Whistler

Still raining in Vancouver and all the snow is rapidly disappearing (Ellie - we'll build a snowman at home for you) so decided to drive to Whistler as only 1hr 20 up the Sea to Sky Highway.

Nice drive up, surprising quiet although a lot of roadworks as they are changing it from a 2 lane road to a four lane in places ready for the 2010 Winter Olympics, although all work has stopped at the moment due to the heavy snow past Squamish.

At Squamish we hit the jackpot on the critter count as a bald eagle swooped across the front of the car (a la a Hampshire pheasant but much more macho!), we looked into the trees and there must have been 10-15 perched there over the river.....way cooler than the few crows we have seen locally.

Got to Whistler (ouch on the lift pass but managed to get a discount as we are BC residents yay!). 2m snow based and the Peak to Peak gondola was open although a few of the high lifts were shut due to the wind and a balmy -8C.

The Peak to Peak opened this year and links the Whistler and Blackcomb mountains with a 3km run - largest span in the world - Trev, you would NOT have liked this - especially when it stopped half way across and we were debating rescue methods - helicopter or jump - but it started up again and I missed my chance to meet the cuter members of the Fire and Rescue team.

We started up the mountain on the Blackcomb Express and were half way up when we realised that this was the one that failed just before Christmas (one of the pylons split in half due to water in the joints expanding with the cold and dropped the cabins down towards the river - fortunately no one was hurt)- still they had it up and running by 24th Dec so they are pretty hot on the repairs!

Whistler/Blackcomb is huge, although more crowded that Silver Star - especially the runs into the village but pretty normal for Europe (sort of Ischgl, St Anton, Kitzbuhel levels) and we didnt hear a Canadian accent - everyone is either Aussie, Kiwi or British. The snow was fab, pistes are wide and some good mogul-ly bits and we skiied our socks off until the lifts closed.

Getting home was a bit of fun as the roadworks came back to haunt us - luckily Mr R drove as I would have ended up in a layby somewhere having a nervous breakdown! Night had fallen and obviously the locals know the road like the back of their hands so were driving like something out of the Fast and the Furious 3. And being the SEA to Sky highway we had a sheer vertical drop on our side and what seemed like a tinsy-winsy little barrier between us and impending doom. Also no street lights and no option to use the full beam due to the stream of traffic coming towards us. So everything was fine on the completed dual carriageway sections but the single lane chicanes and the impromptu road works, ramps and pot holes made it 'interesting'.....

...not doing that again for a few days and checking out the bus schedule!

Boxing Day and day after

Boxing day - too much snow to ski!
Day after B.Day - went to Grouse Mountain (30 mins down the road), were ski-booted and everything, walking across the car park when met a local coming down...3C and raining hard at the top, apparently like skiing on concrete so the advice was that if you had to pay to ski, don't!

Oh well, back to the hot tub and roaring fire.....

Christmas Day!

Santa delayed by Canada Post/Royal Mail apparently so special delivery has been arranged for January...will report on findings later...

Christmas morning, after Shaun (yes! I know?!) feeding the kitties extra cat food (definately Christmas or it was the only way to shut them up as he had a bit of a hangover!) we made calls to the family - a few sniffles on this side of the Atlantic were heard....

Thanks to Gary (Shaun's brother) we have physical evidence that the dog was still alive and driving Shaun's Mum nuts with the squeaky ball!

We were verk kindly invited to Mum's other cousin Val's house for Christmas dinner. Mr R lost the toss and drove and we picked up Yvonne and Martin on the way and stopped off to meet Yvonne's daughter Lauren and her family and I got my first taste of eggnog with rum (ummm - jury's still out on that one - logically should be lovely (milk, sugar, alcohol) etc but still not sure..)

Then Val's for Christmas dinner which was superb, turkey, ham and all the trimmings, including some canadian specials - yam and sweet potatoes with candied walnuts v. yummy! Bad thing was that sprouts have made it across the pond - curses! Shaun ate mine...

