Living with Canucks

Tis time...........

2009-04-21T18:42:00.001-07:00

Aaaand.... Relax (Wraskally Wrabbits)

2009-03-20T19:51:00.000-07:00

Holy Shit! Where the bollocks did that month go to?!?! I'd been hoping to pass on news of our 'rented rabbit' a few weeks ago, but alas, that weekend passed, then I was hoping to recant of tales of biking extravaganza, pushing past 100miles on a Saturday jaunt - but once more, the time passed. I was eager to blog news of catching up with the Tatey clan in snowy Yorkshire - but once more, old grandfather fucking time screwed me over and I woke up once more on a Monday morning, moaning to Christ that I have to repeat that far too mundane routine once again for the next five days! But I made it to the blog now with the great idea of just typing "THE END" in massive print and then signing off the tinterweb for a while - but having just got in from a good Friday night ride out west across the reservation and returning in the dark has got my head in the right place, so the world is a better place again (lets see how long that lasts for, once I start my bloody masters on Tuesday - like things aren't busy enough!!!).

The misses is thriving with the Kindergarten kids, and she's just aced her evaluation (they apparently couldn't find any areas for improvement for her teaching - which for you non teachers is something that never happens on the evaluation sheet) - so she's pretty chuffed! The old dear turned the big 31 yesterday, so we're off to Panorama for the weekend (and I get to take the knackered old bike so I can spin up Storm mountain, over the divide and across to Radium). Regardless of the snow conditions (which incidently are meant to be really good right now) we're just looking forward to kicking back and doing bugger all for a couple of days!!!!

As for the dealy in postings... the wraskally wrabbit blog was going to introduce the now infamous "Penne", or as the Kindergarten kids call her "Snuggles", but as she is officially known in the Williams household... "Bun Bun".

Although don't be deceived by the cute, cuddly appearance, those big brown eyes and the kashmir like fur... because Bun Bun can be bad... the little hoppity hop monster found a tasty liking for my straw surfing Ron Jon Hat in the closet, and after chewing it to pieces she knew she was in trouble - and hiding behind the cabinet (below) didn't hide her guilt!!!

But Bun Bun made up for her nibbling escapades by helping Brina out at work - when Brina takes her afternoon nap, the Long Eared teacher takes to the chair for instruction...

And if all else fails... just do what rabbits do best and look tasty
Hope you all find a spare second to spin those legs - and play chase the rabbit to get the little sod in its cage before it shits any more across the living room floor....

Thats all folks....

S&S.

Yadda, Yadda, Yadda

2009-02-21T18:07:00.000-08:00

'Ey up....

it looks like a very busy, yet awfully mundane lifecycle has reduced the postings here. However, there have been some bright points in the past month.....

A long weekend down in Whitefish Montana was had with Brad and Julie last weekend. We'd heard good things about the resort there beforehand, and loved the place in summer, so we were hoping for a good 'un - and it didn't disappoint - it was flippin awesome!!!!!

The piccie above is Wieble about to plunge down "Glory Hole" one of the wicked black / double black steeps down through the trees in the surprisingly good deep snow!!!! (you always know it's going to be one hell of a run when you can't see the slope until you slide the tips of your skis over the top of the run).

After the near vertical steeps, the terrain hit the trees - and here's Brad taking on the powder and some pretty tight turns at good speed - it was terrific! Nobody else was around, we could have been on a big backcountry day (but with our own personal lift service).

Brina joined us for most of the runs on the main parts of the resort - and had a blast (even the blue runs had deep powder and trees off to each side - you couldn't but smile wherever you went). But she did leave the boys to go and play on the blacks for a while whilst she warmed her toes and took on the essential sugars (via hot chocolates etc..).

I'm still riding like a madman, and the above piccie is from today's ride on the old boneshaker bike - I headed out for a few hours west of Cochrane and climbed up from where this photo is pointing (there is a gravel road somewhere in the trees there that I sweated up - despite the just slightly sub zero temps). This is out towards the Waiprus, and it was without doubt the perfect day for a ride (albeit a touch on the chilly side).

The speedtheory spin nights are still as tough as ever - I'm looking forward to seeing what it has put in my legs for this season (one feller snapped the front mech off his carbon frame this Wednesday in the spin night - such was the intensity of the power sprints we were putting in!!! - it's ace!!!).

Hope you're all bonny.

Two fingers up to the establishment,

If you ever get the chance - visit Whitefish,

May you all slide down the glory hole!!!!!

S&S.

Snow Go Superbowl Sunday

2009-02-01T17:24:00.000-08:00

Superbowl Sunday : akin to FA Cup Final day but with a week long media hype build up, oodles of sporting rhetoric from unnecessarily loud ex players come commentators (whom I suspect damaged the old grey matter a touch, with one too many helmet crunching tackles in their careers), and very pleasant (but not enough) close ups of the cheerleaders and their fine athletic abilities. So really - nothing like the FA Cup. Fortunately, it seems as though every man and his dog stays indoors all day long on Superbowl Sunday (despite the game not starting until 4.30pm). This is just fine by me, as with the continued warming of the weather, the roads are very ridable (it hasn't snowed for an age) and the deathly quiet lanes along Grand Valley Rd and beyond made today's ride overwhelmingly peaceful (once off the 1A, didn't get passed by a car for nearly 2 hours). I took the camera in hope of seeing something very exciting - alas, that didn't occur but hell I thought I'd take a photo nonetheless....

There were no roadies out for the old battered Trek to chase down, but she creaked along fine and dandy (it seems like the creaking bottom bracket stops once the thermometer rises above zero, as it did half way through the ride). After a jolly day spinning along, I did actually make it home in time for the Superbowl, and I must say, those Yanks do know how to put on a show. The razzmatazz, fanfare and all other associated bells and whistles that go hand in hand with American showmanship are just unbeatable and certainly couldn't be reproduced on the turf of Wembley. They even had Bruce Springsteen on the pitch at half time to sing a bit!!! (what's that all about?!?!?! I don't get it, but I like it in a very lazy, sit on my couch and turn my brain off and get mind numbingly entertained kind of way). As for the actual game, well, that's actually very good indeed and can be more compelling that a titanic Premiership clash between Stoke and Hull.

The rest of the week has had little in the realms of interest; training sessions with Speed Theory, working too late and too much, sleeping, eating, breathing etc.... Brina is having a ball with the K kids in Morely, and I sometimes think she's having just as much fun in class as the kidlings are.

We're booked to go to Whitefish in Montana to ski in a couple of weekends with the Weebles, and are currently scheming our next trip (NZ in summer - woo hooo!!!!!!). I was reading the BBC news this morning which was on high alert for the severe winter storms in the UK where a crisis looms as temperatures may well plummet to minus 2 - AT NIGHT TIME!!!!! How are those folks back home coping?!?!? I yearn for minus 2 at night time and may well get it by June!

Anyhow, it's probably time to go and iron some shirts (how very rock and roll).

May all your highways be clear and I hope you caught the game,

S&S.

Jaws

2009-01-25T17:56:00.000-08:00

Well, what a fine day to neglect to carry a camera! Mr. Weible and I headed out to Shark Valley on a pristine blue sky Rocky Mountain day, with hardly a soul to be seen on the Smith Dorien Highway. Having basked in the delights of spinning on the tarmac through last weekend's premature warmth, we have now plunged right back into the minus 20s of winter - which to our delight kept everybody else indoors and left Mt Shark for us to attack unencombered by crowds (or anybody else what so ever). Fortunately the air was dead calm, as after I had proclaimed that "it's not that cold", once we began to slide along on the skis, the windchill soon began to rip away at my face and bring the temp down to somewhere in the "NorthPole on a bad day" range. Having only plumped for Mt Shark on a last minute whim on the drive out to the mountains, we were rather ill equipped for route finding, that being a lack of map, lack of trail knowledge seeing as though neither of us had ever been there before, and a good lack of concern on both of our behalves. Brad reassured me by confirming that he had his headtorch so all was O.K.
Mt Shark lies on the west side of the Spray Valley and is just sublime - being one of the starting points to Mt. Assiniboine. There is a comprehensive network of very well maintained xc ski trails which we began out on, but once we found ourselves on the edge of the trails, an untracked gap up through the trees seemed a much more exciting option than gliding along the trackset highway.
So up we went, breaking trail through the trees on our very skinny skis which were hailed to be 'light touring skis' when purchased - but which do very little for keeping you above the deep untracked snow (to which my aching knees and hips do attest as both attempted to jetisson from their sockets on a memorable descent through crusty deep snow as my left ski decided to sink down to my hip taking the leg with it, whilst my right ski (and leg) prefered to maintain a rather swift acceleration down the slope, twirling me around like a weeble on acid and resulting in one of those external whoofing lung emptying exhalations of breath accompanied by the internal cry of 'fuck me that stings a bit').
Fortunately, Weible has a touch more finess on the planks, and we carried on bashing our way through the snow like two kids in a sweetshop. After an hour of this we begin to discuss sensible navigation ideas - such as viewing specific summits and not following certian vallies etc... although this went hand in hand with the agreement that there was no way we were going back the way we came, purely due to a complete dislike for backtracking. We kept on following our noses, up and down and around - and we knew it was a good day when Brad mentioned that good old Ken P. would be proud of us for being in the situation where there is good potential to be really, really lost and have a rather spectacular backcountry epic.
Having hyped this day up, it may sound like a let down that we eventually found our way back onto the other side of Mt Shark, and that there was no pursuit by hungry wolves, or necessity to hack of a limb with a blunt leatherman. Nevertheless, a fine winter day for a last minute decision on a Saturday morning, I'll just make sure to remember the camera next time...
Everything else is exactly as you'd expect (make of that what you will),
All good in the Great White North,
don't forget your compass,
S&S.

Here we go again....

2009-01-17T18:16:00.000-08:00

After a brief 2009 hiatus from this blog, I've now generated sufficient motivation to be bothered to get this thing into gear once more - albeit without the absurd compulsion to get a certain number of posts banged out before 2010. So lets see what 2009 has in store! So far so good, and also; So far so not much has really altered. There's a rather amusing work story that I shall share in conversing with folk, but which I would be petrified to share with the world on the web. The weather had been freaking us out with the amount of snow and crazy cold temperatures which just wouldn't abate - however, fortune has shone upon us, and we've now gone from minus stupid cold freeze your nuts off in a heartbeat weather, to hey look at me outside at 5pm in my tee shirt and not thinking anything of it kind of winter weather. It has warmed up so much that Sunday will be a ride on the road day!! Woo Hoo!!! The 3 feet of snow along the roads has been melted off the tarmac quite nicely with four days of above zero sunny skies. However, it's still a bit sketchy and not ideal for the proper road bike, so I've spent the afternoon cobbling together a winter beater bike, which I like to call my Cervelo chaser....

Disregarding Weible and his fancy pants Cervelo, I like to see how many overtly wealthy Calgarians riding $6000+ bikes I can spin past on the old knackered Trek (which in sentimental value is absolutely priceless by the way). It's a bit of a sad, egotistical trip on my part, but I get a kick out of it - I just struggle to harbour that niggling, inate competition when I begin to pedal things with two wheels - even on a Sunday spin to a coffee shop.

Here's Mrs. W. on our now weekend ritual "hike to Java Jamboree" for the Saturday morning Latte. Last week's walk to the coffee shop was a tad on the chilly side...

But as you can see below, the cold made for a good short cut crossing the river..

And Bragg Creek has got a plenty of ski trails on the go too. We had a good few hours over there last weekend, I'd stopped here to take a piccie of Brina because I was trying to see what parts of my body I thought I had broken having crashed into the trees about 2 minutes earlier (as usual the little goat like Canuck skier glides through the trees like a whisp, giggling at my cumbersome efforts to maintain a modcium of dignity with my brutal helicopter arms style of ski-ing whenever the trail gets technical) - needless to say, I didn't crash just the once (and the misses just didn't crash - cocky little bugger she is!).
Trusting that all of your 2009s have started with great aplomb, and lets see where we go from here.
Back on Track
S&S.

The 11th Hour at 10 O' clock

2008-12-31T21:21:00.001-08:00

Gotcha! The 52nd post that is. For some reason unbeknown to me (or anyone), I set myself little goals that I have to achieve - one of which was to get 52 posts on the blog this year - and this is the 52nd (a good two hours before the year is out - woo hoo, how we party on a New Year's Eve). If it wasn't for my curious obsession with meeting targets, I most certainly wouldn't be writing a blog right now - I would in fact be tucked up in bed, sound asleep, safe in the knowledge that although it's a New Year tomorrow, bugger all will be different and the calendar will also change every day from now until the end of time (so what's all the fuss about?). Brina and I went out for a New Year's Eve meal - yesterday... figuring it is always too busy and overpriced on New Year's Eve (and the days aren't that contrasting).
Today has seen a fun time out in the back country at Healy Creek on the split board with Brad (not on a split board - very wise!).

Here's a shot of Weible ski-ing out as the sun was setting. There was plenty of snow, and the trail back was narrow enough for some sharp turns in the trees (and a few close calls).

Not that I want to subject you to the horror of funny faced, oddly speaking Englishman in the cold, atop a mountain, here're a couple of videos from the top of Healy Pass - It was cloudy as sin and we couldn't see much, so you don't get the sense of the rather majestic mountains around us and you miss out on the notion that we have gained any major height up in the Rockies - and I'm sure it was the cold that made my face contort when I'm talking to look like I was holding in a bad un.

A quick flick back at one of September's posts shows Brina and I hiking up in the larches on Healy Pass (so that gives you and idea of what it's like up here).

After a good day out playing in the snow and a bite to eat and a drink at Brad and Julie's, it is most definitely now time for bed - I must be getting old if I can't even make it to 11pm on a New Year's (but I'll just be up earlier in 2009, to see how much everything has changed - maybe my bike will go even faster then!!!).

Happy New Year to you all,

say hello to midnight for me,

S&S.

Happy Festivus

2008-12-26T07:44:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas all... (a day late admittedly, but Brina and I both forgot yesterday morning that it was Christmas - seeing as though we'd impatiently opened our prezzies at Panorama four days earlier, and waking up in Golden on the 25th just didn't seem to have that 'Santa' factor).

Spending a few days at Panorama was great, and a really beautiful contrast to the summer (although we must both be getting old, as despite the wondrous winter scene of the Purcells and great boarding, we both seemed to have a preference for the summer time and warmth, rather than the brassic minus 20 kind of weather - I couldn't stop prattling on about nostalgic spots of the TransRockies "oh, this happened here", and "ah, that happened there", etc...) - although Brina got into the swing of things too - as the video attests...)

Thrashing around on the split board was good fun (the resort board got benched after a few runs of blunt edges and close to fractured wrists and ring piece). However, in my over exuberance of having a the split board up and running, I thought it would be a great idea to skin up to the top of Panorama the following evening (and by evening, I mean pitch black night time!). For some reason unbeknown to man (or wife), I don't always think things through clearly when I get an excitable idea going on. So, sticking on the skins outside a rowdy bar at the base of the slope at 8pm, I set off upslope. Once into the glades I couldn't see too much (the expected light from the snow wasn't the illuminating force that I had in fact expected - more like a vague glow to remind me that the ground was downwards). A couple of close calls with the night-time groomers (which I chased like a car maker after a handout, as they lit up the slopes like an atomic blast, but couldn't keep pace with for more than a minute), then I was at the summit, rather disorientated as to which runs I skinned up, in the pitch black, head torch at home, and then it dawned on me... "shit!, I have to put the split board together". Having struggled to fit the board together properly in the condo a couple of hours earlier, the feat of constructing it in the blind darkness, in the minus holycrap it's cold temps, wearing very un-nimble duck taped mittens, was certainly a challenge (and only then did I begin to think through the associated pitfalls of skinning up at night-time). Somehow it was all very simple!?! but then the final realization of stupidity hit me - going down hill is way faster than going up - and the ability to see no more than one metre ahead isn't worth much when the board is pointing downhill and you start cruising along - so here's a snippet of perhaps the most pointless video ever... (but you get the picture - or don't)..

An early rise the next morning saw for a repeat of the route so that I could get to the top for sunrise and sneak the first runs down before the lifts opened, and this is half way up showing what I should have seen;

A few days over at Golden to ski Kicking Horse was the next stop on the trip, and it was a rather pleasant surprise to see how good the mts are around Golden - (although it was still bloody freezing).

Brina was all tucked up in her downy for the day...

A nice drive home on silent roads through the mts was had on Christmas morning (stopping at Lake Louise for breakfast - which was set at over $60 in the hotel, so a second cup muffin and coffee was opted for instead!). Just plotting a few more days out for the coming week, and am about to relieve the itch of not having cycled for five days with a good few hours on the windtrainer (hope there's a good movie on tv). Brina is about to go and get involved with the Boxing day riots in the sales at Market Mall (she's brave! but has got the feisty 'I want a bargain' attitude going on, so I pity for any unsuspecting shopper who crosses her path at the sales rack).

Hope you all feasted well on big bird,

May your festivus poles be shiny aluminium,

S&S.

Five Oh, and Unhappy Endings

2008-12-19T19:25:00.000-08:00

Just thought that a brief 'how do' was in order before we cruise off to Panorama and Kicking Horse for the next few days. Work ended today with fireworks and the usual craziness (I was ducking and diving all the way to the carpark, but seem to have escaped unscathed and now I hope the next 2 weeks will get me fully charged to attack the nonsense head-on in 2009). Another thing to get me fully charged was a massage that Brina had booked me in for - I was hoping to get my legs pummelled after a couple of very hard weeks training and meeting up with the Speed Theory team. Having informed the masseuse that my quads, hamstrings and hip flexors needed some good work, she asked do I want a relaxation massage? I repeated my concern about her need to have a go on my legs, she agreed, then proceeded to rub me down with mint oil, avoid my legs and give the whole 'relaxation massage' thingy! Holy Smokes, I was expecting a Happy Ending at one stage, but alas, it was not to be - perhaps the Pink Pussycat Massage Parlour is more my style... I went in with sore legs, and have come out with nothing but a buggered up neck - so much for relaxation and recovery, I can't turn my head more than 15 degrees either way and feel like I've got whiplash from serious overuse of a pneumatic drill.
The weather continues to bomb down on Alberta, the temps haven't been out of the minus 20s during the daytime all week (god only knows how bloody cold the night-time windchill is, and so long as our heating system continues to work, I have absolutely no interest in finding out). It hasn't really stopped snowing either, so Panorama and Kicking Horse seem to be in great condition and all is good for the next few days. We've got four nights in Pano, and two in Golden, so get back after Christmas (so.. Merry Christmas).
We should have a bucket load of piccies to post before the New Year (and I'm gunning for that obsessed 52 posts per year - we're on 50 right now), so we should make it!
Hope Santa brings everything you asked for,
May your relaxations not be a pain in the neck,
S&S.

GO!!!!!!

2008-12-14T09:06:00.000-08:00

So it's all go now! Winter's on!! Hurray!!!

But... the only snag with the big dumps we've had this past week, is the accompanying temperature, which has plummeted to proper brass monkey level - ie: you'll really freeze your brass monkies off (monkey for some of us) if you spend more than 0.5 seconds outside dashing to your car (it's a full on expedition for us to go and check the mail at the moment). -it's minus 30 as I write this late Sunday morning.

Winter had been holding back for November, and even allowed me to get one last kick of the mountain bike in K - Country (however, the mountain bike has clearly had enough for this season, as on this final ride it decided to spit its dummy out and give up.....)

Fortunately, the rear mech decided to wrap itself around my cassette whilst breaking the chain at the top of the first greulling climb, so that I could freewheel most of the way back to the parking lot. That'll teach me to be greedy and try to get one last hit of the trails. Since then however, the snow has really flown and so there's nowt by skis and boards to be hitting the trails now! So I'm resigned to the wind trainer and rollers for a good while (but having hooked up with the Speed Theory bike Team, am getting hellish workouts with them on Mondays and Wednesdays - which is awesome! and should have me in good shape for the next race season - when I'll be hitting the asphalt to race as well as the dirt).

This Saturday was going to see a first stint into the backcountry up on the Icefields Parkway - although neither I or Brad fancied running the gauntlet of the natural avalanches which are falling as easy as French speedos on a nudist beach, or the thought of minus 45 degree windchill - as much as I love the boarding, I also value keeping my extremities too!
Even shovelling the driveway created an agonizing surge of the good old screaming barfies;

As usual the photo doesn't quite sell the story as it should, but I wasn't going to hang around getting a good photo of the bloody driveway and the snow - a 2 second dash to the edge of the garage was all I could muster before I began to weep and had to run back inside.

Mrs. W. is nearly set for the holidays - they break up on Wednesday, so she's been getting all the kids into the festive season and when your lesson plan looks like this...

then no wonder Brina's having a good time teaching this year - although I think maybe she had to eat all the gingerbread men in order to grade them!!!

We're off to Panorama next weekend for a few days ski-ing/boarding, and with all this new snow it should be great! I missed posting something last week, but my OCD compels me to meet the 52 posts a year mark, so no doubt I'll have some more inane prattling on posted up here pretty soon - as time is running short for 2008.

Crank up the heat,

S&S.

Harrah for O'Hara

2008-11-29T17:26:00.000-08:00

Not enough snow in Cochrane to make it feel like winter, so we went further afield from Alberta's sunny skies to BC (realize now that BC=Bloody Cloudy). Headed up the road to Lake O'Hara and was all very nice!

Getting the first shot of winter fixes me like a triple espresso with a hint of Jim Beam! We're all fired up for the rest of the season now, and were pleased to see the snow falling as we left the Lake O'Hara parking lot (always amazes me how much more snow they get just over the divide than here). Plenty of folk were kicking around Lake Louise as we passed through on the way home, as it's the start of the World Cup DownHill Ski-ing season there this weekend.

I took the video because I knew I would be in the "can't be arsed to write much" mode this evening - and lo and behold I was correct! So, that's that then!

Hoping you're all getting a good shot of something,

S&S.

Spwinter

2008-11-27T17:47:00.000-08:00

Well waddya know? more weeks have idled by without me having made much of an impact upon the world in general (although this is very much not the case with the microcosm that is work, but I'm not really meant to discuss such matters, so that's the end of that conversation).
So..
a week or so back we did have a little bit of this...

A pre-going for a coffee on the weekend shovelling of the driveway had made me get rather excited and enthusiastic about snowboards, deep powder and avalanche dodging.
The resident Eskimo of Cochrane got all geared up....

and with the gearing up for a harsh winter, came balmy temperatures, a big melting of the snow, dry trails and a strange sense of "is this summer again?".

Even up on Nihani Ridge last weekend, the dusty trails were making it tempting to get out the mtb instead of the board, and looking west from the ridge, it doesn't really look like winter has even thought about visiting yet....

So apart from becoming all confused and distraught at the indecisive seasons, the mundanity of suburbia's 9-5 Monday to Friday thing continues to wear us down - but vigorous sessions on the rowers and falling off the rollers keep insanity at bay!!! Mrs. W is ticking off the days until Christmas, and then we're off to Panorama and Kicking Horse for a bit of resort ski-ing (just hope the bloody snow has come back by then, otherwise it'll be tennis and croquet on the green slopes). Brina was all keen to get the Christmas tree up this weekend, but it has officially been banned until Dec 1st - although the sneaky lass put up a load of Christmas decorations in the house when I nipped out for a ride at the weekend - so it reinforces my fear that my say in official bans in this house mean absolutely bugger all - so I've succumb to the early Christmas cheer (if you can't beat 'em, join 'em).

This is the time of year when the week long half term holiday is sorely missed, but we're trying to compensate for that by getting out into the hills every weekend. Looks like we will actually get the XC skis waxed up and running this Saturday out on the divide trail from Lake Louise to Field in BC, so that shoul be good fun!

Hoping that all the good stuff isn't melting away,

Get ready to untangle your baubles,

S&S.

Here we go!!!!!

2008-11-16T20:26:00.001-08:00

So the much anticipated snowfall and ski resort openings are now fully underway (well, underway - it's hardly fully underway when only 3 out of 136 runs at Lake Louise are open). We had Tuesday off work (Remembrance Day Holiday), and headed out to Delta Lodge for a wee hike and lunch, to see if winter had touched K Country yet...

And it had - just... . We had planned to have more of a relaxing wander around K Country, the major intention was of the day was based primarily around sitting and drinking coffee, although all didn't go according quite to plan when we (I) thought it would be a good idea to take an infamous 'short cut' through the undergrowth to get back to Delta Lodge. Neglecting to observe the fact that we were on the wrong side of the river (well, just ignoring the fact due to my disdain for hiking back along the route you came), we ended up following deer and Elk through the trees on an extra 2 hour detour (well, we certainly earned ourselves the coffee and cake anyway).

The weekend saw a bit of Saturday sauntering the streets of Banff (the idea to go for a ride in the hills was thwarted by icy winds and flurries - I'm just getting soft in my old age), followed by Brina writing reports for school, and me having to read a shed load of teachers' reports to make sure they've not made any mistakes (Like I know!!!).

