Thursday, January 28, 2010

Dude, where's my car?

Talk about an Australia day to remember.

It began with some early morning snowboarding and drinking at Sunshine. I had another couple of friends in town from Utah and they came over for red & blue pancakes. The hill was absolutely beautiful. Sky was clear, blue with amazing scenery. There were tons of people dressed up in aussie gear and a few crazy people in singlets and boardies.


After Sunshine we headed back to town where we hit up the Legion for Australia day celebrations and drinks.



Then off to the Magpie for some food and more drinks. 8pm and I was absolutely wasted so I cut back on my drinks for a while. Onto Brunos which was packed and then finally The Devils Gap where I hung out for the rest of the night. Everyone ditched me they were all completely wasted. I ended up finding my mate Brett and just chatted to him all night. We went back to the magpie and then onto Bretts mates place where we chilled out talking till about 6am. I ended up back at Bretts and just passed out.

So 10am comes round and I am stumbling home completely scattered and my car is gone. So I head upstairs turn on my phone which had run out of battery the night before and there is like 10 missed calls from Heather and then these messages that she had driven my car round the corner and it had died on her then she couldnt restart it or get the key out. Fair enough she was completely scattered as well but she left my car round the corner with the key in the ignition and the doors unlocked. So I walk over and find my car and its in drive which explains why she couldnt restart it or get the key out but I asked her why she left the door unlocked with all my ski gear in it. (it was sitting on this street for about 3 hours) and her response was that she couldn't lock it because the central locking switch wouldn't work which happens when my car is to cold which leads me to believe it died on her because she didn't warm the engine up first. Anyway so I was pretty mad on little sleep now and mentioned that the car also has manual locks on the door. Her response "oh" So for three hours my car is sitting there unlocked with the key in the ignition all my ski gear in the back. Oh and its funny because nothing got stolen.

Anyway I went snowboarding, still a little buzzed but completely exhausted. Got a free intermediate lesson. Learnt the right way to lean and the instructor asked me if I felt any pain... ah no I said. But yea today I feel so sore...

Worked till 11pm then finally got some sleep. ZZZzzzz

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Proving to the world I'm not an alcoholic

After my effort Monday where I had to be carried home by Dave & Claire I have given up alcohol, until Australia day. Harder said then done which makes me wonder if there is a little alcoholism in me? Or is it just because I choose to reside in banff... And it hasn't actually been a week yet and I want to go out with my mates and have a beer!

No. *insert awesome willpower here*

Been planning my future journey, laying the seeds as well. Trying to make as many contacts in Utah & Colorado as possible so I can work there next season. I feel a little guilty since my family sort of expects me to be home for christmas this year but chances are I will instead be ripping up Utah powder. I will be home end of June for at least three months earn some real money then head off again.

Well life is short right :)

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

La La Land.

Working a 50 hour week, snowboarding and then adding a bunch of partying in the mix wore me out. I am pretty much done, so what do I do on my day off? Uh one of the most epic powder snowboarding days of the season.

Anyway backtracking on Wednesday I worked till 11pm and then took Claire and Rob to the hippy house. It was a pretty epic night, I ended up on the couch talking to this guy Alex most the night but Claire and Rob danced around. We partied till about 6am. We were up and out the door at 10am for some snowboarding at Sunshine. Both Claire and I were pretty fucked and spent a lot of time just relaxing by the fire talking shit. Still I had to show rob the hill so I took him up Wawa to the Shaken not Stirred cabin and promptly passed out in the hammock.



Work that night was not fun and I ended up leaving early at 9pm. I think I had one of the best sleeps of my life and didn't even wake up to Heather's alarm I was so dead to the world. Hanging out with Rob and Claire was awesome, I really felt like I'd known them forever and we just got along so well. Saturday I swapped a shift with a girl at work and went out to spend the last night with Claire and Rob which involved more drinking then a 3am bedtime to wake up once again at 8am and drive Rob to the airport. Its kind of quiet with him gone... Claire was saying you have love affairs with the people you travel with and its kind of true so many people I've met along the way that I wish I could know and hang out with forever but its like a week long affair and then I may never see them again!

