Tummy flus, Broomball and more adventures with Tori

The last couple of weeks have been really slow on the mountain. I have been getting very minimal hours and got a whopping pay cheque of $49 for this past fortnight! Woohoo! (That is after my rent gets taken out) Lucky Aaron gets 40hours every week as there is always snow and ice to get rid of! It sucks at the same time though as I have all this time off and we could be spending it together but here I am writing on my blog :) I have asked work to give me Wednesday's and Thursday's off though as this is Aaron's weekend so we actually have some time together.



Lake Louise



Our snowboarding is improving (FINALLY!) we have gone up the Champagne chair lift which is the next one after Mile One Quad (the first one). I did the Rollercoaster run which is a blue run with some girls from work and I think Aaron did the same when he went up with Dane a couple days before. On Aaron's next weekend we will definitely be heading to the top of the mountain! Eeek! There is a hut up the top (Summit Hut) and we will have a hot chocolate or something to reward ourselves :)

A tummy bug has been drifting through the staff here, we are calling it Pano belly. All our roomates have had it except one.. his time will come and we hope it hits him hard because he keeps going on about how strong and awesome he is for not getting it.. Anyway I had it two weeks ago - vomiting and some unwelcomed movements from the other end.. stayed curled up in bed for about 3 days and had a couple of carrots and thats about it.. Aaron got Pano belly last week and was only vomiting. Poor bugger. He still hasnt got his appettite back and feels queezy after eating but its staying down so thats good.


Food & Bev team. Aaron took this photo to highlight how
short I am. Thanks Aaron


There is a staff game that has just commenced up at Pano and it is called Broomball. It has the same rules as ice hockey but you are in shoes not ice skates. I had my first game on Monday - Food & Beverage verse Housekeeping. We lost 3-2 and my Swedish roomies scored all their goals and did I hear the end of it!! It was really fun and was great to get out and be active and play a team sport again. Very similiar to hockey. It reminded Aaron and I of home because he was cheering just like he does when I play hockey hehe. Except it was snowing and friggin cold! Poor Aaron had numb hands and face but I was hot from running around and just had a shirt on! I am trying to convince Aaron to play withhis Maintenance team.... maybe next week...

We went on another adventure with Tori on Aaron's weekend. This time we went a little further - Banff and Lake Louise. About a 2hour drive. Lake Louise was beautiful. I would love to see it in the Summer when there is just so much more colour to it. They had big ice sculptures around the lake from a competition that must have recently been held as they had first place ribbons and things hanging off them.


Aaron & I poking our heads through the windows of the First Place ice sculpture at Lake Louise

We then drove to Banff, Aaron drove the whole way and the roads were much better as it has been really warm lately and all the snow is melting off the roads. We had to drive through Kootenay and Banff National Park which cost us $19.60 to get a permit or something so we could drive through and not get a fine.. weird..



Aaron and I at Lake Louise



We got into Banff and did some looking around and dropped Morgan (Aaron's workmate that tagged along for a ride) off at the Pano bus that was there on a day trip. Aaron and I then went to find our bed and breakfast - At Wit's End - with Barbara and Vic and their little dog Pipper. It was a 2min drive out of town and was such a nice old fashioned place. It was cheaper than staying in the backpackers and we got breakfast made for us!



Beautiful views from Banff Ave

 We drove to Canmore and did a workout at CrossFit Canmore which was pretty exciting and reminded us of our home gym. We bought CrossFit Canmore shirts and CrossFit Canmore workout books which are awesome! Canmore was about a 20min drive from Banff and I was driving which was super scary! We got stuck at the B&B as the driveway was all ice so Aaron had to shovel some dirty snow from the side of the road and make tracks for our tyres then we got out about 10mins later and with a bit of a push from Aaron and Vic. The drive home was the scariest as there are no lights on the highway and I didnt feel comfortable going 110km/h when I couldnt bloody see anything! Not only could I not see anything but there are mountain goats walking all over the road!!! AAH! AND there are big water puddles from the melted snow so Aaron was freaking out coz I always drift too close to the gutter and we hit the water... hehe! I was getting better at avoiding them by the end of the trip and only managed to do 90km/h so everyone was flying around me. They all speed over here!!
So Banff was a beautiful place. We had dinner at Saltlik steakhouse to celebrate Australia Day and we had lunch the next day at the Old Spaghetti Factory.

Until our next adventure!

Taken Tori for a drive to Cranbrook!



Behind the snow plougher!



Our first road trip! 1.5hours away from Invermere so 2 hours from Panorama - destination Cranbrook! Others from the mountain refer to it as 'Cran-hole'... charming...

The drive to Cranbrook was lovely, so scenic and mountainy. If you ask Aaron on the other hand he might tell you it was a slow drive with snowy, unploughed roads and you couldn't see shit.. I am glad I was the passenger =)

 Oh and we got stuck behind a snow plougher! That was fun! We nearly ran up its butt! Then we saw its lights flashing. We also learnt that you need to put your hazard lights on when you are behind one so people can see you as you disappear in the snow.. fun!



The signs you could barely read..



We got into Cranbrook and made our first stop the famous Walmart! They had EVERYTHING! Even a McDonalds inside?!?! Random... And I thought it was funny that they had the guns, knives, hunting apparell right next to the kids toys section. Whoever designed the floor layout was not a clever cookie..



Aaron bought a mini acoustic guitar and we tried an apple pie McFlurry from McDonalds. Weird mix but it was like eating apple pie and ice cream! Yum! I still prefer the real thing though..