Sunday was a delight as we got a good couple of inches (at least) of snow, although it brings back the fun of sweeping down the car and scraping the windshield in order just to go for morning Lattes...

Other than that, work is same, although Brina seems to be enjoying the lovey dovies at Morley which is nice. The rollers have been getting a good spinning, and I have somehow become far too obsessed for an Englishman in the NFL (Throw a bit of razzmatazz, cheerleaders and pyrotechnics into a sport and it beats a dross Premiership game from rainy Hull anyday).

Fingers crossed that we'll be out ski-ing next weekend! We have finally booked our Christmas ski trip (knocked Whistler on the head as we needed a second mortgage to visit for just an afternoon, nearly booked Whitefish, but then plucked a 4 day pass for Panorama and Kicking Horse for a meagre $134 - so that was decision made, Pano and Golden here we come!).

Hopefully your snowfalls are light and fluffy,

Happy scraping,

S&S.

Funny Sky, shingles and where's the snow?

2008-11-07T17:37:00.000-08:00

Hi all...When I'm posting the front cover of the local rag, rather than some funky shots from our very own Kodak, you know full well that we've been up to bugger all - again! I had insisted that the rather humorous dickhead learning to ride rollers video was coming up - but even my self depricating sarcasm doesn't go that deep (just have a look on youtube for knobs on rollers and you'll get the picture). However, on that note I have now notched up being able to ride the rollers for an hour without dabbing the wall or friction burning my face along the laminate floor.
As you can see from the front page of the Eagle, we had a really manic Chinook sky the other night - this is what it looked like out front of the house (minus the combine harvester), but things have gone back chilly again, we actually had some snow at last, and the mountains are slowly getting into shape for skis and boards!
The only bugger is that I have to go clambering around on the roof tomorrow to put some shingles back up there which have been whipped off by the aforementioned Chinooks - I suppose we should expect to consistently loose parts of our roof, being the edge of town wind stopper buffer houses for the rest of Cochrane. Bit of a pain that the roofing project is going to cut into my century ride time for the weekend - but a roof that works is most probably more important than a long ride (or so I've been told anyway; personally, I'm not so sure).
The rest of the week has been filled with busy crap and snoozing on the couch (when not skidding off rollers anyway). With the clocks going back last weekend, the evenings are still catching me out as I keep thinking it's about 9.30pm when in fact it's just gone 5pm - evening coffees are a must! The historical Obama trick was all rather exciting - who'd have guessed that those Yanks can make such impressive world changing decisions!?!?!?!
I'm really hoping that I've got something a little more exciting to prattle on about next week ('cos it'll mean I've gotten my arse off the couch and been out and about this weekend).
We're finalizing our next holiday plans (by "we", I mean "Brina") she is way better at doing all the booking and stuff (because she actually does it, rather than just turning up at a place and hoping for the best). We're looking at Whistler for Christmas (with a possible hint of Revelstoke).
May all your clocks go forward not back,
S&S.

Life in the Nuclear Bunker

2008-10-30T19:32:00.001-07:00

So that's what two weeks feel like then!!! Where the bloody hell has time gone since the last posting? I only ask becase, absolutely bugger all has happened over the duration of the past fortnight. Well not absoutely nothing, we have sealed some of our windows in the house with what can only be described as extra thick cellophane (plastic wrap stuff) so that we don't get those cold winter drafts coming in (and so that we can survive the nuclear fallout from the next Neuc' sent over from Iran -seriously, the house is vacuum sealed so much that I'm scared I'm going to suffocate in my sleep!).

It's also that Happy Halloween time again (and I still don't get it but..), so Brina has gone all cosmic fairy like, in preparation for entertaining the kindergarten kidlings tomorrow! Apparently Halloween is way bigger than Christmas up on the reserve so it's a big deal to all! Brina tried to play it cool with her colleagues when they were asking her what she was dressing up as tomorrow; "oh I don't know" she lied, "I'll just have a rummage around tonight and see what I can throw together". The fibbing little blighter, she went out two weeks ago to buy her wings and has been harping on about her "costume" ever since! It all seems such good fun, but I just can't buy into it. Even at our school it's pretty intense with the need to dress up, the staff are all turning up as Zombies (all staff minus the lanky Brit that is, who will turn up as usual as a lanky unextraordinary Brit). I upset a few folks when it was asked by all staff in a meeting that the High School students should dress up the day before Halloween because they're all out of school at a career fair on Halloween day and will therefore miss the "fun". Rarely do I make rapid decisions in meetings but this request was immediately greeted by comments from me such as; "No Chance", "Ridiculous", "Obsurd", "Over the Top", "Suck it Up", and "Have I made myself clear that I can't abide all this dressing up and people enjoying themselves, so it aint gonna happen" - and it isn't!

Baring the oxygen deprived house (which is clearly taking its toll on the wife's dress sense) there aint much else going on. Been out on the bike a bit (but the nights close in with the clocks going back this weekend), had a few nights out running (but it's not biking and therefore I shall say no more), but I have procured a set of rollers for the bike. Those of you who know not what they are then you will be updated perhaps in the next post. Those of you in the "roller" know, then perhaps in the next post you will see a clip of me skidding across the basement floor on my face, under my bike, having spilled of the horrific machine! Seriously, they're the most terrifying things to put your bike on - I'm scared!

May you all keep well ventilated windows,

Trick or Treat,

S&S.

A Room WIth A View (and the return of Kodak)

2008-10-16T19:24:00.000-07:00

Having located the camera I am happy to put more pictures and less prose in this post...

So as you can see, our view from the bedroom window in the Banff Springs wasn't all that bad!!!! I had to make sure that I got the edge of the window frame in the photograph because otherwise the scene just looked like a bloody postcard and really didn't look like a genuine view from a hotel bedroom window.

We were right up on the very rooftop floor, and I managed to capture Brina waking up as I had an early morning stroll.... (I'd like to say she was cheerfully waving, but in fact she's banging her fist shouting "where the bloody hell is that damn coffee you were meant to be bringing up to me?"). Needless to say, we had a delightfully relaxing Thanksgiving weekend at the Banff Springs - it was rather unique and surprisingly pleasurable to soak up Banff as a bona fide tourist; not wanting to race up to the summit of every mountain or go and disappear into the back country for hours on end. Having had a few somewhat hectic weeks, just kicking back, enjoying the town, scenery, hotel and coffee was just the ticket, with a couple of stints in the pool (well I can't sit completely still) and hot tub evenings, this touristy thing is all that it's cracked up to be!

As for the previous week's excursion up Cory Pass....

We shot up the steep side of the loop from Banff,and then skidded down into the screes of Gargoyle Valley...

And I'm no expert, but I'm guessing these endless freaky rock formations are something to do with the monicker "Gargoyle Valley".
The impressive Mount Louis towers over the far end of the valley (as usual, photographs without any scale in them don't really do justice to the scene - but it was a pretty big chunk of rock!).
border=0>And it was back into Banff in time for tea. Through the yellowing trees... In the past 2 weeks most of the yellows have now ended as the trees have decidedly had enough of the fall and are sleeping for winter - also the snow is building up (slowly but surely) on the higher trails (yippee!), although with it is coming the biting cold (not so yippee).
Anyhow, that's enough of that for now. I hope all is well in all your worlds...
That's as succinct as I get,
S&S.

Where's the Kodak?

2008-10-11T05:25:00.000-07:00

Hi All....
as the title of the post suggests, I am photographically vacant due to the misplacing of our camera! We had headed up to Cory Pass last weekend and enjoyed one of the last summer ish days in the Rockies this year. I'm sure the photos wouldn't have been that orignial though, just scroll down through the endless posts where I harp on about Brina and I going out for a hike and look for the ubiquitous shot of me and the misses stood atop some very nice viewpoint - and you'll get the picture of what Cory Pass was like! It was rather impressive though as we desecended down the other side of the Pass into Gargoyle Valley, which, as the name suggests, had many spectacularly gruesome rock fomations, all sat around the rather impressive chunk of rock that is Mount Louis. Maybe if I find my camera within the next hour or so then I'll put some imagery up here!
We're heading off to the Banff Springs today for two nights of 'get away from it' relaxation. We had giddy notions of doing a couple of epic hikes in the mountains, but I've come to the conclusion that that's the kind of thing we do most weekends, so why not just stop, hang out and relax in Banff - so that's the plan - a whole lot of nothing but enjoying the luxuries of the long ThanksGiving weekend! (Saying that I'll be taking the running gear and hiking stuff for when I realize at 3pm today that I can't sit still very well - I'm a little worried about not taking the bike(s), but Brina has convinced me that they'll be o.k. left alone in the garage for a couple of days (I'm not so sure).
Although I'm excited about the relaxing part of the weekend, I actually have so much work to do that it isn't funny (and this week has been pretty much like that - hence the lack of blogging in the week) - it's actually 6.30am on Saturday now as I got up early to get some work out of the way - but as ever procrastinated enough to find something else to do (this) before actually committing to get my real work out!
Brina is thoroughly enjoying teaching the little kidlings out on the reservation, I'm sure you can all imagine her lovey dovey side caring for the lil' 'uns, getting cuddles from the class and being the teacher that's almost like a "fun mum' for them.
As sad is it may seem, we've missed the fact that there's a general election going on in Canada (not that I'm allowed to vote anyway, although Brina was keen not to vote for Celine Dion (in fact the Liberal Guy is Stephan Dion, but what's in a name anyway!)). We have noticed that there's some kind of election going on south of the border and the entertainment value them there Yanks put out with their "how to pick a President" game is well worth the air time on t.v. It's like a fully fledged comedy soap opera with the occassional terrifying twist - and just compelling viewing (obviously I can't vote there either, but it's way more fun to follow, and will probably have more direct consequences on the future than if Celine becomes the Prime Minister here or not).
Anyhow, I'm off to get that not so early morning anymore work done before we go away, although I may just procrastinate a bit more and try and find the camera first.
I'm hoping that there'll be photos next time,
Happy ThanksGiving,
S&S.

Reconnoiter for the Larches

2008-09-28T20:05:00.000-07:00

The idea of a reconnaisance for a good long hike this weekend was more forced than chosen. Opting to get up early on Saturday and head into the mountains (and cloud) we were dead set on having a hike up to Borgeau Lake. But, not wanting to be dictated to by bear in the area signs, we were dictated to by a bear in the area sign that wouldn't necessarily put us off the trail, had it not stated "Aggressive Grizzly Bear Active on this Trail". Alas, we opted to hike up over Healy Pass instead - not too far away, but far enough from aggressive Grizzlies (the cuddly ones who merely want to play are just fine!). Arriving 10 minutes later at the trail head to Healy Pass, Brina decided to announce that she had left her hiking shoes on the step in the garage. So there was the reconnaisance for our hike. Saturday spent driving into the mountains to check that the car park was open and that all bears were passive. The rest of Saturday wasn't put to waste though as we idled around Banff and even managed to get a late evening mtb ride in K Country in.

Sunday was the new Saturday - a bit of deja vous - up early, quick coffee (from the glorious new machine), packed car, checked we had boots, checked we had boots again then off - and much to our joy it was blue sky sunny today, something Brina continually kept making me aware of, trying to make out that she had intentionally left her boots behind the previous day knowing full well of the meterological delights of today.

We were in fact searching for larches at this time of year - a tremendous pine that turns incredible yellow. There's a famous larch hike up to sentinal pass we did a couple of years ago (and which has a blogged posting if I remember correctly), but it is so busy this time of year, we were after a bit of solitude. And solitude we got for the first 2 hours of our hike - not a soul to be seen, which had something to do with the fact that we were bush bashing our way along the wrong side of a creek on what was very clearly not a path for the first hour of the hike!

I did get to find me one of those little yelow larches....

And Brina found a whole valley full....Atop the Pass it seemed appropriate to command a vintage hiking pose....

And Brina wouldn't let me get away without the old chestnut photo at the top of this post.

The summer is making a spirited fightback this September - making for early bunks off work (abusing my position already!) for plenty of evening mtb riding, and this coming week is forecast to be in the 20s during the day so it should be more of the same (and I was hollering about winter 2 weeks ago!!!!).

I trust that you all remember your footwear, wherever you venture,

Enjoying the fall colours,

S&S.

Chasing of the tail

2008-09-22T19:27:00.000-07:00

Hi all...
I'll be aiming to maintain an air of professional decorum in this post and refrain from chastising, mocking and ridiculing educational bureaucracy and educational employees with whom I have frequent contact (far too frequent for my liking). I shall comment no more, other than; "there really are some stupid buggers who defy all sense and reason". O.K. that's work done with... now for the other stuff, of which there is scant news.

A couple of evening rides were had last week - and as the shot of the bike shows, the single track is quiet on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night, the sun had been shining all week (balmy 20 degree heat) and with the fall colours are making for rather amazing viewing. I still have to pinch myself that an after work ride can entail dead quiet trails, views of snow capped peaks and endless expanses of mountains turning shades of brilliant yellow and red. I had to stop for a couple of 'awe and wonder' views, trying to remember how far I could see in the Peak District without sight or sound of human touch (now don't get me wrong here, I'm not knocking the Peaks, and never will - I sorely miss the lines of drystone walls and the cozy warmth of magnificent country drinking establishments), but this season here is truly amazing and I just can't get enough of it. The weekend was followed with a ride on Saturday with the Weible on his Cannondale (who is incidentally threatening to move into the world of Cervelo on the road - something Brina needs to hear more of before I put in my proposal for another road machine).

Sunday was the end of the sun, the rains came down and therefore the house chores were caught up with - although we did go for a hike up Jumping Pound Creek with the macabre intentions of sighting the black bear that mauled somebody up there just out of Cochrane the other day. Brina had today off school (Indian day - no Pow Wows to attend though) - so she bravely shifted the new car through Calgary and much to her delight came home in one piece. If only I could say the same of the other car (ie: My Car) - with brake lights sticking on and tyres to replace, I left the garage today a good $600 lighter, and a step further back from my rowing machine (and aforementioned road/cross bike).

We aim to be out and about next weekend - still trying to make good on the trails before the snows hit. We have a couple of nights booked in the Banff Springs in October too, so that's something to look forward to! Got a cheap off season, Alberta residents deal!

There's the hint of having to start my Masters on the near horizon, but I'm fending it off for as long as I can still ride the bike in the evenings and weekends.

I hope your repairs are less expensive than mine,

S&S.

Work More, Buy More

2008-09-14T16:53:00.001-07:00

So it would seem that the ever so slightly increased affluence in the Williams household, due to the stepping up the proverbial ladder, is swiftly balanced out by the purchasing of further shiney new equipment - some of which is not so much essential, but more a gregarious indulgence in all things new. If you hadn't been made aware yet, we sucked it up and purchased the new car (above) - like a really new car with only 3km on the clock. Needless to say, this has become "Brina's Car", but I was allowed to drive it today to get us out to a nice hike in K Country!We hiked up to Rawson lake, up off the Upper Kananaskis Lake trail, and Brina just couldn't resist being all artsy fartsy with relections in water etc...

And I got a little carried away with the first snow of the season... although there was hardly enough to fashion a rock hard ice pellet like mini snowball to pelt at the camera woman;

Fortunately, I made up for any Tomfoolery with agreeing to pose for the time honoured lovey dovey pose in front on some pretty scene....

Although, the old 'rest the self timed camera on the rucksack' trick, fell foul as it slipped at the critical shutter moment, and I'm sure you'll agree that in the retaken picture (below) the lake looks much prettier...

So a very nice hike was had early on today. The weather has gone bonkers - it is suggested that temps will be in the 20s all week!!! I just hope that I can avoid another 65 hour working week and get some biking in during the evenings.

The other, aforementioned shiney addition to the home is in fact a rather spiffy espresso machine. Having waited eons for the damn thing to go on sale, we picked up the last one in the store this morning and have been overloading on 'practice lattes' all afternoon. It was with great concern however, that when reading the instructions, I realized that you are not to make a scalding hot espresso over the head of your baby....

We're really fortunate that the manufacurers placed this cautionary illustration in the instruction manual, as I had been considering scouring the local suburban streets for an infant whose head looked appealing enough to slurp a frothy cappucino from.

Other than that, I'm sure you can guess that I'd say work is busy, so I'll refrain from thinking about employment commitments until Monday morning. I'm still longing a bit to be out training for a big race with the big bro, and the bike season officially ended today with the running of the Bow 80 - my legs feel lost and mistreated at the moment as they pedal maybe 3 times a week, but are mostly used to spin my chair around at work - something they'll soon be sick of and will be calling out for the screaming burn of snowboarding quads!!!

We're also booked in to the Banff Springs for Thanksgiving (some kind of Alberta resident's special - lucky I got my resiency card then!!!), and we're slowly planning out our ski resort trips for the winter (for the next 10 months!).

Had a nice ride out on some new single track in Bragg Creek yesterday, Brina's all happy and smiley - not sure if it is due to work being nice or due to the obscene quantity of coffee that has been consumed!

Hope you're all keeping the frugality at bay...

spend, spend, spend, (and enjoy the sun)

S&S.

p.s... and here's another rather soothing reflection; on Brina's request..

Crazy New and Awesome Old

2008-09-05T17:30:00.001-07:00

Hi all...so this week has been 'new' to say the least. As much as I've been apprehensively excited about the new job, it sure has been full of surprises and non-stop 'action'. It certainly isn't boring, it certainly consumes every single second of my time, and it certainly is a million miles from teaching Social Studies to Junior High kids! Needless to say it wouldn't be deemed too correct to disclose all of the ins and outs of the working week - but just imagine the most bizarre things that could possibly happen in a school, then multiply that by a crazy factor of 10, and you're close to what I've been dealing with! It hasn't just been a steep learning curve, it has been a vertical take off, blast my ass into orbit style of learning trajectory. So, as I skirt past my working issues, Brina's having as equally an interesting time coping with the Kindergarten kids in Morley - some rather defiant little ankle biters who, having never been exposed to discipline and a school environment, are more than willing to express their disdain towards Brina's meticulous teaching plans - with one kid only being able to say one word "swing", communication is limited, but he knows where to go at playtime - and Brina knows where to find him at the end of recess where she must, by all accounts, manhandle the little bugger back into the classroom as he kicks and screams for his 'swing', clearly confounded by the notion that he is then meant to sit in a chair, grasp a crayon and colour in his name - something which he has yet failed to grasp - although he is apparently becoming very adept at throwing the crayons at the other students (and the teacher, clearly showing his low IQ, as, trust me here, you don't want to throw anything at Brina since she tends to find something much bigger and heavier or sharper to throw back - and I have the scars to verify this). Apart from that, there's just the kid who got lost on the loo for an hour, and all is fun and games in Kindergarten!!!
So... the training has been slow since the TR ended, but a few little rides out have cleansed the soul and made the week more bearable. However, the big dump of snow in the mountains this week caused me to worry that winter was nearly here - and the scraping of ice off the car hasn't been warmly welcomed either. But, as mentioned in previous posts, TR piccies will slowly infiltrate the blog, so here's what home was for a week on the race...

It slept 4 of us really comfortably, and was the ideal spot for an afternoon nap following the long stage days - it looks like I'm also praying - probably muttering something along the lines of "oh Christ just make my legs work and let me just hold on in tomorrow's stage!" (Mark did his afternoon naps kneeling on a straw mat facing Mecca).

Not that I want to subject you to big brother's nipples for a second posting in a row (and the farmer's tan), but this clearly is the way to travel. Here we're cruising down the TransCanada into Canmore at 120kph - it sure beats being crammed into the back of the Ford Focus!

We also needed the obligatory shots of Team Icebreaker racing in; you guessed it; Icebreaker. Not that I'm biased but I just love the gear!
And finally (for today), when two foreigners end up beating some pretty hardcore sponsored North American riders on the first stage (mentioning no names..... Trek and SoBe Cannondale), no matter how knackering it was, or how snowy it may have been at the top of the 2000m climb, you can't help but be a couple of cheery buggers when greeted at the finish line with Protein smoothies and sushi!!!

I hope your weeks have been calm and that you've actually had time to take a breath (I think I stopped breathing on Wednesday - no time for such luxuries).
Bask in the good memories when things go dour,
still planning whatever's next....

S&S.

Tis all a blur

2008-08-29T18:52:00.000-07:00

Hi all... thought I'd better post something this week since it has been a while, so here's Friday evenings lot.....

It's almost two weeks since the TransRockies ended and I'm still basking in the adreneline fuelled glow of our race, and having only been on the bike once since the race am itching to get out for a spin sometime this weekend - whilst trying to avoid work and weather issues. It's the last long weekend of the summer and the forecast is for cold weather and pissing down rain! Nice!

No matter how stressful and busy going back to work has been this week, it matters not as I just cast my mind back to this...

That was the start of day 4 (a 109km stage) in Nipika, a remote little cluster of chalets in the midsts of the Rockies - the comedic dog was planted near the startline in a vain attempt to unsaddle the classy Italians who were winning everything.

When I have an early start at work this week, I'm missing the very early TR starts...

And after a hard in front of the computer sat at my desk all day, I simply recall that a hard day to big brother Willy is nothing more than a Tina Turner impression;

Whereas to me, the same hard day on the bike warranted a "what the chuff you lookin' at, do you want some?" crazed yet exhausted kind of stare;

The whole TransRockies experience continues to amaze me the more time I have to digest what we actually did and think of how hard we worked in order to get there - certainly one of those life experiences that'll burn brightly for a long time (well.. certainly until the next time!!!!! although Mrs. and Mrs. Williams will need a bit of convincing). We certainly have a bit of payback time owed to Brina and Lucy, as without thier efforts we'd never have been able to have the race we did.... Lucy was putting brother Willy to use with immediate effect..

We had a great road trip after the race, cruising down into Montana and Idaho, and back up through some amazing places in BC - it was quite refeshing to have a week completely off training and do nothing but wander through quaint mountain towns and stop at as many decent coffee shops as possible for serious caffeine loading each day - was a tough trip!
It was sad to see Mark and Lucy depart on Wednesday, but a great time was had by all. It was fun to have the Kiwis come and see where we worked, as Mark wandered into my 'office' I was struggling writing up timetables - and we noted that at his work some of his struggles revolve around which bikes to order for the shop - Now, they're both jobs we work hard at, but I know which I'd rather being doing (perusing the latest Giant catalogue if you hadn't figured).

We'll have more tales of road trips and TR as the piccies roll in. Other than that, we look like cancelling a camping trip this weekend as the weather is turning crappy - oh and we bought a brand new car - but I'll take a piccie and recant that news next time.

Yes, work is busy. But a final note - or perhaps word of caution... please don't try to pierce your nipple with an XTR breaklever, it just doesn't work and really buggers up the breaklever too!

That's all for now, it's time for a snooze.

Hope you're all planning for the next big adventure (I am)

Keep your nipples safe,

S&S.

p.s: keep your fingers crossed on Tuesday - it's when the kids are back and put my timetabling skills to the test (I've a sneaky feeling the wheels might be about to fall off!).

TransRockies Wow

2008-08-19T07:03:00.000-07:00

WOW indeed.... the past week was one of the most phenomenal weeks I've ever experienced - the TransRockies was just simply awesome! Seven days of full on hammering it on incredible trails in the remote areas of the Rockies with big bro is still a bit too much to completely appreciate. We'd be battling it out with some pretty hardcore riders each day, testing our fitness and technical abilities to the max - then roll into the evening's camp where the very hardworking Brina and Lucy would have driven the campervan to and would be ready and waiting with ensures, smoothies, protein bars and a hot meal - which we'd scoff down before servicing the bikes, taking a nap, eating more and then sleeping early ready for the next day! The level of competition at the race this year was intense, with the top 10 teams being made up primarily of professional riders - the winners were wolrd champion riders from Italy, Rocky Mountain bikes had 3 teams of pros (including the winner from the previous 3 years), Scott had a team, as did Trek and SoBe Cannondale had a couple of guys knocking around too. We were well chuffed to beat the Trek and Cannondale boys on a couple of stages and get ahead of them in the overall classification (but they came back strong at the end of the week and usurped us in the standings). Overall, Mark and I finished 12th, which we were just delighted with - all the hard work and tireless preparation for the race really did pay off (it's just a bummer now thinking that it's over, but exciting planning for "what next?").

The course began on a monster 2000m climb straight up Panorama ski hill - which we summited in about 7th place (it pays to be a couple of light weight skinny gits with nothing but legs). We got snowed on on the top and got caught by a couple of guys on the crazy steep rocky single track descent (which went on for hours).

The days were between 85 and 109km long of all out racing, and overall we climbed over 17,500 metres (the body is keen to rest this week). We were in 9th after the first day - and by day 3 we still held that spot! We saw a bear on the trail, had a few tumbles (mainly my crashes - no surprise there then, although I'm still suffering with a bruised hip), a mechanical lost us some time on day 6 when Mark's back break broke near the start of a 102km stage (you kind of need a back break when you're about to crest RaceHorse Pass and rip a 20km 70kph+ over shale and rock) - we fixed it at an aid station with a hammer one of the first aid crew had (nothing like twating the shit out of a shiney new XTR break lever to make you feel good).

