What up Twenty Eleven!!!

So 2010 is done back home and I've only just cracked open my first beer of the night! Listening to a bit of Pendulum before the real drinking starts. So since my last post few things have changed, few more nights out and a pretty epic Christmas....which led to me making the same mistake on Boxing Day that I made the day after our work's Christmas doe (and it'll probably happen again tomorrow). Again, all I can say is that it aint smart, work wouldn't be best pleased but I think it's hilarious, and typical of my attitude right now...I love it!

So anyway, since it's been a couple of weeks since I wrote on here, I'll start with last week which started with a Lunar Eclipse which could only be properly seen in North America. Basically, it was freezing, and the moon disappeared then went a redy orange....pretty cool though. This calls for another picture of space that you can't really appriciate!

So anyway, last Saturday was my first Christmas away from home, which felt kinda weird. But gotta make the most of living in the mountains....bring on topless snowboarding! Thanks to all for the £££££ and to Mum and Dad for my Saints hat and...wait for it...Saints Tattoos!!!! And was good to speak to the family on Christmas day, sorry it was rushed, but thank Courtney for waking me up otherwise it'd've never happened. Miss ya.

Aint you proud of your boy, Mother!

I love the snow, but a little bit more would be nice please. I don't like face planting on ice. Although it did snow whilst I was up the mountain on Tuesday, which gave us a little bit more fresh powder. but can we have some more please.

Big thanks to Courtney (the (Canadian (not American)) girl I work with) and her family for inviting me round their's on Christmas day, good food, good drink, great times! That ended up in me heading back to the JPL for more merriment!

I was so drunk, I was so proud of my work!

Whoop, there it is!

Yeah, I know......

Blair wasn't quite as impressed!

So that was my Christmas. Boxing day started a bit later than scheduled, but it did start. It ended with the exchanging of our secret Santa. Now Bryony thinks she's funny mocking my walk:

Love it!

Big shout out to Cassie and Caighlah (the Keenans), thanks for leaving and giving me all your stuff. Talk about being in the right place at the right time....my room actually has a bin now, amongst other things! Hopefully I'll be seeing you again very soon in Ottawa (which I will be able to pronounce by the time I get there). Also thanks to Rebecca and Sara, that's pretty much an offer I cannot turn down. Two offers in two days, I can't miss out on these things, makes my plans sound so much sweeter, I am looking into it and it means that I'll get to see a lot more of Canada than I thought I would. I am seriously looking into it all! And I am going to Banff! Sorry work but, I aint in Canada for you, I'm in Canada for me!

So anyway, to sum up, been snowboarding, eating, drinking, enjoying Canada, making plans to enjoy more of Canada, working, and on the odd occasion, sleeping. I think if my lifestyle carries on like this I  might actually kill myself, I'm my own worst enemy, oh well!

So anyway, these beers are going down very very well and I've switched my music to Causually dressed, so I'll be heading out in a mo to start my New Year, even though England has been in 2011 for about 4 hours now I'm just starting. This is my sixth New Year's in a row that I've started and finished in a different country, good for me! Now it's Canada's turn! Think all staff are heading to Tent City (a bar in our beloved Fairmont Hotel ($8.50 a pint...yeaaaaaaa)) then I'll just go-with-the-flow, or with the peeps that are entertaining me the most. Long story short, I cleaned out my wallet today and found a bit of glitter at the bottom, now that can only be from Rebecca's house party in Florida last New Year's....great times! Random!

So this is my last post for twenty ten. Hope all had an awesome Christmas, and all the best for 2011 to all. Not gonna lie, 2010 has definitely been an experience for me. Much love.

I think that's all for now. I wanna tell more, but don't wanna get myself in too much trouble!

Saturday 18th December = 100 days since I left England

So I'm pretty sure one of the reasons I left England was because I hate the cold.....right, nice one....Canada's FREEEEEZING, and I have pretty good reason to believe that it's only gonna get colder here! But on the plus side, with cold comes snow and ice!!!!!

So on Tuesday I finally made my board happy, and got it out on the snow, in what has easily been the best day I've had since I left England. It felt so amazing to be cruising down a mountain on my board again. Felt like I picked it up (well almost) where I left off in Andorra, three and a half years ago. Although I was cutting through the trees three years ago! I didn't get any pictures from the top of the mountain, but these are at the base at the end of the day:

I will take more when I'm up there next.

