Week Twenty Eight.

This week started off pretty well if I do say so myself. We have a new social club going on at work who organise activities and fun things to do outside of work. One of this weeks activities was a nice little mid morning hike up Tunnel mountain. The weather was absolutely beautiful, the sun was beaming and the view at the top in such glorious rays was pretty damn special. God did I realise how unfit I am though. I hung at the back of the group the entire time, at a pretty mediocre pace, I definitely need to step it up if I stand any chance of doing longer hikes come later on in the Summer.

Danny started his job at Patagonia this week and he seems to be really enjoying it. He certainly comes home everyday with new product knowledge that he is raving about, and something else he wants to buy - I have a feeling half of his wardrobe will be Patagonia by the time we come home. The guys he works with all seem pretty awesome, I'm looking forward to hopefully going out for some drinks and making friends with people outside of Saltlik. It's definitely a good thing.

Cheesecake Friday rolled around insanely quickly this week - the flavour of the week was strawberry and chocolate. Oh my days was it good. I swear to god there is no way of making a bad cheesecake, it is just impossible. Muddled strawberries, mixed in with cream and sugar and chocolate, topped with chocolate, all on top of a load of crushed up oreos. Ooh what I'd do to have a slice of that right now.

The weekend was very very dull this week. I worked doubles Friday, Saturday and Sunday and pretty much saw none of the outside world, but money makes the world go round and we certainly need plenty of it with the house move just around the corner and both of our birthdays coming up next month. We did make the most of finishing a little bit earlier than usual on Sunday and had a few drinks after work. Well if I'm being honest we actually had a couple more than a few, but that is a rarity for us and it was super fun to just hang out and have a laugh with our friends.

Monday and Tuesday also were complete write offs for me. Both days/nights I had off and almost no one else did which is a complete waste of days off. Luckily Halie saved me on Tuesday night with a bottle of wine and a trip to the cinema to see Pitch Perfect 2. Again. It was definitely funny enough to go and see twice!

Today Danny and I had the evening off together which was so lovely after such a conflicting schedule over the last few days. We took a trip to Grassi Lakes just in Canmore for a quick little evening hike. It's absolutely beautiful there and so many cool things to see, though it does end up being a bit of a steep scramble towards the end, and again my fitness isn't at it's peak right now. When we got home we were absolutely starving so I cooked up an absolutely huge cottage pie which, despite the fact it took two hours to make, and the fact that we didn't start cooking until 10.30pm, was absolutely delicious. It's a good job as well because it's going to be feeding us for the next four days by the looks of it!

The lateness of the cottage pie resulted in me having to post this a day late, and I am now being rushed out the door to go to Canmore to look at climbing gear for Danny so I better get a move on. Until next time...

Week Twenty Seven.

On Thursday I took Danny to his first ever night at Bingo. Every Thursday at the Royal Legion they host bingo night and it's the most popular thing it is insane. Pretty much everyone in Banff bust their arses trying to make enough money to pay rent and still have fun so when $1000 is up for grabs people queue out the door to get a seat. It is so much fun, we might have won absolutely nothing but it was such a laugh. After sinking a couple of pitchers of beer at bingo, we went out for a couple of drinks at Mel's for our friend Cory's leaving do. Of course the usual happened, and a couple of drinks turned into us rolling into the house at 1am, but it doesn't happen often so it's perfectly acceptable and it was super fun to hang out with everyone from work without actually being in work.

This week we started a new treat at work called Cheesecake Friday. So every day shift I work the kitchen staff always make us an item of food off of the menu to try before we start work for the day. I thought it would be a nice repayment to make a cheesecake for them once a week, plus I love making cheesecake. Love it, love it, love it. This week's flavour was chosen by our sous chef Mark and it consisted of banana and peanut butter. It is the first ever frozen cheesecake that I have ever made and I was really surprised with how well it turned out, and how delicious it was. Next week's installment shall be strawberry and chocolate, a personal favourite so I look forward to making that on Thursday!

On Saturday Danny only went and proved how amazing he is, yet again by getting himself a job at Patagonia. He popped in to speak to the boss about a possible vacancy, and ended up being interviewed and given the job on the spot. Very very proud of him and excited for him to learn all about the company, and obviously the staff discount is a perk.