We finished in Fernie and felt like we were riding down the Champs Elysees to rapturous applause, t.v. cameras and the entire high street was closed off for us to whizz of Fernie's epic single track right into the limelight of the cheering crowds - we came in 12th on the last day, so the crowds were still enthusiastic (they dwindled a bit by the time the 300th team rolled in 5 hours later).

No doubt I'll prattle on about the race in more detail in future posts, but I just thought I'd give you all a taster for now. Gotta dash as we're off camping....

Hoping you're all striving for the podium,

S,S,M&L.

Ready to Roll

2008-08-07T09:10:00.000-07:00

Hi all... so the much anticipated TransRockies is just a couple of days away, so all of that harping on about the 'Big Race' I've been doing for the past year is upon us - yikes! Much excitment and a hint of sheer terror curses my veins 24/7 at present - just can't wait to get on the start line and pretend I'm as good as the Pro riders (until the gun goes).

Mark and Lucy arrived all on time on Friday - bike bag all present and correct this time around too (thank goodness!), and Brina landed in from the Soo literally 3 minutes after Mark and Lucy touched down from NZ. A couple of days out on the mountain bikes over the weekend got us all psyched up - a few laps of Suffer Springs in Bragg Ck in the sun, followed by an evening ride from Canmore down around Spray Lakes that caught us in a nasty storm where temperatures plummeted to about 3 degrees (not good for lycra clad skinny lads) and brought the onset of hypothermia by the end of the ride (Mark was so glad to have done his heat acclimatization training in front of the fire at home, in preparation for our summer. Sticking your head in the deep freeze for a couple of hours is the best way to get ready for Canadian summers!). Needless to say, the thawing out post ride process of mincing around Canmore in compression socks, blue crocks, down vest and a beanie made for interesting stares from the holiday makers in town.

We've figured that we'll be consuming more food than ever before in this race, so here's a sample of our daily race diet...

I think we have about 100,000 calroies on the table - should keep us up and pedaling for a day or two!!!! (and this is just what we'll be riding with - never mind the cupboard full of pasta and steak etc..).

We headed off to Panorama for the last couple of days - that's the place where the TransRockies begins. We wanted to check out some trails and get a feel for the place (and the place is bloody lovely by the way - a must stop see place on a ski trip for this winter). However, being the TransRockies, nobody knows the route until the day before the race - that is unless you are a jammy little bugger and happen across the man who actually designs and sets the course for the race whilst you're rummaging through his workplace searching for a map of the local. Alas, we managed to glean a good idea of where the first 5 days will be running (not that it's that useful since we couldn't ride it all) but we at least have an idea of where the first stage takes us - and it is quite simply like this "find the biggest, steepest, longest, most painful looking hill climb you can and start up there, after which the desecent will be a blur as your oxygen starved brain will have ceased to function half way up the climb" - a 4000ft climb off the bat - nice!

Mark brought over a shed load of new kit, so here's the new fandangled international R&R race jersey....

And with Mark having got us sorted out as Team Icebreaker NZ, it has meant a great deal of sowing Icebreaker patches onto our many jersey's and paraphanalia such a camel backs etc... I feel like I've been working in a Phillipino sweat shop for the past few days doing so much nimble fingered sowing...
We've loads to organize today, so I should really go and get on with that.... we get the camper tomorrow and head off to the race Saturday - the race begins Sunday and no doubt can be followed on http://www.transrockies.com/ .
Other news that doesn't involve biking doesn't really exist right now (thoughts of work still linger in my mind, but they are seriously burried deep until after the race). Big Red bought himself a new shiney road bike last week - so it's good to see all the Williams' getting out on the velo!
I trust that you are all as prepared as can be,
lets hope the hard work was worth it,
Have a blast!
Team Icebreaker.

Knees, more bears and 24hrs

2008-07-30T09:06:00.000-07:00

I had to begin this post with this piccie I stumbled upon from Nic and Browny's last visit. Make of it what you will (or feel free for a caption competition), but I reckon it's pretty apt (and I'm sure that's a coke Browny's holding, not a Bud). Unfortunately, I haven't become a regular at Kensington Road Church there, so perhaps nothing has changed.
Anyhow... after last week's Grizzly bear sighting (over which I have still not calmed down) it seems that I can't get enough of bears when on the road bike. A good 100km wizz out yesterday from Johnston Canyon up to Moraine Lake and Lake Louise and back had me zipping past another Grizzly!!!! I was on the Bow Valley Parkway and lo and behold a little Grizzly cub was rolling around in the buffalo berry bushes by the side of the road - I didn't linger around since there wasn't much between me and bear and I didn't have a clue where the mum was, but a brief glimpse of the exciting wildlife (I don't think the cub even knew I was there as it was so engrossed in wrestling with the buffalo berries).
I'm slowly coming out of my glum mood which stemmed from me thinking that I'd buggered up my knee which was curtailing my training and TR aspirations. After two days off on the weekend (the first weekend since early October that I haven't ridden on either day) and having taking medication and applied ointments, the knee seems to be holding up o.k. - phew.... lets keep our fingers crossed it stays like that until after the TransRockies!
To cheer my somber demeanour over the weekend I headed out to Canmore to watch the 24 hour world solo mountain bike champs (basically very fit guys ride an incredibly technical course for 24 hours non stop, contending with the night, thunderstoms, hail and I imagine arse ache). It was a super atmoshpere, loads of bike maniacs spinning around in awe of the solo competitors (some people get together and do it as a team relay event, but these seem to be more in party mood than anything else).
Mark and Luce arrive on Friday and Brina lands 2minutes after they do (couldn't have planned it any better to avoid lingering around at the airport to pick them all up!). We'll have a couple of good rides at the weekend, then it's serious tapering time before the big race begins next weekend!!!!! (mega excited about the race - although I'm sure this excitement will transform into squeeky bum time come next Friday night).
Not much else going on in my bachelor lifestyle at present (should really be heading into work, but can't get my head around anything but peddaling at the moment).
And just to make sure that my knee was iced properly, I had to ice it with the best organic antioxidant filled blueberries I could find (sod the ice pack)..

Hope all your ailments are soothed,
S.

A Grizzly Tale

2008-07-21T20:07:00.001-07:00

Hi all.. so a few things have passed this week. A ride in Bragg Creek with Mr. Weible early in the week resulted in an hour and a half coffee shop stop and a retreat home to the windtrainer due to this....

A good few inches of hail fell (enough to cover my ankles) and the thunder and lightening made for more than dubious riding conditions - so after a caffeine hit, it was home to spin indoors (urgh). I'm thriving the bachelor lifestyle at the moment, although am readily realising that I need to get things ship shape in the house before the misses gets back (the dragon).

Headed out to Nordegg on the weekend to race a 60km race on remote single track descents and killer climbs. It was the otherway round for me though, the climbs were great, it was the single track that killed me - crashing (no surprise there then) and banging up my knee so that it ballooned like a golf ball, forcing me to abandon the race after another lap of agony. First DNF of the year was awfully disappointing as I was riding well and in contention with the overall winner - but hopefully I'm getting all the mistakes out of the way before the TR! (Was thinking about my racing stats this year, and the races where I haven't crashed, I've won!!! Not saying that I'd have won the races I stacked it in, but it's an entertaining statistic that highlights my riding ineptitude!). Decided to cheer myself up so drove home from Nordegg via the Icefields parkway, to get to which you drive along the very deserted David Thompson Highway - which has endless views of....

and of this..There were just endless spectacular views with nobody else around for hours... and that's before hitting the icefields parkway!
Got the knee all iced up last night, swelling went down a fair bit this morning (I'm still singing the praises of my compression socks for such assistance), and the aforementioned Mr. Weible drove us out to K Country for a superb ride over Highwood Pass. Those of you familiar with Canada's highest paved road will appreciate the grandeur of the scenery (especially on a clear blue sky, hot and sunny day), and being a Monday made for us being passed by all of 10 cars (if that) over 2 and a half hours. BUT... the piece de la resistance that will keep this ride in my memory until Alzheimer's kicks in is that as we summited the Pass the second time coming back to Peter Lougheed, we viewed out to the mountain and saw two Grizzly Bears digging around in the undergrowth, turning over rocks and generally having a damn good rummage for whatever yummy Grizzly goodies where hiding there. They were two awesome beasts, I couldn't believe it at first, "They're not sheep are they?" I commented, not wanting to be disappointed (having seen zillions of rocky mt sheep on the road), "No, they're bears" responded Brad in his usual laid back tone (whilst no doubt thinking "Sheep?!?! Dumbass!!"). We watched them for 10 minutes, and they were huge! It was one of those Canadian moments I've been waiting for since we arrived - awesome! I could just rant on about the Grizzlies all day, so I'll contain myself and leave it at that, as I head off to ice my knee and watch a re-run of today's stage of the Tour!
You never know what's around the corner,
Striving for yellow,
S.

Yee Haw!

2008-07-15T08:23:00.000-07:00

Howdy pardner,

so after three years of living in Cowtown, we finally made it to "The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth" - or the Calgary Stampede as it is otherwise known. We got ourselves tickets to the rodeo and made our way downtown to see the bulls flip cowboys in the air, and the broncos leap around like they had electrodes attached to their danglies. Taking the C-train into the city (driving and parking at the stampede is just a non starter) was quite an eye opener. The closer you get to the stampede ground, the more prolific the stetson hats, wrangler jeans, and other such cowboy regalia becomes. By the time we were at the stampede station, the train carriage looked like a coach of extras for some over exaggerated western musical. I'd like to continue in a rather facetious fashion, mocking cowboys (and girls), belittling country music and the like, but I have to admit - I loved it! The whole city embraces the cowboy culture (albeit for 10 stampede days) with such vigour that you can't help but be impressed, it's certainly a unique event. And as for going to the rodeo - bloody hell! The size of the bulls those guys sit on are Stegosaurus like, and they get flung around like rag dolls in the washer. I'm not sure who first decided to try and ride a bull (or why) and for what reason the dangerously mental task continued - but it makes for a great spectacle.

Here's a rodeo clown taking cover in a plastic barrel. Once the rider has been flung off, it's up to these clown fellers to usher the bull backstage - the bulls are not always that cooperative, so the clowns have to run after them to point the beasts in the right direction (with flimsy plastic tubs to hide in should the bull become more aggravated).

We've also been out on a few hiking trips, here's a piccie of mum and Brina up at Stanley Mitchell glacier. It was a good hike, but a sad day for my old faithful day pack...
The arse ripped out of my pack at the top of the hike, so I struggled to avoid spilling the contents of it all the way down the trail.
We've been out and about in K Country and around Banff too, with a nice little hike up Sulphur Mt yesterday. Stopped in Canmore on the way home to pick up some gels and biking juice, to be greeted in the car park of Homehardware by Fish and Wildlife officers who were darting a big Moose that had trapped itself in the timber yard of Homehardware, and to add to the animals in town excitement, they had a tranquilized black bear already asleep in the back of their pick up, ready to be taken to the city limits to be released (so that it can wander back into the town again the next day).

And finally, here's Mrs. Wife doing her Gone With The Wind impression (thankfully without the singing!) - I can get away with such comments at the moment as Brina is back home in the Soo for a couple of weeks, so I'm safe from getting a clip round the ears (for now).

Ride 'em cowboy,

S&S.

Computer death

2008-07-12T14:09:00.001-07:00

Hi all,
the ol' computer took a turn for the worse and is currently undergoing critical surgery to remedy the ailment of not turning on without beeping, flashing and then refusing to move from ann unfrozen screen. Have currently got a substitute computer (hence this post), but am struggling to get photos up. Need to go an figure out the new technology of this laptop (the old one was over 5 years old, steam powered and pre-dated the abacus). In the next half hour hopefully I'll have piccies of our first stampede - YeeHaaw! Bucking Broncos, bull riding, cowboys (and girls!!!) and other such western foolery. Also hiking and biking piccies from Mum and Ken's trip, with not much else to report (you know the drill, work, ride, eat, sleep and repeat.....), although the Tour de France is taking up the only other spare time in my day. Not got the holidays of a teacher anymore which really sucks!!!!
More to come imminently when my camera decides to cooperate with this new Dell beauty.
Ta ra for now,
Keep multi tasking with one eye on the yellow jersey,
S&S.

Stylin' it up

2008-06-29T20:02:00.000-07:00

"What the bloody hell is the big noggin stick man wearing now?" I hear you ask (or cry in mirth). Well, these are the new addition to my training paraphanalia - compression socks - these socks are meant to be worn after riding, but my idea is to wear the knee length socks when racing (I couldn't bring myself to post a piccie of me sporting such legwear whilst in my lycra (NICE!)) - if they don't improve blood flow, reduce lactate and all the other medical symptoms they're meant to improve, they may well just psyche out the opposition and reduce the other riders to fits of giggles, unable to ride on. They get their first race outing in the Expert category of the Canada Cup next Saturday (I may as well go down in flames at the biggest race of the year so far rather than reserve such an experiment for a small, unassuming race). As for the piccie above, I now realise why Ken.P. commented to me a while ago something along the lines of; "who the chuff is that skinny bloke wearing your head?".
All goes summery in Cochrane right now, the thermometer has boiled up into the 30s and the tan lines that my cycling shorts and the above mentioned socks are making just create an even freakier sight than you dare imagine. School has finished, and this is the first time in my life that I haven't had a real summer holiday - I really didn't think this new job through thoroughly enough... I have to be in for at least another couple of weeks (although if the amount of time I needed to spend in school over summer was realted to the lack of knowledge I have for the job, then I wouldn't have a day off until September 2010). Brina's holidays have started and she's doing a couple of days work in the outdoor shop in Cochrane before she heads back to the Soo for a couple of weeks in July. Mum and Ken are heading off to BC for a few days this week (where temps are something like 37 degrees tomorrow!!!). We cruised out to Horse Creek Road last night to watch the beavers (a past time I used to do in Sheffiled on Mappin Street, ah, they were the days), and the little blighters were dashing around building their lodge - whilst we were devoured by zillions of evil moquitoes.
Busy week this week, work, rides, and planning for the race on Saturday.
I hope you all find some amusing, piss taking banter from my fine hosiery,
Sock it to 'em,
S&S.

A not so clean pair of heels

2008-06-22T19:41:00.000-07:00

This post's picture should be in some caption competition ("Show us yer arse", "does my bum look big in this?" etc.....), a not so clean pair of heels is about as lame as I could come up with late on a Sunday evening before I crawl into bed. I thought it'd be better to keep my ugly mug off all blog pictures after the chinny chin chin shot of freakyness in last week's post (although I clearly haven't thought this through as there is little better about a picture of a dirty, lycra clad ass than a picture of my face (all comments at the bottom of this post will be gleefully cherished - and no doubt delted immediately). So, as with most recent posts, the bike is the central theme (shock horror!). We headed out to the ABA cup race in Bragg Creek (Sulphur Springs - Suffer Springs), a really good course, three quarters of the lap was hard climbing, then the last quarter, a warp factor ten decent back to the start finish area. Two laps of that (and no big crashes - a first for the race season this year), and I sailed home in first place! Woo Hoo! (Portland Ken's blog gave me a bit of grief for harping on about racing but continually neglecting to mention the results - so there you have it!).
I'd ridden around the course with Mr. Wieble yesterday just to get a reminder of how steep some of the bloody climbs were, and Brad and Julie turned up to view the race too with Lucy (the greyhound, not the sister in law!). Mum and Brina were in fine vocals too as I lapped around (they'd set up camp on the home straight and were just missing the cowbells!). Then we razzed off to the airport to pick up Ken (2 hours late - oops!!!!!).
So things looked alright today with an eye on the TransRockies (although the Pro Elite rider who finished 13th in the TR was tanking it around the course like some EPO fuelled, blood transfusion Astana rider!).
School is out for the kids now, one week left for staff and then the administrators (that be me) stay in for god knows how long to set things up for next year (I'm still hoping to have worked out what my job entails by the time September rolls around).
I've got a feeling that I've missed all the important or humorous news out of this post but my brain is shutting down now, so the mattress is calling and by the time of the next post I'll have remembered what I intended to write here!
Camelbacks rule!!!
S&S.

Not much really - just tiding over

2008-06-15T08:17:00.000-07:00

Another week and a bit has passed by without me sitting square eyed in front of the computer -hence the lack of posting since the previous one! The blog is being dominated by bike talk - but seeing as though that's about all I'm doing at present, I aint got much else to say! Although this week has seen a bit of an ease up on the bike front (took a couple of days off, and practised the fine art of sleeping, lots!). Last weekend in Canmore was a fun race in the rain and snow, and being rather knackered after having a few weekends of constant racing and hard training in the week I was not too disappointed to get a 5th place (I say that now, but I was pretty miffed on the day - despite once more having a rather spectacular crash, involving a sumersaulting bike crashing down on top of me and the disc rotor slicing the back of my arm open and burning me at the same time as it was to hot - a nicely seared wound) but at least I'm 1st overall in the Alberta standings (for now). Got another race next weekend in Bragg Creek so hopefully that will help me move up to Expert class - although I should be there already had I been given credit for the win at the first race of the season.
A quiet weekend this one, mother arrives today so we've been frantically dashing around making room for her to stay (we set up a bedroom in the basement but it turned out to be too dungeonesque so we moved the bedroom back upstairs and then had to shift the office around) although I managed to get a good 130km in yesterday in just 4 hours which was good for a steady ride in the hills.
The sun is out at last, and I'm thinking of mowing the lawn (although I relish the angst my long grass provides the fastidious neighbour). We haven't got much else going on right now. Mrs.W is in fine form, scurrying around the house with a can of pledge and a duster panicking about the arrival of her mother in law (I keep getting shouted at for leaving dirty plates and old magazines lying around the place- luckily I wrote that correctly and didn't say old plates and dirty magazines).
Alas, that is all for this meagre post - there should be good banter and piccies a plenty next weekend after the Bragg Creek race - and hopefully none will contain images of my blood.
Hope you've all got a lot more going on right now,
Happy dusting,
S&S.

Giver-8-r

2008-06-03T20:35:00.000-07:00

So the title of this post is meant to sound like 'terminator' since that was the name of this confounded eight hour race held at the weekend. 14 laps, 120km (ish) and lots of slick chaffing cream later, and we made it! A 7am mass Le Mans style run 500metres to your bikes start just to really bugger up your legs for the next third of the day, and we were off! Although, having busted my ball (s) - yeah plural! If only! - in the six hour race in BC a few weeks back and died on hour 5, I took the first few hours of this race really easy, and as a result had loads left in the tank at the end (so hopefully I'll be judging it right by August and the TR!)

Mrs. W. was on hand once again as the chief pit crew nutritionist and kept me well supplied with shakes, bananas, gels, cubes, pringles and advil! The latter two parts of this menu (pringles and advil) were top tips given to us at the last race by the winner of a multi day race in BC. The pringles (real athlete's food) keep up the salts to reduce cramps - and worked a treat, and the advil just simply numb the pain (well the chronic back ache I was having, so it's not quite like doping with EPO).

"Show us yer chin, yer big jawed freak!" is what I wanted to shout at the feller above, until I realized who it was. Apparently this is what I look like coming off a fast last lap and sprinting to the line (poor Brina has to wake up to that ugly mug every morning - no wonder she can be cranky early in the day).
And on the note of bears with sore heads, here's Brina's day at work...

A trip to the zoo with the injuns to see the big ol' Grizz behind bars. These suckers are all out and about now, and two people have already been given a damn good mauling.
The summer rain continues to fall in Cochrane - so long as the sun rears up by the time school has finished it will be O.K. Just a couple of weeks until all the little kidlings are on vacation, then staff have to hang around for a week to tidy up their classrooms, plan lessons and generally pretend to be busy when admin are around - and on the note of admin, bugger... that'll be me I suppose, so I'll be in school for a bit longer this summer, learning the ropes and panicking like a man falling overboard wearing very heavy boots.
All things are worrisome back in Blighty with Nana, so hopefully if she's reading this we send her all our love!
And now it's time to retire for the evening,
Chin Up,
S&S.

3 Years, Bad Gears, Big Cheers

2008-05-27T20:43:00.000-07:00

Well hello all!!! Here's to the start of another joyous post cancerous bollock year! It's three years ago to the day that the old left dangly was consigned to its fateful tumerous extraction. I can't believe how big and massively important the 27th May has become for me now, it kind of sneeks up all unannounced and then arrives and hits me with such forceful emotions (which I thought I had burried good and deep in the darkest recesses of my psyche) that I get all nostalgic, humbled, thankful, overly excited about life and just generally damn happy to be waking up to the sunshine with a pulse. Mrs. Brina played it all coy this year and surprised me with a prezzie and card this morning (much to my delight as I thought she'd forgotten - she got me good and proper). Two more years to the all clear mark, big smiles all round!
As for other pressing matters at hand. I sluggishly headed up to Edmonton for a Sunday race in the pissing down rain. Leaving at 5.00am in a downpour didn't dampen my spirits too much, but racing fast, dry racing tires in Edmonton's slickest mud wasn't condusive to staying on the bike too well during the race... So there was lots of this;

Fortunately the TransRockies has plenty of Hike a Bike sections, so the course at the weekend made for good training for that (since riding up many of the mudslides was not an option). The bike was feeling rather lazy on the first lap and kept on wanting to lie down in the trees by the side of the course, invariably taking me with it. 4 wipe outs on the first lap and 1 on the second had me cussing about the weather, my bike handling skills and my tardiness at arriving at the race with 10 minutes to spare and not being able to pre-ride the route again! Never the less, I had consigned myself to a very non podium finish, but pulled things together a bit better on lap 3, and by lap 4 was with the 2nd placed rider. With 2km to go, we kicked around a steep turn, I had the makings of the guy, ready to put the power on a little, shifted gears up as the hill went vertical, but shifted my chain right up into my spokes where it jammed tight! Bugger, having lept off to untangle the damage (which had happen already before on lap 3) mr.2nd place sauntered off up the hill. I managed to get back to within 4 seconds of him by the finish - but alas, the couse was a couple of hundred metres too short! A 3rd place wasn't bad all things considered.
The piccie below is the new 'hide a chain in your rear mech' game I like to play (no wonder the shifting was piss poor).

Ah, you can't beat using grass and mud to protect your chainrings from wear and tear!

It's the big old 8hour race this Sunday (my arse is already getting nervous - new chamois needed).
All things non bike related are just that - non bike related. Work, yeah, it's still work - just heard a great quote from Gordon Ramsey on t.v. "you don't have to love it, it's just a fuckin' job" - so I think I'm going to live with the philosophy according to Kitchen Nightmares from now on!
Brina's still working like a beast at Morely and is chasing around after the skinny, cycling obsessed git she lives with to make sure he's well fed and not resembling some malnourished famine victim. We're looking forward to seeing a bit more of summer soon. The rain eased off this week (although the Rivers are full to bursting point and floods may be imminent for those edjits living on the floodplains - think about it people, it's called a FLOODplain for a reason so don't build a house there!). The sun is giving us a bit of a taster of what may be in store for our month of summer in August, and we can't wait (fingers crossed we might even get two months of summer, but don't hold your breath).
Anyhow, it's time for bed, so seeing as though today's the day it is, remember;
It could always be worse,

Livestrong
S&S.

Hickory Dickory Dock

2008-05-22T20:19:00.000-07:00

Hi! All. Not much has transpired since the last post, apart from inclement weather - of the rain variety (hopefully the white stuff is behind us now for the next couple of months). It has been pissing it down like Billio, and is forecast to do so for the foreseeable future - ah, happy days, it's just like Manchester! (on the Mancunian note - Premier League and Champions League - get in!!!!!!!!!!!!). It's an easy week on the bike this week since I've been pedalling so hard recently the old legs need a few days break to de-wobblify them a little - although I was out for a spin to Ghost Lake last night and was swooped by a Golden Eagle, which I mistook for a light aircraft - massive it was!
VPness continues to bamboozle me, and I'm spending less and less time in the classroom (hurray!) but more and more time in meetings where it's a real struggle to maintain focus, keep the gist of what people are talking about and remain conscious (boo!). Brina's happy as Larry teaching the ankle biters about tipis and the like, and having taken on a full time job in Morely next year, it means there'll be no day home. Here's how Brina had the basement set up in preparation for her dayhome enterprise which is no longer to be....

Although it pays dividends as I get a road map carpet to play on (unfortunately, Brina often sends me to the naughty chair - the red one in the corner, when things aren't going too well).

The basement is slowly turning back from this preschool landscape, to the bike storage, bike maintenance and bike training room facility that it duly should be!

Although on that note, I'm really going to miss Terry the Big comfy Turtle (perhaps I'll persuade the misses that we can keep him).
I hope that you're all basking in the delightful May sunshine (somebody needs to be, cos we aint).
We're off to Edmonton on Sunday for another race - should be a fun tester if this deluge keeps up, so will keep you informed early in the week - by which time, the dandelions in the backgarden will have greater dominance than the grass (much to the chargrin of our pompus neighbours).
Here's to the Campaign to Keep Terry,
Glory Glory Man Utd,
S&S.

