Nearly Bedtime

So here're the blurry handlebars out on the open, car shy road on my birthday morning ride. I headed out to Elbow Falls again last Saturday, desperate to get another 100+km under the belt early in the winter season (may not be a big deal for riders in Sheffield to be out in February, but it certainly is in these bloody big mountains). I was very eager to avoid the blizzards of the week before and alas, the weather remained fine and I was an hour swifter than the previous week (or I like to think that turning 32 just made me faster!!!!!). Maybe it was also something to do with the fact that I actually took more food than just a Cliff Bar and gel this week too for the 4+hr stint (a jersey pocket stuffed to the brim with peanut butter and jam sarnies and fig newtons! - damn things froze up a bit though and made for crunchy chewing).
Yum Yum

The most bizarre twists and turns are taking place at work, but I just can't be arsed to drone on about them at 9.30pm on a Thursday - I've just staggered off an hour and a half on the wind trainer and need sleep - so maybe next time I'll begin with the strange tales from Foothills Academy.....

Brina's supply teaching at Morley still, and things are good there (as good as a class full of crazy reservation kids can be anyway). All else remains very much one course to be perpetually mundane - although my spirits are lifting with the sunrises creeping into the drive to work now; it makes you feel almost human again when you can actually see a bit of light in the sky and when temps aren't Brass Monkey freezing.

The weekend involves many chores, but I'm afraid that's all I can muster at this witching hour. A smoothie and bed await (not at the same time).

Dreaming of all things carbon,

Nighty Night,

S&S.

Ostrich Williams

Hi All,
So here's to a blog sans negative nonsense like last week's pitiful number. In true Williams style I vow to bury my head in the sand; a la ostrich, and hope that all the difficult stuff in life just disappears when I pop back up again (this method of living has gotten me through to almost 32 years of age - so why change the habit of a lifetime?). It's not quite that easy as I am having to enroll in some course (which, if you recall, I cursed adamantly was not an option last week) to maintain my teachability status (don't want to lose the holidays and the cash) - although as of yet there is no confirmation that the courses I'm looking at will be finished in time - so my professional employment really does hang in the balance (time to get my head back into the sand).

Anyhow, here's a piccie of Mrs. W. musing over the view when we had a bonny hike up Elbow Falls Rd at the weekend. Rather nice of somebody to think of putting a bench there for us to take lunch on. We got out into the hills on a lovely day - the temps were above zero, the sky was that wonderful Alberta blue and it was a spot on way to relax and realise things aren't so bad! It was nice to get out into the sun too!
I'd ridden out to the same area on Saturday (excited that biking outdoors is more of an option) but got caught in a ridiculous blizzard on the way home. The forecast had been for snow on the day I rode out, but heading into the hills there was no sign at all (the bad weather sneaked up behind me from the East). Brina had asked if I would need to be picked up if it started to snow, to which my cocky response was something along the lines of; "you wont be able to come rescue me if the weather goes tits up in the TransRockies will you!?! so no". That'll teach me - in the head on blizzard and 70kph+ winds I endured for the last 2 and a half hours of the 5 and a half hour ride, I was desperately hoping the misses would be coming to save me - alas not - a good character building ride that's for sure!As for the snowboarding/ski-ing front, resorts remain the only option. Discussing the avi conditions with Mr.Weible over a pint in the week we reached the conclusion of "what's the point? There's always next year" - after two more people died this weekend, one was a chick ski-ing near Boom Lake where Brina and I x-country skied into last year, and which is a truly amazing place, but it'll still be there next year when hopefully the snow pack will be somewhat more stable. The big problem is that every slide tends to bring the entire winter snow pack with it - right down to the rocks - so each avi is at least over a metre deep (plenty of natural slides in K country this weekend, so you don't even need some dickhead snowboarder to trigger them!). Maybe things will consolidate and stabilise as Spring arrives - but highly unlikely.

Just a note - remember to take your phallic boomerang banana storage guard with you on any hike - it's a must, and a fine comedy talking point (bye, bye to banged up banana's in the backpack - genius... another Dragon's Den production).

May all of your thoughts be ignoring the bad crap that's going on,

Keeping it bright and Cheery,

It could be worse after all,

S&S.

Grind....

Everything seems to be grinding to a halt at present. I'm finding it a struggle to get my sorry backside off the couch in the evenings (for anything other than the windtrainer - although I'm taking it a little easier on that this week too after a rather intense none stop 6 week training block since the New Year). The lethargy has even encroached into my idle internet searching time - hence the lack of blog posts since 6th Feb (seems to be an emerging trend for 2008 - Williams the slack bastard - in the doom and gloom energyless state that I am at present, the end of the blog may be nigh. We'll see).

