Split personality

So this is all about me, me, me....
But before we get to that, I best mention that I neglected to wish big bro a happy birthday on the last post -seeing as though it was his birthday on the day of the last post - Happy birthday bro (belated per usual and the card is in the post - via Tanganiki (obviously lost somewhere with Lucy's)).
Now back to me....
This is what cheered me up no end this Friday;

I got home with a wee box of beer (good old Big Rock Pale Ale - I just can't get enough of the stuff, I don't know if I'm losing my taste for GB ale, or whether the Canucks are actually brewing a good pint - either way, it's a treat - however, I digress....). And was greeted with a freshly made, freshly wrapped new split board!!!!! Well, I actually took custody of the board in the pub car park on Friday afternoon in Calgary when Brina was picking me up. DHL had tried to deliver the board the day before -but with scant success. Then, on the Friday, DHL turned up at Starbucks to drop off some Latte cups (or something of that ilk), Brina (Starbucks queen) happened to ask the DHL chap did he have a snowboard in his van, the response from Mr. DHL was very much in the affirmative and he just handed it over to Brina without batting an eyelid. (Clearly Brina merely flashed a bit of cleavage to the DHL man and asked for the extra long package in the back of his truck - and fortunately DHL guy took this to mean nothing but my board).

As this shot shows, a couple for beers down the line and I just couldn't be parted from my new acquisition...Note that I'd lost the specs by this stage as it was all getting a bit emotional and I was professing my undying adulation for the Prior board (it all got a bit messy when I staunchly declared that I was going to let it sleep at the end of the bed.. at which point Brina snatched the beer out of my hand, hid the rest of the crate of ale, put the board in the spare room and bid me to stand in the corner facing the wall until I calmed down).

I couldn't resist however, just posting this last shot of the graphics just beneath the Prior, Handcrafted in Whistler print...

I guess a handmade board has your name on it too!!!! Love it!!!! And seeing as though it has last years top sheet and this years base sheet, there ain't another one like it in the world!
Anyway, apart from that, work still drains the living daylights out of me, the snow is very slowly building up in the Mts (very slowly - my patience is rather thin now), there's a touch of snow in Cochrane, and when the clocks go back this weekend that's it for evening rides outside in the week!
Halloween tomorrow (all the staff at work are going in some costumed theme. I still can't get into the mood and see Halloween as a game for six year olds, so I've decided to dress up tomorrow as a tall northern Englishman who teaches Social Studies - that should go down well). Like any respectable North American, Brina is all for dressing up and is heading off to Starbucks tomorrow as the Starbucks mermaid (see their logo if you're confused) - so I'm off to make her crown and fish scales.
After that I've a new board to tuck in and read a bedtime story to.
Hope you're all waiting for a bumper parcel,
Livestrong,
S&S.

Cowboys, basements and a Chinook.

Hi all, or should that be "Howdy" for you cowboy lovin' folk - yee haa!

Brina has kept up the meeting 'famous people' link this week, by bumping into the one and only.... Paul Brandt. As I picked her up from Starbucks this week she was as giddy as a schoolgirl..., "Guess who I met. Guess who I met..." she bleeted on. After many guesses (Muhammad Ali, Ghandi, Burt Reynolds were my best shots in the dark), Brina revealed "Paul Brandt!!!" squeeled in her best chiwowa squeak. I was stumped and my blank expression seemed to take the wind out of her sails... but alas, she soon explained that it's this feller;

By all accounts the smooth talking, leather clad, stetson sporting chap is a somewhat famous country music singer (may as well be a gangster rap star for all my euponious tastes of such tunes). By all accounts Brina got a little tongue tied, and asked him is he Paul Brandt.. when it was confirmed, the very excited Brina continued to gasp but all efforts of her conversation were held at dog whistle pitch and were therefore missed by dear old Paul. I honed in to who he was when it was explained to me "The man in the Ford advert!" - which pleased Brina when I comprhended. Apparently the cowboy lives just outside of Cochrane and wanders into town rather often to pick up a coffee and not get hastled (or squeaked at).

The basement is coming on - we've kind of settled things out with the cowboy (not the same style as the type mentioned above) who fixed things up down there.... It doesn't look too bad, and here's a video to click on to see what it's like down there if you aint seen it already...

And finally the Chinook (can't not mention the weather...). If you recall a post in early October, you'll have noticed I was getting a bit cocky about the early snow, winter was coming, splitboard was ordered, backcountry beckoned etc... Well, it looks like I jumped the gun a little, as compare the photo I posted from Lake Louise in early October to the same photo today;

- yikes, where has all the snow gone. The promise of a good winter base is beggered and we'll have to start from scratch again - I think I must've cursed it by forking out for a new board. We'll just have to sweat out the Chinook - high of 21 degrees tomorrow - crazy - but then plummeting back down to a high of 6 degrees the next day (that's more like it).

Hope the weather is doing what you want it to do,

Keep smiling and watch out for men in big hats drinking coffee (they might be famous)

S&S.

And....... Snooze......

