Friday, 25 December 2009
Happy Christmas!!!
Hi Everyone, sorry for the long period of inactivity - its been a busty old time. The next few days should see the blog updated from the past 2 weeks, but in the mean time: Merry Christmas One and All :-)
Friday, 11 December 2009
Monday 30th - Sunday 6th
Monday 30th November
Now into the second week of the course, we had a change of instructors up at Sunshine. The 2 groups of skiers swapped instructors so as to get a fresh perspective. This change was very welcome, as a new way of explaining things helped many people make huge leaps in progress in both groups and suddenly it all felt like it was coming together. By the afternoon, the snow was once again falling heavily. So much so that after 10 minutes of swinging on a chair lift we stood up looking like snowmen - absolutely covered from the short period of inactivity. After a hard day on the slopes, there was a tough decision about what to do for the evening. The course had organised another attempt at road hockey, and the new Warren Miller film was being shown in town as well. However, we all decided that a restful night in was in order to prepare for the insane snow conditions we were sure to find the next day. I thought it would be a great opportunity to get the blog up to date and continue the search for a manvan. Sharing a small kitchen between the 6 of us, it means that dinner has to be staggered. I was part way through the search for a truck, and still hadn't eaten - so when the phone rang at 7.30 asking why weren't at hockey, and we were guilted into leaving the house in the snow to participate - i was starving. This did in no way stop us from absolutley dominating the hockey "pitch" - a gravel carpark with a good inch of snow and homemade goals. No other team could withstand the Cougar pressure - and with the exception of 1 game where the rules changed halfway through we were undefeated when the local residents came out at 10 to insist we stopped due to the noise. We traipsed home in high spirits, and finally it was time for dinner!
Tuesday 1st December.
After last nights dump, we were all looking forward to the mountain today. It was a freezing cold day, but with perfect blue skies and the bus arriving early, I took the oppportunity to have a few warm up runs. It was going great until I got stuck on an old lift in freezing cold. Arriving at the top of the mountain, with less than a minute to get to my lesson, it was time to put all my newly learnt skill out the window, set my skis straight and go as fast as possible down the hill. Despite the blinding speed in freezing cold winds, I was late for the start of the lesson, by 5 minutes- DOH! They had all gone already, and today was the day both our normal instructors were absent on a course to re-certify themselves. In desperation, I bombed around all our normal haunts, searching for where they were doing a the warm up runs. after 25 minutes of searching, and having covered more terrain than we normally did in a morning, I gave up the search and text Emily the course coordinator. She directed me to where the group was skiing, one of the few lifts I hadnt yet been up. I caught up with group in advance of the meeting point and introduced myself to the new instructor - a Harrison Ford lookalike. Despite the rocky start, we all had a great day with new instructor and learnt loads. In his years of experience, the instructor had been an olmpic race coach, and we sure felt the increase in speed as day went on. Following on from yesterdays positive feeling - it was only enhanced today leaving me very positve about the course.
Wednesday. 2nd December.
Yesterdays blue skies were an indication of a high pressure system sitting over us, and led to a temperature of -26 with wind chill on the hill. In weather this cold, you have to be so very careful of getting frostbite, and halfway through the morning we stopped for hot choc with instructor. Despite yesterdays confidence, today my skiing was very shakey - despite the praise at the end for having improved the most over the 2 days, I definitely didnt feel ready for the exam next week by the end of the day. After getting home, we barely had time to wash and change before heading off to the evening technical session. On getting out the shower, i'd started cooking dinner in the oven, only to discover we didnt have enough time to let it cook. My highly sensible plan was to turn the oven off - leaving the food in to slowly cook in the residual heat as I thought we would only be there for a few hours. However, following the technical session, I spotted a fellow student perched at the bar on his own and despite him being a snowboarder decided to join him for one quick drink. Well, we all know how "one quick drink" alway ends up - the most memorable being an epic pub crawl via every pub en route to see a band playing in Portsmouth.....
When I finally arrive home, dinner was definitely slow cooked, and tahnkfully just about still warm - but bed was definitly required for the night!
Thursday 3th December
A groggy start to the morning, but still making the bus on time. Today we were back in Lake Louise, and back with Anna - our instructor from Monday. Further improvements were being made to our technique and in the afternoon, we were videoed to have a look through what improvements we had made and what still needed to be worked on. Despite everything looking good on the video, i was still very concerned thati wasnt going to pass the skiing part of the course. Come the end of the day the instructors were very encouraging and as they were going to be the ones who would be assessing us for the actual exam it was definitely a good thing they'd seen what we were capable of over the last week.
Thursday night on the course is always meal night, and once again Rich and I opted for the smarter shirt option. Its a great excuse to get everyone out for the night, and as there is no lessons on Friday its a good night out. Following a good meal, despite the expensive drink prices there was a split in the group as some people were heading back to our place for "pre-lash" and others were thinking of staying out or heading home due to lack of numbers. Horrified, I came up with a solution and set about converting the going home crew that a few quiet pints over a pool table was a good idea and headed down to pump&tap tavern - where i manage to persude the barman to set our pool table to be free for the night. Bonus. With free pool and pitchers for $10 bucks, the night started well - and we even found 8 free songs on the jukebox. With an eclectic mix (from Rammstein to The Eagles to WHAM to Drop Kick Murphies) the Scots were beaten down in revenge for the other weeks narrow pool victory. When the other patrons got fed up with our musical tastes and hogging of the pool table, we headed onto our next favourite, The Devils Gap where those I hadnt convinced to join us had regrouped we provided shelter from the cold before heading on to Hoodoo's once more. The hot barmaid once again proved an exceptional sales woman, and jagerbombs flowed. The cougars lasted the longest - rocking out on the dance floor with a wide range of interesting dance moves. Sarah, who lives upstairs and arrived at the club late and relatively sober was still amazed at our moves the next morning!
