Post by usaapfan on Oct 5, 2008 1:36:02 GMT 1
Re-post of the report I wrote for the A & P ML on Yahoo Groups...
I am happy to report that your humble scribe (moi) did not lose any points this past weekend. Given my current abysmal record, I am a bit paranoid about the timing of my phone calls to Gwendal. So late Friday Arizona time, I checked the world clock on my cell phone and sent the following text message to Gwendal.
“How many points will I lose if I phone now?”
There was no immediate reply so I went to bed. At 01:00, I awoke to the first few bars of “Call of the Champions” playing on my cell phone. I picked up the phone and read the reply.
“Would have been a good 567.388 point loss!!”
My immediate thought was that deduction was a bit much given that it was 07:55 in France. After all, it was Saturday and he should be up and about feeding Nabaa or doing some house cleaning. I went back to sleep and didn’t give it another thought until my phone rang on Sunday.
“Hey Gwendal, isn’t that kind of a big deduction?”
“Michele…It was 06:55 in the morning!!!”
“Are you sure you didn’t read the time on your clock wrong? The world clock on my cell phone clearly said 07:55.”
In truth, I already had an inkling of what the problem may be, but I didn’t let on. I figured it was better to let Gwendal think that he needed to have his eyes examined rather than lose another 50 points.
Gwendal was driving back from Albertville.
“Why were you in Albertville?”
“I played in a football game for charity.”
“I didn’t realize you played soccer. I remember the photo of you and Marina posing in the French Blues shirts but I didn’t know you played.”
“I didn’t know either until I played! I can run fast.”
“Well, you’ve had a lot of practice. I always chuckle when I recall that story of you being chased up the escalator by some enthusiastic Japanese fans.”
I asked about the recent show in Vallenciene. The web site with the story about the gala had photos of them with Marina wearing the modified Flamenco-Tango costume and the CAM costume. When I saw the Flamenco-Tango costume, my immediate thought was that Marina added the red colored fringe to hide her baby bump. Gwendal acknowledged that was the reason for the costume change. I said that there was a photo of them in the CAM costumes. Did they really skate CAM?
Gwendal recognizes the acronym when he reads it but he was momentarily confused when I said the word “CAM” so I quickly added, “Christina Aguilera Medley”.
“Ohhhhhhhhh!!! Yes, we skated CAM.”
“Was it the same costume? The reason I ask is that the CAM costume is more revealing than the Flamenco-Tango costume so I am a bit surprised that she wore the CAM costume but altered the Flamenco-Tango costume.”
“Yes, it was the same costume you saw when you came to France. There were no changes to the costume. You probably don’t remember, but it already has fringe on it.”
I must have still sounded a bit skeptical because he went on to say that for being five months pregnant, Marina is “not big. In fact, she is quite fit.”
“So, this was the last show. What are you going to do in the next few months?”
“Work! I think that I may also try to break in a new pair of skates.”
“Are you still using the “Beethoven’s Last Night” season’s skates???”
“No, I am using the 2000 Nice skates.”
“Gwendal!!!”
Probably thinking that he was about to get a lecture on the hazards of skating with a partner who is five months along in her pregnancy wearing eight year old skates, he immediately said, “I know!”
“I thought that the leather breaks down after a while and destabilizes your ankle???”
“Yes, the leather is so worn that my old ones are like wearing socks.”
Gwendal said that he will again be working with the French Olympic Committee sometime in December in La Plaine, France. I assume that it will be similar to what they did last year in "Les Etoiles des Sports".
I asked if he was still coming to Worlds in LA for Eurosport.
“I’m not sure. Right now, I would say that there’s a 20% chance.”
With that, I let out a whine that could rival the character of Randy in the movie, “A Christmas Story”.
“I was looking forward to seeing you (not to mention getting a few new photos for our rapidly decreasing supply). At least you ask the skaters decent questions; not the usual, “What did you think of your performance?” Geez, even I could do better than that!”
Gwendal said that most times, he is asked if he will work on the coverage closer to the time of the broadcast so I am not ‘throwing in the towel’ yet.
