Canada Week 1: Banff, Bears and Boots

They say that 'a Canadian is someone who knows how to make love in a canoe!'  Now so far I cannot verify that this is true, but I have 6 months of skiing, ice hockey, partying and presumably canoeing to find out! I have been here for a week now and have already fallen in love with the town of Banff.

Once again my flight was a nightmare! They decided to move my flight forward so that it was 15 minutes after I checked in... but everything was ok, due to the bad weather it wasn't going to leave straight away. So there we were, Mum and myself, chatting about how I was going to sort my bank (oh yeah haha I kind of screwed up my banking system and didn't have a pin) when on the tanoy ... 'Will customer Andrew Abraham please go straight to gate 140'. Holy shit.. bugger bugger so we sprinted off to security and then BAM as i'm going through the x-ray machine (well obviously I'm not going through but my bags were) it broke with my laptop inside. So as im standing there as everyone diddy daddles around and the tanoy comes on again. 'Andrew Abraham get y'all ass to gate 140 now biaaatch' I think a black women going through the menopause had come onto shift by now! So I sprint through to the gate and breathlessly arrive only to be told 'awww there's no rush sweetie (sooo patronising) the plane's grounded for the next hour'. Idiots on the tanoy! And then on the flight.. the turbulence was so bad that I was almost vomited onto the ceiling. I guess it didn't help that I was surrounded by a gaggle of Chinese hyperventilating into sick bags! The rest of the journey passed much more smoothly.. literally as we were not being so battered by the wind, and I arrived to Canada in their early evening.

Over my first week I have been getting familiar with the town, meeting plenty of new people and sorting my life to settle into the swing of things for the upcoming winter months. It took me four or five days to get my body into the correct time zone, and on the first night out (just like in Vassiliki) I was being bought vodka red bulls to keep me awake! Its so strange here; the wildlife just doesn't give a s**t about people. Today as I was coming back from town I was making a head on collision with two reindeer and guess who lost in this Canadian game of chicken! I maintain that they only won due to superior numbers! By the way this picture is a mountain goat NOT a reindeer, but I like the picture so I threw it in :)

Ok so the boot fittings. I have been into the Ski Lounge so often that pretty much all of the guys working in their know me by name, and in some cases by the shape and pronation of my feet. It took over and hour and a half for me to get 'measured' but by god are the boots comfy!! Well the left one is perfect, whilst I have taken the right on back on a number occasions to get my moneys worth... I mean I did pay $640!! We went skiing to Lake Louise on Wednesday and it was great to test out all my new kit even if there was only one slope actually running.

On Monday, Alistair and myself made the rather epic trip up to Norquay through very 'grizzly bear' country! It was good to get up and see some very impressive views, plus I was able to meet Gord (future employer) and sort my Tri-Area Pass :)

I am trying to be as keen as I can be for work. So far I have got myself an interview to potentially be a babysitter, but a bit of a no no on under fives for Roo! I can read bedtime stories (love doing the accents), play kids games and generally muck around with the kids but changing nappies ..hmmm I think not! 

 The snow has finally come in and tomorrow I'm going to Sunshine Village with a load of guys from Cougar house to get properly in the swing of things. Hopefully it should be a really good day as in the evening we are going out for drinks with the Nonstop guys on our course!