Canada week 17, 18,19 and 20: SPRING SKIING

Its been a little while so time to write up the last few weeks frivolities! This last week's snow has been insane; knee deep pow-pow and bluebird sky days! Spring skiing is definately the way to go. There is only two and a half weeks of the season left at Norquay now, but with it being Spring Break here in Alberta there is still plenty of work still going on. Last week I saw Celeste again (she was one of my first lessons when I taught her at Christmas) and apparently she had to do a school project on a kind of, hero sort of thing... and guess who she chose?! Hahah it certainly makes you feel good about work :)

It feels like a long time ago now, but for the first time in my life I went horse riding with West. The snow was pounding down as I saddled up and jumped onto Dan (the horse not my room mate..) Naturally having taken an apple with me to build a lasting and fullfilling relationship with my horsey horsey I was amazing, I wish I could be more modest but there isn't any other way of describing how great a team we were! The only crunch moment, as Dan rose into a trot I bounced up and now unfortunately for my sexual organs the stirups were a tad too long and on the subsequent down my full 85kg force landed on two items that are quite precious to me. Compounding this already dire situation, through my blurred-by-tears vison we were speeding into the back of a car, a sharp pull on reins did f**k all and I almost fell off. Needless to say on the walk home across the frozen river, the distance between my legs was about twice as wide compared to on the way there.

On a night out a little while back, my housemate Jon bounces up to me.. PANORAMA!!! Yes, yes, yes! Fully consumed with alcohol the glorious decison was made to go and 2 hours of sleep later we were on our way! The powder runs blended into galde tree runs, into moguls then laps through the park before carving to the bottom. Without streching my brain too much (because today during a lesson I had to add 5 and 4 as part of a game.. yeaaah Cambridge material when I have to have it pointed out by a 4 yr old that its definately not 8) as I don't know how to use it anymore, I can't think of any other types of skiing! Simply is was EPIC!

Finally I managed to get to see an ice hockey match: Calgary Flames vs Colorado Avalanche coinciding with St Paddys day = vodka fuelled mash up leading to blurry green vision; 3 people from Norquay were escorted from the game due to excessive alcoholling :) The game was such a fantastic spectacle. Last week on my 3 day programmes I met Brendan Morrison and taught two of his daughters, he plays for the Flames and has played for Canada... sooo that was kinda cool!


Last Friday I managed to get back to Kicking Horse (again after 2 hrs sleep.. mental), and once again the snow was amazing. On one run coming down the steep Whitewall back bowl I caught my skis under the powder and dived head first into the waist deep powder.. I think this photo says it all. I was only about 50cm under the snow and yet I couldn't move an inch.. a slight problem when Tim did the exact same thing and ended up finishing his slide about a foot away from me!

Yesterday I went to Sunshine Village with Tim and Max for another unforgettable day. The fresh tracks coming down South Side Chutes, hitting 360s in the park and then a 20ft cliff drop to finish the day. Fortunately this picture doesn't show about 3 seconds later.. after landing i bounced off a mogul into another, lost a ski.. kind of no handed kart-wheeled into another and finished with my head lost in the snow again. Today has been a struggle walking due to severe SHIN BANG, but it was totally worth it! The last time I got this bad shin bang was crashing on the XL jumps at Norquay.. 40+ft in the air onto an icey landing isn't too ideal for the shins. In fact come to think about it that was probably one of my harsher landings. I pulled a muscle in my stomach, kind of broke my iPod, gained an evening of headache on top of the shin bang.. definately an incentive to land on my feet next time!



Since we have been in Banff, it has been a Beaver House famly traditon to watch Jersey Shore all together on Thursday nights. The gold chains, extraordinary use of fake tan.. not the kind of show I would normally watch BUT as they say.. when in Rome! For Kelly's last night in Canada the theme JERSEY SHORE, so on slapped the fake tan, the wife-beater vests came out.. and we are all DTF!! Its been kind of wierd these last few weeks.. firstly Feller left, then Kelly and now Yannik as well... still an excuse to parties and have superb homemade bugers, sweet potato fries and salad.

