The Ramones

If music is your thing, you should watch this Ramones documentary - it's excellent. I have to say sorry to the Ramones for shamefully not getting, cough, my music history correct. I never realized they were a seminal band. doh!. My excuse is that we had the Pistols & The Clash that, erm, clouded these dudes out. OK, I'm off to buy there albums - they're fab.

Spring, Spring, Spring

It was a lovely day in the neighbourhood today so I thought I'd take a few pictures on my way to work. Enjoy.

Spring Garden

Amongst the sheets of pouring rain, spring is in full swing here in Vancouver. The cherry blossoms are out . There's spring flowers everywhere. But it's rain, rain, rain at the moment. I guess I shouldn't complain because we actually live in a temperate rain forest region but it'd be good to get some blue sky and enjoy all those cherry blossoms.

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Oh well, moaning aside ... the garden is blooming and it's really nice to see it returning. We've added some granite rocks here and there, which all the little birdies who have *flocked* to eat from the bird house jump around on.

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Our evergreen clamatis we planted last year is growing like crazy and it's bloomed flowers. yeah!

There's a bunch of construction in the neighbourhood as the gentrification advances. Here's a picture of the old house across the road being demolished. We really liked the old German dude who lived there, and was sorry to see him move on.

Frisco Kids

We're off to San Franscisco later this week - we are thrilled. San Fran is special to us as we've had many great times there together, with friends, with family and I spent a summer in the Santa Cruz mountains years ago.

In '95, the airlines had 2-1 for sales, so M and I would pop down from Seattle for the weekend. We did this a bunch of times and stayed in Haight-Ashbury at this great place called the Red Victorian. It's a bed & breakfast with themed rooms, kool atmosphere and travellers from around the planet. We soon got our favourite places which we'd frequent on our visits. Inevitably on these trips we'd run into a bunch of freaks and great adventures would ensue.

So what about that summer? Well, itching with dreams of travel, tired of MadChester, tired of the most miserable of English bosses, tired of video-games I headed off to San Francisco to work on a summer camp in the Santa Cruz (just South-West of the City) mountains which turned out to be a massive experience.

My primary job was to run the Camp Store. LOL! My duties were to ...1... stock with supplies ...2... sell the stuff ...3... watch the kids with diets didn't exceed their candy quota ...4... manage the billing. I sold sweat shirts, water-bottles, t-shirts, candy & ice-creams. Additionally, I'd help out the office .. as they wanted me to answer the phones because of my British accent. hahhaha. "Ullo?, can a 'elp ya?"

I had my fave kids, who I'd let exceed their candy quoto. One time I over-stocked a bunch of Otter-pops (long ice pops). I figured the best way of getting rid of them was to give them away. So, I told the kids to all to move back and gang up on the grass and tossed*free* Otter-pops into the huddle, and watched the frenzy start. It was hilarious. A bunch of *free* 'pops later, it was time to save some for another day. Wrong idea!, the kids went nuts and stormed the store door ... knocked me flying, as I tried to stop them entering, and pinched the rest of them. LOL.

The summer rolled on and I settled into the role of camp store dude ... Hey! no computers, no talk of bytes, deadlines. I'd play my tunes - lost on the young ones, but the teenagers enjoyed it. They'd hang out on the grass and listen. I'd made good friends with my fellow travellers from Holland, Hungary & America. We'd all hang out, swim in the pool, go running (what!) and on our time-off head into San Francisco to explore. I got to know the city really well over the summer, checking out this and that. After a few months at the camp, me and my new friends travelled the US. After they left, I continued trekking around with my 3 month Amtrak pass. Epic times.

Anyways, we're really excited about returning this week. We'll be updating the blog whilst we're there, so check in.

Rain, Rain Go Away ...

It's been raining for days, and it even got to me - a Mancunian on the Eastern side of the Penines. I was in the elevator with my friend from Leeds today. Someone asked us if it rained in England as much. Leeds dude replied no, I said yes and explained that all the rain has fallen on Manchester before it hit's Leeds. That explains why Yorkshire puddings are always dry I guess :)

Here's a picture someone at the office shot from the deck today as the rain ended. Nice picture for sure...

** BLOG MOVE ABORTED**

Hey All, I'm no longer moving my blog.

Thank You, Kormacurry.

** BLOG MOVE ABORTED **

INDEED

Watching You, Watching Me ...

