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Friday, the 20th: Men SP and FD

We started the Friday with watching the FD practice of the top group, which was very enjoyable.

I thought C&S looked really good in their partial Bolero run-through and I got really excited about seeing the whole program live later on the day :) Navka & Kostomarov's Carmen looked also really great in the practice and Delobel & Schönfelder also looked very on and I like their FD this year better than the Frida one, except for the voice-overs (which were French here in France). Since C&S were already left in the dust next to the road after the CD, I was hoping that Delobel & Schönfelder would skate well enough to hop onto the podium. Grushina & Goncharov looked pretty good most of the time, but whenever I thought that they went into one of their footwork sequences, which always immediately resulted to them skating their program in slo-mo. It's quite bizarre, the rest of their skating is actually fast and fluent. I really did not like their TFB music though (and also not the costumes, I wonder who told them that they look just great in white, since they always seem to choose this color).

I have to admit I wasn't too pleased with the men being the last event at this event, since it's my least favorite discipline, but still there of course were some skaters that I was really looking forward too, plus I hoped for a good overall event.

One of the OES men I was looking forward to the most was skating first in the SP, Karel Zelenka. He did not disappoint me and landed 2a, 3f-3t and 3z rock solid and I just loved the program and his style.

Sergei Davydov also had a relatively good skate: 3a, 3f-3t and 3z step out. (I'm not sure about the order of his lutz and flip, somehow I couldn't tell them apart). He had a new soft lyrical program, it was nice too something new, but I liked the old Bolero SP better since I think he's a more interesting skater when he's skating to something more powerful and aggressive.

Spain sends to send another skater to Euros/Worlds every year, this year it was Lediel Canton who wore a black & white costume and skated to Art on Ice by Edvin Marton. He was fluent but generic and he fell on his footwork unluckily about 2 seconds before his ending pose. His jumps: 3s-2t, 2t, 2a.

Anton Kovalevski had a touchdown on a camel spin, but otherwise he had good spins. His speed could be better, but he was powerful. The beginning of his program was a bit empty, but the footwork and the rest was very good. 3A 2footed, 3f fall, 3z nice.

Alban Preaubert had good energy and power. We were pml'ing about all the weird arm movements, but at least it was funny. He landed 3a, 3f-3t, 3z. I think it was a good program for him, since it covered up the flaws he still has in his skating.

Gregor Urbas skated to „Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini“. Finally a new SP, but as always he was a bit slow and unexciting and I could not see much connection between his footwork and his music. 3z-3t (2nd jump 2footed), 3a 2footed, 3l.

Ilia Klimkin skated his program to 1001 Night. It is not my favorite program of him, but I was excited that he is in such good form again and he got into his program well after botching the axel. Stefka watched the replay of his axel on the screen and observed that he had stepped into a whole in the ice. If he had landed this jump, he certainly could have been right among the top with his skate, but even with the unlucky mistake it was a good start for him. 1A, 4t-3t, 3f.

Looking at Adrian Matei's costume in the warm-up, I had correctly guessed that he would skate to Pink Panther, not very hard :lol: I thought his movements looked a bit too rehearsed to be convincing. 3Z fall, 3f fall out, 2a.

I liked the final fast part of Tomas Verner's program the best. He did 3a, 3f-3t (fall :( ) and 3z.

Stephane Lambiel had a good skate despite one fall. His spins were good, except for the last one that travelled a lot (since he's usually a good spinner and has that reputation too, it always really bothers me that quite some of his spins travel quite a lot). 3A fall, 4t-3t, 3f. Somehow all his costumes look the same to me.

Adrian Schultheiss skated to Toccata & Fugue, I thought everything in his skating was of promising quality, even if he's not 100% refined in his skating yet. I especially liked the fast fluent footwork sequences and I thought the choreography made good use of the music. 3f-2t, 3a late step out, 3z.

Sergei Dobrin skated to Sarabande. I think he could use some more speed and flow, but otherwise it was a nice program. He always looked like such a kid, but by now he's one of the tallest skaters. 1A, 3f-3t, 3z.

Roman Serov as usually was powerful with big movements, but not the most exciting. 3f-3t, 3a fall, 2z.

Prezymslaw Domanski was better at Nebelhorn Trophy than here. His speed always starts good, but then gets slower. 3Z, 3f-3t stumble out, 1a stumble.

