Honestly, how many times can I say it? I love HOPE Volleyball more than Christmas. It’s fun. It’s in the sun. Sausage on a bun.
Even though I was served some piss-warm beer at one point, and I questioned whether or not I was eating an actual burger at one point, HOPE Volleyball 2010 turned out to be one of the better years in terms of weather. We were definitely feeling the heat even with the sunscreen on!
The team was quite large this year…Vero, Marie-Eve, Chantelle, Vero, Simon, Mike, Carrie, Rob, Casey, Melissa, Carrie and myself. Whew! I thought it was fun with that many people but it does make for some logistical headaches at times!
We ended up on the sand court once again which made us happy. While our playing was the best (at first) we dominated the afternoon. But is the volleyball really about the winning? I say thee nay! It’s about the refreshing swims afterward. It’s about the trek back to the beer tent. It’s about the HOPE beer chips in your pocket begging to be spent!
We spent most of the day on the hill side watching some excellent bands…LoudLove, Johnstones and Hawksley Workman. I would have to say the main attraction of the day was the DJ on top of the sound booth. He was intense…on a 40 degree day in his jeans and long sleeved shirt, he kept jumping around and loving life and pumping out some excellent tunes. Well done good sir!
I can’t say I was overly impressed with Hawksley Workman. Don’t get me wrong…excellent musician, excellent band and the crowd loved them. In fact, word on the street are that ladies LOVE the guy and their underwear drops when he walks next to them. But I was not affected by this gentleman on the stage but I enjoyed the few tunes I recognized.
Highlights of the day:
– Having them announce the beer tents were closing at 4:15, hightailing it there to stock up and then realizing that all was not lost! They were open until 6PM!
– Rob’s ‘Paisley Central’ t-shirt
– Seeing Steve and Anne-Marie marvel at the amount of bikinis on the beach!
– Taking a ball straight in the face
– Mike having eight cops question him about a rumour that he was smoking marijuana. He was quite pissed off (considering he doesn’t touch the stuff and he needed to get to his next game) and he let my cop brother-in-law know about it. Which was even more hilarious considering Steve is a) On vacation b) He isn’t even a cop in Ottawa. I had to let Mike know that he should cool off for a bit with a beer!
All in all, we had amazing weather this year compared to last year and I will take that every year from here on out!