Skiing!!!!

Well I've been skiing all day for the past three days now. Unfortunately right this instant It's easier to feel the pain from my toe that has been squished incredibly hard, i couldn't tell whether it was being squashed or if it was just the numbness. They're bruising up now so i take it they're squashed. Gonna go get the boots checked out after this because i gotta be out there all day tommorow again, tough. It's been rather awesome. Such very thoroughly enjoyable times getting used to the whole business again. Little sad because i'd kinda hoped to jump back on and be at exactly the point where i left off, but just taking a short while to get used to the different conditions and new skiis and such. Still my air is progressively increasing, very exciting.
However what i really look forward to is having someone to ride with. Aly has all her stuff together now which is good so hopefully she'll come with me very soon. It's been interesting to be on my own all the time, there are some perks, I listen to music and i take the singles line at the lifts. Take breaks when i want or as rarely as i like. A lot of freedom but i look forward to company. Alex is in town, can't remember whether I'd said that in the last one. But Alex Bourne from school is with us now which is very nice. The girls had a late one last night but i wasn't up for it because i'm tiring myself out pretty well at the moment. They didn't return home till 4 though and tell me things were good.
Fortuntely it seems we're able to keep our 4 star hotel room for the last 8 days or so in december, really very lucky with that. It's awesome because when i get back from skiing all day i take a spa and then a sauna and it's brilliant. Really brings the best out of the place.
Hopefully more snow will fall still because they haven't actually opened the whole mountain. It was snowing all day today, not that heavily however. It's quite frustrating because you have to take the Gondala back down the mountain. Still the runs that they have open are really very long considering it's nowhere near as big as they could be when the whole mountain is open. Hopefully everything will be able to open before we leave.

Incredibly Exciting Times.

The fields are opening tommorow!!!!! I'm so damn excited and ready. Cannot wait, kinda wanna go to bed now. I intend on being up there from 8.30 till 3.00 when the lifts close. I think it's forecast for a sunny day also so i'll just wonder around enjoying the scenery whilst getting my legs back because i don't have anyone to go with tommorow. I've been studying a trail map and am extremely excited. Apparently it's still not that good snow and everything, but we'll see. Hopefully Alyson and Alex get their stuff organised soon and can come along with me.
Alex got here last night and we showed her a quick tour of the village when i finished work. Today we went walking to Lost Lake. Beautiful once more and this time we actually walked around the lake. Assisted by our scrumptous breakfast of pancakes with lots of Maple Syrup, fruit and yoghurt. I'd been craving the Maple before we came and hoping that it would be cheap for the good stuff over here because, well for obvious reason. Unfortunately however it is not, so have to do with the cheap stuff for now which still tastes fine. After this internet session we're going to go for another Splitz Burger, definately looking forward to that one. Aly and I have been having it quite often indeed. Have filled up our stamp card, so get one free today!!

Had a good weekend because Jas one of the girls from the cinema let me tag along on her party weekend. Finally after nights of useless depressing insomnia we were able to go out and enjoy the time we should be sleeping. On friday night we went to a house party which i thoroughly enjoyed. It had been snowing on friday and the house was in Creekside. It's quite high up and the hill and it was beautiful, snow covering all the trees and the ground was covered in about 25cm all over! I loved it because at one point everyone decided to go outside and try boarding on a snowboard that didn't have any bindings on it. It was great fun and even Aly had a go which was awesome. I'm overly impressed with myself because we decided too try about a 2 foot acid drop with about a 2 metre run up. The first guy was too drunk to stand up on it. Second guy fell when he did it. I assumed i was going to fall back and smack my head on the ledge, I think we all did. But no, I landed and gracefully stepped off. It was great times anyhow. Also we had my best snowball fight ever. Only comparing to the time in NZ when Phill and I got sick of hitting eachother from a few metres away so decided to turn upon Alyson who didn't care for any of it. Another good thing about it was whilst you play you can put your drink down and it's kept naturally very cold. Great time.

I really just cannot wait for tommorow. Can't wait. Very exciting, very much.

Just waiting...

Ok it's getting seriously frustratingly depressing now. Really need for the snow to fall. Apparently they're still definately going to open the chair lifts on the 27th, and next week there should be snow and things so it should be alright. At the top of the mountain their will be some at least, just have to catch the lift back down probably. Unfortunately it looks like we'll only get two weeks of snow time. The mood is the same with everyone pretty much, it's just waiting for the snow, but none so much as me. Incredibly unfortunate.



