Bleh

Bleh.

Off to Vancouver/Cypress tomorrow.
Will post when we return, unless there's internet access at the Lions Gate Travelodge.

Takin' camera, so hopefully there'll be clear skies for some pictures.

A slightly less than rippin' day...

Last night I was really excited about getting up early and hitting the mountain, due to the promise of 10-15cm of new snow.

At 00:30 this morning I was still awake visualising myself doing a frontside 180 off a kicker. I hate it when I can't sleep. Imagine the terror at 05:10 when Kat had to get up for work, and then at 05:30 when I arose from the palatial boudoir.

Dunno what it was today, but lack of snow, and lack of sleep certainly didn't help my irritable mood, and distinct lack of skills on the hills.

A dirty English ski instructor nearly earned himself a snowboard in the head after telling me off for "riding across the piste". I hate that word. Bah.

Aerially however, today was a success. I'm now only 20-30cm from clearing the entire (small) kicker, and feeling very confident in the air. In the final moments of the day, I managed to pull off some kind of strange ollie with a 180 degree spin in it. Admittedly, I wasn't moving very fast (if you must know I was barely moving at all) but it was very pleasing nevertheless.

We shall see what rotational delights tomorrow may or may not bring.

Wa Wa Wi Wa

This week we've decided to take a small side-trip out of Whistler to Cypress Mountain.

Apparently this is where the freestyle snowboarding and skiing events will be held for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Realistically, nobody really cares about the skiing though, do they :-)

Today I put the awning out, as it was nice and sunny.
Of course, shortly after I did this, it started puking snow even down here. Waah!!

Well no complaints though, as it's been snowing like crazy this weekend. Tonight it's scheduled to snow another 10-15cm, so tomorrow morning I will be rising at an ungodly hour to hit up the fresh tracks breakfast again.

Can't wait!!

Another rippin' day!

What an awesome end to the season this has been!

More snow yesterday, so we trekked over to Symphony and Harmony again and rocked the powder.
Allegedly it was only 5cm of snow, but it was knee deep in a lot of places. Go figure.

It's really hard to convey how good the day was in words, so I *promise* some pictures this week.

Kat finally got paid, so we celebrated the return of money by having a few beers. Very nice.

More snow is scheduled for this weekend, and next weekend, the moment we've all been waiting for - China Mike arrives!

A rippin' day!

I reluctantly arose this morning at 0800, and peered out the window... WHAT THE?!

SNOW!! Lots of it. Gosh darn it. Why didn't my people alert me to this??
Bah it's hard to find good help these days.

There was fantastic snow today. In some places it was nearly knee deep.
Pity it was so foggy you couldn't see.

It's kind of weird looking over a cornice, and not being able to see where the lip is, or where the snow is, or any features. It's so white my freakin' eyes are bugging out.

So I rocked out the pow, fell over a few times, ate some snow, shredded some moguls, cursed some dirty skiers, and did plenty of hiking out of flat spots.

There's something annoying about skiers. It's not their one-piece suits from the 80's, or their pushiness in lift lines, it's the way they ruin the snow when they're crap at it. From side to side they go, following each other's tracks, digging ruts deeper and deeper and deeper and.... DEEPER.

Now I like my house deep, and my snow deep, but not my ruts. I have spoken.

Also rocked out the Blackcomb terrain "garden". I'm slowly getting more confident and feel like I'm getting some half-reasonable air going. If only I had another trick. Just one.

Kat had the delight of hanging around work until 14:30. Yay. We did a couple of runs through the park. It was very nice. That is all.

Last gripe of the day - stupid motherfuckers sitting in the most annoying (and dangerous) places. What's with that? Do they have some perverse desire for me to take their head off at the neck? I am happy to oblige.

I leave you with my favourite quote of the winter: "Skiing is for little fat kids"

Rock on.

Turdy turd turd...

Last night for some reason neither of us could sleep.

Thankfully I didn't have to get up at 05:30 to go to work.

Unfortunately I had some issues with arising at 07:30 to get the bus, and slept in... again.

So the upshot of all this is my lazy ass didn't go up the mountain today. Lazy, lazy man.

I'm all pumped up for tomorrow though. Correct!

Yes, this is a boring post.

Parky park park!

What a great day today.

Got up late, headed up late, and felt like we both really looked good. I know Kat was getting some great air, and I felt like I did too. It's hard to see what I'm doing, while I'm doing it though.

So next sunny day, it will be camera time.

My new X360 games arrived courtesy of Dr. J. Excellent, thanks very much.

I've had a quick whirl of COD4, Assassin's Creed, Bioshock and Mass Effect.

All seem quite good so far! The graphics on the old 360 have gotten quite a bit better since I left Melbourne!

That is all.

Pow... err... ice...

I'm not quite used to the whole powder-on-ice business that seems to happen here.

It's those stinky skiers and their love for machine groomed surfaces I tell you!

Today (obviously) didn't live up to the promise of last night (or this morning for that matter).
Nothing but ice under the snow, my least favourite surface, coupled with edges like a butter-knife make for a slippery fear-fest.

To top it all off, I've started sneezing like a man who's getting a cold.

This was a great article I read in The Age, moite.

Herr Marcial put me onto Adblock Plus - a nice extension for Firefox that blocks nasty, nasty advertising. You should install it. Correct.

This afternoon will involve talking to Mr. Piazza about the state of the financial markets, some hot waxing, and some edge tuning. Fear the excitement.

Crapstick Jungle

Today I've been feeling kind crap again - totally low on energy, and I almost detect the signs of another cold coming on again. Bleh.

This condition has been exacerbated by the truly mindless drivel that is "Lipstick Jungle" which someone is watching. Not since the last time I accidentally tuned the satellite to "Days of Our Lives" have I been inflicted with such an insipid experience.

In other news, it's snowing even down here on the turd. w00ty!! Up early tomorrow for some pow.

The Queen's Annual Birthday Address

Yesterday *someone* made a comparison between the Queen and I because apparently I post so infrequently... hmmm. So anyways, here it is, my annual address to you my loyal subjects.

My birthday started at 5:20AM - the time that I rise to get to work these days. I've never woken up so early for anything. Work was fun though.. I had a new staff member who I had to train, and she was so shy and young and just scared of everything in general. Next, another staff member slept through his alarm and arrived an hour and a half late. On 'said' staff members break, he decided to have a little rest on the floor in the ticket booth which turned into a full snooze which he had to be violently shook from so he could get to his next job.

Ren - our gay New Zuland supervisor brought me in a cake and candles and everyone sang for me which was lovely.... then everyone left and I had to close up for the next couple of hours by myself.

I got home - tired- so I had a little birthday nap while Executive Chef Leigh prepared dinner. Our PROK dinner, cheese platter and profiterole desserts were so tasty.. I was also treated to champagne courtesy of Louis Roederer but we were both so tired that we went to bed without drinking it.

It was really a wonderful day, thanks to my family and everyone who sent me birthday wishes. You made me feel very special on what is otherwise just another day that brings me closer to my walking frame :-)

Kat xox

Put some pork on your fork!

Man what a great advertising slogan that was. It's right up there with "Feed the man Meat".

Today is Princess Kat's birthday. In lieu of heading down to Vancouver I'm going to cook her a 3-4 course meal. Just need to figure out what those courses are. There's definitely going to be some roast pork involved though.

I love pork. I don't know how our Jewish friends can go through life without supping on the succulent flesh of our dear porcine friend. If the pig was such a dirty filthy animal, why did the good Lord create him with such tasty flesh, only to deem him inedible? Tsk tsk.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to get over to the Symphony area before the crowds. Given it was closed the day before due to winds, the powder was nearly untouched when I arrived. Ahh powder. A glorious morning. Alas by the time Kat and I got back there after lunch, it was all ruined by the dirty skiers. Dirty, dirty skiers.

While we've been away I've stumbled across a number of blogs about food. You may remember this one from the brined pork. I found this one today while looking for more pork recipes. Check them out if you're so inclined to do so. Interestingly, both of these are Australian!

I am pleased to note that I have also finished Guitar Hero on the "medium" difficulty level now. Unfortunately the "hard" levels are ... well, hard. I feel it may take a lot longer to complete this time.

Finally, there are some nice polish recipes on this site here. Made me think of Trez's parents and the fine dining I've been privileged to have in Endeavour Hills on occasion!

Until tomorrow's scintillating update.

Snow and Ice

This morning I arose nice and early to do "fresh tracks" - you get a stinky old buffet breakfast, but you get allowed onto the hill before anyone else.

