lounge picnics

hi guys!

sorry about the lack of communication lately.... we moved into ger's new apartment a week ago and are without internet until later this week. the mall with the free internet is quite a hike away now so as a result i'm an email and blog slacker until wednesday (or thursday - can't remember). the new apartment is very swish and nice n' warm, and in the weekend we got some groovy counter stools so the picnics on the floor of the lounge have come to an end. we also found a very funky sofa in the weekend but that doesn't arrive until friday or next monday. still on the hunt for the right coffee table, a couple of lamps, a computer desk and chair and a red squishy chair for the lounge.

after a couple of weeks of blue skies and relatively warm weather the snow has set in again but i have to brave the cold and get out and about as i only have 4 more weeks left here :(. i am so excited about heading to south america, but the thought of saying goodbye to ger is a big fat dollop of sadness weighing me down :(

anyway, catch up proper later in the week!

xx d

banff-tastic!

yesterday I jumped on a bus at sparrows' fart (7.15am. i actually got up at 5.31am - can ANY of you believe it?!?) and went to banff for the day. banff is truly beautiful - the most incredible mountain town I have ever been to. it's bang-smack in the rockies, and they are towering. i had never seen so much snow, banff is like a giant merangue. anyway, on arriving in banff i asked for directions into town and strolled down the main street looking for the 'adventure' centre so that i could book a tour. i booked myself into the 'johnston canyon icewalk'. i was originally planning on doing the snow-shoeing survival course one but the girl at the desk said that the icewalk was the MOST popular. the tour started at 1.30pm, and it was only 9.30am, so i went and had a vanilla bean latte (mmm) and a double chocolate muffin (double mmmmmm) for breakfast. then i strolled to the end of town (town's not very big in banff), across the river and headed west. i found this great marsh walk which i didn't finish (i turned around and went back because i was worried about missing my tour bus) but it was soooo beautiful (and quite scary because i kept seeing these tracks which looked kind of like dog footprints but WAY BIGGER than a normal dog, so i immediately assumed they were wolf or bear tracks!!!!).

on the way back into town i saw the CUTEST squirrel!! it was really small and a light brown colour with a little gray tummy. he was quite interested in me and came quite close - sitting on a branch pointing in my direction, chewing on nuts. imagine my amusement!! he moved like no other creature i had ever seen. like he was slowed down stop-motion. something else incredible i saw on the way back into town... i noticed that some of the snowflakes landing on my sleeve were actually like the snowflakes you see photos of - the intricate and beautiful symmetrical star shapes!!! i always thought that you needed a microscope to see that detail, but apparently not! i was gobsmacked.

the afternoon tour was so great, i'm so glad i decided to do it. we hiked for about 2 hours into the mountains. for much of the way we followed a steel walkway that was bolted onto the side of the canyon wall, so we had some great views. the ice falls are incredible - i suppose they are a bit like icicles, but on a much grander scale, and the colour - a glowing pale blue - is stunning. there were 8 people in my group (i was the only kiwi) - some canadians, south Africans, germans and a scottish woman. our guide, fred, was french-canadian, and he was a cool guy - typically funny and friendly as most canadians are - but he never used plurals... it was quite strange. for example, "there are not many bird left here in the canyon". anyway, he knew a lot about the geology of the area, and the wildlife, so it was a very interesting trip and I learnt a lot :).

check out the pics :)
http://wedged.showcard.co.nz/gallery/album21

we have some blue sky today, and the snow is starting to melt. i think a chinook wind is blowing through and we have 4 degrees!! ABOVE zero!!! if we're lucky it might stay like this through the weekend.

be good,
love d xx

hehe! he'll kill me!

a little too much japanese tea perhaps :)

but he's not here so i can get away with it. ger just left for buenos aires this afternoon where he will be for the next 5 days sorting out the final details for his visa. the lucky poo gets to go back to 30 degrees, and he was even so cruel as to tell me just before leaving me in the middle of a blizzard, that he has packed his togs.

so i am alone in canada for the next week! what shall i do? well, i need to look around for some furniture coz we found an apartment! it's really nice - brand spanking new, big windows, great view, fancy kitchen. we should be moving in as soon as ger gets back. for now i am living in the 'best western' hotel, not far from the new apartment. ger's company freaked out when they discovered how much they were paying for the sheraton (personal opinion: seems strange that they would put us there in the first place - did they not connect the room rate on the reservation with how much they would have to pay???) and promptly moved us out. ger and i are somewhat relieved, as living in the sheraton for 3 weeks started to mess with our minds ;P. the strangely robotic staff were not the scariest thing... what it was doing to our expectations of basic necessities was what freaked me out. we arrived at the best western hotel yesterday afternoon (a very comfortable, spacious, and way-beyond-my-personal-budget hotel) and shock horror - no-one came rushing out to help us with our bags!!! AND we had to take our own bags up to our room!! We clambered into the elevator and gave each other rolling-eye looks. And then it dawned on me - in only 3 weeks we had turned into big fat snobs! It didn't take long for us to shake it off though. i think we both feel much more comfortable here (although it unsettles me to realise that before staying in the sheraton this place would have been luxury, now it's just spacious, clean and comfy) and i somehow feel free-er! perhaps because we actually have free internet right here in the room (don't have to suffocate myself in layers of insulation to run across to the mall just to use the internet anymore!), and there's a fully functional kitchen in our room where i can cook (and not just microwave!), and the fridge is empty for us to put our own things in (and not jam-packed full of incredibly expensive tiny bottles of alcohol that we didn't dare to touch). i like it here :)

anyway i have put up some more pics, not of anything in particular, but just of our potterings around over the past week. there are some canmore cross-country skiing pics there (the rockies beat ruapehu hands down), some eating pics, and some more freezing-our-butts-off pics.

http://wedged.showcard.co.nz/gallery/album20?page=1

cuidate!
besos,
d xx

acclimatising :)

one of winter's saving graces here in calgary, the chinook wind, is breezing through at the moment, and yesterday it brought with it a balmy 5 degrees!! YEAH! perfect for our first go at cross-country skiing :). we went to canmore - an expanding mountain village about an hour from calgary and about 20 minutes from banff - with lalo and anna (lalo works with ger, and anna is his girlfriend). the drive into the rockies was stunning and i kept my eyes peeled for wild moose but didn't see any. canmore is a really pretty mountain village, but we were there for the mountains! the snow was nice n' powdery but deceptively hard at the same time. because of the beautiful day and strenuous exercise i worked up a bit of a sweat and took off my hoodie. now i'm suffering grazed forearms that really sting in the shower. next time the hoodie stays on!! the tracks grooved into the snow make down-hill skiing so much easier! you just slot your skiis in them and whoosh on down the hill! by the end of the day i could make it all the way down a hill without wiping out (which was an unexpected relief considering I wiped out as soon as i slotted my boot into my second ski). WOOHOO! we had such a fun time that we're both chomping at the bit to get back to the mountain. and it was so cheap too - $30 for both of us for 2 hours!

on saturday we went to the calgary farmers market. i was a little confused at ger's insistance that we go there. i mean, isn't it a little odd for a boy to desperately want to go to a food and crafts market?? but there awaited an incredible surprise! ger had heard of something legendary deep within the heart of the market and that no kiwi would want to miss.... PIES!!!!!!!! pies of all kinds, including good ol' beef!! we ate 5 between us and they were pretty damn yummy. still not EXACTLY the same as i'm used to - the trick is definately in the pastry i reckon - but definately pie-ish enough to get me through the winter! :) AND they deliver!! YEAH!

i better get going - have another apartment to see.

big hugs
d xx