3 types of pudding, including trifle so Mr R was v. happy - and we even got doggy bags to take home (ham sandwich with Branston pickle...mmmm!).

Post dinner was spent on the Nintendo Wii - unfair home advantage due to Ashley (Val's daughter) and her boyfriend, Anthony being waaay too good, especially on the bowling, althought there was some serious rallys going on in the tennis game between Mr R and Val! I got a tinsy bit obsessed with the golf game but eventually Mr R managed to prise the Wii nunchucks from my cramped hands and gave some one else a go!

I feel a Wii might be on next years Santa list....

Eventually had to leave but it was a great day and lovely to have a whole new family!

Christmas Eve

We had a great time at Martin and Yvonne's house (Mum's cousins) in North Vancouver - only a 25 min drive with the help of the satnav. Although the side roads were a bit 'interesting' with 2-3ft of snow and no sign of the plough or gritter!

We had a lovely meal (proper english mini sausages for nibbles!) and also met Max (Australian geologist) and his wife Marilou - and there was the usually stories and catching up.

We finally left at 11.30 to go to midnight mass with me driving - unfortunately this meant that I managed to lose Max and Marilou as we were going to go to their church and we ended up at a local one with an Irish priest....
....1 hour and 30 minutes later we emerged from what has to be said was not the most uplifting experience in the world, especially compared to some of the midnight masses on the Island with the boys from the pub belting out Little Donkey at the top of their voices - or Lyndhurst were they have REAL donkeys in the church on Christmas Day! Plus miscommunication on the collection box so they got $30! Nuff said - Shaun v. unimpressed.

Got home around 1:30am and tried to make a few internet calls but unfortunately we had had a blackout during the night so the broadband was down.....sorry!

Cypress Bowl

Cypress is the nearest skiing to where we are staying in West Van, about 20-30 mins away on lovely snow cleared roads. From the local news/neighbours its not usually this snowy in Vancouver, in fact they hardly ever see it apart from on the ski hills but at the moment its like being in a winter wonderland.

They have about a metre in Cypress which meant unfortunately not all the runs were open but those that were where good which some nice moguls to get the heart pumping and the thighs burning. Unfortunately there seems to have been an epidemic of boarders and the little horrors are everywhere, but with a definate preferance for the mid of the slope, on their arses, ideally just slightly below the hill so its a nice surprise when you pop over the top!

Mr R skiied like a demon but I think we need to take some lessons as Aid and Jan are now awesome...perhaps they need a holiday in BC and we can pick up some tips..?

Another good thing was the temperature a positively balmy -6C! One less jumper and no frozen finger tips...I was a much happier camper.

We have snow forecast for the next few days so there should be some great skiing on Boxing Day although we are going to try and get up there again tomorrow if the weather isn't too bad...its taken all of 24hrs for us to become 'blue sky'skiers! Not perfect weather? That's okay, we can always go tomorrow!!!

West Van

Okay....we are moving in....just need to persuade B & H to stay in Mexico! Its got cats, views, huge bedrooms, hot tubs, steam room and a fabulous kitchen....

To your left, the view from the lounge!

The plunge pool on the patio!

And the hot tub!

We did had a slight problem getting up the driveway (about 300m long and very steep!) on arrival as the snow meant that we couldn't get any further than the first turn despite the 4 wheel drive, low gears and snow tyres plus had a interesting time getting it back down again as control was limited!

So we had to hike all our stuff up the hill and unfortunately as I had gone mad at the supermarket with the shopping for the week this was not accomplished in one trip...

There is a baby grand in the house and I started to have a bit of a practice to warm up the fingers after 3 years of pretty much nothing ...they must have needed it as Mr R stayed and listened for a bit and then decided that shovelling snow off a 100ft of drive was preferable! Still the neighbours now love him!

I will post some pictures of the kitties as they are lovely and very talkative first thing in the morning when we are later than planned with the breakfast...I am sure you can all picture the warm, loving smile on Mr R's face at this....

Vancouver - Downtown

So the reason for the trip to Vancouver is that we have a house sitting job for the next couple of weeks in West Van (north and west (obviously!) of the main city in an area near Horseshoe bay which is on the way to Whistler).

But we have to spend a couple of days in a hotel before we go to the house. We are staying in the downtown area near Granville Island which has a really good public market and loads of little eateries.

We arrive on Thursday a bit later than planned but the sat nav system is working okay... it came with the car and the last update was in 2003 (OS chums.. I know!). Its so old it doesn't have Kelowna on the map let alone where we are in Carr's Landing, but the GPS is doing a grand job of tracking us so maybe I will be able to sell the update to TomTom! However in the city, despite the 5 year time lag we are doing well....until we spot that she's not that bright on the one way system and we had a few hairy turns until we worked that one out...luckily THE LAMINATED MAP was to hand (thanks Sue, Sara and Eddie) and we got to the hotel in one piece.... or perhaps peace would be more accurate.

The hotel has a sauna and jacuzzi on the top floor and Mr R was able to get some pictures of the great sight seeing weather! Basically it started snowing on Friday and didn't stop until Monday and it was damn cold!

Vancouverites are even less prepare for the snow that we were so the driving was fun to watch...no snow ploughs, no snow tyres! Pavements not so fun as I went down on my backside/head and had a sore noggin for a couple of days, also got food poisining in a Chinese restaurant on Friday night...not nice! Mr R had to go and see the Maritime museum all on his own..

But there was fun stuff - we went to an exhibition by an Haida artist Bill Reid (no relation unfortunately) as his work is fabulous http://www.billreidfoundation.org/bill_reid.htm... and also Science World (the golf ball shaped building in the picture) which was filled with puzzles (as in make a T shape out of 4 odd pieces, undo the string from the ring without causing the end of the universe) and tests, including wheelchair racing (boy do you need upper body strength...which I don't have) and splat the rats variants, and then you get a little river taxi back to the hotel.

We also found a great restaurant near the hotel called the Twisted Fork - only open a month and the food was mouthwatering. You can order plates to share (kind of like extra large tapas) and we had the best mussels I have ever tasted with a mouth watering sauce, gruyere and onion tart with pear chutney, asparagus with roasted basalmic mushrooms and basil mozzarella, crab cakes and a molten chocolate cake with orange sorbet and red wine sauce...not that I memorized the menu or anything! Plus the Fat Cat beer was like a taste of home according to Mr R and all for under £30!

We also met Barb who we are house/cat sitting for and her two cats Razzle and Baby - huge maine coons, fluffy and lovely - Baby likes laps and isn't too keen on outside so its kinda of like have Spud on steriods!

Monday saw us leave the hotel and head for West Van....

the past week

bit of a catch up post this one, as I sit in my leather swivel chair with a cat on my lap - very 70's slash James B! more on the cat later....

So we have had an eventful week as can be surmised by the lack of posts...so here goes a quick round up....

Tuesday 16th - went to Silver Star with the freshly arrived skis....no photos as brought the camera (yay!) but the battery was dead (boo!). I put this down to the fact that it was fricken' freezing to quote Mr Reed....-20C and that was in the sunshine....went over the other side of the mountain and you could take another 10 degrees of that...I thought my nose was going to fall off.. so the skiing wnet pretty much, run, freeze on chair lift, run, freeze on chair lift, run, coffee, freeze on chair lift...run, coffee, coffee, lunch, run, home! ....on the heated leather seats...mmmm..toasty!

Tuesday night was spent by yours truly in a state of mild peril as Wednesday was driving test day...need to pass otherwise trouble with the law (apparently if you are a permenant resident you can only drive for 3 months on a UK licence, however if you are a tourist you get 6 months...go figure!)

