The Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team had a season wrap up dinner last night. 

Guess what?  We cooked Haggis Won Ton!!!

Check out photos at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/53803790@N00/

A BIG BIG thank you to paddler Dan for hosting the team bbq. 
Dan is a 2nd year paddler who has really blossomed as a paddler. 
He loves the sport so much now, that last year in his rookie season he
joined a team going to San Francisco.  This year, in addition to
paddling 7 events with Gung Haggis, he also paddled in Calgary and
Kelowna with Acme Dragons, and will soon be going to Philadelphia to
paddle dragon boats.  We love Dan, and we are happy to share
him.  He has a real big heart!

And that's what we want on our team – good hearted people with big hearts!

It
was great that we had 30 people there, with so many absentees sending
good wishes.  This year we built up a large roster of paddlers for
the team.  We did not have to go outside our roster for races at
Lotus Barnet, ADBF Regatta, Alcan, Vancouver Taiwanese, or Vernon
races.  We joined up with Tacoma for the False Creek Women's
regatta and with the Pirates for Victoria.  In Kent we brought a
full crew with paddlers from 4 other teams, but only at the Cultus Lake
Women's regatta did we have to “borrow” paddlers for our races.

Deb and I constantly this year, had said – “this is the best Gung Haggis team ever!”  

Unfortunately
– no medals for the team this year – but really good friends, great times, overnight road
trips (Kent, Vernon, Victoria), lots of paddle events (9).   WOW!

This was the first time we ever cooked haggis at a team event.  Usually
we do a wrap up at a Chinese restaurant – but we never ever brought out
a haggis other than the BIG Gung Haggis Fat Choy: Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner.

Special
thanks to Deb and Ernest for bringing the haggis and the won-ton
wrappings, for everybody pitching in to wrap, and for Jane cooking the
won tons, boiled, deep-fried, + boiled haggis (pictures to come).

Special thanks
to Julie, for teaching Polynesian Dancing, and to Marian for playing
Nova Scotian tunes on my accordion.  We will have to do something for
the next kilts night at Doolin's on Oct 5th.  Maybe at 8pm – we can do
our singalongs.

Special
thanks to Rita for creating the photo montage.  It's a wonderful
collection of memories from our paddling summer.  Hopefully we can
create a 8 1/2 X 11 photo for everybody.  Deb and I are very
thankful to the team for the this gift and the many others, for our
efforts in coaching and managing this wonderfully fun dragon boat team.

It
was great hearing everybody singing together for “When Asian Eyes Are
Smiling” and “My Haggis Lies Over the Ocean”, + Loch Lomand (You Take
the High Road).  And… wonderful to hear Ernest singing  Auld Lang
Syne in mandarin Chinese.

Many many more thanks to everybody for attending, contributing and being a part of our special team spirit.

Peace &
Blessings, Todd