We have no WiFi connection in Winfield so will be off the Skype connection until 8th February.
Emails still cool though as Ron and Lois have kindly let us use their computer...hence the blogability too!
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Big White
id="hotbar_promo">
Staying in Winfield for the next couple of weeks puts us about 15 minutes closer to each of the ski resorts so we decided to give Big White a try this week and went up last Friday and yesterday (Wednesday).
We didn't think we could like it better than Silver Star but it was really good - in fact the 2 resorts make a killer combination - Silver Star is very quaint and quieter, with runs in amongst the trees and nestled in valleys...Big White is just that...bigger and whiter! Although you are still in the treeline the resort is higher so tree cover at the peaks is much sparser and you have big open runs with lots of powder in between. Big long runs run down off speedy traverses and there are 'warming huts' at the bottom of all the main lifts serving hot cinnamon buns ...must take a photo of these things as they are seriously huge!
On the subject of photos, none yet of BW as the first day we forgot the camera and day 2 it was a might cloudy and we have decided to only post pictures of ski resorts in bright sunshine for maximum smug factor!
Apres ski Big White looks a bit on the European side, with the boatloads of Aussies taking the traditional place of the Dutch in the getting the party started stakes..unfortunately we missed Australia Day on the mountain on Tuesday as Mr Reed was taking an exam for the sheriffs job, but there was cricket, girls in thongs (whoa, boys...thongs=sandals, Mr Reed v. disappointed too) and lots of beer drinking...bliss!
Actually both resorts could do with some snow as we are skiing on hard packed piste but we would like to get back to some powder (yes I know, fussy fussy - I never thought I would be asking for more snow on a 1.50m base!). There was some on Tuesday to freshen things up but it was more like a moist towellette than a proper bath.
We are going to try snow dances in the back garden tomorrow!
House sitting...again..
We have picked up another house sitting job with friends from the Game Club so have relocated down the road to Winfield to look after their house. Lovely though the house is I have to say the main draw is their unbeliveable cute dog called Rupert.He's a 2 year terrier cross, full of beans and amazingly attractive to young and old! We have had children rush out of supermarkets, spend 10 mins fussing him and then all you can hear as they cross the carpark is 'Mummy, can we have a puppy? Can we have one like that? When can we get a pupppyy, plu-eeaassee!'. We are expecting a petition from the harrassed parents of Winfield banning us from Coopers (local Bugdens/Morrisons)!
Also very positive effect on the older members of the community as we take him for walks along OK Centre beach in his little red sweater (well it is minus -12C at the moment!)...thinking he would be very useful for bank jobs, kidnappings etc ...everyone's too busy noticing extremely cute dog to fuss with the major criminal heist...
...but lovely though he is....Otter's still the best...we did take a photo of me cuddled with the dog on the sofa but in case Otter does see this on the parents computer decided not to post it in case it causes major psychological damage!
On the Otter subject, guilt over dog sitting, has occassioned a rash of phone calls to Air Canada, and BA to get the little horror over here!
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Success!
We now have 2 full legal drivers in the Reed household as Mr R passed his test today with flying colours...'very serene' (!?) was on the driving inspectors notes....
PS thanks for the extra candlepower M&D x
PS thanks for the extra candlepower M&D x
Dad's gone to Iceland....
As an alternative to the freezer section of the local supermarkets we have ice fishing....
This apparently involves drilling a hole through the ice with a giant corkscrew, dropping a line in and then sitting on a bucket in the middle of the lake for about 5 hours jiggling the line about until the temptation of a nice juicy maggot gets too much for some unfortunate and very chilly kokanee salmon.
Been told its great fun and the salmon taste extra yummy at this time of year but I think we'll stick to fish fingers!