I asked about the necklace he was wearing in the photo he sent of him alongside French President Nicolas Sarkozy. It is a replica of one side (the face side) of his SLC gold medal. He said that Marina gave it to him for his 30th birthday. It is made of solid gold and was designed by the French jewelry firm Korloff. Gwendal said that one day, he wants to take the necklace back to Korloff and have them add the design from the other side of the gold medal. He said that he likes the side with the Olympic rings. I commented that I had never noticed him wearing this necklace before. He proceeded to name a few places, including the Athens Olympics, where he’s worn the necklace.
In case you are like me and need the visual, I have uploaded the photo of Gwendal and the Prez for your viewing pleasure. [On PoI, I have made it the PDJ for October 5th.]
One of the fans asked me to ask Gwendal the following:
“Does Gwendal watch the “X-Files”?”
“Yes, I have seen the show but I do not follow the series. I don’t really follow any series because I don’t have a lot of time to watch TV. The only series I followed was “24” because Ben brought DVD’s of the entire season when we toured with “Champions on Ice”. We watched the shows when we were on the bus and when we returned to the hotel.”
As usual, I asked him about the progress of his remodeling project. He bought the house shortly after his return to France after the last COI tour. It seems that we’ve been discussing the house for a long time but he has not yet moved in.
“What’s the new target date for moving into the house?”
“Now, it’s mid-November.”
“It seems like that remodeling project is taking forever.”
Gwendal acknowledged that it is taking a long time given that it began last October. However, keep in mind that they “broke all the floors, all the walls, the ceilings, the electrical and the plumbing”. As we would say here, they “gutted” the house leaving only the exterior walls.
Gwendal described the house as being on many different levels.
“You have one room and then you go down 1-2 stairs to the next room. From that room to the next, you might go up 4 stairs.” He compared it to the pattern of a spiral stair case.
I imagined him visualizing the house because he began to name the rooms and whether or not they were on another level.
“There are 7; …no 8 levels in the house. I have a TV/cinema/music room that is separated from the main room by a glass wall so you can’t hear anything if you’re in the main room. You can open up the glass walls if you want to connect to the main room. I also have an office.”
I’m not sure how we got on to the next topic, but I think I may have asked Gwendal about the color of the paint on the walls. I would like to send a house warming gift when he finally moves in so I have asked about the color scheme in previous conversations.
Permit me to digress for a moment…My advice to you if you are thinking of doing the same; don’t bother to ask him. He is totally useless is this regard. You will not get the answer you need to perfectly coordinate your gift with the color scheme of his new house.
We had a very detailed and quite lengthy discussion about the walls.
“They are coated with stuff.”
“You mean plaster?”
“No, not plaster; they’re coated in mud.”
I wasn’t certain that I heard that correctly so I repeated, “Mud???”
“Well, not exactly mud but something that looks like mud. It has bits and pieces of dried grass and small bits of rock in it. Do you know what I mean?”
“Sort of…it’s probably like what they use here in Arizona to make adobe bricks. How does it stick to the walls? Is there some kind of coating on it?”
“Not that I can see but it does stick to the wall.”
We continued discussing the finer details of mud walls making very little progress with my visualization of said walls. It was kind of like an episode of Seinfeld.
“I’ll take a picture and sent it to you.”
Gwendal said that he was looking forward to having his family spend Christmas with him in his new house. It will be the first time that they’ve spent Christmas with him.
“Yes, I bet it would be difficult to fit everyone into the “urban bachelor pad”.
He also wants to have a New Years Eve party at the house for his friends. My advice is to keep anyone who’s in too festive of a mood (if you catch my drift) away from that glass wall.
I heard some ring tones in the background.
“Michele, you need to begin writing your report and I need to take this other phone call.”
I have to admit that I did not begin writing until yesterday, Friday, October 3. This ended up being a good thing because I received a few more phone calls from Gwendal which allowed me to ask another question and enables me to add another bullet point to the list below.
“Is your sister going to be a judge at “Skate America” this year?”
His response made me chuckle. Not because of the answer, but the way he said it.
“I don’t know” as if how would he possibly know the answer to that question.
I assumed that this might be something that would come up in a conversation between a brother and sister. I dropped the subject and quickly added, “OK, if I see her, like last year, I’ll send you a text message and a photo.”
“OK”
Key takeaways (tips du jour) from this report:
• Make sure the world clock on your cell phone is set correctly to daylight savings time [summer time] or standard time for the country in reference.
• Don’t try to get information out of Gwendal about boring details such as the color of paint on walls.