This is May

2008-05-16T15:24:00.000-07:00

Hi! All, so here are a few snaps of what May looked like last week in Cochrane! The whole place just got dumped on, and there were reports of 3 feet of snow falling in Water Valley and hour north of here, and the ski fields were (by all accounts) in amazing condition.

It's hard to believe that today, one week later, the sky is blue, everyone is in their shorts and sandles, and the temps are a balmy 25 degrees! Last Friday was not even close!

I had my camera in the car and just couldn't resist snapping piccies of some of the unfortunate buggers who had forgotten that snow and ice make the roads slippery!!! (Either that or this guy skidded off the road because he was trying to take photographs at the same time as he was driving - what dickhead would try that eh?!!!) - those of you failing to register the sarcastic tone there, just note that I'm still crusining along in the inside lane as the piccie is shot.

I gave up counting at 9, but there were endless cars burried in the meridian between here and Calgary! Happy Spring days!!

But fortunately, the summer has kicked in for this long weekend! I'm not racing this weekend, but the sun should be coaxing me out for some riding! I was up early doors (5am) on Sunday to head to Edmonton for a race, I got there late, just made the start line, but having not ridden the course decided to sit back for the first lap to get lead through (4 laps to do in total). I found myself sat in second and was happy to be following some swift fellow. Thinking that all was good, to my horror he took us down a decent, pulled off to the side then stopped to ask me do I know the way because he hadn't ridden the course "bloody hell, that makes two of us mate" - at which, we looked back up slope and saw the chasing group come through but disappear up the hill, not down in the direction we had come. Alas, we chased them down, I got carried away and hit the front, pulled away with the Provincial Champ on my tail, the champ lead the third lap, I hit it on the 4th and pulled into first place!!!! Woo hoo! I thought, although the guy with the clipboard taking down times missed me out (expecting the Provincial Champ to be in first place) so I was bumped down into second on the results - but a moral victory none the less!
More of the same next weekend, then the big 8 hour race in Calgary (makes my stomach wobble just thinking about it - in a good way though!).
Work continues to build up the pressure of VPness - lots more meetings and a steep upwards curve of responsibility and aggro!
Finally finished my Uni courses (thank chuff for that) and somehow managed to get As for both!!!
Brina has been the chief cook, bottle washer and nutritionist for the past while, without whom the wheels would have fallen off a long time ago!
Off to Brad and Julies for supper to meet their new addition to the family - a rescued greyhound (Billireagan Bob), so I'm taking my fuzzy little hare to see if can outsprint me around the back garden!
Hope the sun is now shining in all of your summers (or snow falling for you southern hemi folk),
Ta ra for now,
S&S.

Bloody 'ell.

2008-05-07T20:12:00.000-07:00

Well hello all, nothing like a little bit of a graze on the knee to get me going all melodramatic at the first sight of blood (only because it's my blood though, if it was anyone else's I don't think I'd give as much of a toss). So this is how the six hour endurance race ended, with me, five minutes from the finish, tearing down the final twisty, single track descent like a man posessed and like a man who is way too exited with his new bouncy bike that he is a little out of control. I'd struggled like buggery the night before to squeeze a new tubeless tire onto the front end of my bike (a tire which many folk had assured me was mega reliable when it came to not getting punctures by the way) and lo and behold, as I go careening around a steep corner, said tire blows up sending my bike off stage left into the trees and jettisoning me on a right hand trajectory nose first into the ground. BUGGER!
I hobbled over the finish line, running the last part of the course, and finished a respectable 6th. I had stopped for a good 15/20 minutes mid race after my rear wheel had quick released itself and fell right out of my frame, bending the disc brake rotor in the process, forcing me to ride a lap (a good 40mins) with my brake on, before submitting my bike to the mechanic at the start/finish line to fix the rotor - be just banged the living daylights out of it with a small hammer and pair of pliers for 15mins - only to eventually tell me he couldn't fix it proper and I would need to buy a new one! Couple this fiasco with severe cramping sessions in hours 4 and 5, another couple of small mechanicals, and all in all, I wasn't too displeased with the first showing of the season!

Brina was chief food a drink organizer, having bars, bottles and bananas ready at every lap -which was a treat, and luckily the sun was shining in BC where the race was held and teh atmosphere was awesome - loads of folk milling around, music blaring, usual stalls etc... The piccies I put on here I can't remove now as I'm still using this new photo importing system which continues to perplex my meagre computer skills. I think the piccie above suggests I'm trying to stare out the opposition on the other side of the field, and below my race anxiety is confounded by the sight of the rider in the silly red bell like hat.

Everything else goes along as usual. Brina keeps up the Pow Wows in Morely, I'm nearly at the end of those dratted University courses that I swore I would never take, there is little time for anything but eating, sleeping and riding. We're off to another race in Edmonton this Sunday - so long as I get the final pieces of my coursework together.
Anyhow, I couldn't resist more self pitying with the last piccie - mainly because the scab on my elbow has become infected and is constantly seeping yellow puss which I keep getting all over my desk at work (much to the disgust of the kids in the classroom as much of the puss has made its way onto their books as I've been marking them!).
Hope you're all not black and blue,
Keep inflated,
S&S

Zoooooom

2008-05-05T20:42:00.000-07:00

The title of this post has nothing to do with my speed at this weekend's 6hr endurance mtb race in Salmon Arm BC, more to do with the speed at which the past two weeks have zoomed by. I couldn't let the blog go two weeks without a post, and so quickly logged on to rid of speculation that I had indeed fallen off the edge of the earth - although the rife rumours that I had indeed fallen off my mtb with great aplomb can only be confirmed! The past weeks have been nothing but University (if that's what Phoenix really is) work, riding and sleeping. So a welcome relief came with the first race of the season in sunny, Spring like BC. Great ride, got knackered, broke bits off my bike, lost a fair bit of skin to the dirt, punctured and now it's time for bed, so photos and all the gory details will come midweek (I've just stepped off the bike, have some work to do, shirt to iron, shake to drink, bed to fall into at some stage).
Hope you're all hanging onto the bars better than me,
S&S.

Max Headroom falls asleep on stage

2008-04-21T18:48:00.000-07:00

Hi! All, here's a little ditty in continuation from the previous post - where I harped on about being at the summit at Lake Louise and having to give a bit of patter on stage to the audience and scary t.v. cameras. Well.... Mike at work happened to send me this shot he took of my already enormous noggin, looking even more overwhelmingly block like than usual, as it is beamed across the globe, cast upon the big t.v. screens just incase the people at the back of the audotorium couldn't see my balding hairline! You'll notice that the piccie also captures me me glancing downwards (at my notes - wasn't brave enough to do this completely on the fly!), and with my sunken, skull like eye cavities, it would appear that I am asleep - I assure you I was not dozing off up there! (Apparently Brina couldn't look at the screen when I was talking - she claims it was because she was nervous for me - although I suspect she's seen enough close ups of my ugly mug to last her a lifetime already!).

Anyhow, the crux of this brief post is that I reminded Mike very much of a superstar of the 80's- with my monotonic drone and repetitive head twitch I am by all accounts the spitting image of the one and only Max Headroom!!! (if you don't remember him, you're not missing much!).

Well, clearly the resemblence is striking, although you probably had to be there!
Next post I hope to have some outdoor fun (although it looks like the first mtb race of the season might be cancelled for a second time this coming weekend too - winter really isn't letting go, it's minus 7 right now, and that certainly isn't lycra weather!).
Hope you're all finding the animated character in yourselves,
Now where did I put my Atari?
S&S.

World Summit, Snow and Cancelled Races

2008-04-18T19:39:00.000-07:00

Hi! All. Having spent Sunday to Wednesday up at Lake Louise, the working week hasn't been all too bad this week. School was hosting the 'World Summit on Learning Disabilities' a rather pompous sounding grandeoise title for a conference, but it was actually very good. Lots of very clever people came from all around the globe. They even had a prof from Sheffield University's psychology department - so it must have been good in order to entice the Yorkshire folk over. The result of the conference is that a governmental paper is being written up to convince the politicians that learning disabilities are the real deal (although I think that they'll put it to them a little more elegantly than that!).
Things all became a bit pressurized though when I had to get up on stage and give a bit of a speel to a chuffin' big audience with two bloody huge t.v screens casting my ugly mug across the audotorium. (The piccies wont go any bigger, but you can make up a miniscule speaker in the middle of the stage - which incidently isn't me, but you get the picture!!! literally).

And

there were even more sweaty palms when the three big t.v cameras were staring you in the face (as this thing is being part of some t.v documentary and is being broadcast across the English speaking world....) I think the one of the editors (below) dumbed down my northern tones to make me sound less abrasive and more understandable for the dvd version (I introduced myself as Simon Williams from Foothills Academy - and one lady later on came up to me who had heard me speak to ask me what I did for Foothills Energy - an electricity company by all accounts - so there you have it, Academy sounds like Energy when I say it! - God help those kids with learning disabilities who I speak to on a daily basis - there's no hope!!!).

It was a bitter pill to swallow to be up at Lake Louise and be confined to the chateau for most of the time and not being allowed out to play.

Although I did get to ride out to Lake Louise on the Sunday - and got nowhere near to getting to Lake Louise - a 10.30am start plus one of the years strongest westerly winds hindered my progress, and if I wanted to get to the conference before it ended on the Wednesday I had to concede defeat to mother nature and piss poor planning and jump into the car when Brina passed me on the Trans Canada! I did get out for a few hill reps up and down the Lake Louise hill to the village on the Monday night - but the snow made for a killer wind chill on each decent!!!
The weather was shaping up nicely last weekend for a good first race of the season this Sunday, However...... It has been snowing like buggery today (10cm fell in Calgaray today), another 10cm are due to fall on Saturday, continue into Sunday and Monday and Tuesday... With a high on Sunday of minus 8 with 35mph winds.... Needless to say, the race in Lethbridge is cancelled and will hopefully run next weekend instead - if not, then we're into May and thwarted once more by this weather that I can't fail to be dumbstruck by!
I lost a couple of piccies on this post, so am still struggling to get things running smoothly on the blog - but it's slowly coming back together. Also, the course I whined and bitched about finishes this weekend!!! Yahoo!!! And then I start another on Tuesday (not so much Yahoo!).
Hoping that all of your palms aren't clammy,
Looking forward to blizzards into July,
S&S.

One day I'll work this computer interweb stuff out.

2008-04-12T18:45:00.000-07:00

Well I'm still having glitches with this new system and with the last post that went on about a trip to Lake Louise, I thought I'd pop in a summery piccie to warm the cycling soul. Here's a bit o' Crested Butte - single track is just around the corner (well, next month when all the snow's gone anyway!).

Working at Lake Louise

2008-04-12T18:33:00.000-07:00

Well summer arrived today. After having about 5 inches of snow fall on Thursday morning, it looked pretty ominous for anything but indoor sulking, however, Alberta's fine weather pulled it out of the hat and boosted the temperatures up to 20 degrees today, kept the wind down (making for lovely biking), and more of the same for tomorrow! I'm riding to Lake Louise in the morning, feeling the need for a big ride. Having taken Friday off to go out for a bite to eat in Cochrane at the Blue Dog with Brad and Julie, I'm needing a few miles in the legs. We're actually having a work conference at the Chateau (the world summit for learning disabilities) and are there until Wednesday, so it should be an interesting working week. Brina's coming as a guest (paid for courtesy of school) and it looks like she's just going there for a holiday (and to drive the car to scrape me off the road when I collapse just the other side of Banff for not having anticipated arduous nature of my intended bike ride).
I'm still struggling to find my feet with this new blogger picture posting thing, so we're image free again!
My brain is on the verge of melting down with all this work I have to do for the on-line Uni course and the panic of VP ship next year (morning breakfast meetings are a minor plus to the job, but I've got a lot to learn!!!!!). Anyhow, that's work, and my mind is much more on two wheels and sunshine.
Hope you're all dusting off the lycra,
Happy spinning,
S&S.

Third time of asking...

2008-04-06T20:35:00.000-07:00

What a shambles these last three posts have been in the last ten minutes. It would seem my new system can't cope with more than four piccies.... so this actually carries on from the previous post - but you'll be seeing it first. It's not rocket science to work out, but it's a pain in the asp.
... Seeing as though it was Disney, this old lion didn't seem to think he had to look ferocious at all when we drove by. No growl, snarl or toothy grin. He didn't even see a need to get up from his very feline sunbathing pose to have a look what was going on. Cats eh!?

The pool at the house Brina's parents had was a very welcome relief for serious afternoon relaxing. Brina couldn't even be bother to float on her own accord and stole all the tubey things.

And I'll leave you with a pasty, very skinny man with one ball - I've heard that before somewhere!

Hoping Florida's weather is seeking you out somewhere,
Pedaling myself away to nothing
S&S.

Oops, still learning the new photo thing

2008-04-06T20:27:00.000-07:00

Yikes, the previous post took me by surprise. I was getting a little to confident with my new found interweb skills and picture posting abilities. Looks like I buggered up the last post and could only put one picture on there. I think I've got things sussed out now though (ruddy technology).
In continum from the mountaineering adventures in Disneyland's Animal Kingdom that had us on a train heading up Everest, it looks like the Yeti has broken up the tracks!! Oh No!!!

Hurtling backwards, forwards and upsidedownwards, I completely lost all sense of direction and bladder control, but managed to snap a giddy shot of the manic Mrs. W all excited that the Yeti was chasing us.

The Expedition Everest is the new ride at this park, and it may all sound a bit hokey. but Disney send experts out to Nepal to research all the environments and habitats around that part of the Himalayas, so as to get it as authentic as possible. I worked with somebody whose husband was an entomologist (bugs people) who was sent to Nepal for 4 weeks just to study bugs, so that they could have the right species sitting along the queue (line) for that real Everest feel!!!! (and I'm not taking the piss!).
Anyhow, after a stint trying to keep my breakfast down, we took a sedate safari in a jeep through Disney's African Adventure. A 15 minute drive through a safari park (just like Knowsely in the land of the Scouse). Again they have all the real vegetation and critters - like this upsidedown tree (can't remember its real name - jobjob?).

The hippos weren't too concerned with our presence on the zebra skin jeep...

And I was hoping that there were more piccies here, but my new system has failed me again..... hang on a minute.....

Phototastic

2008-04-06T20:14:00.000-07:00

Hi! All,
the last couple of posts have had scant evidence of photography due to computer malfunction, website meltdown and operator impatience. Well I've just been procrastinating (not like me!) from completing an online assignment I have due, and have downloaded a funky new photo organizer that should let me put up some piccies and bypass the frustrations of blogger. I do recall that I'd prattled on about seeing mountains in the flat, sweltering swamp that is Florida, and so here it is... Everest - and an authentic Everest express train to take us to the summit!!!

Where's it all going to end?

2008-04-05T14:14:00.000-07:00

Hi all, I'm writing from a snow covered Cochrane in a somewhat climatologically frustrated mood. I had been anticipating an early morning ride today (Saturday), but on looking out of the window at 6.30am, the few cms of snow on the ground were enough to send me back to bed and have a couple more nightmares about sitting on the windtrainer again for the weekend. However, a bit of early morning sun melted all the snow off the road, so I have just put my new tires onto the road bike, it's 3pm now, the roads looked good. I got all kitted up and excitied for a stint out to Horse Creek Rd, and opened the door to.... more bloody snow!!!! It's April for goodness sake, there are fellers in Vancouver who've been out riding on the road all winter, guys in Manchester who don't comprehend the idea of not being able to ride out over the winter months due to inclement weather (although they do brave some really crappy rain) - so as I'm getting excited about road riding again (very belatedly by the standards of 'normal' places), it's a real pain the the proverbial to be clambering back onto the wind trainer this afternoon, thinking that my first race is only two weeks away and I could do with some more fresh air down my lungs.
Brina is downtown Cochrane today selling outdoor gear in the local shop - she's working Saturdays there from today, in case she doesn't get many days sub teaching over in Morely (although she has had full weeks for the past few weeks) - hopefully her work at the outdoor shop in Cochrane means a few pro deals on cheap gear.
I'm getting to grips with the notion of the promotion at work - and rather enjoy the Friday morning meetings with admin which are held over breakfast at a local diner place.
School is shut for three days next week and is sending us all to Chateau Lake Louise for a conference on learning disabilities - although it's work, it's going to be nice to hang out in the chateau for a few days away from the kids. (I'm currently planning on riding out there, but with this current weather we'll have to wait and see). Brina's been invited too, and school are paying for her to come along, despite her not working there anymore - nice!
To add to my frustrations here I still can't post pictures!!!! HELP!!!!!!!!!!
Right then, I'm off to the brink of instanity as I go and sit on the trainer,
If any of you know how to fix the picture posting problem, do let me know,
Avoiding the blizzard,
S&S.

Disney Revisited and Gaudy Colours

2008-03-30T18:55:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's colours with a 'U' American people, sheesh.. it is English you folks do talk now innit? Well, here we are again, thinking I might try to put some piccies up on this post as yesterday's posting fell foul of some technological glitch and wouldn't enable me to share any merry images of Mickey Mouse (not that I have any). In the processes of dicking around with the blog I altered all the colours, inadvertently saved it so, and thus the hideous colour scheme that you see is nothing but a horrendous accident due to my well documented computational ineptitude.

15 minutes later.........

Bugger, the blog malfunction continues and I still can't put any pictures of sunnier climes up on the posts yet. I'll keep trying throughout the week.
In the meantime, just imagine me sat on Mickey's lap, eating an ice-cream wearing nothing but white tennis socks, sandles and a Hawaiian shirt - it's not quite the picture I was going to post but it's something to give you nightmares until then.
Anyhow, I hope that all of your technologies are more cooperative than mine at present,
death to the internet (and the Welsh),
S&S.

All a bit Mickey Mouse

2008-03-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Hi All,
Well after a two week hiatus, we're back! Having yet to absorb the enormity of the new employment opportunity facing me in September, I shall renege on discussing anything about work (apart from the fact that it's very much over rated). The other side of life has been much more fun, with a stint down south, out of the cold climes of Cochrane, to the balmy humidity of Florida! As much as I enjoy the snow and winter activities of the north, you just can't beat a week of searing heat and sunshine to put a spring back in your step mid-March.

The outlaws hired a rather fine, five bedroom house with a pool and all the trimmings for a month near Kissimmee. Brina headed down on her birthday and had time to visit with the whole family who were all there. I jetted off on the Fridayand was picked up by Brina and Marcel in 26 degrees at 11pm in Fort Lauderdale - the sweats started immediately and I began to wonder how the hell we'd ever lived down there in such heat (ah yes.. air con'). A five minute hello to Brina's brother and Lisa as they left for the airport as I arrived, two days with Jeannine, Rob and the kidlings, then hanging out with the folks and a trip to Disney! Note to self, theme parks at Spring Break = Very busy; Very busy in hot weather = frustration and annoyance; Frustration and annoyance = get the hell out of there and go chill by the pool. However, although we were in Florida, we did mangage to get out to the mountains........ - I was intending to put a piccie in here, but the blogger is buggered right now and I can't get pictures on this thing.

The whole Disney concept is great fun and a super enterntaining way to while away a few hours, but when you're trying to constantly squeeze past morbidly obese, coke guzzling, burger scoffing, not seen my toes for 20 years kind of people, who have to hire reinforced motor scooters to drag their enormous lunar backsides around the park as their fat rolled legs are unable to take the strain; then the Disney experience becomes a bit of a drag - don't go during the holidays! We just spent an afternoon there, and the final 70 minute wait for a safari ride was the final straw that broke the line hater's back. The safari was very entertaining, riding a jeep for 10 minutes through "Africa", spotting all the wild animals they have - rather nifty shot of a lazy lion (real one, not a man dressed up like Simba) to put here, but still can't get the picture thing working.

Having struggled to get photos on this blog, I'm off and shall share the photograhical delights later on. I was up early this morning after five hours sleep to head out on the bike. Got ready, and lo and behold, it started to snow! The Florida temps lowered my defences to weather and I thought I may be able to get a good ride out to the hills today - so I'm on to plan B now which is another pot of coffee followed by 3 hours on the trainer (grim, but needed!).
Check back later to see if I've got the piccies up,
Hakuna Matata,
Mickey and Minnie.

Doing a Dumbledore

2008-03-16T17:30:00.000-07:00

Well waddya know?! the antics of work have finally got the better of me.

Having been harping on for the past few blog postings (past 101 or so) that work is a blighter, struggling to get certified, blah blah blah.... and that I wasn't going to do more courses (and was thinking of buying a cafe to run), then lo and behold the powers that be at work go and throw a right old spanner in the works and offer me the position of 'assistant coordinator' (kind of vice principal idea if you get the picture). So bloody hell, the new immigrant at work has stepped into the boss's shoes and I'll have my own office in September (Cryin' out loud - where the hell's it all going to end!?!). I imagine I've ruffled a few feathers of the established senior staff members at work - but where's the fun at work if you're not causing a bit of a ruckus? Rather looking forward to tomorrow when they're announcing who the new assistant coordinator is in some early morning meeting (I'll try not to look too smug - whilst avoiding the flailing fists coming my way with congratulatory comments such as; "frickin limey tosser, how on God's earth did you get the job?". "Dunno".

Had a good catch up with Tatey today too, and had some Sheffield pangs of Peak District yearning - got out on the bike here and rode the gravel roads to Sibbald flats - but a couple of cms of snow last night made for a slippery ride.

Brina's the big 30 on Wednesday - and flys out to Orlando. I fly on Friday - via Toronto and Fort Lauderdale (it'd be quicker for me to fly to Queenstown!).

Anyhow, I've been working on this computer most of the day doing those ruddy courses I swore I wouldn't entertain, so I'm off for bangers and mash for tea (a taste of home).

Hope your worlds are less surreal than mine at present,

Staying on the ladder,

Severus Snape.

Blog 101

2008-03-13T19:23:00.000-07:00

Hi all...
the last post was a fitting way to commemorate the 100th post; not writing a bloody thing! Pictures certainly speak louder than words when it comes to the new bike which arrived last Friday. I couldn't quite get over the excitement of the shiny new carbon full suspension beauty (although I could quickly get over the "being shafted by customs" scenario which caused me to fork out a shit load of cash just to get said bike released from a cage in the airport). I didn't get charged any duty on the last bike I imported - my theory being because I was only here on a work Visa - however, now I'm an official resident and all that, then they take the liberty to take as much coin from you as possible (there were some benefits of being a misfit alien after all!).
The shiny bike soon became not so shiny as I've been riding things I wouldn't really have considered before on trails around Cochrane - and getting in complete shit order in the process - and absolutely loving it!!!!!!!!!!! Enormous smiles all round!!!
We're off to sunny Florida in a week or so.. Brina flys out on her 30th (old git) and I follow 2 days later - waiting to pat Shamoo on the bonce and shake Mickey's big gloves. Brina is still subbing over in Morley - and had to teach a class 'Stoney' the other day - that being the Indian language - "Brina speak with forked tongue".
The bizzaro that is work has had me in for two interviews for the assistant coordinator's job (kind of vice principle Esq) - what the chuff I know about running schools and Canadian schools at that defeats me.... but I gave it a whirl never the less - don't know who has the job yet, but if it's me, then I worry about the criteria they've used to select candidates.
I'm up and running on that God forsaken course at Uni which I swore blind I wouldn't do to upgrade my teaching certificate - and after mucho complaino - it aint that bado after all!!!! I reluctantly admit that I'm rather enjoying writing the papers and the like!!!!
The clocks have gone forward, so after Monday's struggle to get up an hour earlier for work, it's super to have sunshine until 7.30pm.
We may well head off to Canmore for a hike on the Benchlands this weekend - just to clear out the lungs and have a stint in the hills.
Everything else appears to be on an even keel. Lets hope it stays that way for a while, I'm too obsessed with the new bike to be concerning about much else!
May all your rides be bouncy and fast,
Windswept, adrenaline fuelled grins,
S&S.

Need I Say More?

2008-03-08T09:05:00.001-08:00

Nearly Bedtime

2008-02-28T20:14:00.001-08:00

So here're the blurry handlebars out on the open, car shy road on my birthday morning ride. I headed out to Elbow Falls again last Saturday, desperate to get another 100+km under the belt early in the winter season (may not be a big deal for riders in Sheffield to be out in February, but it certainly is in these bloody big mountains). I was very eager to avoid the blizzards of the week before and alas, the weather remained fine and I was an hour swifter than the previous week (or I like to think that turning 32 just made me faster!!!!!). Maybe it was also something to do with the fact that I actually took more food than just a Cliff Bar and gel this week too for the 4+hr stint (a jersey pocket stuffed to the brim with peanut butter and jam sarnies and fig newtons! - damn things froze up a bit though and made for crunchy chewing).
Yum Yum

The most bizarre twists and turns are taking place at work, but I just can't be arsed to drone on about them at 9.30pm on a Thursday - I've just staggered off an hour and a half on the wind trainer and need sleep - so maybe next time I'll begin with the strange tales from Foothills Academy.....

Brina's supply teaching at Morley still, and things are good there (as good as a class full of crazy reservation kids can be anyway). All else remains very much one course to be perpetually mundane - although my spirits are lifting with the sunrises creeping into the drive to work now; it makes you feel almost human again when you can actually see a bit of light in the sky and when temps aren't Brass Monkey freezing.

