Best weekend ever!

And that became the motto for a weekend to be rivalled.

Friday morning Brendan and I got up in what I swear was minus 100C. We fueled up and headed out to Yoho National Park. We took a look at Takakkaw Falls which is supposed to be the second biggest falls in Canada. The weather was absolutely miserable and a heavy fog covered most the mountain tops yet we got a semi decant view.

After the falls we headed to The Natural Bridge at Kicking Horse which was absolutely stunning! Even with the crappy weather you could admire its beauty. We then drove up to Emerald Lake which is a really popular destination but shitty weather sort of made that hard. So finally at about 11:30am we drove on to Kelowna. The funny thing was as we drove the closer we got the nicer the weather got and soon I was stripping myself down of layers and turning the airconditioning on!

We stopped at this gorgeous lake just on the outskirts of Sicamoose. I didn't know the name but figured that it looked so beautiful I had to take photos. Only to discover five minutes later the name of the lake was Mara Lake! So in my subconcious I was drawn to my mother hahaha.

We got held up just outside of Vernon because a guy with a motor-home decided it would be a good idea to pass a cyclist on a tiny bridge. He clipped the cyclist and traffic was stopped for about 45 minutes whilst we waited for the ambulance. Everyone was ok to an extent (give or take a few broken bones) Anyway I think we finally made it to Kelowna around 4pm to find my LJ friend Steven, [info]thetar already there with his wife Carrie, [info]playmoby and son Jackson. So it was very cool to meet them all since thetar and I must have been friends for nearly a year now and I love meeting people from the internet. I'm bad that way! It was just lucky that we happened to be so close to each other since I only just got to Canada from Australia. I don't think im quite at the level of flying to another country just to meet someone! (yet)

The place we stayed at was Loft with a view which I definately reccomend to anyone visiting Kelowna.

Friday night we bought some steaks and drank.

Alchol consumed

16 pack of beer
Half bottle of vodka (pretty much all [info]thetar)
2 bottles of wine

We played the Canadian version of monopoly which [info]thetar should have been winning but was so drunk he lost all his money when he didnt notice us landing on his properties.

Saturday

Went to the farmers market in the morning.
Went to the Jammery which was kind of lame
Went to the park
Went to a Wine Tour.

Saturday night we picked up some chicken which Brendan grilled was so fanfuckingtastically delicious.

Alcohol consumed
2 bottles of wine
The rest of the vodka
8 Large beers

We then played Cranium till the wee hours of the morning. It was the Canadian version so we had trouble with all the brain questions since none of them made sense. The game itself had me in tears and carrie got a few wall of fame diagrams.

Sunday

So we basically just chilled in the morning then checked out. Brendan and I had a long drive ahead of us 6 hours then we also lost an hour in time turnover so leaving about midday we got into Banff around 8pm. Half the fault was because we took this wrong turn in Revelstoke and ended up half hour out of the way hoping that we would hit the highway. Then we hit the dirt roads and figured that it wasn't going to happen...

When we got back home we went straight up to a work party where I consumed another three glasses of wine and sang some kareoke. But my mind wasn't in it so much because of all the boozing the last two days.

Anyway it was an awesome weekend and I had a lot of fun!

Lake louise

You know what for being only an hour and half drive from a major city (calgary) it makes me wonder why I had to wait two weeks for my internet to be installed.

I shant be grumpy though because it arrived today and I am now the pround user of 10MB high speed connection, gone are the days of stealing dodgy wireless. Expect so much more from me...

Anyway Brendan and I went up to Lake Louise yesterday to do a big hike called Plain of Six Glaciers with the loop trail of lake agnes. About 14.5km all up and took us about 5-6 hours. Was absolutely beautiful. And I leave you with this...me playing air guitar with Lake Louise in the background.

Rock on people!

NUmber of jackets purchased 0

Pretty good haul lawn/garage saling this morning

Snowboard helmet, goggles & head warmer - $20
Book Rough guide to Canada - $1
Book some vampire novel - 50c
Potato cookbook - $2
Tan leather boots - $2
Little plush canadian moose with tags on - $1

Still on the hunt for cheap snowpants!

A couple of things that bug me about Canada.

The postal(post) codes are different for every street I'm not kidding the way they do their post is attach the codes to the streets rather then "districts" back home the postcode will direct you to a suburb then its quite easy to find the street from here. Banff is smaller the our typical suburb back home yet my Street Address, Work Address and Postal Address all have a different postal code. Oh and 90% of the time if you say "Postcode" they have no idea what I'm talking about. Yet if I say Zip code they understand me.

The phone system here is confusing
The province (aka state) I live in has at least 3 that I know of area codes
403, 780 and ... 1-403. Yes you guessed it every long distance call I make needs a 1 in front of it and for some reason certain 403 numbers are considered long-distance. However the only way you know this is when you get the automated voice on the other end of the phone telling you to dial 1. Or the returned fax! Oh and even better? If you put the 1 in front of the number and it doesn't need it then you won't get through either! So its a bit of a hit and miss situation really..

If you answer the phone you get charged!! Man that drives me up the wall. Some networks even charge you to recieve messages! And Brendan can't recieve anything if he has no credit on his phone!

