I was dreaming of a White Christmas!

Christmas Day 2010 - Jasper, Alberta, Canada,  a Northern Hemisphere's winter Crimbo - It was probably something in the minus teens!...

...And Christmas Day 2011 - Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, a Southern Hemisphere's summer Crimbo - I think it was plus 24 when I checked on my computer (in the morning)! - Despite what this picture shows it was a really clear and blue day!

After waking up with the boys here at Kangaroo Point, I headed to Rosie's, took the above picture, headed to Rosie's parent's then headed about 2 and a half hours out of Brisbane, into what can only be described as "the middle of nowhere". I still don't really know where we were, but we passed Kilcoy and Woodford on the way there. Until we arrived at Rosie's Auntie and Uncle's holiday retreat home, and the pictures below are where I spent my Christmas day:

After spending all the day eating and drinking a fair amount, spending the day with a small part of Rosie's pretty big family, NEARLY seeing a kangaroo (still yet to see a live one), quad biking round the garden, we decided to go cow tipping at midnight, only to find that we couldn't find any cows...and just 'tipping' just seems pointless. It was another amazingly clear night though, so the skies were perfectly clear again (like my first night in California last November) to the point where you could see the Milky Way, and the stars and planets were so clear and bright. Ended up crashing in a tent over night. We then found out in the morning that the local farmer didn't have any cows, only balls, so in a way it was kinda lucky we didn't find anything that night.

We got distracted on our way home through Woodford....

....Still on the way home through, near the Glass House Mountains

My Christmas presents, the crappy air football was from Rosie's parents on Christmas Day, and ALLLLL the Saints stuff is from my parents, which I only got to open last night (Boxing Day), I waited until I could FINALLY get on Skype.

And apparently I have another parcel on the way...boom!

And thanks to all for my Christmas cards!

Still sorting out what I'm doing for New Year's, but I should have decided and booked my flights by the end of the day. Still waiting to see if I have a place to crash in Melbourne, if not then I'll be heading to Sydney. As long as I get out of Brisbane I'll be happy. This will more than likely be the last entry in my blog for 2011, 2011 the shortest year of my life (as I started it 7 hours after GMT, and will be finishing it 11 hours prior to GMT assuming I'm in New South Wales or Victoria), and a year in which I would have started it in the most Northernly place I've ever been ever (Jasper, Alberta, Canada), and will be finishing in the most Southern place that I've ever been (either Sydney or Melbourne), that's some serious miles (or Kilometers to all my Canadian and Australian readers).

Hope you all had an amazing Christmas, and a Happy New Year to everyone. Much love!

Good bye Canada...Good bye North America

So tonight is my last night in Canada and North America. It's been 23 weeks since I left England, spent 11 weeks and 2 days in the States and 11 weeks 6 days in Canada (by the time I leave tomorrow). My American visa would have expired in 2 and a half weeks anyway, so I'm not leaving the continent much shorter than what I originally planned. So my next stop will be Hong Kong, I leave Vancouver airport tomorrow early afternoon and after a 12 hour flight I will be in Shanghai, then a flight onto Hong Kong.

Went into Vancouver today and picked up a few bits including my foreign currencies:

That's my last $110 Canadian. But just so you know, $100 Canadian gets you (roughly for each country):

• $100 American
• $750 Hong Kong (The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC))
• ฿3,000 Thai Baht
• And ₫1,500,000 (Yes 1 and a half million) Vietnamese dong

I was unable to get any money for Laos. So anyway, after a long weekend in Hong Kong, I will be heading to Vietnam to do my Asia tour which includes Laos and Thailand. Before staying in Thailand for a little while, then flying into Brisbane, Australia next month - that's right I actually have a plan, WITH DATES! And I'll be meeting Danny G from back home (the first mate from back home that I'll be seeing since Ryan and Katie left me in Washington 3 and a half months ago).

I won't really put any more photos of my last few days, I only have some photos of my ferry ride back to the mainland and some more photos of Vancouver

So anyway, I didn't do it when a left Jasper, but I suppose I should do it now: Big thank yous....Thank you to Sheryl (my manger's manager at Fairmont Stores), the first and only Canadian I knew when I crossed the US/Canadian border back in November. Thanks to Courtney for getting me through them "great" days at work...some of them really were the best, and thanks for all them truly Canadian meals. Thanks to all the staff at the Grizz for all your help at the start, especially Rob, you were amazing dude. Thanks to Cory, Keegan, Stacey and Mark for the house parties...so many epic flip cup moments of glory....not too many moments of beer pong glory for me. Also thanks to James, Shaifa, MmmattFigueirraa, Blaire and Matt for hosting too. Thank you Kim for the more then entertaining nights (I know how that sounds, but if you know Kim, you know what I mean). Thanks Steph for my free coffee (I got it in the end). Nice one to Jeff, Chad, Nick for the snowboarding adventures. Thank you Milan for being sane, it helps in a place like Jasper. Thank you Karly for my drawing, I still have it, and it will go up when I get to Oz. Thanks Laura O for making my 6 minutes walk home a lot longer. Thanks to my Wifey, Kayla, my best distraction. Thanks Laura for the long talks and the epic late night dances outside A cabin...it will be summer soon! Thanks Dan for everything dude, and for planning the whole Alberta road trip, sweet sweet times. Cheers Bryony too for having an English contact, and thanks for the hook up with your brother. And shout out to big gay Tom, awesome times, looking forward to seeing you again next month. Sorry to Jenna, I wasn't trying to mess you around, and thanks for trying to help, shame I didn't get to see you again before I left. Thanks Cassie and Caighlah for inviting me to Ottawa and David, Wanda (hope you enjoyed your time away), Tyler, Josh, Corey and everyone else in Ottawa, twas an awesome week. Thanks to Becca for taking all my time back in the bean, the very cheap breakfasts and for inviting me to the Island, and Mary, Wally and Emily for putting up with me. Thanks also to Sara for housing us for a couple of nights and Chris, Justine and Canadian Cam for my two trips down to Victoria. Thanks finally to Eleni and Katie for the random house that you found for me to stay in for my last few days in Canada (that's no joke, their staying in a random house...it's legit, but random). Finally thanks to Sophie back in STA Southampton for helping me sort all my Asia trip in such a short time. Thanks to anyone else I've forgotten to mention, don't take it personally, there's a lot of people to thank.

