IT'S FLU AND CURLING SEASON AGAIN!

            I cannot say with absolute certainty, and there really isn’t any scientific evidence to back up my argument, but I’m pretty sure that my immune system is a curling fan. For the past few years I have had some kind of flu or sinusitis or some bloody thing putting my whiny, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, achy body on the couch for two or three days in a row right around this time of the year. Coincidently, the majority of great Canadian curling action happens to be going on at this exact same time. Hmmm?

            If it isn’t the Canadian women’s championship, the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, it’s the men’s championship, the Tim Horton’s Brier. I seem to recall my illnesses lining up with these curling events with regularity over the past little while.

            Now, I know what you’re thinking…and it’s not hooky. Really it isn’t. I certainly enjoy watching curling but if I was to purposely skip work for some recreational activity it wouldn’t be to lie around the house all day watching curling. Hockey maybe, when Team Canada is playing and the games are coming from Russia or somewhere where you can only watch the games live starting at six or seven in the morning, or whatever, then that would make sense. But curling? Not worth losing your job over, I don’t think.

            Anyway, this season’s sinus infection just happened to coincide with the Tim Horton’s Brier which just wrapped up on Sunday the 13^th of March. I was recuperating at home for a couple of days and I was able to take in some of the morning and afternoon draws. There were some pretty good games to watch as this year’s field of teams was as good as it gets and every game was competitive.

Unfortunately, Saskatchewan’s Steve Laycock’s foursome could only muster five wins out of the eleven round robin games and finished out of the playoffs. Not that our Saskatchewan champions get a lot of television coverage, mind you, as the network carrying the games, TSN, tend to follow the “big-name” curlers like Brad Gushue, Kevin Koe, Glen Howard et al for most of the televised games, leaving “small market” teams, (Sask, PEI, Yukon/NWT), with a token mid-week-morning TV slot.

In 2011 I wasn’t at home with a viral infection but I happened to be at home awaiting surgery for a herniated disc so that time I got to watch the Saskatchewan Scotties Champion, Amber Holland and her rink, win the whole kit n caboodle in Charlottetown at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. She was 8-0 and cruising and a TSN commentator mentioned how Amber Holland had been “flying under the radar”. Who’s radar? TSN’s radar, I’d say. She was 8 AND 0! But…guess who got the last laugh?

The Ford World Women’s Championship runs from March 19^th to 27^th in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. Calgary’s Chelsea Carey and her rink will be representing Canada at the championship. The field is solid with many returning champions making it a tough event to win.

 As much as I’d love to be able to watch as many curling ends as possible I’m sick n tired of being sick n tired, if you know what I mean? I’m going to have to pass this one up; immunity be damned.

“Health is not valued till sickness comes.”-Thomas Fuller (1608-1661).