Life in the Nuclear Bunker

So that's what two weeks feel like then!!! Where the bloody hell has time gone since the last posting? I only ask becase, absolutely bugger all has happened over the duration of the past fortnight. Well not absoutely nothing, we have sealed some of our windows in the house with what can only be described as extra thick cellophane (plastic wrap stuff) so that we don't get those cold winter drafts coming in (and so that we can survive the nuclear fallout from the next Neuc' sent over from Iran -seriously, the house is vacuum sealed so much that I'm scared I'm going to suffocate in my sleep!).

It's also that Happy Halloween time again (and I still don't get it but..), so Brina has gone all cosmic fairy like, in preparation for entertaining the kindergarten kidlings tomorrow! Apparently Halloween is way bigger than Christmas up on the reserve so it's a big deal to all! Brina tried to play it cool with her colleagues when they were asking her what she was dressing up as tomorrow; "oh I don't know" she lied, "I'll just have a rummage around tonight and see what I can throw together". The fibbing little blighter, she went out two weeks ago to buy her wings and has been harping on about her "costume" ever since! It all seems such good fun, but I just can't buy into it. Even at our school it's pretty intense with the need to dress up, the staff are all turning up as Zombies (all staff minus the lanky Brit that is, who will turn up as usual as a lanky unextraordinary Brit). I upset a few folks when it was asked by all staff in a meeting that the High School students should dress up the day before Halloween because they're all out of school at a career fair on Halloween day and will therefore miss the "fun". Rarely do I make rapid decisions in meetings but this request was immediately greeted by comments from me such as; "No Chance", "Ridiculous", "Obsurd", "Over the Top", "Suck it Up", and "Have I made myself clear that I can't abide all this dressing up and people enjoying themselves, so it aint gonna happen" - and it isn't!

Baring the oxygen deprived house (which is clearly taking its toll on the wife's dress sense) there aint much else going on. Been out on the bike a bit (but the nights close in with the clocks going back this weekend), had a few nights out running (but it's not biking and therefore I shall say no more), but I have procured a set of rollers for the bike. Those of you who know not what they are then you will be updated perhaps in the next post. Those of you in the "roller" know, then perhaps in the next post you will see a clip of me skidding across the basement floor on my face, under my bike, having spilled of the horrific machine! Seriously, they're the most terrifying things to put your bike on - I'm scared!

May you all keep well ventilated windows,

Trick or Treat,

S&S.

A Room WIth A View (and the return of Kodak)

Having located the camera I am happy to put more pictures and less prose in this post...

So as you can see, our view from the bedroom window in the Banff Springs wasn't all that bad!!!! I had to make sure that I got the edge of the window frame in the photograph because otherwise the scene just looked like a bloody postcard and really didn't look like a genuine view from a hotel bedroom window.

We were right up on the very rooftop floor, and I managed to capture Brina waking up as I had an early morning stroll.... (I'd like to say she was cheerfully waving, but in fact she's banging her fist shouting "where the bloody hell is that damn coffee you were meant to be bringing up to me?"). Needless to say, we had a delightfully relaxing Thanksgiving weekend at the Banff Springs - it was rather unique and surprisingly pleasurable to soak up Banff as a bona fide tourist; not wanting to race up to the summit of every mountain or go and disappear into the back country for hours on end. Having had a few somewhat hectic weeks, just kicking back, enjoying the town, scenery, hotel and coffee was just the ticket, with a couple of stints in the pool (well I can't sit completely still) and hot tub evenings, this touristy thing is all that it's cracked up to be!

As for the previous week's excursion up Cory Pass....

We shot up the steep side of the loop from Banff,and then skidded down into the screes of Gargoyle Valley...

And I'm no expert, but I'm guessing these endless freaky rock formations are something to do with the monicker "Gargoyle Valley".
The impressive Mount Louis towers over the far end of the valley (as usual, photographs without any scale in them don't really do justice to the scene - but it was a pretty big chunk of rock!).
border=0>And it was back into Banff in time for tea. Through the yellowing trees... In the past 2 weeks most of the yellows have now ended as the trees have decidedly had enough of the fall and are sleeping for winter - also the snow is building up (slowly but surely) on the higher trails (yippee!), although with it is coming the biting cold (not so yippee).
Anyhow, that's enough of that for now. I hope all is well in all your worlds...
That's as succinct as I get,
S&S.

Where's the Kodak?

Hi All....
as the title of the post suggests, I am photographically vacant due to the misplacing of our camera! We had headed up to Cory Pass last weekend and enjoyed one of the last summer ish days in the Rockies this year. I'm sure the photos wouldn't have been that orignial though, just scroll down through the endless posts where I harp on about Brina and I going out for a hike and look for the ubiquitous shot of me and the misses stood atop some very nice viewpoint - and you'll get the picture of what Cory Pass was like! It was rather impressive though as we desecended down the other side of the Pass into Gargoyle Valley, which, as the name suggests, had many spectacularly gruesome rock fomations, all sat around the rather impressive chunk of rock that is Mount Louis. Maybe if I find my camera within the next hour or so then I'll put some imagery up here!
We're heading off to the Banff Springs today for two nights of 'get away from it' relaxation. We had giddy notions of doing a couple of epic hikes in the mountains, but I've come to the conclusion that that's the kind of thing we do most weekends, so why not just stop, hang out and relax in Banff - so that's the plan - a whole lot of nothing but enjoying the luxuries of the long ThanksGiving weekend! (Saying that I'll be taking the running gear and hiking stuff for when I realize at 3pm today that I can't sit still very well - I'm a little worried about not taking the bike(s), but Brina has convinced me that they'll be o.k. left alone in the garage for a couple of days (I'm not so sure).
Although I'm excited about the relaxing part of the weekend, I actually have so much work to do that it isn't funny (and this week has been pretty much like that - hence the lack of blogging in the week) - it's actually 6.30am on Saturday now as I got up early to get some work out of the way - but as ever procrastinated enough to find something else to do (this) before actually committing to get my real work out!
Brina is thoroughly enjoying teaching the little kidlings out on the reservation, I'm sure you can all imagine her lovey dovey side caring for the lil' 'uns, getting cuddles from the class and being the teacher that's almost like a "fun mum' for them.
As sad is it may seem, we've missed the fact that there's a general election going on in Canada (not that I'm allowed to vote anyway, although Brina was keen not to vote for Celine Dion (in fact the Liberal Guy is Stephan Dion, but what's in a name anyway!)). We have noticed that there's some kind of election going on south of the border and the entertainment value them there Yanks put out with their "how to pick a President" game is well worth the air time on t.v. It's like a fully fledged comedy soap opera with the occassional terrifying twist - and just compelling viewing (obviously I can't vote there either, but it's way more fun to follow, and will probably have more direct consequences on the future than if Celine becomes the Prime Minister here or not).
Anyhow, I'm off to get that not so early morning anymore work done before we go away, although I may just procrastinate a bit more and try and find the camera first.
I'm hoping that there'll be photos next time,
Happy ThanksGiving,
S&S.