Incidentially we have been advised that the minimum depth for safe ice fishing is 6 inches and that the lakes just north of us have ice 16 inches, thick...the ice these guys are on is only 4inches and they were still out there when the temperature was above freezing and there were pools of water on the top of the ice! We are not sure if the culstering of ice fisherfolk is a good idea (extra hands if someone takes a dip) or whether the solitary ice fisherperson is erring on the side of caution and avoiding the extra weight....
Thursday, 15 January 2009
Oh deer (sorry)
The deer came in last night and ate the poor snowman's horns/nose/etc...
...so we now have Kojak the Snowman...
... its a slow day for blog news today.....
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
No more soggy seats..
The ML is now fully ski enabled with a ski rack on the roof so we don't have to carry the skis in the car. Put together with minimal shouting and cursing although did get it all positioned and tightened the last bolt when Mr Reed had a brainstorm and opened the boot....curses! 10mins of fiddling later all is perfect and we can now carry 8 (!) sets of skis or 4 snowboards (like thats ever going to happen!).
Tomorrow we try it out with a test run to Silver Star...
Monday, 12 January 2009
Update on jobs
Shaun is still doing all the exams which are needed before he can apply for the sheriff's post, next on the list is the driving test (fingers crossed)! Then he has a Language Test and another driving test, this time for passenger vehicles so hopefully the application will go in at the end of January.
We are busy getting all the police action movies out of the DVD shop so he can get the lingo right!
I've applied for a dispute resolution post with the BC Govt; we called them today and they are still going through the paper sift so going to be another 1-2 weeks before I hear about the next stage (more fingers crossed!)
We are busy getting all the police action movies out of the DVD shop so he can get the lingo right!
I've applied for a dispute resolution post with the BC Govt; we called them today and they are still going through the paper sift so going to be another 1-2 weeks before I hear about the next stage (more fingers crossed!)
Ski, ski, ski
This week, with our season lift passes clasped in our hot sweaty little paws we have been hitting the slopes of Silver Star with a vengenance as can now ski for 'free'!
We have settled into a routine of ski a day, have an admin/job 
hunt/shop day, ski the next and so on which has been in part been caused by only wanting to ski on the best days (although at the moment we are basking in -2 temperatures so pretty much every day is a good ski day and someone up there definately loves skiers as we have had snow on every other day so there is a nice fresh layer when we get there the following morning.)...the other reason is recovery time...obviously because we are skiing so hard and fast.....not any other reason....!
hunt/shop day, ski the next and so on which has been in part been caused by only wanting to ski on the best days (although at the moment we are basking in -2 temperatures so pretty much every day is a good ski day and someone up there definately loves skiers as we have had snow on every other day so there is a nice fresh layer when we get there the following morning.)...the other reason is recovery time...obviously because we are skiing so hard and fast.....not any other reason....!
There is a great little restaurant on the far side of the ski hill (will remember to take picture next time!) which does top soups and we are steadily working our way through their repetoire (Spicy Thai Chicken top so far although wild mushroom a close second). Shaun is also official taster of cinnamon buns on the 11 o'clock rest stop to ensure quality doesn't deteriotate in 48hrs!Christmas Bowl at Silver Star
We are getting to know the mountain a bit and there is definately something for everyone - 
cruisy pisted runs, moguls (with and without powder depending on how much you want to earn that cinnamon bun!), pure powder and runs through snow clad trees. The Canadian coding system is a bit different to Europe with green being the easier (green/blue in Euroland), blue (blue/red), Black 1 diamond (black) and Black 2/3 diamond (really, really black as in OMG are you sure that you can ski that?!). We've tried a 2 diamond and are going to improve/get new legs before going back!