Wednesday 17th- did it dawn bright and sunny with dry roads and a happy smile on the drivng examiner s face - did it heck! well all except the last one, but I think that was just malicous glee. So in a snowstorm which would have sent Ranulph Fiennes scuttling back to his tent and a good layer of ice on the roads we set off extra early as Mr Reed had a first aid course and exam to attend in his quest to become a sheriff (nice uniform btw, but that obviously has nothing to do with the career choice, but has influenced my 110% support for said career path). So dropped Mr R off at 8:30 at the St John's Ambulance...which left me 4 hours to fret and worry until my test at 12:30. So what's a fretting and worrying gal to do....oooo lookee here...a shopping centre....and a credit card.....oh well...if I am left unattended.....so 3 Starbucks, a cardigan and a really cute little black shrug later I debunk to the test centre....am a bit early so get to know all the driving test examiners as they keep coming in and saying 'Are you Nicole?' 'Are you Claire?' ...apparently my facial expression is just screaming 'panic!' so I'm obviously in the line somewhere.

Anyhoo, I get a lovely lady as my test examiner, who spent 8 years in Basingstoke, so we have a lovely chat on the way round, I can only do 30km due to the snowstorm (which has gotten worse by now) and 45 mins later I hear the words 'You've passed' at which point I nearly burst the wonderful lady's eardrums with whooping and hollering (as you know I have always had trouble showing my emotions!) and positively bounce into the test centre grinning for ear to ear...80 bucks later I get a BC licence which I have to renew in 2 years (no test, but more money) and then every 5 years. Oh, best thing about the test, no reverse parking!!!!

Pick up Mr Reed who has been the star of the class and passed the exam with 100%! I think the teacher had to ask him to stop answering all the questions correctly and give some of the other students a go....aaahh I love my hubby!

We had a pre-Vancouver meal with Rik and Janneke (super Indonesian food!) and met their daughter Patricia who is working in Holland for PWC and is one of their stars and is really lovely.

Thursday 18th - Going to Vancouver across the Coquihalla highway which from Kelowna crosses 2 mountain passes. Normal travel time is 4.5 hours, we expect a bit longer due to the ice and snow. ...
It is not an auspicious start with another blizzard in Kelowna, Mr Reed leaving his slippers in the St Johns Ambulance from yesterday (nb slippers are very important in Canadian life....stricly no shoes in the house so if your hosts don't have underfloor heating and you don't want your feet to freeze...bring slippers!..plus a bottle of wine and chocolate...if anyone is coming over to visit...A&G!). It takes over an hour to do a 30 minute journey and we get the feeling that this is going to be a long day....

But, hello, just out of Kelowna the clouds clear and we have bright blue skies...obviously still have the ice and snow on the highway and a steady stream of abandoned cars along the road to make us think that we should have checked the oil/water/coolant/other liquidy stuff before we left...but the snow tyres and Mr Reed's expert driving are doing the trick.

About 1 pm we pull into Merritt for a spot of lunch before we tackle the 'Coq' (please note the use of native lingo, eh) as before this we have just been messing around on the Connector (150kms west from Kelowna to Merritt).
A note about Merritt...don't...it has no Timmy H's (Canadian readers will draw a shocked intake of breath at this news...UK readers, imagine life without beer, Italian based readers life without coffee (or biscuits to kill, L&M)....actually not sure Italians would class Timmy H's coffee as coffee but thats a whole other blog...hot chocolate's good and they have donuts...lots of donuts....).

