a hockey team you are responsible for the teams payments , when a skater misses a payment then i have to pay . Unfortunately i have some friends that have fallen behind on their payments and that costed me my trip . I am hoping and planning to make it there in October ,2013 before there rinks disappear ( bad politics ) l.

I hope you all have an amazing 2013 , i am really looking forward to the trips i am planning on going to this year .... The Travelling Goalie will be making trips to South America and the Caribbean this year , breaking new horizons .