Scooby is legally Albertan!

The past week has been another learning curve where we discovered the difference between a BC car and a Albertan car – apparently a lot.

Within 90 days of arriving in Alberta a person must change their drivers license to an Alberta license by sacrificing their original one in a not-so-romantic ceremony, apply for a form to arrange a car inspection. Yes, you apply for the form to permit you to get your car checked. Then you get your car checked and if it passes you have 14 days to pay for an Alberta registration and ta-da!! You are now legally driving in Alberta.

Scooby of course passed with flying colours and survived this process while I made friends with the girls working in the Canmore Registry Office with my extensive visits!

You didn’t think I was out playing amongst the mountains the whole time did you?

Out and Aboot

I honestly don’t think Canadians say ‘aboot’. They have a lovely soft way of saying it and to me it sounds more like ‘abowt’. Anyway I digress!

We have been managing to explore a little more of the area on our weekends, whether it is from the comfort of our front door or jumping in Scooby and driving to Lake Louise.

On a random Sunday night we decided to jump in the car and drive to Lake Louise for sunset as we thought the light would be perfect over the water. The light was perfect however the water wasn’t water, it was still ice. We hadn’t realised that the lake would still be frozen in June. It was beautiful nonetheless. 

Slushy Lake Louise

The best part of this impromptu trip was the massive, spectacular, rambling, grizzly bear that we saw at the side of the road a mere 100m away. It was amazing!! They are huge and I honestly think I could sit on it and it wouldn’t notice. They are also ridiculously camouflage amongst the trees and bushes as Lewis could not see it until it wobbled a branch on a tree. Phenomenal Sunday evening!

We have also been taken by the perfect light and long days that we have been lucky to experience in ‘Monsoon June’.

Happy June all!

What you do for a good photograph

Bloomin’ Banking

Upon arriving in Canada we have quickly realised why there was no massive economic crash within the Canadian economy – the banks charge for everything. Simply to hold money for you costs anything upwards of $3 a month.

Furthermore, should you want to use your debit card (the piece of plastic that is created to make spending easier) to buy something as simple as food you can either pay an additional $1 per transaction or change your account to include a set number of transactions, but guess what? This rockets your monthly fees up too. I am paying the bank to keep, spend and receive my own money. Well played Canadian Banks, well played.

Coming from the UK this baffles me. The we-don’t-charge-you-UK, where the majority of bank accounts are free and you can go to any ATM with any bank and take your money out for free. How good you guys have it and you don’t realise.

Here, I feel like the little boy in Mary Poppins who just wants to keep his tuppence. Should it be so hard?

Image from brookschamber.ab.ca

Funnily enough this is not actually the main reason for this ramble. The cause in actual fact is related to cheques or ‘checks’ as they spell it here. Lewis receives his pay in the form of good old-fashioned cheques, which takes an astounding 4-5 business days to clear, causing significant grief in trying to survive particularly before I started working.

This past week has been exceptionally tough as we have been surviving on $35 and as of this moment I believe we have $3 between us, no milk and minimal food to eat today.

The delightful and very-friendly (the people are actually lovely at the branch)  Scotiabank has decided to hold his pay cheque for another day, just because they can. We put it in to the bank on Tuesday morning, a whole week ago, 7 days ago, and it will be EIGHT days by the time the money is released. That is if they choose to release it tomorrow.

(Please fill in at least a minutes worth of blasphemy here should you understand our plight)

I am in a rather bad mood and as of this afternoon, I am firing Scotiabank and their services and moving to a much more forward thinking bank. Sorry friendly bank workers, but your banking approach is a joke.

Who will it be? Toronto Dominion, CIBC, ATB, RBC, BMO?

1, 2, 3, 4, 5Peaks

I am unbelievably fortunate to work where I do. They are an amazing group of people and it is such a relaxed environment around the office.

As part of what we sell we get to work with so many great events and one of them is the 5Peaks challenge. These challenges take place all over Canada from BC to Quebec.

