Wednesday 17 October 2007

14/10/2007 - 19/10/2007 - Kaleden

14/10/07 - We woke up this morning to another beautiful sunny day and headed off on our walk - the wildlife and scenery still amazes us, we saw the deer (this is just the norm over here but to us it's still a novelty), a beaver in the lake and many birds and ducks. We then went to our first Ice Hockey game with Brant (thanks to Brant for providing us the tickets to his corporate box). The game is just so fast you really have to see it live to believe it. We had a great night as the Penticton Vees won 5 - 2, so we were all very happy - and yes I was drinking beer again. You wouldn't believe it they have a lucky seat were the occupant wins a free pizza - and yep it was the Big Fella. After the game we picked up Grandma May, (she is just fantastic, she is 90 years old still driving, playing cards, having a drink - cocktail hour starts at 5:0pm as usual), and went back to Bobbie and Brant's for a home cooked meal (the first one since we left home) and it was delightful. Bobbie and Brant are just the most wonderful people they are so welcoming and have really made us feel welcome.

15/10/07 - Yet again I got the big fella out for our walk and as well as seeing all the wildlife we also got to see ummm a Hawk, maybe an Eagle or was it an Osprey - I don't know it was just a bloody big majestic looking Bird (at least I knew it wasn't a woodpecker - I could have got that sucker he was the size of a barn door...!!). Today we made our first trip up to Apex Ski Resort - the drive is still the same, although it was a bit longer than we remembered it, it took us about 45 minutes from home. There wasn't a lot of snow around just on the top of the mountains - but it was still very cold. Apparently over the last two days we had a heat wave that got rid of all the snow. (We don't remember it...) We are keeping our fingers crossed that it's going to be a good year - the season opens on 23 November. The good thing is even a bad year here for the snow season is a better year than back home.


16/10/07 - We went and had our first game of golf today with Bobbie and Brant. We played at Inkameep (translation - flat bottom land at the mouth of the creek or river) Canyon Desert Golf Course. It was a great course. After our last few months of playing golf at home it was really good to play on some really green lush grass. The course was tight and challenging and at times very long. Index One was a Par 4 / 485yards (437 metres).





17/10/07 - Well, I woke up to find the deer in our front yard - yep I still get excited seeing them. The novelty is obviously wearing off for Dave he wouldn't get out of bed to have a look. We went for our morning walk and met a few of the friendly Kaledens, Sue asked us back to here house to provide us with the names of a few restaurants and local wineries which she highly recommended (I don't know how she knew this would interest us - we had only been talking to her for 5 minutes). It is really unbelievable how friendly the people really are here. We ended up having coffee with Sue her large poodle and 3 cats, we left Sue's place armed with a lot of new places to visit. Sue had also just returned from an Alaskan Cruise and was upgraded to the Penthouse. Anyway when we got back home (2 1/2 hours later) I was looking at the calendar trying to work out which Ice Hockey game we would go and see in Kelowna and Dave had a very blonde moment - he asked me if it was a Canadian Calendar I was looking at. I think Dave is really starting to relax and enjoy retirement.

18/10/07 - We ventured into Penticton today to do another grocery shop (the fridge broke down over night so we need to replace a few items). Anyway on our way we decided to go to the bank to get some cash - well we found a drive through ATM - this is my type of bank. I am surprised that it didn't offer fries with that....









19/10/07 -This afternoon there were about 10 deer in the front yard. We went to our second Ice Hockey game - the Vees lost 4 -3, but what a tough game - there was fights galore with claret. Nothing like throwing the gloves on the ice and going the biff. The officials just stop the game and just let the fighters fight it out until they've either run out of puff or they fall over, then (from what we've seen) both players are sent of for 5 minutes (they can be replaced). The remainder of the players just go to their respective benches and cheer the fighters on.

No comments: