Week Seven.

I am hoping that this post is going to be the last time that I have to write 'this week I've been working so much that I haven't had time for a lot else'. Fingers crossed, but that is pretty much the be all and end all of it. You can't expect anything else working in hospitality over Christmas, but I cannot wait for the madness to die down. 

I finally managed to get skiing twice this week, on Christmas Day and Boxing Day which was awesome. It's nice to just go out and enjoy it and not have to prove anything. My aim in the New Year is to get up the hill a minimum 3 times a week. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I haven't moved all the way across the world to spend the majority of my time working! My skiing needs improvement and I want to be a competent snowboarder by the time the Summer comes so I've got a lot of hours to put in and get it together.

Tonight I am going straight from working at the Body Shop to Saltlik, so I'm hoping that I am one of the first hostesses to be cut so I can go out and enjoy the evening and see in the New Year with fireworks. Unfortunately Danny is working, so we won't spend the evening together again, but there's plenty more time for that - I'm sure I'll enjoy myself whatever I end up doing, I'll have a glass of red wine in my hand so there will be no complaints! 

As I'm writing this I'm sat here thinking how I can't actually believe I've been here only seven weeks. It feels like so much longer. I'm settled down well into two jobs, made really good friends and I just feel like I've been here a fair amount of time. I'm so glad I made the decision to come out here and try something new, it really has worked out well for me. Thank God I didn't take any notice of those last minute jitters as this time is going to be one that I am never going to forget. I am so grateful for the opportunities I have had and the things I have done and seen thus far which are only going to continue to be more and more impressive. 

I miss all of you guys at home, but Mum if you're reading (which I'm sure you are), I hope it gives you a bit of comfort to see how much I am enjoying myself and how well everything is going. I love you lots and I'll be home before you know it I'm sure. Until then, Skype me, Whatsapp me, just keep in contact, all of you. All my love...

Another Body Shop Haul.

Since starting work at the Body Shop less than 3 weeks ago, I have certainly stocked up on a heavy amount of their products. It's hard not to, everything is so good! I go into work and either a staff member or customer is raving about a product to such an extent that I am convince I need it in my life. Or I smell a shower gel and it's just necessary to buy, or I just want to learn more about certain products.

It's so nice to work somewhere where you believe in the product you are selling and you can genuinely tell your customers that what they are buying is incredible! There is so much to learn but it is just so interesting and I am learning a lot about what is good for my skin and what is not.

My favourite product by far at the moment is the hemp mitten. It's just so incredible at exfoliating the skin and teamed up with a body scrub it takes off all dead skin and impurities without leaving the skin dry. The luxury flannel is so cool as well. I use it with my vitamin E facial wash to take off my make up. It takes off all traces of waterproof make up and leaves my face feeling silky soft, then when it drys it goes rock solid so it doesn't smell damp like a flannel. It's so weird but so good. The argan oil is our newest range and it's so so nice. It's incredibly hydrating and the scent is so subtle that I can slap it all over and not smell like a fruit salad! 

The pink grapefruit hand sanitiser and the cocoa butter lip balm are the newest addition to my handbag minis and they smell so bloody delicious. Speaking of which - the vanilla creme brulee shower gel. Now this is part of our seasonal range and it is just the most delicious smelling shower gel I've ever had the pleasure of using. You use it in the shower at night, go to bed, and wake up in the morning still smelling like dessert. SO good! I'm giving the foundation and powder a go too as I can't get my usual No7 stuff over here so I need to find a good replacement, fingers crossed this is it! 

We have now hauled out our huge January sales bargains, with all seasonal items 50% off and discontinued items being available for a limited time only. Those include the honeymania, chocomania (most incredible smell), papaya, and blueberry; just to mention a few. Plus if you have a Love Your Body loyalty card that takes another 10% off! It would be silly not to...

Christmas Day in Banff.

