the BnB: A.K.A the Blue Mountain Lodge

so moved into the new place which is a tiny little room on the top level of this this:



its a pretty cool place even if it tiny. there is 1 room with 3 beds and then a really really small shower/toilet room thingy-ma-gig.

its cheaper than the hostel at $145 a week each. we get breakfast served each morning which includes:

juices, cereals, yoghurt, fruit, criosants, boiled eggs, milk and muffins. its SOOOOO good, but then ive been eating the staff cafe food from the banff centre the last 2 months so everything tastes good. if you eat breakfast at 10:30ish and grab a muffin + piece of fruit to go, then you can go the whole day till dinner time without having to eat anything else. it really is a solid breakfast.

now for some pics of the room: (cos words cant describe this thing LOL)



thats my corner, yes i sleep under a bear :-S it is actually quite freaky waking up under it. oh and having a sloping roof like that sucks ass, its impossible to store stuff properly in that corner ><



thats the other side of the room. yes there are two fox skins hanging by the couch! also in the room are some old saws, 2 sets of antlers from what i think were deer, an axe and some of those weird oldschool snow boot things which look like tennis rackets!

anyway it hasnt snowed in a few days but ive been up 3 days in a row now. went night skiing last night which was chilled but the snow at norquay is really really slushy. went to sunshine today and did a few runs and found some nice snow with tim. wasnt a bad day at all considering we were there for only 3 hours.

anyway thats about it, gotta go grab some fresh baked cookies from down stairs ;-)

toodles
gerald

Gerald leaves the Banff Centre - Shit yeah

well, it is a dream of many, those captured souls who start work at the banff centre only to find them selves hopelesly poor and un-able to escape this wretched place. But i am not one of those, for today i am moving out. Yes thats right! I am leaving the banff centre. I told the staff housing folk yesterday. I told james just then and after posting this i will tell the library staff!

much to my amusement a slight vocal stutter made me avoid a nice lecture from James my superviser.

I went to hand in my nicely cleaned dark blue polotops, the ones which have the banff centre logo stitched into them. and i explained,

'Yeah, im sorry but i'm leaving today' - even though i had three more shifts rostered on for thursday, friday and saturday.

James replies, 'You told me you were leaving at the end of the month'

this is where i say, accidently, 'planes change....*realises mistake and corrects self*.....plans change'

James believe that my plane has changed and hence i have had a change in plans. LOL, so he shouts, ' This really fucks me up' and leaves it at that.

god if he knew i was really just sick of the job and was leaving cos i couldnt stand working there another day, he probably woulda let me have it. But tis for my own health, you see everything in this place is made for people who are 5-10, for 6-1. hence my back hurts every time i leave the place no matter how careful i am and the last 2 weeks i havent even been out boarding as much as i could cos its been hurting too much.

anyway, i have to go clean my room so i can get my $50 deposit back when i move out in some 3 hours and 50 minutes.

i am moving into some room with tim and adam for the remainder of my stay in Banff. The room is working out cheaper than the hostel and, after taking the walk up to the hostel i realised i would much prefer not to be hiking up there twice a day - it really is a long walk.

so yeah, im there for a couple of weeks, then to lake louise where i WILL stay in the hostel. then back to banff for another week of the ski season. then off to quebec where i will have lots of fun times talking with the crazy french folk who inhabit the area.


toodles for now
gerald

pics of the dishpit to come

erm ok lets see......

well lets see,

on tuesday, Tim, Adam, Rupert (hugh), Christian and myself all hopped in the hutch wagon (tim n adams van thingy) and cruised to kickinghorse. the next closest ski resort to banff after lake louise/sunshine/norquay.

the reason for the visit? they had recieved some 75+ cm of snow in the last week and the day we went, they had recieved 17cm over night! perfect conditions. so we got on the highway pretty early. just after 7, but a truck had compeltely jackknifed just next to the BC border so we sat around for 30 minutes while the police did their stuff and moved the vehicles waiting to pass through the narrow gap that was left.

awesome we were on the road again, we got to kicking horse, got our first run in, and then the gondola - which is the only way up the mountain and every run is serviced via it - stopped due to high winds. 90km/h at the top. bummer, we stood around for ages, then got our second run in 45 minutes later. these runs are really long and with all the AMAZING snow that was around it was just bliss. then it was 2 more hours before our last run of the day :( oh well each run was awesome and we got a half day ski credit thing cos we only got 3 runs in. COOL!

