Homemore

After a hectic morning where I got up, packed up my stuff at the HI Hostel, checked out and put my bags in a locker, I found myself rocketing down Tunnel Mountain Road (fyi: steep & long) at breakneck speed in order to meet up with a woman called Elaine who I thought might be able provide me with somewhere to live. She runs a gift shop in town and has a house on Beaver Street – oh yes really – which she rents out room by room. The upstairs is a self-contained 4 bedroom flat for girls only (yay! Boys smell) and the downstairs, also self-contained, is mixed. My friend Laura has already secured a room in the upstairs flat and the Aussie guys, Dave/Gravy & Zander, were in the running for one of the downstairs rooms, so I thought it would be a cool place to rent. It was pleasant enough – 2 bathrooms for the 4 of us so that’s always a bonus – and the room was large, furnished and going for a reasonable price (there was even a deer sat in the garden outside the bedroom window - awwww) , so I kept my fingers and everything else crossed. Sure enough, Elaine liked me enough to offer me the room. Hurrah! I had to to run back up Tunnel Mountain road to collect my stuff and meet up with Chris, then back down the hill again to the SameSun hostel to meet the others, then over the other end of town to get out the huge deposit from the bank, back to the gift shop to sign the lease before running to meet the Calgary bus with 5 mins to spare... phew!

So I’m no longer homeless come 1^st November, which is also, coincidentally, the day I start work up at Sunshine Village; what a weight off. As a bonus, Gravy & Zander also got offered the room downstairs, so we’re all going to be a big happy family.

My buttocks hurt now*.

*reading this back this could appear to be a reference to how I secured the room. It isn't. It merely reflects the running up and down hills I did all day. Just wanted to make that abundantly clear.

Par-ty boombaya

So far life in Banff has been an endless round of going out, getting to bed at stupid o'clock, rolling out of bed late and doing it all again. Funnily enough, this is exactly what I didn't come to Banff for, although I must admit to the fact that I'm sort of, quite, almost enjoying it.

The main reason I've taken an about turn is that this is a small community and it's pretty important to go with the flow and socialise because you don't want to isolate yourself from the group. Who else would you hang out with? This is just not a 'dinner party' type of town for those of us who are just passing through. However, I should point out that I have not succumbed to peer pressure and started drinking, and I have bailed out earlier than the others on a couple of occasions (usually to go back and make contact with home on MSN +/- webcam).

The crowd here have surprised me in some respects. Although yes, they do like to go out and have a few beers and yes, sometimes they do it to some degree of excess, they are such a nice, intelligent, adventurous bunch of people and I'm really rather fond of them all. Last night, we went to a 'Pizza for $9' evening at the Elk & Oarsman (pizza was great), and we ended up having a long conversation about spelling and punctuation. Everyone agreed that a) txt spk is stupid b) using the wrong spelling of a word such as they're/their/there is unforgivable c) exclamation marks are best used in moderation and that d) the correct use of a semi-colon was tantamount to foreplay. Not really the kind of discussion I expected to be having with a bunch of long-haired snowboarders. And most of them don't even have long hair!

We do already have a whole bunch of in-jokes that have added to the camaraderie, which I shall no doubt repeat oft when I am back home and look wistful when I received puzzled looks in reply ("You don't even know!" "I saw that!" "I can do physics!" "Dude! Dude? Dude... Dude! Hmm. You make a good point"), mainly brought to the group by Gravy & Zander, two engineers/climbers from Australia, who are worthy contributors and have a huge truck called Stacey, whose services they'll happily pimp.

The only spanner in the works just now is that the accommodation I had lined up has fallen through and so I'm now, along with every other bugger in Banff, looking for somewhere to rent on my (very meagre) salary-to-be. It is virtually impossible to find somewhere, and each room has around 100 applicants at present. I have friends who were considering sharing a double bed with someone they'd just met for $600 a month - that's how crap it is. Add to that a 6-month lease which is hard to get out of at most places and pretty much everywhere has a 'no visitors' clause (that's not a 'no one to stay with you clause' but a 'no one allowed round to see you at any time, even for a quick cup of tea' clause). So I'll be in the hostel (where I still find it almost impossible to sleep) for the foreseeable future, which is not a happy prospect just now. Goddamnit!