Today we woke up bright and early, jumped in the car and headed up to Sunshine to catch the first lifts up the hill. I'm not usually one for being happy about getting up before 9am but I was so excited to finally go skiing after a full week of working and spend the morning with some awesome people.

It was lovely to go out with a big group and just enjoy skiing without trying to learn something new or try to do every lift on the hill. Not only did I have the most enjoyable time skiing, it started snowing!!! MY FIRST EVER WHITE CHRISTMAS!!! So bloody exciting. It was just so incredibly idyllic. Being on a ski hill, surrounded by snow, with it actually snowing as well. This is what Christmas should be like all around the world!

So when the snow started to fall, we did what all 20 somethings do at Christmas when they are skiing and it's snowing - we zipped into some trees, cracked open a bottle of champagne and took some pretty cool selfies. Definitely a Christmas I will not be forgetting!

Most of us were working this evening which wasn't too bad. It's Christmas so most people are happy to be out enjoying dinner with their families so it was a nice environment to be working with, but boy was I glad to be home by 10pm. We had to wait an hour or so for the boys to finish work and then we all settled down for a lovely homemade Christmas dinner! Massive thanks to Ella who put in lots of hard work getting everything prepared for us whilst we were all at work, we really appreciate it, and it was a bloody good dinner.

All of the Grizztrap residents and our honarary residents Halie and Fabian, round the table, enjoying a mixture of English and Aussie Christmas dinner. Turkey, Ham, Roast Potatoes, Roasted Veg, Coleslaw, Potato Salad and Gravy. It sounds strange but it was bloody yummy! We then stayed up way too late playing 'Cards Against Humanity' which is hilarious and I'm pretty sure I just conked out and it was all over.

My first ever Christmas away from home and my family was everything I could have hoped for and more. I got to skype my family and Libby said Happy Christmas to me which was possibly the cutest thing I have ever heard. I wish I was more of a computer whizz so I could get the video up here as it is just the sweetest thing. God I miss her. But anyway, the people I have met here have given me the best Christmas, spoilt me with gifts and experienced some pretty cool things with me. I'm very blessed. MERRY BLOOMIN CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Week Six.

This week has just been so jam packed with the both of us working absolutely ridiculous hours over the Christmas period that I genuinely feel like I have done nothing else. Days at the Body Shop, nights at Saltlik, eat, sleep and repeat. That has been my life for the past week.

Luckily we managed to squeeze in a bit of fun when we hosted our ugly Christmas sweater party. It was so much fun to have all our groups of friends around and meet lots of new people and of course have a few delicious glasses of wine.

The highlight of the last seven days has 100% got to be seeing the Aurora lights. Dragging myself out of bed at 1am to do so, wasn't hugely enjoyable but it was worth the pain to see what we did. I had no idea what to expect when we were stood on the edge of that lake drinking tea and freezing our fingertips off, but it was pretty spectacular! I cannot wait for a red alert to head up there and see them on a clear night.

We have been out for a lovely meal tonight at the Bison which was awesome. Such good food, friendly service and a nice atmosphere. Now that we are both working it will be nice to be able to go out and eat more and spend a couple of hours just the two of us, work has been getting in the way much too much recently, but I suppose it does fund the fun.

And now we've just got into bed after spending the evening exchanging all our Christmas gifts which was just so lovely. I know technically it's not Christmas day yet, but we've all got such conflicting schedules for tomorrow that this was the only way it's going to work. I find it so crazy how I have only known these people for six weeks and they already know me so well. I got some awesome gifts and it was so good just to all hang out together and relax!

It is now most certainly bed time as I am up early to get the first lifts for a morning of skiing tomorrow so I better get to sleep. Plus Santa won't come if I stay awake...

Dinner at The Bison.

Danny and I finally both had a night off together tonight and decided to make the most of it by going out to dinner just the two of us! I honestly don't think in the last two weeks we have had a chance to spend any proper time together, it's just been so manic. I have been working a ridiculous amount and Danny has been training at work too so it's just been crazy. But finally a night came up, Danny picked the restaurant and that was that.