while we were stopped on the freeway we met Alex, who had the car infront of us. She had these two awesome huskies aswell, we ended up boarding with her for the 3 runs we got. anyway yeah... *pic below*

then the next two days - wed/thursday - i spent at sunshine which recieved 10cm/8cm respectively. it was awesome awesome. snow was just brilliant everywhere. neato.

anyway lets see, its friday evening here and ive gopt 1.5 more hours before i finish work. then im cruising to the cinema to finally watch 300 :-D yippy. i believe this movie is coming out pretty soon in aus aswell.

erm anyway yeah, pics



that is:
Christian (this cool german dude who used to work at the Banff centre), then rupert, adam, myself, alex and tim.

then this my wound from the lake louise staff ski day last week. i havent been able to upload it till now cos the 1 computer in the whole centre which has a working USB drive died on everyone ><




and finally, this is Donny. he works at sunshine village as a lifty. he broke a rib in the terrain park and cos everyone is so god damn poor around here, he had to hitchhike from sunshine to the hospital. we picked him up on the side of the road in the cool bus and dropped him off at the hospital.



cyuzzz
Gerald Thomas Richard Wiblin (just for a change)

lake louise ski day 2nd part of story + security guards are idiots.

ok, so the second part of my lake louise ski day which i didnt mention before cos i didnt want to write it before i knew the whole story is.

last run of the day, im in the terain park. i hit 2 jumps and get some decent air. then i hit this pretty decent sized ledge which a nice drop at the end. that was gonna be my whole run but down the bottom of the terrain park is this tiny little roll on ledge thing. i had hit it many times before so i cruise upto it, roll onto it, and just at the end i catch an edge. i smash my shin against the metal edge. my knee on the other edge and i roll onto my shoulder ><

i have a nice big gash in my leg - pics later

my knee is kind of bruised but my shoulder felt really really bad. so the next day, worried that i had maybe fractures something, went to the hospital. the hospital charges fees which are somewhat similar to that of an expensive lawyer. just to see a doctor right away would cost me $380 + the doctors fee and then if i wanted it x-rayed that was another $110. i politely told them i would go to a clinic in town. did that and anyway my shoulder is fine and i will be out boarding next tueday.


anyway the second part to this blog:

Last night i finished work at 12:50 after 50 minutes of overtime *frustrated look on face* So I hopped on the computer in the staff cafe (there is only 1 cos the other 1 is broken at the moment) anyway then this security dude comes in. the only people around at night are the security and the cleaners.

anyway the chefs usually make them food and put it in this 'altosham' which is like a big steel cabinet thing which keeps the food warm. usually there are 4 or 5 plates in there but the chef must have forgotten and only put 1 meal in there. anyway the cleaner who was doing the kitchen had got there first and scored the only plate of food. so the security dude comes along, tells the dude that he took the only plate of food (pretty much stating the obvious as the fellow had to have known this when he took it) and is all pissed off cos of it. He goes on about how there are 5 people working tonight and he got the only meal. Then he looks over at me and says, 'ive told u before ur not allowed in here after 11'

i explain i finished work just 5 minutes ago and am just shooting off an e-mail to my dad.

he says, ' i dont care, your on the only working computer and if somebody else wanted it, you would have to get off'

i again say, 'i just finished work, and if you want to use the computer then just ask'

he then tells me to get off the computer.

so i ask him if he wants to use the computer.

he doesnt answer

I again enquire if he wants the computer.

no answer.

He then asks me to leave. so I close all my windows. get up and offer him the seat. he doesnt move cos he clearly never wanted the computer. no one else has arrived in the room yet. only the cleaner eating the meal which the security guard didnt get, me and the security guard himself. So as im walking out I say,

'in the other dudes defence, if there are 5 people working and 1 plate of food, then its pretty obvious that 4 people are going to miss out yeah? and if he got here first, and he got the plate of food, then its his good luck and everyone elses bad luck ya know, thats just the way the cookie crumbles. also there is no point kicking someone off the computer when the only other people who might want to use it either dont want it, as you have demonstrated or too busy eating.'