I've also been ice skating on a lake this week, which is pretty cool. Finally headed into Jasper town. And we had the Fairmont Christmas Party this week. In which they wouldn't give me any free drink tokens cos I don't "official work for JPL"....well I'm skint so I'm gonna keep drinking the wine that you leave on our table!!! That was a crazy night, going to bed at 6:30 to wake up at "6:50" to open up the store at "8"! (And in the start of my last blog I said that I now need to be careful with what I post....nuff said)!

When I finished work last Saturday I had a wonder around the JPL (Jasper Park Lodge) just to wonder about and check it out:

The frozen lake. They even put goals up for hockey, I need to get a stick!!!

The JPL

It's amazing, whilst I was on my walk, I also saw several squirrels, all of which I tried to take a photo of (and failed)......after trying I thought to myself, "that's a bit strange, I'd never try and take of photo of a squirrel back in England", and Canadian squirrels are nothing special to be honest with you.

I'm still trying to decide how long I plan on staying here in Jasper (and maybe Canada), I like it here, and the people, and I love the mountains, but I really don't like being this remote, and I dunno if I wanna stay here and rinse through my money for too much longer. I kinda realised that the reason I love the places that I visit in America is because they are real America. Jasper is amazing, and full of Canadians, but it's still a touristy area, and I really can't shake away from the Centre Parcs / Butlins vibe, and the Butlins vibe is sadly the area that I'm living in, although I do always seem to have amazing next door neighbours. Look what my current one's did to my door when I first got here:

I also forgot to add these in my last blog, this is the sun setting in the Jasper mountains (aka where I live), and also a lot of snow. I just wish I had my actual camera on me at the time and not just my phone....sorry.....but to be fair no photo will do this mountain range any justice!

I still can't figure out how to upload my video from my last blog. I still need to speak to my American chum back in England.

On one final note, I hate white tail (deer) tonight......sweet as! How Canadian can you get, I just wanna eat moose now!

Unlucky Sucker!!!!

Hahahaha!!!! Sucker!

No seriously I only took that photo (back in Vancouver) for that exact reason....you all my be suckers...but I am a loser.

No, sorry....official blogger time now, enough with the sillys. So anyway I now know that I need to be even more careful what I right on my blog, since I've found out certain "Moms" have been reading my blog... apparently you don't need to be my friend on facebook to see my delightful page on my facebook account..dam you facebook, the vain of my life. Plus I'm working again, so I need to create a professional image of myself.......yeah I know, not really, what a waste of time that'd be!!!

The best thing is after several days I finally have the internet in my room..."yea" I hear you scream. I was sick of using "default"'s or "waffles"' unprotected wireless giving me one bar to work with...it took me so long to upload them photos of Vancouver and Jasper in my last entrée...you best of loved them all!!!!

So I ended up in Edmonton yesterday. Didn't realise we were going up for a whole day of shopping (I mean, I knew that we were going up to the West Edmonton Mall (which was once the biggest in the world, think it's only the second or third now (depending on who you speak to)) but I wasn't expecting a whole day of it). So it was kind of an expensive nothing day, but I did get to eat a KFC Double Down, which was just expensive, high in calories, and not the greatest tasting thing in the world, but the worst part of it all was that I was still hungry after eating it.

I was gonna go snowboarding today, but I was told that it's just icy up there at the moment, so I decided to drink last night instead. If I had my season pass I would've gone up there regardless, but I aint gonna get that till I know whether I'm staying here for the season or not. It's meant to snow again tonight, but yea, I have work tomorrow....three days though till another weekend.

But Jane, you'll be pleased to hear that I finally saw some elk.....very very close too. They pretty tame here though. Just saw them out-and-about on my walk home on Tuesday night. My flash was being crap on my phone's camera though, so I have no pictures of them.

Work's going OK, I just aint got the salesmanship in me, which means I kinda suck. Our stuff is expensive, and I can't tell people to buy stuff like that. Plus I dunno if I like being so far away from everything, with little means to get anywhere else without paying a ton of cash. People here and nice and friendly, but it seems like everyone's in a click...dunno if I like feeling like that either. Plus it's certain things go on on certain nights in set venues meaning all the same people are in the same places each night, it's do that or do nothing. Word gets around quick, like everyone knows who's doing who, plus all the dramas makes it like a soap, it bores me cos it's all so unnecessary and regular. Kinda still missing Providence (for obvious and not so obvious reasons (but the main reason is such a complete lost cause)), which kinda makes me wanna head back to Vancouver and see if I can get work there that I actually wanna do. Plus I'd still be close enough to Whistler to head up to the mountains on my days of. I dunno, but I don't think that I can handle 4 months of this. Kinda feel my whole reasons for wanting to travel have been lost.

