Local ice hockey in Invermere

3rd December 2010 Aaron and I went to our first ice hockey game. Columbia Valley Rockies (our team) verse Revelstoke Grizzlies. It was crazy!! I lost count of how many fights there were?! The game is split into 20min thirds and the clock is always stopping like AFL. It is weird watching ice hockey compared to field hockey because they can kick the puk with their skates and they can catch it and put it down on the ground! And SO physical!!! The Rockies ended up losing by I think 7-2.

The game started at 7:30pm so Aaron and I went into town on the 5:15 bus to grab some dinner. We were going to go to Peppi's Pizzeria but could not find it! I asked a local where it was but he believed it was shut and invited us to his local Legion's club, which is the same as an RSL (a club for all the Veterans). His name was Ray and he introduced us to his wife, Anne, who I had met at the Quality Bakery a few days earlier. I love the people here they are so friendly! So they signed us both in and it was only $12.50 for buffet of garlic bread, lasagne, salad and tiramisu. Bargain! And they also had free popcorn as a starter!!  Aaron and I were the youngest by about 20 years and it was so nice and local. We bought some tickets in the meat tray raffle and the 50/50 raffle. We also played some keno and won $15 woohoo! Aaron used it to try some beer (Caribou and Kookanee - the local brew) He liked Kookanee better. Everyone kept coming up and talking to us and asking if we were enjoying ourselves and where we were working in Pano.

We missed out on the Tiramisu because the ice hockey was about to start. So we gave our raffle tickets to Ray and Anne and thanked them for inviting us in. I have to find out if they won anything...

I had my orientation on the 2nd and 3rd which finally got me out of my room! It was very interesting. We met the Senior Management Team and the CEO, Rick Jensen, who was so funny and passionate. One of the Managers told us about his experience in an avalanche where he was buried in so much snow that only his fingertips were sticking out! SCARY! He was in the back country so I wont be heading that way. I still have to get on the mountain as I am still on the baby run off to the side... A few more rounds and I will be up on the green run (the easiest of them all) however it is still massive and steep considering it is only a green slope! And I am nervous for the chair lift.. I will probably fall off!

I finally have word on my job!!!! I have training Wednesday the 8th December 9-5 and Thursday 9th from 2-10. Not looking forward to the walk home at that hour! We will be covering a whole range of things such as wine tasting, menu tasting (you beauty!), setting up the restaurant, learning the cash register system and lots lots more! Cant wait. I will most likely work all of the weekend after that as Wildfire will be opening. I will have to get photos of Aaron and I in uniform and post them up for you to see :)

Aaron and I also found an ATM where we can withdraw money from!!! It is right here on the mountain so that is a massive relief!

The Kings of Neon party was great by the way. Aaron doesnt remember the end of the night.. Naughty naughty.. Below is a picture of the people Aaron and I share our Loft with. From left: Aaron, Joe (ring in), Blucky, Brianne, Jonathon, Johanna, Tobias, Bluey, Kirk (another ring in) and me!

Drama at Panorama!

Friday brought many surprises and gossip to Panorama.

I was having lunch at the Picnic Deli with four other girls (Hayley, Emma, Olivia and Jane) we were talking about all sorts of things from work, shopping, weddings to the painful process of learning to snowboard. And then all of a sudden a snowmobile comes flying off the mountain and into the Picnic Deli! Smashing the windows and startling everyone. I panicked because Aaron was just scraping ice off the Deli paths right where the snow mobile crashed but thankfully he and his partner had moved on from there. PHEW!  Amazingly, no one got hurt. The snowmobile crashed into the front counter, narrowly missing a customer and the waitress. The waitress got bumped by one of the falling display cabinets and was hit with shards of glass but was otherwise ok. The snow mobile came all the way down the mountain, through the chair lifts where about 50 ski tournament kids were lining up having just finished lunch, over the pathway, through the trees and didn't hit anyone! A miracle! The driver had been bucked off up the mountain as he turned the snow mobile on and it was locked in full throttle for some bizarre reason.

Unfortunately it was the only time I did not have my camera on me but I have a photo of afterwards where a plank of wood is now covering the bare wall. Just letting you all know that the Deli connects to my restaurant, Wildfire.

