Dodging Operators

So Im gonna be aiming for a weekly update or something like that, so long as interesting stuff actually happens in the week of course.

On tuesday I got to do Lift Operator training which was cool, only four of us from each crew where asked to do it. The difference between an operator and an attendant (which is what I was before) isnt that much but it basically means we know how to drive the Gondola and can bypass faults and engage the axillary engine in the case of a power outage. It also means we get another $1 an hour which equates to an extra $70 a fortnight; something not to be snubbed at. Unfortunately it means we'll be put on the Gondola more often which isnt my favourite lift in the world but because theres a total of five us on the crew we should get a bit of a rotation.

Yesterday was my first proper skiing day since I injured my shoulder and I should be taking it easy I just cant help hitting the hard stuff with my friends. While Ive been a lot more careful with my jumps and drops etc. I still hit Feuz Bowl etc when I probably shouldnt be.

There was also a dodgeball tournament yesterday night which a bunch of us from the Sportsmans entered. We called ourselves the Gutted Ewoks and our costumes were simply boardies and wife beaters/singlets. The crew leader (Tyler aka Tron) and the lead hand (Eric aka Dwain) of my lift crew also had a team with some of the maintenance guys and some other randoms. After getting flogged in our first match we bounced back to win the next two and ended up coming second in the tournament after losing to a bunch of patrollers. Beating our bosses team was an added bonus :D. We won a few maccas and subway vouchers, a couple of tshirts and a $10 Selkirk (outdoor/ski shop) voucher each. I also won the '1st person out in the tournament' award from when I got hit square in the chest after turning around from running back to the base line; didnt even get the chance to see the thing coming. But all in all we had some awesome fun and got some really good photos too. Apparently they're gonna start a fortnightly thing or something: fingers crossed.

Anyways thats about everything, Im back to work tomorrow but I dont mind too much. 3 days of work then Im off again.
Have a good one.

Oops forgot photos

Ooops I forgot to put a link to some photos I put on facebook.
Here they are.

Also, news on my shoulder; I went to the medical clinic today and got it checked out. It turns out Ive injured my rotator cuff so Ive got to keep it moving so it doesnt 'freeze up' and when the pain stops Ill have to get some excercises to do, I think that means I have to go back though. Luckily the doc said Id be able to ski when it feels ok but I have to stop doing crazy stuff like jumps etc for a while until its healed. Basically if I fall on it again, Im screwed so Id better take it easy for a while.

Awell, until next time.

Snow, Skiing, Lifting, Kicking Horse and Golden

Sorry its been so long since I updated, its so hard to find the time and a computer I can use up here.

Ive been here almost a month now and what a month its been... I arrived and booked into the Sportsman Lodge where Im staying. Its basically a motel and for $400 Canadian we get a shared room with one other person, access to the pool (with an awesome slide), spa, sauna and a communal kitchen, we also get our rooms cleaned once a week so its a pretty good deal. The rooms are kinda small and its about 20 - 25 mins walk to town but there are about 26 aussies and kiwis living here who all work on the hill so theres always someone to hang out with and taxis to town get very cheap when you start splitting $10 between 11 people (most of the taxis are minivans or bigger, they even have a bus).
It turns out that even if I go to other continants I cant get away from people I know. Out of all those aussies there are only 3 adelaide people here and the other two are both good friends of mine from highschool (John Antrobus and Mat Trenorden)who I havnt seen in about 4 years, I even work with John. Small world.

Within the first few weeks of being in canada I spent a crazy amount getting all set up. Something like $3500 went to a combination of accomodation, skis, clothing, food and the ever important partying. I got a good deal on skis, bindings, boots and poles, getting the whole lot for about $750 Canadian.

