Entering into summer

With posts becoming few and far between you do wonder what we get up to all day.

As I mentioned in a previous post, my lovely parents came over for a week at the end of February - celebrating our 'Canniversary'. This celebration brought with it a number of enlightening moments, many of which will reveal themselves over the coming months and year.

March was a whirlwind personally as I moved to a new job. I am very fortunate to work for such a great organisation and the work they do is phenomenal - or phenomenally Canadian according to L. I work with Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative dealing with all things donation related. It is wonderful fun and I am continually learning every day about the projects that we lead or support on, from the tip of Yukon all the way down into America to Yellowstone National Park. For obvious reasons all things bear interest me the most though hearing about the destruction and damage of Dam's (Site C being the most current and horrific) on the environment is overwhelmingly sad. Yet the government see $$$$$ rather than nature. Plonkers.

April was by far my most cherished month here. The arrival of a beautiful baby boy and most beloved sister!! I haven't seen my nephew since he was three moths old and now he is a full year, they changes in him were astounding. He looks like a little man, or more specifically my dad. He is the cutest and most charming baby ever, and a super-duper flirt with the ladies! Waving and grinning
at every girl he saw! We had a wonderful time together and couldn't believe how quickly time flew by.

And here we are at the end of May. Yikes. This month we had L's mum visit us for a week and to take full advantage of the Holiday Monday we decided, at the last possible minute, that we would drive to Victoria. That is correct, a 14 hour drive EACH WAY for a 3 day break. On Friday night we strated our ambitious drive and stopped in Sicamous, then at 5am Saturday morning we continued the journey to reach Cordova Bay on Vancouver Island. It was the best decision ever as I have missed the ocean so much, I am truly a water person and lakes just do not have the same influence on me.

Sunday we explored downtown Victoria, enjoying Fisherman's Wharf and a marching band competition in front of the Legislative Building then on Monday morning 4am (after watching an amazing sunrise) we drove back to Canmore. Worth every minute.

Catching up almost to present - which would include the tale of L cutting his foot on a rock while climbing Saturday and 24 hours later being taken to hospital by moi with blood poisoning. He had to have 4 days of IV antibiotics, we are now friends with all A&E Dr's at Canmore Hospital, and now he has a further ten days of heavy duty oral antibiotics to make sue it doesn't come back.

As you can see we are keeping busy and continuing to explore Western Canada. With one more significant visitor booking to arrive in August for three weeks of climbing, hiking, kayaking and surfing who knows what stories we will come back with!

Time flies when life happens

As you can imagine, there has been lots going on at this end.

The remainder of November went by in a whirr, while December brought a little visitor from Scotland for a quick visit, then Christmas and New Year had been and gone before we knew it.

Now we are in February. What on earth happened? Where did the time go?

It was the first Christmas I have spent away from my family so it was interesting for L to watch and occasionally assist in the non-traditional dinner preparations. After the Thanks Giving turkey fiasco I refuse to deal with poultry... I have just had a giblets flash back and it still horrifies me.

New Year brought with it fireworks from the hill overlooking Canmore which was a giggle. Lots of crazy truckers were around us and they sang us the countdown which really puts a twist on the standard tick-tock countdown.

And now for February which marks our first year living in Canada. On the 24th February we will be having, dare I say it, our 'Canniversary'. I would like to thank L's colleague for this term and take no responsibility for it.

My parents are also coming over for a week at the end of this month, which will be filled with lots of snowy activities, or so we hope. The '9 month winter' we were warned about has been somewhat unexpectedly not true. Thank you Scotland for making me a grateful weather girl.

The '9 month winter' apparently means the 9 months when the temperature is below 20 degrees and you are unable to wear flip-flops - though I have actually seen several individuals in flip flops recently thanks to the sudden increase in temperature. We are above the Scottish spring temperatures and therefore I no longer listen to Canadians who say the winter is dragging on.

Many other visitors are either booked or planning to come across this year so Lewgi's Adventure Tours will begin again!

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

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!)

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.

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.