A couple of weekends ago I was setting up the BUFF® tent at Canmore Nordic Centre where I got to meet some crazily fit and enthusiastic people. It is definitely true what they say, people who exercise are unquestionably happier than most.

Anyway, I took some pretty pictures of the event and had a wonderful morning. Maybe next time I will join in with the race (avec bear spray!)

The Mobile Phone Hunt

The on-going saga of Lewis’ relationship with mobile phones has finally been put to rest… for now at least.

Long story short, he has been unable to get a phone contract due to his Social Insurance Number still not being activated. This has meant he has had to buy a pay-as-you-go phone that has since broken a pathetic 6 weeks after purchase. Virgin Mobile are refusing to do anything about it as it is more than a month since we purchased it from them which I think we can all agree is ridiculous. Why would we buy a phone for it only to work for four weeks? Answer: no-one would.

We have since decided to get a new phone for him with anyone but Virgin Mobile – plonkers that they are.

So off we trot to Calgary in search of the 41 megapixel camera phone – the Nokia Lumia 1020. If you are going to get a smart phone you might as well get the one with the best camera.

In Alberta, and I think Canada, it doesn’t matter what phone you get the tariff is the same across specific phone groups; Doro Phones ($25); Basic Phones ($55+); and Smartphones ($80+). So if you are going to get a Smartphone get the most expensive as it costs the same as the cheapest within the same category.

Two hours and a pizza later, we returned to the store to collect Lewis' beautiful bright yellow phone which had been all set up and ready for him to use. We expecting great things from you Rogers.

Jiminy Cricket

To the delight of Lewis the activity options in Canmore are endless. This is no word of an exaggeration and should you ever be bored in Canmore, well, there is no excuse really.

With seasonal hobbies to suit everyone from Nordic skiing, downhill skiing, snowshoeing and winter climbing to mountain biking, hiking, trail running and rock climbing to mention a mere few, your days, weeks and months are pretty jam packed with fresh air.

To this end Lewis decided to invest in a mountain bike for me, as going out whooping in the forest and trails alone is not ideal. The purchase was made on a Saturday morning and by noon I find myself in the middle of a single-track trail near the Canmore Nordic Ski Centre wondering how my body is going to take the beating.

I think it was beginners luck and going into the unknown that made it such a wonderful day. We were whizzing through the trees all the while whooping to alert any wildlife – there are three black bears and a grizzly that regularly visit the area and the thought of rolling into the back of them was not a valid alternative to using my breaks.

Bumping over tree roots, rolling along fallen trees and holding on for dear life while leaning as far back as possible when going down dusty sleep hills was only just the start of it. All the while Lewis is exclaiming “I cannot believe how good you are at this, you are doing so well!”

In actual fact what was going through my head went something like “I am going to die… TREE STUMP!… all I need now is a bear or a cougar to pounce on me and I am finished… TREE STUMP!!... why oh why are mountain bike seats harder than cement?... TREE STUMP!”

I also discovered that such thoughts mixed with serious concentration on the twists and turns of the trails reduces my vocabulary to a simple and surprising name: Jiminy Cricket.

Lewis: Look at you Watson! How are you feeling?

Me: Jiminy Cricket!

Lewis: What? What are you saying?

Me: Jiminy Cricket!

Lewis: Are you seeing crickets?! Amazing! Where?!

Me: Jiminy Cricket - Cricket!

To that end – I cannot wait to get back out and ride more trails.

Random Act of Surprise

My beautiful sister and her charming husband are expecting their, and our families, first baby. This baby has been affectionately known either as Juju or Thor for the past nine months. I have no idea where Juju came from but Thor was certainly Mark’s influence.

Anyway, the due date had approached a lot faster than we were expecting and I decided, along with my mother, there wasn’t a chance in nelly-puff I was going to miss the arrival of the most beautiful baby ever born. Me bias? Never.