As i walked out he had plenty of time to reply but didnt bother cos he was totally owned. security guards are idiots and are mostly sad because they are too overweight to became police officers.


cya
gerald

staff ski day at lake louise

Ok, lets see.

got up nice n early after 6 hours sleep. got some food, hopped on the bus only to be told they had to put the chains on the bus cos it had snowed over night.....20 minutes later get back on the bus. we drive really really slowly for about 5 minutes (like 4 blocks or so) and then we spend another 10 minutes sitting around as they took the chains off....

then we were on the road. the 45 minute trip took closer to an hour but it was sooo worth it. when we got to lake louise - which had recieved a nice 8cm of powder over night - the whole backside of the mountain was closed. the only thing open was the gondola but as i got to the top of the gondola, the backside was just being opened up. this meant i got to make first tracks down quite a few of the runs over there. :-D it was bliss!!!

anyway then as the day went on, the beautiful fresh snow was getting trecked out, so i went out of the ski boundary on my search. I found this beautiful hill side, that had stacks of fresh snow, and it just lead you down this gully, through these trees which has like 30cm of fresh snow around them, and then down another gully. this is where i was thoroughly lost and got freaked out when i saw FRESH BEAR TRACKS!!!! scared the hell outa me, they were facing the direction i had just come. so i got the hell outa there by climbing down this cliff, doing some more sweet boarding in another powder bowl, then doing a 15 minute treck through a forest :-D LOL. easily the best run ive ever done. was soooooo good. anyway yeah.

if you look at the post bellow I've stuck in a nice friendly counter to tell you all how long untill im free!

anyway
toodles

p.s. ashton u wanted a crazy snowboard story - thats the best i can do.

I LEFT THE BANFF CENTRE SHIT YEAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!

that is all, no need for a counter any more

the things i miss about home:

So I seem to get asked this a fair bit, so I figured I'd dedicate a post to it:

*note, not in any particular order*

1. I guess I miss all the people back home that make adelaide fun and exciting - but thats pretty boring and im not going to list everyone.

2. I miss my stupidly large music collection which allowed me to listen to any song i wanted when ever - plus the ability to download songs/movies etc when ever I chose.

3. I miss not having to type in all my passwords when I want to do something online - MSN, e-mail, myspace, toymods, reddit etc....

4. I REALLY miss driving my rolla - I was always happy when I was slamming through the gears of the old girl listening to van halen, or what ever was going in my cd stacker. Many a good times in the old rolla were had and I miss having the freedom of being able to drive her when ever I want. I hope michael is looking after her :-P

5. I miss the Exeter. Just cos it was such a banging bar. unfortunatly there aren't any bars quite like it here :( there were always people you knew at the ex.

6. WOMAD is coming up and im going to really really miss that :(

7. I miss MY computer and all the programs on it - photoshop where are you when I need you?

8. I miss not being able to phone/txt my friends when I want their attention/what ever

9. I miss having a job that pays you a decent wage

10. I kinda miss my bed/room

11. oh and the showers here suck - so I miss the one back home.

12. A well stocked fridge is always an advantage and the only thing in the fridge that I share at the moment is - cheese rolls, yoghurt (I realised I missed yoghurt so now I buy it everytime I go shopping) beer and I have some chips + 2 minute noodles, in my rooom.

*dont despair mummy and daddy, I get most of my food from the staff cafe which is where I also grab fruit so I am eating alright ;-) *

erm yeah, I guess thats it. I have no idea how many times I wrote 'I' in this post but its far too many and now i feel like a self absorbed little whore.

cyuzzz
Gerald

All the photos i have promised

Ok, the photos will be on chronilogical order - not in the order i mentioned them in my blog.

Two photo's from an outing to Lake Louise, just sat down for 10 minutes and snapped some photos of these shredders hitting this prettty decent sized jump :-P

There is a Gondola just out of Banff that takes you up Sulphur Mountain and gives you a view of the whole town + a great view of the surrounding area. a few photos from the top + vid

This next photo shows pretty much the whole of banff, the Banff Centre is just to the right of the end of the photo. So it is a bit far out of town compared to most places.

This next one is a car i walk past on a pretty regular basis. the first few weeks i thought it was amusing that someone would keep a convertible outside with just a plastic sheet covering it to keep the snow out. Well i walked past it the other day and the thing had caved in much to my amusement :-)

Next one is a snap from the french party downstairs which i mentioned. There were a whole lot more people in the hallway and outside.

The elk that came grazing past Becker and around the banff center the other day:

Then me looking so un-photogenic as in every photo (just look at the one above with me in it) with the elk thingies just behind me.

And finally Sebastian, who left yesterday, was trying to get a lift to Calgery airport, while i was just trying to get a lift to sunshine village. figured we had better got a photo for good times.