Friday 4th December
Despite last night celebrations, I was determined this morning to make the hill. Norquay was opening today and I needed to meet my new boss as well as get to know the place I would (fingers crossed) soon to be working. Dragging myself out of bed, with 15 minutes till the last bus, my plan was ruined by having taken my inners out of my boots to dry them yesterday, and putting them back in was more of a mammoth task than I could manage. Wobbling up the road, I started to consider how wise it was to out just yet... After 10 minutes of waiting at the bus stop I reluctantly called it a lost cause, and teetered home to spend the rest of the day nursing my hangover from the comfort of the sofa.
Come the evening, i was fully recovered. Fortunate really, as we had arranged to play 5 a side football with some of the other 3 weekers from the course. A long walk to the gym later we heard that the scottish under16 national player who was the scots secret weapon had broken his arm and was camped up in the hospital. The 1.75 average we had been warned about at the start of the course to be injured by the end of the course had now occured, both snowboarders! This may or may not have helped influence our whitewash win over the voyager 3 weekers who had turned up, not just at the 5 a side but at the 10 minute basketball game afterwards. Cougars just dominate! Finishing nice and early I finally managed to catch up on writing the blog! Finally. Its been such a busy week.
Saturday 5th December
After yesterdays epic fail at getting to Norquay, I managed to make it out the house and to the bus on time today. Completely surprising the others waiting at the busstop as when they had left, I was still in bed. Everyone already thinks I have a magic way of stopping time, and this went to enhance that even further. Arriving at Norquay, the runs were in poor condition, with rocks strewn all over the place, the snow cannons had been working full power leaving the patches that had been covered exceptionally sticky and the runs that hadn't exceptionally hard packed and icy. But we still didn't let that get in our way as we explored the runs to get a good feel not only of where we would be working but also where we would be examined next week. Before catching the bus home, I finally made contact with my new boss. Emails and phone calls had failed, and only hanging around her office for 40 minutes proved successful. Fairly disorganised and unapproachable, the news she had for me equally bad - the lift pass I had been using ran out in a week, and I had followed up on Norquay's offer to purchase my season lift pass upgrade through them. However it had not yet been processed, and may only be available to full time staff, where as I would be part time only. Devastating news, especially as I had turned down other offers to purchase the lift pass at a discounted rate as I had said yes to this. Still, there was still hope as it was only a maybe only open to full time staff. Ollie (my new boss) said she would be checking with higher management to find out. Only time would tell.
Getting home nice and early, I was able to prepare for the evenings adventures. I had volunteered yesterday for the Banff Christmas Parade. So at 5pm I walked down to meet up with the organisors, and once again despite being hundreds of miles from home was once again right back into events work. With a flourescent jacket on, and floats from many different companies and ski resorts to walk safely through the streets, I quickly found my calling. I chose the giant Columbian Icefield Truck and walked point on it through the street, holding back the crowd to keep them at a safe distance. The wheels on one of these things are massive, taller than I at least and would have easily eaten one of the small children darting around for supper.
Sunday 6th December
Due to the early night last night, I was able to easily get up in time for Louise. While the others, slightly the worse for wear stopped immediately for lunch, I got some great runs in to practise and at the same time had plenty of opportunity to watch the ladies GS world cup runs. Those skis go so exceptionally fast and they are so accurate and yet they still are not even close to getting the times of the mens from the previous weekend. Still. by getting in so many practise runs, I was unable to stop for the freebies on offer in the tents. By the time I had exhausted myself the racing was over and the tents packing up, with nothing by warming hot apple juice and soup left for free. Goes to show, Im finally no longer a student in a ski environment, eagerly itching to get my hands of the piles of free stuff from table to table, and now a skier in an environement where free hot apple juice and soup is so eagerly anticipated.
Following the days ski, it was off home to revise and prepare for the start of exams tomorrow. Once again missing out on the favourite haunt for locals on a Sunday, i've now been here 3 weeks and the closest i've been to getting to Auroras is the queue! Fail.
While finishing off my revision however an amazing thing happened. The time difference between countries allowed me to chat to Rhea as she was waking up back home in the UK, bright and early at 8 am, and then video call with Maria over is Australia as she got home from work, before going to sleep at the end of a long day in the early hours of the morning in Canada. Round the world communication spanning 2 days - what a world this is.