In order to alleviate such syndrome of down in the dumps, a long cross country ski was in order on Sunday (wasn't keen for a 3 hour sit on the wind trainer). Having loaded the car up, got myself kitted up, I hopped into the beloved Focus, and ....... nothing! Battery dead as an Iraqi Dictator (and now it was time to re-think the day and get on the windtrainer for 3 hours). Clearly the pic suggests a touch of frustration - but that was overwhelmed moreso when I decided to hike down to Canadian Tire to buy a battery - twas a mere minus 9, so no big deal. Alas, I hadn't considered that a car battery may weigh a little more than a pack of four AAAs - and hiking home with that thing was not a joy. Even the frickin' car is getting in on the 'down in the dumps' act. For you Brits about sniggering with mirth preparing to hurl a tirade of abuse my way for using the term 'frickin'', well I just thought that 'fucking' was a tad harsh on the poor old car - and also my Nana might be reading this... On which note, Nana is having a torrid time health wise and so a stint home to Blighty at Spring Break to see her is going to be the order of the day! Furthermore, to add to the woes (although none quite as pressing as Nana's health) it looks rather unlikely that Alberta Ed will be certifying me for next year - yawn, yawn, yawn... I'd harped on about this last year and thought I'd gotten around it - but they only gave me a temporary fix, and now expect me to sit a load more courses (27 credits!!!!) at Uni to be fully fledged to teach here! Well, there's no fucking chance! (apologies Nana, but Alberta Ed does deserve both barrels of my abuse). School have been great so far and keen to keep me - but things are coming to a head there too and I'll probably be flippin' burgers in September!

Brina's dayhome still seems to be taking shape and should be up and running soon (she's having a test run tomorrow as she has to look after the neighbour's two kids - one of whom has never been left alone by Mum before.. sounds like a day filled with "wwaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" to me. I've had a professional development day at school today (no kids - just developing us as educators in group sessions - yeah right!) that's if you call professional; filling in my training log planner that was discretely tucked inside my P.D. folder (inside which was double tucked a Harrods lingerie catalogue - you've gotta love BlackAdder).

It's family day on Monday ("bank holiday" for Brits, just "holiday" for the rest of the world), so Brina and I are off to those big pointy chunks of rock covered snow out west that I've been missing for the past couple of weekends (another contributor to the solemnity no doubt).

I hope that you are all manically cheery and full of piss and vinegar, and I promise to be somewhat upbeat and excitable next time (by when I may have ticked over to a melancholic 32 years old!!! bugger!)

Just off to find the Prosac,

Love to you all,

S&S.

Let me send you to sleep

Hi all,

clearly nothing too exciting has occurred in the void that was last week as I would have eagerly posted it on the blog earlier than Wednesday evening. The Cochrane routine continues; rely on Kicking Horse's finest coffee beans to get motivated for a day with whining teenagers, come home, eat, ride the bike, fall off the bike into a coma for eight hours - repeat Monday through Friday...

The razzamatazz of the Superbowl did grab my attention somewhat this Sunday however. I've really bought into the fanfare that America sticks to its rather over the top sporting events, but even this was a bit too much for me. Despite thoroughly enjoying the game aspects of the Superbowl, the four hours of hype leading up to it were a bit too much to take and I couldn't stomach the "half time show" - When Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers come waltzing onto the pitch flailing their guitars and beards in the middle of a sporting fixture, you know that things are getting a bit out of hand (imagine the abuse you'd get for doing that in the middle of the FA Cup! - not that I'm championing hooligans!).

I've had the delightful task of teaching sex ed to grade 8 kids at school this week. An hour of giggling about willies and boobies is rather draining - and the whole fanny thing here means "bum" which still catches me off guard! I had to reluctantly get involved with the kids "special" questions that they had asked of a sex ed councilor who came in last week, but who left me to pick up the pieces of her special questions - so today was spent trying to address queries such as; "can you get full body condoms? can you get pregnant from a golden shower? (crying out loud these kids are grade 8!) is there really a bone in your todger?" etc... Not one of my more comfortable lessons that's for sure! One student confused abstinence with aboriginal and went on a whole tirade about how being aboriginal is so important until you're married!

Brina's been out at Morley teaching again and I'm expecting her to come home in headress and mocassins by the end of the week (said the spokepeson for First Nation relations).

Jeez, I've got nothing else to drone on about so shall leave you with the nonesensical brevity that is this post.

I'll have something good to harp on about next week (I'm sure!). Obviously I've not piccies of the week (pretty certain that you don't really give a toss what the new couch looks like - I've got nothing else...) So here's a little ditty from Vail high street - me and the chicks....

Desperately hoping to redeem myself next week,

In the meantime avoid all talk fo fallopian tubes with 14 year olds...

S&S.