Hi all,

I truly hope that your past week has been a bit more action packed than ours. Life in the fast lane in Cochrane has reached giddy heights - we had a late night last night - 9.30pm!!!!! It's real rock 'n'roll over here! Clearly the daily grind is taking hold in this rather barren period between summer and winter (although the weather has been pretty smart recently, and I did actually get a good long bike ride in on Saturday morning - setting off at the crack of dawn and having to ride with a toque under my helmet for the first time this season (Bloody hell, these Canucks are converting me - I meant to say 'wooly hat' and not 'toque')).

I've just videoed the basement to show on this blog (as I couldn't summon any weekend photos) but fortunately for you all I've misplaced the cable to download the video of the basement - so hopefully I'll have some semi-interesting visuals on the next post - otherwise, brace yourselves for the tour of our nearly completed, but not quite yet downstairs (yawn).

I did get sent these awesome shots of a Ursus maritimus though (thanks Ray), even for none animal folks you can't help but be amazed.....

So, one snowy day on the edge of Hudson Bay, a husky dog team and their musher (is that the right term?) set up camp when out of the blue a big ol' Polar bear appeared

Fearing for the lives of his huskies, the musher grabbed his camera to take a last shot. Fortunately, the Ursus maritimus wasn't looking for a bit of canine luncheon....Big ol' Polar bear just wanted to play around a bop the tasty little husky on the bonce.....

And then the soft ol' brute just wanted a bit of Husky lovin'....

And he just wanted a little pal to keep warm in the biting wind of the Arcitc...
And the Polar Bear came back to the camp every night for a week, just to play with the husky dog team!!!!!! How awesome is that, the big bear was just a bit lonely and wanted to play, so kept on coming back for fun and games with the dogs.... These photos were taken by a chap called Norbet Rosing for those of you keen to glean a bit more info - for anyone teaching a wildlife unit in their Outdoor and Envt Ed class these were a godsend (only because I'd had nothing planned to teach that day!!!!).

Hopefully that's buoyed you all up. Not much else to report here. We had a jolly over to Banff on Sunday afternoon to lie around and muse in the park. Brina is the barista queen, and hopefully the stagnant pull of early October will have washed off by the time the next post comes around.

Always go with the underdog (so long as it's a husky),

Big smiles and autumnal hugs to you all,

S&S.

Thanks - You're Welcome

Well, Thanksgiving rolls around once again in Canada. It doesn't seem like a year ago that I was giving thanks to Nutella on Mt Indefatigable, this weekend was once again fuelled by Nutella, but with boosts of gels and chocolate covered raisins - so thanks to them.
Saturday was a spin out on the road bike, chasing packs of tri bar riders. Then Sunday was a super muddy ride on the mtb along Sulphur Springs with Brad. The blurry shot below shows that winter is arriving in K country too...

Although, typical to its changable form, the weather soon cleared up, and once out of the trees most of the snow had melted off the open slopes and the sky blued up to remind us what summer looked like....There probably wont be too many more weeks of mountain biking to be had, as when Brina and I went for a Thanksgiving day hike today (Monday), Moose mountain (a bit of a mtb mecca) was really getting covered in its winter coat.

The obligatory 'lovey dovey' holiday shot shows Moose Mt in the background, trails getting a bit slippery for the bikes.
I'm not too sure about Thanksgiving here yet, as it seems to be on a different day to the Yanks' Thanksgiving, and so is giving thanks for something a bit different? (I think). Thanks for the harvest etc... (as opposed to America where they seem to be directly Thanking the Natives who showed the Pilgrims how to survive the winter - before the Pilgrims proceeded to slaughter all of the Natives - sounds like the Yankee way) - I may be way off with my history here, but hey, what do I know, I'm only a Social Studies teacher!!!!! So the Canadians seem to have Thanksgiving where in England we'd have 'harvest festival'. Well, the Canucks get a way better deal, a days holiday, feasting, drinking - whereas harvest festival back in the motherland means you get to take a can of baked beans down to the local church for the elderly congregation before heading back to math class.
There was no Thanks given to the student chappie who showed up on my doorstep yesterday though.. He assured me he wasn't selling anything, but just wanted to give me a free 4 month subscription to the Calgary Herald (newspaper; if you really hadn't figured it out). "Totally free?" I quizzed, "Absolutely" he responded earnestly, whilst shuffling an overflowing file of loose papers. "So I just get the paper for free?" I checked. "Completely free" he assured me again. "Great" I smiled and was going to close the door and nearly gave him a "Happy Thanksgiving" to boot.... "But.." now here it comes, "But I just need your signature and method of payment here sir" the spotty, increasingly irritating student persisted. "Method of payment?!?!" I asked rather loudly (the neighbours kids playing in the garden looked frightened) "but you told me it was free!!!!". "Well, it is free sir" the barefaced liar was still trying to convince me. "No it isn't" my contradictory tone becoming nothing more than a hiss. "It's free, but you have to pay for the weekends" the student blurted, losing his cheery, positive sales demeanour. "Well I don't want it then" I rapidly told him, only to be given such a look of scorn. The little shit was trying to give me a right old guilt trip for not cashing out. "Look mate" I tried to explain, seriously loosing my patience, "If I want to buy something I'll go to the shops, if I'm at home you can assume I don't want to buy anything". The door slammed too. I would like to have added here a; "now piss off" but I've not grown into that grumpy old git - yet.