Anyway, check out my current walk home from work: OK, it's not uploading...I'll publish this now, and try it add my video later.

Vancouver and onto Jasper

So on Saturday afternoon I said “goodbye” to America, and “hello” to Canada. Leaving Seattle it took about 2 hours to reach the border…which was a lot easier in customs than coming into America (and friendlier)…there was no scanning of our stuff, just a sniffer dog…seriously! Then getting my work permit granted took about 20 minutes (if that). Then after that it took about another 2 hours to get to Vancouver.

Upon arriving, I didn’t have any Canadian money, which I didn’t think would be a problem…..oh how wrong I was….I couldn’t get any money out any at first, so with all my stuff I started to walk to my hostel…yeah, didn’t take me too long to give and just jump on the skyline (Vancouver’s equivalent to the London Underground…but in the air (less grim)).

Weekend consisted of fair amount of drinking and hanging out with a lot of Australian’s. I couldn’t tell you all the bars I hit, cos if I’m being honest I didn’t really care about their names. But it was a productive weekend too, I got my Social Security Number sorted on Monday. Met some pretty sweet people though, Kathrine, my new Irish friend who is heading to Jasper in a few weeks. Jenna and Dana (good luck with your new sofa Dana), two of the very few Canadians I met in Vancouver (seriously everyone there was Australian, including all my roommates) and Karl, an Australian who must’ve had a pretty sweet night on Sunday, waking up in Vancouver on Monday morning, with a whole set of new clothes….good going! Also bumped into my friend, Tom’s roommate, Stu from Cardiff for a couple of hours before he headed off to Whistler. Glad to get away though, Vancouver was fun, but I rinsed through my money!

Vancouver at 7:30 in the morning...I stayed awake for breakfast...which was just toast! Great

The view from my room

Stanley Park

The top bunk was mine, I got about 5 hours use out of it!!!

Poutine (not Putang (and knew I'd say it wrong, and yes  Putang means the same in Canada as it does in England)

I left Vancouver on Monday night and travelled overnight to Jasper (which is in Alberta but right on the British Columbia / Alberta Province border). I’m pretty sure I slept most the way, and ironically I dreamt that I was on a bus! But with each rest stop, the snow kept getting thicker!!!

I arrived in a very early, very closed and very cold Jasper on Tuesday morning deciding to head straight to the Jasper Park Lodge to sort out my dorm and offload all my gear (I still have waaaaaaaaaaay too much stuff). And how sweet is this, I have my own room until…dunno when. My view is pretty sweet too. Don’t think too much of the kitchen (and lack of utensils) so it might be a while before I try working on my cooking again, which does suck. Although I did manage to get a frying pan (yes, a frying pan from the “free bin” today. Met up with my management and it looks like I’ll be starting work a little latter due to the Store not being ready yet. But only a day later. Still waiting for them to turn my internet on in my dorm, I’ve been using “default” but the signal is soooooo weak!

Had a night out last night in Grizzly’s Cafe, $2.75 for Alberta’s local beer! Too Right. Finally actually hanging out with some Canadians (all from the East though, aint met no one from the West (as in, where I am)). Everyone seems well friendly. Apparently block A (where I’m living) is meant to be the party block….sweeta! And my gym is cheap and VERY close too (I can see it from my room).

Need to check out the mountain situation though. The runs are open, but I think we’re gonna need (and, more than likely, get) a bit more snow…bring on the cold. Which sucks cos I hear that the snow is pretty thick right now back home……and you’ve all got the day off work, I start working tomorrow! Least I've got the mountains, and stuff discount to get to them!

My new "bare"  room

And the view from my window

My new store inside the Fairmont, not quite finished...but it should be now. We're moving stuff in tomorrow and opening on Friday.

….And to top it off, they have Root Beer here too! No, scratch that….They have FREE Root Beer here, so long teeth! In fact all food’s cheap (and healthy) in the staff canteen! Also the "White Man" at road crossings lies here too!

Again, I aint gonna check this one over cos it's late, plus I HAVE to get up in the morning...first time in a long while!