Less than a month till im home now.. time to start planning the next adventure!



Canada Weeks 13, 14, 15 and 16: TIPS, Family and P-A-R-K!!!

Finally a chance to write up the last few weeks. I can't remember the last time that I wasn't high on life out here! The season is slowly starting to fizzle out with the end of the 8 week programmes.. however that means TIPS TIPS!! Over the course of 2 days I recieved $250, a box of chocolates, a $25 gift card for Starbucks and a bottle of wine! Yessss please :) I have been sooo lucky with the clients that I have been teaching over the last few weeks. 46 year old Peggy took me to lunch twice and brought me cake from the Rimrock hotel, 4 year old Isabella made me a card for Valentines day and 5 year old Everett brought me a box of chocolates that take Thorntons Chocolates and throw them off a 352 ft cliff to break the World Record for the highest ever cliff drop!

It was lovely to see the Family again, if only for a week and it turned out to be a fantastic opportunity to get some free skiing in (I worked 20 out of 21 days during Feb) and also detox for a while from the old enemy ... alcohol! The weather decided that it didn't like Rob's patchy, lacking in any sex appeal, facial fuzz and was below minus 35 for the majority of the week, I guess karma came and literally got Rob in the form of frost nip on the tip of his nose! Yowza! On Thursday the ski resorts froze to a halt and therefore we had a day at home.. I guess this video says it all!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=669711847&ref=ts#!/video/video.php?v=10150399994800261

The Hidden Ridge appartment was stunning; outdoor hot tubs, raindeers and picnic benches for us to fail jumps and rails on :) Finally myself and Kirst have been able to settle on a summer desination for our travels ... dun dun derrrr SOUTH AMERICA!!! Flights are booked into Ecuador and 2 adrenaline fuelled, being shot at, taking halucinagetic remedies with Amazonian tribes months later flying out of Peru! Im hoping that I can save up enough to really experience the place, there is a strong possibilty that im going to have to be either....a) a male stripper (I have little dignity left anyway plus its fairly unlikely that I could be a female stripper) b) sell my body organs (fortunately I have a spare leg, eye, testicle...etc) or c) teach Bill Gates to ski and recieve a $20,000 tip (although the chances are fairly slim).

The nightlife continues to be as fanatical and all-consuming as ever! My room-mate turned 18 a few weeks back, and the theme.. HAZZZA P! There is a muggle quidditch league between some of the America Universites (where else would it be), and I was the Golden Snitch, the rules.. if anyone managed to bring me to the floor I had to knock back the rest of my drink. Finally all those hours slugging away on the memorial rugby pitches at LRGS in the driving rain and hail paid off. Nevertheless, I don't think even Arnold Swarchenegger could have fought off 5 other guys who were all becoming more and more competitive in bringing me down.. and naturally I ended up drinking enough to fill a resonably sized swimming pool! One night I ended up crashing into the snow in just my boxers... damn that Jenga drinking game! Last Thursday it was Josh's 27th birthday and as it was my first day of non-skiing in two months I used the opportunity to catch up with lots of people back home.. however I didn't sober up until 4 in the afternoon so Im guessing I probably need to apologise to everyone who I spoke to! In the morning with a crazy fitness orientated mentality and a little persuasion from Lindsay I went for a 40 minute run which ended up with me getting lost half way up Tunnel mountain following either coyoti or wolf tracks in the snow! Its only a matter of time before I get munched by a cougar!

My other news.... Im still loving every day of skiing; moguls, powder, park, carving.. I really dont care just so long as its fast :) Its always nice to hear that you are looking, and I quote 'sickenly good' on the slopes! A while back I went for a sumptuous meal at Don and Donna's (a retired couple who work as casual instructors) and a great pollitical conversation fuelled by more than a couple bottles of red wine! I witnessed a huge avalanche almost cover the cascade run whilst I was sat less than 30 meters away at the top of the chair lift.. if there is a time to swear in front of your clients, I think this was it! The sheer power as trees where ripped and wrenched from the ground was awe-inspiring! I have a job as a science tutor for a local Banff 16yr old girl.. hahaha im not even too sure if I even have a brain at the moment, maybe a good way to slowly start breaking myself back in for university! Naturally Im watching all the rugby matches in the 6 Nations.. there is an English pub that shows the games so you know where I am every Saturday or Sunday when England have played!

