Our sweet little netbook computer broke down around a month ago. One day it just wouldn't turn on and that was the demise of our communication abilities.
I was particularly frustrated that it had broken down, as it was less than six months old and my Mum had gotten it for us as a going-away present. Also, despite being well aware that we were shortly leaving the country with our new purchase for an indefinite amount of time, the saleslady neglected to suggest to us that the international warranty might be a good idea. So we were all the way over in Canada with a broken computer and the option of either paying $150 an hour to get it looked at in town and potentially void the warranty, or spend similar money sending it home and being computer-less for our next adventures.
Then another possibility appeared. Adam and Robyn's friend Trent was over visiting and staying on our couch. He was flying home to Brisbane and thankfully would be happy to take our poor little computer home to my Mum to get either fixed or replaced under warranty, after which we will sell it online.
So this explains our lack of communication over the recent weeks. In this time we took the opportunity to get a laptop from down in the States, where they are much cheaper than back home. So here I am, tapping away on our brand, shiny, new 14 inch HP pavilion dm4 laptop.
The season is almost over. There are only 11 days left until the season ends, but the weekend after that, the hill is reopening for a final final weekend. Between the final weekend and then the final final weekend, there's a staff day up on the hill, during which the staff of Fernie Alpine Resort will be the only ones allowed onto the hill for a day of drunkenness and debauchery. There's also a staff party this Friday night, which should be much of the same, as staff parties tend to be.
One of the biggest events of the year is the annual 80's weekend, which gives all the Calgary and Alberta out-of-towners the chance to dust of the onesies and run around like fools getting all liquored up. It was fun for all us poor sods working as well, as we all got into the spirit and rocked side-ponies and fluoro colours. The weekend includes a Hot Tub Time Machine party, celebrating the movie that was filmed in Fernie and is about a group of friends that are taken back in time due to a faulty hot tub and get to enjoy a bodacious weekend in the 80's. It's pretty trashy but it's fun picking out all the Fernie hotspots.
While 80's weekend is held fairly specifically for the out-of-towners, Hot Dog Day is purely for the locals. It is a well-kept local secret and held mid-week to deter cranky Calgarians from making the trip. It is in a similar vein, with everyone getting oot and aboot in their finest 80's ski suits and caking on the blue eyeshadow. I have managed to find a delightful baby blue pair of ski pants with particularly fetching suspender straps. Only $6 from the Op-Shop so not too shabby I reckon!
On a completely unrelated, yet super exciting topic, we bought a car today! It is bluey-green and SO pretty. It is a 1996 Dodge Caravan and it is the first car I've ever owned so I'm pretty excited about that! The previous owner has made up a wooden insert that slides into the back and has storage area that will be perfect for our suitcases and an esky. It has a queen size blow up mattress and also comes with a propane cooker and all the utensils we will need. It is all set up so we can go camping and be sufficient for a decent amount of time.
This will be perfect for us, as we are planning a big road trip once our lease here in Fernie runs out. From here we will head to Kelowna and the Okanagan lake region, then Vancouver Island before heading down the west coast America through Washington, Oregon and California. In California we want to go to San Fransisco and LA and San Diego before heading to Las Vegas. After that we will go to the Grand Canyon, before making our way back to Canada through Arizona, Utah, Wyoming and Montana. If we leave in mid-April we will have two months before we need to be back in Fernie.
The Summer season up on the hill starts in the last week of June and runs through until the end of September and Zane and I are in talks to work up at Lost Boy's, which is open on the weekends for BBQs.
We are both so excited about the road trip. Even though this season has been awesome, we're pretty ready for some sunshine and warm weather. I envision us camping next to lakes and in forests and cooking up meals on our little cooker and cruising down the highways with the windows down, serenading Zane with my amazing singing voice. Oh it is going to be great.
Only 7 days of work left, this season has just flown by!
Much anticipatory planning and road-trip dreaming,
Love T and Z
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Close Encounters of the Fir Kind
On Friday, Jake, Todd and Emma came to visit and the cursed weekend began. Todd and Emma were coming from Calgary where they have been living for the past 3 years and Jake was coming from Lake Louise, where he is living and working for the Winter. They were just outside of Sparwood, about half an hour from Fernie, when smoke began billowing out from under the hood of their 2009 Subaru and all acceleration powers ceased to exist. Zane was luckily just finishing work and was able to borrow Crystal to go and save them from the truck stop in which they were stranded.
But that wasn’t the end of it. As the car is still under warranty, it had to be towed to the Subaru dealer in Calgary, a short $800 tow-ride away. Regardless of the drama, they checked into their hotel with their optimism reinstalled. It is Fernie, after all, and we were in the midst of the BEST snowfall of the season, but more on that later.
Overlooking the drama of the day, we headed out to the Pub for dinner before the hockey game. As usual, our dinner and drinks extended beyond our time expectations and we missed the game. But it was a great night of catching up.
The next morning the doom deepened. Todd was sick, Zane was sick, Jake was sick. All with the flu. Zane had to work and went off with a hacking cough, to stand in the balmy -24 degree Celsius temperatures of the Bear’s Den. It was a chilly weekend, with temperatures averaging below -30 with windchill. I was nice and toasty up at work, but I don’t think the cold winds were good for the out-of-towners.
We headed out for dinner that night, minus Todd, whose health had deteriorated during the day. This time we managed to make it to the game, but without Jake and Emma, who had decided on an early night given that they weren’t feeling too good either. Further evidence of the doom, the Ghostrider’s lost! They played valiantly but couldn’t overcome the players from Creston.