Disclaimer Obviously no country is perfect and there is a lot I love about this place. (like the super cheap high speed internet) Just not those two!

its a love-hate relationship

You know a week or so ago I was over this fucking place. I don't even know why. I think I just got in one of my moods where I missed my hometown and my friends and family, I was feeling lonely so far away and I just felt like packing it all in and moving on.

So I'm over that :D Everything here is just so beautiful everytime I walk I'm staring at a mountain, there is so many interesting people here and for once in my life I don't really care about what I'm doing tomorrow. I'm just living for the sake of living instead of planning ahead for my so called future. And it feels fucking great.

A couple of things have me excited. I'm off to Kelowna at the end of the month to catch up with my seattle buddy [info]thetarand his family. I'm excited about going on wine tasting tours and just seeing a bit more of this amazing country. Plus its like 3 days before my birthday what a better way to celebrate turning 27!

We got our tax return back so Brendan and I are off to Calgary on Wednesday 10th september to go shopping for his new SLR digital camera. We scored over 5,000 from the tax office so it also means I'm getting a new laptop! Waiting of course for Starcraft 2 to be released before I splurge out since I want something mainly for that. My good ol macbook is doing the job for now!

Some girls from work and I have started a Girls night out knitting club. Gee I haven't knitted anything in about... 2 years. I'm making a scarf. For now. You know I'm actually living in a country where knitted items are useful! Anyway I did about six rows before I was to drunk from all the wine and dropping stiches left right and centre. I was working dangerously close to the top! It was great because now I have a little common ground to hang out with the girls from work.

Went out for Valeska's going away party the other night as well and ate some amazing steak OMG. Seriously The Keg makes the best steak I have ever had. We went out dancing after although the music sucked. I called my mate Simon from back home and chatted to him for a bit. It was so fucking cold my hands were freezing while I was on the phone I had to keep switching. I also had 1/2 a cigarette...*oops*

August 31st summer and snowing!!

Isn't this supposed to be summer. I'm not even ready for winter :o I don't even have mittens!!!

A-R-R-O-W

Elli has left me! My favourite english wench to harass is now on her way to Seattle then San Fran then back home to the UK. It makes me sad because we did have a pretty good friendship whilst she was here but I guess thats what comes from living in a seasonal town!. Anyway I have her details so whenever I am in Liverpool I can look her up! I am going to miss making fun of her posh accent and her crazy laugh.

We went out to celebrate? her departure. Funny story is that day emails had been sent out with pictures of a dodgy character from the Fox Hotel (one of the hotels owned by my company) he ordered a pizza pretended to be a guest gave a fake credit card number and used the hotel facilities. Anyway turned out he had just started working Night Audit at another one of our hotels (which happened to be Ellis) but after the first shift didn't show up. Then proceeded to call 6pm the next day to say he had been mugged. So while we were walking to town out of luck we ran into him walking the other way. Elli & Valeska just started to crack up and ran around the corner and I shouted out at the top of my voice "saw your picture mate!!"

The club was 'ladies night' so Brendan wasn't allowed in until 11pm. Thats ok because we stood outside talking to the bouncer who happened to be from Darwin of all places. You may remember him from....Ducks Nuts? Tall Greek looking guy with curly wog hair. I forget his name.. It was $2.75 Sour Puss all night which tasted like raspberry sour gummi worms. mmmm. I picked up a few men wearing togas as well!

Re: the title. Every single time I say arrow over the phone at work people ask me to spell it. I wonder if the aussie accent makes it sound really strange to Canadians? We have a hotel called The Arrow as well so I say it alot.

Speaking of work a lady asked for me specially tonight I had helped her out with a room the week before. Anyway she was so rapt in the room she wanted to book again for Saturday night and wanted to speak with me personally because of how awesome I was. The result? I now have a place to crash in Ontario and she wrote an email to my supervisor about how awesome and helpful I was. So she pretty much made my night. Who says you can't meet great people over the phone! (me actually...)

Brendan's dragon boat team came 3rd in the B division which is pretty good for a bunch of amateurs

my legs hurt

So the internet stealing frenzy is over which means I've been offline for the last three days and if you know me then you know that I was probably a little bit crazy.

I have some access right now at work but I am unable to reach the nessacities (such as facebook) except by hacking the web filter and last time I did that the department got in trouble so I'm a bit hesitant.

Basically this means I have to pay for internet. When this is going to happen I dont know so expect minimal contact with me.

I climbed Mt Rundle on Wednesday, overall it was a 9 hour round trip. The highest peak is 9,000 ft or so we didnt quite make it because weather pushed us back. The last two hours were spent climbing up a steep slate. There was a HUGE drop 1 metre either side and it began to rain. Oh not to mention that it was slippery. We couldnt see in front or behind us because of fog so in the end we had to give up on the trek. Still we got further then most people dream of. Going down was scary because the rocks were slippery and the angle was steep. Thank god I had awesome hiking boots.

Anyway so my legs hate me now because the muscles were not ready for hiking AT ALL. Yesterday there was a free concert in Banff but the weather was miserable. Still I hobbled out to see K-OS and Theory of a Deadman both Canadian bands and not to bad. Maybe not something I'd pay for but was worth checking out for free.

Brendan has his first Dragon Boat race tomorrow I expect all of you to be wishing him good luck!

Anyway till next time.