But to all of you non - door to door salesmen, have a great Thanksgiving (although it's just October 8th to most of you), and make sure you get out before the weather comes.

Off rafting with one of my classes tomorrow and shall endeavour to resist the temptation to drown a couple of the sillly buggers.

Don't answer you door to any twat with a newspaper,

Happy Feasting,

S&S.

Bread Winning

The tides of change swept over Cochrane this week - for the better - as Brina handed in her notice at work - and what a relief it was for her to get that out of the way. Foothills Academy hasn't really agreed with her - stresses of the high school nobbers, pointless administrative tasks and other such tomfoolery caused her to see the light and pack it in. Already the perpetually cheery Brina has returned, and is looking forward to heading out to manage the Starbucks in Cochrane for a while and chilling out in life in general - what a welcome relief.
I'm still plugging away at Foothills, dodging bullets and keeping the faux efficiency up and running. - I must say that I'm learning a load of stuff teaching Social Studies, although keep on getting rather irritated every time the kids tell me they are not Canadian, but Irish, or Danish, or English, Scottish etc.. when in fact it transpires that about five or six generations ago their long lost great, great, great, great, great uncle fled Liverpool on a boat (and give me a reason you wouldn't flee Liverpool). "You're Canadian" I suggest, but then staff members (i.e. adults) give me the same banter "well actually I'm Welsh Mr. Williams, my great grandmother's cousin's budgie was once used down the mines in Swansea - so that makes me a Taffie"

"Yeah, and I once took a piss in the Ocean, but that doesn't make me a Mermaid!!!", although this curt response doesn't go down too well.
It's incredible, meet a Canuck in Canada and they claim to be from some other land, meet them in a foreign land and they're desperate to tell you they're Canadian. As a Manc, take it from me, you should be a hollering from the rooftops that you're from a country with sunshine, snow, mountains, clean air, maple syrup and beavers.
I did quite like it this week when one student, on a Canadian map test, labelled Saskatchewan as "The Gap" - he had never heard it called anything else (bless), and having driven through Saskatchewan last year, "the gap" is rather apt. The only comparisson is kids at home mapping England and writing "The Smog" where Middlesborough should be.

What post would be complete without me having a little jiffy about weather?! Well, here's Lake Louise today (taken from the top of Ptarmigan Chair) - it's a coming, and tis only Oct 2nd!!!

Still waiting for the board, not had to dust off the windtrainer just yet, not met Fonzie yet either (thinking of getting me a leather jacket for that one - and a wad of "Brylcreem" for the quiff).

Hope you've all got your noses to the wheel,

Mind the gap,

S&S.

Happy Days

Sunday, Monday Happy Days, etc....

Looks like the Fonz is coming to town! Apparently he's a big advocate for kids with learning disabilities (he was a dumb ass himself at school - said the politically correct spokesperson) - that is Henry Winkler is an advocate, not the Fonz himself (he's just a t.v. character - losers). He's doing a speech at an upcoming L.D. conference in Calgary, and school has decided to send all staff to the conference for the Thursday and Friday, but Henry himself (Arthur Fonzerelli) has got a little gig going on on the Wednesday night where he has asked the staff from our school (all twelve of them) to attend a meeting with him if we each bring two kids from our classrooms (for those of you blissfully unaware, all the kids at our school have learning disabilities, as do the majority of the staff if recent staff meetings are anything to go by). Taking two kids from my classroom out into the "real world" is akin to taking two bottles of nitro-glycerine for a stroll through a detonator factory - so no doubt you'll see the fireworks from far and wide when I sit them down at a table with Fonzie (although I did have to explain today who Fonzie was, so it may have all the excitement for them as it would for me meeting Buster Keaton).

What a star studded year, first Lance, then Fonzie - who next? Bob Carolgees (if anybody in North America has heard of him then you seriously need to get out more!!!). Can't say I'm too starstruck with Henry Winkler, although I'm looking forward to grilling him on the merits of Joanie (would much rather be asking him about his time trial up Alp d'Huez).

Back in the life of the non famous, Cochrane is teasing us with the seasons. All is yellow in the trees, the days are relatively sunny, but we've been scraping ice off the car windshield every morning for the past week (the cold is taking hold). The bike is still enjoying the weekends, had a nice ride out to the Ghost on Saturday - all was very serene with snow on the Devils Head and all... but evening rides after work are becoming more infrequent - nearly time to oil off the wind trainer.

The new board is in the mail (apparently), the snow is making an entrance in the west, and Cochrane is about to close down for the night.

Hope you are all well,
Feels so right it can't be wrong, Rockin' and rollin' all week long (just can't get the damn song out of my head - I'll try not to be humming it when shaking Henry's hand).

S&S.

p.s.

For those who feel they've missed out on the entertainment phenomenon that is Bob Carolgees, here's the tosser with "spit the dog" - how do these people ever become popular?

Coasting along...