Much Love to everyone back home

Canada Week 10, 11 and 12: The Meat of the Season

Finally a moment to catch my breath.. due to a severe lack of sleep, two and a half weeks continous skiing and a little excessive alcoholling I have crashed in bed for this evening! The past three weeks have been packed with so many different events and stories Im now struggling to remember them all so heres a rundown on the ones that are still fresh in my mind!

Cardboard Sled Derby: This basically a chance to get all the local Banff kids creative and build themselves a cardboard sled to race down the main hill at Norquay.. so naturally our competitive selves set out to beat them, and in all honesty our intentions were fantastic and for about 2 months we collected every piece of cardboard this side of the Atlantic. But for one hangover or another we ended up leaving the actual build until the day of the event. I left Kelly, Iona and Keely to build the sled whislt I hit up the beaver head (oh yeah we themed it to our house) and I guess this picture is the result of 3 hrs of blistering go go go work. The only design flaw ..no eye holes. Without a care in the world and with a few beers in my pocket  I set off towards the bus being 'carefully' guided by Iona, however after about 5 minutes I was so disoreintated that I might as well have been on LSD! These were pretty much my thoughts as I stumbled and crawled my way to the bus!

'I think Im hitting the cross roads, Ioooona where are you?? Arggh so many people talking, hey there's a new voice calling me over there, awesome I'll head that way, ahhh shit I wish all these cars would stop beeping so much, is kinda loud. Hmm wheres the edge of the pavement, ooo i know If i do a circle Ive got to be able to find the edge.. hmm this isn't working, ahhh shut that beeping you dumbass cars, what are they even beeping at?? Iona? Ooo someones laughing a lot, seriosuly where the f******k am I? Okay, time to remove my beaver head, holy s*******t!!!!'

I was stood in the middle of the crossroads on Banff Ave with about 5 or 6 cars stopped on all directions with one white van stopped about 2 inches away from me with all the passengers cracked up laughing and the driver slamming his fist into the horn. Even worse was the 15 or so people watching from the pavement that I thought I had been stood on!

At the moment I am working about 6 days a week, which is awesome financially but it does mean that Im not getting to free ski as much as id like. However the last couple of times I have been with Lindsay (she works at the gym) and we have been able to have some great skiing at Lake Lousie and Sunshine! There is no way that my creativeness could dissappear here... for Jon's (26 well now 27 yr old Aussie in the house) birthday the theme was tight and bright (incidently this was the night I went a little crazy on Absinthe crazzzy craaazzzzy stuff!!), and for Candice's last night yesterday it was a beer drinking competiton with each team of four having a different theme. I went with Kay, Yannik and Iona as the 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'. Back to that film, you know ... Chandler and Zac Efron are in it, well yeah so peacocking?! Definately works in Banff, go out in costume... hits the metaphorical nail on the head with an avalanche worthy BOOM!

Everyday something new is thrown up that eclipses the previous, for instance a few days ago, when we came home from the Instructor five-a-side football we realised it had been a little while since we had taken the rubbish to the bins.. it was minus 25 outside and no one was overly keen to step out into the wilderness (oh yeah im sure I saw a wolf the othe day on the way to the gym but everyone else is adamant it was only a fox... they know nothing) but yeah so the game TO THE BINS was formed. The aim; to run with as many bins bags and with as little clothing on the 5 minute round trip gathering as many followers (randomers on the sidewalk) to run with you = FUN TIMES!! :)

And finally the acrobag! This is effectively huge bouncy castle that they put at the end of a ridiculosuly steep jump for you to practise new tricks. However as I was working all weekend I only managed to get one shot at it, not wanting to waste my BIG chance, I went for a backflip.. which could have failed much worse (the previous day Max went for one and hit his head on the top of the jump instantly knocking himself out and loosing all remeberance of that day..smooooth!). The other stuff thats been filling my days... errmm one evening was at avalanche awareness event, fair bit of the gym (I have finally met my match at squash with Lindsay who plays a lot more and kicks my asss), tomorrow there are 250 ski journalists coming to Mt Norquay so hopefully i'm going to get interviewed and put in some ski magazines :), bit more ice skating, meals out for Ed who had to go home... its been pretty much go go go!