So far the lifty work had been awesome. I had a "I have the best job in the world" moment the other day. I was working on the Stairway to Heaven chair and to get to that particular chair you've got to ride the gondola to the top then ski down to the bottom of the lift. The previous night it had dumped about 20cm of new snow onto the mountain and we got clearance to ride down at around 8. So far that morning the only things to have touched the powder in Crystal Bowl were a cat which had groomed a 3 meter wide trail down the main area of the bowl and a snow mobile which had followed that trail. That left us with a 100m wide trail of fresh, untouched powder for us to ride down just as the sun was rising, no one but the three of us in sight and no sound but the powder being parted by our skis/board and the wind in our ears. It was so awesome.
As lifties we get about 70 hours a fortnight which is a nice number. We work 3 days on, 3 days off, 4 days on, 4 days off and do 10 hour shifts, although they never end up being that long. I like the long days as it means we get more days for riding the hill. One of the bad points is that we have to start at 7am which (because of a really badly set up bus schedule) means we have to get up at 5am and then spend 40 minutes sleeping at the admin building. The pays pretty terrible at around $9 and hour but then as long as I can live on it I dont mind, Im not here to make money after all.
Depending on what lift you're on it can be an easy or draining job. If you're on the gondola then it can be hard because you've got to lift and load skis and boards onto the cabins. They're arent that heavy but after a couple of hours of loading them one in each hand without a break it can get tiring. Other lifts are easier and you tend to get more ride breaks on them as well as there arent as many people working them. On a normal chair lift there will be a person at the top, a person at the bottom and a spare. We pretty much rotate the whole day so we can get as much riding in as possible.

In mid december a bunch of us went to a Wolf Center that was nearby. It was pretty cool seeing and learning about the wolves there, a couple of them were huge! Even though they're kept in seperate runs they still have a pack organisation with two of the keepers being the alphas. We got them to howl as well, we all just started howling and they joined in. Apparently if you're in the woods and there are wolves around you can start howling and they might just join in. I so wanna try it at some point.

Kicking Horse Mountain is awesome. The degree of hardness is at a completely different level here than anywhere else and especially back home. The blues here are easily rated as blacks back home and elseware in canada too according to those who've been to other mountains. I love it, Ive improved so much since I got here and when I go skiing with mates we push each other to hit a harder run or do a bigger jump which is awesome fun.

Even though I had to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day I still had a good Christmas. All of the aussies and kiwis in the Sportsmans put in $15 each and we had a massive dinner which included a turkey, a ham, 2 chickens, some pork and ALOT of salad. We also had a secret santa which ended up being hilarious.
New Years Eve was great, we all went to one of the pubs in town where a band was playing. The cover charge was pretty steep but I had an awesome time. I got home at about 1:30 and after a call to Erica (hey Erica!) I went to bed for 3 hours sleep before having to get up for work. I woke up an hour late still a bit drunk and still managed to make it up the hill on time by hitch hiking. It wasnt the funnest day ever for any of us as a lot of us where hungover all day but it ended eventually.

I did something stupid last saturday, I switched to snowboarding for a day. Ive snowboarded before but in hiensight I just should've stuck to skiing. I was coming down one of the steeper runs under the Catamount chair (predominatly green runs) and I caught my front edge at speed and was thrown forward. I landed badly on my forarm and injured my right shoulder. Its not broken or dislocated or anything but I think Ive done something to my rotator cuff, I didnt go to the doctor earlier because when I went to the hostpital it turns out they want $500 + doctors fee upfront which I just dont have. Ive made an appointment in the medical clinic for friday so we'll see what happens. Hopefully Im only out of skiing for a week or two, itd really suck to not be able to ski for a month or something. Whatever happens I wont be going boarding again for a while at least. I can still work luckily but I just push buttons all day and I can only work at two specific stations on two different lifts.

Anyways I think thats just about all the more exciting news thats happened since Ive been here. Sorry its been so long since I updated, Ill try and update a bit more often now that I dont have so much to write.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and an awesome New Years, Happy 2008 everyone!

Im here!

Well Ive made it to Canada. I arrived in Toronto yesterday and its a lot colder than i was expecting; about -2 degrees C at the moment. Its the same sort of feeling as walking through Mt Hotham or Falls Creek or something except im in the middle of a city.

Anyways this is just a small post to say im here, Ill post about the last week in england etc a bit later.

Im going to see and NBA game tonight and Niagra Falls tomorrow then ill be flying to Calgary and bussing to Golden on friday.