Hi all...
Slowly getting back into the groove of work now. A big caffeine hit in the morning seems to be doing the job of helping to keep order amongst the unruly and maintaining a whiff of organisation in the air (or what seems to be organisation but is in fact blind panic fueled by sheer ignorance of Canadian history - oh the joy of teaching Social Studies). - It's actually really good fun at present, but what teacher worth their salt doesn't complain a bit, and I'm not one to break the mould... (thank god for the holidays etc..).
The weekend really saw the onset of Fall.

You can see how it's all begining to go a bit yellow down in the Elbow Valley there in the piccie. We had a little stroll around Fullerton Loop on Sunday - trying to make the most of the sun whilst it still shines... Saturday was a wee cycle but I think I posted that last time. The trees are really begining to turn their dramatic colours, the mornings are now pitch black when we get up (urrrgghhh), and it's all going a bit chilly... Here's the forecast warning copied from the weather offic for Cochrane for tonight;
A ridge of high pressure building down from the Arctic will bring cool air and clearing skies overnight. As a result overnight lows are expected to drop a few degrees below freezing tonight.

Just great, we've not gotten out of September and it's already brass monkies in the night-time. And what a Canadian report means by "a few degrees below freezing" I dread to think as these folks think minus 10 is a few degrees below!!

The critters are also out in force. A bear was wandering around Cochrane last week (black bear), we were told for sure that there was a Grizzly here in summer, on the path by the river - literally visible from the deck of our place!!!! There've been Cougars galore around Banff and Canmore, and a bloody black bear wrestled its way into somebody's garage in Calgary last night!

Anyhow, here's a little hello from Brina - and hopefully we'll get a video of the basement up here soon...

Wrapping up, and wrapping up,

S&S.

Struggling to keep the pace

Oh boy, does this work thing ever get in the way of buggering about in the great outdoors. The one joy of teaching is the summer holidays, but it is so long that you really get used to not working and enjoying life as it should be lived. Alas, on returning to work, a serious readjustment to the system is needed to perk up during the week and feign interest in youngsters' academic achievement, and squeezing the fun things back into a two day weekend takes some organising. We're getting there, but time seems to be flying by already, we've had two weeks back at school and I'm still struggling to keep up with the pace (hence, only getting to post this blog at ten past eleven in the evening (isn't it betime already?!?!?)).
Bri and I got out on the bikes last weekend and rode up past Elbow Falls in K Country - having had a rather splendid early September snowfall...

You can just about make out the snow on Mt's Glasgow and Cornwall in the background (and perhaps Banded Peak - but my Geography is a bit off looking at this photo). Brina was humming away with the thick tyres of her mountain bike on the tarmac, once more chuntering about needing a road bike..... Today (one week later), we took the bikes out again, as it has been silly hot and sunny for a mid September weekend. I rode out to Canmore at an unearthly hour for a Saturday morning, where Brina then picked me up in the mighty focus and we headed out for a ride together around Lake Minnewanka (still can't believe they called it that - from the millions of choices to christen a lake, the little masturbator). We left the camera at home (we - meaning Brina) and so have zero photo evidence of today's balmy weather and pristine views of snow capped Rundle beneath azure blue sky (reached the giddy heights of 24 degrees today) - although it was markedly colder early doors when I left the house in freezing shadows.

Our basement was coming on a treat, but alas, the "handymen" were clearly only "handymen" as opposed to "craftsmen" - so we're about to start a whole new stressful rigmarole in our lives of trying to avoid being ripped off by over zealous incompetent carpenters - watch this space for the imminent lawsuit (see any patterns developing here? Be it real estate agents or builders.... - no wonder my hair's falling out!!!!).

The new snowboard is on its way - hooray!!!!!! But hopefully we'll be milking the bikes for a bit longer if this weather holds out (unlikely). Realised today that I need to beef up a bit before the minus 40 winter arrives - as Brina's response to meeting me in Canmore today wasn't "how was the ride" - to which the retort would have been "smashing thanks..". But her response to me dismounting from the roadie bike was "you really are the skinniest man in the world aren't you!?!" - to which my retort was a good old fashioned British two fingered salute followed by some serious huffing and puffing - and a grand consumptions of Guiness this evening just to start building up the "balast" for sliding down snowy slopes on a plank of wood in the icey cold.

Follow the lines people (photo from Moab if you hadn't guessed).

Hope you're all bulking up and enjoying the Indian Summer (or Spring for you southern hemisphered jockies),

May the sun shine on all your weekends,

S&S.

Lights, Camera, Action

Waddya know, two posts in two days... phew must've had way too much time on my hands today I hear you cry - too true I call back from my free afternoon of sitting with my feet up. If you missed yesterdays blogg, keep scrolling down to the next bit... This is just a test post to see if I have mastered the art of putting video on this blog.

This isn't a recent video, just the only one I have to post (the only decent one anyway). Here's Canuck Brina at Lake Louise last year cruising down to Temple Lodge.