So retreat from Merritt and head on the Coquihalla towards Hope...no really, there is a town called Hope, honest at the end of the Coq there is a town called Hope...not sure which way its meant to go...ie. from Vancouver abandon Hope past here, or towards Vancouver, let's Hope you make it...
Obviously in the interests of keeping drivers focused on the road, the local council has decided to install a number of art installations by the side of the road, no titles were visible (hidden by the snow I expect) but as with all good art you can get the meaning of a piece without any direction from the artist. Therefore we surmised that object d'art No 1 was conveying ' ohhh look what happens when you go above 50kph', No.2 was 'I was looking at my sat nav...not the road', No.3 'I late...perhaps an ambulance would be faster' and so on and so on. What was most instructive was the jack knifed trucks....these guys do this stuff all the time so if they have problem.... so we stuck to the low speeds and 7 hours later ended up in Vancouver....to be continued....

Container arrives!

We woke to sunny blue skies and the temperature a sniff above -20C. I decided the duvet was not getting enough TLC these days so selflessly stayed in bed to take care of it whilst the wonderful Mr Reed put the kettle on and checked the email to see if an eccentric millionaire had decided to buy the UK house for 50K over the asking price....up one cup of peppermint T, down one eccentric millionaire (they seem rather scarce these days....).

So we went for a bimble in the snow, me in salopettes having discovered that Gap jeans do not protect you from -16C (see its warmed up a bit!) even in the 'well padded' areas! Went down to the lake which was sparkling and you could see the heat evaporating in wispy clouds. Wood Lake, over the other side of the hill, has actually starting to freeze over, so they will be starting ice-fishing and skating soon. Like the skating idea but not so keen on the fishing malarky - ice goes with gin and tonic, not sitting by a hole waiting for a hungry trout, not matter how tasty they are!

But the big news was we had a call from Ted the removal van driver to see if we could come down to customs and sign all the papers to get a headstart for unloading the stuff tomorrow. So we bundled into the car and headed to the airport with some trepidation having heard story after horror story on the customs sign off process.

We needn't have worried, the customs offical was lovely! Although did get a bit worried about when he asked if we had anything which could have come into contact with dirt (camping stuff) as they can make you unload this and pay for it to be checked and cleaned if necessary, then we moved on to Shaun's reloading equipment....but then discovered that the custom officer was a member of the Fish and Game Club in Kelowna and he and Shaun were off talking about targets, things with random numbers and letters - ie 'did you have a CZ Shadow', 'no but I used to have a CZ 75', 'did you have the xxxx? (insert incomprehensible string of random alpha numerics here)' 'Yes it was a xxxx [insert postive or negative comment with appropriate level of enthusiasm/disgust]!'

So we got everything stamped and Shaun got an invite to the next competition event!

Then our lovely driver, ted, asked if we would like to put our stuff into storage today, rather than tomorrow? Would we ever! This means a day's skiing before we head off to Vancouver!
Now, i know, probably after a month or so of being able to ski everyday on beautiful powder we may get a bit less excited however having waited for the snow since mid November and the ski hills being open for the past week and us not being able to go we are a bit stir crazy about getting back on the planks and flashing those season passes!

So the afternoon was spent decanting the truck of 89 items and boxes (I know there are 89 as I had to check them off on a little list with a very cold pen and very cold fingers/toes/nose etc for an hour and a half!) which Mr Reed and Ted ablely manhandled the furniture into the storage unit. We rescued a couple of boxes, skis obviously, but also the box with all the 'Home comforts' in - Branston, HP Sauce, Coleman's mustard (all of which we have realised they have over here!) but most importantly, 20 packets of Divine Fair Trade Dark Chocolate.....! Mmmmm! Oh and 600 PG Tips teabags for Mr Reed.

The items we should have included are a) pickled onions (£4+ a jar over here and not Barry Norman's special ones with chilli either, just plain old Sarsons) b) Heniz Tomato Soup (£2+ a tin) I miss Heniz tomato soup) and c) taramaslata (okay, this probably would have gone off by now but there's tzatzki and hummus of every conceiveable hue but no pink goopy stuff?!)

Sorry wandered slightly off track there...

Refortified with a Tim Hortons coffee and a chocolate based drink for the lady, have returned home to check that the babies, sorry, skis, have made it through okay - which they have!

Tonights dreams will be filled with white fluffy snow, empty slopes and trying to pretend that -15C is just a bit on the crisp side!

Silver Star here we come!

Brrrr!

How do we know its cold? The condensation on the INSIDE of the double glazing froze last night and is still frozen at 11am today!

Well winter has arrived with a hop, skip and an OMG its freezing!

The snow started falling on Friday.... and we went for a walk along Barkley Road, which is just above us on Maki and to the right if anyone is google-earthing, to see if we could spot the local bear and mountain lion (guess who's idea that was...)

A light smattering of snow, enough for a half hearted snowball at Mr Reed and we returned to the cosy cottage.

But it steadily kept snowing and Saturday saw about 8 inches!

We took the ML on its first proper trip with the snow tyres into the village to stock up on beer for the fish and game club's pot-luck supper (and boring stuff such as bread, food etc etc).
With some superb winter driving by Mr Reed we managed to complete the trip without ending up in a ditch or spun across the highway! I am a coward and have yet to try the whole driving on snow thing but with my test on Wednesday I am going to have to do it sometime, especially as the arrival of the white stuff had put a halt to the reversing into a space practice...

We haven't been able to go skiing yet but the container does arrive on Tuesday (yippee!) so the first snow for the skis will be in Cypress Bowl in Vancouver (we have blue sky today and 100+cm at Silver Star but we are trying to ignore all the web cams of people having a grand time...we'll get there soon!)

View from Commonage Road, across Okanagan Lake A snowy tree

its raining so delayed walk along Bear Alley, sorry Commonage Road...

Other good news today, Silver Star opened for Alpine skiing

Bad news is our container is in Vancouver....

Worse news is that it is not going to be delivered until 19th December, when we are supposed to be in Vancouver...negotiations have begun....!

Who needs to going hiking to see the local fanged and clawed wildlife?

Evidence of cougar paws found in the sand on the driveway of our neighbours + conspicuous absence of pet bunny = bunny rabbit became cougar dinner

Please note the word 'neighbours' i.e. 20m down the road kind of neighbours, not rural, in the next valley, need an alpenhorn to communicate kind of neighbours.

Also black bear was seen on Commonage Road...
....for those who know where our house is in Lyndhurst...approximately the distance of Boltons Bench...OS folks, hmmm bottom of Wimpson Lane....everybody else...lets just say its pretty close!

That said, we are now off for a stroll along said road to stretch our legs...with camera...

...will post again soon...promise!

Our Address

Sorry, tried to send a bulk email a couple of days ago (oh so obvious plea for Christmas cards!) but I don't think it made it out into the ether (crappy Microsoft!).

Our address here is:
16709 Maki Road
Lake Country
B.C. Canada
V4V 1C2

World Economic Crisis

We've found the solution to the world economic crisis - just follow the example of our neighbours in the next town
a) BUY loads of lights, thereby boosting retail confidence in home markets and promoting labour in China, increasing the demand for oil, plastic reindeer antlers and artificial snow; and
b) Keep the electricity on as long as possible hence boosting the the energy sector (coal, water, oil, nuclear, whatever suits. Additional benefits will also be perceived in
i) the health sector as your neighbours seek treatment for sleep deprivation and repetative eye strain; and
ii) the automotive arena as parents are hassled by sproglets from miles around to undertake a 8 mile round trip to view said lights.

So stuff the 2.5% VAT reduction, OTT Crimbo lights are the way forward...

AND...will keep away bears, moose, racoons and burglars for the entire Christmas period!

News flash!

Medicine works!

Having spent the last 5 days emphatically insisting that man flu is impervious to the new-fangled pills and potions of quacks and leeches, it was decided that I needed humouring and a cold and flu remedy was purchased to supress the ceaseless nagging of the ball and chain.