cruisy pisted runs, moguls (with and without powder depending on how much you want to earn that cinnamon bun!), pure powder and runs through snow clad trees. The Canadian coding system is a bit different to Europe with green being the easier (green/blue in Euroland), blue (blue/red), Black 1 diamond (black) and Black 2/3 diamond (really, really black as in OMG are you sure that you can ski that?!). We've tried a 2 diamond and are going to improve/get new legs before going back!There are some seriously good skiers/boarders local boarders here and you see virtually no crashes as a) the runs are so uncrowded and b) everyone has basically been skiing since they were in nappies! Friday was 'schools' day as all the local kids get a morning's skiiing every week as part of their games cirriculum and those guys can really zip down a slope! We did see one really good crash, right under the chair lift as well for maximum exposure....guy comes down the hill towards a natural ramp with about a 1.5 m drop into some powder...a little pause...perhaps to make sure the audience on the chairlift is fully engaged (?) and then swoops down...a quick 360 and then a full on face plant into the powder - body completely horizontal and then just drops! Round of applause from the whole lift as he emerges from the powder safe and sound....
Driving conditions have improved since earlier in the week and I am now learning to appreciate the beauty of snow free roads as the temperatures have risen in the Valley we have snow on the hills and lovely dry, non icy roads (or at least they are by the time we get moving!).
We are hoping to hook up with one of our neighbours who was a ski instructor, from a long line of ski instructors and get some tips to be able to really hit those higher black with some style in return for a beer or two!
It's being snowing...a bit..
Whilst we were in Vancouver the Okanagan has been receiving just a bit of the white stuff! The pictures were taken last Monday and we are in a winter wonderland at the moment! 
Monday, 5 January 2009
Assimilation!
From the words of wisdom in our 'How to be a Canadian' handbook a critical aspect of being a true Canadian is the unthinking ability to add 'eh' (pron. a as in tray)at the end of every sentance i.e 'how about a drink, eh?'.
Lying in bed with Mr R this morning the question came over the pillow
'Shall we go skiing tomorrow, eh?'
We paused a moment to reflect on the acheivement....
Lying in bed with Mr R this morning the question came over the pillow
'Shall we go skiing tomorrow, eh?'
We paused a moment to reflect on the acheivement....
Ice Road Truckers...The Return
Only 5.5hours saw us back from Vancouver to home in Lake Country, thanks to the expert driving of Mr R, the able support of a cinnamon bun and coffee stop in Hope and some very clear roads on the Coquihalla, despite the dire weather forecast.
Critter count was surprisingly good, especially on the bird front with bald eagles, a red tailed hawk, a touch of home with a pheasant, and Shaun spotted what we originally thought was a large black bin bag by the side of the road but as we got closer it turned out to be what we think was a golden eagle - it was HUGE!
A critical aspect of the journey was the vocal musings of ABBA (we only have 3 CDs to choose from at the moment, White Stripes was abit lively for ice driving and if we hear Duffy again there will be crimes committed!) and we topped the Coq (pronounce 'coke') to the dulcet tune of Waterloo and there was some serious in-car dancing...
The worst bit was driving into Kelowna with high winds, driving snow and really icy roads...very glad to see our little cottage which is now surrounded by 4ft of snow!!
A huge thank you to everyone for the Christmas cards which are strung up around the house - we opened them with a bottle of Gru-Vee and wrapped in a blanket as its a bit parky at the moment and we have obviously softened up with the -3C in Vancouver...all the cards and email messages really really appreciated!
Critter count was surprisingly good, especially on the bird front with bald eagles, a red tailed hawk, a touch of home with a pheasant, and Shaun spotted what we originally thought was a large black bin bag by the side of the road but as we got closer it turned out to be what we think was a golden eagle - it was HUGE!
A critical aspect of the journey was the vocal musings of ABBA (we only have 3 CDs to choose from at the moment, White Stripes was abit lively for ice driving and if we hear Duffy again there will be crimes committed!) and we topped the Coq (pronounce 'coke') to the dulcet tune of Waterloo and there was some serious in-car dancing...
The worst bit was driving into Kelowna with high winds, driving snow and really icy roads...very glad to see our little cottage which is now surrounded by 4ft of snow!!