The jumps of Gheorge Chiper were a bit shaky, but all clean: 3a, 3f-3t, 3z. He had cool footwork, especially the circular and it was one of the best programs so far :)

Zolthan Toth skated to „Kill Bill“ and I thought the music is too powerful for his skating. I'm still waiting for a really good Kill Bill program (it's one of my favorite soundtracks), regardless in which discipline. 3F extra turn 3t, 2z, 2a.

Evgeny Plushenko did not disappoint us and performed all out :) After his jumps had not always convinced me lately, I was totally amazed at how fabulous especially his 3axel looked, a beauty of a jump. 4t-2t, 3a great, 3z.

The last minute of Viktor Pfeiffers program was a lot less interesitng than the first 2/3, always not too optimal. However I liked his skating much better than last year. Tano 3f-3t, 3z nice, 2a. He has very beautiful jumps when he lands them. Katja, Steffi and I had a little taste difference at this point, since Katja thought that Viktor Pfeiffer looks like Hugh Grant (sorry, Katja, but still: :huh: ) and Stefka thought he rather looks like „Maddin Schneider“ (a German comedian). I think the Maddin comparison is a tad too harsh ;) , but I'm certainly leaning more in Stefka's direction :lol:

Kristoffer Berntsson had a great program and a 3axel, too bad he didn't manage the other jumps: 3a great, 3z touchdown – 2t, 3f fall.

We expected the usual disaster from Silvio Smalun and were totally amazed when he had only a little mistake on the axel: 3a stumble out, 3f-3t, 3z. His last combo spin was slow and a bit stumbly (I bet that word doesn't exist, but I used it 1000 times in my notes and I think I'll stick with it :P ). The rest was very good and he was fast. Definitely one of his best performances ever.

John Hamer (random wheeeee! :D ) skated to „King of the Forest“ by Edvin Marton (thinking about it, this was the first event in ages that I remember attending that didn't have Edvin Marton live :drama: :lol: ). He finished a bit behind his music and he did much better last year. The highlight of his program was his fast energetic footwork. 3F shaky, 3a fall out – 2t, 2a stumble out. Belsornia was :huh: about his planned jump content, since he has never landed a 3axel before and she thought he could have made the LP with some easier more realistic content.

I forgot to note down the name of the next skater, but based on the comments I made, I determine it was Lindemann. I thought his costume was really unfortunately, since it made him look even more short and bulky than he is, plus it had a strange collar that made his neck disappear. He had nice flow and a nice straightline step sequence, but stumbled on the circular. 3f-3t high, 3a fall, 2z. He seems to have lost his quad and 3axel unfortunately (I'm not sure he skated any well since Euros last year) and without them he falls back into the middle field of skaters.

Stefka was quite excited about seeing a Norwegian skater finally, but after quite some thinking, I ended up pretty sure that we had actually seen Michael Chrolenko at Heiko-Fischer-Pokal last year already (and by now I checked the results list and veri ), He had rather good speed and flow, but was a bit unpolished overall. 3F (hand down)-2t stumble, 3z nice, stumble on footwork, 2a nice.

Boris Martinec was rather slow and his music was too heavy for him (and also for me, I mean I actually don't have anything against Heavy Metal at all, but somehow in the rink I suddenly felt like I was getting a headache). He finished far behind his music. 3F fall, 2a, 3z 2footed step out.

Ivan Dinev skated to the Typewriter song. I think it was an old program and he needs more speed. 3z-3t, 2a, 2f. I thought that Angela Nikodinov looked really pretty (and tall btw) next to the boards and I admit I spent most of his skate trying to take a good photo of her :shuffle: We also saw his very cute son at the hotel restaurant once, what a cutie :)

Alper Ucar looked very different from last year, since he had a completely different hairstyle. He had good energy and steps. I don't quite remember what he did last year, but I'm still pretty sure this year was a better skate. 2A, 3s fall, 3f-1t.

We totally cracked up during Brian Joubert's skate, since some time earlier Susanne had told us during some general skating conversation how much she hates it when skaters mimick car driving movements during their program, so Stefka and I were totally :rofl: when Brian did some car driving in his James Bond program and told Susanne that it was just for her. I found his program entertaining though and he was powerful and energetic: 4t-2t, 3a nice, 3f nice.

I thought Igor Matsipura was not that bad, despite his Matrix music choice (skating to Matrix is a pretty good way for any skater to make me biased against him :P ). 3f-3t, 3a fall, 2z on the wrong foot. I had thought he was new and very obscure, but after RedSonja and Jenya told us that he used to skate for the US, I remembered that I had heard of him before and I'm actually pretty sure now that I've got some clip of him floating around on one of my computers.

