... is how you pronounce the World Federation of Flying Discs. My first weeks holiday was in Vancouver to watch my brother play for Ireland at the World Ultimate and Guts Championships. Now I may have mentioned ultimate (frisbee) before but you'll be wondering what guts is. Well, basically it's two teams who throw discs as hard as they can and in such a way as to not be caught by the opposition. It's fun too watch but it's hard to take it seriously as a team sport.

My brother was playing for the Ireland Open team (effectively the mens team as it is open to all players but there are no restrictions on the number of men and women and so it is usually better to have as many guys as possible) which was a great achievement especially as he is one of the few players in Northern Ireland that players ultimate as their main sport. I remember following the worlds in Finland with him from our mum's PC in the USA and him deciding then that he wanted to play there. And there he was in his green ad white running his heart out. It was a great week and though they ended up losing a couple more than they won they did win Spirit, one of the most sought awards. Basically it is for the team that plays the game with the right blend of civility, trust and competitiveness.

The other great thiong about the week was that it was in Vancouver, one of my favouite cities. My Dad used to live there when I was in colleg and it is such a dream mix of modern life at a slow pace with easy access to nature (and skiing). As I'm a sports addict my mum (she was up for the week as it was so relatively close) and spent nearly all of our time watching ultimate even when my bro wasn't playing. However we did decide to have a daytrip on the Wednesday meandering our way into Van, through Gastown and eventually into the centre and the cruise terminal.

Mum had never been before and she thought it was wonderful even with all of the construction works that are preparing the city for the Winter Olympics in 2010. We didn't see much as we had a leisured lunch and Mum wanted to see the Capsilano suspension bridge.

You can definitely say two things about the bridge: it's fun to walk on and it's very popular. Though it's fun to walk along I do suspect that it wouldn't be as popular as it is if people actually knew what you get for your $30+. It's well done and nice enough but in no way can you call it spectacular which it would have to be for $30. 

At the end of the week and after mum had headed back to California, Peter and I started to think about what to do next and endedup becoming part of a strange travel group of 4 dutchmen, 3 Americans, 2 irishmen (us) and an Aussie. The goal: get to Montana.

Next up: Surviving Montana.