herbert lake

Last week Mick managed to convince me to cycle up the highway (and by up, I mean uphill, dear god) to a place called Herbet Lake. Mick always manages to convince me to do what appears to be daft or unachievable things, but I'm glad he does 'cause in the end it is always worth it. Like climbing the spindly tree in the middle of Saddleback, in my pyjamas. (Photos of this one soon). So excited for Yukon adventures.

Anyway, Herbet lake is the only lake in close vicinity that you can swim in in the summer, as the others and the rivers are glacier fed so are cold all year round. I don't think I'll get the oppurtunity to swim here - it was a super warm day but as you can see it's still mostly frozen over! Spent a few hours getting stupidly burnt (well I did anyway - I was only out for three hours but the sun is so strong at this altitude! Combine it with suncream though and it makes for really fast tanning!) and playing with sticks. I really like riding my bike.

deux petit pois

Now you have a better idea of what I meant when I said we had a ghetto porch. Photos from the day Crystal left, two weeks ago, that I'm only just getting round to uploading. Look how sunny it is - isn't it surreal that we have weather like this the day after the photo from the last blog post? (The one about the last day of the ski hill being a snow storm!) We've had pretty beautiful weather the majority of the time in the past two weeks, although it's raining today. Can't say I've missed the rain... Drank rather ridiculous amounts of beer but not all at the same time so really it doesn't feel that bad. There's something about sunshine that makes sitting on the porch with friends listening to good music/live music (my housemate has a guitar that he likes to whip out at every opportunity,thankfully he's good!) with a can of poohouse seem like the best thing in the world. Working a lot these days, I curse myself when the alarm goes off at 4.45 but when you eventually get let out of the madhouse/dungeon (oh yea I do kitchen now! Be proud Daddy!) at 1.30 and the sun is out and you're watching fellow workmates get clicked at by Brazilian customers, I am so thankful. Even if I work the morning again the next I figure the best thing to do is be drunk by 3, pass out by 10 and you're good by the next morning. Always seems to work for me!

And because this is amazing, it's going to on here because I want to remember it forever:

You know I miss you, I miss our walls
Just shout whenever, and I'll give you a call
You want my love, you want my heart
For 6 weeks we'll have to be apart :(

Are we an item? Girl, quit playing
Just housemates, what are you saying?
Say there's another and look right in my eyes
Mon petit pois broke my heart for the first time
And I was like...

Baby, baby, baby oooh
Like becki, becki, becki, noo!
Like baby, baby, baby oooh
I thought you'd always be mine (mine)

For you I would have done whatever
And I just can't believe we don't live together
And I wanna play it cool, but I'm missing you
I miss our couch sessions, even our creepy missions
And I'm in pieces, baby fix me
And just shake me 'til you wake me from this bad dream
I'll drive far, far, far, far.
And I just can't believe were 3520 kilometers apart.

And I'm like
Baby, baby, baby oooh
Like becki, becki, becki nooo
Like baby, baby, baby oooh
I thought you'd always be mine.

Now I'm all gone, gone, gone, I'm gone :(

CRYSTAL I MISS YOU SO MUCH. Lake Louise isn't the same without you! See you in four weeks!

may 8th

The last day at the ski hill - in the 2 weeks prior to this date it had hardly snowed and so the quality was going to be rubbish... or so we thought! When it actually came to the day and I was strapping myself in for one of the last times with tears in my eyes (slight exaggeration but you get the point!), on came a snowstorm. So. Much. Snow. You could barely see anything! In the photo there are huge beautiful mountains behind me, you wouldn't believe it would you! I made Mel take this photo of me because I wanted evidence of the fact that, yes, on May 8th, it was still snowing this much. Absolutely mental, considering the tan lines I have from the past week... (More on that in the next post - I only use the internet once a week, if that, so I have to do all my posts at the same time... nevermind!)

I love the mountains. I can't imagine looking out of my window and them just not being there anymore - I realised this the other day, when Crystal was showing me photos of home for her (Ottawa), and I was like, there is something missing... It's because the sky was empty.

a kettle and two pans

I've been told, by horrible, mocking, people, that the weather in England has been rather lovely of late. Well er yea, here the temperature still regularly drops below -10 and never exceeds +5. The longest winter of my life thus far, although surprisingly bearable, due to the almost constant blue skies and sunny days. Brief, bad-quality photos depicting mine and Crystals two-hour effort to clear the brutal amounts of snow (and as we discovered, inches of ice) off our porch, with only a plastic shovel and a plank of wood. Oh and several kettles-and-pans-worth of water. By the end, Crystal's hands were twitching, our feet were soaked and the porch was still half covered. It was the next day that we realised that our porch never actually gets any sun anyway - a realisation which I was, and still am, quite upset about. Looks like I'll be carting our garden furniture and eating tea in the car park.