Aidas Reklys usually leaves a nice impression on us at Nebelhorn, but in this field were there were more top ranked skaters, he got a bit lost in the mass. 3z-2t, 3f step out, 2a.

We had started calling Zeus Issariotis „the skating god“ after we had seen him in practice on Sunday. Now he really was new and obscure. He looked very young and was a solid overall skater and he showed what he can do in his SP. 3t-2t, 2s, 2a saved.

Trifun Zivanovic did 3f-2t, 3a fall, 2z. My notes about him only say „zzzzzz“. :shuffle: I have nothing against him, but I have to say I find it pretty much impossible to pay any attention to his skating :o (especially not when he's like the 32nd skater of the competition)

Frederic Dambier skated to Carmina Burana and did 3f-3t, 3a, 3z. To top the above notes, my notes about him don't say anything at all.

Ari Pekka Nurmenkari was a bit slow, but had a good performance for him. 3f-2t second jump shaky, 3z, 2a saved.

Kevin van der Perren skated his old Safri Duo program. 4T step out – 3t, 3a, 3z (or f) fall. Too bad.

Jamal Othman did a nice 3flip, fell on the 3z :( and landed the 2a. He definitely provided Stefka and me with some unwanted „excitement“ at the end of this event, since we were anxious whether this was enough to make the LP :drama: Phewwwww.

I don't remember what we did between Men SP and FD. Probably hang around and be bored.

Hajkova & Vincour opened the FD with their Romeo & Juliet program. They had a nice performance overall, I just found the changes between the fast and slow parts of the program a bit abrupt.

Nagy & Elek skated to some Carmina Burana music, that I found way too bombastic for a team like them (with a small overall look and not so good ice coverage). He screwed up one of his sets of twizzles and I think their OD was a lot better.

Krail & Peter had a bit of a rough skate. I think they tried to up the difficulty since Nebelhorn, with not too much success performance wise. She fell badly on some twizzles and I found two of the more difficult lifts to be rather scary looking, but they worked. The rest of their skate was solid.

Towler-Green & Poole were very polished again, and faster than the teams before and more fluent. She screwed up the 2nd half of one set of twizzles. I think their FD is a nice program and as always they had good unison and managed to perform and make most of their things look easy. They also had a completely horrible TES score, so I guess they must have done something wrong with their CoP elements.

Kauc & Zych had a solid performance (not usual for them ;) ), just the last step sequence was a bit slow and one set of twizzles a bit wobbly. Otherwise they had good flow, a fun program and absolutely lovely expressions. I liked this program much better live than on the clip from Karl Schäfer and it was definitely one of my favorite FD's in the whole competition, it was just so charming. Expression wise Alexandra Kauc reminded me a bit of Natalia Gudina in this program (and her new hairstyle is so much prettier!). I'm really annoyed that this program (or their whole group) was not televised on Eurosport, especially since I liked their group overall much better than a lot of the programs in the last 2 groups :-/

Michal Zych seemed to have lost something during his skate, since he stayed on the ice after his skate and then all the flower girls came out to and starting searching. Whatever it was, Andrea Vaturi was the one to actually find it, when he and his partner had already taken the ice.

Aureli & Vaturi had a nice old-fashioned program to a selection of Frank Sinatra songs, it was maybe a bit lacking in highlights, but fun to watch and charming. They were polished since they didn't try anything above their abilities and I'm really glad I got to see THEM here.

I really like Julia Golovina, she's one of my favorite more obscure female ice dancers, but that said their Free Dance was just painful :shuffle: First of all they were about half as fast as a typical Jennifer Robinson program, secondly the first 2 minutes of the program were totally zzzz choreographically since they only seemed to consist of their two step sequences (with their speed, they might actually have needed 2 minutes for the 2 step sequences) and then all their lift positions looked crap at least from the position/angle we were watching them from.

However I think Julia Golovina is really really pretty and I'm glad they got their skates in time for the event and I think maybe they would have been better if they could have trained properly before the event.