The Return of the Procrastinator

Hey All,

phew... tis somewhat tiring trying to muster up the energy to write a post today, as the first week back to work with the kids in class is having the usual life draining effect. Getting back into the routine of waking at 6am, arriving at school by 7.30am in order to plan (nothing like leaving it til the last minute), aiming to wake up by 8.50 when the kids arrive on the scene, gulping down a piping hot mug of stinky strong industrial coffee by 10.30, maintaining the bluff appearance of knowing what I'm talking about until lunch, gasping for air at 1pm, trying to dodge the bullets until 3.20pm, sneaking out of work early before 4pm, home by 4.15 ish, falling asleep on the couch by 5.30pm (despite another couple of cups of the now tepid extra strength caffine in the afternoon), waking up with a start at 7.00pm, getting mega grumpy for having missed the good part of the evening, tidy up by 8pm, in bed by 9pm all ready to get the shit beaten out of me again the next day!!! Woo Hoo!! Work sucks!

Fortunately we're keeping an eye on the weekends, and at least work is paying for new snowboard playthings for the upcoming winter, and it pays for the bloody basement - which is looking even more spiffing than when last mentioned and expect to see pictures of the finished product in the next post!

Work did attempt to appease the staff last week by taking us to the zoo for one of the professional development days - although being at the zoo was far too reminiscent of being in a classroom with the kids, so not as hot a deal as it first sounded (always have a schoolboy kind of giggle at seeing the wanking monkies in the zoo - bless em!). A couple of us aimed to sabbotage the great team building activity in the afternoon by partaking the test and "fun" with little vigour and rather crass, vulgar written responses - only to be ousted by the zoo host who was running the gig (these Canucks can be rather enthusiastic for anything) which resulted in our being presented with pencils in the shape of dicks and tits at the staff meeting the following day at school (refeshing to get a sense of humour out of admin!).

Any camping over the last weekend was washed out with the weather, and also put on hold seeing as though we do nothing but spend out spare time in DIY shops at the moment.

All in all, teaching Social Studies is pretty good fun (I feel like I'm almost on familiar territory), I've got the Outdoor Ed class again this year so we're off rafting the end of this month, and will hopefully have a day climbing and a day ski-ing before Christmas too (that's the work I like).

Brina is putting up with work with as little effort as possible and she seems rather pleased by her laissez faire teaching style.

Probably be out in the mountains this weekend - summer is coming to an end, and we'll have shots of the leaves in fall before you know it.

The goats up top there were taken by Brina and Lucy on a hike off Logan's Pass in Glaceir NP, and the other photo (which I don't think I've posted before) is the focus climbing high in Colorado on the way to Aspen.
Keep fighting through the tough stuff (and the boring mundane crap),
nearly the weekend,
S&S.

Crammin' it all in

Hi All,
with work looming on the horizon, we felt a need to get back out into the hills this week, to justify to ourselves that we are still on holiday (if only for just 3 more days), so we packed up the tent and the bikes and tootled off to Tunnel Mt in Banff. A couple of nights out in the fresh air was just the ticket. I managed to struggle out of bed early doors to get a couple of rides in, before heading out with Brina later in the day.

The little Canuck was having a blast on her mountain bike, but is aware of the delights of road bikes - and is thus now eager for a new steed.

We zipped around Lake Minnewanka on the Wednesday which was good fun - and fortunately very quiet. Thankfully it had warmed up a bit by midday, as the early morning ride was bitterly cold and gave me nightmares about winter riding conditions coming back early.





Brina was a little chilly camping in the tent, and despite her super thick matress (for which we now have a pump thank goodness - as I no longer have to go dizzy for ten minutes blowing it up) she still had the need to overdress for the cold night air .




It was fun to mosie around Banff for a couple of days too - we bumped into the chap who gave me the ticket to go and meet Lance, and he is currently searching for a tutor to go to Chile with his son for 4 weeks on a ski camp (I almost bit his hand off there and then, but was halted from telling him that I'd readily quit work for such a stint in the southern hemisphere).
It was also very fortunate that I brought the pizza maker along with us on the camping trip (see piccie below).
Unfortunately, I was put in command of cooking the pizza's on the camping bbq - and I did a super job of burning the shit out of them so they looked like charred wagon wheels - alas, it was chips and salsa for supper...
Seeing as though it's Saturday today, and we aint back at work until Tuesday, we're actually off to sneak another nights camping in tonight (and lo and behold it's our anniversary tomorrow - bloomin' eck, how swiftly the time passes in Canada). This morning will see me kicking and screaming my way through DIY stores to pick up odds and sods for the basement guys who we'll probably have back sometime next week to finish off the basement proper to put all the nice finishing touches to it which if left to me would; A: never ever in a thousand years get done, and B: look like they were installed by a one armed, blind Slovenian, even if I did get around to doing it.
Hope you're all well,
Hoping that Tuesday never comes,
S&S.

Junk Vultures

Saturday morning saw the great Garage Sale of Bow Ridge Drive. I inadvertently kept on calling it a Car Boot Sale and was confusing the don't know whats out of most Canadian folk (just for the record, Brits tend to sell all the crap from their garage out of the boot (ahem, trunk - sorry) of their car whilst parked in a field in the middle of nowhere - this way your neighbours don't get to see what rubbish you've accumulated and hoarded over the years).

