Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Australia Day!

Last night was Australia day. I had a pretty good day/night. Started off early 11am (which is actually late for an Australian but canada is to cold to start drinking earlier) We went out to Lake Louise to check out their Australian day events but not much was happening so we went and checked out the ice sculptures on the actual lake. Very pretty but it was way to cold for us and about 10 minutes in we had to duck inside to warm up and defrost our toes!!!

After lake louise we went home. We did attempt to get into the Australian day events at Legion but it was packed and the line wasnt moving. If I know Aussies we start early and finish late!!! We never leave. So after half an hour waiting in the cold we decided fuck that and ended up at Kims Place. We then eventually went out to Brunos where I stayed for the whole night drinking and talking. I took a heap of photos if you want to check them out http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=87190&l=15bd0&id=585873948

Pretty awesome australia day I would have to say but I do miss the heat, barbeque and my family!

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Chronic Masturbation is a private thing

You know how you can never think of what you want to say at the time. But then four hours later its all so obvious and you wish you had stepped forward and grasped the moment by the balls! (no pun intended, youll understand shortly)

I got prank called last night as I was finishing up my shift,

Ring Ring
Me = "Hello thank you for calling banff lodging company ******** how can I help you today"
Him "Hello? Hello?"
Me "Hello??? can you hear me"
Silence
Me "Do you want to make a reservation?"
Him "Oh.. Hello!"
Me "Do you want to book a hotel?"
Him " I masturbate a lot"
Me "I have caller ID (read out his number)"
Him "oh...."
Me "I'm going to go now. Have fun masturbating"
*click* Hung up!!!

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Beautiful weather, beautiful minds

A bit of an update whats going on.

The weather has been fantastic lows of -4C highs of 0C beautiful clear skies.

Dragged myself out of bed yesterday to do a little bit of snowboarding. I was not in the mood but when I got out there and felt the board slide on the snow I was hooked once more. The weather was nice and I was warm the whole day. I practiced my turns a bit more and I'm getting a lot more confident even going a little bit faster. The fact is Snowboarding is a hard thing to master.

Well we found a place to move into. Its really nice and we get a huge room with our own bathroom. The girl knows we will be leaving end of June but I think she is happy to have us since Taki told her how clean we are! Ok I am a slob when it comes to my own bedroom but I can't stand dirty dishes in the sink!!! A little bit more then I wanted to spend but will be worth it for our sanity I think. Staff accomodation was great for a while but I'm definately over it.

Money is a bit of an issue especially with taking off the whole of march. Dont get me wrong we have a huge chunk of Australian cash if we need it but I would rather be spending the money I am earning here. I need to cut my Alaskan expenses to about 2 grand or less. Less alcohol and less going out for dinner!!! I need to get my account up to 10 grand for when we leave in June.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Surfing the couches

So as I was planning a bit of my road trip to Alaska today I came across the dilemma of accomodation. Winter is quiet for North, North America and what accomodation is available is pretty expensive. I was looking at over $100CA a night just to sleep!

But a friend introduced me to Couch Surfing and there are quite a few people along the way which have couches available. Its a great idea and I am looking forward to hosting people in the future. Not only shall I save myself some money but I will hopefully get to meet some great people!

Sign up, its worth your time!

Friday, January 16, 2009

Snowmobiles

Well I had a really great time on Wednesday. It was my first real time riding on a snowmobile. I do remember about 10 years ago semi driving one in Pennsylvania but my uncle was sitting behind me doing all the basic controls. They were new gearless skiddoos which makes life easy because I suck with changing gears!

The tour basically tooks us up a remote mountain in Golden, BC. You could travel at your own pace which was good because I was pretty slow cruising most of the time at about 20mph and my boyfriend was a lot quicker sitting between 25 - 40 mph. They would stop every 20 minutes or so just to regroup. Usually everyone was waiting for me! And there was a guide at the back so if I did get stuck they would be able to pull me out. Those skiddoos are pretty heavy! Oh yea and I did manage to get stuck twice.

We stopped at the top of the mountain to eat lunch and just relax it was beautiful and white. All in all there was about five hours of riding all up and my thumb was killing me. That night I was in a lot of pain my forearms were cramping up!

I would definately reccomend the tour and the best thing is if your like me and not overly confident you can move at your own pace. Just be prepared to be sore for the next night! To be honest I'm getting used to all this pain from snow sports!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

The Milepost

I got my package today! A copy of The Milepost pretty much the bible for travelling along the west coast of Canada up to & through Alaska. Brendan and I have decided to drive to Anchorage rather then fly in March and this bible will be with me every step of the way!