The Zaretzkis were next with their FD to „Caravan“. I found the first 2 minutes of their music a bit too heavy, but then it got very nice. They also weren't the fastest in parts, but unlike Golovina & Voiko they had a lot more power and energy and their skate just got better and better throughout and by the end of it I was totally impressed. I was really positively surprised by the Zaretzki's here anyway. I had seen them on video and clips quite some times and I always thought they looked heavy and not very impressive, but what looked heavy on the video just looked powerful live and they have much more presence and skills already than I expected. I think if Gudina & Beletski had not retired, they wouldn't have done any better here either and the Zaretzkis look a lot better than Gudina & Beletski looked lately. I couldn't quite make 100% sense of the JPost article I read, but it sounded as if it's looking really good for the Zaretzkis to go to the Olympics, in which case I'm glad that the Israelian federation and the Israelian NOC aren't quite as stupid as the German ones :P

Grebenkina & Azrojan were very polished, but they were also very slow. I really don't get how anyone can find their FD voidy, since they do absolutely nothing but the elements, plus 5 seconds of Anastasia bellydancing on the spot (well I suppose Vazgen does something during those 5 seconds too, but who'd notice :shuffle: ). I think it's really bad that such a program can get a good score under the new judging system (ok, I don't think their score here was that brilliant, but they often get a good one with it), when it's just elements being done very academically while being very slow and having some weird music playing in the background.

I still adore Grebenkina though! She's beautiful and tiffed and just roundabout how a female ice dancer needs to be like :D I just wish she'd get some cool program and dance like Navka and live up to what she should be out there on the ice.

Katja and Susanne and Stefka and I don't have a very compatible taste in ice dancing, but at least we occasionally agree on things, like G&A's music and FD ;)

Pechalat & Bourzat were fluent and fast, but they had major problems with both sets of twizzles and a problem during one of the step sequences. It's not really my taste of program, but it would have been good with a better skate. Of course the audience reacted as if they just had had the most amazing skate ever instead of stumbling through their FD (well they had a Personal Best Score, so if that WAS their best ever, I'm glad I haven't seen many of their past FD skates :P )

Hoffmann & Elek had a very good performance, it was nearly 100% clean, except for maybe some unison problems during 1 or 2 twizzles. I thought their Flamenco program wasn't outstanding, but I always quite enjoy them when they skate well.

The Beiers had some really good stuff in their FD skate, but also some more messy parts (and one really ugly looking rotational lift). Their music cuts were somewhat bizarre and I'm not a big fan of the program, but it also was not bad to watch. I think it's idiotic that Lindemann is nominated for the Olympics and they can't go. Even if they were not flawless, they put out respectable performances (which can't be said about Lindemann) and placing 11th was out of their reach and there's not really much you can do in ice dancing to place higher, unlike in singles. Ok, maybe if they had skated even better, they might have stayed 12th, but I think beating Pechalat & Bourzat in Lyon was impossible, regardless of how they would have skated.

Oksana Domnina stumbled into the boards at the end of their footwork. They were a bit slow, but still had ok flow. I think their music is a complete lullaby except for the last 30 seconds. If they had went for the more animated music like half-way into the program, it would have been a lot better.

Fraser & Lukanin were overall shaky (and slow) and while they had ambitious lifts, those all were a bit shaky too. Blues for Klook is so not my favorite music.

Faiella & Scali both left quite a horrible impression on Stefka and me in the FD especially (and I can't say they blew us away in the rest of the competition either). Massimo screwed up pretty much all his twizzles in the FD and I just found this program really really bad (I had not really seen it yet, except for looking into a tiny clip). They were slow and the whole thing left an impression of being about as dynamic and exciting as a Susanna Pöykiö LP (but at least Susanna is usually smooth and soft). I think the "Mission" is a bad music for ice dancing (it's fine for pairs or something) and a really bad music for Faiella & Scali, since I think it completely kills any of their strengths that they used to have. I hope they'll change something about their coaching or choreography eventually, since they just seem to get worse and more boring with every year and the programs they used to get from Bestemianova & Bukin used to be so much better for their personalities. Also I still remember how promising Stefka and I found them at Euros in 2002 and while I'm sure they've made improvements with their difficulty since then, I don't see any real improvements in many other areas, right now they reminded us more of Gudina & Beletski in the last 2 years of their career, just without the fun programs :scream: I also find it weird that Massimo seems to get slimmer and tinier with every year (we were both sure that Federica is definitely not the one who is changing), is he planning to eventually just disappear?

The Kerrs had more energy than the teams who skated in their group so far, but I found all the bag-pipe stuff in their FD ear-piercing (again a moment of agreement between Stefka, Katja and myself ;) ). I also don't think they are making many improvements, they still look about the same to me as they did when I first saw them (except that back then, I liked their programs better). However they performed a lot better than at Euros last year, but I think they generally lack unison and harmony as a team and always rather look like two people who happen to be on the ice together, which leads to a somewhat messy overall impression.