Sunday night I worked till 11:30pm and then sorted my stuff out for Kicking Horse the next day. I think I maybe got two whole hours of sleep...I was excited about the Horse and worried about not waking up. So my day off I am up at 6am and just boarded all day drinking at 10am. Kicking horse was so bloody amazing first time ive ever been there and just foot high powder I took on some black mogul runs and landed on my ass a lot but had the time of my life. I was boarding with a workmate Wardy and his mates most the arvo. On the bus back I met a nice irish fellow mike.

So getting home and chilling out for an hour I went over to the Magpie to meet Wardy and his mates but lo and behold who should I run into but Alex from the Hippy House. I sat down at the bar and chatted to him for ages till he called it a night at 830pm. Then I sat talking to Brett another Aussie who had pretty much set up shop in Banff. He had some awesome travel stories and gave me a few connections in the US. I really want to work the winter in US next year for my last season. Anyway the bartenders started buying me Jager shots and before I knew it I was passing out and really drunk. Lucky Claire and It Dave had shown up so Dave took me home not after I threw up in the gutter a couple of times. Randomly one of Wardys mates showed back up and was wearing this one piece pajamas asking me to check out his willy because it looked so big. I was way to drunk and confused at this point.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Come out and Play

Popular? A friend of mine and fellow couchsurfer Rob from Utah (no not a Mormon) was visiting Banff. Considering how much has been given to me by gracious hosts I definately wanted to return the favour. I have such a passion for making sure people get the best of thier holidays. Because of couchsurfing my experiances everywhere were so positive. It didn't matter that I was all by myself because everywhere I went there was someone there happy to see me, even though they hadn't met me yet!

Anyway I picked Rob and his friend Claire (scottish) up from Calgary on Sunday. I didn't really have much time to spend with them because I had to work at 3. Monday was my day off bright and early I woke them up for a pancake breakfast before getting them on the road to Lake Louise Ski Resort. The snow was not the best, no new snow in a week and we are in the middle of a chinook. Yesterday was +7 in Banff! Anyway we wanted to make the most of it. Heather was doing a lesson there as well. I was feeling pretty lazy and with the snow a little rocky didn't push it to hard but relaxed most the day. It was a pretty epic day beautiful conditions


lake louise just visible in the distance

For the last run we managed to get Heather up the gondola and she was pretty happy with herself but for a beginner snowboarder its a long run and ends up taking about 45 minutes. She was hurting by the end. She has her heel slide pretty much down now just needs to switch it up to the toe. Definately one of the things I found hardest.


Heather relaxing just before a steep bit


At the end of the day we went out to Dinner at the Keg and then over to the Hidden Ridge for drinks & Hottub. It was pretty awesome, I got super drunk and passed out about 2am. I was then up at 7:30am cooked bacon and eggs for everyone. Had to go to work that night and just about passed out in exhaustion.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

New Years Eve, 2009

Its really hard to describe how amazing my new years was. And to think I was just about ready to pack it all in, I was working till 11pm and pissed off because I found out my ex (Brendan) was in a new relationship via facebook. You think after nearly four years you deserved to be told face to face. So yea I was bitter, didn't know what was going on. Figured I'd watch the fireworks and then have an early night.

So 11pm comes round I race home and drink in quick succession two Rev Vodkas and then get changed and walk to someones house where my friends and little sister were horribly drunk. We ended up climbing on the roof and watching the fireworks. After that we left the party and found some of my other mates and went to the Legion which was full of old people we danced there for like 2 hours. 2am comes round and everyone is like "Hippy House!" which I had no fucking idea what they were on about but followed anyway since I was now happily drunk and having a good time. The Hippy house turned out to be this crazy house full of people, drugs and music. The basement was decked out to be an underground rave a dj playing some awesome music.


Heather and I chilling in between dancing

Heather and I danced and talked till about 430am when we finally left. We ended up at Ciarans house and chilled out on the couch with him and Katie watching fire...going to bed around 630am


Ciaran and I passed out about 6am

Honestly it was a wicked night and it felt great, there was no dramas. It was like the good old days back when people just had fun instead of all the stress of life. Living in Banff is stress free.. life is to easy here.

Broke in the new year with two straight days of snowboarding after a nice 35cm snowfall in four days. Honestly these are some of the best days of my life!!