My God was it good. Oh man it was incredible and I was so incredibly full walking home. Obviously we started off the evening with a large glass of wine and beer. I think Danny is a bit put out that no such thing as English ale exists here in Canada but a beer will suffice if necessary. Shame it costs so much to ship ale out here otherwise that would be his Christmas and birthday presents sorted for the next two years! My pinot noir was awesome. It's wine, so of course it was.

But onto the important thing, the food. We had Kung Pao Quail and Gnocci Poutine. I've never had quail before and it was pretty damn good; spicy, so it was an obvious choice for Danny, but the real winner of the night was the gnocci poutine! So for those of you who don't know poutine is like Canada's national dish. It is chips with gravy and cheese curds, real basic comfort food. But being in a fancy restaurant they switched it up a bit and traded in the chips for gnocci, which I've also never had before, and added elk; again, which I've never had before. Oh my days it was sooooo good. I could eat it every night for the rest of my life and be quite happy ending up obese as a result. It was delicious, I need say no more.

And as for the mains. Well, they were rather delicious also. I had Brome Lake Duck Breast which came with a pear and thyme strudel, bacon, napa cabbage and a blood orange reduction. The duck was so tender and juicy and the strudel worked so well with it. My only complaint is that there wasn't enough of it, I could have eaten it twice over it was that lush! Danny had venison with cocoa chili rub, squash puree, brussel sprouts, king oyster mushrooms and jus. Of course that was incredible too. Topped off with a second glass of wine and a clementine creme brulee I was more than happy with the nights choices and will 100% be going back.

I wish we got the name of our server as he was absolutely brilliant, So friendly and chatty with really good recommendations and explanations of the dishes. I had no hesitations in giving him a 20% tip, he earnt every cent!

So if any of my friends in Banff are struggling for somewhere to go out for dinner, you should totally go to the Bison. It's fancy, the food is fancy, the service fantastic, but you don't get stumped with a ridiculous bill at the end of it. Treat yourself in the New Year. And Nan and Pop, if you ever come to visit, this is where we are going - there are lots of maps in the menu explaining where the food comes from, Pop would have a field day!

The Aurora Lights.

I am well aware that it was only last night that I wrote in my wish list that I really wanted to see the Northern lights whilst I am here in Canada, and less than 12 hours after posting that, my wish came true.

I was quite happily tucked up in bed sleeping sweetly, after trying to get an early night before a long day at work when Danny woke me up shouting that Sandra had text me about the Northern lights and I needed to get out of bed right away. I can most definitely say I was less than enthused about being pulled out of my bed at 1am to venture out in the minus God knows what temperatures, but boy am I glad I did. It was truly one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. 

Unfortunately I have no camera equipment that is anywhere near capable of capturing such images, but it will be an image that will be ingrained in my memory forever. It was just like nothing I've seen before. Sitting on the side of the lake, with a huge flask of tea, wrapped in blankets in complete darkness and all of a sudden a green light glimmers behind the mountain and then begins to dance across the sky and cover it completely. 

It was just awesome, and I can't believe how many other people were there at such an unruly hour! Unfortunately a huge cloud swooped in and ruined our fun, but for those couple of minutes it was something pretty magical; and that was just a yellow warning. As soon as I see a red alert on Twitter I am heading there right away, I cannot wait! And hopefully by then il have figured out a way to get a photograph of some sort. Miracles can happen...

Alberta Wish List.

There's been all sort of illnesses going round at the moment from the flu to sickness bugs so I've spent a fair amount of time in bed feeling crappy and having time to myself to think. In one way it's been pretty proactive for me as I've got a huge list of things I want to do, but my bank balance is going to be taking a serious hit. It's a good job I'm working so much over Christmas, it should be funding the rest of the year!