Khoklova & Novitsky were the lonely highlight in this group for me (which wasn't very hard, but they definitely also would have been a highlight in a better skated group). They were fast and dynamic and I enjoyed their Flamenco Bolero program very much (and I'd rather have seen the whole 2 last groups skating to a Bolero variation than seeing some of the actual music choices in those 2 groups :lol: ) . Stefka was of course very happy with them, since they are her favorite dance team.

Before the last group Stefka received a text message on her cell phone from her friend with some very dramatic and important news for us Germans :P , Stefan Dornstädt had withdrawn from German Pop Idol! :lol:

There was some random loud booing from parts of the audience when the last group of skaters was just waiting to get onto the ice for warm-up and absolutely nothing was happening anywhere :huh: , so I suspected that Marina or Phillippe Candelero might have been saying something annoying over the headphones in the arena??? (of course maybe the crowd was just rehearsing a bit :-P ) I found the idea to provide people with commentary during a live event pretty bizarre anyway and I hope they didn't say things that made the atmosphere in the arena during the last group even worse than it already was.

I was amazed how little nervous I was when C&S took the ice, I had never been so calm watching them :) The only thing that still made me a tad nervous was when they went into their twizzles (thank god there are only like 400 of them in every dance program this days :P Stefka and I both agreed that they are the worst thing ever to watch in a dance program of your favorites, after she always was relieved of having survived Khoklova & Novitsky doing them ), but apart from that I could really only sit back and enjoy. I was really pleased with C&S' performance, since it was secure, polished and beautiful and much much better than their FD performance in Torino last year. I don't think it was like their best performance ever, since in order to achieve that, i think they would have had to explode all over the place in the last minute of the program, the calm secure quality was perfect for the first 2 or 3 minutes, but I think they could have made a better contrast at the end by bringing out their old wilder selves at the very end, but it was still as good a skate as I had dared to hope for and I think they definitely had the most secure and polished performance of the last group. I think it's funny how much they have changed, they used to be a bit wild and exciting and all over the place (both a plus and a minus) and I think if there's something missing from their skating these days, it's exactly that, but I still really admire the direction into which they took their skating and I'm glad they always strived to get better and change. I just think they should have went to a coach like Zhulin a bit earlier, since I think Tarasova was perfect for them in 2000 and 2001, but not really what they needed in 2004 and 2005, while Zhulin is exactly the coach that they need at this point of their career. I also looked quickly at their protocols when RedSonja showed it to me and I think all their levels was good, except one random Lv3 lift. If that had been Lv4, they could have had an even better TES score.

I was very proud that I managed to throw my stuffed animal for them (or for whichever child at a local children hospital) all the way onto the ice (ok we were only about 3 or 4 meters from the ice, but then I'm a REALLY bad thrower :-P I had promised Stefka that I would pay a cocktail for our group of friends if I actually would not manage to get the stuffed animal onto the ice :lol: )

Stefka thought that the atmosphere in the last group wouldn't get too bad this time, since she assumed the uhm more committed fan groups in the audience would even each other out, but I guess that was a tad naive :-P

I had been very excited about seeing Navka & Kostomarov's Carmen, since it looked fabulous in the morning practice, but unfortunately they didn't skate as well as in the morning and were a bit shaky and had one stumbly moment, so I was underwhelmed. That made me even gladder about having seen the morning practice, since I think based on that their Carmen FD is totally kick ass and at least I got to see the 2/3 in the morning skated really well. Unfortunately the audience started their booing orgy during their marks, even though the others hadn't even skated yet.

Drobiazko & Vanagas had a similar performance as Navka & Kostomarov, also a bit shaky and with some stumbly moment and of course they aren't as good ice dancers as Navka & Kostomarov. Of course the audience continued their booing orgy.

Thanks to the audience Stefka and my mood was steadily decreasing, even though I was less bothered than I was at other events (even though the audience here was clearly worse than at the past big competitions) , since I was still too happy about having seen C&S' Bolero.

I was also disappointed in Delobel & Schönfelder, since while they had not major mistakes from what I recall, they looked clearly worse than in the morning practice or during the OD or during their FD from last year. They were lacking this soft easy quality and flow that they have when they skate really well, so they also were a bit shaky and not as harmonious as they would have needed to be to make this program really impressing and to jump onto the podium. Of course the audience now really got into their booing orgy and I was starting to get really frustrated.