It's an international affair. Above is the breakdown of the countries in the international massif reading my blog so far. Thanks all.

Powderhound Session 2007-9

Last night was a lovely sunny evening, there was 6cm of new snow on the local moutains so Oz and I decided to head up for a gold tier, blue-ribbon award evening session.

The mountains were beautiful. Perfect light with a powder-blue sky. The views were expansive - North into the range, East over the Cascades, West over Vancouver Island, South over-looking Vancouver, Georgia Straight and the US. I tell you, I've travelled all over the Pacific Northwest and this is probably the best view to be seen. M's out and about with the camera, so no pictures or movies I'm afraid.

Back to the session .. The mountain was empty, so plenty of opportunity to get some speed up. We had many great runs as the sun faded and the stars appeared. The temperature dropped, but that didn't matter since we'd been stoking the fires building up steam all evening - besides my board had slid of the car and an edge smacked me right in the cheek ... so I needed some 'ice' on my face.

After a great night, we headed down the mountain, stopping at the lookout overlooking the city ... twinkling lights forever, then continued on to get some tasty garlic pizza on Davie St .. a cheese medal for our calorie burning expedition.

The season is drawing to a close, probably only a few sessions left.

Daylight Savings

This weekend the clocks went forward an hour - 3 weeks ahead of schedule. Lots more daylight = less power consumption. It was nice to walk home in the daylight, sauntering along the treelined boulevards ... checking out all the spring flowers, the cherry tree blossoms and the willow trees with new green. Nice, Nice, Nice! Especially nice after 3 days of hard rain over the weekend.

It might be all about daylight savings time, but I watched a BBC documentary last night on 'Global Dimming' - the amount of sunlight is being reduced. Around 16% over the British Isles since the 1950's. Here's what WIKIPEDIA has to say about it. CLICK ME.

Banff Travelogue

Here's a video travelogue of our adventures in Banff. Enjoy.

Calgary->Vancouver Flight Delays

The flight back from Calgary to Vancouver was delayed. It turned into quite the mess-up. I was so bored I made this short film.

Powderhound Session 2007.8

Here's the movie from our session on Sunshine, Rocky Mountains. Enjoy.

Powderhound Session 2007.7

Here's the movie from our great day on Lake Louise, Rocky Mountains. Enjoy.

Banff


What a fantastic time we all had. Here's how it all unfolded...

Flying out of Vancouver, climbing over the Cascade Mountains, up above the clouds we could see the tops of the mightiest volcanoes of the Cascade Range looming over vast populations - Mt Baker, Mt Rainier. Speeding over the epic wilderness we checked out the valleys, peaks and vast forests punctuated by clearcut zones - eye sores of non-sustainable forest management. Next up was the Northern reaches of the Great American Desert - Mojave followed by the epic Rocky Mountains. Standing tall, standing mighty - these mountains have stirred all emotions. Reverence from visitors and original dwellers and fear from the early pioneers heading west seeing their first major obstacle. The Rockies soon end, and the vast North American Plain opens up. It's wild how abrupt this change happens.


From Calgary we caught a shuttle and headed back into the Rockies, to Banff. It's a really beautiful ride through the mountains. The prairies turn into foothills, the foothills turn into mini-me mountains then the massif rocks appear.

We arrive at the hotel, check in, the room isn't quite ready so we take a walk around town. It's sunny, it's bright and we can feel the altitude. Banff is a mile high, the air is cold and fresh. It feels like some 19th Century health retreat.


It's just after the lunch rush, so we ended up in a Old Spaghetti Factory feeding frenzy, beside It's a tradition on these winter vacations to eat there. A couple of nice glasses of wine and the mixed plate of 50% Mangers Special + 50% Browned Butter and Mizithra Cheese = 100% satisfaction. lol.

After a little town action we head back to the hotel and promptly exchange winter clothes for hot-tub attire. Ahh, the lap of luxury in the basement spa. It's starting to feel like a great holiday, as I slip from tired achy Kormacurry into relaxed Kormacurry. It was hard to get out, but we really did have to try the steam-room. Magnifique. We lazed away the rest of the late afternoon before heading out for dinner.

In the eve we check out to a local pub, enjoy a tasty meal and listen to a stunning Ska band, complete with horn section. We enjoyed them so much, we sat through 3 sets into the early hours. At one point we shared a table with some kids from Calgary up for a party weekend in the mountains. It turned out one og them was a friend of a intern we had at our office. Small world.

