Well as I was faced with the rather awful task of stopping skiing, drinking and generally having fun to return to the world of work today (much as I love TCM, hi Boss!) I thought I would cheer myself up with a bit of blogging about the fun we have been having over the past week or so....
...Christmas Eve - vague thoughts of heading up to Big White early for some skiing before meeting Kelly & Rowan, Ross and Rachel (hereafter the Kiwis, or as Shaun came to know them as the buggers who can drink like fishes who are very very thirsty, just ate a packet of salt and vinegar crisps, followed by a 50km hike through the Sahara and STILL get up at 8am, cook a full on breakfast for everyone and go skiiing.....for day after day....if that isn;t giving too much away about the next few days from Mr R's point of view!)
...any way, back to Christmas Eve which turned in to a wonderful marathon session of catching up with friends, including Robby and Terry (who run the B&B we stayed in in our first week in Canada), their daughter Erin (who works for NASA aka 'space geeks', and is currently investigating the inner workings of red blood cells (I think!) how cool it that, their son Morgan (who is an electrican of the highest order - voice control panels, led strip lights which come on sticky tape (Dad, you need these!)) and his girlfriend Chrissy (who is training to be a nurse/interior designer - they are renovating their house from the basement up so we were able to trade reno tips/stories). Turned up unannouced and welcomed with coffee and the yummiest mince pies - honestly, Canadian hospitality has to be seen to be believed....3 hours later left reluctantly to drop puppy off at the Gulag...
...the Gulag aka Spotted Spa, was fabulous, they had giant paw prints on the car parking space where your wheels went...wished we taken photos as the dogs have an outside run and there are kennels for them to go into with straw if it gets too cold...and the kennels are shaped like an Wild West town ( IOW guys - think Blackgang Chine without the teepees and the fibreglass horses).
All the big dogs were lined up at the fence to watch Otter walk in with a look on their faces which seemed to imply that the new meat on the block wasn't going to be keeping his new tennis balls and doggy treats much past dinner!
Otter shook like crazy as he went in and smelt the other dogs - I think he was replaying scenes of the vet/groomers - neither of which are his favourite places and the only times he has seen this many dogs in one place!
However the girls who ran the place were fab both for cowardly cocker spaniels and guilt ridden owners and promised to take care of him, give him his Christmas presents, a hug etc etc....Shaun was rather disappointed that Otter got put in with the small/old dogs - personally I think that's why we still had a dog to pick up 3 days later, but I think Shaun wanted 'the boy' to take on a couple of Rotties and a Alastian to become Da Boss.....but honestly...Otter....???
Then we left him for Big White....it has been a green Christmas in the Valley so the roads were fairly clear and we didn't get snowy (friendly :) 4 the Smarties) trees until well on the way to Big White. Nevertheless, people still ended up in ditches and in the space of 200m we saw first a 3 car ditch extravaganza (everyone seemed okay as one girl was taking pictures of her boyfriend posing with the red flare for directing traffic!), another car in the ditch about 50m round the corner and finally the tow truck which was called to pick up from the first accident being towed out of its own ditch! Needless to say, German engineering, 4 wheel drive and snow tires notwithstanding, stuck to 50km for the rest of the way!
Arrived at about 4:30 to a super apartment, loads of space, stocked to the gills with enough beer, wine and food to last out the Apocalpse (unfortunately we drew the bunk beds - but as Ross proposed to Rachel in the hot tub that same evening it was probably a good thing they had the double bed!).
Settled in, congratulated Kelly on securing a great apartment, ski in, ski out, not to far to stagger from the village and with a hot tub, and started on the appies....
Canadian appies are an art, science and religion, we are not talking nibbles here but what can affectively (with the addition of enough alcohol) subsitute for a fair sized meal. Supermarkets are stock to the gills with all varieties, veggie/not veggies, wings, rolls, tarts and bundles of all descriptions....however the combination of being an appie novice coupled with the Kiwis drinking capacity resulted in the appies which were estimated to last 3 DAYs being demolished in 3 HOURS!
That was in between the 45 cans of beer which were drunk between the 3 lads (okay Kelly and Rachel helped a little bit before switching to the Baileys but not enough to dent the acheivement!)
AND everyone (okay I love my duvet a little more than most) was up the following morning at 7:45 ish, full breakfast cooked by Ross at 8am, and on the slopes at 8:45!
....and so we entered Christmas Day....
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