Things are definitely on the up, as we have now found a house to move into on the 1st of June which i super exciting. It is just round the corner from where we are now, with a front and back garden, and is just lovely and clean and we will only be living with one other couple which is just perfect. Don't get me wrong, I have loved every second at the Grizzly house and everyone we have lived with has been like family, but now it's all changing I think it is good to get out and move on and appreciate what we were lucky to have when we first moved here. But it's time for a fresh start as we come into Summer and we are so so excited about it all.

Speaking of moving into Summer, we celebrated/commiserated the end of Winter on Monday at Sunshine Village for their annual Slush Cup competition. I decided not to board, as I am still learning and getting very frustrated with my efforts and really wanted to have fun and just enjoy the day. The sun was shining and we sat outside the Trappers bar in the snow, with the sun glaring down on us, beer in hand and great friends surrounding us. It was so much fun to just hang out and have a laugh without having to cut it short for someone to go into work. The competition was super fun to watch to. For any of you reading this who don't know what Slush Cup is, it is basically a competition where the skiier/snowboarder has to come down the hill, go over a little jump and try to skim across the water to the end whilst still looking cool and collected. To me it sounds so ridiculously hard, but I am assured that it is pretty simple if you get the technique right. Either way I was happy to be watching and not competing that's for sure.

Halie, Fabian, Danny and I decided that we couldn't end the day there, it was too sunny to waste away inside, so we headed on down to Cascade Ponds for a BBQ. We slightly underestimated how quickly the sun disappears behind the mountains, and had to make a huge fire to keep warm, but it is such a lovely place to hang out. Parks of Canada keep the fire bins stocked up with wood which is awesome, so we sat there barbequing steak, sausages and corn. Simple and delicious and with the most stunning backdrop I think I've ever experienced at a BBQ. I then made my first ever s'more!!! How the hell have I got to nearly 23 years of age without ever making a s'more!? I honestly do not know. Chocolate marshmallowy deliciousness. I feel like these are going to have a permanent fixture in all future BBQ's.

I have decided to try and be more fit and healthy and be happier and more confident in how I look and feel. So today I bought a bike and went on a bike ride with Steph to Vermillion Lakes and all along the Bow Valley River to the waterfall. We sat on one of the jettys into the Lake and had some lunch and jumped along the rocks at the river and stared at the beauty of all of the mountains in our sight. I sometimes forget how much of an astounding place I live in and how I really need to take advantage of everything surrounding me. It really is a million miles away from life back home and I need to appreciate every minute I'm here because it's not going to be forever.

Danny finished work and we hopped straight on our bikes and cycled on up to the Banff Springs Hotel to go to the Waldhaus Pub for the penultimate wings night. We were told that they were the best wings in town and I don't think those people were wrong. We had honey & garlic, and BBQ with a blue cheese dip and they were so so good. $12 for two dozen, instead of $19 for one, such a good deal - it's a shame we discovered it so late on in the season! I then dragged Danny to go and see Pitch Perfect 2, and I actually think he really enjoyed it, I certainly did! The trailer left me with really high expectations, and I was not disappointed. It was so funny, and Fat Amy was on top form. You've got to love the Pitch!

As for now though, I think this has been the longest blog post I have written thus far and I am ridiculously tired, so I am going to call it a night and leave you to enjoy all the beautiful pictures I have taken over the last week. There are a lot of them...

Week Twenty Six.

I've had a fair amount of time to myself this week what with mine and Danny's schedules being pretty conflicting so I've learnt to try to enjoy my own company. For once instead of lounging around the house eating and watching a bucket load of Netflix, I've been out for a couple of walks. That's right Mum, I chose to go out and walk rather than eating heavily scented crisps in bed with a face mask and my phone glued to my hands on Facebook. It seems miracles do happen! It helped that I bought myself a snazzy new pair of trainers to get me motivated. The shopaholic in me will never die!

My first little stroll was to the Bow Valley Falls. It was a nice sunny day and it's a very easy wander. I didn't stay for long as it was absolutely packed with tourists but it was nice to just get out and about and marvel at the beauty of this crazy little town that I live in. It's pretty incredible to have such awesome sites on your doorstep, certainly different to little old Oundle. The next day I decided to take it up and notch and did the Hoodoo Trail on Tunnel Mountain. My God was it stunning. Wandering along the river, and through the trees, and looking out over the mountains - it was so so nice and a really nice hike, certainly one that I would like to do on a regular basis. However I did spend most of the time freaking out that I shouldn't have gone for a hike on my own in case I bumped into a bear. It so turns out I was concerned for a good reason, the very next day the trail was shut down because a Grizzly Bear was feeding on an Elk and then charged at a man who disturbed him. Only in Canada.

