Stuff

Well I am a little depressed tonight as we had to throw away our tickets to London from Calgary. It was a non-refundable, non change the location kind of ticket and it was going to cost us way more than a normal return trip from Toronto to use it. It could have perhaps been of use if we had two weeks worth of vacation instead of one as we are going to the Rockies on Saturday for a weeks skiing and could have combined the trip in with that. But all in all, we would have only been saving like $300. So, as this trip to Canada has often proven to be, we have had to "waste" a lot of money. I guess it comes also with the territory that we don't know if we are staying or going, so we have had to forego discounts on leases, telephone plans, furniture and that sort of thing which can be a bit crap.

But anyhoo, we are still going back to the Rockies which will be awesome. We wanted to go to Whistler/Blackcomb in British Columbia but a very poor season due to La Nina or something has left the West coastal mountains with very little. There is still 180 cm on Sunshine where we are going as it is on the other side of the mountain ranges. We can't complain - there are 109 runs on this mountain and we can also go to two others nearby - Lake Louise with also an outstanding number and Banff Norquay. Although this is like the third time we have been to the place, it will probably never fail to make our jaws drop at the such stunning scenery.

And it looks as though there has been a bit more snow - just when we were thinking that it was getting like Spring, we had a reasonable fresh dump overnight last night.

The only things that have been happening since last blog entry - it was Craigs birthday on the 22nd January (OK he didn't mention that in the last update). It was an absolute blizzard happening that day, so we hibernated and ate ice-cream cake. We ventured out to the movies in the evening - it had been so cold that the water mains had broken at the theater so we had to wait a bit.

Last weekend we went and watched a game of Lacrosse with a few others. It is amazing how violent the sport is - and it is legal to beat each other with sticks. In the last minute of the game there were 5 (count them) full on fist fights with blood noses and gashes to the head. The crowd in Canada are a bloodthirsty lot. I guess the Lacrosse League or whatever you call it are pretty happy though as the NHL Hockey Season has been cancelled this season due to disputes about player salaries, and so the public have to find something else to go to.

The next day we went for a ski closer to Toronto at a hill called Mt St Louis/Moonstone. It was a gorgeous sunny day and not too cold. We even ski'd/boarded the whole of the mountain except for the moguls and freestyle park. Although this is not as impressive as it sounds - this place is essentially a hill rather than a mountain and so the terrain is not exactly challenging. But to end what was otherwise a perfect day, we went to go catch the bus back to Toronto, only to find out it had left early, without us! The bus also did not have a radio with which anyone could call to say come back, nor did they have a contact at the next ski place where they were going. There was also no taxi service up to the mountain. Yep, it looked as though we could be stranded in the middle of nowhere, wet and cold and minus 10 degrees. But it turned out luck was on our side - we asked the last people in the carpark if they were travelling to Barrie - where our next bus connection was, and we managed to catch it there - SO LUCKY! I have written a complaint to Greyhound, who have been equally slow about responding. We had better get a refund (speaking of wasting money) or there will be trouble.

Anyway, next time you hear from us will be after we have been ski bunnies. Till then..