Alyson got back from Vancouver yesterday so that was very good. We went for a pretty good walk to Green Lake, passing Lost Lake again on the way. They're really beautiful as i've said and i can't wait to go back and see them when everything has snow, just better happen soon. During our walk we spotted what at first looked like squirrels, however due to their shorter tails and when they started speaking to us we realised that Alysons assumption was correct, these were in fact Chipmonks!!
At work the other night when i had to do my bin run, I saw some shady figures skulking around the dark alleyways, I was abit worried because i've heard that Coyote's wonder about at night. Eventually I got a good glimpse of them and it turned out to be a rather shy family of Racoons, three of them. They're awesome little creatures, I love all the woodland animals you get around here. You hear so many stories of how people see Coyote's at night, and Bears that wonder the Village, It's crazy. One of they guys down at reception said that when he went out for a smoke he'd just closed the door when he noticed a bear about 3 metres away. It was only the size of Shiba, so an average/largeish dog but they can still easily kill you. Would have weighed about 5 times as much as Shiba and big claws and so on that make it quite a worry. He kinda snuck back in whilst whistling to it trying to let it know he wasn't going to hurt it. Apparently their personality is abit like a cats, they don't really care about you, they'll just go about what they're doing until you actually make enough noise to scare it off or make it decide to leave. I wanna see one up a bit closer, though it'd be incredibly frightening at the same time.

Took Alyson to see Quantom of Solace last night and she liked it which was good. What's better however is that i've crushed her fetish for popcorn in the only way possible, through drowning. I've brought her home so much now and last night we again had way to much that she says no more. We'll see how long that lasts. It hasn't exactly lasted all that long with me considering just about every time I work i eat so much i get sick and then remember why i never want to have it again, or at least quite so much.

The Splitz Grill is a famous burger place over here, it's really really beautiful burgers. I've had the Spicy Lentil burger before so when we went that's what Aly got and i tried the Legendary Splitz burger which is beef. It was very delightful. I'd like to try compare it to the Ferg Burgers in Queenstown but i think it'll be out of mind by the time i get back there.

Whistlers Lakes

Well in the past couple of days we've been to visit most of the surrounding lakes that are within walking distance. On wednesday it was rainy and things but Lost Lake still looked brilliant. Yesterday it was a beautiful sunny day, something rare in these parts, so we went walking for a few hours to three more lakes, Alpha, Nita and Alta Lakes. They're all spectacular, the views are astonishing because of the clearing that the Lakes create you can see some of the incredible surrounding mountains. It's really brilliant and I look forward to seeing the all again once everything is covered in a thick layer of snow! Some of the lakes are so glassy that it honestly reflects just like a mirror, got a couple of awesome photos that when you turn the camera upside down it looks just like I've taken shots of the landscape, not the reflection in the water. Can't beleive just how reflective it was.

Alyson went back down to Vancouver last night, she'll be coming back up on Saturday at some point which leaves me quite lonely. But i'm working all three days anyhow, so she would have been on her own otherwise i guess. Last night to help drown the loneliness I went and saw a couple of movies. Bottle shock is about the succes off the Napa Valley vineyards in Calafornia, it's ok. And then the very first showing of the new James Bond 007 Movie. Bit of a let down, still good, not as good as Casino Royale though. Nice Aston DBS but it's only in the movie for the first car chase scene unfortunately. And you barely see it before once again it gets pretty wrecked.

Must move on quickly.

Paintballing the other day.