Imagine my surprise when mere moments ago the man flu victim annouced that, since taking the tablets, he was feeling much better.

The response to my marginally raised right eyebrow? Apparently the fact of the relief from a serious man flu attack occured not so long after taking some brightly coloured pills was mere concidence, serendipity,bon chance...apparently orange smarties would have just as much impact...

Opening bottle no4 of Chateau Otter...

Cripes...can't believe where the time has gone since our last blog! How can it be 1st December (happy birthday Max!) already.

Its 5.30pm and we are listening to the Pogues and Kirsty McColl on Chris Evans drive time show...quite surreal and also glad that we are not on the M25 as it sounds nasty!
Quick recap on the last week or so...

20th: Passed our driving theory exams 83% and 95% (guess who won...! in under 10 mins...40 questions...okay that's probably made it a bit obvious!)
Our container arrived in Montreal - yippee!
We joined a gym and Shaun had his first kickboxing lesson with the lovely Melissa...looked pretty hardcore as I read a magazine on the cross-trainer...

21st: Results of kickboxing lesson....interesting.....apparently not easy to sit down...gluteus maximus a tad sore apparently....due to his kicks being higher and more aggressive that everyone elses.....hmmmm

22nd: Went for a review with a driving instructor to make sure we are okay for our practical test in January...well more like me rather than Shaun...best news is that no parallel parking (having spent most of Saturday morning and most of the petrol tank trying to park between 2 deckchairs...it was not pretty...
Kickboxing still giving payback....still funny....

23th: Climbed Spion Kopje, big hill behind the house, snow at the top and great views of 4 lakes, vineyards etc but forgot the camera so afraid you will have to imagine it for a bit..it was a bit of a steep, nay vertical, climb and we got lost for 2 hours on the way back down so will be a while before we try that one again!

24th: container still in Montreal...
Bad news....ski hills not having enough snow so opening planned for this weekend delayed ...they want 90cm on the bottom slopes before they'll open....have they been to Europe?...10cm and its all go...stuff the rocks..hire rentals! Still more snow forecast for this week and as our skis aren't yet then it saves us some rental dollars...

25th: Shaun passed his pistol theory and practical with 98% !!! again!!

26th: Interview for Shaun for a project manager job in Kelowna with a restoration company which clears up after fire, flood and other more icky stuff...seemed to go well but there are number of other people going for the job so will be a while before we hear if he gets to go to interview number 2.
Shaun gets man flu...

27th: Shaun lucky to survive the night ...not really in danger from the man flu but more the really grumpy wife who was getting woken up every 45 mins by humongous sneezes...at 3am I am definately no Florence Nightingale...!

28th: Its snowing! Big fluffy flakes.... extra 10+cm on the ski hills...this is more like it!
.....container still in Montreal....man flu still in Shaun...

29th: Rats.... its stopped snowing...warm weather forecast for the next few days with more snow towards the middle/end of next week...it seems churlish to resent a bright blue sky...but....

30th: Had proper afternoon tea with Heather and Trevor who are house sitting the home we
want to buy whilst the owners are RV'ing in Arizona. Lovely couple and Shaun was most impressed with the Battenburg cake, chocolate brownies, lemon sponge cake, chocolate biscuits and mini salmon wellingtons (in pastry, not rubber rain related boots).
Heather seemed most impressed with Shaun's cake eating abilities.....ahh sometimes i am such a proud wife...!

We (well actually I was pretty much, well, totally on the sidelines during the entire operation) aka Shaun changed over to our super-duper snow tires ready for our first venture up the mountain whenever they finally open the ski hills, he also cleaned off the summer tires, marked them with chalk so we (sorry, he) could switch them round to ensure even wear, cleaned the car. I made a cup of tea.

1st Dec: Yippee! our container is on the move and is in Manitoba...so very very cold!
Should be in Vancouver by the end of the week and with us by mid-next week. Skis, boots, teabags and chocolate...its Christmas!