So we were up at the crack of dawn to go and plaster our advertising signs across Cochrane, and at 8 o'clock on the dot the junk vultures were arriving - haggling over a dollar for this piece of crap or 50 cents for that broken, utterly useless, pre 1976 wad of garbage in the corner. Brina was all very gung ho, and we'd made about $100 by 9 o'clock (I was begining to like this garage sale business).

As you can see, Brina had got every piece of crap we own lined up on the tables out front, and the bleery eyed wife in the photo is sticking prices on stuff at 6.30am.

It was quite a fun way to meet certain characters of Cochrane (and there seem to be plenty of them) - an old couple from Stretford came along, and a woman from Helsby popped by (both places in alarmingly close proximity to the place where I grew up in the UK - about as close as Calgary is to Cochrane - if not closer) and another couple from the Ribble Valley, not a very good advert for the North West of England as we're all fleeing, but a good ad for this neck of the woods though.

It's been a rather quiet week other than purging the crap from the house - we eventually made a whopping $350 by the way, so a productive day on the whole. The rest of the week has seen a few stints out on the bike - headed over Highwood pass with Brad midweek, all was nice and quiet on the pass, although some hefty forest fires in BC and Montana were wreaking havoc with the views as you could barely see the mountains when descending down the other side. More riding should be had this week, in the somber period before resuming work next week (urrgh), and Brina is keen to head off for a bit more camping, so we taking the tent out to Kananaskis and Banff for a few days this week too (Think I'll sneek the bike with me).

Football season has started for all but Man Utd - so perhaps I'll just leave that topic for now.

From some of the last posts, I'd neglected to recant that we'd cruised through Arches National Park where there are endless stacks of crazyily piled rocks (It must have taken ages for them to balance all these things in place!!!)

And there are arches everywhere - hence the name of the park. We took a few of the photos from the car as it was so bloody hot - but in this piccie you can see a host of tourists braving the furness like temps to go and get a bit "hands on" with the one of the arches.

The roadtrip piccies will keep bobbing up from time to time as I recall places visited which haven't been harped on about in this blog yet.

Anyway, that's about all for today, I've got a trip to the landfill site to make (we didn't sell everything at the garage sale).

Hope you are all clearing the clutter out of your lives,

Happy Feng Shui
S&S.

Mixed bag of painting, plastering and snow.

The impending camping trip which was intending to relieve our somberness at having returned back to the four walls of home has been thwarted somewhat by the arrival of some really, truely crappy weather. For the past four days it has done nothing but piddle down in Cochrane and the surrounds - although with the first sighting of the hills today from the front window, it has been doing a little more than rain out west....Yeah, yeah, I know this is Canada, and I know that those big chunks of rock out there are the Rockies, but it still tickles me pink (not my pink) that there's a bit of the white stuff coming down in the middle of August. That makes for snow on the hills during every month of the year so far - lets hope the trend continues with much vigour.

As can be seen, the crappy rainy weather we've been having has given way to the blue sky of today - so hopefully we'll be off for a stint of sleeping under the canvas sometime this week. And speaking of canvas, here's the latest acquisition to the Williams' household...

Brina had been searching high and low for a picture of Rundle for the house (as it's where we got wed - aw, bless) and this nice colourful job caught her eye when we were wandering through Canmore. To make matters more excitable for Brina (and me too, although I pretended to be cool) we actually met the artist who painted the damn picture in the shop (as he only sells them in this one shop in Canmore). It was picture perfect (pun intended) and alas, has found a home on the living room wall. To my even greater delight, Brina's need for a new painting has justified my need for a new splitboard - so there'll be plenty of stories of that to come when the snow falls (hopefully another month of summer left yet though).
The basement boys are doing a bonny job and the bottom of the house is now habitable (almost) - expect pictures of the new basement which I could not (and will never attempt again) rennovate - you either got it, or you aint - and I am more than happy to state "I aint".
Still keeping the legs spinning on the bike and we've both now got one eye on getting back to work (horror of horrors) and I'm actually thinking about planning a lesson sometime next week (may as well seeing as though I didn't do any last year!!!).
CT scan on Tuesday, so I may as well head into work and make it a really miserable day (school is next door to the hospital). Hope the new saddle has staved off any "worries" that may show up on the scanarama.\
Hoping that all of your walls are square,
and tuck into the headwind,
Keeping it steady,
Smiles all around,
S&S.