A huge thank you to everyone for the Christmas cards which are strung up around the house - we opened them with a bottle of Gru-Vee and wrapped in a blanket as its a bit parky at the moment and we have obviously softened up with the -3C in Vancouver...all the cards and email messages really really appreciated!
Silver Star
Janneke sent through this picture to show us what we were missing at Silver Star where the temperature has improved from a perishing -20C to a much more reasonable -6C. We are travelling back on Sun (4th) and I have to say its a brilliant feeling to think that on Tuesday we will be skiing again, oh, in about 50mins from the door!
Yes, it will all seem a distant memory once the 9-5 starts again but boy are we enjoying it whilst we can!
If anyone is thinking of skiing here at Christmas from the experience we have had we would probably wait until the new year, especially for Whistler, as there are still a few bare bits and even in Whistler some of the runs were still closed - I think it will get colder mid month but at the moment the temperature is just perfect (-3C today) and there is fresh snow each morning!
Friday, 2 January 2009
New Year's Eve
Apologies for the late blog but Google's been playing up and we haven't been able to post for a couple of days....perhaps Santa might bring a late Christmas pressie in the form of an all-in-one computer (kinda like an iMac for the Mac-phobic...very shiny and much cheapness in the sale....!)
Anyhow, we spent New Year's eve skiing at Cypress Bowl in the sunshine (it has at last stopped raining...it rains alot in Vancouver...all this snow at sea level is somewhat of a novelty) - if I can get Blogger to work I will post pictures but the basic image is lots of snow, snowy trees, blue sky, no people, short lift queues and a really nice lodge they have built for the 2010 olympics - nice hotdogs although not as good as IKEA's and they were only 50c (25p!) - we went to look at kitchens and picked up a few things for friends as the nearest IKEA to Kelowna is Vancouver so thats 5 hours away and they don't deliver...could have spent a fortune and loaded the car to the ceiling but Mr R pointed out that we don't have a house, don't have jobs yet so perhaps the stainless steel corn cob holders, cute glass nightlights and a complete dinner service could wait a bit no matter how nice/cheap/stylish it is....spoilsport!
But I digress once again, we finished skiing around 3.30ish and rushed home to make the NYE calls at 4pm (12am UK) but Skype was playing up and only managed to reach M&D on IoW for a few minutes and that took 3 attempts...although there was a wild bridge night going on and judging by the raucous rendition of Auld Lang Syne (at least I think that was what they were singing?) there was a lot of sipping and sampling of alcoholic beverages going on in between the cards...hi to P&J btw...
And then we got to continue our NYE celebrations - there were no public displays in Vancouver (they did show London's on the tv - the fireworks looked great) so we went to a restaurant down the road in Horseshoe Bay called the Boathouse were they were doing a 3 course meal for £25 - which, considering it included whole lobster and alaskan king crab seemed a pretty good deal! We got a lovely table looking out of the marina and the log fire was roaring away behind us. Horseshoe Bay is where one of the ferries to Vancouver Island goes to and there was much debate as to whether it was bigger or smaller that the ones to IoW.
We managed to get the only vegetarian waitress in the restaurant so there was little advice when the lobster arrived as to what bits (apart from the tail and the claws) were munchable but was advised to 'poke around' inside and see what fell out and looked edible....so set to it with the nutcracker-y things and after sending a couple of bits skidding off plate and in the direction of nextdoors handbag (lucky save by Mr R) got the hang of it. They even brought a little dish of lemon butter with its own little candle heater to dip the lobster bits into it.
A couple of points I have learnt about lobsters in the course of the evening;
a) they are yummy...very yummy
b) they are messy ...very messy
c) they are slippery little suckers
d) re b) and c) don't wear anything you can't machine wash...or want to look glamourous in 30 mins after the lobster activity
e) don't let your husband/date/eating friend order anything less fiddly than you (Shaun had miso halibut and finished about 3 hours before I did!)
f) ideally take an eating partner with the lighting reaction speeds of a Manchester United goalkeeper or one of those chameloen critters who get the crickets off the leaves in the Amazon so that errant bits of lobster inadverantatly launched across the table can be surupticously (?) retrived and retuned to the plate....