Grushina & Goncharov skated really crap, but I felt bad for them, since nobody seemed to pay any attention to what they were doing and instead just seemed to be waiting for them to go into the Kiss & Cry so that they could continue booing (well I guess we can be thankful, that they were so "nice" as to interrupt their booing for Grushgons skate :-P ). Anyway, I had not watched G&G's FD before (only in practice earlier on today), but unfortunately it didn't leave a better impression than I expected, I couldn't stand the music and it's so not my style of program, plus I thought in this FD they skated clearly the worst of the last group. Of course the booing happily continued (even though it's not like GrushGons's FD actually placed in the Top 3 or anything :rolleyes: )

[rant] Stefka and I were really upset with the audience, I think all the booing was completely uncalled for, especially considering how everybody skate (and apart from that also generally completely uncalled for). And I don't know why they hold more than competition portion in ice dancing, when the audience is apparently completely unable to realize or accept that there is more to a competition than the event they are watching at the very moment. I think it's pretty ridiculous to boo for DelSchöns result or marks, since they really only delivered in 1 of 3 competition portions and if they want to win a medal maybe they should try to stay on their feet in the Compulsory Dance. I think based on the marks they got in the CD and OD, it is clear that the judges were definitely willing to give them a medal, but they just didn't do enough to make it happen. Plus I'll never understand how skating fans can always think that the results of a competition should be based on their own personal opinions of who was the best and that if they judges don't agree, they are wrong, biased, corrupt, ... (cause us fans are all so unbiased and objective of course :-P ). That's having a pretty high opinion of ones own opinion :-P I mean I understand that it's disappointing when your favorite team doesn't medal (after all mine hasn't medalled in anything substantial in ages either and it's not like I'm not disappointed by that) and I also would have judged this event slightly different if I had been a judge, since I don't think C&S only had the 5th best performance of the day in the FD and I wish they had at least received high enough PCS scores in order to end up in front of GrushGons in the FD or something, instead of just having a higher TES score, but that is obviously just me having a differing opinion and I don't think it's an excuse for acting like a jerk in regards to the judges. I mean if I told some of those people among the booing lynch mob that I thought DelSchöns didn't skate well enough, I don't suppose they'd boo me into the face for having that opinion (well ok, maybe it's better I didn't try that out :lol: ) Plus I think skating fans are often just greedy, since they're hardly ever happy with anything less than the gold medal, for many a bronze or silver is just not good enough :blah: But then I think people will such an attitude will often walk out of events being frustrated about their favorites, instead of just enjoying the skating of their favorites and going home happy about it, which IMO serves them just right.

We left before the medal ceremony, since I couldn't quite stand the thought of any more booing and negative atmosphere in the rink and based on what Katja and Susanne told us, it was quite a good decision, since they said it rather got worse and we apparently missed the booing of officials and medals being handed out. They also told us that Hendryk Schamberger (the German Eurosport commentator), who we could observe very well from our seats, was really upset and being very agitated (which is unusual for him, so I actually would have liked to see that :lol: ) and we were told by a friend who had watched the competition from at home that he also was really upset about the audience and called them on their unfair behavior. Big *respect* for Hendryk!!!

[/rant]

Anyway, despite us being rather *rolleyes* about all this, Stefka and I were both feeling very happy with the FD, since we were really contented with having seen our 2 favorites respective ice dance Boleros without anything going wrong in their skates and I suggested that we might probably be among the happiest dance fans of the night, so overall this was still one of my favorite FD events that I've seen live. And up until the last group the audience was fine, generally apart from that last FD group (that I REALLY could have done without) and the atmosphere during the men LP being a bit too scary for my taste, the atmosphere in Lyon was pleasant. Still with the way so many people seem to view ice dancing, I doubt there's any chance I'm ever going to just fully enjoy a final flight in ice dance at a big event, but when C&S are going to be retired (even though i still wish they'd stay a bit longer :shuffle: , which I'm afraid is a tad masochistic :lol: and I'm not sure anyway, where they could possibly take the motivation for it from ), there's no team anywhere in sight that I can imagine really CARING about, so I think that should be a good and finally realistic chance to disconnect myself from ice dance much more and just follow it superficially without paying any attention to the results, which should be very pleasant. I think it's unhealthy and no fun to care about anything to do with ice dancing. There's no chance I'll manage to stop caring about C&S as long as they are out there :) , but at least I think I've managed to stop caring about anybody else by now

After the FD we met with our friends in the hotel and again watched some of the photos we had taken during the day.