I just can't believe how quickly each weeks passes, and its only 2 more weeks until the family get here.. yeaaaah boyyyha!!! Im going to have to start planning the itinery.. so much to do in one week, just make sure you come rested.. my motto at the moment:

'You can always sleep in England..'

Canada Week 7,8 and 9: Crazzzy times Boyyha!!

So basically I have no time in my life where im not going non-stop!! The past 3 weeks have just gone so quickly and I seem to have been always been so hectic! Heres a bit of a run down from the last couple of days as they seem to be fairly typical...

Super Tuesdays involves taking two lovely Canadians ripping around the mountain every Tuesday over the following 8 weeks! For some insane madness they seem to love me and hang off my every word... very dangerous as Im sure I am chatting utter crap (somehow I ended up likening skiing to my A-level maths exams ... errr), but they seem to love it! In the evening myself and Dan went to the gym, ran for 30 mins in a crazily hot room, drank absolutely no water due to my great new idea of fast-track to drunk (bodily fluid was also lost in a 15 min hot tub/sauna session after!). That night was a welcome party for the 11 week non-stoppers so after drinking excessive gluvein and budweiser that went straight to our heads due to the afore mentioned drinking plan.. I crashed pretty early as I had been working 'really hard' for the last 4 days!

Wednesday was my first crash day in a while... so naturally I woke up at 8 o clock! Idiot as that evening was mine and Dans predrinks with the girls from the gym. After stumbling through the snow and almost breaking my ankle on the curb for half an hour we finally got to Lindsay's house to play yet another version of Ring of Fire!! The night that followed has got to be one of the best of my life... Im not going to divulge too too many details.. but it was good! It must seem like im getting smashed all the time, but I only drink when im not working, which isnt that much, so its not too much of a regular occurance; plus as its so expensive I have been using my fantastic new drinking cheap methods so keep my nights out cash free :)

After a full 30 mins sleep I was up for our MONSTER roadtrip to Kicking Horse ski resort. Waist deep powder in the bowls, zero visibilty, about a hundred or so wipe outs = aweeeesome day!! On the way back I was in Keely's car.. car tv, bose speakers, 'Love the way you lie' by Eminem on full blast, heated seats, jaffa cakes, blankets and pillows.. best road trip ever!! Having had half an hour sleep in 48 hours with a full days skiing and A LOT of dancing, I thought it would be great to go to the gym again where we (myself and Dan) promptly fell asleep in the hot tub.. 

Friday: Even though I was still knackered.. I rose nice and early to hit Sunshine with Jon (26 yr old Aussie housemate) due to the fact that the sky had vomitted 40cms of snow overnight.We bounced off pillow run after pillow run until my best wipe out so far ... bouncing from a huge pillow of snow I over shot the next one, sinking to my knees and poping my right ski... I skiied a further 10 meters before I sunk to my waist loosing my left ski where upon I Supermanned into the snow, kicking my legs in the air I needed Jon to help get me out!! Another awesome powder day left me knackered again but I just can't stop smiling at the moment :) 

Today I was back to work with my Weekend Warrior kids... we powder skiied all day, and although I had to hike up the hill so many times after the kids skis popped off and they couldnt get them back on.. it was SUUUPPPPERRR! The highlight of my day definately came from Brett! He is only a tiny 6 yr old boy who has the trousers of a 250lb Japanese sumo wrestler ... and as we were skiing down I took a look over my shoulder to see Brett stuck in the snow in the y-fronts, his trousers which where stuck on his boots that in turn were still attached to his skis were laying in the snow 5 meters behind him. I literally took me the next 3 runs to stop laughing!!