The next morning I woke up super keen to hit the slopes, I had the day off and I was going to show Jake the mountain! But then I realised I was feeling ill. And not alcohol ill, as I hadn’t drunk the night before. “Suck it up Tenille, you’ll be fine” I thought to myself, but then I talked to Robyn. Her and Adam had been up sick most of the morning, with a really bad tummy bug. I certainly didn’t want to be stranded up on the hill when the inclination to vom hit, so I stayed home with Robyn and Adam in, as it has now become, the house of illness. It was not a nice day. The worst thing was that I missed out on my friends Hen’s night! Apparently it was full of drinking, penis-paraphernalia and high-pitched girly giggling and I’m so sad I couldn’t be there
Todd and Emma headed back to Calgary that day, on an exorbitant airport shuttle, ending their expensive weekend of doom. Jake stayed on, keen to get the most out of the snow that had been steadily falling for the past couple of days.
I was feeling a bit better of Monday so we went up for a ride but (don’t laugh) there was too much snow. I know it sounds ridiculous but there was a good 35cm of fresh snow and it was THICK. I could barely turn and if I went off the track into the fresh stuff I would ski in half a metre, the snow would be above my knees and I would come to a complete stop. Zane was also not having a great time, as his chest was burning from his cold, so we called it a day pretty early.
On Tuesday Zane was feeling too sick to go up on the hill and Robyn and Adam were still pretty spewy so Jake and I left the house of Illness and headed up and we had the BEST DAY EVER! I’ve had to monitor my emotions, so as to not disappoint the others but it was epic! There had been 65cms over the past two days, but the freshest snow was light and fluffy. Jake and I skied all day, finding freshies all day and having some spectacular stacks. I had another tree-straddling moment and on our last run of the day Jake had a full-on tree collision. This piece of doom earned him a huge bruise on his hip and halted his skiing for the trip and despite even more snow falling that night he headed back to Lake Louise the next day.
So despite the coughs, the bruises, the vomiting and the burning muscles and the doom that plagued our weekend, we still had some great, phlegm fun and got to enjoy some really great snow (well, Jake and I did!) More snow is expected for the next couple of days at least, so hopefully the other guys will get their share of powder as well!
Much love, Z and T.
But that wasn’t the end of it. As the car is still under warranty, it had to be towed to the Subaru dealer in Calgary, a short $800 tow-ride away. Regardless of the drama, they checked into their hotel with their optimism reinstalled. It is Fernie, after all, and we were in the midst of the BEST snowfall of the season, but more on that later.
Overlooking the drama of the day, we headed out to the Pub for dinner before the hockey game. As usual, our dinner and drinks extended beyond our time expectations and we missed the game. But it was a great night of catching up.
The next morning the doom deepened. Todd was sick, Zane was sick, Jake was sick. All with the flu. Zane had to work and went off with a hacking cough, to stand in the balmy -24 degree Celsius temperatures of the Bear’s Den. It was a chilly weekend, with temperatures averaging below -30 with windchill. I was nice and toasty up at work, but I don’t think the cold winds were good for the out-of-towners.
We headed out for dinner that night, minus Todd, whose health had deteriorated during the day. This time we managed to make it to the game, but without Jake and Emma, who had decided on an early night given that they weren’t feeling too good either. Further evidence of the doom, the Ghostrider’s lost! They played valiantly but couldn’t overcome the players from Creston.
The next morning I woke up super keen to hit the slopes, I had the day off and I was going to show Jake the mountain! But then I realised I was feeling ill. And not alcohol ill, as I hadn’t drunk the night before. “Suck it up Tenille, you’ll be fine” I thought to myself, but then I talked to Robyn. Her and Adam had been up sick most of the morning, with a really bad tummy bug. I certainly didn’t want to be stranded up on the hill when the inclination to vom hit, so I stayed home with Robyn and Adam in, as it has now become, the house of illness. It was not a nice day. The worst thing was that I missed out on my friends Hen’s night! Apparently it was full of drinking, penis-paraphernalia and high-pitched girly giggling and I’m so sad I couldn’t be there
Todd and Emma headed back to Calgary that day, on an exorbitant airport shuttle, ending their expensive weekend of doom. Jake stayed on, keen to get the most out of the snow that had been steadily falling for the past couple of days.
I was feeling a bit better of Monday so we went up for a ride but (don’t laugh) there was too much snow. I know it sounds ridiculous but there was a good 35cm of fresh snow and it was THICK. I could barely turn and if I went off the track into the fresh stuff I would ski in half a metre, the snow would be above my knees and I would come to a complete stop. Zane was also not having a great time, as his chest was burning from his cold, so we called it a day pretty early.
On Tuesday Zane was feeling too sick to go up on the hill and Robyn and Adam were still pretty spewy so Jake and I left the house of Illness and headed up and we had the BEST DAY EVER! I’ve had to monitor my emotions, so as to not disappoint the others but it was epic! There had been 65cms over the past two days, but the freshest snow was light and fluffy. Jake and I skied all day, finding freshies all day and having some spectacular stacks. I had another tree-straddling moment and on our last run of the day Jake had a full-on tree collision. This piece of doom earned him a huge bruise on his hip and halted his skiing for the trip and despite even more snow falling that night he headed back to Lake Louise the next day.
So despite the coughs, the bruises, the vomiting and the burning muscles and the doom that plagued our weekend, we still had some great, phlegm fun and got to enjoy some really great snow (well, Jake and I did!) More snow is expected for the next couple of days at least, so hopefully the other guys will get their share of powder as well!
Much love, Z and T.
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