We then went back out onto the main street the goes through the centre of town and went to Boston Pizza for lunch which had everything you could think of on the menu. Aaron had a chicken pesto pasta and I had a salmon dish. And we shared goat cheese and spinach dip to start.



The beautiful view



Our main aim whilst in Cranbrook was to see a movie as we are feeling deprived of cinema time considering we used to go at least once a week back home. Turns out they only show evening sessions in Cranbrook unless its a weekend.. Damn it! So we went to Dollarama and bought some candy and had our own movie night in the common room back at home.. Even though we watched a documentary on the CrossFit Games it was still movie time =)

 And that is pretty much all there was to do in Cran-hole... I mean Cranbrook..

The day before our trip we got our dear old car, Tori, serviced. She had no rear brakes left so the pads and rotors got relpaced. And her indicator wasn't working so that got fixed. And she got topped up with some fluids.. All up $400 and we still need to get a spare tyre as we dont have one!!


Dear old Tori



The new addition to the family, Toboganing & Snowboard lessons!

We bought the car! 1998 Ford Taurus station wagon. Its burgundy and is so nice and roomy. Everything is automatic - windows, central locking, cruise control, seat adjusting, you name it! Its an automatic and has a column shift (the gear stick at the steering wheel) so I will have to get used to that not being my indicator! Aaron has been the driver so far and it was a slow ride up the mountain as it was his first time driving in town, and off the mountain and to add to the stress of it all its been snowing hard for the past 3 days and we are driving on the wrong side of the road!!!! We made it though so good work Aaron :)

Getting the car insured was a pain in the butt. We didnt bring our passports with us when we caught the businto town, which were required for the paperwork so Dave (the seller) drove us up the mountain to collect everything then back down which is about an hour round trip. We bought him lunch at Ray Rays. So we got the car for $1800 and insurance and registration cost us just under $600 which is for 6 months. Ouch!

This took up Aaron's weekend so we didnt get out snowboarding. But we went toboganing last night down the Magic Carpet with Dane and Gina which was pretty fun. No epic crashes but I did get one of Aaron's on video.. hehehehehe!!

Aaron was back at work today enjoying the last few days of snow (which is still coming down hard by the way) I on the other hand, woke up early and went for a snowboarding lesson!! I was supposed to be tagging along with another girl but she ended up going on a ski lesson so lucky me got a one on one! John, my instructor, took me down Magic Carpet three times to see where I was at (a very beginner trail) then we caught the Mile One chair lift and went down Horseshoe twice, Show Off once then Horseshoe to finish off. My knees are nice and bruised as I am always falling onto them on my toe turn. John said I need to stick my hips out to avoid face planting which I am a professional at mind you! :) My neck is a little sore from my tumbles but overall I am not falling down as much and my confidence is slowly creeping up. So I will be heading out next week again depending on what my shifts look like. And Aaron and I will definitely get out on his weekend this time!!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Well it has been a very busy week at Panorama with the occupancy level nearing 100%. I have had A LOT more shifts this week. I have done 40hours in the last 4 days with most of them being split shifts although I didnt get to go home on Friday and did a 12.5hr day! My feet were so sore! I have a serving shift tonight so hopefully I make some tips! I had my second serving shift on Wednesday and made $150 in tips!! Its pretty fun. It is like opening a present because you dont know what you will get. I have had one regular, Darren with his two sons come in and ask for me to serve them. He tips WAY too much but thats ok with me =) He leaves today and all up he tipped me close to $300 while he was here. What a nice guy! Aaron and I are using my tips to buy our groceries and then trying to save what we earn. Not that that is much as I only got $90 last pay but that is because I worked little hours. This pay should be better =)

Most the guests will be leaving today so I only have three shifts next week. Two are serving shifts though so hopefully the tips make up for the hours I wont be working..

Aaron and I both worked on Christmas and New Years so we didn't really see much of each other. We celebrated on our day off and went to Carricks for dinner which is the restaurant and Greywolf Golf Course on the mountain. It was so good. It is an Italian restaurant and we had mussels to start and Aaron finally got a chicken parmy while I had some salmon. Yummo!



My first Christmas turkey!

 We have been looking into buying a car so that we can see a bit more of Canada on our days off. We have looked at one car, a Honda CR-V, however it was registered in Ontario so it was a painful process to get it registered in BC so we decided to avoid that road and try find a BC registered vehicle. A guy I work with is selling his Ford Taurus so Aaron and I are going to check it out on Tuesday when we have a day off together. Fingers crossed its good! Aaron and I want to go check out a nearby town, Cranbrook. The bus only runs on Monday and Friday there and Aaron doesnt have those days off so we will never get there without a car. We are also getting the car to use after our Canada adventure to head into our American adventure! Very excited!

We haven't had a chance to go snowboarding again but next week when everything is more quiet we are going to go have a lesson. Most likely on Wednesday as we both have that day off.

Will let you know how it goes!!

The photo I have put up is while I was on the bridge heading to Adventure Centre Carpark. Toby Creek is frozen over now! Oh and it is getting cold again! It was around -4C for a couple weeks but we have just started to plunge into the -20C. It is only supposed to hang around for a week so I hope the week goes fast!

The other picture is of me cutting up my AMAZING turkey that I made for a girly Christmas dinner that we had. It was a massive feast with lots of yummy foods. We went overboard with decorations and we had bon bons too! Yay!