Whilst I was working on Sunday Danny took advantage of the sunshine and cycled to Canmore. He found a cool little frisbee store which I can only imagine he had much too much fun in, went and had a beer at Grizzly Paw Brewery, and so I'm told, an awesome bagel at the Rocky Mountain Bagel Co. Apparently we HAVE to go there next time we are in Canmore, I have high expectations! He arrived back with an eski (what we English people would call a cooler box) and some bits and bobs for his bike so it certainly seemed like a successful trip.

On Monday we had wine training at work, which just so happened to coincide with our friend Jeremy's birthday so inevitably it ended up with everyone getting pretty tipsy. We tried some delicious wine and learnt about the grape and the process and where it's from, and then drank four more bottles and completely forgot everything we learnt only a couple of hours before. It's fair to say we all had pretty sore heads the next day.

Yesterday after my walk, Danny, Will, Georgie and I headed down to the park to play a bit of frisbee. My hangover then hit in pretty hard so I just laid down on the grass contemplating what I was doing with my life whilst trying to control my urge to vomit. Not great. When we got home we decided to have our first little BBQ of the summer on our balcony now we had bought some more gas. It turns out the sun sets on the opposite side of the house to where our balcony is positioned so it wasn't particularly warm, but the hot dogs and potato salad were delicious so that distracted us somewhat from the cold. Here's to many days of barbecuing in the sunshine in the coming months, I cannot bloody wait for Summer.

But as for today, I am on a double shift at work and have just cooked up the most delicious looking pie for when we finish at God knows what time this evening. It is a chicken, leek and ham pie, though I substituted the ham for sausage (BBQ leftovers) and I am so proud of the outcome. Thank you to the Hairy Bikers for yet another awesome recipe, I cannot wait to delve into it after a crappy Wednesday night shift. It's going to be good...

Week Twenty Five.

This week has again been extremely chilled out for me. I went to the doctors on Friday and was diagnosed with bronchitis, asthma and possible pneumonia. Yay for my crappy lungs that don't seem to be able to figure out how to do their job, and yay for me not looking after myself properly. I shall certainly learn from this as boy do I feel like hell. I have managed to make it onto season three of greys anatomy, our room is spotless, and there is food to eat in our fridge/freezer for at least two weeks! I do not deal well with not being at work, and that is an understatement.

I happier news the royal baby has been born!!! Yayyyy. I was really hoping it was going to be a girl and I am so excited that I was right. And what a beautiful name. Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana. I like that they have paid homage to the Queen and William's mother, I think that is super sweet and very sentimental. People over here who I work with just don't seem to understand the excitement and fascination that the nation has with the Royal family, and I find THAT strange. I love the fact that Britain are so patriotic and love the Royal family and have such a keen interest. It's great.

Back in Banff, we took a trip to the Maple Leaf for breakfast on Sunday, just to get out of the house. Danny, Will and I met up with Halie, Fabian and Sarah for a mid morning brunch after hearing rave reviews about this place. I had a mimosa and banana bread french toast which was delicious, if ridiculously sweet and sickly. Everyone else had the most yummy looking full English breakfast with a B52 coffee which is a mixture of kahlua, baileys and cointreau.

I spent the majority of Monday and Tuesday resting up in bed and getting totally addicted to Grey's Anatomy and drinking my body weight in tea several times over. Boring as it may sound it did the job, and I am feeling so much better. My cough is not completely gone but it is getting there which I could not be more thankful about. And so today, to make myself feel more human, I treated myself to a fresh new hair cut and a moroccan oil hydrating hair mask which is the most heavenly thing in the world. I cannot recommend Cassie at Cascade Hair enough, she is awesome and manages to do exactly what I want without me even having to explain. She has a hair doctor.

And now I am tucked in bed, of course watching more Grey's Anatomy and preparing myself to get back to my double shift life at work tomorrow. I will be so happy to get out of bed and get back to work but I have a terrible feeling I am going to be absolutely exhausted. So I guess I should make the most of it and head of to sleep. Thank you all for reading the world's most boring blog post update and I will try to be slightly more entertaining for next weeks installment. Night all.