Gwendal asked me to tell you…
• “Gwendal is following in the footsteps of Marina”
I am happy to report that your humble scribe (moi) did not lose any points this past weekend. Given my current abysmal record, I am a bit paranoid about the timing of my phone calls to Gwendal. So late Friday Arizona time, I checked the world clock on my cell phone and sent the following text message to Gwendal.
“How many points will I lose if I phone now?”
There was no immediate reply so I went to bed. At 01:00, I awoke to the first few bars of “Call of the Champions” playing on my cell phone. I picked up the phone and read the reply.
“Would have been a good 567.388 point loss!!”
My immediate thought was that deduction was a bit much given that it was 07:55 in France. After all, it was Saturday and he should be up and about feeding Nabaa or doing some house cleaning. I went back to sleep and didn’t give it another thought until my phone rang on Sunday.
“Hey Gwendal, isn’t that kind of a big deduction?”
“Michele…It was 06:55 in the morning!!!”
“Are you sure you didn’t read the time on your clock wrong? The world clock on my cell phone clearly said 07:55.”
In truth, I already had an inkling of what the problem may be, but I didn’t let on. I figured it was better to let Gwendal think that he needed to have his eyes examined rather than lose another 50 points.
Gwendal was driving back from Albertville.
“Why were you in Albertville?”
“I played in a football game for charity.”
“I didn’t realize you played soccer. I remember the photo of you and Marina posing in the French Blues shirts but I didn’t know you played.”
“I didn’t know either until I played! I can run fast.”
“Well, you’ve had a lot of practice. I always chuckle when I recall that story of you being chased up the escalator by some enthusiastic Japanese fans.”
I asked about the recent show in Vallenciene. The web site with the story about the gala had photos of them with Marina wearing the modified Flamenco-Tango costume and the CAM costume. When I saw the Flamenco-Tango costume, my immediate thought was that Marina added the red colored fringe to hide her baby bump. Gwendal acknowledged that was the reason for the costume change. I said that there was a photo of them in the CAM costumes. Did they really skate CAM?
Gwendal recognizes the acronym when he reads it but he was momentarily confused when I said the word “CAM” so I quickly added, “Christina Aguilera Medley”.
“Ohhhhhhhhh!!! Yes, we skated CAM.”
“Was it the same costume? The reason I ask is that the CAM costume is more revealing than the Flamenco-Tango costume so I am a bit surprised that she wore the CAM costume but altered the Flamenco-Tango costume.”
“Yes, it was the same costume you saw when you came to France. There were no changes to the costume. You probably don’t remember, but it already has fringe on it.”
I must have still sounded a bit skeptical because he went on to say that for being five months pregnant, Marina is “not big. In fact, she is quite fit.”
“So, this was the last show. What are you going to do in the next few months?”
“Work! I think that I may also try to break in a new pair of skates.”
“Are you still using the “Beethoven’s Last Night” season’s skates???”
“No, I am using the 2000 Nice skates.”
“Gwendal!!!”
Probably thinking that he was about to get a lecture on the hazards of skating with a partner who is five months along in her pregnancy wearing eight year old skates, he immediately said, “I know!”
“I thought that the leather breaks down after a while and destabilizes your ankle???”
“Yes, the leather is so worn that my old ones are like wearing socks.”
Gwendal said that he will again be working with the French Olympic Committee sometime in December in La Plaine, France. I assume that it will be similar to what they did last year in "Les Etoiles des Sports".
I asked if he was still coming to Worlds in LA for Eurosport.
“I’m not sure. Right now, I would say that there’s a 20% chance.”
With that, I let out a whine that could rival the character of Randy in the movie, “A Christmas Story”.
“I was looking forward to seeing you (not to mention getting a few new photos for our rapidly decreasing supply). At least you ask the skaters decent questions; not the usual, “What did you think of your performance?” Geez, even I could do better than that!”
Gwendal said that most times, he is asked if he will work on the coverage closer to the time of the broadcast so I am not ‘throwing in the towel’ yet.
I asked about the necklace he was wearing in the photo he sent of him alongside French President Nicolas Sarkozy. It is a replica of one side (the face side) of his SLC gold medal. He said that Marina gave it to him for his 30th birthday. It is made of solid gold and was designed by the French jewelry firm Korloff. Gwendal said that one day, he wants to take the necklace back to Korloff and have them add the design from the other side of the gold medal. He said that he likes the side with the Olympic rings. I commented that I had never noticed him wearing this necklace before. He proceeded to name a few places, including the Athens Olympics, where he’s worn the necklace.
