Canada Day

July 04, 2024

This year's Canada Day Demo and celebrations was a blast. We went to the Pioneer Centre, we did our Lion/Dragon dance (next year we really need to warm up first, I thought I was going to DIE....AGAIN), then we did our Team Demo. It was a success! After helping bring the Dragon back to the van I raced back to my family to enjoy some festivities.

If you guys haven't tried that foam thing, you should totally do it next year. It's like being in a CLOUD (with lots of screaming, some half-naked, children).

Frankie had just hit the target on the dunk tank when WHOOOOOOOSH! FIGHTER JETS!!!!! EXCITING!!!!!

It was a really good time, and I was reminiscing about what happened at Canada Day the year before, and realized that I hadn't blogged about it at the time, so here's the story:

It was my first year on the I Ho Chuan team and my first Canada Day Demo. We had been practicing our weapons/forms and the Dragon/Lion for WEEKS and anticipation was high. I had never been to the Canada Day celebrations in Stony so I had no idea what to expect, but the horror stories about the steepness of the hill were making me nervous.

I think my husband was sick, so I had my Mum (who doesn't drive) and Frankie with me. We drove from the Kwoon to the Heritage Pavilion and they went to go check stuff out while I joined the team. Not knowing if there would be anywhere to put my bag, I asked if I could put it in the Bjorkquist's van as we pulled out the Dragon.

The sky was ominous and we were unsure if we would be able to perform before the clouds burst. It was a long way from the parking lot to the demo area with paper mache creatures, fierce as they may be.

But the Kung Fu Gods smiled down on us and we did our demos and dances before a drop of rain fell.

HOWEVER, just as we were finishing up, holding our aluminum poles, there was a lightning FLASH and a thunder CRACK that made us think twice about pressing our luck. We quickly went to gather our belongings. A group of people grabbed the Lion and Dragon and hoofed it back to the van as quick as possible to get them out of potential rain. I had found a pile of stuff that obviously belonged to our group and was trying to figure out who owned what. The few of us left behind became enthralled by an Indigenous drumming demonstration when the first rain started to fall.

AND THEN SUDDENLY THERE WAS A MONSOON.

I looked around, my Mother and Daughter were nowhere to be seen.

"Oh crap! My phone and my car keys are in the VAN!!!"

I RAN full tilt back to the parking lot. I didn't know it at the time, but my Mum and Daughter had taken refuge from the deluge in one of the historic buildings and Frankie saw me race past and instantly burst into tears, thinking I was going to be lost in the storm (awwwwww!).

I got to the parking lot to discover the van had gone, but Deb instantly offered to get me to the Kwoon and bring me back with my bag. We were SOAKED, and I was worried about my family, but we had a good laugh at the whole situation.

Got back to the Kwoon, grabbed my bag, almost pulled out of the parking lot, stopped and went back to grab my phone AND keys that had fallen out of my bag (facepalm emoji). Phoned my Mum, told here we would be right there!

As we pulled back into the parking lot of the Heritage Pavilion, the sun shone through the clouds and all the stress melted away.

We went and got mini doughnuts and had a great rest of the day!