April 25, 2006

Peectures

HOORAY ARSENAL ARE IN THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL.

I also uploaded a bunch of photos from the past 2 weeks. I'm the tall one and Robyn is the cute one, if you couldn't tell.

Posted by Mark at 8:14 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

April 23, 2006

Summer is here the Robyn has flown

See what I did there? Clever huh?

So the past 2 weeks have been incredible for several reasons, not least of all Robyn. I had the most amazing time with her and created a whole new bunch of special memories, her leaving has to also be the lowest point of my trip but I'll forgive her for that.

This last week has been the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival, which I must admit was a bit of a disappointment. Here's the run down of events:

a) A lot* of shit bands played between 2.30pm - 5pm every day on a stage at the base of Whistler
b) A lot* of tourists and townies invaded the town and made it nearly unbearable. The buzz was relatively nice but eventually it just got tiresome trying to do stuff.
c) It snowed, and quite a bit! We had about 30cm over the week which for April is astonishing.
d) Blackcomb closed. I had a great last day in full on sun in toasty temperatures convincing Rob to come up Spankys with me and promptly falling off a cliff (don't worry Mum I'm still alive)
e) There were a few random events in the village which caused a bit of excitement including a Big Air jump competition, a very cool art exhibition, a local film competition etc.
f) People gave free stuff away and I drank a lot of Yop.
g) I stayed at home a fair amount and just slobbed around enjoying the company.
h) I got an awesome sun burn which I added to today in Vancouver in blistering (again, for April) temperatures of 23c
i) Izzy left and now there remains only Sarah and I in our house
j) I have never made a list that has gone this far through the alphabet before
k) I'm stopping now

So Whistler is basically empty now, the bulk of the seasonaires have left or leave May 1st, all the tourists left, the locals are staying at home BBQing, I think it's going to be quite lonely so I have taken on fulltime support with Dereck answering the phones as well as a few new jobs for Chris (development) and I had a meeting with another local guy this week about working on a website for the Municipality. I'm hoping this is at least going to keep me occupied and money fueled enough to pass some time until I can go out East.

* Official numbers have not yet been released.

Posted by Mark at 11:38 PM | TrackBack

April 8, 2006

Home Sweet Home (King of Whistler)

I got back to Whistler on Wednesday and have been busy catching up on work and such-like since. Vancouver was pretty unexciting, except for the fact that it's a wonderful city and the weather was glorious. We did all the tourist stuff packed into a day so Kate got to see pretty much everything, a drive through the hobo/druggy/ohgodno Hastings district, breakfast on Granville Island, the tiny ferry back over to downtown, a walk along the seawall to Stanley park and the aquarium, shopping on Robson following by an evening jaunt through Yaletown and dinner in Gastown. How many other cities could you cover in an entire day?

The drive back up was perfect, it's the first time I've travelled between here and the city on such a clear day and the views are really spectacular.

The trip on a whole was a great idea. Getting out of Whistler was nice, it made me realise (once more) how lucky I am to be here, what a great place it is, and that there's still one of the greatest cities in the world just down the highway. Work is picking back up again and I'm completing on a large project in the next few weeks, after which I'll probably be taking on fulltime telephone support for my other job, in order to get enough money to fly East over the Summer.

Today was my first day back up the mountain for a week, since my ski insurance ran out and I've been away, and I'm afraid it's with great disappointment I have to report that the season is all but over. I guess I could have guessed that Spring conditions are very much like early season conditions, just with a bit more sun thrown in. Still there is great merriment in the fact that I am infact LORD OF WHISTLER BLACKCOMB as I have completed all runs on both mountains, which indeed was not as easy as it sounds, sure there are only 100ish runs but the map and sign posting are very poor.

Oh, if anyone wants to move into our place over the Summer we have a spare room...

I've saved the most exciting news for last as Robyn is arriving after the weekend, just in time for the Ski & Snowboard World Cup and more importantly just in time to douse the feelings of having missed her, badly, for the past 6 weeks. Do excuse me if there are no updates as activities planned include:

a) bed picnic(s)
b) sitting in the glacier
c) cheesy movies
d) filling our photo album

So as you can see, we're going to be awfully busy! Rather upsettingly her visit once again coincides with a housemate leaving. Mark departs on Tuesday, we've been hanging out a lot since Ads left and again he'll be sorely missed.

Visa application is back in the hands of my overly unimpressive lawyer who obviously couldn't find the time to get back to me before the weekend in order for me to be able to print out all the documents and get them sent off.

Oh and if anyone is after any sort of long-term insurance for a trip such as this, World Nomads are very cheap and comprehensive.

Posted by Mark at 12:42 PM | TrackBack

April 1, 2006

Very sleepless in Seattle

So Seattle is Vancouver crashed into Victoria. Nice place but I have to admit Whistler has really blinkered my life. This is basically the first time I've left a perfect, clean, small town populated by the youthful, energetic seasonaires, the rich sophisticated visitors and illusive locals and I must admit the number of angry looking individuals, weird hobos talking to themselves and general bustle and hustle (I had to walk within 10 yards of someone else today!) is kind of overwhelming.

Sirens, trucks, ghetto blasters (who knew that we were back in the 90's and people actually walked around towns with these blowing in their ears, I hope the life of D-sized batteries has improved over the last decade) is really distracting. The drive down here was a real test of my willpower, I wanted to read every sign I passed, look at the inhabitants of every car, Whistler has literally made me lose sense of the bigger picture. And to be honest, it's nice. In the last 6 months I've never once felt threatened, never kept my eyes open walking around at night and actually miss the place already.

I scored about 2 hours sleep last night (after 5 hours driving) due to the snore-lord Mark. Earplugs, pah. Two pillows glasped around my head, pah. To make up for it today was food-action packed. We scored crumpets for breakfast and fish and chips for lunch which pretty much fulfilled the biggest bits of England I've missed since being here (family and friends excluded, of course) and also fulfills the "what I had for lunch" part of this diary.

I musn't forget to extend thanks to US immigration for relieving me of $6 on the border for a finger print scan and photograph. The prices of stuff around here is incredible in comparison to "home", however, and I'm going to stock up big time on pharmicuticals and other various crap.

Moving along (I'll have more on Seattle and Vancouver soon), I got my files back from the lawyer, the one I was going to update about. I'll reserve total judgement until I see whether I get a visa of not but it's been quite difficult... So far I've told my contact twice that I was told by one of her colleagues (who you thought she might just get up out of her chair and talk to) that the visa should be processed under "arranged employment" category, she can't seem to grasp it. Then... the documents she has checked over and "amended" have my surname spelt incorrectly in half of them! Edmonston!

Posted by Mark at 9:59 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack