WE HAVE ALL ARRIVED

It is now 6:30 am Friday morning, October 3rd in Beijing, China.

Pamela Nisbet and myself set off from Toronto International Airport, Wednesday morning at 10:00 am. Landing in Vancouver at 1:00 pm local time we were joined by Pamela's partner,
Karen Cumpstone of Nanaimo for the 11 1/2 hour flight to Beijing. The three of us arrived here
in China at around 4:00 in the afternoon. At the huge airport in Beijing we were met by agents
of the World Mind Sport Games and taken by bus to the Beijing Interntional Convention Centre,
where we registered and received our all important "Identification Badges" which will allow us access to varied venues. This was all transacted very smoothly in a brief period of time and then a shuttle took us to our hotel - the CNCC Grand Hotel. The hotel is new and modern with very satisfactory guest rooms. It is very near many of the Olympic sites.

Kismet and Susan arrived a day earlier and visited the Great Wall yesterday. Martine and Pascale arrived a little before the three of us yesterday afternoon. Everyone is settled in at the Grand. The seven of us met in the evening for drinks in the lobby bar, along with members of our Open Team - Kamel Fergani, Marc Andre Fourcaudot and Vincent Demuy and Senior Team members Stephen Brown and Jurek Czyzowicz. After a twenty minute two-block walk we had dinner together (minus Susan, Kiz, Steve and Jurek) at a, not surprisingly, Chinese restaurant. The food was fine, if a little different from what we are accustomed to, and very inexpensive at about $12.00 each including wine and beer. A big disappointment for the beer drinkers was that the beer was not the least bit cold. Of note: many of your Canadian bridge representatives are not very adept with chopsticks, but this shouldn't affect their performance at the at bridge table. Most of us took cabs back to the hotel, but the one mile ride back took Pamela, Karen and I about 40 minutes as our cab driver got hopelessly lost on more than one attempt at finding the hotel. However, everyone did arrive back sated and safe to the Grand and collapsed into bed after having finished very long days.

My very first impressions of Beijing - big and modern, smoggy, as forewarned. The highways are excellent and the traffic moves on the highway at a much more relaxed pace. Most of the cars of course are smaller than in North America. The first stop we made after arriving here was right beside the "Bird's Nest" Olympic Stadium and this was a most stunning and impressive edifice. The organization for the World Mind Sport Games seems very good at initial glance.

Today is our final day to acclimate ourselves and prepare for the competition to ensue. Breakfast is free (I think) at a nearby hotel. I attend a "Captain's Meeting" at 2:30 today. Later this afternoon we will have a team meeting. Afterwards we will be attending a cocktail party at 5:45, followed by the always exciting "Opening Ceremonies." Our Team, except for myself, will look stunning in their black dresses and white team blazers adorned with Canadian lapel pins.

Tomorrow (Saturday) the bridge begins with three 16-board matches. Play for the day commences at 11:00 am and finishes by 7:30 pm. We start against China, who are expected to be one of the top teams in our group.

The anticipation grows.

Hello to my 12-year old daughter Rebecca, if she is looking in on Dad.

Bye for now.