A cacophony of memories and eggs

How do!
It's all somewhat quiet at home after the trip, and I'm still having the urge to pitch the tent every night and inflate thermarests (or full on camping matresses for Brina). Managed to get out yesterday with Brad around Bragg Creek on the mtbs and found some great trails - although was in agony on the trusty old Trek boneshaker having dashed around on pretty bikes like the one shown above the previous week! Came back from the ride yesterday to realise that the splattering of brown on the garage door that we noticed when we left was in fact a very small part of the bombardment of eggs and other assorted grocery shit that had been pelted at the front of our house the previous night!!!! Some little bastards (apologies for the French) had taken to using our house as target practice and thus we spent the best part of yesterday afternoon clambering around on the roof washing eggshells off the upper walls and windows - We've been away for three weeks so I can't think for the life of me who we've pissed off - but I would dearly like to have a cosy little 'chat' with them. The rest of today has been further domestic duty, gardening, cleaning (although bikes mainly), fixing stuff that I can't fix but pretend I can in a very half assed kind of way, and we have found a man willing to take on the onerous task of the basement so he'll be here tomorrow - I wash my hands of it....
Anyway, as you can see, brother was delighted to reach the Shangri-La that is Moab when on the trip. We'd rolled cautiously into the wonderful little town having realised 100 miles away that the back tires on the car were no longer rubber, just metal beading - this nonsense happened last year in the heat of Utah, Albertan tires just aren't made for the desert. Moab had the closest tire fitting shop and as we held our breath awaiting some dramatic blowout we had nothing but praise for "Chips Grand Tire" where Chip himself served us just before he shut up shop, and never before have I witnessed such a cheery, speedy, helpful, we're not trying to rip you off auto shop.
We landed a great campsite with nobody else around and all was good.... Prior to hitting this venue, our previous night had been spent in Mesa Verde about which I knew nowt. Now however, I see it was home to the ancient Pueblo folk who built nifty little houses on the cliff faces hundreds of years ago (700 years ago if I recall, but I kind of tuned out when the Ranger was going on... Now I know what the kids at school feel like when I'm whittering on about meanders and ox bow lakes).

This is one of the sites from above that we got to go and wander down to and have a good poke around - although touching the walls was a real no-no as they were only held together by mud - 700 year old mud that is, so they'd crumble like an Italian Army even if you just stared at them too long.
A little aside which I neglected to post to add to the amazing splendor of the Rockies throughout Colorado was one intriguingly named ski run in Telluride. Now, maybe I'm missing some obvious Americanism here and perhaps my knowledge of US history and society is very limited, but without wanting to offend anybody - can this really be the right name of a double black ski run in one of the best ski towns in the states?

Clearly Telluride is a rich white "man's" playground....

Telluride was an incredible spot and it was a treat to see where the big bro had raced in the Primal Quest a few years earlier, although he did mention some of the landmarks were a bit hazy in his mind having been racing without sleep for 5 days!

Hitting the Patagonia shop in Dillon on the way home was a pleasure, and clearly the girls were a touch enthusiastic about getting into the seriously cheap store...

And they left the store looking rather pleased with themselves.....

Although it wasn't just the chickeroos who were carried away in a retail frenzy of cheap Patagonia gear.. that night in the warm air of the campsite you wouldn't have believed that this feller below actually owns a gear shop;

Mark and Brina scored highest for being kitted up head to toe in Patagonia.
There is plenty more that will come out about the trip that is sure to come out in future postings - and I must get a photo album set up on here to dump a load of awesome piccies (modest!) that can be viewed online (calling Portland Ken for technical assistance...).

The trip was completed with a magic ride on the bikes from Radium to Banff, and what better way to end that and the trip with one of Earl's finest steaks in Banff.

Great times in the summer of 07.

Dodging the low flying eggs..
S&S.

Road Trip Part Deux

So where did we leave off then? Going to the Sun Road I recall.... good old Montana. It all seems such a while ago, now that we're back, and that Mark and Luce have headed back to NZ (eck).

We cruised down past flathead lake making a beeline for Yellowstone, when the deathly speedboat crossed out paths. We'd seen a layby to pull over in on the bend of a road, and as we were about to drive into the layby a lone trailer (perhaps pulled by Thestralls) and boat came whizzing across the bend in the road and ploughed right through the spot where we would have been about 2 seconds later... The trailer detached from its vehicle on the bend and kept on the straight line course into our parking spot.. that would have been one for the obituaries - four roadtripping tourists maimed brutally by unidentified trailer. It was all rather shocking for us and the poor woman driver of the car the trailer came from (apparently it was her hubby who hitched the boat up, and he wasn't there). It was so shocking that Mark decided the best course of action was to leap out with the camera clicking away at the disaster scene like some frenzied paparatzzi (spelt how?). A dip in the lake was much needed after such excitment.. then on to Wyoming.

Here're Brina and Luce at Yellowstone falls... there was so much just in Yellowstone to see with all the geysers, mudpots, canyons etc... we could've spent three weeks there. We picked up Ol' Faithful on the way out south to the Tetons and Jackson - where there was more biking to be had too. Then a wild, remote and "oh shit we're out of gas" drive towards Colorado - we camped very late in the dark in a random place we plucked from the map - which incidentally turned out to be rather spectacular when we awoke - Flaming Gorge, a desolate, deep sandstone canyon (piccie with the tents).

Steamboat Springs was the first destination in Colorado - and a very sleepy, dreary ski resort it turns out to be in summer time. We got to ride our first 10,000ft pass on the bikes - "Rabbit Ears Pass" heads up out of Steamboat, and the up is steep and prolonged - as I only realised after having spent an hour or so staring at our kid's back wheel feeling a serious burn going on in the legs.