Finished with baked cheesecake and a 3 types of chocolate mousse pudding and returned to the house to sit infront of the fire with a bottle of the home made Gru-Vee...
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL - may 2009 bring you all health and happiness....
Big hugs
Cara & Shaun xx
Output of ferry review: definately much bigger than Yarmouth and Fishbourne and add about a quarter on to Red Funnel to East Cowes....don't ask....
Anyhow, we spent New Year's eve skiing at Cypress Bowl in the sunshine (it has at last stopped raining...it rains alot in Vancouver...all this snow at sea level is somewhat of a novelty) - if I can get Blogger to work I will post pictures but the basic image is lots of snow, snowy trees, blue sky, no people, short lift queues and a really nice lodge they have built for the 2010 olympics - nice hotdogs although not as good as IKEA's and they were only 50c (25p!) - we went to look at kitchens and picked up a few things for friends as the nearest IKEA to Kelowna is Vancouver so thats 5 hours away and they don't deliver...could have spent a fortune and loaded the car to the ceiling but Mr R pointed out that we don't have a house, don't have jobs yet so perhaps the stainless steel corn cob holders, cute glass nightlights and a complete dinner service could wait a bit no matter how nice/cheap/stylish it is....spoilsport!
But I digress once again, we finished skiing around 3.30ish and rushed home to make the NYE calls at 4pm (12am UK) but Skype was playing up and only managed to reach M&D on IoW for a few minutes and that took 3 attempts...although there was a wild bridge night going on and judging by the raucous rendition of Auld Lang Syne (at least I think that was what they were singing?) there was a lot of sipping and sampling of alcoholic beverages going on in between the cards...hi to P&J btw...
And then we got to continue our NYE celebrations - there were no public displays in Vancouver (they did show London's on the tv - the fireworks looked great) so we went to a restaurant down the road in Horseshoe Bay called the Boathouse were they were doing a 3 course meal for £25 - which, considering it included whole lobster and alaskan king crab seemed a pretty good deal! We got a lovely table looking out of the marina and the log fire was roaring away behind us. Horseshoe Bay is where one of the ferries to Vancouver Island goes to and there was much debate as to whether it was bigger or smaller that the ones to IoW.
We managed to get the only vegetarian waitress in the restaurant so there was little advice when the lobster arrived as to what bits (apart from the tail and the claws) were munchable but was advised to 'poke around' inside and see what fell out and looked edible....so set to it with the nutcracker-y things and after sending a couple of bits skidding off plate and in the direction of nextdoors handbag (lucky save by Mr R) got the hang of it. They even brought a little dish of lemon butter with its own little candle heater to dip the lobster bits into it.
A couple of points I have learnt about lobsters in the course of the evening;
a) they are yummy...very yummy
b) they are messy ...very messy
c) they are slippery little suckers
d) re b) and c) don't wear anything you can't machine wash...or want to look glamourous in 30 mins after the lobster activity
e) don't let your husband/date/eating friend order anything less fiddly than you (Shaun had miso halibut and finished about 3 hours before I did!)
f) ideally take an eating partner with the lighting reaction speeds of a Manchester United goalkeeper or one of those chameloen critters who get the crickets off the leaves in the Amazon so that errant bits of lobster inadverantatly launched across the table can be surupticously (?) retrived and retuned to the plate....
Finished with baked cheesecake and a 3 types of chocolate mousse pudding and returned to the house to sit infront of the fire with a bottle of the home made Gru-Vee...
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL - may 2009 bring you all health and happiness....
Big hugs
Cara & Shaun xx
Output of ferry review: definately much bigger than Yarmouth and Fishbourne and add about a quarter on to Red Funnel to East Cowes....don't ask....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)