The Banff Chronicle w/c 15th October 2007

I've not been able to upload new pictures to facebook or my blog the last few days, because although I get free wireless here at the hostel, it's a bit on the slow and unreliable side. I'll do my best to get pictures up here today and the rest on facebook as soon as I can.

Here's what I've been up to:

The first night I was here I went out with my new BFFs: Kate (Aussie, from Perth), James (Aussie, from somewhere near Canberra) and Chris (English, from Woking!). We went on a pub crawl and they didn't mind one bit that I wasn't drinking, in fact, James wasn't drinking either, thought that was because he was broke. Still, we had a great night and ended up back at my hostel bar till around 1.30am (I'm a dirty stopout!)

Next evening we met up again where I persuaded everyone to come up to the hot springs, and we stayed till 10pm getting very warm, while the air around us got very cold. It was excellent.

Wednesday morning I had my job interviews for Sunshine Village at their hiring clinic (along with basically the entire transient population of Banff). You have an initial screening interview where they decide what sort of positions you'd be suitable for and then pass you on to the supervisors of those departments for more specific questions. I had 3 interviews, one for Food & Beverage Server, one for the Ski School and one for Guest Services. I got the one I wanted, which was Guest Services, which basically involves working for the ticket office doing ticket sales and season passes, that sort of thing. I asked for part-time, so I'll be working there weekends and I plan to supplement the rest of the time with 2-3 nights working in a restaurant/bar in town, giving me the weekdays to learn to ski. I've been provisionally offered something at a restaurant called Saltlik, which looks nice, but I'm going to have another look around tomorrow to see what else is out there.

So job is kinda sorted, but still have somewhere to live to find. Accommodation is a nightmare to find here - I know people who are sharing double beds with near-strangers for an extortionate rent in order to get something - so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my lead from back home - my friend Cindy's brother-in-law who's living and working out here - comes off. I'm meeting him on Sunday to discuss. If that falls through, I'm a bit buggered!

Today the groovy gang and I headed out to Lake Louise and Johnston's Canyon for a day trip. Annoyingly, despite a beautiful blue sky this morning, by the time we arrived at Lake Louise the cloud had come down so I couldn't see much more of it that I could when I want there with Darrell a few weeks ago. Still amazing though, and at least this time we had snow so we could all get a bit excited!* Chris got a bit over-excited in fact, and decided to go for a paddle in the glacial waters. They were 'pretty cold' apparently.

Hostel life is a mixed bag. I quite like the social element - even though it's a bit 'party party party' for my tastes - and it's so easy to meet people you feel like you have a ready made group of friends, which is handy when you're alone in a strange place. We've all pretty much been doing the same things - going for jobs at Sunshine or in town, looking for accommodation - which has lent a certain camaraderie to proceedings. But I'm struggling with sharing a bedroom with 5 other girls, lovely though they all are. I've had no more than a handful of hours sleep since I've been here, because someone is always coming in late and/or drunk, trying to open doors and bags quietly and falling over when trying to climb into their bunks. Sometimes it's me. And there's always people wandering up and down the corridors talking loudly at 4am, while I lie there, imagining sticking something very sharp into their eyeballs. I feel can't really relax, hate communal bathrooms and am mistrustful of other people's washing up in the communal kitchen. Oh and pretty much everyone is so much younger than me I feel like an old mother hen at times (though it's nice when I get carded in the bars and everyone so far has been amazed at how old I am - Chris demanded to see my driving licence and still maintains it's a clever forgery. Bless him.) And as if to prove my point, it's Friday night and I'm sat in my bunk playing on the internet because everyone else is out on a pub crawl and I couldn't face it tonight. I'm just so tired from not really sleeping, I thought I'd sit this one out.

So that's me so far. Banff is really really beautiful and I literally can't stop taking pictures of the surrounding mountains, because I almost can't believe they're real. I'm excited to be living here, looking forward to starting work and learning to ski (oh I get a free ski pass with my new job - did I mention that?) and have met some lovely people. But I get lonely and homesick too at times, so it's nice to hear from home if you have a moment?

