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Thursday 11 February
Banks, phones and buses: Vancouver here we are!

Well here we go! The marathon journey completed without too much of a hassle: The bank decided that they would stop my card being used despite having the rare amount of money in it! 30 minutes on the phone while waiting for the Munich Amsterdam flight yesterday sorted that out! Got into Whistler at around 11.30pm local time last night and then got taken down to where am staying - Cheers to Tom and his flat mates for putting me up. It will be great to go home each night to friendly faces rather than a faceless hotel room!

Anyway memories of Turin / Sestriere four years ago meant that I was up early (nothing of course to do with jetlag) and quite eager to get over to the press centre. But where was it and how did I get there? Luckily at the bus stop I met the CTV (Canadian TV) local bureau chief and Sarah Galashan volunteered to send me in the right direction. Her parting words were ominous: "Do you have a card just in case we need to chat to someone today if the racing gets cancelled?"

Today was supposed to be day two of the Downhill training for the men and first day for the Women. After the training run had been cancelled after half the field got down yesterday, this was the opening run for many of the racers. Ever the gentleman, Didier Cuche admitted that the latter runners should have gone first so that they had a run on the course and not the top guys getting a second. In how many other sports would that happen?

Had breakfast with Zoom Agence's photo-manager and reminisced over an absent friend, Paul Robbins, who had sadly passed away since Turin. Mo and Paul used to share time out at major skiing events and talk about the ways of the world as they enjoyed a cake. To your memory Paul, the tradition continues!

The first day and it seems that it is open season on the bank account: New phone needed, internet access needed, food needed! All a drain on the pennies. At least the food was not as extortionate as in Turin! Maybe the internet is expensive but that and the phone are necessary evils these days!

Ed Drake had a reasonable run he says on his Facebook group but having spent the day sorting myself out, I will venture down to the finish tomorrow and grab the man for some interview time. maybe I will get to try out the new toy....! Yes have invested in a small video dictaphone. I will try and post some short clips on here as time goes on!

Just watching the rerun of Stacey Cook's crash - she was number 2 and what with a 25 minute delay before she was helicoptered off (she is OK according to the US press releases) and the bad weather, we could be in for an interesting time!

This just about wraps up today - am off to sleep now as the clock says it is 04.00 in Europe, not sure yet if the body clock has adjusted. The Games open tomorrow down in Vancouver but up here in Whistler they have already started!