I got Brendan in on Snowmobiling for a discount. $150 bucks cash. Not bad I guess for two full day tours normally worth $265 each!

Monday, January 12, 2009

erk agh yuck

Why does this god-forsaken flu continue to plague me!

I took the morning off work because i felt horrible. All night I was choked up with snot my throat was so swollen I could barely talk. When I stumbled out of bed at 8am I threw up a few times mainly just gag reflexing off the amount of snot in my sinuses! An antihistphime later and I was feeling a little better. Then I ended up at work about 3pm. Thank fuck its my Friday!

I tried something new the other day Soy Sauce KitKat! My Japanese co-worker (Taki) had a care package from her mum. Only the Japanese hey! I did not have high hopes for the salty chocolatey goodness but I couldnt turn down the opportunity to try right! Suprise Suprise it tasted a bit like white chocolate maple syrup and not a hint of soy. In fact I quite liked it.

On another exciting note my other co-worker Theresa worked her magic charms and I am now booked in for a free full day snowmobile tour on Wednesday! (fingers crossed the flu is over by then!) http://www.wetnwild.bc.ca/sledding I'm trying to get Brendan in at a discounted rate but I dont know if I will be able to! Seriously if you ever come to Banff I reccomend booking with these people!!!!!! (actually book through me then I get comission!)

Friday, January 9, 2009

Mmm powder

I know all my entries have been about snowboarding but what can I say,

I AM HOOKED!

We went out on wednesday to Sunshine village which had gotten about 20cm of fresh snow and the conditions were amazing! I went hard and every time I fell over (which was ALOT!!) it was like floating on clouds. Once I realised there would be no pain I pushed myself a little further the face plants I did would perhaps have broken every bone in my body on a normal day but didnt even put a dent in my fragile bones. I started turning and could slide back and forth, ungracefully mind you but still turning. I had no fear, I am now powder hooked!

For those of you who know me well know I have a chronic medical condition which affects my body, some days more then others but the overall strength of my wrists and elbows is comprimised thanks to over 10 years living with the disease. Snowboarding scared me at first because of this and each time I go out I am faced with the fear of falling tenfold. Its a hard battle to fight since snowboarding relies a lot on relaxing, i think that is why I fell in love with powder. No fear. I am yet to break a bone since being diagnosed but that is because I took a step back from life and gave up anything that I deemed risky to my health. This is probably the first time in a LONG time I stepped outside of my comfort zone.

Fingers crossed I get through this winter unscathed! You probably wont see me on any black diamonds but chances are I'll be out there somewhere taking the risk.

Monday, January 5, 2009

My New Years resolutions are...

1. Update this blog more then last year :D

2. Complete a green snowboard run without falling over!!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Last snowboarding of 2008!

So New Years was good, a little earlier and "tamer" this year. We started the day off with some snowboarding up at Sunshine Village resort. It was my first time heading out without an instructor so I was a little nervous about the run and the chairlift. It was a really nice day only about -15 and I left my face mask at home...

Up on the mountain however it was pretty cold and snowing rapidly so my face was beaten down by the chilly wind. The worse part I guess was the chairlift which took about 15 minutes since it was the beginner lift and everyone kept falling off so they kept stopping the lift to clear the way. It was also pretty busy being NYE but the line moved quickly. I fell off the chair lift both times getting off but they werent bad falls and I managed to get away from the disembark point before falling over then they didnt have to stop the lift!

Snowboarding was awesome, we really only did a couple of runs and it was just on the green runs (which is basically beginner) I was working on my turns most of the time and that involved a lot of falling over. It wasnt the best beginner conditions with a large amount of fresh powder I kept catching my edges on. When it would get to steep and I was scared I just slid down on one edge, cheating but effective. I'm pretty happy with my progress going from nothing to almost a complete run in a month... granted I cant turn properly AT ALL but I can stop myself and control my board if need be.

After boarding we went home and relaxed for a bit before heading over to Kim (NZler front desk at Hidden Ridge) house and cooking dinner and drinking. Somewhere along the night I consumed a bottle of vodka. We went out to the streets about 11:45 to watch the firworks and it was PACKED with people... I didnt even hear the countdown suddenly a murmur went through the crowd and it was new years day!! The fireworks started going off and everyone was hugging and kissing. It was snowing heaps as well. I found Theresa super drunk on the other side of the road and then everyone dragged me home. Soon as I got back to Kims place I felt very tired and tried to go to sleep on the couch but brendan decided he was going to take me home so I think I was in bed by about ... 1pm?

New years day was spent with a rotten hangover!!!

Here is to 2009!!!