The weekend involves many chores, but I'm afraid that's all I can muster at this witching hour. A smoothie and bed await (not at the same time).

Dreaming of all things carbon,

Nighty Night,

S&S.

Ostrich Williams

2008-02-21T19:28:00.000-08:00

Hi All,
So here's to a blog sans negative nonsense like last week's pitiful number. In true Williams style I vow to bury my head in the sand; a la ostrich, and hope that all the difficult stuff in life just disappears when I pop back up again (this method of living has gotten me through to almost 32 years of age - so why change the habit of a lifetime?). It's not quite that easy as I am having to enroll in some course (which, if you recall, I cursed adamantly was not an option last week) to maintain my teachability status (don't want to lose the holidays and the cash) - although as of yet there is no confirmation that the courses I'm looking at will be finished in time - so my professional employment really does hang in the balance (time to get my head back into the sand).

Anyhow, here's a piccie of Mrs. W. musing over the view when we had a bonny hike up Elbow Falls Rd at the weekend. Rather nice of somebody to think of putting a bench there for us to take lunch on. We got out into the hills on a lovely day - the temps were above zero, the sky was that wonderful Alberta blue and it was a spot on way to relax and realise things aren't so bad! It was nice to get out into the sun too!
I'd ridden out to the same area on Saturday (excited that biking outdoors is more of an option) but got caught in a ridiculous blizzard on the way home. The forecast had been for snow on the day I rode out, but heading into the hills there was no sign at all (the bad weather sneaked up behind me from the East). Brina had asked if I would need to be picked up if it started to snow, to which my cocky response was something along the lines of; "you wont be able to come rescue me if the weather goes tits up in the TransRockies will you!?! so no". That'll teach me - in the head on blizzard and 70kph+ winds I endured for the last 2 and a half hours of the 5 and a half hour ride, I was desperately hoping the misses would be coming to save me - alas not - a good character building ride that's for sure!As for the snowboarding/ski-ing front, resorts remain the only option. Discussing the avi conditions with Mr.Weible over a pint in the week we reached the conclusion of "what's the point? There's always next year" - after two more people died this weekend, one was a chick ski-ing near Boom Lake where Brina and I x-country skied into last year, and which is a truly amazing place, but it'll still be there next year when hopefully the snow pack will be somewhat more stable. The big problem is that every slide tends to bring the entire winter snow pack with it - right down to the rocks - so each avi is at least over a metre deep (plenty of natural slides in K country this weekend, so you don't even need some dickhead snowboarder to trigger them!). Maybe things will consolidate and stabilise as Spring arrives - but highly unlikely.

Just a note - remember to take your phallic boomerang banana storage guard with you on any hike - it's a must, and a fine comedy talking point (bye, bye to banged up banana's in the backpack - genius... another Dragon's Den production).

May all of your thoughts be ignoring the bad crap that's going on,

Keeping it bright and Cheery,

It could be worse after all,

S&S.

Grind....

2008-02-14T18:32:00.000-08:00

Everything seems to be grinding to a halt at present. I'm finding it a struggle to get my sorry backside off the couch in the evenings (for anything other than the windtrainer - although I'm taking it a little easier on that this week too after a rather intense none stop 6 week training block since the New Year). The lethargy has even encroached into my idle internet searching time - hence the lack of blog posts since 6th Feb (seems to be an emerging trend for 2008 - Williams the slack bastard - in the doom and gloom energyless state that I am at present, the end of the blog may be nigh. We'll see).

In order to alleviate such syndrome of down in the dumps, a long cross country ski was in order on Sunday (wasn't keen for a 3 hour sit on the wind trainer). Having loaded the car up, got myself kitted up, I hopped into the beloved Focus, and ....... nothing! Battery dead as an Iraqi Dictator (and now it was time to re-think the day and get on the windtrainer for 3 hours). Clearly the pic suggests a touch of frustration - but that was overwhelmed moreso when I decided to hike down to Canadian Tire to buy a battery - twas a mere minus 9, so no big deal. Alas, I hadn't considered that a car battery may weigh a little more than a pack of four AAAs - and hiking home with that thing was not a joy. Even the frickin' car is getting in on the 'down in the dumps' act. For you Brits about sniggering with mirth preparing to hurl a tirade of abuse my way for using the term 'frickin'', well I just thought that 'fucking' was a tad harsh on the poor old car - and also my Nana might be reading this... On which note, Nana is having a torrid time health wise and so a stint home to Blighty at Spring Break to see her is going to be the order of the day! Furthermore, to add to the woes (although none quite as pressing as Nana's health) it looks rather unlikely that Alberta Ed will be certifying me for next year - yawn, yawn, yawn... I'd harped on about this last year and thought I'd gotten around it - but they only gave me a temporary fix, and now expect me to sit a load more courses (27 credits!!!!) at Uni to be fully fledged to teach here! Well, there's no fucking chance! (apologies Nana, but Alberta Ed does deserve both barrels of my abuse). School have been great so far and keen to keep me - but things are coming to a head there too and I'll probably be flippin' burgers in September!

Brina's dayhome still seems to be taking shape and should be up and running soon (she's having a test run tomorrow as she has to look after the neighbour's two kids - one of whom has never been left alone by Mum before.. sounds like a day filled with "wwaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" to me. I've had a professional development day at school today (no kids - just developing us as educators in group sessions - yeah right!) that's if you call professional; filling in my training log planner that was discretely tucked inside my P.D. folder (inside which was double tucked a Harrods lingerie catalogue - you've gotta love BlackAdder).

It's family day on Monday ("bank holiday" for Brits, just "holiday" for the rest of the world), so Brina and I are off to those big pointy chunks of rock covered snow out west that I've been missing for the past couple of weekends (another contributor to the solemnity no doubt).

I hope that you are all manically cheery and full of piss and vinegar, and I promise to be somewhat upbeat and excitable next time (by when I may have ticked over to a melancholic 32 years old!!! bugger!)

Just off to find the Prosac,

Love to you all,

S&S.

Let me send you to sleep

2008-02-06T20:42:00.001-08:00

Hi all,

clearly nothing too exciting has occurred in the void that was last week as I would have eagerly posted it on the blog earlier than Wednesday evening. The Cochrane routine continues; rely on Kicking Horse's finest coffee beans to get motivated for a day with whining teenagers, come home, eat, ride the bike, fall off the bike into a coma for eight hours - repeat Monday through Friday...

The razzamatazz of the Superbowl did grab my attention somewhat this Sunday however. I've really bought into the fanfare that America sticks to its rather over the top sporting events, but even this was a bit too much for me. Despite thoroughly enjoying the game aspects of the Superbowl, the four hours of hype leading up to it were a bit too much to take and I couldn't stomach the "half time show" - When Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers come waltzing onto the pitch flailing their guitars and beards in the middle of a sporting fixture, you know that things are getting a bit out of hand (imagine the abuse you'd get for doing that in the middle of the FA Cup! - not that I'm championing hooligans!).

I've had the delightful task of teaching sex ed to grade 8 kids at school this week. An hour of giggling about willies and boobies is rather draining - and the whole fanny thing here means "bum" which still catches me off guard! I had to reluctantly get involved with the kids "special" questions that they had asked of a sex ed councilor who came in last week, but who left me to pick up the pieces of her special questions - so today was spent trying to address queries such as; "can you get full body condoms? can you get pregnant from a golden shower? (crying out loud these kids are grade 8!) is there really a bone in your todger?" etc... Not one of my more comfortable lessons that's for sure! One student confused abstinence with aboriginal and went on a whole tirade about how being aboriginal is so important until you're married!

Brina's been out at Morley teaching again and I'm expecting her to come home in headress and mocassins by the end of the week (said the spokepeson for First Nation relations).

Jeez, I've got nothing else to drone on about so shall leave you with the nonesensical brevity that is this post.

I'll have something good to harp on about next week (I'm sure!). Obviously I've not piccies of the week (pretty certain that you don't really give a toss what the new couch looks like - I've got nothing else...) So here's a little ditty from Vail high street - me and the chicks....

Desperately hoping to redeem myself next week,

In the meantime avoid all talk fo fallopian tubes with 14 year olds...

S&S.

Brass Monkeys

2008-01-29T19:31:00.000-08:00

Rather than Brass Monkeys, the title for this post should perhaps be the Bad Ass Brass Monkeys, because it is bloody freezing in cryogenic utopia that is Canada. I recall harping on last year about the really, really, really cold weather - well, it's back again but this time with its big ugly mother - the wind chill! Wind chill warnings have been issued for the past few days as in Calgary the wind chill has been minus 49!!! That aint cycling weather! That's just watching t.v. weather and not daring to venture too far from the couch in case there's a draft somewhere in the house! The actual ambient air temperature was a rather bracing minus 36 on the way to work from Cochrane these past couple of days, which burns your skin if you are senseless enough to expose any flesh outside for more than a millisecond. My love of winters and all things cold and white has been tarnished a litte bit by such climatic absurdity, it's as though the weather is really just taking the piss! The cold weather has slowed everything down somewhat, and the weekend was rather unproductive (although I did get up before dawn again on Saturday before the Arctic came south and skied out around Bragg Creek - no Cougars this time, the snow had been blown off certain aspects to expose rocks which my knees felt the need to connect with sharply, as I tumbled (again and again). My skiing became more of a hobble.
I've no piccies to post as we've had scant time outside - the longest I've been outside this week is trying to plug my damn car in on the school car park (which aint so easy with mits on that render you about as digitally dexterous as an arthritic lobster).
Our new couch has led us to spurge out on a new t.v and in all of our excitement we plumped for a 42 inch flat screen HD jobbie (I could tell you all about 1080P if I'd have been listening to the anal salesgeek who found it rather peculiar that I didn't play video games and that this would probably be our only electronic purchase in the four years!). The little 42 inch screen really is little when it's sat on the shelf in the shop amongst hoards of mega 60inch home theatre systems with all the bells and whistles "that'll do just fine" we convinced each other. Struggling to wheel the enormous box out of the shop (which incidentally could house at least three Taiwanese people) my spidey senses kicked in "mmmm, maybe a bit big, but it'll be reet".
On unpacking said t.v, the first response was "Holy shit, what have we bought?". The remote control itself is bigger than a laptop, and has more buttons than the cockpit of an Airbus A380 (we never even had a remote for our last telly). The instructions were encyclopedic and all the multitude of holes for wires on the back of the t.v. make it look like it's been hit by heavy artillery fire. We did manage to power up the t.v. - resulting in a blackout in the rest of Cochrane - and it's like being in the ruddy cinema. There was a show on about the ocean that gave me motion sickness, and the final of the tennis was shown but you literally have to move your head to watch the ball cross the screen. Clearly, any t.v that's going to make me vomit all over my new couch and that requires you to move to watch both sides of the screen, is going back. So it's going to take us the next few nights to figure out how to repack such a monstrous item back into the Taiwanese house - but hopefully the weather will have warmed up (to minus 20 at least) by the time we venture out into the elements to swap it for a dainty 32 inch t.v. (at least we'll still be able to see the wall with a smaller set).
Other than that, work remains what it is and Brina's still teaching Injuns before the daycare is up and running.
May all your programs be enormous and coming right at you from across the room,
S&S.

Tumbling Virtual Cougar Hunter

2008-01-20T16:32:00.000-08:00

A big meow to you all.

A fine dose of winter weather has been battering this neck of the woods for the past week. Not making for more comfortable avalanche conditions in the big steep hills (once more a feller died mid-week in an avalanche) things have got so absurd that the Canadian Avalanche Council has put out extra advisories saying something along the lines of "People, do you not get it? C'est tres dangeroux. Stay at home and watch the football!" or something to that effect anyway.

We got about 10cm of snow in Cochrane yesterday - I had to shovel the drive at midday as Brina was expecting people to come and see the Dayhome - but once I'd finished, the drive was under another cm that had fallen during the time I was out there - bit like painting the Firth of Forth bridge (only colder).

I had a wee jolly out to Bragg Creek yesterday afternoon, but left it too late in the day and only got an hour in as the snow fell, leaving me to retreat at sundown fearing that my car was burried in the car park - but the good ol' Focus made it out! To avoid such a fisasco today I was up at 6 and in Bragg Creek before sunrise. Hitting the deep trails whilst it was still dark. T'was a wonderful way to wake up, breaking trail in minus 18 degrees or so, waiting for the sun, not a soul around. Managed to ski out for 3 and a half hours without seeing anybody else around. The piccie at the top doesn't quite do the depth of snow justice, but it gives a sense of the dawn light trail breaking Sunday morning fun!

Midway around the trail - once the light was up - the trail had been flattened a bit by a snowmobile (the easy way to groom the trail). I'd passed the snowmobile grooming crew leaving the parking lot as I arrived (they work nights). So when I saw fresh animal prints atop the trail it was clear there was a critter around. I ended up following Cougar prints for about 2km along the trail towards Bill Allen Pond area - I'm no Ben Gadd, but am 99% sure it was a Cougar - easily as big as the palm of my hand, pads, not a Wolf as the prints weren't too far apart (Wolves stride out a bit), way too big for coyote, fox or badger and not the same shape as wolverine. Bear prints are way way way different (and they're all asleep) - this was definitely big cat and I checked up the print in my geeks' guide to animal tracks when I got in and this made me super sure.... Anyhow, you may've noticed my excitment at Canadian animal spotting from previous posts - and the thought of being so close to the Cougar just tipped me over the edge - well, tipped me off my skis anyway. I was 2 and a half hours into the ski, hadn't seen sight or sound of another living soul, and so got out the video camera in the over zealous expectation of seeing the Cougar around the next bend. Below are two video clips - the first of which is of a bloody lanky English twit falling arse over tit, makes me piss my sides and I'm sure you'll find it almost as hilarious (anything with me face planting into the snow has got to bring some humour!!!). The second clip is more of the same but I feel it slightly redeems my ski-ing ability - although I'm a far cry from David Attenborough on snow!

Ha ha ha ha ha etc..... I'd like to say that was the only time I fell over, but towards the very end of the ski I was getting a bit wobbly and the photo at the very end of this blog is a testament to my ineptitude.

All in all the day has been great fun (disregarding the piles of marking I've had to do this afternoon). Brina is getting the Dayhome up and running and the basement is looking like a veritable kindergarten. Brina's also doing a bit of sub teaching and has been out at Morley on the reservation, it's not been too bad for her but still, teaching on a reservation is more crowd control than academia. No-doubt we'll get out for a swish through the snow next weekend once we've battled through another arduous week of employment. That's about it from Cochrane for now, time to go and take the cat nip out of my ski-ing backpack.

Keep your eyes open,

You don't know what's following you,
S&S.

Slippin' and Slidin'

2008-01-13T18:13:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

another week whizzes by in a typically Williams procrastinated blur. We're nearing the middle of Jan and I'm still not quite orientated with this 2008 number just yet. The weather isn't helping me keep tabs on where I am in the year either. With the expected temps of mid January to be down in the minus double digits, it's somewhat of a surprise to be out on the road on the bike in plus 4 or 5 degrees!!!! Monday is meant to be plus 8 !!! That's going to be as warm as Manchester! This hasn't been helping with the snow stability in the mountains as the avalanche danger still remains immense (especially after a wicked storm passed over them last week). Two more guys triggered a slide in K Country today - burrying one feller a metre deep, but his mate clung to a tree so was able to dig him out. Each post mentions some avalanche kind of activity and imminent death - so the resorts are just the ticket at the moment until the snow starts behaving sensibly. My poor new split board is just itching to get out and has threatened to disown me if I don't take it out soon - Brina has suggested we just frame it and hang it above the fire place.

As for Mrs. Willi. She's been out cross country ski-ing midweek with someone from Starbucks... here she is...Damn!!!! The photos were sent as an e-mail attachment so weren't downloaded directly from our camera - and it seems that this is about as big as they get!!!!! Well Brina's the white speck in the middle of the shot zooming down the slope!The size of these piccies is a real bugger, as Brina was keen to post the following shots of the Moose she nearly careered into and the onlooking deer who seemed to find the whole scene rather amusing...

Clearly dainty Mrs. Wife is stealthy enough to get close to such critters - I normally get to within about 500 metres and then clumisly trip over some roots before they go scittering off through the undergrowth.
Our new settee (couch or sofa in this land I believe) is making for very pleasant afternoon, and after work snoozing potential. The Americans have sucked me into this game that is NFL - I offically dismiss my long held prejudice that it's just soft rugby with helmets and shoulder pads - the superbowl final is nearing and I'm hooked! And finally, Brina is downstairs baking up a batch of 'Cosmic Power Cookies', and seeing as though the smell is drifting through the house there's no better excuse to log off now than 'I've got to go and do some quality control tasting - of the entire batch'.

Hope all of your slopes are stable and that your cookies are warm,

S&S.

So this is 2008 then?!

2008-01-07T19:44:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to you all.

So a week of 2008 has slipped by and the world doesn't seem to have altered dramatically in any way, shape or form whatsoever. With all the fan fare surrounding New Years Eve you'd be forgiven for expecting to find streets paved with gold as the dawn breaks on the 1st of Jan, or the twelve horsemen of the apocalypse riding into view, or the end of famine and poverty. Maybe next year!

School resumed today much to my chagrin. All the kids were grumbling about being back at school - but I was grumbling a lot louder than them and sought an irritable free day taking out my misery and anger of being back at work on any student who wanted to enthusiastically inform me of all the expensive gifts they were spoiled with over Christmas (only three detentions given out though - 2008 isn't a great start for some of the little whiners).

We've been battling off the flu for the past week. Had a little ski-ing cross country and a whiteout day at Sunshine. The weather's warming up - highs of minus 4 ish are making for a very pleasant week (pity I can't get off to the ski resorts this week - perhaps I feel a sick day coming on!). Not hit the back country due to ridiculously high avalanche risk conditions persisting throughout the Rockies - 2 guys were in a slide at Lake Louise on Saturday and 3 people in a slide at Big White in BC. Both of these places are resorts where you shouldn't be getting avalanches as it is all well patrolled / bombed etc... So you can only just imagine what the back country is like at the moment!!!!

Had good fun playing on a Wii at Brad and Julie's last week. For the none computer game literate, a Wii is a computer game thingy with no wires, just a 'stick' you wave around and the character on the screen mimics your movement - tennis, baseball etc... were a hoot (but never before has my arm ached so much from playing on a computer game - couldn't brush my teeth properly for days afterwards!!).

Big Red Dan from work came over at the end of the hols and treated us to his culinary skills, although he was well fuelled with a bottle of Macallan...

He also brought along Scout - you can tell she's a Canadian dog because she wears stuff made by roots! Even the hounds have to dress up in chilly Canada to go for a walk....And on that note I'm off, still waiting to be highly inspired by 2008 (hopefully it's just a slow starting anum that'll kick into gear before too long).

Hoping that 08 is already full of boundless cheer for you all,

S&S.

Happy New Year (did we miss it?)

2007-12-31T17:13:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to you all,

It's not quite here yet - tis early New Years eve (although we only realised it was New Year's Eve at about 4pm today!). It'll be highly surprising if either of us make it to midnight, so I like to think of myself still being on British time today - that way it's already 2008 as I write this and I can go to be with a clear, non curmudgeon conscience.

Christmas went well, the early morning Christmas ski was lovely. Rather than head to Peter Lougheed Park, we mosied on up to Canmore and skied a couple of hours along Goat Creek. Brina, in all her wisdom thought that just because she'd got new warm socks for Christmas that she only needed sandals...

Whilst I was content to flaunt my 'Manly' chocolate - you've gotta love Yorkie Bars! English chocky on a Christmas morn' is such a treat - one of the few things Blighty still gets right these days!

Even the sun managed to make an appearance...

And what better surroundings to get the festive feel....
And it's off into the trees.....

Keeping on track....
And for the obligatory 'lovey duvvy' Chrimbo shot...
That's somewhat of a picture fest. The rest of Christmas day was spent tucking into Turkey washed down with Guinness at the neighbour's house. Since then Brina has ended her reign as the Coffee Queen, we've skied a couple of times, and have been fighting the flu for the past 2 days (having stayed up until the unearthly hours of 11.30pm 2 nights ago for a curry with a couple of Brits who've moved into Cochrane - we're blaming the late night which is why I'm not optimistic about seeing in the New Year tonight - it's just another day).

But here's wishing you all a Happy New Year and looking forward to seeing you all (not at the same time) in 2008.

Humming Auld Lang Syne with as much enthusiasm as possible,

See you next year,

S&S.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-24T19:01:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to you all (or "Happy Holidays" for the politically correct/insane).
As promised in the last post I saved my festive cheer for today.... And there it was, hope you didn't miss it! The whole "Happy Holidays" nonsense really gets on my nerves - what's offensive about Christmas?!? - Even if don't believe in Christ or Mass then surely your beliefs are strong enough to indulge the Santa loving fraternity (Santa was one of the three wise men right?!?). The servers in Starbucks aren't meant to wish their customers "Merry Christmas", Christmas Trees are now only to be referred to as Holiday Trees!! - The only trees I want to see on holiday have palms and coconuts, stretching down white sandy beaches! The height of this PC absurdity stretches beyonds the realms of North America. The Brits banned hot cross buns at Easter time and Nativity plays in Primary schools are a big no no - wouldn't like to subject anybody of another ethnic descent to a different culture. But the most surprising addition to getting involved in the PC craze is Australia - the most chauvinistic, beer swilling, piss taking, not quite in the modern world kind of society, you could imagine (all in a wonderfully positive way, by the way!), and they're banning Santa from saying "Ho, Ho, Ho". Apparently it can lead to great uncertainty amongst the children sitting on his lap thinking that he is pointing out three hookers stood in line!

Well that little diatribe took me by surprise, I was only wanting to wish you all Merry Christmas (oops, there I go again with that festive cheer). Brina and I are off on our Christmas morning ski tomorrow - hot chocolate, Cadburys and croissants at the ready. Then around to the neighbours for Turkey and Guinness into the evening.
Got the first day at Sunshine in with Brad yesterday - snow was good, rusty skills were swiftly ironed out by both parties for much fun dashing through the trees, the piccie above almost illustrates the airbourne capabilities of Brad's skis - didn't really stop all day and the legs feel it today (I forgot that my bike legs don't transfer so easily to snowboarding). The only snag of the day was a bit of flat light which made for that terrifyingly hilarious sensation of sometimes not actually realising which way you're moving - up, down or arse over tit. Good to be back into the mix of winter though - still trying to accept the chilly Canadian temps (my blood refuses to believe that it isn't summer any more!).

So here's wishing you all a wonderful Christmas,

Happy Holidays,

S&S.

p.s: Here's a piccie of two foreigners trying to pretend it's not too bloody freezing sat on the chairlift!

Slacker!

2007-12-20T19:31:00.000-08:00

Well hello all,
This is the first time in a week that I've had the computer cranked up at home - the dark evenings have been slipping by without a hint of feeding the hamster who turns the wheels which powers our ever decrepit hp laptop. I would attempt to update the blog at work but fear at having previous, very incriminating posts read by administration - seeing as though my teaching certification still holds by a thread, it's probably best I merely while away the school day surfing general trash and soft porn on the Internet rather than making snide remarks about my wonderful employers (if you're reading this work folks, the porn thing is obviously a joke!!!) - note to self to remember to delete computer history at work tomorrow!
Enough of such nonsensical babble - what's been going on in Cochrane? Well, not a great deal! Thankfully the school holidays begin tomorrow, Brad and I are off to drown in Sunshine's metres of powder with which it has been blessed this week, Brina is closing up shop at Starbucks pretty soon (much to her relief), and with the thought that tomorrow is the shortest day a light panic has set in that I've not really applied myself as much as possible to the winter thus far - but alas, seeing as though it runs through to May we can still make the most of it!
Evenings have been whiled away cycling, biking and riding.
I've no piccies but will upload a bunch on Sunday from Sunshine, and Brina and I have got the usual Christmas morning ski all planned so we'll get a good few shots to Blog up then too (I'll make up for being a slacker over this past week!).
I'll wish you all a Merry Christmas in the next post,
In the meantime be good and expect the Christmas cards we haven't sent yet to arrive in June 2008.
Have a wonderfully light deprived winter solstice,
Crank up the heaters,
S&S.

Where did that week go?

2007-12-10T18:21:00.001-08:00

So another week slips by without much notice being taken of what happens in those dull days from Monday to Friday. Friday evening saw a beverage or two make for some wobbly sideways walking - not a good comination when the wife then proceeds to instruct you that it's time for Christmas shopping in the Mall. Desperately fighting a Guiness fuelled giddy drunken head, the best I could do was to put all of my efforts into pedestrian avoidance - more than once did I whack into somebody's shopping bag with my errant, Bambi like, alcoholic legs (looks of annoyance were welcome - the look of terror from an old biddy thinking I was a mugger about to take off with her purse, was a little more embarassing). Needless to say shopping was not overly productive, although I was informed in the morning that I'd purchased a new pair of jeans and a couple of shirts - as well as Brina's christmas present (I did? I asked myself, frantically trying to recall what the hell I'd bought her and more importantly, where the heck I'd now put it!!!). At least the weekend was a little more rememerable than the week.

Brina and I headed out to Banff on Saturday to ski the Spray River Loop, a nice little shuffle on the skis for a couple of hours through fresh, crisp snow. It was still rather chilly (we saw a warm day today however, high of minus 5 and it really was a welcome relief - felt almost tropical), although we didn't hit the trail until midday when the sun was dropping behind the western peaks. There weren't many people out, and some thoughtful soul had parked a picnic bench at the midway point of the trail in an ideal spot for hot tea and hobnobs!Even the air looks blue in the photo above (can't believe the river behind isn't all iced up though - seeing as though Jumping Pound Creek in Cochrane hasn't melted for two weeks and has been a resident ice rink for the local kids every night).

The ski loop was rather picturesque as it came out right at the Banff Springs - although the golf course which you ski over doesn't look too playable in December.

Ooops - I inadvertently added two piccies of that above, and still I have not figured out how to remove photos from a post once they've been added!

The final shot here is from Banff Ave. They've been digging it up all summer to put drains and the like in, and nothing has changed drastically - albeit the sidewalk (yikes, that sounds like American talk, I meant to say "footpath" or "pavement") is a little wider. I look forward to the day the entire street becomes pedestrianised.

So that was Saturday. Sunday was left open for a day in the back country with Bradley USA. Fortunately it was decided that avalanche conditions were far less than favourable (ridiculously unstable to be frank) and a day on the windtrainer was called for. An avalanche killed two guys in the place where we'd talked about heading to on the weekend - Note: It's only dicking around in the snow on a board, there's always next time, and I think we'll be hanging on for "super safe" conditions to be issued before we get too carried away. Grim note to end on...
Anyway, hoping to twist the finale of this post onto a more positive theme, I wish you all much happiness in the days leading up to Santa's delivery day. I'd best be off to search around and see if I can find what I supposedly bought Brina for Christmas.
Big pre Christmas bear hugs to you all,
S&S.

Now We're Talking!

2007-12-04T17:37:00.000-08:00

At last, the ball busting, brain freezing - Oh I forgot how painfully cold this can be - winter has arrived in earnest. We haven't seen temperatures pop much above minus 10 in the past couple weeks. It's generally been highs of minus 14 or so (with wind chills way up into the minus 20s). Due to this, all cycling activity has been kept to a very basement level - our basement infact - although it's not too much warmer down there which is why the nightly wind trainer session requires dressing up in this warm garb....

Now for those of you unfamiliar with the rigours of the indoor bike trainer, let it be known that it is one of the hottest tasks known to man - somewhat akin to sumo wrestling in the desert wearing nothing but a garbage bag, and a big hat. However, even the heat of the trainer is lost in this cold snap we're having (nothing to do with the fact that the cheap Williams' don't put their thermostat much above the 'can just detect a pulse' level).

Fortunately, with the cold has come the snow - and lots of it! Despite it having sent the avalanche risk reports through the roof, it has made for the planning of many a fine snowy adventure to come. Brina and I headed out into K country to kick around the skinny skis and it was a treat to be out again (although not having waxed the skis yet this season, last season's rather aged wax had less glide than a one winged 747). The trails were sparse, the views were good and Brina's eyelashes froze up as usual when the temps are really chilly. It's always nice to be swanning around the mountains not having to worry about the 'bear aware' issues of the Great Outdoors (although some poor old feller got eaten by a Grizzly at the start of the week - some bears clearly aren't quite ready to go to sleep yet and still need a bedtime snack).

So apart from that, things are cruising. I'm very much ready for a holiday from work (still sorely miss the October half term) and am winding down lessons already (bring out the classroom videos - I have Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade lined up for class the next few days, on the lame pretence that seeing as though we're starting a Renaissance Europe unit, you can get a glimpse of Renaissance architecture when Indy passes briefly through Venice - but we may as well watch the whole movie now that I've dug it out from the closet - that's a feet up on the desk lesson for Mr.W anyway). Cable t.v. is still wreaking havoc to my early to bed sleeping regimen. But hopefully, we'll be back out in the hills this weekend for avalanche avoiding fun.
Hope you're all cheery as binbag clad sumo wrestlers,
Look behind you - not everyone's gone to sleep yet,
S&S.
p.s. Here's another glimpse of Mrs wife cruising along Elk Pass (or should that be Wapti Pass?).

Show me the thermometer

2007-11-27T19:33:00.000-08:00

Hi all... a busy weekend coupled with a somewhat vapid previous week have made for scant postings in the past nine days. So here's bringing you up to date with the land that is Canadia - although there is a serious photograph deficiency which I truly hope to remedy next weekend as I intend to take the camera out to the hills and actually use the damn thing.

Last week was parent teacher interview days - meet the parents, assure them that their children are little darlings and don't really get on your nerves that often - then all is good. For the few kids who you just can't help but let loose on and deliver a tirade of negative abuse to the parents because little Johnny really is a "little shit", then these fellers make for somewhat heated discussions - but it makes the day interesting. But enough of that work nonsense...

The weekend brought the avalanche course which I went on with Brad. A day at the Uni on Saturday going through the theory with the guide sowing the seed of terror and blind panic about avalanches, followed by a day up at Bow Summit on Sunday (along the Icefield's Parkway). A super setting to spend the day getting involved with understanding the big white slides - and rather apt seeing as though two guys got caught in an avalanche there the weekend previous - grim! It was a useful day to hear the expert run through the drills and show us the ropes - a good refresher before heading out in earnest to find some good powder and get some turns in - The guide was from over in B.C. where he informed us of days with metres of powder and in some cases a place over in B.C. which had a minimum height limit on cat skiers because people were sinking so deep into the snow they'd be getting lost from view!!!! Roll on next weekend!

The excitement of winter play has really hit home now - and the weather has co-operated with fuelling the excitement as the snow has been falling in town all day - and in the mountains big time. Cochrane was snowed in and my usual 30 minute commute was a whopping 2 hour commute this morning because of the snow. The temps are toying with us as today's high was somewhere around minus 14, although as I was on outside bus duty at work yesterday the wind chill had temps down to about minus 26 - nice! (shovelling the drive is back in fashion too).

Other than that, the bike is seeing a bit of action in the week - but purely on the trainer (may be set there for a few months if this weather keeps up), Brina's latte skills are honed ever finer each day, and the cable t.v. which we had installed sucks us in like you wouldn't believe - the joys of watching the NFL and the NHL have never been appreciated so much by a Brit mid-week. I just can't wait for baseball to crank up again next year.

I'll be sure to get some up to date piccies posted this coming weekend.

I trust you all have a good set of long johns,

Enormous snowboard shaped smiles,

S&S.

We have the technology

2007-11-18T06:33:00.001-08:00

Just a quickie for Sunday morning, but thought it prudent to make people aware that we have stepped into the 21st century in the Williams household by getting our t.v. hooked up to cable. Now, those of you already in the space age who have never known television without cable, this was a big step here. Not having had cable granted us time to do other stuff, but now it's going to be a real test of willpower to see if I can drag my sorry ass from in front of the box to do more than just make a cuppa when the commercials are on - which incidentally, seem to be on all of the time. I quickly realised yesterday that cable means 60 plus channels of commercials interspersed with tantalising snippets of t.v. shows. You end up never seeing a complete program if you have my limited attention span (or maybe it's a lack of patience) as when the third set of adverts comes on within ten minutes you can't help but flick channels and get sucked into some other show/lingerie commercial, and by the time you remember you were watching something else, you've lost it in the myriad of channels. There are some shows which can keep my attention for the entire duration though - as cable now delivers shows that I never knew existed but which transfix me, mouth wide open, as I ask why is this on tele? Shows such as a French Canadian show where smartly dressed men play Jenga; A show with woodcutting lumberjacks stood on a chunk of log racing to cut it in half between their legs with very fine axe wielding skills; and a show dedicated to airing camera footage from police cars, of horrendous car crashes as villains attempt to flee from the law. And I've only had cable for a day, so just imagine what I've yet to find; what delights of useless broadcasting are going to hypnotise me into a drooling puddle on the couch this Sunday afternoon! All these shows that I never knew I needed. You've gotta love the space age!

Asides from that, my bike has gained the technology of a cadence computer (a little clock that counts how fast your feet are pushing the pedals around). It seemed like a good idea at first, but it's an evil little bugger that I'm convinced is trying to kill me as it constantly sends me a guilt trip suggesting that I could be pedalling a bit faster, no a bit more, just a little bit faster - I was close to ripping the bloody thing off my handlebars yesterday as I rode (rather quickly) along Horse Creek - but fortunately for the cadence killer, my seat fell off (not for the first time) and my attention became more focused on not kebabing myself onto my seatpost.

Work is still what it is (not happy holiday time), the weather is becoming a little more November like - highs of 1 and 0 forecast this week with snow late on, and I'm off on the avalanche course with Brad next weekend which should be good - then into the wilds.....

Hope all you techno geeks are well,

Now where's the remote?

S&S.

p.s. Make sure you wrap up really well if you're camping in the cold...........

O Canada!!!

2007-11-14T17:42:00.000-08:00

"Our home and Native Land, true patriot love... blah, blah blah blah blah blah". For those back in Blighty unsure of such a lyrical begining to this post, this is part of Canada's National Anthem - and alhtough my home and native land remains the dark side of Warrington, I feel some obligation to be aware of the "O Canada" tune, seeing as though I was handed my residency status here in the big white north last Thursday. It took a rather long time to get all of the papers processed - as like all government departments in any country, speed is not of the essence when it comes to filing immigrants - and also my medical after medical after medical tests put a spanner in the works for a while (forutnately they now see fit to let me and my testicle live here unobstructed by paperwork for the timebeing). After dashing around in the morning to get more photographs taken (I'd neglected to read the back of the sheet they sent me about "things to bring to the interview") Brina and I showed up at immigration central in downtown Calgary for a 1.00pm meeting. The immigration meeting (for the officer to make a final decision on whether I could stay here as a resident or be shipped back to the industrial wastelands of northern England) was scheduled from 1.00pm to 1.15pm. Only there were 50 other people with exactly the same time scheduled meeting to see one of three immigration officers. Luckily I was one of the first in, and Brina had to be there to prove she wasn't a mail order bride. The officer quizzed Brina quite hard about having sponsored other people into Canada - we both got a bit edgy, but it turned out that the officer was having a bit of a customs Canada wind up joke (the cad! - for "cad" read "tosser", but I can only print that now that they've handed over the papers!!!).

Apart from fighting off a killer bug last week (bug as in sickness and fever, not as in giant bumblebee) and writing lots of reports this weekend all is very steady here. It's still getting colder, although is really mild compared to this time last year (check out last years posts, it was bloody freezing last November). Had a couple of wee stints on the bike and am shackled to the windtrainer during the depressingly dark week nights. This month is just a blur and I'm not too sure where it has all gone to.

Shall leave you with the lovely news that Sunshine opens tomorrow (Lake Louise was open last week) - so here comes the good stuff of winter..... (struggled to post a webcam shot of Sunshine as it's dark there right now - so you just get the shot at the top, taken from Goatseye if my geography serves me correctly).

Keep fighting the authorities you anarchists,

Forever your illegal alien,

S&S.

TransRockies!!!!!

2007-11-06T18:19:00.000-08:00

Hi all,
A summer shot to remind us how warm things can be (Moab for those lacking knowledge of Utah's geography).

As winter slowly creeps into Cochrane I already have my eye on next August, the 10th to the 16th to be precise. The big bro and I are entered into the TransRockies Challenge; a 580km mountain bike stage race with over 20,000 metres of climbing, from Panorama BC, to Fernie BC. It's going to be awesome and already I'm picking the training up as I feel I need to, seeing as through Big Willy has just won the overall yellow jersey in the 5 passes stage race (road) of NZ - good lad!!!!!!

Registering for the TransRockies was rather fun. Entries opened at 10am online on the 1st Nov, and I had it all dialed that I'd simply log on just before 10am, and register from work! However, it was a bugger when I realised I was in a conference in downtown Calgary on the day entries opened. Not to be detered by a world class speaker and 1000 onlookers at the conference, I brazenly kicked my shoes off in the conference hall at 9.25am, laced up my running shoes, and trotted out of the hall (to many a disgusted snort and scorn from the attendees to the conference) - to run like bloody hell through the streets of Calgary to find an internet cafe by 10am in order to make sure we were registered for the race! I made it and had all the details filled in and paid up by 10.07am!!! Not bad!!! Now it was time to run like Billio back to the conference clutching my printed off registration form, slip back into my poncey work shoes, and have a conversation with the Principle of the school during the intermission, acting like I knew exactly what the speaker had been talking about during the morning session.

All was going well until I was skimming through my registration for the TransRockies, and in my haste I'd entred me and Mark as being Albanian!!!! I duely fixed this after a wee bit of mockery to United Kingdom - although Lucy has since pointed out that neither of the competitors for team R and R NZ actually live in the UK (or have done so for a considerable while!!!!). Surely there's a tax break in there somewhere!

So the conference was a write off as I was as high as a kite with the excitment of the TransRockies, although the Henry Winkler speech (see Happy Days post a while back) on the Wednesday night was awesome.

The snow is coming, Lake Louise opens on Thursday, avalanche course with Brad in a couple of weekends and then hopefully we'll be out stomping in the deep stuff.

Brina is a cheery little soul and converted coffee princess.

Work for me is in the deepest recess of my mind, the only thing I'm thinking of is next August 10 - 16th!!!!!!

Hope you're all making dates on your calendars,

Is it the weekend yet?

S&S. p.s I thought I'd finish with a picture of the big lad.

Split personality

2007-10-30T18:05:00.000-07:00

So this is all about me, me, me....
But before we get to that, I best mention that I neglected to wish big bro a happy birthday on the last post -seeing as though it was his birthday on the day of the last post - Happy birthday bro (belated per usual and the card is in the post - via Tanganiki (obviously lost somewhere with Lucy's)).
Now back to me....
This is what cheered me up no end this Friday;

I got home with a wee box of beer (good old Big Rock Pale Ale - I just can't get enough of the stuff, I don't know if I'm losing my taste for GB ale, or whether the Canucks are actually brewing a good pint - either way, it's a treat - however, I digress....). And was greeted with a freshly made, freshly wrapped new split board!!!!! Well, I actually took custody of the board in the pub car park on Friday afternoon in Calgary when Brina was picking me up. DHL had tried to deliver the board the day before -but with scant success. Then, on the Friday, DHL turned up at Starbucks to drop off some Latte cups (or something of that ilk), Brina (Starbucks queen) happened to ask the DHL chap did he have a snowboard in his van, the response from Mr. DHL was very much in the affirmative and he just handed it over to Brina without batting an eyelid. (Clearly Brina merely flashed a bit of cleavage to the DHL man and asked for the extra long package in the back of his truck - and fortunately DHL guy took this to mean nothing but my board).

As this shot shows, a couple for beers down the line and I just couldn't be parted from my new acquisition...Note that I'd lost the specs by this stage as it was all getting a bit emotional and I was professing my undying adulation for the Prior board (it all got a bit messy when I staunchly declared that I was going to let it sleep at the end of the bed.. at which point Brina snatched the beer out of my hand, hid the rest of the crate of ale, put the board in the spare room and bid me to stand in the corner facing the wall until I calmed down).

I couldn't resist however, just posting this last shot of the graphics just beneath the Prior, Handcrafted in Whistler print...

I guess a handmade board has your name on it too!!!! Love it!!!! And seeing as though it has last years top sheet and this years base sheet, there ain't another one like it in the world!
Anyway, apart from that, work still drains the living daylights out of me, the snow is very slowly building up in the Mts (very slowly - my patience is rather thin now), there's a touch of snow in Cochrane, and when the clocks go back this weekend that's it for evening rides outside in the week!
Halloween tomorrow (all the staff at work are going in some costumed theme. I still can't get into the mood and see Halloween as a game for six year olds, so I've decided to dress up tomorrow as a tall northern Englishman who teaches Social Studies - that should go down well). Like any respectable North American, Brina is all for dressing up and is heading off to Starbucks tomorrow as the Starbucks mermaid (see their logo if you're confused) - so I'm off to make her crown and fish scales.
After that I've a new board to tuck in and read a bedtime story to.
Hope you're all waiting for a bumper parcel,
Livestrong,
S&S.

Cowboys, basements and a Chinook.

2007-10-24T17:32:00.001-07:00

Hi all, or should that be "Howdy" for you cowboy lovin' folk - yee haa!

Brina has kept up the meeting 'famous people' link this week, by bumping into the one and only.... Paul Brandt. As I picked her up from Starbucks this week she was as giddy as a schoolgirl..., "Guess who I met. Guess who I met..." she bleeted on. After many guesses (Muhammad Ali, Ghandi, Burt Reynolds were my best shots in the dark), Brina revealed "Paul Brandt!!!" squeeled in her best chiwowa squeak. I was stumped and my blank expression seemed to take the wind out of her sails... but alas, she soon explained that it's this feller;

By all accounts the smooth talking, leather clad, stetson sporting chap is a somewhat famous country music singer (may as well be a gangster rap star for all my euponious tastes of such tunes). By all accounts Brina got a little tongue tied, and asked him is he Paul Brandt.. when it was confirmed, the very excited Brina continued to gasp but all efforts of her conversation were held at dog whistle pitch and were therefore missed by dear old Paul. I honed in to who he was when it was explained to me "The man in the Ford advert!" - which pleased Brina when I comprhended. Apparently the cowboy lives just outside of Cochrane and wanders into town rather often to pick up a coffee and not get hastled (or squeaked at).

The basement is coming on - we've kind of settled things out with the cowboy (not the same style as the type mentioned above) who fixed things up down there.... It doesn't look too bad, and here's a video to click on to see what it's like down there if you aint seen it already...

And finally the Chinook (can't not mention the weather...). If you recall a post in early October, you'll have noticed I was getting a bit cocky about the early snow, winter was coming, splitboard was ordered, backcountry beckoned etc... Well, it looks like I jumped the gun a little, as compare the photo I posted from Lake Louise in early October to the same photo today;

- yikes, where has all the snow gone. The promise of a good winter base is beggered and we'll have to start from scratch again - I think I must've cursed it by forking out for a new board. We'll just have to sweat out the Chinook - high of 21 degrees tomorrow - crazy - but then plummeting back down to a high of 6 degrees the next day (that's more like it).

Hope the weather is doing what you want it to do,

Keep smiling and watch out for men in big hats drinking coffee (they might be famous)

S&S.

And....... Snooze......

2007-10-17T19:40:00.001-07:00

Hi all,

I truly hope that your past week has been a bit more action packed than ours. Life in the fast lane in Cochrane has reached giddy heights - we had a late night last night - 9.30pm!!!!! It's real rock 'n'roll over here! Clearly the daily grind is taking hold in this rather barren period between summer and winter (although the weather has been pretty smart recently, and I did actually get a good long bike ride in on Saturday morning - setting off at the crack of dawn and having to ride with a toque under my helmet for the first time this season (Bloody hell, these Canucks are converting me - I meant to say 'wooly hat' and not 'toque')).

I've just videoed the basement to show on this blog (as I couldn't summon any weekend photos) but fortunately for you all I've misplaced the cable to download the video of the basement - so hopefully I'll have some semi-interesting visuals on the next post - otherwise, brace yourselves for the tour of our nearly completed, but not quite yet downstairs (yawn).

I did get sent these awesome shots of a Ursus maritimus though (thanks Ray), even for none animal folks you can't help but be amazed.....

So, one snowy day on the edge of Hudson Bay, a husky dog team and their musher (is that the right term?) set up camp when out of the blue a big ol' Polar bear appeared

Fearing for the lives of his huskies, the musher grabbed his camera to take a last shot. Fortunately, the Ursus maritimus wasn't looking for a bit of canine luncheon....Big ol' Polar bear just wanted to play around a bop the tasty little husky on the bonce.....

And then the soft ol' brute just wanted a bit of Husky lovin'....

And he just wanted a little pal to keep warm in the biting wind of the Arcitc...
And the Polar Bear came back to the camp every night for a week, just to play with the husky dog team!!!!!! How awesome is that, the big bear was just a bit lonely and wanted to play, so kept on coming back for fun and games with the dogs.... These photos were taken by a chap called Norbet Rosing for those of you keen to glean a bit more info - for anyone teaching a wildlife unit in their Outdoor and Envt Ed class these were a godsend (only because I'd had nothing planned to teach that day!!!!).

Hopefully that's buoyed you all up. Not much else to report here. We had a jolly over to Banff on Sunday afternoon to lie around and muse in the park. Brina is the barista queen, and hopefully the stagnant pull of early October will have washed off by the time the next post comes around.

Always go with the underdog (so long as it's a husky),

Big smiles and autumnal hugs to you all,

S&S.

Thanks - You're Welcome

2007-10-08T17:16:00.000-07:00

Well, Thanksgiving rolls around once again in Canada. It doesn't seem like a year ago that I was giving thanks to Nutella on Mt Indefatigable, this weekend was once again fuelled by Nutella, but with boosts of gels and chocolate covered raisins - so thanks to them.
Saturday was a spin out on the road bike, chasing packs of tri bar riders. Then Sunday was a super muddy ride on the mtb along Sulphur Springs with Brad. The blurry shot below shows that winter is arriving in K country too...

Although, typical to its changable form, the weather soon cleared up, and once out of the trees most of the snow had melted off the open slopes and the sky blued up to remind us what summer looked like....There probably wont be too many more weeks of mountain biking to be had, as when Brina and I went for a Thanksgiving day hike today (Monday), Moose mountain (a bit of a mtb mecca) was really getting covered in its winter coat.

The obligatory 'lovey dovey' holiday shot shows Moose Mt in the background, trails getting a bit slippery for the bikes.
I'm not too sure about Thanksgiving here yet, as it seems to be on a different day to the Yanks' Thanksgiving, and so is giving thanks for something a bit different? (I think). Thanks for the harvest etc... (as opposed to America where they seem to be directly Thanking the Natives who showed the Pilgrims how to survive the winter - before the Pilgrims proceeded to slaughter all of the Natives - sounds like the Yankee way) - I may be way off with my history here, but hey, what do I know, I'm only a Social Studies teacher!!!!! So the Canadians seem to have Thanksgiving where in England we'd have 'harvest festival'. Well, the Canucks get a way better deal, a days holiday, feasting, drinking - whereas harvest festival back in the motherland means you get to take a can of baked beans down to the local church for the elderly congregation before heading back to math class.
There was no Thanks given to the student chappie who showed up on my doorstep yesterday though.. He assured me he wasn't selling anything, but just wanted to give me a free 4 month subscription to the Calgary Herald (newspaper; if you really hadn't figured it out). "Totally free?" I quizzed, "Absolutely" he responded earnestly, whilst shuffling an overflowing file of loose papers. "So I just get the paper for free?" I checked. "Completely free" he assured me again. "Great" I smiled and was going to close the door and nearly gave him a "Happy Thanksgiving" to boot.... "But.." now here it comes, "But I just need your signature and method of payment here sir" the spotty, increasingly irritating student persisted. "Method of payment?!?!" I asked rather loudly (the neighbours kids playing in the garden looked frightened) "but you told me it was free!!!!". "Well, it is free sir" the barefaced liar was still trying to convince me. "No it isn't" my contradictory tone becoming nothing more than a hiss. "It's free, but you have to pay for the weekends" the student blurted, losing his cheery, positive sales demeanour. "Well I don't want it then" I rapidly told him, only to be given such a look of scorn. The little shit was trying to give me a right old guilt trip for not cashing out. "Look mate" I tried to explain, seriously loosing my patience, "If I want to buy something I'll go to the shops, if I'm at home you can assume I don't want to buy anything". The door slammed too. I would like to have added here a; "now piss off" but I've not grown into that grumpy old git - yet.

But to all of you non - door to door salesmen, have a great Thanksgiving (although it's just October 8th to most of you), and make sure you get out before the weather comes.

Off rafting with one of my classes tomorrow and shall endeavour to resist the temptation to drown a couple of the sillly buggers.

Don't answer you door to any twat with a newspaper,

Happy Feasting,

S&S.