Vail and Aspen were to come next, all very nice (and rather poncy). Here's the rub about Aspen's clientel.... Nearly 100 private Lear Jets lined up in the airport to whizz the rich and Lah de Dahs to and from the resort. The local bike shop was stocked with limited edition $10000 (minimum) Livestrong bikes. It's not that I'm jealous, just... jealous.

The excitment brimmed for Crested Butte - we were dispensing with the tents for three nights of luxury in the Three Seasons condo at "the Butte" (whatever happens in the fourth season I don't know). With wonderful coincidence our first time with a t.v on the trip coupled with the first stage of the Tour in the Pyrenees - three full days of watcing the blood doping, testosterone pumping athletic freaks fight it out in the mountains - perfect.

For those of you unaware of Crested Butte, it is one of mountain bike's mecca's -and it certainly was.

We all hired mountain bikes and hit the trails, Brina and Lucy were chirruping away like a couple of hens in the excitment of it all, and me and Mark were squarking a wee bit on some of the single track laid down. Also finding $35 on the trail is alway a bonus - now I normally carry a quarter in case I need to make a phone call, but what people carry (and loose) $35 for on the remote biking trails is beyond me - maybe it was for an elusive cafe we never found.

I don't remeber if on the last post I pointed out we saw a bear in town one night here too - all good fun leaving the garbage bags out at night to feed the local wildlife.Loads went on in Colorado, I've already forgotten to mention we all took roadbikes up to the Maroon Belles in Aspen, and I'm sure my rambling and picture choice isn't doing justice to the trip (we got carried away and have about 1000 piccies to view).
Telluride, Mesa Verde and Moab will feature a wee bit in the next post - but I am now to drag my sorry ass from the computer as the sun is beaming in the window and I've a neglected moutain bike who needs to be taken out in Bragg Creek for some lovin'.

Other news from here is we're still basking in the holiday time bliss. We cruised out to Banff yesterday and kicked about lazing around and finishing reading Harry Potter's last installment (it's not too bad). Will post again imminently.

Keep spinning and smiling,

S&S.

p.s:

"YEAH.. I WISH".

Back from the Road

Hi All,

What a lenghty time lapse without a posting here - all due to the Road Trip of all road trips. We've just landed back home after a mere 6500km have rolled around on the trusty old Ford Focus (which performed admirably - only needing to have 2 new tires put on the back in Utah as the wire had come right through the old ones making for some very wobbly driving, akin to racing down a cobble street at 70mph). I'm not sure how to get all of the trip's news on one post, so this might have to be a multi posted affair. First things first though;

My fascination with the big wild animals of Canada remains, and we saw this critter just as it was going dark by the road up near Lake Louise, feasting on the abundance of Buffalo Berries. Thinking how cuddly he looks, we had to recall that such a beast killed a biker a few days ago at Panorama!!!!!!

The trip into the states opened our eyes about how they deal with bears. In a town called Leadville in Colorado, the local newspaper pointed out that the biggest problem with bears was that locals were going out and wrestling them (honestly, I kid you not), and then in Crested Butte we saw a bear wandering down a back street at night - but thinking that there would be signs up or some kind of "alerting news" we dismissed the bear sighting as a big dog or a shadow - until the chef in the bar we ended up in told us that the bear had been in the alley every night for the past two months scavenging in the garbage bins (not bear proof) - the Yankie Doodles really are laid back when it comes to the ol' Ursus (maybe it's because they're all allowed to be holstered up with guns - the folks not the bears).

Anyway, back to the road trip. The focus was fully laden (with a touch of space saved for loading up at the Patagonia shop on the way home) and we headed out at 6pm making a bee line for Waterton. The plan was to ride the "Going to the Sun" road in Montana the following morning.

We spent most of the day of leaving, wandering around MEC trawling for all the things we needed (and didn't need).

So we made it to Waterton for sunset and had a nice wander around the Prince of Wales hotel and the Lake (which is the piccy at the top of this post).

It was a treat to be on the road and in the tent. We were all beaming about the adventure that lay ahead (although I was a tad apprehensive about getting into the States, for no other reason than I think that the customs folk don't like me and am developing a complex about it - but all was fine - and friendly!!!!).

The first ride of the trip came in Glacier NP - from St Mary on the East side of the park, to the Western entrance of Glacier - via the wonderful Going to the Sun road, which we hit early and missed the heavy traffic, saw glaciers, mt goats and incredibly speeds on the descent over the other side - the pass was a mere 6500 feet, which was great, but ones double that in altitude awaited in Coloroado - and I was already gasping for air....

I'll leave you with the bro's of R&R summiting Logan Pass.

My minds still a bit muddled with the enormity of what we've done, so the next post will be tomorrow and shall continue regaling the trip (Flaming Gorge, Yellowstone, Jackson, Crested Butte, Aspen, Vail, Telluride, Mesa Verde, Moab, Black Rock Gorge of the Gunnison are still to come - although not in that order... and I think I've still missed a few there!).

Hope all your summers are trippin'

Missing packing up the tent each morning,

Si, Bri, Mark and Luce.