Now into the second week of the course, we had a change of instructors up at Sunshine. The 2 groups of skiers swapped instructors so as to get a fresh perspective. This change was very welcome, as a new way of explaining things helped many people make huge leaps in progress in both groups and suddenly it all felt like it was coming together. By the afternoon, the snow was once again falling heavily. So much so that after 10 minutes of swinging on a chair lift we stood up looking like snowmen - absolutely covered from the short period of inactivity. After a hard day on the slopes, there was a tough decision about what to do for the evening. The course had organised another attempt at road hockey, and the new Warren Miller film was being shown in town as well. However, we all decided that a restful night in was in order to prepare for the insane snow conditions we were sure to find the next day. I thought it would be a great opportunity to get the blog up to date and continue the search for a manvan. Sharing a small kitchen between the 6 of us, it means that dinner has to be staggered. I was part way through the search for a truck, and still hadn't eaten - so when the phone rang at 7.30 asking why weren't at hockey, and we were guilted into leaving the house in the snow to participate - i was starving. This did in no way stop us from absolutley dominating the hockey "pitch" - a gravel carpark with a good inch of snow and homemade goals. No other team could withstand the Cougar pressure - and with the exception of 1 game where the rules changed halfway through we were undefeated when the local residents came out at 10 to insist we stopped due to the noise. We traipsed home in high spirits, and finally it was time for dinner!
Tuesday 1st December.
After last nights dump, we were all looking forward to the mountain today. It was a freezing cold day, but with perfect blue skies and the bus arriving early, I took the oppportunity to have a few warm up runs. It was going great until I got stuck on an old lift in freezing cold. Arriving at the top of the mountain, with less than a minute to get to my lesson, it was time to put all my newly learnt skill out the window, set my skis straight and go as fast as possible down the hill. Despite the blinding speed in freezing cold winds, I was late for the start of the lesson, by 5 minutes- DOH! They had all gone already, and today was the day both our normal instructors were absent on a course to re-certify themselves. In desperation, I bombed around all our normal haunts, searching for where they were doing a the warm up runs. after 25 minutes of searching, and having covered more terrain than we normally did in a morning, I gave up the search and text Emily the course coordinator. She directed me to where the group was skiing, one of the few lifts I hadnt yet been up. I caught up with group in advance of the meeting point and introduced myself to the new instructor - a Harrison Ford lookalike. Despite the rocky start, we all had a great day with new instructor and learnt loads. In his years of experience, the instructor had been an olmpic race coach, and we sure felt the increase in speed as day went on. Following on from yesterdays positive feeling - it was only enhanced today leaving me very positve about the course.
Wednesday. 2nd December.
Yesterdays blue skies were an indication of a high pressure system sitting over us, and led to a temperature of -26 with wind chill on the hill. In weather this cold, you have to be so very careful of getting frostbite, and halfway through the morning we stopped for hot choc with instructor. Despite yesterdays confidence, today my skiing was very shakey - despite the praise at the end for having improved the most over the 2 days, I definitely didnt feel ready for the exam next week by the end of the day. After getting home, we barely had time to wash and change before heading off to the evening technical session. On getting out the shower, i'd started cooking dinner in the oven, only to discover we didnt have enough time to let it cook. My highly sensible plan was to turn the oven off - leaving the food in to slowly cook in the residual heat as I thought we would only be there for a few hours. However, following the technical session, I spotted a fellow student perched at the bar on his own and despite him being a snowboarder decided to join him for one quick drink. Well, we all know how "one quick drink" alway ends up - the most memorable being an epic pub crawl via every pub en route to see a band playing in Portsmouth.....
When I finally arrive home, dinner was definitely slow cooked, and tahnkfully just about still warm - but bed was definitly required for the night!
Thursday 3th December
A groggy start to the morning, but still making the bus on time. Today we were back in Lake Louise, and back with Anna - our instructor from Monday. Further improvements were being made to our technique and in the afternoon, we were videoed to have a look through what improvements we had made and what still needed to be worked on. Despite everything looking good on the video, i was still very concerned thati wasnt going to pass the skiing part of the course. Come the end of the day the instructors were very encouraging and as they were going to be the ones who would be assessing us for the actual exam it was definitely a good thing they'd seen what we were capable of over the last week.
Thursday night on the course is always meal night, and once again Rich and I opted for the smarter shirt option. Its a great excuse to get everyone out for the night, and as there is no lessons on Friday its a good night out. Following a good meal, despite the expensive drink prices there was a split in the group as some people were heading back to our place for "pre-lash" and others were thinking of staying out or heading home due to lack of numbers. Horrified, I came up with a solution and set about converting the going home crew that a few quiet pints over a pool table was a good idea and headed down to pump&tap tavern - where i manage to persude the barman to set our pool table to be free for the night. Bonus. With free pool and pitchers for $10 bucks, the night started well - and we even found 8 free songs on the jukebox. With an eclectic mix (from Rammstein to The Eagles to WHAM to Drop Kick Murphies) the Scots were beaten down in revenge for the other weeks narrow pool victory. When the other patrons got fed up with our musical tastes and hogging of the pool table, we headed onto our next favourite, The Devils Gap where those I hadnt convinced to join us had regrouped we provided shelter from the cold before heading on to Hoodoo's once more. The hot barmaid once again proved an exceptional sales woman, and jagerbombs flowed. The cougars lasted the longest - rocking out on the dance floor with a wide range of interesting dance moves. Sarah, who lives upstairs and arrived at the club late and relatively sober was still amazed at our moves the next morning!