Bread Winning

2007-10-02T17:33:00.001-07:00

The tides of change swept over Cochrane this week - for the better - as Brina handed in her notice at work - and what a relief it was for her to get that out of the way. Foothills Academy hasn't really agreed with her - stresses of the high school nobbers, pointless administrative tasks and other such tomfoolery caused her to see the light and pack it in. Already the perpetually cheery Brina has returned, and is looking forward to heading out to manage the Starbucks in Cochrane for a while and chilling out in life in general - what a welcome relief.
I'm still plugging away at Foothills, dodging bullets and keeping the faux efficiency up and running. - I must say that I'm learning a load of stuff teaching Social Studies, although keep on getting rather irritated every time the kids tell me they are not Canadian, but Irish, or Danish, or English, Scottish etc.. when in fact it transpires that about five or six generations ago their long lost great, great, great, great, great uncle fled Liverpool on a boat (and give me a reason you wouldn't flee Liverpool). "You're Canadian" I suggest, but then staff members (i.e. adults) give me the same banter "well actually I'm Welsh Mr. Williams, my great grandmother's cousin's budgie was once used down the mines in Swansea - so that makes me a Taffie"

"Yeah, and I once took a piss in the Ocean, but that doesn't make me a Mermaid!!!", although this curt response doesn't go down too well.
It's incredible, meet a Canuck in Canada and they claim to be from some other land, meet them in a foreign land and they're desperate to tell you they're Canadian. As a Manc, take it from me, you should be a hollering from the rooftops that you're from a country with sunshine, snow, mountains, clean air, maple syrup and beavers.
I did quite like it this week when one student, on a Canadian map test, labelled Saskatchewan as "The Gap" - he had never heard it called anything else (bless), and having driven through Saskatchewan last year, "the gap" is rather apt. The only comparisson is kids at home mapping England and writing "The Smog" where Middlesborough should be.

What post would be complete without me having a little jiffy about weather?! Well, here's Lake Louise today (taken from the top of Ptarmigan Chair) - it's a coming, and tis only Oct 2nd!!!

Still waiting for the board, not had to dust off the windtrainer just yet, not met Fonzie yet either (thinking of getting me a leather jacket for that one - and a wad of "Brylcreem" for the quiff).

Hope you've all got your noses to the wheel,

Mind the gap,

S&S.

Happy Days

2007-09-24T18:44:00.000-07:00

Sunday, Monday Happy Days, etc....

Looks like the Fonz is coming to town! Apparently he's a big advocate for kids with learning disabilities (he was a dumb ass himself at school - said the politically correct spokesperson) - that is Henry Winkler is an advocate, not the Fonz himself (he's just a t.v. character - losers). He's doing a speech at an upcoming L.D. conference in Calgary, and school has decided to send all staff to the conference for the Thursday and Friday, but Henry himself (Arthur Fonzerelli) has got a little gig going on on the Wednesday night where he has asked the staff from our school (all twelve of them) to attend a meeting with him if we each bring two kids from our classrooms (for those of you blissfully unaware, all the kids at our school have learning disabilities, as do the majority of the staff if recent staff meetings are anything to go by). Taking two kids from my classroom out into the "real world" is akin to taking two bottles of nitro-glycerine for a stroll through a detonator factory - so no doubt you'll see the fireworks from far and wide when I sit them down at a table with Fonzie (although I did have to explain today who Fonzie was, so it may have all the excitement for them as it would for me meeting Buster Keaton).

What a star studded year, first Lance, then Fonzie - who next? Bob Carolgees (if anybody in North America has heard of him then you seriously need to get out more!!!). Can't say I'm too starstruck with Henry Winkler, although I'm looking forward to grilling him on the merits of Joanie (would much rather be asking him about his time trial up Alp d'Huez).

Back in the life of the non famous, Cochrane is teasing us with the seasons. All is yellow in the trees, the days are relatively sunny, but we've been scraping ice off the car windshield every morning for the past week (the cold is taking hold). The bike is still enjoying the weekends, had a nice ride out to the Ghost on Saturday - all was very serene with snow on the Devils Head and all... but evening rides after work are becoming more infrequent - nearly time to oil off the wind trainer.

The new board is in the mail (apparently), the snow is making an entrance in the west, and Cochrane is about to close down for the night.

Hope you are all well,
Feels so right it can't be wrong, Rockin' and rollin' all week long (just can't get the damn song out of my head - I'll try not to be humming it when shaking Henry's hand).

S&S.

p.s.

For those who feel they've missed out on the entertainment phenomenon that is Bob Carolgees, here's the tosser with "spit the dog" - how do these people ever become popular?

Coasting along...

2007-09-18T19:20:00.000-07:00

Hi all...
Slowly getting back into the groove of work now. A big caffeine hit in the morning seems to be doing the job of helping to keep order amongst the unruly and maintaining a whiff of organisation in the air (or what seems to be organisation but is in fact blind panic fueled by sheer ignorance of Canadian history - oh the joy of teaching Social Studies). - It's actually really good fun at present, but what teacher worth their salt doesn't complain a bit, and I'm not one to break the mould... (thank god for the holidays etc..).
The weekend really saw the onset of Fall.

You can see how it's all begining to go a bit yellow down in the Elbow Valley there in the piccie. We had a little stroll around Fullerton Loop on Sunday - trying to make the most of the sun whilst it still shines... Saturday was a wee cycle but I think I posted that last time. The trees are really begining to turn their dramatic colours, the mornings are now pitch black when we get up (urrrgghhh), and it's all going a bit chilly... Here's the forecast warning copied from the weather offic for Cochrane for tonight;
A ridge of high pressure building down from the Arctic will bring cool air and clearing skies overnight. As a result overnight lows are expected to drop a few degrees below freezing tonight.

Just great, we've not gotten out of September and it's already brass monkies in the night-time. And what a Canadian report means by "a few degrees below freezing" I dread to think as these folks think minus 10 is a few degrees below!!

The critters are also out in force. A bear was wandering around Cochrane last week (black bear), we were told for sure that there was a Grizzly here in summer, on the path by the river - literally visible from the deck of our place!!!! There've been Cougars galore around Banff and Canmore, and a bloody black bear wrestled its way into somebody's garage in Calgary last night!

Anyhow, here's a little hello from Brina - and hopefully we'll get a video of the basement up here soon...

Wrapping up, and wrapping up,

S&S.

Struggling to keep the pace

2007-09-15T22:09:00.001-07:00

Oh boy, does this work thing ever get in the way of buggering about in the great outdoors. The one joy of teaching is the summer holidays, but it is so long that you really get used to not working and enjoying life as it should be lived. Alas, on returning to work, a serious readjustment to the system is needed to perk up during the week and feign interest in youngsters' academic achievement, and squeezing the fun things back into a two day weekend takes some organising. We're getting there, but time seems to be flying by already, we've had two weeks back at school and I'm still struggling to keep up with the pace (hence, only getting to post this blog at ten past eleven in the evening (isn't it betime already?!?!?)).
Bri and I got out on the bikes last weekend and rode up past Elbow Falls in K Country - having had a rather splendid early September snowfall...

You can just about make out the snow on Mt's Glasgow and Cornwall in the background (and perhaps Banded Peak - but my Geography is a bit off looking at this photo). Brina was humming away with the thick tyres of her mountain bike on the tarmac, once more chuntering about needing a road bike..... Today (one week later), we took the bikes out again, as it has been silly hot and sunny for a mid September weekend. I rode out to Canmore at an unearthly hour for a Saturday morning, where Brina then picked me up in the mighty focus and we headed out for a ride together around Lake Minnewanka (still can't believe they called it that - from the millions of choices to christen a lake, the little masturbator). We left the camera at home (we - meaning Brina) and so have zero photo evidence of today's balmy weather and pristine views of snow capped Rundle beneath azure blue sky (reached the giddy heights of 24 degrees today) - although it was markedly colder early doors when I left the house in freezing shadows.

Our basement was coming on a treat, but alas, the "handymen" were clearly only "handymen" as opposed to "craftsmen" - so we're about to start a whole new stressful rigmarole in our lives of trying to avoid being ripped off by over zealous incompetent carpenters - watch this space for the imminent lawsuit (see any patterns developing here? Be it real estate agents or builders.... - no wonder my hair's falling out!!!!).

The new snowboard is on its way - hooray!!!!!! But hopefully we'll be milking the bikes for a bit longer if this weather holds out (unlikely). Realised today that I need to beef up a bit before the minus 40 winter arrives - as Brina's response to meeting me in Canmore today wasn't "how was the ride" - to which the retort would have been "smashing thanks..". But her response to me dismounting from the roadie bike was "you really are the skinniest man in the world aren't you!?!" - to which my retort was a good old fashioned British two fingered salute followed by some serious huffing and puffing - and a grand consumptions of Guiness this evening just to start building up the "balast" for sliding down snowy slopes on a plank of wood in the icey cold.

Follow the lines people (photo from Moab if you hadn't guessed).

Hope you're all bulking up and enjoying the Indian Summer (or Spring for you southern hemisphered jockies),

May the sun shine on all your weekends,

S&S.

Lights, Camera, Action

2007-09-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

Waddya know, two posts in two days... phew must've had way too much time on my hands today I hear you cry - too true I call back from my free afternoon of sitting with my feet up. If you missed yesterdays blogg, keep scrolling down to the next bit... This is just a test post to see if I have mastered the art of putting video on this blog.

This isn't a recent video, just the only one I have to post (the only decent one anyway). Here's Canuck Brina at Lake Louise last year cruising down to Temple Lodge.

The Return of the Procrastinator

2007-09-05T17:41:00.000-07:00

Hey All,

phew... tis somewhat tiring trying to muster up the energy to write a post today, as the first week back to work with the kids in class is having the usual life draining effect. Getting back into the routine of waking at 6am, arriving at school by 7.30am in order to plan (nothing like leaving it til the last minute), aiming to wake up by 8.50 when the kids arrive on the scene, gulping down a piping hot mug of stinky strong industrial coffee by 10.30, maintaining the bluff appearance of knowing what I'm talking about until lunch, gasping for air at 1pm, trying to dodge the bullets until 3.20pm, sneaking out of work early before 4pm, home by 4.15 ish, falling asleep on the couch by 5.30pm (despite another couple of cups of the now tepid extra strength caffine in the afternoon), waking up with a start at 7.00pm, getting mega grumpy for having missed the good part of the evening, tidy up by 8pm, in bed by 9pm all ready to get the shit beaten out of me again the next day!!! Woo Hoo!! Work sucks!

Fortunately we're keeping an eye on the weekends, and at least work is paying for new snowboard playthings for the upcoming winter, and it pays for the bloody basement - which is looking even more spiffing than when last mentioned and expect to see pictures of the finished product in the next post!

Work did attempt to appease the staff last week by taking us to the zoo for one of the professional development days - although being at the zoo was far too reminiscent of being in a classroom with the kids, so not as hot a deal as it first sounded (always have a schoolboy kind of giggle at seeing the wanking monkies in the zoo - bless em!). A couple of us aimed to sabbotage the great team building activity in the afternoon by partaking the test and "fun" with little vigour and rather crass, vulgar written responses - only to be ousted by the zoo host who was running the gig (these Canucks can be rather enthusiastic for anything) which resulted in our being presented with pencils in the shape of dicks and tits at the staff meeting the following day at school (refeshing to get a sense of humour out of admin!).

Any camping over the last weekend was washed out with the weather, and also put on hold seeing as though we do nothing but spend out spare time in DIY shops at the moment.

All in all, teaching Social Studies is pretty good fun (I feel like I'm almost on familiar territory), I've got the Outdoor Ed class again this year so we're off rafting the end of this month, and will hopefully have a day climbing and a day ski-ing before Christmas too (that's the work I like).

Brina is putting up with work with as little effort as possible and she seems rather pleased by her laissez faire teaching style.

Probably be out in the mountains this weekend - summer is coming to an end, and we'll have shots of the leaves in fall before you know it.

The goats up top there were taken by Brina and Lucy on a hike off Logan's Pass in Glaceir NP, and the other photo (which I don't think I've posted before) is the focus climbing high in Colorado on the way to Aspen.
Keep fighting through the tough stuff (and the boring mundane crap),
nearly the weekend,
S&S.

Crammin' it all in

2007-08-25T07:14:00.000-07:00

Hi All,
with work looming on the horizon, we felt a need to get back out into the hills this week, to justify to ourselves that we are still on holiday (if only for just 3 more days), so we packed up the tent and the bikes and tootled off to Tunnel Mt in Banff. A couple of nights out in the fresh air was just the ticket. I managed to struggle out of bed early doors to get a couple of rides in, before heading out with Brina later in the day.

The little Canuck was having a blast on her mountain bike, but is aware of the delights of road bikes - and is thus now eager for a new steed.

We zipped around Lake Minnewanka on the Wednesday which was good fun - and fortunately very quiet. Thankfully it had warmed up a bit by midday, as the early morning ride was bitterly cold and gave me nightmares about winter riding conditions coming back early.

Brina was a little chilly camping in the tent, and despite her super thick matress (for which we now have a pump thank goodness - as I no longer have to go dizzy for ten minutes blowing it up) she still had the need to overdress for the cold night air .

It was fun to mosie around Banff for a couple of days too - we bumped into the chap who gave me the ticket to go and meet Lance, and he is currently searching for a tutor to go to Chile with his son for 4 weeks on a ski camp (I almost bit his hand off there and then, but was halted from telling him that I'd readily quit work for such a stint in the southern hemisphere).
It was also very fortunate that I brought the pizza maker along with us on the camping trip (see piccie below).
Unfortunately, I was put in command of cooking the pizza's on the camping bbq - and I did a super job of burning the shit out of them so they looked like charred wagon wheels - alas, it was chips and salsa for supper...
Seeing as though it's Saturday today, and we aint back at work until Tuesday, we're actually off to sneak another nights camping in tonight (and lo and behold it's our anniversary tomorrow - bloomin' eck, how swiftly the time passes in Canada). This morning will see me kicking and screaming my way through DIY stores to pick up odds and sods for the basement guys who we'll probably have back sometime next week to finish off the basement proper to put all the nice finishing touches to it which if left to me would; A: never ever in a thousand years get done, and B: look like they were installed by a one armed, blind Slovenian, even if I did get around to doing it.
Hope you're all well,
Hoping that Tuesday never comes,
S&S.

Junk Vultures

2007-08-20T06:01:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning saw the great Garage Sale of Bow Ridge Drive. I inadvertently kept on calling it a Car Boot Sale and was confusing the don't know whats out of most Canadian folk (just for the record, Brits tend to sell all the crap from their garage out of the boot (ahem, trunk - sorry) of their car whilst parked in a field in the middle of nowhere - this way your neighbours don't get to see what rubbish you've accumulated and hoarded over the years).

So we were up at the crack of dawn to go and plaster our advertising signs across Cochrane, and at 8 o'clock on the dot the junk vultures were arriving - haggling over a dollar for this piece of crap or 50 cents for that broken, utterly useless, pre 1976 wad of garbage in the corner. Brina was all very gung ho, and we'd made about $100 by 9 o'clock (I was begining to like this garage sale business).

As you can see, Brina had got every piece of crap we own lined up on the tables out front, and the bleery eyed wife in the photo is sticking prices on stuff at 6.30am.

It was quite a fun way to meet certain characters of Cochrane (and there seem to be plenty of them) - an old couple from Stretford came along, and a woman from Helsby popped by (both places in alarmingly close proximity to the place where I grew up in the UK - about as close as Calgary is to Cochrane - if not closer) and another couple from the Ribble Valley, not a very good advert for the North West of England as we're all fleeing, but a good ad for this neck of the woods though.

It's been a rather quiet week other than purging the crap from the house - we eventually made a whopping $350 by the way, so a productive day on the whole. The rest of the week has seen a few stints out on the bike - headed over Highwood pass with Brad midweek, all was nice and quiet on the pass, although some hefty forest fires in BC and Montana were wreaking havoc with the views as you could barely see the mountains when descending down the other side. More riding should be had this week, in the somber period before resuming work next week (urrgh), and Brina is keen to head off for a bit more camping, so we taking the tent out to Kananaskis and Banff for a few days this week too (Think I'll sneek the bike with me).

Football season has started for all but Man Utd - so perhaps I'll just leave that topic for now.

From some of the last posts, I'd neglected to recant that we'd cruised through Arches National Park where there are endless stacks of crazyily piled rocks (It must have taken ages for them to balance all these things in place!!!)

And there are arches everywhere - hence the name of the park. We took a few of the photos from the car as it was so bloody hot - but in this piccie you can see a host of tourists braving the furness like temps to go and get a bit "hands on" with the one of the arches.

The roadtrip piccies will keep bobbing up from time to time as I recall places visited which haven't been harped on about in this blog yet.

Anyway, that's about all for today, I've got a trip to the landfill site to make (we didn't sell everything at the garage sale).

Hope you are all clearing the clutter out of your lives,

Happy Feng Shui
S&S.

Mixed bag of painting, plastering and snow.

2007-08-11T18:50:00.001-07:00

The impending camping trip which was intending to relieve our somberness at having returned back to the four walls of home has been thwarted somewhat by the arrival of some really, truely crappy weather. For the past four days it has done nothing but piddle down in Cochrane and the surrounds - although with the first sighting of the hills today from the front window, it has been doing a little more than rain out west....Yeah, yeah, I know this is Canada, and I know that those big chunks of rock out there are the Rockies, but it still tickles me pink (not my pink) that there's a bit of the white stuff coming down in the middle of August. That makes for snow on the hills during every month of the year so far - lets hope the trend continues with much vigour.

As can be seen, the crappy rainy weather we've been having has given way to the blue sky of today - so hopefully we'll be off for a stint of sleeping under the canvas sometime this week. And speaking of canvas, here's the latest acquisition to the Williams' household...

Brina had been searching high and low for a picture of Rundle for the house (as it's where we got wed - aw, bless) and this nice colourful job caught her eye when we were wandering through Canmore. To make matters more excitable for Brina (and me too, although I pretended to be cool) we actually met the artist who painted the damn picture in the shop (as he only sells them in this one shop in Canmore). It was picture perfect (pun intended) and alas, has found a home on the living room wall. To my even greater delight, Brina's need for a new painting has justified my need for a new splitboard - so there'll be plenty of stories of that to come when the snow falls (hopefully another month of summer left yet though).
The basement boys are doing a bonny job and the bottom of the house is now habitable (almost) - expect pictures of the new basement which I could not (and will never attempt again) rennovate - you either got it, or you aint - and I am more than happy to state "I aint".
Still keeping the legs spinning on the bike and we've both now got one eye on getting back to work (horror of horrors) and I'm actually thinking about planning a lesson sometime next week (may as well seeing as though I didn't do any last year!!!).
CT scan on Tuesday, so I may as well head into work and make it a really miserable day (school is next door to the hospital). Hope the new saddle has staved off any "worries" that may show up on the scanarama.\
Hoping that all of your walls are square,
and tuck into the headwind,
Keeping it steady,
Smiles all around,
S&S.

A cacophony of memories and eggs

2007-08-07T20:22:00.000-07:00

How do!
It's all somewhat quiet at home after the trip, and I'm still having the urge to pitch the tent every night and inflate thermarests (or full on camping matresses for Brina). Managed to get out yesterday with Brad around Bragg Creek on the mtbs and found some great trails - although was in agony on the trusty old Trek boneshaker having dashed around on pretty bikes like the one shown above the previous week! Came back from the ride yesterday to realise that the splattering of brown on the garage door that we noticed when we left was in fact a very small part of the bombardment of eggs and other assorted grocery shit that had been pelted at the front of our house the previous night!!!! Some little bastards (apologies for the French) had taken to using our house as target practice and thus we spent the best part of yesterday afternoon clambering around on the roof washing eggshells off the upper walls and windows - We've been away for three weeks so I can't think for the life of me who we've pissed off - but I would dearly like to have a cosy little 'chat' with them. The rest of today has been further domestic duty, gardening, cleaning (although bikes mainly), fixing stuff that I can't fix but pretend I can in a very half assed kind of way, and we have found a man willing to take on the onerous task of the basement so he'll be here tomorrow - I wash my hands of it....
Anyway, as you can see, brother was delighted to reach the Shangri-La that is Moab when on the trip. We'd rolled cautiously into the wonderful little town having realised 100 miles away that the back tires on the car were no longer rubber, just metal beading - this nonsense happened last year in the heat of Utah, Albertan tires just aren't made for the desert. Moab had the closest tire fitting shop and as we held our breath awaiting some dramatic blowout we had nothing but praise for "Chips Grand Tire" where Chip himself served us just before he shut up shop, and never before have I witnessed such a cheery, speedy, helpful, we're not trying to rip you off auto shop.
We landed a great campsite with nobody else around and all was good.... Prior to hitting this venue, our previous night had been spent in Mesa Verde about which I knew nowt. Now however, I see it was home to the ancient Pueblo folk who built nifty little houses on the cliff faces hundreds of years ago (700 years ago if I recall, but I kind of tuned out when the Ranger was going on... Now I know what the kids at school feel like when I'm whittering on about meanders and ox bow lakes).

This is one of the sites from above that we got to go and wander down to and have a good poke around - although touching the walls was a real no-no as they were only held together by mud - 700 year old mud that is, so they'd crumble like an Italian Army even if you just stared at them too long.
A little aside which I neglected to post to add to the amazing splendor of the Rockies throughout Colorado was one intriguingly named ski run in Telluride. Now, maybe I'm missing some obvious Americanism here and perhaps my knowledge of US history and society is very limited, but without wanting to offend anybody - can this really be the right name of a double black ski run in one of the best ski towns in the states?

Clearly Telluride is a rich white "man's" playground....

Telluride was an incredible spot and it was a treat to see where the big bro had raced in the Primal Quest a few years earlier, although he did mention some of the landmarks were a bit hazy in his mind having been racing without sleep for 5 days!

Hitting the Patagonia shop in Dillon on the way home was a pleasure, and clearly the girls were a touch enthusiastic about getting into the seriously cheap store...

And they left the store looking rather pleased with themselves.....

Although it wasn't just the chickeroos who were carried away in a retail frenzy of cheap Patagonia gear.. that night in the warm air of the campsite you wouldn't have believed that this feller below actually owns a gear shop;

Mark and Brina scored highest for being kitted up head to toe in Patagonia.
There is plenty more that will come out about the trip that is sure to come out in future postings - and I must get a photo album set up on here to dump a load of awesome piccies (modest!) that can be viewed online (calling Portland Ken for technical assistance...).

The trip was completed with a magic ride on the bikes from Radium to Banff, and what better way to end that and the trip with one of Earl's finest steaks in Banff.

Great times in the summer of 07.

Dodging the low flying eggs..
S&S.

Road Trip Part Deux

2007-08-06T08:05:00.000-07:00

So where did we leave off then? Going to the Sun Road I recall.... good old Montana. It all seems such a while ago, now that we're back, and that Mark and Luce have headed back to NZ (eck).

We cruised down past flathead lake making a beeline for Yellowstone, when the deathly speedboat crossed out paths. We'd seen a layby to pull over in on the bend of a road, and as we were about to drive into the layby a lone trailer (perhaps pulled by Thestralls) and boat came whizzing across the bend in the road and ploughed right through the spot where we would have been about 2 seconds later... The trailer detached from its vehicle on the bend and kept on the straight line course into our parking spot.. that would have been one for the obituaries - four roadtripping tourists maimed brutally by unidentified trailer. It was all rather shocking for us and the poor woman driver of the car the trailer came from (apparently it was her hubby who hitched the boat up, and he wasn't there). It was so shocking that Mark decided the best course of action was to leap out with the camera clicking away at the disaster scene like some frenzied paparatzzi (spelt how?). A dip in the lake was much needed after such excitment.. then on to Wyoming.

Here're Brina and Luce at Yellowstone falls... there was so much just in Yellowstone to see with all the geysers, mudpots, canyons etc... we could've spent three weeks there. We picked up Ol' Faithful on the way out south to the Tetons and Jackson - where there was more biking to be had too. Then a wild, remote and "oh shit we're out of gas" drive towards Colorado - we camped very late in the dark in a random place we plucked from the map - which incidentally turned out to be rather spectacular when we awoke - Flaming Gorge, a desolate, deep sandstone canyon (piccie with the tents).

Steamboat Springs was the first destination in Colorado - and a very sleepy, dreary ski resort it turns out to be in summer time. We got to ride our first 10,000ft pass on the bikes - "Rabbit Ears Pass" heads up out of Steamboat, and the up is steep and prolonged - as I only realised after having spent an hour or so staring at our kid's back wheel feeling a serious burn going on in the legs.

Vail and Aspen were to come next, all very nice (and rather poncy). Here's the rub about Aspen's clientel.... Nearly 100 private Lear Jets lined up in the airport to whizz the rich and Lah de Dahs to and from the resort. The local bike shop was stocked with limited edition $10000 (minimum) Livestrong bikes. It's not that I'm jealous, just... jealous.

The excitment brimmed for Crested Butte - we were dispensing with the tents for three nights of luxury in the Three Seasons condo at "the Butte" (whatever happens in the fourth season I don't know). With wonderful coincidence our first time with a t.v on the trip coupled with the first stage of the Tour in the Pyrenees - three full days of watcing the blood doping, testosterone pumping athletic freaks fight it out in the mountains - perfect.

For those of you unaware of Crested Butte, it is one of mountain bike's mecca's -and it certainly was.

We all hired mountain bikes and hit the trails, Brina and Lucy were chirruping away like a couple of hens in the excitment of it all, and me and Mark were squarking a wee bit on some of the single track laid down. Also finding $35 on the trail is alway a bonus - now I normally carry a quarter in case I need to make a phone call, but what people carry (and loose) $35 for on the remote biking trails is beyond me - maybe it was for an elusive cafe we never found.

