Week in Review - Wednesday

On Wednesday night, Bren and I headed back into Vancouver to meet Phil Keoghan, the host of one of our favorite shows, The Amazing Race. He was in town to promote his new book NOW (No Opportunity Wasted) and TV show of the same name. Bren and I figured we'd just head down and meet him, but once we got there we decided to buy a copy of his book and get it signed by him.
As we were standing in line (for an hour and 10 minutes), we looked over the application form for the TV show. The main points on the back of the book are:

Face Your Fear
Get Lost
Test Your Limits
Shed Your Inhibitions

I love all of those points, except for the one ... Face Your Fear. We had heard that the TV show either had you Face Your Fear or had you do something nice for someone in your community or in the world. Now that, we could do. However, as we looked over the application form, the first 5 questions were all about your greatest fear and then there was 1 question about what you'd like to do for someone else. Too much focus on your fears for me, so I put aside the application form. Then ... we met Phil.

This is me shaking his hand!!! How do, Phil. No, I didn't actually say that. I'm not THAT much of a nerd. I introduced myself and then Bren introduced herself and then we stood there with these HUGE grins on our faces. He looked up at us and said, "Man, with bubbly faces like that, you better be signing up for my show!" We told him we weren't signing up for the show and of course he asked why not. We told him that we didn't want to have to face our fear but that we'd rather do something nice. He said, "No,no. You get to choose!" What? Really? Well, that sounds more doable.

Can you see those silly grins I was talking about?

We continued to talk to him about things that people had done on the show already and then Bren asked him if he'd want to be involved in helping set up a kids home in Thailand. He said that if we could do it in 72 hours, then it's doable.

Phil was SUPER nice. He listened intently to what we were saying and made us feel like he actually cared, not like he couldn't wait for this to be over. We tried to listen to him talk to other people and I'm sure this is all in our heads (although I would like it not to be), but he seemed more interested in us and really wanted us to sign up for the show. As the lady in front of us walked away, Phil said, "That's a nice scarf," but as WE were walking away he said, "So, you girls are going to sign up for the show, right?" to which we answered, "Maybe," and then he said, "No, not maybe. You're going to sign up!" hee hee Ok, Phil. Anything you say, Phil. But I would like that part about getting to choose what you do in writing because I DO NOT want to end up scuba diving with sharks or something (that's my fear). But if Phil said it, it must be true. Yes, we were a little star struck, but not in a Brad Pitt kind of way. We would LOVE to go out for coffee with Phil and just pick his brain. He's done so many cool things and been so many great places that it would be fun to find out more about him (he's married and has kids .. I already checked, so it's not like that ... unfortunately). :)

Here's an excerpt from the Internet on why he wrote the book: The reason he's done so many of these things is because when he was 19 years old, he almost died while scuba diving. After the shock, Phil reflected on where he was at and on how precious life is. He sucked in the O2 and the next day went back to the wreck and repeated his nearly fatal dive. He also began to write a list of all the things he wanted to achieve before he died. As he worked through the initial list of 100 Things To Do, other lists evolved, which he did too. This has led to a life filled with adventure and few regrets.

Very cool. About 5 years ago I wrote a list of 50 things to do before I die. I'll have to look for that list. I didn't really take it seriously, but I think I may just look into completing some of them now. This is what Phil wrote in my book:

Thanks Phil. If only I can figure out what my dream is.

Bren and I both weren't really feeling like driving into Vancouver for the second day in a row, but I'm glad we did. It was a pleasure to have met him. He seems like such a down to earth guy.

BTW - The question Phil says he gets asked the most in Canada is: Are they ever going to let Canadians sign up for The Amazing Race. This was his answer:

If Canada produced a hugely popular show and it was because of a Canadian company that produced it, set it up, paid for it and because of the Canadians on the show who made it popular, would we be happy if it was opened up to Americans or people from other countries? Probably not. Also, he said that if they had people with all different passports racing around the world, who do you think would be the last ones through immigration? I'm not going to say what he answered, but he said that wouldn't really be fair either.

So for now, we'll have to all click here to get our chance at hanging out with Phil and going on an adventure.