Brass Monkeys

Rather than Brass Monkeys, the title for this post should perhaps be the Bad Ass Brass Monkeys, because it is bloody freezing in cryogenic utopia that is Canada. I recall harping on last year about the really, really, really cold weather - well, it's back again but this time with its big ugly mother - the wind chill! Wind chill warnings have been issued for the past few days as in Calgary the wind chill has been minus 49!!! That aint cycling weather! That's just watching t.v. weather and not daring to venture too far from the couch in case there's a draft somewhere in the house! The actual ambient air temperature was a rather bracing minus 36 on the way to work from Cochrane these past couple of days, which burns your skin if you are senseless enough to expose any flesh outside for more than a millisecond. My love of winters and all things cold and white has been tarnished a litte bit by such climatic absurdity, it's as though the weather is really just taking the piss! The cold weather has slowed everything down somewhat, and the weekend was rather unproductive (although I did get up before dawn again on Saturday before the Arctic came south and skied out around Bragg Creek - no Cougars this time, the snow had been blown off certain aspects to expose rocks which my knees felt the need to connect with sharply, as I tumbled (again and again). My skiing became more of a hobble.
I've no piccies to post as we've had scant time outside - the longest I've been outside this week is trying to plug my damn car in on the school car park (which aint so easy with mits on that render you about as digitally dexterous as an arthritic lobster).
Our new couch has led us to spurge out on a new t.v and in all of our excitement we plumped for a 42 inch flat screen HD jobbie (I could tell you all about 1080P if I'd have been listening to the anal salesgeek who found it rather peculiar that I didn't play video games and that this would probably be our only electronic purchase in the four years!). The little 42 inch screen really is little when it's sat on the shelf in the shop amongst hoards of mega 60inch home theatre systems with all the bells and whistles "that'll do just fine" we convinced each other. Struggling to wheel the enormous box out of the shop (which incidentally could house at least three Taiwanese people) my spidey senses kicked in "mmmm, maybe a bit big, but it'll be reet".
On unpacking said t.v, the first response was "Holy shit, what have we bought?". The remote control itself is bigger than a laptop, and has more buttons than the cockpit of an Airbus A380 (we never even had a remote for our last telly). The instructions were encyclopedic and all the multitude of holes for wires on the back of the t.v. make it look like it's been hit by heavy artillery fire. We did manage to power up the t.v. - resulting in a blackout in the rest of Cochrane - and it's like being in the ruddy cinema. There was a show on about the ocean that gave me motion sickness, and the final of the tennis was shown but you literally have to move your head to watch the ball cross the screen. Clearly, any t.v that's going to make me vomit all over my new couch and that requires you to move to watch both sides of the screen, is going back. So it's going to take us the next few nights to figure out how to repack such a monstrous item back into the Taiwanese house - but hopefully the weather will have warmed up (to minus 20 at least) by the time we venture out into the elements to swap it for a dainty 32 inch t.v. (at least we'll still be able to see the wall with a smaller set).
Other than that, work remains what it is and Brina's still teaching Injuns before the daycare is up and running.
May all your programs be enormous and coming right at you from across the room,
S&S.

Tumbling Virtual Cougar Hunter

A big meow to you all.

A fine dose of winter weather has been battering this neck of the woods for the past week. Not making for more comfortable avalanche conditions in the big steep hills (once more a feller died mid-week in an avalanche) things have got so absurd that the Canadian Avalanche Council has put out extra advisories saying something along the lines of "People, do you not get it? C'est tres dangeroux. Stay at home and watch the football!" or something to that effect anyway.

We got about 10cm of snow in Cochrane yesterday - I had to shovel the drive at midday as Brina was expecting people to come and see the Dayhome - but once I'd finished, the drive was under another cm that had fallen during the time I was out there - bit like painting the Firth of Forth bridge (only colder).

I had a wee jolly out to Bragg Creek yesterday afternoon, but left it too late in the day and only got an hour in as the snow fell, leaving me to retreat at sundown fearing that my car was burried in the car park - but the good ol' Focus made it out! To avoid such a fisasco today I was up at 6 and in Bragg Creek before sunrise. Hitting the deep trails whilst it was still dark. T'was a wonderful way to wake up, breaking trail in minus 18 degrees or so, waiting for the sun, not a soul around. Managed to ski out for 3 and a half hours without seeing anybody else around. The piccie at the top doesn't quite do the depth of snow justice, but it gives a sense of the dawn light trail breaking Sunday morning fun!

Midway around the trail - once the light was up - the trail had been flattened a bit by a snowmobile (the easy way to groom the trail). I'd passed the snowmobile grooming crew leaving the parking lot as I arrived (they work nights). So when I saw fresh animal prints atop the trail it was clear there was a critter around. I ended up following Cougar prints for about 2km along the trail towards Bill Allen Pond area - I'm no Ben Gadd, but am 99% sure it was a Cougar - easily as big as the palm of my hand, pads, not a Wolf as the prints weren't too far apart (Wolves stride out a bit), way too big for coyote, fox or badger and not the same shape as wolverine. Bear prints are way way way different (and they're all asleep) - this was definitely big cat and I checked up the print in my geeks' guide to animal tracks when I got in and this made me super sure.... Anyhow, you may've noticed my excitment at Canadian animal spotting from previous posts - and the thought of being so close to the Cougar just tipped me over the edge - well, tipped me off my skis anyway. I was 2 and a half hours into the ski, hadn't seen sight or sound of another living soul, and so got out the video camera in the over zealous expectation of seeing the Cougar around the next bend. Below are two video clips - the first of which is of a bloody lanky English twit falling arse over tit, makes me piss my sides and I'm sure you'll find it almost as hilarious (anything with me face planting into the snow has got to bring some humour!!!). The second clip is more of the same but I feel it slightly redeems my ski-ing ability - although I'm a far cry from David Attenborough on snow!