Catchya later

Long time no write.

Well its been a while but compared to the earlier parts of my travels I haven't been doing very much.

After leaving Cambridge, I went back to Norwich for a couple of days and then bussed it straight to London, skipping out Mulden because of a death in the family of whom I was going to stay with. I was going to stay with Anna in London again but I got a call from her a couple of days before I left saying she was away for the week and couldn't house me. Instead I called up a second cousin of mine; George who lives close to London with his girlfriend Louise. They were kind enough to take me in with a days notice so I stayed with them for a couple of nights. Unfortunately they couldn't have me on friday night so I left in the afternoon and spent the next four hours wandering around London with my pack trying to find somewhere to stay as all the hostels seemed to be booked out for the night. Eventually, after a lot of walking around and calling everyone I knew in london, with no success I found a hostel near St Pauls and spent the night there.
In the morning I left the hostel and as I was walking towards the tube noticed there were a lot of people milling around, including police etc. It turns out the Lord Mayors Parade was on so I stopped to watch. The parade included lots of horses and carriages, defence force companies and men holding spears and wearing tight pants. It was overall really cool, being very different from the parades Ive seen before (the christmas pageant for example).
After staying with Ryan for the night and seeing everyone at Wormholt, I caught a train to Purley (a suburb near london) where another of mums cousins lived; Margret and Richard. That night they had a late '5th of November' party (The 5th of November or Bonfire Night is a highly celebrated night in the UK) with all their children and grandchildren. Many fireworks were set off and quite a bit of wine consumed, it was good fun.
I spent the next few days with them and took a walk around the commons behind their house. Mostly just fields but there were a few wooded areas, I had a couple of hour walk and grabbed a cache while i was in the area.
After leaving Margret and Richard's I spent one more night in London and went to see the one and only Avenue Q Musical in the West End with Lara (a friend from Contiki). Avenue Q was absolutely AWESOME! If you get a chance to see it I cannot recommend it enough.

Anyway the next day I took a bus back down to Devon where Im staying with my aunt and uncle again. On saturday, yet another of mums cousins; Wendy and Alan took me to Dartmoor for a couple of walks around the torrs. I cant get enough of the moors, they are fantastic and its a great feeling to climb to the top of the rocky torrs and have a look around. Everytime I walk around a moor I always think: "This would be a fantastic place for wide games". Theres so many little dips etc to hide in, it would be great fun!

Well that's pretty much all that's been happening in the past couple of weeks, Im definitely slowing down a bit. This next statement may cause some of you to want to kill me but I am getting a bit sick of travelling. After almost 4 months Im looking forward to getting to Canada where Ill have a place I can basically call home and where I wont have to live out of my pack. Ah well, a week today and Ill be on the plane to Toronto, then its a couple of days there while i get my Social Insurance Number (ie Tax File equivalent) processed, a quick trip to see Niagra Falls, then a brief flight to Calgary and a bus to Golden. Almost there: bring on the snow!

Till next time, enjoy the summer.

Horses, Robin Hood and incredibly smart people.

After Hull I took the train to Retford where I visited Joy (one of my mums old school friends) and her husband John. I spent a couple of days there and during that time Anna, who I had stayed with in London came up to visit her Joy (her mum) so I got to see her again. Joy and John keep a couple of horses and while I was there they took me out on their horse trap which was pulled by one of their mares; Chelsea. We went as far as the next village where they dropped of Anna and I from where we had a nice walk back along the canal with their 4 dogs.
Joy also took me for a quick visit to the fabled Sherwood Forrest, the home of Robin Hood, where I saw the Major Oak; where he was meant to have lived while harassing the Sheriff of Nottingham etc.

After a couple of days with them I took a bus down to Nottingham to have a look around there before going to Norwich. The original castle of Nottingham had been destroyed and so the castle that currently stands looks more like a manor house than anything. It contained a museum and its current exhibition was one centered on the currently running BBC series of Robin Hood. It was basically a rundown of the characters and the making of the series but it was still pretty cool. Along with the exhibition they had a room devoted to the Sherwood Foresters Regiment which showed their uniforms and weapons from the redcoat and musket times to the present.
There was also a statue of Robin Hood right next to the castle.
I also went for a walk along the river/canal to check out the headquarters of Games Workshop and see the 8 foot statue of a Space Marine out the front.