Basically the point of this post is to share these wishes with all you lovely people. I know I'm getting, and in some cases, already got Christmas money sent over from home so a fair few of these things will be funded by this - number one being the first thing to tick off for sure...

Dog Sledding
Something I'm unlikely to get the opportunity to do anywhere else and it's so cheap compared to any other place that it's available.
Ice Skating on a Frozen River
I will be absolutely terrified of falling through the ice the whole entire time, and probably will be spending most of the evening on my butt, but yeh, it has to be done!
A Night Hike up Tunnel Mountain
There is just so much to see here and I think exploring in the dark would be pretty darn fun. We have a plan to go up and make a little campfire and eat marshmallows. It's probably something we should really think about soon as I don't think it would be so fun in minus 30.
Lake Louise
One it's involves my name so obviously it's going to be awesome, and two it's just stunning. The lake and the ski hill are something I need to go see straight away. 100%
Watch a Hockey Game
My housemate Mitch is obsessed with ice hockey and it's something I'm trying to get involved with, so I think it would be a pretty cool thing to go and see a proper game and experience that atmosphere. I'm sure there will be plenty of people jumping to join me.
Visit the Ice Fields
It's something I've been told by pretty much everyone that I have to go and see before I go home. They have a glass floor observation area over the Sunwapta Valley. Need I say anymore.
Snowshoeing
There's so many places around here to do snowshoeing. and again, it's something I'm never going to get the chance to do back home so it's a must!
See the Aurora Nights
Georgie has an alert on her cell to tell us when the chance of seeing them is high and then we need to get our shit together and run out the door. From the pictures I've seen online it's pretty incredible.
Snowmobiling
I don't have high hopes of Danny accompanying me on this as my driving in a normal car is England is questionable but it would just be so much fun.
The Hot Springs
Just because. It's cold here. It's warm in there. Yeh, sometimes relaxation in a giant hot tub kinda thing is totally necessary.

I'm sure there's lots more things that I want to do here that I haven't even thought about yet. Don't even get me started on all the things I've decided I want to see around the world. I don't think that there is enough time in the day to do a blog post on that. Why did no one tell me that travelling to different countries is the best thing I could ever decide to do. Stupid uni degree, who needs a career anyway. This is the life.

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party.

On Wednesday it was our lovely housemate Ella's birthday, so we decided to combine that with the Christmas festivities and host an ugly Christmas sweater party at the soon to be famous Grizztrap. For those of you who don't know, that is what we have decided to name our humble little abode.

I played beer pong for the first time which was bloody awesome! We didn't win, but it's the taking part that counts right? PLUS I scored 3 anyway so I'm practically a pro. I have never seen our house so busy, it was super fun and lovely to see so many people we've met during our time here and making new friends too. It definitely got us in the Christmas spirit that's for sure.

We made cakes, sang Happy Birthday, drank lots of wine, played lots of games and mingled with everyone until the early hours of the morning. And the day after we cleaned up so many empty cans that we can cash them in to pay for our Grizztrap family Christmas dinner! There's not really much more I can say, other than that we had a brilliant time and I cannot wait to host our next party. Roll on the next occasion. For now I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

Week Five.

This week has been bloody awesome as I now have my lovely Danny here! Everything is now all in place. He started his first day training at work today, so we are all settled and starting our new life here in Banff. We've finally got a Canadian cell phone, yep that's right I said cell phone, and all our healthcare up and running. We really are locals how, it's pretty exciting, the little things in life.

I haven't been able to get skiing as much as I would have hoped this week. Work commitments and getting things done for Danny have had to take priority which is fine. I mean we have 5 more months to go skiing but I definitely need to re-evaluate the situation come the New Year. I have not moved half way across the world to spend 80% of my time working, absolutely not. Plus I want to leave here a confident skiier and a competent snowboarder. That's a pretty high aim for the season but something I can definitely achieve if I put my mind to it. Danny will be an awesome influence on that as well. I honestly could sit and watch him snowboard all day, everyday, he is frickin brilliant. I tried my best to film a little skit in the park so have a little look here.