Friday 4th December
Despite last night celebrations, I was determined this morning to make the hill. Norquay was opening today and I needed to meet my new boss as well as get to know the place I would (fingers crossed) soon to be working. Dragging myself out of bed, with 15 minutes till the last bus, my plan was ruined by having taken my inners out of my boots to dry them yesterday, and putting them back in was more of a mammoth task than I could manage. Wobbling up the road, I started to consider how wise it was to out just yet... After 10 minutes of waiting at the bus stop I reluctantly called it a lost cause, and teetered home to spend the rest of the day nursing my hangover from the comfort of the sofa.
Come the evening, i was fully recovered. Fortunate really, as we had arranged to play 5 a side football with some of the other 3 weekers from the course. A long walk to the gym later we heard that the scottish under16 national player who was the scots secret weapon had broken his arm and was camped up in the hospital. The 1.75 average we had been warned about at the start of the course to be injured by the end of the course had now occured, both snowboarders! This may or may not have helped influence our whitewash win over the voyager 3 weekers who had turned up, not just at the 5 a side but at the 10 minute basketball game afterwards. Cougars just dominate! Finishing nice and early I finally managed to catch up on writing the blog! Finally. Its been such a busy week.
Saturday 5th December
After yesterdays epic fail at getting to Norquay, I managed to make it out the house and to the bus on time today. Completely surprising the others waiting at the busstop as when they had left, I was still in bed. Everyone already thinks I have a magic way of stopping time, and this went to enhance that even further. Arriving at Norquay, the runs were in poor condition, with rocks strewn all over the place, the snow cannons had been working full power leaving the patches that had been covered exceptionally sticky and the runs that hadn't exceptionally hard packed and icy. But we still didn't let that get in our way as we explored the runs to get a good feel not only of where we would be working but also where we would be examined next week. Before catching the bus home, I finally made contact with my new boss. Emails and phone calls had failed, and only hanging around her office for 40 minutes proved successful. Fairly disorganised and unapproachable, the news she had for me equally bad - the lift pass I had been using ran out in a week, and I had followed up on Norquay's offer to purchase my season lift pass upgrade through them. However it had not yet been processed, and may only be available to full time staff, where as I would be part time only. Devastating news, especially as I had turned down other offers to purchase the lift pass at a discounted rate as I had said yes to this. Still, there was still hope as it was only a maybe only open to full time staff. Ollie (my new boss) said she would be checking with higher management to find out. Only time would tell.
Getting home nice and early, I was able to prepare for the evenings adventures. I had volunteered yesterday for the Banff Christmas Parade. So at 5pm I walked down to meet up with the organisors, and once again despite being hundreds of miles from home was once again right back into events work. With a flourescent jacket on, and floats from many different companies and ski resorts to walk safely through the streets, I quickly found my calling. I chose the giant Columbian Icefield Truck and walked point on it through the street, holding back the crowd to keep them at a safe distance. The wheels on one of these things are massive, taller than I at least and would have easily eaten one of the small children darting around for supper.
Image of a Columbian Snow Truck - Still not able to find the one from the parade with me in the front corner.
After the parade, I headed up to the lighting of the christmas tree. The others from the house were supposed to have been at the parade, but had instead hit the hot tub to warm up and relax after the weeks skiing and had not made it to town. Having missed the parade they were determined to make the lighting of the tree.I directed them in to where it woud be, and as they walked up the road they had started to wonder if I was walking them the right way when ping! The lights went on. Not only had they missed the parade but also the lighting of the tree. DOH. We stopped on the way back in Bruno's to recover with a deep fried mars bar before heading to the liquor store to grab some drinks for the night. We had decided to have some pre-drinking games before going out for the night and got going with Ring of Fire. Teaching so many pre-university students to play drinking games was as much of a challenge and combining the different sets of rules those of us who had experienced it before were used to. When the final King was finally pulled, Kira had the unfortunate challege of the Kings Cup - which was a 1 litre jam jar filled mostly with beer. Over 10 minutes of video footage later - Kira still was unable to finish it, and shortly later we were breaking down the bathroom door to recover her. Now remember kids, when your a little bit the worse for wear - DONT LOCK THE DOOR!!!! While Kira was looked after, the others went out and I fixed the bathroom door, pulling out the trusty swiss army knife to repair the broken lock. It was good however, as it gave me a much deserved early night to prepare for getting up the hill on an earlier bus tomorrow.
Sunday 6th December
Due to the early night last night, I was able to easily get up in time for Louise. While the others, slightly the worse for wear stopped immediately for lunch, I got some great runs in to practise and at the same time had plenty of opportunity to watch the ladies GS world cup runs. Those skis go so exceptionally fast and they are so accurate and yet they still are not even close to getting the times of the mens from the previous weekend. Still. by getting in so many practise runs, I was unable to stop for the freebies on offer in the tents. By the time I had exhausted myself the racing was over and the tents packing up, with nothing by warming hot apple juice and soup left for free. Goes to show, Im finally no longer a student in a ski environment, eagerly itching to get my hands of the piles of free stuff from table to table, and now a skier in an environement where free hot apple juice and soup is so eagerly anticipated.
Following the days ski, it was off home to revise and prepare for the start of exams tomorrow. Once again missing out on the favourite haunt for locals on a Sunday, i've now been here 3 weeks and the closest i've been to getting to Auroras is the queue! Fail.