So without telling my sister, which is very difficult as we are in touch almost every day, I jumped on a WestJet flight to Glasgow and arrived the evening after he was born. Somewhat jetlagged, I followed my parents into the hospital room where my sister, brother-in-law and the golden child were resting.

According to my sister, I walked in so casually that she didn’t think there was anything strange about me being there and it wasn’t until a couple of minutes later she realised I was several thousand miles from where I had been talking to her the day before.

For a wonderful week I managed to hog the most cuddles from the fuzzy headed baby with the excuse I was returning to Canada. No-one else stood a chance really. He is beautiful and I think his yawns are the best thing I have ever seen. Also, thanks to me being jetlagged I was the perfect night watchman, which meant even more cuddles for the tiny tot.

I am absolutely thrilled for my sister and cannot wait to see how much more he can look like her, as right now he is a mini-Tar.

The Job Hunt

Lewis was working and I was setting up our apartment. Kind of. I arranged for the cable and internet to be installed as well as setting up our electricity payments. What more does one need to do?! Ah yes, get a job.

There were quite a lot of jobs available, however without meaning to sound obnoxious, I really didn’t want to work in a shop. I knew I wanted something with diminished responsibility even for a little while but I think on some level I also knew that was never going to happen. I am a planner and I like to have control of organising anything and everything. Shocking I know.

And so the search continued until the day I had arranged for one of my apartment planning tasks to be set up. Then serendipity played a part in my life.

My delightful Telus installer, Jim, saw my C.V lying on the kitchen counter and explained that the company his wife works for is looking for someone with my skill set. Two interviews later I have been offered the job.

Find a job: Tick!

From the Coast to Canmore

With a week until his job started, we decided to drive back to Victoria in a single day to tell our very nice landlord that we were very sorry but we were not going to be staying like originally thought.

Nine hours later we arrived back at our little apartment in Oak Bay, exhausted and drained from the trip. We informed our landlord of the sudden change and Lewis’ job offer and she wished us well.

The very next day, we packed up what little belongings we had accumulated in our time in Oak Bay - a green whistle kettle that Lewis will never part with and a vintage bike for me – and after a delicious dinner with our North Saanich friends we began our journey back to Canmore.

In a matter of days we had completely flipped our semi-planned life and landed feet first amongst the mountains of Canmore.  Thankfully, upon our return we loved it even more than we remembered and knew we had made the right decision.

Within a week of arriving back and staying in two rather shmeh hotels, we had found an apartment in the Three Sisters area, a lovely little area based at the base of, you guessed it, the Three Sisters! They are three prominent mountain peaks that can be seen from anywhere in Canmore.

On our first night in the unfurnished apartment we camped on yoga mats in front of the fireplace and thought it would be a novelty. That was until Lewis wouldn’t hush about his back and ‘how it was so much more uncomfortable than camping’. This admittance was worth it actually as it means I may be able to postpone camping a little while longer!

And so here we are. In a top floor, west-facing, two-bedroom apartment with an amenities building that includes an indoor and outdoor hot tub, steam room, pool tables, bar and very well equipped gym.  Find an apartment: Tick!

Can we do more?

Onwards we go, again! It was the easiest drive of the trip, a tiny 22km. A little town that is located near the Banff National Park boundary, Canmore is a beautiful hubbub of outdoor fanatics and health food shops.

And this is where the story of Victoria comes to a screeching halt. As beautiful and as warm as Oak Bay in Victoria is, it has nothing on Canmore. I am unashamedly in love with Canmore and have no time for any other town at this moment in time. And neither does Lewis. In fact, I don’t think he even has time for me right now thanks to everything that Canmore has to offer.

It was here we felt as though we had arrived in Canada, the one with the startling different lifestyle that we were wanting to have and had moved from Scotland in search of.

Within two days, Lewis had found a potential employer, had an interview and was offered a job. Meant to be? I think so!! It was also within the first two days of arriving in Canmore we discovered the dire rental situation. There is nothing to rent.