Ha ha ha ha ha etc..... I'd like to say that was the only time I fell over, but towards the very end of the ski I was getting a bit wobbly and the photo at the very end of this blog is a testament to my ineptitude.

All in all the day has been great fun (disregarding the piles of marking I've had to do this afternoon). Brina is getting the Dayhome up and running and the basement is looking like a veritable kindergarten. Brina's also doing a bit of sub teaching and has been out at Morley on the reservation, it's not been too bad for her but still, teaching on a reservation is more crowd control than academia. No-doubt we'll get out for a swish through the snow next weekend once we've battled through another arduous week of employment. That's about it from Cochrane for now, time to go and take the cat nip out of my ski-ing backpack.

Keep your eyes open,

You don't know what's following you,
S&S.

Slippin' and Slidin'

Hi all,

another week whizzes by in a typically Williams procrastinated blur. We're nearing the middle of Jan and I'm still not quite orientated with this 2008 number just yet. The weather isn't helping me keep tabs on where I am in the year either. With the expected temps of mid January to be down in the minus double digits, it's somewhat of a surprise to be out on the road on the bike in plus 4 or 5 degrees!!!! Monday is meant to be plus 8 !!! That's going to be as warm as Manchester! This hasn't been helping with the snow stability in the mountains as the avalanche danger still remains immense (especially after a wicked storm passed over them last week). Two more guys triggered a slide in K Country today - burrying one feller a metre deep, but his mate clung to a tree so was able to dig him out. Each post mentions some avalanche kind of activity and imminent death - so the resorts are just the ticket at the moment until the snow starts behaving sensibly. My poor new split board is just itching to get out and has threatened to disown me if I don't take it out soon - Brina has suggested we just frame it and hang it above the fire place.

As for Mrs. Willi. She's been out cross country ski-ing midweek with someone from Starbucks... here she is...Damn!!!! The photos were sent as an e-mail attachment so weren't downloaded directly from our camera - and it seems that this is about as big as they get!!!!! Well Brina's the white speck in the middle of the shot zooming down the slope!The size of these piccies is a real bugger, as Brina was keen to post the following shots of the Moose she nearly careered into and the onlooking deer who seemed to find the whole scene rather amusing...

Clearly dainty Mrs. Wife is stealthy enough to get close to such critters - I normally get to within about 500 metres and then clumisly trip over some roots before they go scittering off through the undergrowth.
Our new settee (couch or sofa in this land I believe) is making for very pleasant afternoon, and after work snoozing potential. The Americans have sucked me into this game that is NFL - I offically dismiss my long held prejudice that it's just soft rugby with helmets and shoulder pads - the superbowl final is nearing and I'm hooked! And finally, Brina is downstairs baking up a batch of 'Cosmic Power Cookies', and seeing as though the smell is drifting through the house there's no better excuse to log off now than 'I've got to go and do some quality control tasting - of the entire batch'.

Hope all of your slopes are stable and that your cookies are warm,

S&S.

So this is 2008 then?!

Happy New Year to you all.

So a week of 2008 has slipped by and the world doesn't seem to have altered dramatically in any way, shape or form whatsoever. With all the fan fare surrounding New Years Eve you'd be forgiven for expecting to find streets paved with gold as the dawn breaks on the 1st of Jan, or the twelve horsemen of the apocalypse riding into view, or the end of famine and poverty. Maybe next year!

School resumed today much to my chagrin. All the kids were grumbling about being back at school - but I was grumbling a lot louder than them and sought an irritable free day taking out my misery and anger of being back at work on any student who wanted to enthusiastically inform me of all the expensive gifts they were spoiled with over Christmas (only three detentions given out though - 2008 isn't a great start for some of the little whiners).

We've been battling off the flu for the past week. Had a little ski-ing cross country and a whiteout day at Sunshine. The weather's warming up - highs of minus 4 ish are making for a very pleasant week (pity I can't get off to the ski resorts this week - perhaps I feel a sick day coming on!). Not hit the back country due to ridiculously high avalanche risk conditions persisting throughout the Rockies - 2 guys were in a slide at Lake Louise on Saturday and 3 people in a slide at Big White in BC. Both of these places are resorts where you shouldn't be getting avalanches as it is all well patrolled / bombed etc... So you can only just imagine what the back country is like at the moment!!!!

Had good fun playing on a Wii at Brad and Julie's last week. For the none computer game literate, a Wii is a computer game thingy with no wires, just a 'stick' you wave around and the character on the screen mimics your movement - tennis, baseball etc... were a hoot (but never before has my arm ached so much from playing on a computer game - couldn't brush my teeth properly for days afterwards!!).

Big Red Dan from work came over at the end of the hols and treated us to his culinary skills, although he was well fuelled with a bottle of Macallan...

He also brought along Scout - you can tell she's a Canadian dog because she wears stuff made by roots! Even the hounds have to dress up in chilly Canada to go for a walk....And on that note I'm off, still waiting to be highly inspired by 2008 (hopefully it's just a slow starting anum that'll kick into gear before too long).