Hope to see you all again at some point.

So long Tim Hortons, you were great (in Canada, not the States (you suck there)), but you're no Dunkin' Donuts. And so long root beer.

We’re drink and drink and drink and drink and drink and drink and fight!

Being asked if I’m German is defiantly where I draw the line. No way, and no I am not flying to Frankfurt…good guess though I suppose!?!? Nope, I’m an Englishman currently on my flight with Air Canada from Calgary in Alberta, Canada to my next destination of Ottawa (the capital) in Ontario, Canada. Now pretty much all the staff that work in Jasper were all from Ontario (and that really isn’t too much of an exaggeration), so it makes sense that I check it out. Again, by the time this is posted I will no longer by on my flight, cos the interwebie thingy doesn’t get up this high! I am pretty excited to get to Ottawa now and see the Keenans again, it’s been a month now since they left Jasper. I did feel a little bit numb in the airport, but only cos I am really gonna miss a fair few people from Alberta. I leave missing it, as opposed to being done with it.
So anyway, just had my last few days in Jasper. Twas fun, to say the least. Finished work on Saturday (yes, I am unemployed again). Survived a polar bear dip on Sunday, which wasn’t too cold surprisingly…no really it wasn’t! I found out today that we made the cover of Jasper’s local newspaper, so I will try and get a copy of that. I’m also hoping to be on the Jasper Tourism website - “I’m just about to do a polar bear dip in ‘Jasper in January’”…not gonna lie, that’d be so cool.

After surviving that, with all three of my testicles still on my body, headed out for my last night in Jasper. And what a fun night that was:















Staying up in time to have breakfast in the bean. After a few hours sleep, got all my stuff together, and did my goodbyes to all the Jasper peeps that I’m gonna miss. Then we headed on our road trip. Day one, Jasper to Lake Louise:








Day two, Lake Louise to Banff.






Day three, Calgary to see the Calgary Flames turn over Saint Louis 4-1. I mean we really were in the noise bleed seats (even a tout didn’t wanna buy our spare ticket off of us), but it was still a pretty fun night.





Day four, so long to Banff, and back to Calgary to fly my fine self out of Alberta, and…well, this is the point of where I started this entree. The whole thing was just a pretty sweet epic fun laugh. And it was made even sweater cos the peeps I did the adventure with were the first friends I made in Jasper., on my first night in Jasper in fact. Thanks guys for making it what it was!
My time in Jasper, was wicked fun, I don’t think I’ve picked up too much of a Canadian accent so far eh, but I am pretty stubborn, so I think my ‘ampshire accent is still sticking strong. But yet again, so many thank yous to send out there. Dam where to start. To be honest I did start writing a massive list, but there’s just so many of you to thank, so many that I will miss. Overall, everyone was pretty dam awesome, and I can’t thank some of you enough. I had an amazing time in Jasper (bar the job, and living in a dorm). Much love to you Jasper. So excited to be seeing some of you again soon.
I did also finally see a moose the other day, it was all cooked and covered in sauce and served to me on a plate. Tasted gooooood, but not quite as good as white tail. Also tried Partridge, which is just much much much nicer chicken. Thank you Courtney for all them awesome meals.

Over one month later than planned / filmed / edited.

It has taken me a month, but I finally had the time and I now have my video sorted, and online. Thanks for your help Katie. Well not completed sorted, click on this link and copy this into the search bar (top right of the page) "My walk Home - Jasper, Alberta."

(Katie, I did try all the embedded links and stuff, but it just didn't like it).

So anyways. Tuesday (yesterday) was pretty sweet. Had my last day of snowboarding in Jasper...another free day.....I love having an accent, and charms of course! Sadly it ended quicker than planned, climbing up mountains where they've "got bombs going off" isn't allowed. No I seriously didn't believe the jobsworth either, but sure enough "booooooom!!" there goes the bomb he was talking about. So I can now add mountain to my list of places I've been kicked off of, didn't stop me getting in a few more runs though. Then after the gym, headed to the Maligne Canyon for a free and epic tour.

The studs or "creeps" that I didn't have....

...But it did make it easier to moonwalk...

...And do whatever this is!?!?

I'm crushed...

...Tom was clearly shocked

So I have three days left of a job I can't stand. Then it's back to being unemployed. Handing in my notice, the other week, for this job felt so good. Spoke to my Manager's manager and thanked her for the sweet opportunity that they gave me, it was nice to hear that I'll be missed, and that she totally understood my situation. "(I'm) one of the good ones"

Oh yeah, and last week I found this out - typical Mike!

Least I got a load of free days up there anyway!