Well it was just like paintball always is, but it was so cold, and rainy, which i'm really not used to. It's usually extremely hot when i've played in the past obviously in brisbane. Also the most amusing differing aspect is that we had to watch out for bears, apparently they enjoy the sweet nectar of paintball as well. It's a vegetable based paint you see.
One of the rounds that we did was just crazy, it was invincible capture the flag. Two teams start on either side and the idea is to get the flag from the middle to their opposing side. And you can get hit as much as you want. It's a ridiculousu round, crazy. I was the hero though! hahaha. i ran and took the flag to the other side in about 30 sec and recieved at least 20 hits and some from within a couple of metres because i ran round the side of one of the trucks and caught someone by surprise, they regathered themselves and got me a lot though. The most annoying thing about it was that my gun could not shoot in a straight line. I had a clear view of people sometimes and i would take 20 shots and not one would hit, they went in different directions mid air everytime, most guns were just about as bad as mine but one of they guys on the other team had the straightest shooting gun i've ever seen. It's like the disadvantage of a slow kart when go-karting; incredibly frustrating. The group of people I went with were from the cinema, Alyson was invited to come but she preffered to save the money, and i'm not sure she would have enjoyed it so much. One of our manages at the cinema looks exactly like Dan Accroyd as well as Elvis. He's a strange man, but we were told that he had nicknames for Mack and I who'd both recently started there. I was bitch because I tie my hair up and Macks was considerably worse because he thinks he's gay in how he acts gangtser cause he's all into the skiing scene. he's actually sponsored and everything so he must be pretty damn awesome. Anyhow the day was successful because apparently I'm going from bitch to hero after my run, that's exciting news, and i recieved some decent welts to go with.

A Niece!!!!!

Alright well it sure has been a while and I've only got 20 mins. So I'll get through as much as i can chronologically.
First of all however, I have a niece!! Mandy had a baby girl on Saturday the 8th at 4am i believe. Also it quite funny to learn the news about 14 hours before that time where we are, crazy time zones. Pete and Mandy named her Crystal Anne Joshua. She is strong and healthy even though she came a few weeks early. From what i hear Mandy was quite seriously ill but again I think she is getting better. Crystal was also born just two days before Pete's bday on the 11th of Nov.

On thursday the 6th, a week ago it was a beautiful glorious day. When i woke up it was snowing and everything was covered in the wonderful stuff. It was so nice, like nothing i'd ever seen before. NZ wasn't like this because their was only snow at the peaks of the mountains. It was awesome but it's kinda frustrating now because it was just teasing me. It reclines quite quickly really when the snow stops and then the rain starts up. Still really can't be that long before another dump comes. And this time i've got my skis ready so i'll head straight up their and have myself a grand time. I had been looking around at all the best deals and my deal really is quite incredible, yet still expensive unfortunately. The only specification that i was really after with the skiis were twin tips because i wanna try to be going backwards and such. I'm gonna try and talk to Rachel and Bruce her dad and see if i can send it back with their stuff if it's cost effective and so on. I'm getting them back tommorow and on my first day off after that which i believe is Monday, i think i'll hike up the mountain till i find some snow. The really depressing thing about that is that once i reach the snow line i have to unstrap and walk back down as well. Still very exciting possabilities.
A very funny thing happened at the initial staff welcome meeting for the mountain job. I didn't know anyone their but fortunately I got talking to a nice guy so that was cool. While we were talking however a girl came up and sat beside me, she didn't say anything straight away, and i felt a very strange vibe so i didn't really feel like attempting conversation. At a random point during Aaron and my conversation however she plucked the courage and enlightened us with her speech. She got more strange as she went on. When it came to asking where we came from she said you'll never guess where I'm from. Then she said that she's actually had three lives, and made me try and guess. Now i was tryign to be polite here, in a way that showed i wasn't very into the conversation but polite nonetheless. Aaron was a bit more blatant but he could be because he was on the other side. So she didn't really offer me with any valuable hints about her three lives other than this is her first one as a girl??? Finally she told me that in the 1850's she'd been a Pirate. And previous to that life she was a Lion... ... .. .
Yesss. Well i thought it was quite interesting actually, not realy her but what was going on inside her head to either make herself believe that because it honestly sounded like she did. And then even more interesting of course would be if she actually did know, but that's all psychic stuff that you can't really understand, or believe when the person that is telling you this simply looks crazy and has serious sociable problems. Interesting topic for you Mum, I assume you'd pass it off as crazy talk though, certainly seemed to be that way. Apparently she's from Whistler, in this life.

Alyson and I had a lovely day off on monday. We went Ice skating at the Meadow Park sports place. It was really fun because they had an area where you can play ice hockey with plastic equipment. It was really really enjoyable. For the whole first session i was too scared to jump in there, not for myself but i thought i'd cut someone, badly. But after they cleaned the ice Aly and i rushed to the sticks and got ourself one of the few pucks. We were having a jolly old time until some kid stole the puck of Aly, let me tell you she was not happy. Hockey is one of the sports that Alyson really enjoyed and is still keen to play these days, one of the few. But this kid taking it off her was too much. She chased him for a while but he was too good so she left the area hating all children once more. It's really fun though because when your in that little thing all you do is try and steal the puck off people and have random shots at goal. I could usually compete with the kids until they were about 8 yrs old. Then they slaughtered me, Canadians are awesome at this stuff. It was really fun though, and i even got a steal off one of the guys who was about 14 once and they were really good. I got no more time left now. Have to talk about movies, lakes and of course Paintball next time.
Aly and i are gonna go see some more lakes today hopefully because its a beautiful sunny day.