Oh, by the way, this is what the sky looked like:

the fifth housemate

On Sunday, Jacqui & Hanna move out. On May 10th, Crystal moves out. This is our Justin Bieber shrine, a corner of our living room devoted to all things 'Beibz', created by Crystal as a result of her catching 'Beiber fever'. Can't say I've caught it yet myself, but it's things like this that make me love our housemates and what our house is. I have a feeling Gene might make us take them down during our house inspection - well, he's got a fight on his hands. And even if he threatens us with no security deposit return (to which we will remove the posters and then drop to our knees begging for forgiveness - hey, $300 is $300!) as soon as his car pulls out they will be right back up again. And when my new housemates arrive, if they give me a strange look and think I'm weird, well I don't care. They wouldn't understand anyway, because this is mine and Jacqui's and Crystal's and Hanna's house. And until the day I leave, that is what it will always be, and Justin will remain. 

This was written last week. Jacqui and Hanna actually moved out the Sunday just gone :( Our two new housemates arrive today - in fact, they've probably just arrived at home now! Two French Canadian girls, I think they're called Marie & Carolyn, no idea about their age or anything else... I'm excited to meet them, but also quite nervous about the fact I'll be living in a house where everyone else shares a common first language. I have no problem with French people (obviously!!) I just more don't want to feel the isolation I first felt when I moved into a house with three Germans! We'll see...

winter to spring

Old photos that everyone who has my bookface has already seen, but I wanted to put them on here anyway 'cause they're the only ones I actually have of me snowboarding! The bottom one is a result of having fallen in a rather large tree well full of deep snow, making it rather difficult to get out...

THE SNOWBOARDING SEASON IS ALMOST OVER. May 8th. I just might cry. Call me daft, but have you ever tried it? There are not many things more perfect than carving your way down a powdered run on a sunny day. On one occasion a few weeks ago, after having come through some trees getting fresh tracks, I was so happy I thought I might die. When I finally succesfully landed a jump, I was on a high for hours. My friend Mel wants to leave here and go straight to New Zealand, where their ski season is just beginning, and then when that's ended, come back to Canada. It's a year and a half of winter, but I have to say I'm tempted. I can't believe that in under two weeks, it's over. Sounds like I'm talking about a lover, ay? Hahaha (: Really though. Although I'm sending all of my snowboarding stuff home, I doubt I'll really get to do it again for another three years (should I choose to stay at uni). I mean, there will probably be uni winter trips, but let's be honest it's so expensive that it'll probably be full of snobs. And I really hate rich  people. (It's my ultimate prejudice! I don't care if you're black! I don't care if you have one ear and one eye! I don't care if you were brought up on a council estate with a heroin addict mother! But if you're rich? Ew. Leave me alone...) And then there's the fact that I probably won't be able to afford to go anyway! As mentioned briefly in the previous post, I want to go live in France for a year post-uni. The intention is to work on a ski hill! Fingers crossed that snowboarding is like riding a bike so it won't be off to the bunny hill again with me! 

EDIT:

(I write these posts in advance when I'm not a home, so this was actually written last week despite being posted now, but I don't want to change what I wrote then, hence the edit!)

So despite the season ending Sunday my last day of snowboarding is actually tomorrow (because of work). I AM SO SAD I DON'T EVEN WANT TO THINK ABOUT IT. Me and Marj we having a conversation yesterday whilst sat on the 4:20 bench on the hill (don't worry, I'll take photos tomorrow, more on this later!) about missing snowboarding. We both go back to reality/start school in September, and she was saying about how she was scared that she'll miss snowboarding so much she'll drop out just to do another season. I am not scared to that extent, well, not yet. Probably because I'm one of these people that have difficulty accepting something is not going to be there anymore until it physically isn't. (For example - saying goodbye to people. I never really get sad until after they've left, and by then it's too late!) I don't know. Arg. 

Also! I am so lucky. I really wanted to send my snowboarding stuff home but it was gonna cost me at least $300, to which my dad was grumping say how it wasn't worth it... Even if was still gunna cost that, I would do it. I could never throw out my first snowboard! It means so much to me. Even though if I do another season I'll buy a new board, I will forever cherish my first, and fully intend to make a wall furnishing/table/bench out of it...
Anyway, to the actual point, I have a better way! Crystal's boyfriend Azar is English, from London, and he's visiting Crystal at the same time as me (actually a lot longer than me - he's staying for two months, myself for two weeks!) and so he's going to take my snowboarding bag home for me! It'll still cost, but I imagine will be more like $50 (you know the usual price for checking another bag), saving me so much money... Arg! Everything always works out in the end!