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April 16, 2006
At Last...
Phew, So an impromptu 2 hour break from work has finally given me the chance to get this website in order and up-to-date, so what has happened since that far off date of April 5th?
Thursday night was our staff party, an hours tubing followed by drinks and snacks in the 'Longhorn' Bar.
We all met at the main store - which had closed early especially - for 6pm and started to drink the free beer. We all had a couple and about 45 minutes later with tickets in hand made our way up to the Tube Park via the gondola.
The Tube Park consists of a small hill with straight chutes cut into, you sit in your tube (a glorified tractor inner tube) and side down. The various techniques employed for sliding down included the 'run-and-jump' and the 'spin'. We had a couple of little races and a small snowball fight before being kicked out at closing time around 8pm.
The Longhorn was the next stop. More free beer flowed and some snacks of Nachos, Enchiladas and Chicken Wings appeared.
By the time the shots started to appear we had all drunk a fair amount. The first shot I think was a 'Jager bomb' - a glass of Red Bull with a shot glass of Jagermeister sitting in it, just tip it back and drink...
I don't remember the second round of shots arriving, only a glass being thrust into my hand and being told to 'drink'. Bad Idea.
The contents turned out to be 'Barcardi 151'. A Dark Over Proof Run - illegal in many countries due to its excessive alcohol content - 151% proof or 75.5% by volume.
The effects were quite startling and immediate on me so I quickly wondered to the toilet ;o)
Upon my return - despite feeling infinitely better - the doorman informed me I was 'done' and had to leave :o( - arse.
So Myself and SK made our way home, I made one final call on the big white telephone before heading to bed.
The next day at work stories were rife about the night before, various peoples drunken antics on the dance floor and what certain people did after leaving the bar.
The best goes to 'Scottish Neal' who left the bar (completely tanked) at about 12, was left standing next to the bus stop ready to catch the 12:15 bus but somehow woke up 7 hours later in the Police Drunk tank having been arrested! The various details of how or why still elude him, but he does remember some handcuffs being put on him. Nice one Neal.
Next event to happen was the arrival of SK sister Hannah to Whistler, her bus arrived at about 1am on Sunday the 9th so we walked to Creekside to meet her.
She sent Sunday morning recovering from the trip then went into Whistler with SK to get her snowboard gear for the week, in the afternoon I joined them in the Longhorn for some beer (but no Bacardi 151 this time...) and Nachos.
That evening we watched the final "Fire & Ice" of the season. The build a big gap jump at the base of Whistler in the Village and about 8 guys and girls from Ski and Snowboard school jump off it and do various tricks, they then add a ring of fire to really 'heat things up'... The show started quite late but it was really impressive especially the final run when all 8 came down about a second apart each doing backflips or massive spins through the ring and landing infront of the crowd.
So Monday dawned bright and cloudy, It was Hanna's first time snowboarding so I took her to the learning zone (complete with magic carpet) on Whistler. She took to it really well and was linking turns within a couple of hours, SK was acting as official photographer and documented the whole thing. After a couple more hours we ventured onto the Magic Chair... The first time off the lift was a small disaster (complete with emergency stop) but we survived and the following attempts to dismount the lift chair were much better.
Monday night dinner was courtesy of the Mongolie Grill which was very nice.
Tuesday saw more snowboarding but this time we took the gondola to the very top of the hill and rode down through the family zone all the way to the base. The weather was slightly nicer so we all worked on our goggle tan lines. Hannah was slightly more achy by Tuesday evening so had obviously used a few more muscles :o)
Wednesday was a rest day so we got up bright and early and caught the 8am bus to Vancouver. The morning was spent walking around Down town through all the shopping areas and seeing the sights, including a trip up the lookout tower.
We met with Hannahs friend from University, Sarah, at 4:30pm and all went for a bike ride around Stanley Park. Hannah used Sarah's Boyfriends bike so Myself and SK had to make do with rentals.
The rentals bikes were a cruel joke - probably designed to make you repent for something bad you did in a previous life, evidently I wasn't Gandhi. After and hour of repenting cycling around we left Hannah who was going to spent the night in the City and got the last bus home to Whistler.
On Thursday morning Hannah arrived back on the bus and went up on the hill for a few hours with SK, they did a few long runs down the mountain and had a good day.
On Friday Hannah decided to have a rest day and wonder around town (do some shopping, have a spa etc etc), We had just had a big dump of new snow so I decided to go snowboarding for a couple of hours. I had some fun runs through the trees and down some powder runs however the visibility wasn't great. Ben joined me for an hour at the end of the day and we did a couple more tree runs before heading to the base.
For Hannahs last night in Town we went to the Brewhouse (you haven't heard that name in a while) for dinner and drinks. SK had a cannelloni, Hannah a Salmon Penne and I ate Steak and Prawns, 'twas very nice. Afterwards we went into the bar and met with Sarah and some of her friends for more beer.
I was working on Saturday but SK, Hannah, Sarah and her friends all went Snowmobiling from the sounds of the stories it was absolute chaos (more than you can probably imagine) but I'll let SK tell you about that one. That evening Hannah caught the bus back to Vancouver to catch her plane back to England.
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I have spent this morning working in Summit. The past week has been Whistlers (unofficial) Mexican week, where the village is inundated with visitors from Mexico. The stories of peoples 'foot fingers' hurting, consistently fitting boots 2 sizes larger than normal and 50 families all with the same name are too numerous to list here but it's sufficient to say the week was carnage.
This week in Whistler is the 'Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival', I quote "10 Days, 10 Nights of Mind Blowing Music, Arts & Sports" can't argue with that. I'll get some photos later in the week but there is a large stage built in the main square where bands play each afternoon - including *gasp* 'Jurassic 5' later this week. There are also loads of events such as a Superpipe competition, Big Air contest and 'Stompede' to name a few.
Combined with over a foot of snow in the past 3 days and more on its way this is shaping up to be quite an amazing end to the season. I've got the next 4 days off so I'm hoping to get up the hill as much as possible.
There are some new photos in the Gallery (I'll get all the titles updated when I can) and I'll try and get some of the Festival as it happens this week.I've got some new video as well so you may see a video or two appearing... I'll keep you posted.
Posted by edwardnorthridge at April 16, 2006 01:11 PM