After a couple of days in Nottingham I jumped on a bus to Norwich where I spent a night with John and Juliet, another of mums cousins. After showing me around Norwich they took me to Cambridge where their eldest daughter, Helen had invited me to stay over the weekend as it would be more fun with her than her parents (her words, not mine). Cambridge is SO COOL, its made up of a number of Colleges where the students live and do a lot of their work. Most of the colleges are made up of really impressive and very old buildings as you might expect and Kings College where Helen lives is no exception. Many of the buildings the students live in remind me somewhat of old style mansions or even castles; Helens room has a battlement above it.
Im leaving Cambridge this evening but Ive had a great time hanging out with uni people again, its been awesome. Im loving the Autumn over here as well, the colours are fantastic! And so many crunchy leaves to step on :P.

Im heading back up to Norwich and then tomorrow Ill probably go down to Mulden for a couple of days then to London again.

Have a good one.

Hull

On my second day in York I went and saw the National Railway Museum and the York Minster. The Railway Museum had loads of trains (as you might expect) from the really old locomotives to a Japanese Bullet Train. There was a huge section on the Flying Scotsman and one of the old trains had sections taken out of it so you could see how it worked. As I walked around I couldn't help feeling Id been there before so maybe I visited it when I was over here 12 or more years ago (*looks at mum and dad*). I didn't see much of the HUGE York Minster as you had to pay to get in and I was almost out of money but I did go up the tower to get a good view of the rest of York. I saw a bit of the inside which was pretty impressive, lots of high domed ceilings.

Later that evening Richard and I left York and we headed to Hull where Richard's family lives. On Sunday, Richard and Sandra took me to see the third longest suspension bridge in the world at about 1300m long which was pretty cool. I got a great photo of it at a place called The Deep, the worlds only submarium. A few days later I went in while looking around with James, my second cousin and its a really great place. They have a massive number of different types fish ranging from tiny jelly fish to poisenous tree frogs to a variety of sharks including small hammerheads. Earlier that day we went to look at the Hull Maritime Museum, Hull used to be a big fishing port and the museaum had many models and relics from back in the day when fishing of all kinds including whaling used to be big in Hull.
James also invited me to a party where, even though I was the eldest by around 4 or 5 years I had a good chat with people and even met a guy who had been to Adelaide a couple of times.

Later on in the week Richard and Sandra were kind enough to invite me on their family holiday up to the Yorkshire Moors for a few days. The moors looked very similar to Dartmoor and Exmoor moors that I visited earlier in my trip down in the south of England but were no less beautiful. During one of the days we took a long walk around and came across not only the village where they film the BBC show Heartbeat but also a small railway station that apparently featured in one of the Harry Potter movies.
On the last night there we cooked our evening meal (sausages) over the fire that we had spent a lot of time starting a few days before as a result of a total lack of matches or lighters. Luckily with an electric stove, some paper and some of my oh so very handy scout craft we EVENTUALLY managed to get it lit. We kept it going for three days and even built a small stove around it (and the sausages tasted awesome).
The next day we went to a coastal town called Whitby before heading home. Whitby is famous for a couple of reasons; for one it is the home, the inspiration and the setting behind the classic novel Dracula and secondly; it is the birthplace of a famous man called James Cook.
As we walked around town we noticed there was a large number of the dark and incredibly stylish goth community in town at the moment. As it turned out there was a Goth convention on as a run up to Halloween and Goths from everywhere were all flocking to Whitby and the apparent burial ground of Dracula himself.

Im back in Hull now and tomorrow Ill be setting off to Retford to visit Joy; a old friend of my mums. Then Im dropping by at Nottingham for a night to visit one very nerdy location then down the east coast to visit more relatives before I stop in london again and then back to Cheriton for a week or so before its off to Canada.
Only a month to go before much skiing and boarding commences, cant wait!

Have a good one.