Remember the build-up to the Olympics? We chewed our nails waiting for the big announcement. Vancouver-Whistler had won? The 2010 Winter Games would be in British Columbia! And it wasn’t just Vancouver and Whistler but all of BC!

Yeah, right.

Let’s say you live in Prince George … Kamloops … Prince Rupert … Smithers. What’s it going to cost to fly down to Vancouver? And then get a hotel room in a city already booked to capacity or more. And say you want to see the opening ceremonies that cost 1100 new Canadian super bucks, $2200 for the two of you... Perhaps you’d like to see the gold medal game hockey game. That’s 750 smuggies a ticket. So it is for the figure skating final. Now, if you want so see “a” figure skating event it’s 50 bucks and you can see cross country skiing for $25. Just how you watch cross country skiing other than on a snowmobile is not clear.

When you read the schedule of prices it becomes obvious that for anything anyone would want to watch the prices are for the wealthy. The guy in charge, John Furlong, says that these prices meet his promise that the Olympics would be affordable and goes on to bring a tear to the flintiest of eyes saying “It’s about being there for moments of greatness, Olympic records, the singing of Oh! Canada with your fellow Canadians. It’s about having a ticket, your ticket, this ticket to say that you were there in 2010 with a ticket in your hand and say that you got to experience this yourself.”

Not for me, John old son. After enduring five years of blocked traffic on the Sea-to-Sky, explosions, road slides and our nice path to the beach where our Chocolate Lab swims destroyed, I will have had quite enough of the Winter Olympics without paying a fortune to see the opening and closing ceremonies that only the rich (I’m not one of them) can afford.

The Olympics has brought one blessing to the Mair family. You see we live right above the highway to Whistler and I’m told we could rent our pad for at least $10,000 which will finance a nice trip to New Zealand where we can watch whatever the hell they do with a luge on TV – which is where we would watch it at home.

Come to think about it, that’s a hell of an idea! Keep on hyping those games, Mr. Furlong and maybe we could get a little more rent and take that long awaited trip to South Africa!