I'm pretty sure that covers everything - photos of steak night werent any good so they were left out.

cyuzzzz

gezzaaah

stuff....

been boarding the last couple of days. been alright but yesterday it was 8 degrees and today it was pretty warm aswell ><>< this makes me very very angry. none the less i was still hitting the slopes and enjoying myself. - pics to come

There has been a few happenings around here lately. Lots of the frenchies have been leaving - there was a BIG party which was organised without the consent of the staff housing folk and thus was closed down at 11pm. it then moved to DCH (donald cameron hall - where the other bunch of staff housing is) and was shut down there, THEN on the way back to becker from DCH all the find party goers were questioned by the police and 1 was arrested. I found this all rather amusing as i finished my partying at 11 and watched tv instead. - pics to follow

last night was 'steak night' down at the elk n oarsman. u get a fine steak sandwhich for $8 which aint bad. we made a booking - definitly necassary - and we had a full table of 14 i think. this was, me, adam, tim, rupert, billy, lucy and clair who are back in town (the two irish girls who i think i mentioned in a much earlier post), then some girls from the hostel we stayed in ages ago, jess, rachael and sarah, then two of their friends. and then a friend of clair's rocked up with a buddy of her's. so it was a full table. I got my steak, was enjoying cutting the big thick piece of meat only to find out the edge of the plate which the steak was resting on was hanging off the table and quite a comical situation which ended with a plate of chips, calamari rings and my steak sandwhich all on my lap..... ><

pics of that night to follow too i guess.

yesterday walking back from the staff cafe to Becker, after snowboarding and dinner and such, there was a group of 7 elk (maybe/i think) wandering around the Banff center. they had made their way from behind the becker building down towards 1 of the hotels. they were quite calm, and didnt get alarmed with all the people watching them. this said some of then had tags on their ears which means they had attacked people before. i snapped a whole bunch of photos - will put up the better ones aswell.

besides that its the 7th which means all of 24 more days till i leave this place,

hope you have all been enjoying reading 'this thing' (that better ritz??)

remember u can leave comments yo!!!!!

erm i think thats it, i will chuck all the photos ive been promising, from my days on the slopes at lake louise to all the ones ive promised in this entry.

oh, and on a sad note, Sebastian left this morning - those of u who ever look at my myspace will remember him as my number 1 friend for a day or two. He was one of the french canadian house keepers. anyway last i saw of him he was trying to hitch a ride to calgery airport to catch a 1am flight tonight LOL. hope he catches it, before he left he said if i come to quebec and need to stay somewhere he will happily put me up so thats one more pro to going there - its looking more enviting.

anyway best be off now

toodaloo all

gezzza

Did chesty bond get a new job?

So thats the logo for Mr.Clean, a Canadian detergent. And just for comparison, here is Chesty Bond

another humorous packaging label thingy-ma-gig ive found is by the chip company - Old dutch. They are pretty decent chips ya know - probably around the same quality as Kettle chips. anyway heres a pic + link.

http://olddutchfoods.ca/products/categoryProducts.cfm?typeid=1&Page=3#

Yes that flavour is called Buffalo Wings, its quite common over here but i still find it amusing, the concept of buffalos having wings :-S



cyuzzz
Gerald

a few things ive noticed/things which make me smile/dedication of this blog

1. chocolate bars arent your typical 60g, they are 58 grams here :-S

2. your run of the mill 600ml coke, here is 591ml :-S

3. speed limits are just a sign on the road. if you go the speed limit people will get angry. on the road to sunshine village/lake louise the limit is 90 but most people sit on 110-120 if the conditions allow it.

4. I was waiting to get on the gondola at Lake Louise and I hear the lift operator (aka, lifty) say,
"why should i do it, i wanna do the minimum amount of work possible, thats what being a lifty is all about"

at this point ive reached the front of the line and i say to the lift, "nah dude, doing the minimum is what being an australian is all about"

he replies, "im from melbourne mate"

5. today i was on a lift with another fellow whos name is luke, he asked me where im from. The australian accent really sticks out here and it brings a smile to my face when i know i can say, " Adelaide" and they will know exactly what im talking about. turns out Luke is from Brisbane, used to sell insurance, got sick of it, now works at the HI hostel in lake louise (the town not the ski resort). once i quite my job at the end of the month, im gonna be staying in different hostels and im sure to spend a week or so there. he says its quite a nice place.

Lastly 2 days ago my Opa passed away. Unfortunatly I'm not around for the funeral so instead, this blog has taken on a new title and is now dedicated to my Opa, who i described earlier as, A Vogelzang through and through. to those of you unfortunate souls who dont know any vogelzangs then you wont get that but im sure the family will enjoy it.

Pics from my lake louise outing to follow

toodalooo
gerald