I hope I get a chance to chat to everyone sometime soon.. its so strange that its been over 2 months since I left home, I just hope that each day just keeps on getting better as it does at the moment!!

Love to all

Canada Week 6: Instructing, Imitating and Injuries

So this week I really kicked off my ski instructor career! Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday with an am programme and the same single girl private each afternoon. Marcus and Thea = fantastic little skiers, so we buzzed around Norquay making animal noises (personal favourite must have been the dolphins and whales; you haven't scared a person properly until you scream past them vividly personifying underwater creatures). Celeste in the afternoon had the biggest imagination ever, I barely even had to come up with interesting games as she had it sorted. I think our favourite was the avalanche game. I ski backwards holding Celeste's hands and every time she looks down at her skis the avalanche gets a little closer, until BAM we both fall over as the avalanche zooms overhead! I quickly found out this week that kids won't stop until they get a satisfactory answer and sometimes you have to be inventive. For instance:

Roo: 'Celeste, I'm putting my super powerful lasers on the front of your skis so everytime you look at them your eyes are going to burn' (its ok she's a massive tom boy and loves that kind of thing)
Celeste: 'Oh but my goggles are laser proof'
Roo: 'Ok then, this time I'm going to put a new, goggle blasting substance on the tips of your skis'
Celeste: 'What sort of substance'
Roo: 'Errrrr, well, hmmm yeah right so you know how bright the sun is..'
Celeste: 'Yeah, yeaaah!'
Roo: 'Well in the middle of the sun is this substance... sunium, and unfortunately for you have some in my pocket so everytime you now look at your skis its going to be so bright your eyes are going to pop out!!'
Celeste: 'That's totally awwweesome!!'

On Thursday I was off work , but no comfy, hot water bottle, kiss on the cheek from Lindsey Vonn wake up as I was hitting Lake Louise with Hans and BIG Al. It was a beautiful day and for a full morning we ripped up the slope until disaster struck! On quite a steep pitch BIG Al caught an edge and his 6'7'' lanky frame catapulted towards the ground. We stopped beside him and almost immediately it became apparent that something wasn't quite right! The ski patrol recommended we went to the hospital and there our worst fears were realised .. a hairline fracture to his right fibular means he cannot ski for 3 weeks at least, which sucks even more as his girlfriend is coming over soon! We still stopped off for a quick visit to the Chateau Lake Louise...

Christmas Eve was also the Norquay Staff Christmas party! So at 4:30 we made our way up the hairpin bends to 2 hours of free Christmas dinner and beer. On a spontaneous whim 347 Beaver St (my house) became the predrink venue for over 100 of the Norquay staff! It was an awesome party and the house was all intact at the end, even if for the next 2 days the whiff of stale beer, bodily fluids and that smell of sex lingered as a reminder. Liam (another instructor) in a drunken mindfuck decided to jump 3 flights of stairs and fairly obviously the world didn't break but he did. His smashed ankle was another stark reminder to everyone that any injury really kind of screws up the season.

It was a lovely start to Christmas day to chat to everyone, even if it did feel just a little weird talking to a large group sat in a room by myself. The socks were delightful as well, a step above toothbrushes anyway! I had the perfect lesson (which was fantastic as I only got 4 hours sleep the night before), an all day private with a 10 yr old girl who enjoys ripping up Mystic (hardest runs currently open), doing 360s on the snow and trying to do 180s! We spent the day laughing, flying on skis and to think I got paid at the end of the day as well! It was such a beautiful day.. this picture is looking down towards Banff from the Mystic chairlift! Today however the numbers were really low, I think there were more instructors than lift tickets sold! We went sessioning all morning, which is great as I get to keep improving my own skiing :) In the afternoon most instructors cleared out but I got a two hour private for a family... $30 tips yeaaah boyha!!

Im missing you guys loads, it just hasn't been Christmas for me being away from everyone.