While finishing off my revision however an amazing thing happened. The time difference between countries allowed me to chat to Rhea as she was waking up back home in the UK, bright and early at 8 am, and then video call with Maria over is Australia as she got home from work, before going to sleep at the end of a long day in the early hours of the morning in Canada. Round the world communication spanning 2 days - what a world this is.
Friday, 4 December 2009
Monday 23rd - Sunday 29th November 2009
What a hectic time! I settled down to write all the notes p today and have realised how out of date this is. So it's time to rectify that. Im going to bring you up to date to the 29th, and then the Sunday i'l bring you back up to real time updates : )
Monday 23th.
Day 2 of the lessons today, and despite the beers last night I made the bus! However it was shortly after everyone else had got on and seconds before the driver closed the hatches... so I had cut it very fine to not miss it! My breakfast was once again in my pocket, and I scoffed it down before it had a chance to get cold. We were Skiing at Sunshine again today, and more work was done on getting to know the mountain and corecting our stance and body position. After a hard days ski, we all returned to Banff for a quick turnaround of showers and food, before heading back out to meet the rest of the group at the back of their Hotel for some Road Hockey. Standing around in the cold in teams of 5, we were all waiting for the top dog of ski instructors to bring out the hockey sticks. As we all got colder and colder and football with the tiny ball got tougher, I led a revolution! Road hockey needs beer, so we treked all the way back around to the front of the hotel to make the most of the liquor store. Over here, the only place to buy alcohol (outside pubs/restaurants) is a liquor store - none of the supermarkets can sell any. Instantly I introduced some of the younger lads to the local beers, a 6 pack costing only $7! bargain :) and at my reckoning, you surely do need to support the local economy. Returning to celebratory cries, the hockey sticks hadn't turned up but my fellow housemates were most appreciative of the fresh beers instead! Eventually, the road hockey was abandoned, we later found out that the man with the sticks was in fact not bothered at all as he was getting merrily drunker in a pub in town with his mates. Typical! Instead, a pool competition was suggested, and we moved to the pub accross the road. A tournement of epic proportions was started, as people paired up with well thought out team names - the northerners were first on the list, followed swiftly by the southeners, the Scots came along next, meanwhile I was negotiating at the bar for cheap drinks :) With all the early arrivals gone i was left waiting for the next arrival. Angus was next through the door and willing to play, but as a Snowboarder from Scotland, we couldn't have been more polar opposites. As such, we came up with the team name the Husky Hustlers and the games were underway. More teams were formed as we went through, and the Husky Hustlers played well. An interesting element was added, in that at the end of every round, 2 of the eliminated teams had the chance to play for a redemption chance. In the second round the Scots, we narrowly beat the Scots, eliminating them from the competion only for them to come back to challenge us in the final. Nail biting shot after shot, we battled on. the scots appeared to have been caught on the black, with no easy shot left, a H&H special sent the black carreering round the table, eventuall ending up in the pocket. The flukey Scots had won! Nursing my wounded pride, we set down to enjoy some more beers with the captors before I lead 2 other to town to meet up with everyone else who had gone out. We had arranged to meet at Melissa's, but no time was set and I still did not have a Canadian mobile to liase with them as to where they were. We sat in the nearly empty bar, and had a great chat over more beers seriously frsutrating the barman and the other 1 occupant of the place who had a film on all the TV screens and kept increasing the volume to drown out our conversation. By midnight, with no sign of anyone else, we called it a night. On returning home what did I find - only that everyone had gone to bed already having decided town was too quite to have a proper night out! Lame housemates! I was definetly missing my drinking buddies back home.
Tuesday 24th November.
We had todays off, and after 4 days of solid skiing I chose to sleep in late. Getting up in the afternoon and chatting to various people on Skype, I promised Dad I wouldn't go out tonight and would get an early night instead. I had a long list of things to do in town, such as changing my helmet and sorting out a library card, as well as renting a man truck for when Doug and Rhea arrive over. However, by the time I had finished skyping, our house manager arrived. He needed to have us sign a few things and give us some information. As he left, Nancy from GapYearCanada arrived, who I needed to see about an Insurance Number. I eventually made it to town, only to find that all the rental shops had closed and that the library was also closed! Typical. Instead, I headed home stopping at the supermarket for the first of my MASSIVE shops. On arriving home, I just about had time to cook dinner when everyone else decided to go to the cinema. Scoffing my food down and swiftly departing, we headed to watch The Blind Side, a film based on a true story about american football. Its nice to immerse into the local culture, and at $10 with free drink and popcorn it was a excellent way to spend the evening. However, we did have to visit the pub afterwards to discuss the film, Sorry Dad, didn't quite keep to the not going out :)!
Wednesday 25th
For the first time, today I made it to the bus stop with spare time! It certainly freaked my housemates out, but perhaps it was just because the bus to Lake Louise where we were skiing today is 10 minutes later :P.After a long hard day in the new resort, I had found my favourite area so far. It would typically be the furthest away! Lake Louise is also one of the locations for the Mens and Womens Downhill and GS World Cup event. As we sat having our lunch, we were surrounded by the top skiers in the world milling around and chatting to everyone indiscriminately. It was a most surreal experience. In the evening, we had our second technical session. This consisted of our Ski Instructor, who also works in one of the repair shops showing us how to maitain ski's making sure they were smooth and flat and well waxed. It turns out my lovely ski's which had done so well since I got them, had never been properly waxed or tuned. Ski's come out of the factory in a pristine looking state, but not very good for the slopes. There was no point in me maintaining them myself yet - there was lots of work to have done before I could even start to help. the tuning shop had closed for the night however, so that was going to have to be a task for tomorrow!
