So, what have I been up to? Well, as I'm sure you are all aware, Canada's national sport is the ever-violent Ice Hockey, so it seemed only natural that we should all go and watch a game. Mummy is, however, upset by bad grammar and cheap, and so would not pay to go see Toronto's decent team, the Maple Leafs. Instead, last night we went to go watch The Marlies. Here is a picture of me not looking as the Manitoba Moose thrashed them utterly.

I didn't really know the rules before showing up, so had to kind of guess. It seems that the main aim of the game is to crash into a player from the opposing team with such force that he bangs his head against the plastic wall surrounding the pitch, and has to have a little lie down on the ice. During that time, you try to wake him up by thwacking him really hard with your stick. Sometimes, the puck will go into a goal and everyone will be very disappointed indeed. My favourite player was number 4, who had learnt to tear the opponent's helmet off before punching them.

One thing that became instantly obvious is that the crowd must be entertained constantly. Every minute or so they all have to have a 30 second break to sort out who punched whom first, and during this time the live band will play a tiny bit of a well-known song (with the word "Marlies" inserted into it somewhere. I particularly liked "Marlies B Goode") until the play starts again. At the intervals (there are two) the mascots fight and race each other on the ice. During the game the Marlies mascot would sporadically push over the Moose.

As you can probably see from the photos, the Coliseum was far from packed, and as the night wore on the cheers on the crowd became weaker and more heart-breaking. What started as a hearty (if slow) chant of "Let's Go Marlies" soon dwindled into a plaintive, broken whine of desperate hope as the Moose scored their fifth goal. I can't help but wonder whether silence would have cheered the team on more than two children droning in the background.

Mummy and L amused themselves by trying to get around the stadium's swearing ban by guessing which English obscenities are unknown in Canada and screaming them as loudly as possible. For some reason, R did not seem interested in joining in.