We went for a visit to Surprise Corner to look at the lovely views and walked across a very frozen Bow Valley River which was super fun. The boys took a trip to Lake Louise for a days snowboarding which I'm hoping to get involved with - bloody work getting in the way, but hey ho, like I said there is plenty of time for that.

Christmas is in full flow over at the Grizztrap. We have decorated inside and out, the tree is filling up nicely with everyones Secret Santa gifts and presents from home and the Christmas train came into town! I bloody love Christmas. It's going to be so strange as it's my first time away from home but it's also my first Christmas with Danny so that will make it feel slightly less weird. I'm sure I'll be inundated with Skype calls from England that day so it will feel as though I'm there. I've already had pictures of Libby dressed up, singing me songs and saying Happy Christmas which is possibly the most adorable thing I've ever seen.

I'm excited to be having Christmas dinner with all these amazing people I've met here, though the idea of cooking Christmas dinner is not quite so exciting. We shall see how trying to serve 8 people with the aid of one small oven goes. I think as the only chef in the house will is going to have his work cut out. I shall drink wine and be merry and hope it all goes to plan. I think that is the best thing to do in the situation. Father Christmas wrote back to us too!!! I think that's such a lovely thing that they do here. I know it's primarily for children, but lets face it, we're all big kids around Christmas so it was pretty cool to receive a personal noted letter from the man himself.

As for now I better head off as we are about to start setting up the house ready for our ugly Christmas sweater party tonight for Ella's birthday. Beer pong is on the cards so I'm super excited. I feel I won't be enjoying it so much tomorrow morning but I'm sure it will be worth every second.

A Little Scenic Trip.

We had a few hours to spare today between skiing and starting at work so Will decided to take Danny and I on a little trip up the road to the "Surprise Corner" to look at the beautiful views of the Banff Springs Hotel and surrounding mountains. It's such a beautiful place to visit and I'm sure in the summer it would be an awesome place to start a hike up the mountain.

The hotel just looked like something out of a horror movie with the days weather and clouds, but super cool eh. You are allowed to just wander into the hotel and have a look round and mosey around to your hearts content so that is definitely something I'd like to do during my time here. The Queen stayed there - Will was super excited that he touched the same door handle as the Queen. It's the simple things...

We then wandered down to the Bow Valley River and waterfall that is just over the hotel's golf course. It is now almost fully frozen and such a stunning place to see. A couple were ice skating on there so we took a walk on the frozen river, I was absolutely cacking it the whole time. Despite the thickness of the ice and the ability to skate on it, I still was not completely sold on the fact that I would not fall through, but alas I was fine and it was pretty fun. We did a few skids, Danny fell several times but we now definitely want to go and skate there. How cool would it be to skate on a frozen river - most certainly something that you could not do at home! 

I feel like all I do on here is post pictures of the scenery, which I'm sure my Pop much prefers to the usual selfies, but it is just the most stunning place you cannot quite believe it until you see it. Believe me. 

Christmas at the Grizztrap.

This week it finally became time to decorate the incredible place that we call home into somewhere to be mistaken for Santa's grotto. We were all probably a bit too excited considering we are 5 adults but hey it's Christmas so anything goes. We put on Christmas music, drank wine and put up every single possible decoration that we could find in the garage.

Three Christmas trees, wreaths, tinsel, lights (indoor and outdoor), little soldier men, window transfers, candles; the works! I think Will was close to tears at one point he was so overcome with Christmas joy. Bless. We tied Christmas bows, covered every single surface with Christmas paraphernalia and somehow managed to get the tree standing upright - something we've been battling with all week, we won't go into it. 

I think I'm going to stop rambling and just pop the pictures up, cus who doesn't like Christmas pictures eh. Oh and Georgie filmed the whole thing on her Go Pro so as soon as its edited and good to go il add it in here too. Happy Holidays...