Hoping that 08 is already full of boundless cheer for you all,

S&S.

Happy New Year (did we miss it?)

Happy New Year to you all,

It's not quite here yet - tis early New Years eve (although we only realised it was New Year's Eve at about 4pm today!). It'll be highly surprising if either of us make it to midnight, so I like to think of myself still being on British time today - that way it's already 2008 as I write this and I can go to be with a clear, non curmudgeon conscience.

Christmas went well, the early morning Christmas ski was lovely. Rather than head to Peter Lougheed Park, we mosied on up to Canmore and skied a couple of hours along Goat Creek. Brina, in all her wisdom thought that just because she'd got new warm socks for Christmas that she only needed sandals...

Whilst I was content to flaunt my 'Manly' chocolate - you've gotta love Yorkie Bars! English chocky on a Christmas morn' is such a treat - one of the few things Blighty still gets right these days!

Even the sun managed to make an appearance...

And what better surroundings to get the festive feel....
And it's off into the trees.....

Keeping on track....
And for the obligatory 'lovey duvvy' Chrimbo shot...
That's somewhat of a picture fest. The rest of Christmas day was spent tucking into Turkey washed down with Guinness at the neighbour's house. Since then Brina has ended her reign as the Coffee Queen, we've skied a couple of times, and have been fighting the flu for the past 2 days (having stayed up until the unearthly hours of 11.30pm 2 nights ago for a curry with a couple of Brits who've moved into Cochrane - we're blaming the late night which is why I'm not optimistic about seeing in the New Year tonight - it's just another day).

But here's wishing you all a Happy New Year and looking forward to seeing you all (not at the same time) in 2008.

Humming Auld Lang Syne with as much enthusiasm as possible,

See you next year,

S&S.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all (or "Happy Holidays" for the politically correct/insane).
As promised in the last post I saved my festive cheer for today.... And there it was, hope you didn't miss it! The whole "Happy Holidays" nonsense really gets on my nerves - what's offensive about Christmas?!? - Even if don't believe in Christ or Mass then surely your beliefs are strong enough to indulge the Santa loving fraternity (Santa was one of the three wise men right?!?). The servers in Starbucks aren't meant to wish their customers "Merry Christmas", Christmas Trees are now only to be referred to as Holiday Trees!! - The only trees I want to see on holiday have palms and coconuts, stretching down white sandy beaches! The height of this PC absurdity stretches beyonds the realms of North America. The Brits banned hot cross buns at Easter time and Nativity plays in Primary schools are a big no no - wouldn't like to subject anybody of another ethnic descent to a different culture. But the most surprising addition to getting involved in the PC craze is Australia - the most chauvinistic, beer swilling, piss taking, not quite in the modern world kind of society, you could imagine (all in a wonderfully positive way, by the way!), and they're banning Santa from saying "Ho, Ho, Ho". Apparently it can lead to great uncertainty amongst the children sitting on his lap thinking that he is pointing out three hookers stood in line!

Well that little diatribe took me by surprise, I was only wanting to wish you all Merry Christmas (oops, there I go again with that festive cheer). Brina and I are off on our Christmas morning ski tomorrow - hot chocolate, Cadburys and croissants at the ready. Then around to the neighbours for Turkey and Guinness into the evening.
Got the first day at Sunshine in with Brad yesterday - snow was good, rusty skills were swiftly ironed out by both parties for much fun dashing through the trees, the piccie above almost illustrates the airbourne capabilities of Brad's skis - didn't really stop all day and the legs feel it today (I forgot that my bike legs don't transfer so easily to snowboarding). The only snag of the day was a bit of flat light which made for that terrifyingly hilarious sensation of sometimes not actually realising which way you're moving - up, down or arse over tit. Good to be back into the mix of winter though - still trying to accept the chilly Canadian temps (my blood refuses to believe that it isn't summer any more!).

So here's wishing you all a wonderful Christmas,

Happy Holidays,

S&S.

p.s: Here's a piccie of two foreigners trying to pretend it's not too bloody freezing sat on the chairlift!

Slacker!

Well hello all,
This is the first time in a week that I've had the computer cranked up at home - the dark evenings have been slipping by without a hint of feeding the hamster who turns the wheels which powers our ever decrepit hp laptop. I would attempt to update the blog at work but fear at having previous, very incriminating posts read by administration - seeing as though my teaching certification still holds by a thread, it's probably best I merely while away the school day surfing general trash and soft porn on the Internet rather than making snide remarks about my wonderful employers (if you're reading this work folks, the porn thing is obviously a joke!!!) - note to self to remember to delete computer history at work tomorrow!
Enough of such nonsensical babble - what's been going on in Cochrane? Well, not a great deal! Thankfully the school holidays begin tomorrow, Brad and I are off to drown in Sunshine's metres of powder with which it has been blessed this week, Brina is closing up shop at Starbucks pretty soon (much to her relief), and with the thought that tomorrow is the shortest day a light panic has set in that I've not really applied myself as much as possible to the winter thus far - but alas, seeing as though it runs through to May we can still make the most of it!
Evenings have been whiled away cycling, biking and riding.
I've no piccies but will upload a bunch on Sunday from Sunshine, and Brina and I have got the usual Christmas morning ski all planned so we'll get a good few shots to Blog up then too (I'll make up for being a slacker over this past week!).
I'll wish you all a Merry Christmas in the next post,
In the meantime be good and expect the Christmas cards we haven't sent yet to arrive in June 2008.
Have a wonderfully light deprived winter solstice,
Crank up the heaters,
S&S.

Where did that week go?

So another week slips by without much notice being taken of what happens in those dull days from Monday to Friday. Friday evening saw a beverage or two make for some wobbly sideways walking - not a good comination when the wife then proceeds to instruct you that it's time for Christmas shopping in the Mall. Desperately fighting a Guiness fuelled giddy drunken head, the best I could do was to put all of my efforts into pedestrian avoidance - more than once did I whack into somebody's shopping bag with my errant, Bambi like, alcoholic legs (looks of annoyance were welcome - the look of terror from an old biddy thinking I was a mugger about to take off with her purse, was a little more embarassing). Needless to say shopping was not overly productive, although I was informed in the morning that I'd purchased a new pair of jeans and a couple of shirts - as well as Brina's christmas present (I did? I asked myself, frantically trying to recall what the hell I'd bought her and more importantly, where the heck I'd now put it!!!). At least the weekend was a little more rememerable than the week.

Brina and I headed out to Banff on Saturday to ski the Spray River Loop, a nice little shuffle on the skis for a couple of hours through fresh, crisp snow. It was still rather chilly (we saw a warm day today however, high of minus 5 and it really was a welcome relief - felt almost tropical), although we didn't hit the trail until midday when the sun was dropping behind the western peaks. There weren't many people out, and some thoughtful soul had parked a picnic bench at the midway point of the trail in an ideal spot for hot tea and hobnobs!Even the air looks blue in the photo above (can't believe the river behind isn't all iced up though - seeing as though Jumping Pound Creek in Cochrane hasn't melted for two weeks and has been a resident ice rink for the local kids every night).

The ski loop was rather picturesque as it came out right at the Banff Springs - although the golf course which you ski over doesn't look too playable in December.

Ooops - I inadvertently added two piccies of that above, and still I have not figured out how to remove photos from a post once they've been added!

The final shot here is from Banff Ave. They've been digging it up all summer to put drains and the like in, and nothing has changed drastically - albeit the sidewalk (yikes, that sounds like American talk, I meant to say "footpath" or "pavement") is a little wider. I look forward to the day the entire street becomes pedestrianised.

So that was Saturday. Sunday was left open for a day in the back country with Bradley USA. Fortunately it was decided that avalanche conditions were far less than favourable (ridiculously unstable to be frank) and a day on the windtrainer was called for. An avalanche killed two guys in the place where we'd talked about heading to on the weekend - Note: It's only dicking around in the snow on a board, there's always next time, and I think we'll be hanging on for "super safe" conditions to be issued before we get too carried away. Grim note to end on...
Anyway, hoping to twist the finale of this post onto a more positive theme, I wish you all much happiness in the days leading up to Santa's delivery day. I'd best be off to search around and see if I can find what I supposedly bought Brina for Christmas.
Big pre Christmas bear hugs to you all,
S&S.

Now We're Talking!

At last, the ball busting, brain freezing - Oh I forgot how painfully cold this can be - winter has arrived in earnest. We haven't seen temperatures pop much above minus 10 in the past couple weeks. It's generally been highs of minus 14 or so (with wind chills way up into the minus 20s). Due to this, all cycling activity has been kept to a very basement level - our basement infact - although it's not too much warmer down there which is why the nightly wind trainer session requires dressing up in this warm garb....

Now for those of you unfamiliar with the rigours of the indoor bike trainer, let it be known that it is one of the hottest tasks known to man - somewhat akin to sumo wrestling in the desert wearing nothing but a garbage bag, and a big hat. However, even the heat of the trainer is lost in this cold snap we're having (nothing to do with the fact that the cheap Williams' don't put their thermostat much above the 'can just detect a pulse' level).

Fortunately, with the cold has come the snow - and lots of it! Despite it having sent the avalanche risk reports through the roof, it has made for the planning of many a fine snowy adventure to come. Brina and I headed out into K country to kick around the skinny skis and it was a treat to be out again (although not having waxed the skis yet this season, last season's rather aged wax had less glide than a one winged 747). The trails were sparse, the views were good and Brina's eyelashes froze up as usual when the temps are really chilly. It's always nice to be swanning around the mountains not having to worry about the 'bear aware' issues of the Great Outdoors (although some poor old feller got eaten by a Grizzly at the start of the week - some bears clearly aren't quite ready to go to sleep yet and still need a bedtime snack).

So apart from that, things are cruising. I'm very much ready for a holiday from work (still sorely miss the October half term) and am winding down lessons already (bring out the classroom videos - I have Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade lined up for class the next few days, on the lame pretence that seeing as though we're starting a Renaissance Europe unit, you can get a glimpse of Renaissance architecture when Indy passes briefly through Venice - but we may as well watch the whole movie now that I've dug it out from the closet - that's a feet up on the desk lesson for Mr.W anyway). Cable t.v. is still wreaking havoc to my early to bed sleeping regimen. But hopefully, we'll be back out in the hills this weekend for avalanche avoiding fun.
Hope you're all cheery as binbag clad sumo wrestlers,
Look behind you - not everyone's gone to sleep yet,
S&S.
p.s. Here's another glimpse of Mrs wife cruising along Elk Pass (or should that be Wapti Pass?).

Show me the thermometer

Hi all... a busy weekend coupled with a somewhat vapid previous week have made for scant postings in the past nine days. So here's bringing you up to date with the land that is Canadia - although there is a serious photograph deficiency which I truly hope to remedy next weekend as I intend to take the camera out to the hills and actually use the damn thing.

Last week was parent teacher interview days - meet the parents, assure them that their children are little darlings and don't really get on your nerves that often - then all is good. For the few kids who you just can't help but let loose on and deliver a tirade of negative abuse to the parents because little Johnny really is a "little shit", then these fellers make for somewhat heated discussions - but it makes the day interesting. But enough of that work nonsense...

The weekend brought the avalanche course which I went on with Brad. A day at the Uni on Saturday going through the theory with the guide sowing the seed of terror and blind panic about avalanches, followed by a day up at Bow Summit on Sunday (along the Icefield's Parkway). A super setting to spend the day getting involved with understanding the big white slides - and rather apt seeing as though two guys got caught in an avalanche there the weekend previous - grim! It was a useful day to hear the expert run through the drills and show us the ropes - a good refresher before heading out in earnest to find some good powder and get some turns in - The guide was from over in B.C. where he informed us of days with metres of powder and in some cases a place over in B.C. which had a minimum height limit on cat skiers because people were sinking so deep into the snow they'd be getting lost from view!!!! Roll on next weekend!

The excitement of winter play has really hit home now - and the weather has co-operated with fuelling the excitement as the snow has been falling in town all day - and in the mountains big time. Cochrane was snowed in and my usual 30 minute commute was a whopping 2 hour commute this morning because of the snow. The temps are toying with us as today's high was somewhere around minus 14, although as I was on outside bus duty at work yesterday the wind chill had temps down to about minus 26 - nice! (shovelling the drive is back in fashion too).

Other than that, the bike is seeing a bit of action in the week - but purely on the trainer (may be set there for a few months if this weather keeps up), Brina's latte skills are honed ever finer each day, and the cable t.v. which we had installed sucks us in like you wouldn't believe - the joys of watching the NFL and the NHL have never been appreciated so much by a Brit mid-week. I just can't wait for baseball to crank up again next year.

I'll be sure to get some up to date piccies posted this coming weekend.

I trust you all have a good set of long johns,

Enormous snowboard shaped smiles,

S&S.

We have the technology

Just a quickie for Sunday morning, but thought it prudent to make people aware that we have stepped into the 21st century in the Williams household by getting our t.v. hooked up to cable. Now, those of you already in the space age who have never known television without cable, this was a big step here. Not having had cable granted us time to do other stuff, but now it's going to be a real test of willpower to see if I can drag my sorry ass from in front of the box to do more than just make a cuppa when the commercials are on - which incidentally, seem to be on all of the time. I quickly realised yesterday that cable means 60 plus channels of commercials interspersed with tantalising snippets of t.v. shows. You end up never seeing a complete program if you have my limited attention span (or maybe it's a lack of patience) as when the third set of adverts comes on within ten minutes you can't help but flick channels and get sucked into some other show/lingerie commercial, and by the time you remember you were watching something else, you've lost it in the myriad of channels. There are some shows which can keep my attention for the entire duration though - as cable now delivers shows that I never knew existed but which transfix me, mouth wide open, as I ask why is this on tele? Shows such as a French Canadian show where smartly dressed men play Jenga; A show with woodcutting lumberjacks stood on a chunk of log racing to cut it in half between their legs with very fine axe wielding skills; and a show dedicated to airing camera footage from police cars, of horrendous car crashes as villains attempt to flee from the law. And I've only had cable for a day, so just imagine what I've yet to find; what delights of useless broadcasting are going to hypnotise me into a drooling puddle on the couch this Sunday afternoon! All these shows that I never knew I needed. You've gotta love the space age!

Asides from that, my bike has gained the technology of a cadence computer (a little clock that counts how fast your feet are pushing the pedals around). It seemed like a good idea at first, but it's an evil little bugger that I'm convinced is trying to kill me as it constantly sends me a guilt trip suggesting that I could be pedalling a bit faster, no a bit more, just a little bit faster - I was close to ripping the bloody thing off my handlebars yesterday as I rode (rather quickly) along Horse Creek - but fortunately for the cadence killer, my seat fell off (not for the first time) and my attention became more focused on not kebabing myself onto my seatpost.