*Snow = skiing/snowboarding = jobs starting = money

New life begins in earnest

I've made it to Banff, struggled with my two suitcases, skis and poles, rucksack, handbag AND a stick of french bread (I needed something to nibble on on the journey), made 3 friends on the bus - James, Kate and Chris - who I hope to meet for drinks tonight (haven't mentioned I don't drink yet, I'm not sure they'll take it well), lined up an interview on Wednesday with Sunshine (the biggest ski resort in the area), had an email from the other job I applied for telling me to expect to hear from them shortly if I've been selected for interview (and why the hell wouldn't I be?), found my hostel and chosen my bunk (top bunk - a pain to get into but more privacy). Phew! Quite a day so far. And with excellent timing, Darrell has finally sent me that picture of me in my Bond Girl bikini at the Banff Hot Springs (my local pool now dahlinks) so I thought I'd pass it on to you.

Although I'm not keen on dorm accommodation, I've just found out one of the English girls in my room has got a job working for Gap in the mall. Did anyone say discount?

Canada vs. England

Five reasons why Canada is better than England:

1. The scenery - and the weather - is far more dramatic. That's not say that England's rolling greenery isn't lovely, because it is, but you can't beat a huge mountain towering above you, let alone a series of the damn things. With snow. That you can actually ski on.
   
2. The service you get in shops and restaurants is far better than back home. People actually seem to want you to get what you want and be happy. I'm not used to that. I mean, if people just refrain from scowling at you when you are giving them your custom back home you think you've been blessed.
   
3. They have Northern Lights. Aurora Borealis. Okay, I haven't seen them yet, but I live in hope and I bet when I do they'll be bloody brilliant.
4. The supermarkets are huge, and as you may know, I love a huge supermarket. I can spend hours wandering round them looking at a load of old nonsense - thermal underwear, cheap electrical goods, gardening equipment - and not buying a thing.
5. Property is still cheap enough that a young couple can buy a 4 bedroomed, 2 bathroomed, huge basemented 'starter home'. As it should be. I have amazed many a Canadian with tales of how much my tiny 1 bed flat is worth.
   

Five reasons why England is better than Canada:

1. The supermarkets may be huge but most of the food in them is processed and over-packaged rubbish. I feel guilty and wasteful just looking at half of it. And you can't buy loads of stuff you get back home: proper sausages, for example. Or any kind of decent cheese, which is deeply ironic given that back home, I buy Canadian Cheddar because it kicks ass. You can't get oxo cubes. And you can't buy gravy granules unless you go to the British Import Store in the West Edmonton Mall and pay nearly $6 for them...*
2. You have to have a car here to get anywhere. Having spent the best part of a month without one, I know how true that is. When Darrell was here, we tried to take the bus from Leduc, where Megan & Craig live, into the nearest big city, Edmonton. It took us just over an hour to walk to the bus stop, $17 each for a ticket, a 45 min journey time and there was only 1 bus back so if you miss that, or it's at an inconvenient time, you're buggered. If you do try to walk, the place is just not geared up for pedestrians. Often you have to take massive detours just to cross a road, or there's no crossing at all. And of course if you cross where there's no crossing, you're technically committing the crime of jaywalking (but I love being naughty!) And the distances are so big. The Canadians think nothing of driving 2 hours for a quick visit somewhere. You look on a map and think, oh, that's just over there, but then you find out that it's a 12 hour drive! At least England is manageably small.
   
3. You think Starbucks are ubiquitous back home? You should see it here: they're everywhere - and most of them are drive-thrus. I actually thought Megan was joking when she first mentioned a drive-thru Starbucks, but nope. I've had to relax my stance on not buying from them simply because there's little other choice. The other big coffee company here is called Tim Horton's and even though the coffee is fairly mediocre, the queues at the drive-thru (natch) have to be seen to be believed. Megan tells me in all seriousness that they put something addictive in their coffee so people keep coming back; I'm inclined to believe her.
4. There are very few independent restaurants or shops over here, they're all big chains. This means that every time you go to a mall or retail park (because there aren't really 'high streets' to speak of so that's where you go to shop), you get the same few shops over and over. At least you know what you're getting, I suppose (though Vancouver did have some cool independently-owned places to be fair). It's the kooky little restaurants back home more than anything that I miss. Particularly curry houses, because it's not really a big thing over here and so I've not had any since I was home.
5. Telly. Oh how I miss English telly, as I knew I would. They may have a gazillion different channels out here, but they largely show rubbish all day and night. Rubbish, interspersed every 5 minutes by adverts. I tend to look through to try to find English stuff - How to Look Good Naked and Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmare's have kept me almost sane - but it's nearly all American drama/action series, which is not really my cup of tea. Most of them are incomprehensible and/or packed full of clichés. Amusingly though, there's a big glut of English stars out here at the moment, and it never fails to make me smile wryly when I see Michelle Ryan (her off of Eastenders) playing The Bionic Woman with a - it has to be said - flawless American accent. Still, I can't shake off the image of her selling polyester blouses on a market stall, even when she's dropkicking a baddy. So I miss good English comedy and decent documentaries very much indeed. If you do see anything brilliant, please tell me, because there's lots of places online to watch them these days and I can try to track them down...