Breakfast was pretty nice, but Kat was working so I was chillin' by myself.

There'd been around 10cm of fresh snow last night - but it was blowing a freaking gale so visibility was nearly zero. I ripped down the hill anyway, but..... imagine the surprise of making nice powder turns only to hit.... the ice just under the surface.

It was kind of weird. Heaps of chunky bumpy shit, and corduroy shaped ice. Oh well. If there's one thing that the Vapor sux at more than anything, it's holding an edge on the ice. Ripper.

Now all I have to do is resist the temptation to buy a new board before next season. Thankfully I think shops will pretty much be sold out of anything I want....

Kat has been promoted at work after resisting it all season. Which is kind of funny because they're letting her do the SENIOR HOST role part time. I'm back to being the lowest earner of the household....

I see we have some hate mail in the comments section. I better just start fabricating mad shit to make the blog more interesting....

Peace at Last

After a weekend of working, boy it's nice and peaceful here now.
The levels of bullshit and awkwardness are now officially zero.
Now all we need to do is wait for the lawsuits to start. ROFLMAO.

Anyhoo.

Last night we went out for celebratory drinks with my boss, and I spent today feeling seedy.

It's raining on the turd right now, but that means it's SNOWING! Tomorrow I'm going to get up super-early and have breakfast on the mountain and rock it out before everyone else. Yeah.

On Friday I managed to get a demo board. Further putting nails in the Vapor's coffin. It wasn't even a great board (some Salomon thing). But it was MUCH more flexible than the Vapor, held its edge better, turned better, landed better. In general it was just bloody better. How annoying.

There is definitely a new board in the wings before we hit the snow again. I'm looking forward to seeing what Lib Tech come up with for 09...

Squamish, Guitar Hero, Apple Cider

On Friday we took a drive down to Squamish, which is the larger of the two closest towns to Whistler (the other being Pemberton, which we've been to before).

At the risk of incurring the wrath of anyone who lives there, I'm going to say that the only two attractions to Squamish are Wal Mart, and the Home Depot. A sad indictment indeed on a town if large American chain stores are your best feature. Perhaps I just missed all of the other cool things that are just around the corner in that dark seedy alley with Uncle Billy Bob.

We stocked up on toiletries and such at Wal Mart (which despite being more expensive than the USA, is still significantly cheaper than Whistler) and also managed to pick up a copy of Guitar Hero III for the x360.

On our return, the small plastic Gibson was fired up, and *I ROCK THE GUITAR*. Not as much as Fletcher rocks a real guitar, but who needs reality when you have a small plastic guitar with bright colour buttons on it.

Several apple ciders later, I had finished the game on the easiest difficulty. I rock. I'm not sure what it is recently, but I've developed a penchant for apple flavoured drinks. I blame Wix and the Appletini for starting it off. I'm not sure that cider is the way to go to get my apple fix though.

Yesterday was work and a hangover. Bliss.
Today is work, and no hangover. Much better.

Must dash!

Bah

There's something seriously wrong with the intarweb here again today.

You know it's bad though when the ISP support people never acknowledge that you've contacted them. Grr.

I had a very short day on the mountain. I arrived, I couldn't demo a board, I was tired, I left. Kat stayed up for most of the day and has apparently landed her first 180. The competition is heating up!!

I cleaned the shower and fridge. I rule.

Pow, Park, Poo

Yes, my poo was excellent thanks.

I've cheated a bit, as this is post-snow for two days really.

Yesterday was just superb. A little snow kept falling, and I made it over into the remaining powder in the morning before the clouds really set in. What can I say, much speed, much powder, much fun.

A little park action in the afternoon, things appear to be on track. Kat is working on her 180. I am working on my tan.

Today I spent most of the morning riding the park on Blackcomb. For one fleeting moment, I had so much air that I was actually floating, not just rising and falling. In reality I have no idea how much air I had, as it's not that easy to figure out how far off the ground you are. Anyway, it felt scary, but good.

After lunch I followed up with a stellar performance of falling on my ass.

Tomorrow should be excellent.

Pre-Snow Update

Arose early this morning (not by choice mind you) to discover that it's been snowing overnight.

Whistler's snow report stays 5cm - not much, but enough to be fun without worrying about missing any of the action.

Doesn't look like any snow though for the rest of the week, so better make the best of it.

Must poo, goodbye.