Thursday 26th
Once again skiing up in Lake Louise, today saw further development - especially with the MASSIVE dump of fresh powder that occured all day! It was perfect, soft and fluffy snow - and so DEEP. There has already been a better snowfall with many runs open that didnt open until much later in the season last year. Good times. Slowly but surely our skiing technique was getting better and better, and we were starting to be able to diagnose where improvement needed to be made on other skieres on the hill. Despite knowing what we needed to do, it certainly felt to a few of us as if we were now much worse at Skiing than we had been before, silly mistakes popping up here there and everywhere. On the journey home, it was exceptionally tempting to stop at the hotel to sneak into the hot tub - a lack of fresh clothes, towels or swimwear was all that could stop this! So instead I took my skis to the tuning shop, with the aim of picking them up at 9 the next morning to get on the bus and head out to practise practise and kill my legs some more! Thursday night last week was wings and bingo night - this week we wouldn't be able to do that as there was a group meal in town, with everyone from the course. Still, it was good to sit down as a group and eat for free and with everyone in one place it made it much easier to persuade people that it was time for a big night out! A few pubs later and we hit Hoodoo's - one of the club's in town. Having already been around the town, arriving here to find the hottest barmaid serving jagerbombs meant that much money was spent which shouldnt have been spent, just to have a longer time at the bar!
By 2, the club was starting to empty out, and gentleman that I am when the girls left for home, my wallet dictated I should accompany them to ensure a bear didn't get them..... An hour later I was tucked up warm and in bed, only for the others to get home and decide to say hello in the form of jumping on my bed! Once 5 people had landed on the pile, the creaking from the woodwork grew louder and louder. With a painful screach of tortured wood, 3 of the 6 legs holding my bed up broke, and I was left with a severly slanted bed! With everyone finally kicked out, I was in no state to look at it, especially as I was collecting my Skis in about 5 hours....
Friday 27th
Throughout the night, I kept thinking I was having strange dreams. I thought I was proped up in a hospital bed, I thought I was on the top of a cliff, I thought I had developed a sever case of vertigo as everything felt very topsy turvy. But no, as I got up to use the toilet I discovered it wasnt that, it was just my broken bed. By 11.30 all the buses had gone, but my hangover was not. So much for altitude hangovers not being so bad - i have a feeling that jagerbombs break that rule of thumb :P Very little got done today because of this, except for the walk to collect my skis. They looked spanking and new and very slick again and with a little bit of luck i wouldnt be passed by weather hardy snails anymore on the flats. It had been most frustrating not having any wax on!
Saturday 28th
Due to yesterdays epic fail, Saturday would have to be my sking day. I had gone to bed early for a change, and woke up bright and early at 7.50.... felling absolutely terrible. The cold i had been fighting off for days finally hit me with a vengeance. Yesterday's dehydration not helping, i felt rough as. Plans for hitting the slopes were abandoned, and instead I got more sleep and rest and took some paracetemol. Waking up at various stages of the day and deciding that I wasnt better yet at 6 I was visited by various housemates, who informed me of the plan to go out later after the others had gone out for dinner. Perfect - i needed to eat and I needed to get better. As we all know (mainly because it is my personal mantra) Beer Cures All. Liasing with the hotel residents who were heading out for dinner, I met them all in town. Our table would be 30 minutes, "shall we go for a drink while we wait then?" was asked. ANd you'd be surprised to learn it wasn't me suggesting it for a change. With the best knowledge of the town, we headed outside and chose a pub I hadn't visited yet. With 10 of us to squeeze in we were immediately given our own booth to keep the bar more tidy and had avery pleasent drink before dinner. Dinner was really good, a great bargain. Anyone coming out to visit will undoubtably be taken there, so no names for now you'l have to guess when your here. For those NOT visiting me - well why arent you :-P and tough you'l not find out until the end of the season in case you ever do come here :) Following dinner, I led the troops up for a night out to the liquor store and then back to ours for some cheap pre - going out socialising.... The numbers started to dwindle but there was still 8 of us out, so we headed to a favourite pub for the remainder on the night.
Sunday 29th
After the past 2 days failures - I refused to lose anymore mountain time. I made it to the bus stop to find some others from the house had got there before me (no surprises!) so we all tried to practise what we had been taught, and mainly managed it with only the occasional free runs to bomb around and just enjoy ourselves. The world Cup main GS event was today, but finished very early. Anyone who had been there the day before had come back with masses of freebies so I know exactly where I will be next week! Heading home, it was decided early on that it would be best not to go out, despite the fact that it was once again a great night fro locals in town and I hadn't visited the best night club in town - Auroras. Still - we had 4 days of intensive skiing to come and my bank balance, let alone my liver, was not up for another night out. Instead, much time was spent searching for my man van. The lack of mobility here in town has finally got to me, and I have decided I need a vehicle to help get around. There are only a few options in a place like this, and a flat bed 4x4 pickup truck is the ultimate "MAN" vehicle - i had to have one. Ebay led me to the first possibility and I started my searching and bid on my first truck.... only 3 days left to go to find out if i win it!!!