Work is still what it is (not happy holiday time), the weather is becoming a little more November like - highs of 1 and 0 forecast this week with snow late on, and I'm off on the avalanche course with Brad next weekend which should be good - then into the wilds.....

Hope all you techno geeks are well,

Now where's the remote?

S&S.

p.s. Make sure you wrap up really well if you're camping in the cold...........

O Canada!!!

"Our home and Native Land, true patriot love... blah, blah blah blah blah blah". For those back in Blighty unsure of such a lyrical begining to this post, this is part of Canada's National Anthem - and alhtough my home and native land remains the dark side of Warrington, I feel some obligation to be aware of the "O Canada" tune, seeing as though I was handed my residency status here in the big white north last Thursday. It took a rather long time to get all of the papers processed - as like all government departments in any country, speed is not of the essence when it comes to filing immigrants - and also my medical after medical after medical tests put a spanner in the works for a while (forutnately they now see fit to let me and my testicle live here unobstructed by paperwork for the timebeing). After dashing around in the morning to get more photographs taken (I'd neglected to read the back of the sheet they sent me about "things to bring to the interview") Brina and I showed up at immigration central in downtown Calgary for a 1.00pm meeting. The immigration meeting (for the officer to make a final decision on whether I could stay here as a resident or be shipped back to the industrial wastelands of northern England) was scheduled from 1.00pm to 1.15pm. Only there were 50 other people with exactly the same time scheduled meeting to see one of three immigration officers. Luckily I was one of the first in, and Brina had to be there to prove she wasn't a mail order bride. The officer quizzed Brina quite hard about having sponsored other people into Canada - we both got a bit edgy, but it turned out that the officer was having a bit of a customs Canada wind up joke (the cad! - for "cad" read "tosser", but I can only print that now that they've handed over the papers!!!).

Apart from fighting off a killer bug last week (bug as in sickness and fever, not as in giant bumblebee) and writing lots of reports this weekend all is very steady here. It's still getting colder, although is really mild compared to this time last year (check out last years posts, it was bloody freezing last November). Had a couple of wee stints on the bike and am shackled to the windtrainer during the depressingly dark week nights. This month is just a blur and I'm not too sure where it has all gone to.

Shall leave you with the lovely news that Sunshine opens tomorrow (Lake Louise was open last week) - so here comes the good stuff of winter..... (struggled to post a webcam shot of Sunshine as it's dark there right now - so you just get the shot at the top, taken from Goatseye if my geography serves me correctly).

Keep fighting the authorities you anarchists,

Forever your illegal alien,

S&S.

TransRockies!!!!!

Hi all,
A summer shot to remind us how warm things can be (Moab for those lacking knowledge of Utah's geography).

As winter slowly creeps into Cochrane I already have my eye on next August, the 10th to the 16th to be precise. The big bro and I are entered into the TransRockies Challenge; a 580km mountain bike stage race with over 20,000 metres of climbing, from Panorama BC, to Fernie BC. It's going to be awesome and already I'm picking the training up as I feel I need to, seeing as through Big Willy has just won the overall yellow jersey in the 5 passes stage race (road) of NZ - good lad!!!!!!

Registering for the TransRockies was rather fun. Entries opened at 10am online on the 1st Nov, and I had it all dialed that I'd simply log on just before 10am, and register from work! However, it was a bugger when I realised I was in a conference in downtown Calgary on the day entries opened. Not to be detered by a world class speaker and 1000 onlookers at the conference, I brazenly kicked my shoes off in the conference hall at 9.25am, laced up my running shoes, and trotted out of the hall (to many a disgusted snort and scorn from the attendees to the conference) - to run like bloody hell through the streets of Calgary to find an internet cafe by 10am in order to make sure we were registered for the race! I made it and had all the details filled in and paid up by 10.07am!!! Not bad!!! Now it was time to run like Billio back to the conference clutching my printed off registration form, slip back into my poncey work shoes, and have a conversation with the Principle of the school during the intermission, acting like I knew exactly what the speaker had been talking about during the morning session.

All was going well until I was skimming through my registration for the TransRockies, and in my haste I'd entred me and Mark as being Albanian!!!! I duely fixed this after a wee bit of mockery to United Kingdom - although Lucy has since pointed out that neither of the competitors for team R and R NZ actually live in the UK (or have done so for a considerable while!!!!). Surely there's a tax break in there somewhere!

So the conference was a write off as I was as high as a kite with the excitment of the TransRockies, although the Henry Winkler speech (see Happy Days post a while back) on the Wednesday night was awesome.

The snow is coming, Lake Louise opens on Thursday, avalanche course with Brad in a couple of weekends and then hopefully we'll be out stomping in the deep stuff.

Brina is a cheery little soul and converted coffee princess.

Work for me is in the deepest recess of my mind, the only thing I'm thinking of is next August 10 - 16th!!!!!!

Hope you're all making dates on your calendars,

Is it the weekend yet?

S&S. p.s I thought I'd finish with a picture of the big lad.

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.