Everything Should be Alright.

Well within a week we have both found jobs now! Really glad.
Alyson was approached within the first two days that we got here, in about the only five minute time slot that I wasn't with her, by some guys from Buffalo Bills. It's a club/pub that is apparently one of the best places you can get work here. Everyone who hears that she's got a job there is jealous, apparently you can make $200 in tips per night quite regularly, and $500 on big nights. Crazy, hopefully she can support us both.
I now have two jobs however, had my first shift at the cinema last night. It's not too bad at all, really rather simple work at an incredibly low wage but that's alright, everything here is usually low. At least i get free pop-corn and soft drink and of course movies. My other job is at the RoundHouse which is a fast food eatery on top of Whistler. It's perfect because I get a free lift pass working with the mountain! So hopefully i'll work it that I can do a few days there and 4 or so nights at the cinema.

Everything has been much more exciting of late because snow has been falling! It's so awesome to see. In fact the first day when it was still rather high up the mountain i was that excited that i tried to walk to it. I definately could have done it but there was only an hour left of sunlight before i left. So i had to head back once all of a sudden the clouds came over the closest mountain and everything got much darker and it would have been tough to walk down the hills in the rain/ even snow high up. I did get to see my first bear though, it was about 60 odd metres away but very cool to see one. Also a little frightening because at that point I was out of sight of everything and it suddenly felt like yes there are actually bears around here, and I thought they might be everywhere. Not to worry though they tell me. Cougars are the ones to worry about, if you see a Cougar it's probably been stalking you for hours and your about to be eaten. Still it would be cool to see one.

We're looking at all our options for buying our gear at the moment. Tossing up whether to buy or hire it, its hard to tell when the lifts will open. But I figure that if the snow falls enough and the lifts still aren't open i can trek up a little and that'd be worth while. We're both working tonight, it's a pretty strange feeling to finish work and head back to your hotel, I like it.

Halloween in the US of A

Our first overdone Halloween. It's crazy because for these people Halloween is for adults what Christmas is for Children, and halloween for that matter. Everyone gets excited and really go hard out with their costumes. People spend some big money on their superhero suits that they'll never wear again. Alyson and I left it very late but we pulled off some pretty good costumes ourselves however, and on a budget. I got a clown setup, containing face paints and wig for 5$, thanks to Alyson's prowess with makeup I was one of the best looking clowns we saw that night. Aly was wearing green lipstick and extremely long bird eyelashes. When we went back downstairs the receptionist Mike didn't even recognise us; and we know him pretty well. So I thought it was a very successful dressage effort.
One of the good things during the day was that the hotels put candy out, so everytime we went through reception I got a bit more chocolate, and when we went to apply at some other hotels we got some more also. Good incentives to even apply for jobs on halloween. Also as a treat we bought some of the gourmet every flavour jelly beans, they're so good. I had always wanted them but never really had them, but they're incredible for jelly beans, they really get the flavours very right as well, they must just get the particular sugar ingedient from each other flavour they'r trying to recreate and it shows you that the sugarness is all that tastess so good. As far as i can tell anyway.
Rachel came up from Vancouver, came up with her friend Nadine who she did the season with last year. We went out to a house where there were many more people to meet who had just about all been lifties last year. It was a good night and thoroughly enjoyable to see all the costumes, one of the best was a guy who was dressed as BeetleJuice. Also i can't remember the exact combination but i think i saw a fairy making out with a devil or something, quite funny.

I'm much less stressed because the cinema said that they were quite interested so hopefully i'll hear back from them soon, and Alyson has her trial tonight so hopefully she'll get some work soon. Tommorow I have an interview with the Intrawest company which owns most of the business up here, they run the lifts and mountain and heaps of resteraunts and things. It would be really good if i can get a job with them because you get the pass and things.
Otherwise it's pretty unfortunate that it just rains constantly, just gotta wait for it to turn into snow, very much looking forward to seeing the progress.
This morning we had a sauna before breakfast which is something new.