In case you are like me and need the visual, I have uploaded the photo of Gwendal and the Prez for your viewing pleasure. [On PoI, I have made it the PDJ for October 5th.]
One of the fans asked me to ask Gwendal the following:
“Does Gwendal watch the “X-Files”?”
“Yes, I have seen the show but I do not follow the series. I don’t really follow any series because I don’t have a lot of time to watch TV. The only series I followed was “24” because Ben brought DVD’s of the entire season when we toured with “Champions on Ice”. We watched the shows when we were on the bus and when we returned to the hotel.”
As usual, I asked him about the progress of his remodeling project. He bought the house shortly after his return to France after the last COI tour. It seems that we’ve been discussing the house for a long time but he has not yet moved in.
“What’s the new target date for moving into the house?”
“Now, it’s mid-November.”
“It seems like that remodeling project is taking forever.”
Gwendal acknowledged that it is taking a long time given that it began last October. However, keep in mind that they “broke all the floors, all the walls, the ceilings, the electrical and the plumbing”. As we would say here, they “gutted” the house leaving only the exterior walls.
Gwendal described the house as being on many different levels.
“You have one room and then you go down 1-2 stairs to the next room. From that room to the next, you might go up 4 stairs.” He compared it to the pattern of a spiral stair case.
I imagined him visualizing the house because he began to name the rooms and whether or not they were on another level.
“There are 7; …no 8 levels in the house. I have a TV/cinema/music room that is separated from the main room by a glass wall so you can’t hear anything if you’re in the main room. You can open up the glass walls if you want to connect to the main room. I also have an office.”
I’m not sure how we got on to the next topic, but I think I may have asked Gwendal about the color of the paint on the walls. I would like to send a house warming gift when he finally moves in so I have asked about the color scheme in previous conversations.
Permit me to digress for a moment…My advice to you if you are thinking of doing the same; don’t bother to ask him. He is totally useless is this regard. You will not get the answer you need to perfectly coordinate your gift with the color scheme of his new house.
We had a very detailed and quite lengthy discussion about the walls.
“They are coated with stuff.”
“You mean plaster?”
“No, not plaster; they’re coated in mud.”
I wasn’t certain that I heard that correctly so I repeated, “Mud???”
“Well, not exactly mud but something that looks like mud. It has bits and pieces of dried grass and small bits of rock in it. Do you know what I mean?”
“Sort of…it’s probably like what they use here in Arizona to make adobe bricks. How does it stick to the walls? Is there some kind of coating on it?”
“Not that I can see but it does stick to the wall.”
We continued discussing the finer details of mud walls making very little progress with my visualization of said walls. It was kind of like an episode of Seinfeld.
“I’ll take a picture and sent it to you.”
Gwendal said that he was looking forward to having his family spend Christmas with him in his new house. It will be the first time that they’ve spent Christmas with him.
“Yes, I bet it would be difficult to fit everyone into the “urban bachelor pad”.
He also wants to have a New Years Eve party at the house for his friends. My advice is to keep anyone who’s in too festive of a mood (if you catch my drift) away from that glass wall.
I heard some ring tones in the background.
“Michele, you need to begin writing your report and I need to take this other phone call.”
I have to admit that I did not begin writing until yesterday, Friday, October 3. This ended up being a good thing because I received a few more phone calls from Gwendal which allowed me to ask another question and enables me to add another bullet point to the list below.
“Is your sister going to be a judge at “Skate America” this year?”
His response made me chuckle. Not because of the answer, but the way he said it.
“I don’t know” as if how would he possibly know the answer to that question.
I assumed that this might be something that would come up in a conversation between a brother and sister. I dropped the subject and quickly added, “OK, if I see her, like last year, I’ll send you a text message and a photo.”
“OK”
Key takeaways (tips du jour) from this report:
• Make sure the world clock on your cell phone is set correctly to daylight savings time [summer time] or standard time for the country in reference.
• Don’t try to get information out of Gwendal about boring details such as the color of paint on walls.
Gwendal asked me to tell you…
• “Gwendal is following in the footsteps of Marina”