17/11/2007 - 25/11/2007

17/11/2007 - 20/11/2007 - Over the last couple of days, we have been preparing for the start of the ski season. (Like squirrels gathering their nuts for winter...) We went to another Ice Hockey game (not a good one the Vees lost 4-1) and we won a lucky door prize. We have been shopping up at Kelowna and Dave had to buy another snow boarding jacket, he just happened to try one on whilst we were looking at prices for snowboards and skis for the the Eames's and Elford's and lo and behold he just had to have it (and the Big Fella is the one that keeps telling me if we keep spending like this - we will be home a lot sooner). One of the other tasks which we have finally completed was to get our application in for our extension of our Visa whilst we are here in Canada, so fingers are crossed. The other option is to go to Mexico for a couple of weeks...

21/11/2007 - The temperature is really starting to drop, I woke up today to go for my walk and looked at the temperature with the wind chill factor -10 degrees Celsius so I put my slippers on and made myself a cup of coffee. For the next 5 days the maximum temperature is going to be -1, I think my walking days are over. We just need to get some rain and we will definitely have snow. There is snow expected to fall here on Sunday and Monday, but we don't hold our breath anymore, unfortunately their weather forecasts are about as accurate as ours back home. We took may to lunch at Theo's, a Greek Restaurant that we went to back in 1999 with May, Tony and Simmy and Scott and Lisa Miller - the restaurant hasn't changed at bit.

23/11/2007 - The slopes are open - let the fun begin. We set the alarm for 7:30am a bit of a shock for the big fella. We packed up our toys and headed up the mountain. The temperature was dropping as we were driving up the mountain, the lowest it got to was -13, I'm starting to wonder if 3 layers is going to be warm enough. When we arrived at the top the sun was shining and it had warmed up to a nice -8. As many of the people who have been skiing with me would know I hate the T Bars when I'm on the board - unfortunately for me it was the only lift that was open - and hey I'm not walking. So off we headed to the T-Bar and for some reason it wasn't as hard on my knees as I remember - probably because I wasn't fighting it - and I didn't fall off which meant I didn't need to make several attempts to get to the top. Well Dave certainly hadn't forgot how to snow board off he went, we did agree that the run was definitely in a lot better shape than what we thought it would be, it was certainly better than what when we went to Mount Hotham last year. After 5 runs we decided to head for a coffee (not that we are out of shape at all). After a light snack and some coffee we headed back up the mountain. After another couple of runs, and on our way back up, I turned around to see the Big Fella....fall off the T-Bar, but you know me I didn't really say much. Well after that run I decided I needed a break, you really don't get a lot of time to rest - the most amount of people in front of us for the T Bar was 4 people. After 12.5 runs for Dave and 11 runs for me - we decided to call it quits, no need to ruin ourselves on our first time out. Soon as we got home and unloaded we jumped into the outside Hot Tub taking with us a couple of drinks. I don't think I'll be doing that again - we hadn't had enough water to rehydrate and we were very thirsty so the drinks went down way to quick and combined with the heat of the hot tub it was a recipe for a headache. We both got out of the Hot Tub and needed a little party nap - well about an hour later we both woke up with what I would call a hangover. Then at about 5:00am Dave woke up with a splitting headache.


24/11/2007 - We had great intentions of getting up early again this morning to go up the mountain for another couple of hours, but hey sometimes the best made plans go bust. We both got out of bed and we were surprised at how well our bodies actually felt- I was feeling really good until I sat down on the kitchen chair and then I knew that I fell on my buttocks yesterday, I went and had a look in the mirror (I know too much information) and there is this great big bruise right in the middle of my right cheek. The Big Fella is still recovering from his headache last night and the central heating decided to stop working - lucky we have 2 fireplaces to keep us nice and warm. I got excited this afternoon to see our first snow flurries.

25/11/2007 - Today is the Grey Cup Final. (This is the grand final of Canada's football. It's a big event in Canada and everybody gathers around the TV for 4 hours so that you can watch total of 60 mins of football.) We spent the day at Bobbie and Brant's with a number of their friends.

We finally got to meet Karin and Hayden, Karin is Bobbie and Brant's youngest daughter and Hayden is Karin's beautiful baby.

The Woodpeckers are still in hiding. (Or they have finally got into the roof and are nesting...)