Canada Week 5: Car Crash, Christmas Tree and Crusing on the Skates

On Monday myself and Yannick took it upon ourselves to get the Beaver House Christmas tree. Dodgey dealings at the scout hut.. and after about an hour of very careful consideration we were marching down Banff Ave with the finest six foot of pure piney, deepest, darkest, greenest and most Chirstmassy tree in all of Alberta! We splashed out on some lights but decorations.. hmm we got inventive :) All our sparkle attire from a few nights before went on, beer cans of various shapes and colours, hair bobbles, business cards, paper snowflakes, and the cherry on the cake with Kelly's toy monkey crowning the top of the tree. 

On Wednesday we decided to ski at Lake Louise due to the recent dump of power, the sky has practically be puking snow all over Louise and Sunshine. However after Emily took back our bus passes (a miserably sickening moment), we could no longer just happily hop onto the bus. Keen on saving money there was no way that I'm going to pay $15 each time I go, so I went hitch hiking. There was a load of people there and my heart kind of sank but I must have woken up with my happy, welcoming face on as out of the first 4 cars to pass, 2 of them stopped for me. Which was quite amusing as some Aussies had been there for 40 mins with no cars stopping! However everyone seemed to be going to Sunshine, not to worry; 'I've got this one for you guys'.. in the end out of the 8 people hitching hiking I only didn't get a car for 2 people, it must have been my energetic dancing (partially to attract attention partially out of necessity to keep warm). Nevertheless in the end Mary stopped to pick me up.

But the drama that lay ahead of us!! As we were driving along nattering away the car in front started to slide out of control. To set the scene, there are already two cars off the highway stuck in the snow, one that is about to be pulled out by a pick up truck. A man in orange dives out of the way as the car slide sideways up the back of the pickup truck, smashes onto the top stanchion, spins in the air (the Japanese woman's stricken face is still burned into the back on my retina) and slams onto the ground! We slow down and Mary asks 'should we stop' .. hell yeah! So I run back to the car and check if she is ok?! The woman is in shock but if anyone had been in the passenger seat they currently would have any legs as the whole side of the car had crumpled in! In the end we had to stay to give a police statement and it turns out that both the car and the $100,000 truck were written off. Crazy journey! The skiing at Lake Louise was awesome though as there was some chopped up powder and for the first time my skis really came into their own :) On the way home I got picked up by a guy called Cole who likes to try and do back flip japan airs (not a clue what it really is but I felt like such a douche when he asked what my favourite trick was? Haha). I've got his number though so apparently hes going to teach me some MENTAL tricks in the park. Could be awesome provided I don't die!

Thursday night I joined in the drinking games of all the EA guys as they had all passed their course that day. Great night except I'm slightly scared that one of the guys downstairs, Ed)fancies me! He is a camp as Graham Norton mixed with Gok Wan, and kept trying to stroke me (granted he was absolutely smashed) but now he keeps coming upstairs to cook and shower... hmm just a little scared! But I needed an earlier night than them as I has orientation at Norquay with Gord (ski school manager). We skied the resort then went home! Great way to earn money :) In the evening both Yannicks and myself went to drop in Volleyball at the gym. Haha it was mental, all this tiny little Japanese people charging around, giving high fives even when I massively screwed up as usual. Think we may accidentally become regulars if we aren't careful!

On Saturday we started teaching again. The uniforms are brilliant, brand new North Face jackets and pants, it just a shame we cant keep them at the end of the year! In the evening we firstly went to Nancy and Noel's house for a few homemade beers, before trekking out in minus 25 to the nearby lake for some ICE HOCKEY!! The last time I crushed the life from my feet and went skating was about 10 years ago in Blackpool, so naturally I just crashed into people, threw off my gloves and started miniature fights (its what they do on TV, except chopping someone in half and then repeated punching them in the face is hardly miniature!!). It was great fun though, even if we did loose pretty much every game, apart from the last one when I scooooooreeed, and the promptly fell over! Ahh well I scored even if my celebration did fail!

Hope everyone is good back home, and Merry Christmas xxx

Canada Week 4: Staff, Springs and SPARKLE!!

We had the 'exam' section of the instructor course this week. I have taken my fair share of exams over the years. My favourite by far being the Key Stage 3 SATS, where in English I spent  2 hrs explaining to the examiner all the positives of allowing Micheal Jackson into a primary school even though he has child abuse problems.. not too surprisingly I didn't score too highly on that one! But this exam was a little different, and unlike everyone still stuck in the monotonous drag of the education chain, the more inventive you could be the higher you scored! In one section of the assessment I had to teach the group how to turn in a snow plow.. having got everyone to choose their preferred model of airplane (shotgun Eurofighter), I got them turning through some laser beams (my ski poles stuck in the ground) and landing on a aircraft carrier (some more poles laid on the ground). Marks were awarded for the best airplane noises and high fives all around. Turns out I still have the brain of a 6 year old boy after all :)

On Thursday it was the last day of the 'exam' so we decided to go all out for the after party. One day Mike was watching videos on Youtube and happened to stumble across a video called German Sparkle Party, a party for very homosexually charged people clad in super sparkly attire. It became a running joke throughout the three weeks, and as such on Thursday night for our final meal everyone dressed up as their own versions of Sparkle partiers! It made it much more interesting trying to catch a girl's eye in the club later as I completely forgot that I looked like a cross between an exuberant Christmas tree and an slightly more muscular Indian woman. Earlier in the night for whatever reason Steven (dobber 1) challenged me to an arm wrestle.. and my competitive side jumped at the occasion! Dobber 1 down .. two and three quickly followed, until suddenly everyone wanted to see if they could beat me. It ended up with the looser having to buy the winner a drink.. fortunately for me it ended up a quite a cheap night :) Champion of arm wrestles and with a stomach of Tequila we went off to cause mayhem elsewhere!

German Sparkle Party http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-jN3vH26NQ

So back onto the work front. I have finally had my interview for babysitting and it seems like its going to be a great money grabber. I can work whenever its convenient and up to $16/hr plus tips :) During the interview Julie kept referring to all the other sitters as hers and shes ... it turns out that of all the 30 people employed I am the only guy doing it! Its kind of amusing but also massively gutting as everyone else gets t-shirts :( However I may also have another job lined up. The Banff Hockey Academy need someone with knowledge in maths (or math as they call it), chem and physics to help in the evenings at the school. In relation to my house if you fall out the front door with a slight wobble to the right you end up at the school, so this job could be perfect for me! Also I will only agree to help if I can get free hockey lessons with the academy guys! I have chosen to support the Pittsburgh Penguins, partially because they have the only hockey player I know in Sidney Crosby and that's only because his photo is sometimes on the food I buy, partially because they are close to the top and I need some bragging rights but mostly because I like Pingu and fairly obviously he is a penguin!

Yesterday evening Dan, Yannick and myself took the bus up to the Banff Hot Springs. It is a geothermal la la hoo ha, but basically a very warm swimming pool or enlarged bath. However we didn't realise it was going to be couples retreat, and felt a little awkward as we were surrounded on all sides by snogging couples. Nevertheless, it was a very relaxing end to the day (especially after the MONSTER leg session at the gym earlier. I watched a Stu playing in the Varsity game on some online programme but had to leave shortly after half time so I for the entire day I was left in suspense. Its a shame we lost... apparently they need a fly half eh eh?!

Today we went up to Norquay and did a bit of free skiing. We are going to go back tomorrow as well and clamp onto Gord until he gives us some work... il pretend to be a limpet if I have to! Hopefully by this time next week I will have been working and in the full swing of it :) The Christmas vibe is weak here.. I'm trying to build an Xmas playlist and maybe we will go and get a Christmas tree soon. We have already planned an MENTAL Christmas dinner.. pigs in blankets, meaaat, apple crumble, gluhvein ohhh yesssss! I hope I get some snow soon, grrr you have had more than me in the last 2 weeks!

Over and out xx