ANNA F's blog from Vancouver

"Hi everyone,

Right now, we are sitting on the floor, pretty bored, waiting for 'last call to rainy England'. So, we thought we would let you guys know what we have been getting up to during our last week in Canada.

As soon as we landed on 'planet' Vancouver, our immediate direction was Deer Lake Park, the venue of the legendary Fray concert. We went with another Brit, Becky Fong, and later met up with Katie O'Brien, who kindly organised the tickets for us... What a peach! We arrived at the concert early, so decided to take a trip to our good friend, Subway! The concert was awesome! We got tickets for 26 dollars (£13) each, and we were standing right in front of the stage. Usually, people go to concerts and dance and scream and generally it's a pretty relaxed atmosphere. But for some reason, there were a few girls really close to us who decided that standing like statues and glaring at us for two hours straight was the better option! There was also one guy standing right in front of us, who was about 8 feet tall, absolutely hammered and thought that everybody had gone there to watch him, not The Fray! It took the security guards 3 attempts to throw him out and keep him out! The Fray had a couple of good support bands, and we both put in extra effort when screaming for the drummer, no need to explain why!

Ok, now on to the club...Hollyburn is a very posh, private club built on a hill by the water. It has fantastic views of downtown Vancouver. The organisation of the tournament was world class. From the 1st day of qualifying, they had ball-boys and lines-judges on every court, and free snacks in the players lounge. As I'm sure you have guessed, we made the most of the freebies!

This tournament was also the first $50000 main draw we have competed in, therefore it was a good opportunity to pick up points. Tournament transport was a huge help all week, taking us to and from the club, hotel, restaurants and even the airport. We both had a day and a half off before flying back home, so when of the drivers, Tom, offered to give us a tour of the city. On Friday, he picked us up from the mall, in his 1964 Pontiac Parisienne! It was ridiculous! It was like something from 'Pimp My Ride'! Complete with a new paint job, and ultra powerful hydraulics! All day long we cruised around like true tourists, pulling off three point turns wherever possible! We went to all of the best tourist areas and viewpoints in the city.

That evening, we went to a BBQ, organised by one of the tournament sponsors, at his house. He had a beautiful view of the water and downtown Vancouver. A lot of players went, and everyone had a really good night, despite the fact that 'Fat Bloke and Yastog' were the only ones dancing, AGAIN! The BBQ provided 100% protein and was followed by a 30 minute firework display from the boats down in the ocean. We watched with our new personal drive, Tom, from a viewpoint on the hill near to the BBQ. The three of us sat on the roof of the tournament Mercedes. Yastog jumped down from the roof to get something from in the car, but before she got back inside the car, she fell over backwards into a big soft hedge!!! Anyway, it was an awesome night, and very romantic! Haha!

Although the results this week weren't as successful as the previous two tournaments, at least we have now experienced the atmosphere during the main draw of a $50000 and also got the chance to see the city.

Until our next adventure,


Fat Bloke and Yastog!"