Next day we awake to glorious weather. Mountain fresh. M really wanted to see the legendary Lake Louise so we caught one of the ski-shuttles out there. The ride was just epic. Fabulous mountain range, after fabulous range. Forests, just the way we like them - vast and untouched. Awesome-Awesome-Awesome. Around the lake was a grand château which we checked out - very nice. The lake was our destination so we headed outside. M spotted the biggest raven ever .. huge and some dandy bird with a interesting song. The Lake was frozen, so guests at the château skated merrily with misty mountains looming in the backdrop.

Around the lake was a number of ice-sculptures, a few were very kool. Intricate designs not as clumsily cut as the chain-saw art that’s inevitably on display in mountain towns.

After a great afternoon, we had a nap and waited for the arrival of our friends ChicagoStyle a.k.a Sir BanffALot and Ms Basque. Prior to sleep the weather looked great, and we imagined them heading through the range at sunset. When we awoke - different story ... snowfall. Awww buggger!, that's going to be no fun at all. Not to worry, they arrived safe and sound and after a quick pre-function party in their room we headed out to start what was to become a fab trip. 1st dinner destination was Balkan a Greek restaurant, we all split a bunch of tasty Greek delights .. including the heart-smart option Saganki ... pan fried goats cheese with lemon. MmmMmmM. We exchanged stories, caught up and a bunch of laughs. Good tmes for sure.

Next day we headed out for the 1st session on the mountains and Powderhound Session 2007.7 at Lake Louise. The weather was perfect, the drive out was epic and the session turned out to be fantastic. The powder was great, the views were stunning and all of us had a great time. ChicagoStyle got his groove on, and it was like Christmas round at his place ... carving precision slices of tasty goodness. Ms Basque was on form and tearing up the kill-pow (killer powder) loving the mountain.

After a great afternoon on the slopes we headed back to hotel to meet M. We all jumped in the hot-tub and enjoyed a tasty post-ski beverage. Ahhhh.. bloody luxury. After a couple of hours nap-time we headed out for a tasty dinner. We found a great Italian with home style cooking. Good times. Everyone ordered yummy food and savored the culinary delights.

For our 2nd session on the mountains, and Powderhound Session 2007.8 we got an early start and headed out to Sunshine. Somewhat mis-named since the place was freezing. The temp hovered around -14c until it hit a high of around -10 which felt erm... great. Nestled amongst in the interior range it gives stunning vistas above the tree-line. Once again we had a great time exploring the mountain and the runs on offer. ChicagoStyle pointed out a hilarious designed run up near the Continental Divide (you know .. the point at which rivers to the East low into the Atlantic, and to the West the Pacific). There was a green run(generally the easiest) that ran parallel to a black diamond (advanced difficult) and if you didn't have enough momentum you'd end up dipping into that run and if you’re a beginner .. very probably a frightful experience.

Good times for sure this day, and we finished the day up by doing a great ski-out session. The trial must have been a service road in the summer, and trail in winter. It had some great bends and cheeky slopes. The run of the day was - 43 - …dreamlike.

After our session we headed back and all went out for a good lunch at the Irish Pub with some tasty pints of Guinness. Lunch over, it was back to the hotel for a spa session (awww stop it), a nap (come on!) and out for another great dinner at the Bison. Link Here. We discovered a great restaurant serving excellent food and refreshing cocktails. Delightful munchery over we called in at the Rose & Crown for laughs.

Following day … we headed out for breakfast followed by a long walk upto the Chateau in Banff. We cross a bridge over the frozen river and shudder at the foot-tracks across it like prudent city-folk we are. Good reaction considering further along the ice was breaking apart exposing the river.

We sauntered through the hotel, marvel at the grand patio and the view it provides. It's situated perfectly above the river, facing down a valley and framed by a mountain on either side. We headed into the swanky cafe and enjoyed cocktails - afterall the place was epic and it's played host to lots of celebs and merry makers including Marilyn Monroe.

We head back to the hotel, fire up the car and head East through the Rockies, down onto the Plains and into Calgary. On the outskirts of town we spot the place where the legendary Eddy The Eagle made his famous ski-jump in the winter Olympics.

What a fab trip. We all had a great time, lots of laughs and lots of adventure. Good times for sure.