4 days until departure

Well, we leave this Friday. I am working to get everything sorted around at work, and at home before I go.

I skated in the Richmond Hill tournament this weekend, and felt pretty good. I had 3 Belle AA games (or U19 AA for those that don't like me using the old names), 1 NRL and one Junior A on Saturday and one Belle AA on Sunday.

Overall I felt good on the games, the Richmond Hill NRL team let me get a copy of the game so I can watch myself and see where I feel I can improve my game(not sure if they were making a passive statement about my officiating or not). Haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but given how difficult it is to get feedback from evaluators on NRL games (given they are so spread out, and not large number of games at tournaments any more) hopefully seeing myself will enable me to at least see what I am doing. One of the toughest things in improving yourself, is not really knowing what you are doing on the ice. Hopefully video will help in that. I am always looking to improve my game, so always looking for ways to do it.

I did realize how much the game has changed in the last few years, as it wasn't that long ago that I would skate 7 games in a day at a tournament and not think anything of it, now when I saw 5 games on my schedule, 4 of which had 20 minute periods, I was wondering if the RIC was trying to kill me. The game is so much faster since the shot clock has come in, it really makes a huge difference in the number of games you can skate in a day. Of course, maybe I am just getting older and more out of shape, or maybe it is a combination of both...

Flight leaves at 9:45 Friday morning so we are down to less than 4 days until we are off. Should be a good time, hopefully we don't get any of the winter weather that the maritimes have seen this winter, as February in Halifax can be hit or miss. I guess we will just have to wait and see.