It appears everyone is taken with Canmore, particularly people from Calgary who like to buy apartments to use on sporadic weekends.

There would be one apartment posted on kijiji every couple of days and the demand was unbelievable. Landlords explained they had almost 50 calls by noon and they had to remove the add due to the demand. Finding an apartment in the town was possibly the craziest and most insane search we have had to endure yet. It may beat the Scooby purchase.

Sunshine for my birthday!

In human form and not the snowmen we believed we were going to become on the drive to Banff, we arrived at our hotel next to the Bow River.

Banff is amazing. We particularly love the street names and I want to buy apartments on most of them just to say we live on Wolf Street/ Bear Street/ Buffalo Street… “Oh hi, yes I live at 22 Wolverine Street”. Ehm, yes please!!

Aside from the street names, Banff is a lovely place. Very touristy but even with the hoards of tourists it doesn’t take away from the fact you are surrounded by stunning impending mountains and random fearless animals – elk and deer this time, nothing with claws.

As we were here over my birthday we decided to go skiing at Sunshine Village for three days to celebrate my 26+1 birthday. Who wants a birthday celebration that only lasts a day?

We loved Sunshine Village. As we were here toward the end of the season the slopes were unbelievably quiet and after a few runs on the ‘magic carpet’, an invention that I don’t think existed when I was learning as I remember falling off the dreaded drag lift repeatedly, Lewis was off and going down actual ski runs. Not just baby ones.

He also became fearless and decided he much preferred skiing off-piste, as when he fell he would make a massive ‘PUFF’ with the fresh powder. The skiing was great and every day we would ski down from the resort to the car park, immediately wanting to go right back up again.

Olaf the snowman? Nope, it’s Lewgi.

The drive from Jasper to Banff deserves an entry of its own.

Holy snowflakes is the only polite way I can phrase it, and I feel the videos that I took of sections of road cannot be published due to the obscenities forcibly used by the driver (I was not the driver). Although I think I was using worse language in my head.

We set off early one morning from Jasper along a very simple road with no junctions or changes that would take us all the way to Banff. Easy right? Wrong.

I think it was only 40 minutes into the journey we past the first set of snow gates, which I would like to point out were open at the time… only to be closed an hour after we went through.

Could have been a very bad diversion...

In the first and second hours, we were laughing and joking about the weather and lack of snow trucks to clear the road. It was absolutely stunning and it really looked like a winter wonderland with glittering snow and festive trees every which way you looked.

By the third and fourth hours we were driving though a continual sludge of at least 6” of snow and our tyres were starting to get clogged with ice around the rims. There was not so much laughing as there was a weird whimpering that was meant to sound like a breezy light-hearted chuckle. 

It was the most extreme weather I have ever witnessed and the intensity lasted a mere five hours.

Now, I never tend to talk about pee breaks but I feel it has to be mentioned as I was hysterical by this point (I laugh when nervous) and this just pushed me over the edge. Being somewhat influenced by the fight-or-flight instinct I was in desperate need, so Lewis the ever caring driver pulled over to the side of the road in the safest place we could find. I do not exaggerate when I say the snow came up past my window. Try getting out of the car when there is a wall of snow, I dare you.

Somehow, in my full-bladdered state I gained super-human strength and opened Scooby’s right wing (the door). It was here, between a mixture of galloping-jumping-leaping-head-first-tumbling that I dove into a pile of snow and landed in a weird mangled knot that I couldn’t fathom how my body could twist itself into such a position. Thankfully the effort and movement that I had to perform in order to untangle myself had made a delightful 4ft high open-topped igloo. The snowy ice-toilet.

The journey to Banff was phenomenal in all senses of the word and we have never been so thankful to see cars again. It was like re-appearing from an ice-age.

Funnily enough, it was only a 1km from the Banff snow gates, aka civilization, that we saw two snow ploughs beginning to clear what we had just driven. Great timing yet again.