I'm sure that was an long read for you all, I hope you broke it up into smaller sections. Next weeks installment is about to be started before I hit the sack, and I'l continue to keep you up todate. But expect to wake up on Monday morning to another installment of my time over here. Much love to everyone back home, as much fun as I'm having I do miss what i've left behind.
Until next time.....!
Monday 23th.
Day 2 of the lessons today, and despite the beers last night I made the bus! However it was shortly after everyone else had got on and seconds before the driver closed the hatches... so I had cut it very fine to not miss it! My breakfast was once again in my pocket, and I scoffed it down before it had a chance to get cold. We were Skiing at Sunshine again today, and more work was done on getting to know the mountain and corecting our stance and body position. After a hard days ski, we all returned to Banff for a quick turnaround of showers and food, before heading back out to meet the rest of the group at the back of their Hotel for some Road Hockey. Standing around in the cold in teams of 5, we were all waiting for the top dog of ski instructors to bring out the hockey sticks. As we all got colder and colder and football with the tiny ball got tougher, I led a revolution! Road hockey needs beer, so we treked all the way back around to the front of the hotel to make the most of the liquor store. Over here, the only place to buy alcohol (outside pubs/restaurants) is a liquor store - none of the supermarkets can sell any. Instantly I introduced some of the younger lads to the local beers, a 6 pack costing only $7! bargain :) and at my reckoning, you surely do need to support the local economy. Returning to celebratory cries, the hockey sticks hadn't turned up but my fellow housemates were most appreciative of the fresh beers instead! Eventually, the road hockey was abandoned, we later found out that the man with the sticks was in fact not bothered at all as he was getting merrily drunker in a pub in town with his mates. Typical! Instead, a pool competition was suggested, and we moved to the pub accross the road. A tournement of epic proportions was started, as people paired up with well thought out team names - the northerners were first on the list, followed swiftly by the southeners, the Scots came along next, meanwhile I was negotiating at the bar for cheap drinks :) With all the early arrivals gone i was left waiting for the next arrival. Angus was next through the door and willing to play, but as a Snowboarder from Scotland, we couldn't have been more polar opposites. As such, we came up with the team name the Husky Hustlers and the games were underway. More teams were formed as we went through, and the Husky Hustlers played well. An interesting element was added, in that at the end of every round, 2 of the eliminated teams had the chance to play for a redemption chance. In the second round the Scots, we narrowly beat the Scots, eliminating them from the competion only for them to come back to challenge us in the final. Nail biting shot after shot, we battled on. the scots appeared to have been caught on the black, with no easy shot left, a H&H special sent the black carreering round the table, eventuall ending up in the pocket. The flukey Scots had won! Nursing my wounded pride, we set down to enjoy some more beers with the captors before I lead 2 other to town to meet up with everyone else who had gone out. We had arranged to meet at Melissa's, but no time was set and I still did not have a Canadian mobile to liase with them as to where they were. We sat in the nearly empty bar, and had a great chat over more beers seriously frsutrating the barman and the other 1 occupant of the place who had a film on all the TV screens and kept increasing the volume to drown out our conversation. By midnight, with no sign of anyone else, we called it a night. On returning home what did I find - only that everyone had gone to bed already having decided town was too quite to have a proper night out! Lame housemates! I was definetly missing my drinking buddies back home.
Tuesday 24th November.
We had todays off, and after 4 days of solid skiing I chose to sleep in late. Getting up in the afternoon and chatting to various people on Skype, I promised Dad I wouldn't go out tonight and would get an early night instead. I had a long list of things to do in town, such as changing my helmet and sorting out a library card, as well as renting a man truck for when Doug and Rhea arrive over. However, by the time I had finished skyping, our house manager arrived. He needed to have us sign a few things and give us some information. As he left, Nancy from GapYearCanada arrived, who I needed to see about an Insurance Number. I eventually made it to town, only to find that all the rental shops had closed and that the library was also closed! Typical. Instead, I headed home stopping at the supermarket for the first of my MASSIVE shops. On arriving home, I just about had time to cook dinner when everyone else decided to go to the cinema. Scoffing my food down and swiftly departing, we headed to watch The Blind Side, a film based on a true story about american football. Its nice to immerse into the local culture, and at $10 with free drink and popcorn it was a excellent way to spend the evening. However, we did have to visit the pub afterwards to discuss the film, Sorry Dad, didn't quite keep to the not going out :)!
Wednesday 25th
For the first time, today I made it to the bus stop with spare time! It certainly freaked my housemates out, but perhaps it was just because the bus to Lake Louise where we were skiing today is 10 minutes later :P.After a long hard day in the new resort, I had found my favourite area so far. It would typically be the furthest away! Lake Louise is also one of the locations for the Mens and Womens Downhill and GS World Cup event. As we sat having our lunch, we were surrounded by the top skiers in the world milling around and chatting to everyone indiscriminately. It was a most surreal experience. In the evening, we had our second technical session. This consisted of our Ski Instructor, who also works in one of the repair shops showing us how to maitain ski's making sure they were smooth and flat and well waxed. It turns out my lovely ski's which had done so well since I got them, had never been properly waxed or tuned. Ski's come out of the factory in a pristine looking state, but not very good for the slopes. There was no point in me maintaining them myself yet - there was lots of work to have done before I could even start to help. the tuning shop had closed for the night however, so that was going to have to be a task for tomorrow!