Oh and a quick mention goes to Greyhound, the bus service out here and the USA, who have screwed me over. I tried to buy my ticket to Banff online and it kept saying that it wouldn't process just now, could I try again later please? Eventually, after trying both my visa & debit cards, I gave up trying and Megan gave me a lift to the bus station to buy my ticket in person. However, the failed web purchases found their way onto my statements anyway, where, to date, they have taken an erroneous $200 from the 2 cards with a further $100 pending. On speaking to a customer service representative in Texas at length about this, after being passed from pillar to post around Canada first of course, I've been told that no, they've not taken any money from me at all. Oh, well, that's alright then. Other than the fact that you actually have. You bastards. Now I have to wait 15 days (for no particular reason) then send them copies of my statements to prove that they've stolen money from me and then they'll review it, and think about whether or not they'll return it, given that they don't believe that they have taken it in the first place because it's not on their system. Well it sure as heckfire is on mine, baby. Meh.

*A special prize goes to anyone who can name the three dishes I've cooked for Megan & Craig - a.k.a. Craigan - recently based on the clues provided. Jen, surely this should be easy for you?

Bruised, scratched, deaf and flushed down a toilet

Today, Megan* & I visited the West Edmonton Mall again (3rd time I've been there and I still haven't seen it all!) to spend the afternoon to the World Waterpark. As well as a huge beach-style pool with wave machine, there are loads of waterslides, which we partook of with gusto. At first, only the Twister and the Corkscrew were open, so naturally we went on them several times each. On one of my goes on the Corkscrew, I got so overexcited when it was time for me to ride that I forgot to bend down quick enough and whacked my head hard on the top of the slide. A lovely big bump (and possible slight concussion?) resulted, much to Megan's amusement, sorry, I meant concern. Having learnt my lesson after my first major dunking, I did my best to hold my nose towards the end on each occasion, though sometimes this was easier said than done - when I went on Nessie's Revenge, my desperate, disorientated scrabbling for my face as I could see the end approaching resulted in my scratching my face up the right side of my nose. How terribly attractive!

Then, while we were having a sit down on the beach after a spell in the hot tub, we heard the whooosh of water and realised they were opening up all the big, scary slides. Excellent! I immediately climbed the seemingly infinite number of stairs to the Sky Screamer, which did exactly what it says on the tin. It's a breathtaking, almost-sheer drop from the off, which then levels off into an aquaplane which has a tendency to deposit water where you really don't want it. Nuff said. (If you look at the picture above it's the 2 red tubes on the right-hand side.) I loved it and went on twice more, though Megan, having been on it during a previous trip, felt that once had been quite enough.

Tropical Typhoon was to be next, a short tube which catapults you full pelt into a giant funnel, in which you zoom round and round before dropping down the hole in the middle into a plunge pool. This was deeply unpleasant. Not only did I manage to somehow end up falling head first through the hole, but I now know exactly how a poo feels when being flushed down a toilet.

So several hours later, wet, weary and with ears so full of water I literally couldn't hear a thing, we departed the mall. It was bloody brilliant.


We popped home to get showered and changed before going to Yianni's Greek restaurant on Whyte Ave for dinner (I had the chicken souvlaki, which was lovely), followed by deep fried ice-cream at Julio Barrio's next door for desert, where we hung spoons off our noses for no particular reason. Or at least, I did but - as this photo proves - Megan totally cheated.

Bloody hell but it's windy here tonight. I'm in bed and keep thinking the house will blow away. We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto...