Jeep Jeep!

We are mobile again, repeat, we are mobile again!

Only took about an hour or so this morning to replace the fuel pressure regulator, and both quick-connect fittings on each end of the fuel rail. Jeep started up first time, and is all good to go.

Rockin'.

Pow!

Ok there, I've said it. Pow! Pow! Pow!

Today after what feels like an eternal wait there was manna from the heavens. Well, powder anyway.

Of course nothing quite goes to plan. We'd hit the sack very early last night in preparation (me for pow, Kat for work) but as fate would have it, there would be no sleeping until after midnight. I curse you Chinese ingredients and your MSG. I also coughed and spluttered my way through a highly unsatisfactory night's sleep.

So I arose feeling like death, had some coffee, and some cold and flu tablets.

There is another thing I would like to take the opportunity to tell (read: rant to you) you all about.

It's cold and flu tablets here in Canada.

Basically, they suck. You can rely on Codral and such back home to dial you right up until you can feel your teeth clenching. Sinus pain? Forget that my friend, I've got PSEUDOEPHIDRINE and CODEINE and PARACETAMOL. Up here, you can forget your nice analgesics. Some other crap is jammed into all the pills here that doesn't YANK MY CRANK.

Anyhoo. I rocked up to the mountain.

We had a minor issue with ticketing (yes, that's right, unusually today is Saturday). I did a wee bit o' shredding, and headed back down at 11:30 to pick up the JEEP PARTS.

Correct. In my sweaty hands I hold the GENUINE Mopar 83502745 fuel line repair kit. Woohoo!!

Tomorrow, I foresee greasy, sweaty hands. I also picked up the ladies, and we headed up for an angst filled lunch, and then over to Symphony/Harmony.

Alas, the pow was fairly tracked out by this stage, but we ripped it up anyway. Speed was the theme for today, and we tackled the sunlit and powder-filled bowls with reckless abandon.

Several last lifts later we finished up in the fog and slush. Jacqui gave us a ride home in her shiny new Ranger. At this point my stamina left me. The ladies are out at some snowboard competition thing. I am here writing the blog. That is all.

Sick, Westin, Dinner

Farkin' hell I'm sick of being sick. Last night we checked into the Westin for our free night.

It was so nice to be somewhere a bit luxurious for a change.
Pity I was sick as a dog, and coughing and hacking up my guts the entire night.

We had a voucher for $100 off dinner at the Aubergine Grill, which is the Westin's restaurant here in Whistler. It was pretty nice.

Champagne: Roederer Brut Premier NV - ahh champagne, how I have missed you.

Amuse bouche (apparently this is what a pre-starter is called, and yes it sounds super-fancy eh?): Lamb Rib Chop served with Espresso Sauce - Not bad, I wasn't sure about the coffee and lamb combination at first, but ... turned out to be pretty nice.

Entrees (did you know that for some perculiar reason in the USA/Canada that they call a main an entree, and an entree a starter. Weird.): Kat had goats cheese croquettes, I had a fois gras terrine. Not too bad.

Main: I had a 10oz New York strip, cooked rare, and served on a bed of smashed potatoes and some vegetables. The potatoes were excellent, and the asparagus not too bad either. The only thing that let this course down was the slightly soggy broccoli. The steak itself was a beautiful piece of meat.

Kat had a pork rack served on a bed of creamy polenta. This dish was also excellent.

Desert: I had a selection of BC cheeses. Kat had a warm pecan gateau. The cheeses were so-so. A brie, some soft goats cheese, and a mild blue. The goats cheese was served with marmalade - an odd, but excellent combination. Other than that, a bit disappointing. Allegedly the gateau was not that great either.

We partnered this with a trio of ice wines. By this time Kat had a splitting headache, so I was forced to pitch in for the team and drink some of her wines. Such a shame.

After dinner we retired. I'm not sure I remember the journey back to the room. Kat had to venture out for some painkillers for the head. I proceeded to cough and splutter my way through the rest of the night. Yuk.

We checked out this morning, had some breakfast, and caught the bus back to the RV. Ahh hilarious. It appears that the parts for the Jeep have arrived and are at the post office. Rockin.

It's pissing down with rain here, and it's forecast for 15cm of snow this afternoon, and 15cm overnight. I'm gettin' up early tomorrow, no matter what!! I foresee an early night tonight. Meh.