Thursday 26th
Once again skiing up in Lake Louise, today saw further development - especially with the MASSIVE dump of fresh powder that occured all day! It was perfect, soft and fluffy snow - and so DEEP. There has already been a better snowfall with many runs open that didnt open until much later in the season last year. Good times. Slowly but surely our skiing technique was getting better and better, and we were starting to be able to diagnose where improvement needed to be made on other skieres on the hill. Despite knowing what we needed to do, it certainly felt to a few of us as if we were now much worse at Skiing than we had been before, silly mistakes popping up here there and everywhere. On the journey home, it was exceptionally tempting to stop at the hotel to sneak into the hot tub - a lack of fresh clothes, towels or swimwear was all that could stop this! So instead I took my skis to the tuning shop, with the aim of picking them up at 9 the next morning to get on the bus and head out to practise practise and kill my legs some more! Thursday night last week was wings and bingo night - this week we wouldn't be able to do that as there was a group meal in town, with everyone from the course. Still, it was good to sit down as a group and eat for free and with everyone in one place it made it much easier to persuade people that it was time for a big night out! A few pubs later and we hit Hoodoo's - one of the club's in town. Having already been around the town, arriving here to find the hottest barmaid serving jagerbombs meant that much money was spent which shouldnt have been spent, just to have a longer time at the bar!
Friday 27th
Throughout the night, I kept thinking I was having strange dreams. I thought I was proped up in a hospital bed, I thought I was on the top of a cliff, I thought I had developed a sever case of vertigo as everything felt very topsy turvy. But no, as I got up to use the toilet I discovered it wasnt that, it was just my broken bed. By 11.30 all the buses had gone, but my hangover was not. So much for altitude hangovers not being so bad - i have a feeling that jagerbombs break that rule of thumb :P Very little got done today because of this, except for the walk to collect my skis. They looked spanking and new and very slick again and with a little bit of luck i wouldnt be passed by weather hardy snails anymore on the flats. It had been most frustrating not having any wax on!
Saturday 28th
Due to yesterdays epic fail, Saturday would have to be my sking day. I had gone to bed early for a change, and woke up bright and early at 7.50.... felling absolutely terrible. The cold i had been fighting off for days finally hit me with a vengeance. Yesterday's dehydration not helping, i felt rough as. Plans for hitting the slopes were abandoned, and instead I got more sleep and rest and took some paracetemol. Waking up at various stages of the day and deciding that I wasnt better yet at 6 I was visited by various housemates, who informed me of the plan to go out later after the others had gone out for dinner. Perfect - i needed to eat and I needed to get better. As we all know (mainly because it is my personal mantra) Beer Cures All. Liasing with the hotel residents who were heading out for dinner, I met them all in town. Our table would be 30 minutes, "shall we go for a drink while we wait then?" was asked. ANd you'd be surprised to learn it wasn't me suggesting it for a change. With the best knowledge of the town, we headed outside and chose a pub I hadn't visited yet. With 10 of us to squeeze in we were immediately given our own booth to keep the bar more tidy and had avery pleasent drink before dinner. Dinner was really good, a great bargain. Anyone coming out to visit will undoubtably be taken there, so no names for now you'l have to guess when your here. For those NOT visiting me - well why arent you :-P and tough you'l not find out until the end of the season in case you ever do come here :) Following dinner, I led the troops up for a night out to the liquor store and then back to ours for some cheap pre - going out socialising.... The numbers started to dwindle but there was still 8 of us out, so we headed to a favourite pub for the remainder on the night.
Sunday 29th
After the past 2 days failures - I refused to lose anymore mountain time. I made it to the bus stop to find some others from the house had got there before me (no surprises!) so we all tried to practise what we had been taught, and mainly managed it with only the occasional free runs to bomb around and just enjoy ourselves. The world Cup main GS event was today, but finished very early. Anyone who had been there the day before had come back with masses of freebies so I know exactly where I will be next week! Heading home, it was decided early on that it would be best not to go out, despite the fact that it was once again a great night fro locals in town and I hadn't visited the best night club in town - Auroras. Still - we had 4 days of intensive skiing to come and my bank balance, let alone my liver, was not up for another night out. Instead, much time was spent searching for my man van. The lack of mobility here in town has finally got to me, and I have decided I need a vehicle to help get around. There are only a few options in a place like this, and a flat bed 4x4 pickup truck is the ultimate "MAN" vehicle - i had to have one. Ebay led me to the first possibility and I started my searching and bid on my first truck.... only 3 days left to go to find out if i win it!!!
I'm sure that was an long read for you all, I hope you broke it up into smaller sections. Next weeks installment is about to be started before I hit the sack, and I'l continue to keep you up todate. But expect to wake up on Monday morning to another installment of my time over here. Much love to everyone back home, as much fun as I'm having I do miss what i've left behind.
Until next time.....!
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