*to say Megan is a trooper would be an understatement: most of the day trips we've taken, as today, she has worked a nightshift the night before and manages to last a whole day on about 2 hours sleep. I've no idea how she does it.

Giving thanks

We spent the weekend at Craig's parents' for Canadian Thanksgiving. They live in a small town, with both Craig's sister's within walking distance (which, given that this is Canada where they drive EVERYWHERE, is a very short distance indeed) and each household has a pug: Kiddy, Dusty and Bugsy. I've never entirely trusted anything that could lick their own nose (sorry Jen) but they are very cute, if a bit over-excitable and snorty. Pictures at the usual place.

We started the morning today at the River Rock Grill where, as you can see, they specialise in Family 'Dinning'. Spelling errors aside, they did a mean breakfast and my pancakes were as light and fluffy as a cloud (far better than the ones Darrell attempted when he was here - sorry Daz but they were dire). I chatted to Auntie Debbie, who is alright in my book* because she's a big fan of Location, Location, Location and anyone who loves Phil and Kirsty must be sound.

A walk of the dogs later, we headed over to...now I'm not sure whose farm it was - some of Craig's relatives or family friends? - to go and look at their lynxes. Yes. They live in cages in the (huge) garden, and though one of them is pretty wild, the other was actually hand reared along with the house cats so is quite tame. Then we drove over to Auntie Debbie & Uncle Dave's for lunch, only to be confronted by their 2 dogs, several cats, 3 horses, a llama and several hundred bunny rabbits running free in the yard, not to mention the 17 members of extended family. I admit to being a little overwhelmed by it all.

Lunch was fantastic. We had deep-fried turkey (oh yes) which was phenomenal. Why don't we always cook turkey this way? Very tender and delicious, with the most amazing crispy skin which - oh but my family will be sooo jealous here - no one else seemed that bothered about eating. Megan even went as far as saying it was 'disgusting'. And so I had the run of the crispy skin and the oh so gorgeous crispy bits around the wings and...oh it was heaven. In addition to the turkey there was a huge ham, potatoes and gravy, peas, a million and one different types of salad and - and this is where it got a bit too strange for me - strawberries in jelly and rice pudding. Which was to go, apparently, with the turkey. Hmmm. And they thought I was odd for eating all the crispy turkey bits. Pumpkin pie followed, naturally, which was just as I imagined it (not sure if I've ever had it before) and absolutely superb.

I had done my research on Canadian Thanksgiving and discovered that it was first introduced by the explorer Martin Frobisher, who sat down in 1578 to give thanks for not dying in the harsh wilderness that was (and still is in many parts) Canada, while he was actually trying to find a way to get to China (thanks Wikipedia!) So, thinking it would lend me a certain amount of kudos amongst my kind hosts, I raised my punch for a toast to the said Mr Frobisher, only to be greeted by a sea of blank stares. No one, it seems, had heard of him, or knew exactly why they were sitting down to this delicious meal.

Ah well, it's the turkey that counts.

*'Who's Alright by Me: how to judge a book by its cover' by Mia Davies neé Fothergill

Newest member of the family

Isn't it amazing how one little gadget can make you so happy? Not content with treating myself to new ski boots and a trio of cardigans at Gap in the last couple of weeks, not to mention an extended holiday, I bought a new iPod in the sale at Best Buy today, at a bargain price compared to back home. Silver, 80Gb and very sexy. And I shall never again be ridiculed for my 'retro', 'vintage' 3rd generation brick! Ha!

The cottage and the bunkey

Megan & I popped over to her parent's place just for one night, getting back yesterday. Their house is huge and it amuses me that they refer to it as a 'cottage'. The little 2 bed cabin, called the 'bunkey', that they have in their grounds (where Megan & I slept) is probably bigger than my flat back home. Amazing how many pictures of the lake I managed to take in just 2 days, but then, it was terribly picturesque. Sadly, the Northern Lights did not make an appearance but the stars, out there in the middle of nowhere and away from all the light pollution, were incredible nonetheless. We also managed to do a spot of quad biking before we left too, so all was good.

Animal watch: elk, coyotes (oh yes, they looked wily alright), deer, birds of prey of some description (possibly eagles but I'm a bit rubbish on birds), minnows (do they count?), a muskrat (though Megan called it a badger, which threw me, as it was in the water).

Catch up with all the rest of the pics here as usual.