Barbara & Jane Model Red Mittens

Uber fashion statement of the season:  red mitts!  Yup! The lowly mitt is the hot, “must have” accessory of the season  and has been seen hobnobbing with the best on the Great Wall of China, in front of the Eiffel Tower, in Moscow’s Red Square and on the hands of Kerrisdale cafe patrons, Barbara and Jane!

Whoduv thunk?

Red mitts with the Olympic logo on one side and Canada’s  Maple Leaf on the other  are the official 2010 Vancouver Olympic Mitts, the hottest, or should that be the coolest, fashion item this winter.  The marketing was pure genius.  Stores just can’t keep them in stock!  Friends and relatives from afar ask but for one thing:  “Please send us your red mitts!”

Onward!

The usual Thursday at The Point today was pre-empted by the Olympic Torch run.  Regular readers here know that Thursday afternoon is my friend Cheryll’s and mine Mastermind of Two at the Café Capanna in Point Roberts.

Tonight is the eve of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics opening.  The Olympic Torch has been making its way from Athens for many months now.  It passed through my neighborhood yesterday.  I missed it.  Today it was scheduled to pass through Cheryll’s neighborhood – damn it!  I certainly wasn’t going to miss it again!

We didn’t cancel our MasterMind of Two – we simply moved it to a café in Kerrisdale where we worked on our internet marketing as we do every Thursday.

Then a series of “What are the Chances” followed.

As we are about to wrap up for the afternoon so as to stake out our spot for cheering on the Torch Bearer at 4.43 p.m precisely at the crossroads of West Boulevard and 45th Ave,  a couple of women walk into the café.  They order their lattes and sit across from us.  Aha!  I spy the red mitts!

Could I take a picture?

Yes…

Cheryll looks at the women and thinks that she may have met one of them.  Turns out that they were neighbors years and years ago!

Next.  We are standing on the sidewalk milling with the crowd waiting for the Torcholympic torches to come through. Another friend of Cheryll’s whom she hasn’t seen for a long time arrives.   Chit chat, chit chat.  Pat is her name.  She and her husband have moved away to one of the islands and maintain a small condo in the city.

The Torch is run in relays.  In the photo to the right the arriving torch bearer lights the torch of the next runner.  It was such a small thing.  Took only a moment, but that moment was electrifying.

We continue to chat with Pat.  This is her second viewing of the Torch today.  She had gotten up early in the morning and made her way to a burb clear cross town and then some to watch her son run the torch at 6.00 a.m.  We learn that he is a former Olympian.

Hmm.  Just the other day I met a former Olympian. Chris Farstad, a bobsledder.  He was our guest speaker at the monthly Real Estate MasterMind group that I belong to.  He gave an outstanding  inspirational speech.  I thorough enjoyed it and to boot I learned more about bobsledding in the twenty minutes than I knew in a lifetime!

I am curious.  I ask Pat what sport did her son compete in?

Bobsledding.

Vancouver is not exactly a hotbed of bobsledders.  What are the chances?  What is his name?

You guessed it.  Chris Farnstad!

What are the chances?

Don’t you just love it when chance and life meet?  I think that much of what we do in life is like that – but it isn’t chance at all, at least I don’t think so.

Wishing you many “chances” of success in all that you do!

Valentina