To add to the drama we wandered on down to the General Store to get some chocolate...mmmm! And there was an ambulance and fire truck parked out the front. We walked in and there was a girl lying on the floor in the recovery position with all these people around her. I bumped into Dane who was the guy we caught the Greyhound bus from Calgary with and it was his Mrs, Gina, who had taken a fall in the guttering at the front door! She had broke her tooth and broke her knuckle! Ouch! So slippery here with the snow!

It has started to get warmer with -6 degrees today. So all the snow is losing its fluffiness and turning icey so everyone is falling over. I made the mistake of wacking my boots together to get the snow off and took myself out but I am ok! No broken teeth thank goodness!

The free shuttle to Invermere starts tomorrow and I am SO excited! Now I can go down whenever I want yay! I am a little bored sitting in the loft all day. There isn't much to do until the season starts.. I have to go pick up my work pants which I had taken up. Love being short... I wonder how much that will cost me??

Aaron got the flu Friday night poor bugger. He had hot and cold flushes and had the shakes.. So I bought him some good cold and flu drugs and sent him to bed with some water. Then I played some drinking card games and went out to the T-Bar again! What a good fiance...! He still wasn't feeling very well the next day so took the day off work. Aaron is at work today though. He just text me and has numb toes again but he is going to try the bean bags we bought so hopefully they will warm his feet up for the afternoon.

So I forgot to update you all on my chat with Nicole about joining an ice hockey team. She said that it was more serious than she expected and didn't end up signing up. She recommended waiting for Windermere lake to freeze over and the town organises lots of events down there like ice skating, ice hockey and all sorts. Aaron and I found a second hand shop in town where we can get ice skates so we might just do that!

Crossfit in winter = SUPER CRAZY!

Yesterday afternoon Aaron and I had this crazy idea to workout in this insane weather.. To warm up we jogged down from our floor (4), then sprinted up then jogged back down... After this the feeling in my fingers and toes started to come back but I was far from warm.. We then went outside to set up the rings for muscle ups (i attempted kipping pull ups but my muscles seemed to fail so I did strict pull ups) Aaron was of coure fine besides the fact he couldnt feel his fingers. We then did 60 double unders however our ropes had frozen so we had to stretch them out and warm them up.. This was VERY hard outside as the cold air was not only forming icycles in my nose but also in my lungs which wore me out very quickly and made me want to curl up in the foetal position by the fire.. We then did 12 box jumps onto a picnic table which warmed me up the slightest bit. Then we jogged up the hill to the gym which took the longest 10 minutes of my life! It was SO cold! My toes had frozen up as I was only wearing my runners, I was wearing my gloves, two shirts, a jumper, long johns, trackie pants, two pairs of socks and ear warmers. We were puffing out icy smoke like chimneys and got tired easily, having to stop several times. We finally got to the heated gym.... mmmm heated... We attempted the Airforce WOD but it was hard as they olympic bar bell was being used and they only had barbells with weights that didnt spin. I ended up finishing in 18:26 and Aaron 19:23. Now that we were nice and sweaty we walked home in the dark (only 5:15pm) so it was even colder.. yippee! Next time we have decided to not bother about going to the gym and just fill up Aaron's aqua bag and doing workouts here. The aqua bag fills up to about 35kg. I am just going to stick with body weights exercises like double unders, push ups, sit ups, handstand push ups, burpees, etc. inside!!! We spent the evening coughing as our lungs defrosted...  There is a ski tournament on here at the moment and there are people going for jogs everywhere! Clearly it is just something that will take some getting used to!

Continuing on cold topics, Aaron's first day at work went well. He got so cold that he had to come home and grab warmer socks! A lady at his work told him it takes approximately 3 weeks to acclimatise to the weather.. HA! I will let you know how that goes. So Aaron spends his days scraping snow off foot paths, shovelling it to the side, scraping snow off roofs and pouring salt on the ground to remove the snow.

I met my boss today, Scott. He said I have the hardest job as hostess... yay! I have to manage the floor pretty much. Seat people as they come in and make sure they are spread out so that the waitresses dont get too many tables at once. A little nervous. I start Monday so I will let you know how my first shift goes.

I also bumped into Nicole who interviewed Aaron and I in Brisbane. I am heading to the resort now to go chat with her about ice hockey. She mentioned in our interview that they play on Sundays and I SO want to give it a go!

Until next time!

(The 1st photo is our warm up area, 2nd and 3rd are of the path from staff accommodation to the resort)