Do we all know the words to Oh Canada now?

The crowds are singing our national anthem. This is because our athletes have just won another gold medal in the Olympics.

I am surprised. Not surprised at the winning, surprised at the knowing of the words!

Until now most Canadians didn't sing the national anthem. There was no real reason to, and most people would mumble in the middle if they were pressed into singing it.

A born Canadian who has lived here all my life... I know most of the words, and can muddle through the rest, but the words have changed since I learned them in school, and I learned half of them in French (the ones in the middle that get mumbled the most) and I don't speak French, so they did not mean that much to me when I learned them. I expect many others are in this position as well.

But the crowds that have been occupying Vancouver's downtown core for 2 weeks actually have spontaneously broken out singing Oh Canada! Many times!

And the athletes are singing Oh Canada when they win the gold - many have been captured on film doing it. They know the words!

And the crowds in the stands are singing Oh Canada! They know the words!

Everyone seems to know the words! This is an amazing change that has happened within my lifetime!

What is this line for?

Queueing, queueing and more queueing... we seem to have a world-class set of people who queue in Vancouver right now!

Forget the Olympic events - the queueing for those events is expected - it's the queueing for everything else that's amazing.

Early in the morning, people queue to take the zip line across Robson Street. People don't start going across until 11am, but the lineup starts many hours earlier. According to what I've heard from volunteers who work around the zip line, if you go between about noon and 1 pm, the lineup is much shorter! Everyone who was scared off by the morning lineup has given up, and everyone who was in the lineup has done the zip line! Then the rest of the day builds to one solid line! Talk about stamina! Go queuers go!

The there's the Olympic cauldron queue. It's an interesting sculpture, and has been the source of a story for media world-wide - with the fence that blocked the view, then the overnight alterations to the fence to improve the view, then the opening of a viewing platform in a close building for an even better view... and another opportunity for world-record queueing!

"It looks like they're building a pyramid!" Is a comment from one Vancouverite who was running on the seawall when they looked up at the zig-zagging lineup up the hill to get to see the cauldron. That's got to be a world record, not beaten for about 5000 years! Gold medals for everyone!

Do statues need mittens?

An obvious "no" would seem to be the right answer. Statues made from rock or metal have no need to keep their hands warm. But there are many statues around Vancouver decorated with red mittens right now.

The red mittens are a marketing idea for the Winter Olympics which are happening right now in Vancouver - the idea is to show civic pride in the Canadian athletes - and many, many people are wearing them. So why not the statues?

The statue of Robert Burns to the left has been given a pair of red mittens strung together with red string so he won't lose them. I didn't know this was a statue of Robbie Burns until I googled statues in Stanley Park, where he is standing! An educational time is had by all!

The Inukshuk is a symbol of these Olympic Games, so it seems fitting that the Inukshuk on the beach at English Bay has been given some red mittens too. They have been scaled up for the statue, very thoughtful.

Statues really don't need mittens, but it is amazing how many people are wearing the red mittens - and red everything else - and many people are wearing the official Olympic clothing too! In an odd way it makes sense that the statues should be part of the celebration. It's odd to see Canadians showing so much civic pride, these are truly amazing Olympics!

How do you simulate an earthquake?

A few years ago we had an earthquake tremor here in Vancouver which was big enough that we felt it in our apartment. The lamp in the dining room ceiling swayed and water sloshed. It was a memorable experience.

The Olympics started yesterday several blocks to the east of our apartment. Along with thousands of people really enjoying the event, we had about 200 protestors enjoying being annoying and complaining about... well, anything that struck them as something to complain about.

This morning there was a "big protest" about 2 blocks west of our apartment. About 200 protestors who are reported to be protesting "against capitalism".

That's a few decades old as a complaint, isn't it? A Bit lacking in either creativity or at least something a bit more meaningful to be against isn't it? They were right beside a movie rental store, a coffee shop, a convenience store, and a gourmet baking supply store. Maybe they could complain about getting to bed late because they had too much coffee, their cake baking experiment failed, they didn't win on the lottery ticket they bought, and it all made them return their movie late and they had to pay a late charge...

So the cops were out quelling the riot and nabbing the worst of the rioters to send them to jail.

One of the tools the police are using to quell rioters during the Olympics are helicopters. Big helicopters. Big powerful, loud helicopters flying close to the ground. They've been circling high in the sky for days now from early in the morning until very late at night, but they come in close when there is a riot.

Anyone seen the movie Apocalypse Now? Remember feeling the ground shake as the helicopters darkened the sky? It happens in real life too.

So with the lamp once again swaying, and water rippling in our apartment, we are left to wonder if someone is trying to simulate an earthquake, or if the rioters rented the movie Apocalypse Now, and that's the one they returned late and had to pay a late fee on.

And there the helicopters are again as I type... anyone got some popcorn?

Was that exciting?

Well it was only 2 blocks away from where we live, so we did go out to see the Olympic torch go by this morning... meh.

There was still traffic on the street when everyone was lining the route for the flame - mostly trucks on business, but there were some idiots in single occupancy gas guzzlers trying to drive in downtown still. "Oh, I didn't know there was going to be any traffic problems, I thought about transit, but I drove instead." What planet have these people been living on? The police on bicycles were interesting, the horses were great to see - they didn't look too thrilled about it, but it's the last day of the relay, so they can stop this soon - but the torch runner was just a blur as he ran by.

I don't recommend trying to see anything when you're in a crowd and in a wheelchair. Doesn't work. (I only ran over one guy's foot - but that was his fault, not mine!) (I drove over my own foot once, I wasn't wearing shoes either... long story... it actually doesn't hurt that much, so I'm not worried about him.)

My spouse heard that Arnold Schwarzenegger (spell that one without Google, I dare you) was going to be running in Stanley Park at 6 a.m., so he got up in the middle of the night to see if he could see Arnold - not as a drooling fan, just because he was going to be close, so why not? What he learned was, never believe what you read from unofficial sources online. Arnold was going to be at Prospect Point said the unofficial source - nope, it was Brockton Point on the other side of the park. So my spouse got some unexpected exercise, he didn't expect to run that far, but he's done it many times before, so he's fine.

The result of seeing Arnold... "He's got a big head."

So was that exciting? Meh.

Has the News gone party already?

Floods, earthquakes, lack of snow on the mountains... and after the break, how to pour the perfect Guinness.

Yep, it's party time in Vancouver!

The CBC news had all the serious stuff out of the way last night - quite the accomplishment in less than half an hour (we like the shorter half-hour versions of the news on the CBC, less repeats that way) - so they went for the party aspect of what's happening in the Irish pavilion.

Unless the end of the world - currently scheduled for Dec 21, 2012 - comes early during the Olympic Games, I don't think we'll be having too much serious news broadcast around here!

No worries though, switching over to the BBC World News will always be an option if we want a reality break...... Nah

Where did that light come from?

Now this is fun. There are search lights at the mouth of False Creek in Vancouver set up for public art. The fun part is that anyone can submit a light design to be shown.

Yes, of course I did!

All you need to do is go to the website Vectorial Elevation (and maybe download the google earth image plugin if you don't have it already, and reboot - ok, it does take a bit of effort, deal with it) And then you can point the search lights to make an interesting pattern. The design I made for last Friday is to the left.

Once you submit the design, the website tells you when the design will be shown. The lights are on from dusk until dawn, changing every few minutes to a new design.

They even send you an email with images of what your design actually looked like on the night! See the image to the left! It looks a bit more dramatic with the clouds.

I've set up another one for tonight - it will be displayed at about 7pm. And we can even see it from our balcony! Well, most of it, there are these buildings in the way... but it's cool anyway.

I may do this many times before the Olympics are over!

Do you have a map?

We've been living in Vancouver's West End for about 11 years now, and we've been stopped and asked for directions an untold number of times. Vancouver is a tourist destination - we came here on vacations ourselves before we decided to move here permanently - and there are always lots of people who are new to the area and need directions. And with the Olympics - WOW - we now have maps on poles imbedded into the ground! See the photo to the left!

What a wonderful addition to the city! Bravo!

So do we get to keep them? Is this part of the Olympic legacy that we get to keep? I do hope so!

Will they all be wearing perfume?

A friend of ours just came back from Prague and the one thing he remembers most is the smells. Everyone smoked everywhere, there was a lot of pollution in the air, and it seems everyone poured bottles of perfume on themselves.

Back here in Vancouver, there is no smoking allowed in public buildings (or within 10 metres of doors, or on restaurant patios), the pollution is not that bad due to the ocean breezes, and most people don't feel the need to wear perfume. If anything, the perfume of Vancouver is marijuana smoke that you pass through very frequently while walking downtown (very herbal).

A couple of nights ago, while we were in a restaurant in downtown Vancouver, we wondered who had dropped a bottle of perfume. Looking around to see what had happened, we saw a group of tourists sitting down at the table next to us. Oh, that's where that smell is coming from.

I remember working in an office once where there was a woman known for her smell. She doused herself in so much perfume you could smell her coming, and her desk was the place to avoid at all costs, because you couldn't breathe when next to it. No one wanted to say anything to her because she would have started crying, but she really overdid it, and probably had lost her own sense of smell from dousing herself with so much perfume.

The tourists sitting beside us at the restaurant, bathed in way too much perfume, were speaking German. They had Olympics pamphlets and stuff at their table, so we assume they are here for the games. So these are some of the people we will be welcoming here for the games.

People who come to visit from other areas of the world are fascinating to be around. People from different cultures are great to see. But will they all be wearing so much perfume? It's hard to be welcoming when you can't breathe when sitting next to someone.