Sri Pada Pilgrimage

The bus journey alone to get here was an adventure with gangster hip-hop music playing the entire way. The buses are all 'self-styled' by their owners to make them, what I can only assume, more appealing to get on. Don't get me wrong, they are amazing and so much better what you get in the UK.

We arrived in Dalhousie after being blasted by many passing fumes and realise there is very little to do other than climb a 2,500m mountain. So at 2am (yes in the morning) we set off to conquer this climb. This may be business as usual for my winter/rock exploring partner but for me it was all new territory.

With a bulky torch in hand we set off, all the while Lew is whispering "I hope we don't get mugged." Nice. Really puts my mind at ease.
Anyway, off I trot and start humming to sooth my worries and we make it to the base of the never ending stairs. If you do this climb you will know exactly what I mean.
Buddha bless the monks who actually built the stairs all the way to the top, as there is not a slope in sight. Stair Master 2000 has a competitor.

I have no idea if it was a mix between the random time of night by body was being exerted, lack of food or water, or the torch swinging with every step but my giddy-aunt did I get nauseous. Luckily for me, my partner in life is a moment-entrepreneur and decided to utilise my 'still dark moments' to do some night photography.

Two hours, two water bottles, a torch battery and many pit-stops later, we arrive at the peak of Sri Pada - the great Buddha's footprint. As it was 4am by this point there was very little to see other than a few twinkling house lights but by 5.45 the sun was starting to come up and WOW was it stunning. We got every colour of the rainbow in the sky and it only kept changing.

We were above the clouds, the sun, the forest and it was just so... simple? Is this peace?

We stayed for over two hours at the top as every minute we looked at the horizon the colours and clouds had changed and it was a new image to imprint in our memories or for the sake of good documentation our SD cards.

Gangster Lewis and myself admiring the sunrise

It was phenomenal, and what is surprising is my legs maintained their strength all the way to the bottom. Thank you Pilates.

Instead of staying in this little town for another night we got onto another hip-hop bus (there are Sri Lankan national buses and general pop too from our experience) to take us to Ella.

And that is when the rain began.

Vrooming Through Vancouver

Holy cow it has been a crazy few months!! I guess the fun and the surprises are just beginning!

Towards the end of November, Lew and I set out on the very first jet-set of our adventures. We flew into Vancouver for a long weekend... from London...
It is safe to say the flight was almost as long as our stay but my goodness it was worth it!

We landed in the chilly land of maple syrup and maple leaves and just about fell in love (as was hoped) from the get go. From the waterfall to the jellyfish floating past us in the airport we were welcomed by all - even the immigration officers who we had been told to fear.

Hop, skip and a sky train later we arrived in Downtown Vancouver. Oooft. Hello big glass buildings and Gucci store! We tottered for ten minutes and arrived on the doorstep of our hotel - The Empire Landmark Hotel and we were in luck, as we got a gorgeous balcony room on the 32nd floor with stunning views over Stanley Park and the west coast.

Over the three short, but glorious sunshine days, we managed to cram a lot in and tried our hardest not to let jetlag set in- although I did attempt to get Lew to have meaningful conversations at 4.30 in the morning with me as I was failing to keep jetlag at bay. Seems his sleep talking is really coming on leaps and bounds as he doesn't remember a thing about it.

Downtown is fantastic and we strolled around Stanley Park while there was a half marathon going on. We were thrilled with how sporty and outgoing everyone was, we cannot wait to get super fit and take to their lifestyle!

Of course we did the tourist thing and did a lovely hop-on hop-off tour with the Vancouver Trolley Company with two of the funniest guys we have heard. Not only did they tell us some fascinating details about the history of Vancouver we also got an insight into the hilarious gossip we may become interested in.

As with all trips they are over too quickly, but we can be very thankful that this was just a little teaser session... we are returning in February for the first 5 month stint.

I am so excited, I know Lew is too, but I am almost bursting with anticipation and cannot wait to just get up and go.

In the meantime we must sort health insurance, pack our belongings, give old stuff to charity, cancel direct debits, set up Canadian bank accounts, buy a car, apply for an international driving permit, sort flights..... and the list goes on.

But my goodness, am I raring to go.