I don't remeber if on the last post I pointed out we saw a bear in town one night here too - all good fun leaving the garbage bags out at night to feed the local wildlife.Loads went on in Colorado, I've already forgotten to mention we all took roadbikes up to the Maroon Belles in Aspen, and I'm sure my rambling and picture choice isn't doing justice to the trip (we got carried away and have about 1000 piccies to view).
Telluride, Mesa Verde and Moab will feature a wee bit in the next post - but I am now to drag my sorry ass from the computer as the sun is beaming in the window and I've a neglected moutain bike who needs to be taken out in Bragg Creek for some lovin'.

Other news from here is we're still basking in the holiday time bliss. We cruised out to Banff yesterday and kicked about lazing around and finishing reading Harry Potter's last installment (it's not too bad). Will post again imminently.

Keep spinning and smiling,

S&S.

p.s:

"YEAH.. I WISH".

Back from the Road

2007-08-02T07:53:00.001-07:00

Hi All,

What a lenghty time lapse without a posting here - all due to the Road Trip of all road trips. We've just landed back home after a mere 6500km have rolled around on the trusty old Ford Focus (which performed admirably - only needing to have 2 new tires put on the back in Utah as the wire had come right through the old ones making for some very wobbly driving, akin to racing down a cobble street at 70mph). I'm not sure how to get all of the trip's news on one post, so this might have to be a multi posted affair. First things first though;

My fascination with the big wild animals of Canada remains, and we saw this critter just as it was going dark by the road up near Lake Louise, feasting on the abundance of Buffalo Berries. Thinking how cuddly he looks, we had to recall that such a beast killed a biker a few days ago at Panorama!!!!!!

The trip into the states opened our eyes about how they deal with bears. In a town called Leadville in Colorado, the local newspaper pointed out that the biggest problem with bears was that locals were going out and wrestling them (honestly, I kid you not), and then in Crested Butte we saw a bear wandering down a back street at night - but thinking that there would be signs up or some kind of "alerting news" we dismissed the bear sighting as a big dog or a shadow - until the chef in the bar we ended up in told us that the bear had been in the alley every night for the past two months scavenging in the garbage bins (not bear proof) - the Yankie Doodles really are laid back when it comes to the ol' Ursus (maybe it's because they're all allowed to be holstered up with guns - the folks not the bears).

Anyway, back to the road trip. The focus was fully laden (with a touch of space saved for loading up at the Patagonia shop on the way home) and we headed out at 6pm making a bee line for Waterton. The plan was to ride the "Going to the Sun" road in Montana the following morning.

We spent most of the day of leaving, wandering around MEC trawling for all the things we needed (and didn't need).

So we made it to Waterton for sunset and had a nice wander around the Prince of Wales hotel and the Lake (which is the piccy at the top of this post).

It was a treat to be on the road and in the tent. We were all beaming about the adventure that lay ahead (although I was a tad apprehensive about getting into the States, for no other reason than I think that the customs folk don't like me and am developing a complex about it - but all was fine - and friendly!!!!).

The first ride of the trip came in Glacier NP - from St Mary on the East side of the park, to the Western entrance of Glacier - via the wonderful Going to the Sun road, which we hit early and missed the heavy traffic, saw glaciers, mt goats and incredibly speeds on the descent over the other side - the pass was a mere 6500 feet, which was great, but ones double that in altitude awaited in Coloroado - and I was already gasping for air....

I'll leave you with the bro's of R&R summiting Logan Pass.

My minds still a bit muddled with the enormity of what we've done, so the next post will be tomorrow and shall continue regaling the trip (Flaming Gorge, Yellowstone, Jackson, Crested Butte, Aspen, Vail, Telluride, Mesa Verde, Moab, Black Rock Gorge of the Gunnison are still to come - although not in that order... and I think I've still missed a few there!).

Hope all your summers are trippin'

Missing packing up the tent each morning,

Si, Bri, Mark and Luce.

Bike Delay

2007-07-14T06:56:00.000-07:00

I imagine that his post will be rather swift with scant details of current goings on in Cochrane. However, to surmise;

Mark and Lucy arrived on Wednesday night, although we'd been waiting for them to appear from behind the "customs wall" for an hour before a big security fellow came up to me and, in a serious tone, asked if my name was Simon (I fought off the flashbacks and angst) to which my response was obviously affirmative. He told me and Brina that Mark and Lucy were here but minus a bag - bugger. It was the bike bag...

After two days of hunting for the bike, it has finally rocked up in Calgary, so we have picked it up and are now due to depart on the road trip. We're heading off to Glacier in Montana this afternoon, and we'll ride the "Going to the Sun" road tomorrow. Then off to Yellowstone to see Yogi, into Colorado after a few days - then goodness knows where we'll end up after that...

We've already had a stint up into Banff and the bro and sis in law went out searching for their old haunts - all well and good as Lucy bumped into the manager she worked for at Wild Bills years ago... although Mark's obsession of nostalgia was to drag us around the Banff Springs Hotel searching for the electrical sockets where he used to plug and power up his vaccuum whilst cleaning up on the night shift (good times eh?).

We'd milled around the airport a bit yesterday trying to track down the bag - as we needed face to face contact seeing as though the Air Canada helpline for baggage is based in India and the assistants (loose use of the term) merely read from a pre printed script and did bugger all (no berating of the Indians, just Air Canada). A picnic in Bragg Creek eased the evening away (scorching hot... almost too hot for mozzies - almost), and then we ended up driving to the airport at 10.30pm to collect the bike - it's amazing how the US homeland security hassle all entrants into the country with finger prints, anal probes, labradors and beagles sniffing at your crotch for scent of TNT and make you take your shoes off when walking through the metal detectors (although I think that's because they like to keep the carpet clean in US customs. Yet they are able to loose a bike bag which is so big a family of terrorists could hide in it, nobody could trace it in San Fransico and then lo and behold it is loaded upon a plane two days later - how does that work???

The paper work about the lost bike stated it was a giant bike (which it is) but this raied eyebrows with the Air Canada officials as they were looking for the giant who rode it (it's not really THAT big we had to explain).

Anyway, this has turned out a little longer than expected, but we're off for two weeks, so a big old update will be posted when we get back - with plenty of piccies and nodoubt some Tom Foolery adventures,

Enjoy the summer,

Happy Hols'

S&S.

p.s. Some people just haven't quite got over the jet lag yet though.

Calm Before The Storm

2007-07-09T08:23:00.000-07:00

Thought starting off the post with a calm, cosy, homely picture was the order of the day today. Holiday mode is well underway with the both of us now. I always know when my holiday brain has kicked when I forget what day it is - seriously nice way to be, but also very inconvenient when your mind is thinking it's somewhere amidst the weekend, when infact it's Tuesday morning and you've missed your CT scan at the hospital (ooopppss!), never mind, I've had too many x-ray type jobbies this month anyway - and it's always better having the CT scan when at work because you get the day off (and you remeber to turn up).
Got out on the mountain bike with Brad on Friday, just to confirm more than ever that a full suzzie bike is the order of the day (although I imagine it will be next season now), I rattled my elbows and shoulders from their sockets on the descents as Brad's rather spiffy new Cannondale Rush seemed to have a more soothing effect over the bumpy stuff.
Headed out to camp in Banff on Friday night - only to get devoured by mosquitoes which forced an early retreat under the canvass. Milled around Banff on Saturday (and thought it a good idea to pick up Harry Potter in French, just to test out the grey matter and improve my Frenglais if I get through the book - rather slow progress at the moment, four days later, and only on page two - merde).

To finish today, here's a shot of Luna Lovegood at last weekend's Canada day celebrations

Now off to do a bit more route planning for the road trip (and hope the current rain gives way to sunshine before the Kiwis arrive).

Grands Sourires

S&S.

Magnus Opus

2007-07-05T18:23:00.000-07:00

Alas, the folks have departed, but a great time was had when Mum and Ken were over - although this blog got seriously neglected. A bit of blogging TLC needed for the coming week, before bro and Luce arrive for more holiday fun!
The past week has also seen the departure of Portland Ken back south of the line to his homeland of Oregon, although we hope to see the big hairy oaf back up here for winter visits (and for reciprical trips down stateside).
The piccie shows us taking in a refreshing pint (courtesy of Nana) on Canada day at a pub below the Banff Springs - and that's not a boil festering on Brina's arm, just her patriotic maple leaf tattoo (temporary of course) - a game which mother also became embroiled in, and it was like walking along Banff Ave with a couple of chicks from Hell's Angels.
We managed a day heading in the Easterly direction (the magnetic pull of the Rockies overpowered for once) and spent a sticky day at Drumheller, gawping at the size of the dinosaur monsters that have been pulled out of the rocks around the area, with a visit to the rather good Royal Tyrell Museum (a place to really realise the insignificance of being).
A stint up to Jasper via the Icefields was the staple for last Sunday. With all of our great outdoor expertise, we rushed out of the car at the icefields equipped with nothing but sandles, shorts and t-shirts ("but it was sunny in Cochrane" was as good an excuse as complaining about being stuck in a snow storm in Caringorm because it was "rather fine in Manchester").

Here you can see Mum and Brina really feel the "bite" whipping down from the Athabasca glacier. Despite the short stroll up to the ice, we were all in agreement that seeing it from the road and the visitor centre was enough and lets get on to Japser...

Bears galore were spotted on the road to Jasper (well, one bear). We spotted the black bear plodding along parallel to the road, with the lovely dopey critter not giving a toss about the cars - and the mega dopey dicks driving cars jumping out of their cars on the bear side of the road with children clutching their hands to walk up close to the bear for photos (honestly, these folks were unbelievable). The highway was only single lane, and the bear was on the other side, we did slow down for a quick photo (O.K. we triggered a bear jam! oops) and just as Brina was about to click the camera shutter, a crazy assed tourist (who am I to speak!?!) skidded his car onto the opposite side of the road so that Brina got the photo of his car - how lovely. More humoursly though was mother's fury at this other incondsiderate driver, and she let loose with a tantrum of what can only be termed "bear rage"; "you fu#$*ng stupid p!!$ why the f$#* can't you go and *!#*!*! etc...." she screamed - well you get the picture, don't piss off mother when there are bears to be seen.

This piccie is hardly going to win the wildlife photo of the year award, but you can just see dumb ass's car honing into view as big ol' bear is thinking about looking up to give us a smile.

Fortunately for mum and Ken they'd spotted another Ursus americanus on their trip down to Yellowstone - and fortunately for the population of Montana, nobody had driven into their field of view when mum had seen it!

With much sunshine and good weather, mum was eager to finish her stint here this year with a good hike - "relatively flat" she said, "this is the Rockies" I replied; "somewhere with not too steep drops" she'd asked, "this is still the Rockies" I reminded her; "something not too tricky" was her request, "No problem" my response, but then this sign scuppered me at the trailhead of the chosen hike;

Slightly disconcerted and reminding me of her vertigo, Mum scaled the heights of Heart Mountain to the glorious vistas at the top. From the summit, when viewing the ridge walk which I had suggested was a rather easy descent, mum's voice quaivered as she asked "we don't have to do that do we?" (I've edited the expletives) - "of course not, we kind of skirt around the back" - oops... But mum took to the scrambling like a scouser takes to thieving, and within no time was scaling this;
I just hope that I'm giddy enough to try a seven hour hike with all this nonsense when I'm 59!
All in all, it's been a super time having Mum and Ken over here (and it's been a good excuse to overindulge in coffee, beer and natchos).
Best get ready for the arrival of bro and sis in law now (who knows what adventures await for the rest of the month? - a quick camping trip out to the hills tomorrow with Brad and Julie should occupy us enough for now).
Here comes the sun,
Big Smiles,
S&S.

Me and Lance

2007-06-23T21:50:00.000-07:00

The main news to post (belatedly) is probably my news of the year (life). With great whoopy doos of euphoria, I got to meet and chat to this feller who you may have seen knocking around on a bike from time to time.I couldn't believe it that I got a call on Wednesday morning from a parent at school asking me "Hi Simon, would you like to meet Lance Armstrong on Friday afternoon?" Never has a response been so swift "bloody hell yes!" And lo and behold, there I was Friday afternoon sat about four feet from the man himself as he chatted around to a group of us, after which there were questions followed by the meet and greet thing. I managed to babble on about something after shaking his hand (which in hindsight probably went something like, "errr, hi, errr gargle, mmm eeek"). It was primarily a cancer do, and there were a lot of patients from the Tom Baker there (the cancer clinic in Calgary I holiday in every other month). Lance's presentation was all cancer based (rightly so) and everyone else was clearly chatting to him about that - so I couldn't resist a bit of a diversion and had to have a quick natter with him about the tour and his epic time trial up Alp d'Huez - as he was dutifully signing my cycling jersey.. another quick handshake and I hoped a photo, but as I fumbled for my camera Lance's "man" turned him to some other star struck individual, so I left feeling unsure about being cheery - as in hindsight I was thinking I'd like to have a good hour or two sit down with this guy! But as the whole awe of meeting him left off, I became giddy as a school boy and realised that was a once in a lifetime number. Also, I found out that the ticket I was given to meet him cost $5000!!!!!! now that's the kind of gift I like!
I couldn't but ride today (having had to sit off the bike for a while) so was out at 6am on the quiet roads of Cochrane, still buzzing about meeting the big man - so that it was almost like I was sat on his wheel for the whole ride.
The rest of the day was spent on a jolly to Canomre for coffee, up to Johnson Canyon with mum Ken and Brina, followed by a glorious steak in Banff.
All in all not a bad 24 hours.
Livestrong
S&S.

Keeping Mum

2007-06-13T17:51:00.000-07:00

Just for the record, the title of this posting refers to the name of a great black comedy we watched that's set in rural England, and isn't a reference to mother's arrival - although it is rather apt!Mum arrived on Thursday, and upon stepping out of the car onto our driveway was greeted by the neighbours daughter who was gabbling on about five policemen heading down the pathway across the road to find a Grizzly Bear. Thinking of this as nothing but 4 year old talk, we were a little alarmed when the neighbour actually confirmed this to be true - apparently the authorities were down on the pathway investigating a Grizzly sighting!!!! Welcome back to Canada mum! Looking a little on edge we reassured mother that it was nothing, but as we stood on the deck that evening the coyotes were howling in the field like a wolf pack setting off for a kill!!! More dangerous fauna to welcome mum to the big empty colony that is Canada. Fortunately, the following morning it was only a few deer that were grazing across from the front garden, but within 24 hours mum had encountered more critters than people over here!

We mosied on out to the hills on the weekend, with a jolly old hike up Yamnuska on Saturday (with the rest of Calgary cluttering up the trails), and I rode to Bragg Creek early Sunday morning and mum and Brina drove out to meet me and we hiked around the pleasant trails there - all without animal incident (much to mother's relief!).

We've only a week left of work - and I'm running out of games and videos (and other useless fillers) to occupy the wee little blighters. Another trip down to the movie store is in need this evening in order pick up dvds for tomorrow's lessons - I have no more scientific knowledge that I care to impart up the buggers (I didn't have a great deal to part with at the begining of the year and had to be very careful to spread my science know how out evenly over the course of the year!).
Had another little blip at hospital today (having had my general cancer check up on Monday) the cause of which is curtailing me from cycling for a little while (yeah it's all bollock related) - thus sinking me into a rather depressive state as I'm meant to race next weekend and am chomping at the bit, but will have to bide my time to see if I can. Ho Hum.
Anyway, the holidays are near, the sun is out, and I've a bottle of vino to go and finsh,
Waddle On,
S&S (and mother).

Deluge

2007-06-06T18:11:00.000-07:00

As seems to be a developing pattern with living in Canada, mother's imminent arrival brings with it a torrent of rain. Having harped on that the sunshine has arrived, all snow melted long ago and that we are having a spell of rather glorious weather - the inclemency began on Sunday...

It wasn't enough however, to bring me in early from a great bike ride on Portland Ken's nice bouncy bike! Ken's heading back off stateside at the end of the month (you'll be missed mate), and one of the perks of storing some of his gear at our gaff is that some of his gear his nice shiney springy bicycle. I'd headed out in my scruffs for a quick blast to compare it to my bike (adamant that I wouldn't like it more than my trusty stead - as we've come a long way together) - but alas, the trails by our house weren't sufficient for a proper test, so heading further afield along Cochrane's evermore extensive trails I became a full suspension convert! I was having so much fun I didn't notice that the rain had been coming down in sheets for a couple of hours. It was only when the umpteenth crack of lightening zapped somewhere very close to my shock prone noggin' that I realised I'd better retreat indoors (when I returned Brina was stood worrying in the garage thinking I'd been bbqed somewhere on the hills). I couldn't feign any sympathetic "aw, sorry love for not telling you I was heading out on the bike" as my ear to ear grin was immovable for the next few hours! Now I know what I want for Christmas!

Other than that, the rain hasn't stopped all week (although we have a gap in the clouds forecast for tomorrow when mum lands - phew), and the flooding in Calgary last night was almost of biblical proportions.

We've had exams at school with the kids this last week, and I thought I'd leave you with a classic that just about sums up what I'm dealing with when trying to teach at work;

Hoping that all of your trigonometry is a little more comprehensive

You should've seen their faces when they were told to use a sextant in part of their exam!

Desperately clinging onto a fine thread of sanity (still marking exams)

Here's a red tick and 95% to all of you,

S&S.

Two Years and one first

2007-05-27T16:33:00.000-07:00

If two years ago today you'd have told me that I'd be winning a mountain bike race in Canada I'd have bitten your hand off for such an offer. Although on May 27th 2005 I was a little more preoccupied with losing a testicle than riding a bike, things sure have moved on since then!Round 3 of the Alberta mtb xc cup was a fitting way to spend the two year anniversary of "dropping a bollock" - and it seems like the event got to me, as I sailed home in first place! The course was treacherously steep (I kept up my consistent run of form for races this year by stacking it big time arse over tit into the undergrowth), and I was rather pleased to leave the shaven legged fellers on their fancy spring bikes behind me!

Here's Brina the chief photographer for the day! She was clicking away at the camera as the riders started en-mass (biggest turn out of the year so far) - although I got a heinous start and felt like I was peddling backwards as the surge of riders made a 100 metre dash towards a tight gravelled bottleneck. Seeing my plight near the rear of the field, Brina professed to nearly burst into tears (bless) - then subsequently when I came riding off the course in first she once more professed to nearly burst into tears!? (you just can't win with some chicks!). Fortunately the first few kilometers of the course was steep in the upwards direction - which suited the skinny Brit down to a tee!

Brina also got the R&R advertising shot - for when the Kiwis bring their retail emporium to North America;

After a rather cheery day up in Devon (just south of Edmonton - and no industrial estates either - although there were zillions of labrador sized mosquitoes growling along the riverbank), we mosied back to Cochrane to while away the rest of the day, and with all the panache of Delia Smith (I'm not helping you with this one Yanks), Brina plucked a celebratory cake out of nowhere (carrot of course - and celebratory as in 2 years since cancer diagnosis. I didn't want to call it the cancer cake in case some of you feared the ingredients were flour, sugar and diced tumours - you may also notice the cake doesn't have 2 candles for 2 years, but just one candle - maybe this is to show last bollock count!).

Sending out big cheesy grins to you all,
and reminding you to give 'em a squeeze once in a while.
Stay happy and Livestrong
S&S.

Snow Joke

2007-05-24T19:54:00.001-07:00

As per yesterday's posting about the ludicrous nature of snow in May, here's the view of Cochrane this morning - May 24th for goodness sake!

The summer chairs on the deck got a good pasting.

What's that interfering with the t.v. signal?

No Spring bike riding to work today

And most of the snow plough drivers have gone on holiday to Florida until next winter, fortunately this feller stayed home.

Need we say more?!

Keeping it All White in Canada

S&S.

Topsy Turvey

2007-05-23T18:10:00.000-07:00

This really is one of those weather days that need blogging. For those doubters about to read this, thinking Canada's weather aint that bad - check out the weather link on the right.

Although I had thought that I had moved on from writing about the climatic phenomena that is Cochrane's weather... here it is. May the 23rd! Forecast for tonight - 10-15cm of snow! Mmmmm, I thought this was a rather dubious forecast as we rallied around at work today desperately making alternative provisions for tommorow's independent schools track and field meet in Calgary - surely the people in the local met office are a little stoned and just reading the satellite data from Nunavut by mistake. But alas, tis now snowing like Billio outside now, the gardens and roofs are blanketed in white stuff and there is little sign of the impressively heavy (and bizarre) snowfall from letting up! Fortunately I got out on the bike last night when it was warm and sunny, am thinking about waxing the skis right now though! Looks like we'll have to cancel the track meet tomorrow (bugger, one of the perks of coaching the track team was to get a day out of the classroom and head down to the running track instead!).

Brina and I are mooching on up to Edmonton again for an mtb race this weekend - hopefully we wont be in the shadow of the industrial hub of Alberta this time around. The forecast is for sun and 22 degrees on race day - but looking out of my window right now that's difficult to imagine. This Sunday (race day) is also 2 YEARS SINCE CANCER DIAGNOSIS!!!!!! So it's going to be an really poignant day for riding - and a really good excuse for a post race pint (and pre race pint come to think of it - maybe I should put the gatorade to one side for the day and fill up my water bottles with Guinness - or Jim Beam, that'd really make a race of it - in my head anyway!).

Struggling to keep my head above water at work at present - zillions of things to do - write exams, write reports, mark exams, plan lessons, write IPPS, mark work, etc.. and work just doesn't seem to consider the fact that it is prime cycling time every night so god knows when I'll get any work done!!!!!! (really hoping that the Principle doesn't know about this blog).

There are big smiles coming from this side of the world,

Hope you are all grinning from ear to ear,

And we leave you with a picture of Calgary in summer,

S&S,

Birthday Blog and First Loser (again)

2007-05-15T20:02:00.000-07:00

This blog's anniversary passed me by last week. I've been typing out this drivel for over a year now - and with 56 posts to date, I seem to be keeping just ahead of the 1 post per week stats! It's funny to look back over the archives (on the right hand side there) and realised how much has gone on this past twelve months... what the heck's going to happen in the next twelve months?!?

We're a week closer to the holidays - whoopie! And this weekend saw another race on the mtb! It was heinously technical, and on wiping out for the umpteenth time on the Saturday pre-ride, my moral ebbed, and I realised that, barring one day in Moab last summer, I haven't ridden my mountain bike on trails for two years (since being in NZ) - the first time being my last race!! Somehow I managed to cling to the endless singletrack and dropoffs through the trees and stick with the race to bag second place again (third overall, but second in the Masters age group!).

Here's a piccie showing two old gits on deck chairs looking all bemused as the pretty lycra cyclist spoiling their view of Edmonton;

It's rather amusing to note that this is the ALBERTA mountain bike cup! Quick Geography lesson: Alberta has some of the most amazing landscapes on the planet - the badlands out East where the ground falls away into chasms like mini Grand Canyons, the rolling agricultural foothills, and obviously the Rockies (a la some of the best mountain bike terrain in the world). So, being the Alberta cup and all, why would you stage a mountain bike race on the edge of an industrial estate in North West Edmonton? Admittedly the organization was great, the course was very well set up and rather tricky, and although it did run past a somewhat picturesque river at some stage - why the heck did they choose this venue for the race? This isn't a grumble, more just a confusion - although some things Albertan continue to confuse me - such as why do I need to have a new chest x-ray to be able to drive a mini bus for school? (and any of the chest x-rays that I've had every month for the past 2 years just aren't acceptable for the driving agency - they obviously have a special minibus driver chest x-raying machine that is far superior to any bog standard x-ray device found in the cancer hospital).

Such is life!

Happy birthday dear blog,

Being first loser is always better than being second loser,

It could be worse,

S&S.

Three things - nice and simple

2007-05-07T17:22:00.000-07:00

How Do All! (a bit of farming vernacular to start you off today)
Just a quick salutation today. Canada is all very calm at the moment, the weather's holding fine, the powers that be at work still refuse to aknowledge my incompetence, and my bicycling obsession grows to the exacting standards of what it was like when I was 16 years old!
Anyhow, the picture count for the year so far reads thus;

One of these (as seen outside the front of the house two weeks ago);

One of these (as seen on Sunday as Brad and I rode to Millarville from Bragg Creek!

And for those of you living in Manchester, you'll also be spotting one of these beauties back home now (Scousers, Gooners and Chavski folk take note - it aint yours!)

nb: Canadians might not recognise the Premiership trophy above, but just think of it as being like the Stanley Cup - only better!

So all in all, a very good week. More of this wonderful Canadian wildlife seen stumbling across the roads - I'm O.K. with meeting moose by the road when on the bike, but am not sure how I shall react if ever I encounter a Grizzly on the roadside whilst cycling - it'll certainly make me pedal a bit quicker! The biking is going great and we'll be up in Edmonton next weekend for another race which will be fun. And to top it all off, Utd win the Premiership - AGAIN (something the scousers have never managed to achieve - I needed to get a dig in somewhere!).

Hope you're all cruising along quite nicely thankyou very much,

Glory glory Man Utd (followed by rapturous applause and a modicum of hooliganism outside the stadium after the final whistle)

S&S.