December photos

I've made a new page where you can get to all the photos...old and new...

You'll find it here: http://www.3littlepenguins.com/photos.html

I stopped taking photos there for a while so I'm going to start taking them again cause i feel i've missed things I should've taken photos of...

Do they know it's christmas time at all?

I've got a stack of photos to upload so I might do them this weekend when i have a chance.

What's been happening?

hmm...
It's been hot here...by hot I mean 4-5 degrees...at work i've been stripping down to my thermal layers cos i've been so hot! Mind you the shovelling takes it out of you...

Injuries are up...we had 3 staff injuries the other day, Craig hurt his shoulder, Bryan (on his brand new board) winded himself and hurt his back, Nick was attempting a jump in the park, caught his heel edge and went flying through the air and landed on his back..ouch, got up ok but was later taken to hospital as he was coughing up blood...turned out ok though, he's just sore now...Cam has a broken wrist from a few weeks ago at Lake Louise, screwed up thing was while he was in the infirmary, some asshole stole his board. Apparently 5 boards were stolen from around the infirmary that day, so those bastards were targetting people with injuries...nasty...however, we all chipped in and managed to get him a brand new board that was probably way better than the one he had...it's a very nice setup indeed...we also bought him a lock...
Me, I haven't been able to board for the last few days as I've hurt my back...I should've taken a pic of the bruises on my ass but it'd probably gross you all out. Bronwyn has been looking after me, she's a physio back home...

So today is christmas eve for us, christmas day for Australia. The Manor xmas dinner was cancelled 'due to lack of interest' (we weren't given enough time to show interest) so our floor is having a dinner. We're also doing a secret santa and i've already got my present as Jolene was going home for christmas. She got me a canadian flag and some markers and got a bunch of people to sign it...very cool, i just have to get everybody who didn't sign it to sign it...
Khan and I are going to Canmore today to get some supplies...We're driving one of the other girls cars...I think i might see if i can drive...i'd like to...he he

Had another staff party the other night, wasn't a big one as most people were hungover from the night befores salsa party...we've had a huge bunch of Peruvians and Chileans come...it's kinda strange as a lot of them don't speak english that well...we've already had an incident with one of them on the lifts, not understanding that a sit skier needed it slowed down so the sit skier and the guy with her were thrown into the head trap...bbbbbaaaaaaaddddd...

Oh yeah, my ipod is dead...saaaaaadddd...it just loads up with an unhappy ipod pic and a web address and then resets itself, making an awful noise too...i have to send it back to aus to get it replaced...Eric please help!

I'll post pics as soon as i can...have to make an album...maybe tonight...i know there's stuff i've forgotten but i've got to get ready to go into Canmore...

the ones that wouldn't upload...

	Rising sun from bottom of Olympic
	Sky view from bottom of Olympic
	Top of Gold
	Top of Gold

these were taken around Nakiska...first ones are the view from the drive station of Gold which is the highest chair here...
Today I had a bit of a scary experience with Gold. I was asked to go to the top station just after opening by the lift mechanic so he could go do something else...got on the chair and oh my god was it windy...the chair stopped 3 times on the way up as it has an emergency stopping mechanism when the wind goes over 60kph. So I'm hanging there in a chair, swinging wildly about 10 metres off the ground, hoping they hadn't forgotten I was on the line...hugging my snowboard trying to make sure it's not getting caught in the wind as if it did, the chair swung a lot further...and you don't want that happening cos eventually they do...ahhh...come off the haul rope...
Finally made it to the top after about 25 minutes (a ride to the top is usually about 10-12 minutes...)but a huge gust came just as i was getting off...which nearly tossed me back over the wrong edge of the lift platform...managed to scramble inside where I was inspected for frostbite...but it was ok cos the temp today was a lot milder -4 degrees, we're having another warm spell...
then i had to get a skidoo ride down cos i was scared the wind was going to tumble me down the hill...
I love riding on the skidoos...it's hella fun...they drive really fast but you have a bright pink face by the time you get to the top...

More new photos!

This time I can't be bothered uploading them to my photo website so i'll post them here with comments...
some are a little old as I haven't been taking enough to warrant putting them up...blah...
P.S. temp was -24 today...it didn't seem as cold as yesterday though...there wasn't any wind...and it was sunny...we also finished up early as there was only 10 racers on the hill and they're shooting a Visa commercial at the base of the hill so I don't think they wanted people around...Not working tomorrow either, nearly everybody is off tomorrow so they're all at the pub...i'm too tired though...playing the granny card tonight...
on with the photos...

These ones were taken at a launch for a snowboarding video in Banff...

	We really wanted to win something...anything?!?
	Dick And Bryan with some pro snowboarders...can't remember their names but aparently they're good...
	Khan And Bryan being dorks...Bryan does the best retarded guy act I've ever seen
	Bryan (talked about him before...he's ace), Macca (from Melbourne, a really nice guy), and Roy (works at Unlimited where we buy all our snowboarding stuff from, gives us a good discount...), Dick in front (Dick is one of our floormates)
	Roy and Dick getting chummy...

Ok the rest aren't uploading on this post so i'll try again witht a new post...

wow...i'm sore...

Wooooh! it's the weekend!

Bryan took us to Lake Louise for the first time yesterday...it's a huge place much more upmarket than Nakiska, but oh my god...the pluses of being staff finally revealed themselves...

hot chocolate - 25c (paying for the cup, otherwise it's free), vegie burger with cheese - $4 and a free mountain pass...
we have our season passes so we can walk straight onto the lifts from the carpark...now those of you who've been to the snow know this is fantatic as everything is so goddamn expensive...

and the best thing about it is, if you don't feel like riding, so what? we've got 6 months to ride in! I'm pretty sore today, and I definately need some lessons, i'll get those free once we open next week. Joelene the girl next door to us teaches at ski school so I might ask her if I can jump in on a lesson with her...

Bryan and the other guys got stuck on a chairlift in the backcountry for 45 minutes...the temp was about -20 and they were coooollldd...we didn't go over there as it was black diamond and double diamond runs. The green runs are still pretty steep here too...oh and, the staff at Lake Louise are mostly Aussies, it was hard to find one that wasn't!

Our floor is now full. I cracked the shits last week as they were going to put another couple in next door to share our bathroom (4 people, one tiny bathroom meant for 2) and managed to keep our second room. Mainly as Khan's a snowmaker and we were having difficulty with not waking each other up. We have a really good floor and we actually won the cleanest floor award so we've got a slab of beer and a whole bunch of junk food that I think we're going to hoe into whilst watching some movies soon...

So, on our floor for future reference, we have Laura (BC) and Dalyce (Saskatchewan), Johnny (Ontario) and Dick (Calgary), Ally (Aus) and Joelene (Saskatchewan). Everybody is pretty cool and we don't have too many issues so it's good, we also have the quietest floor as we made a policy way back in the beginning to party on other floors and sleep on our floor.

All the rest of the Aussies and Chileans are arriving this week. The manor (residence) is overfull, they were actually 18 beds short this year, this was why we were supposed to give up our other room, but I wasn't going to stand for that...they've managed to find other places for these people. If Khan hadn't gone over to snowmaking we could have moved to Canmore where they have condos which would've been great. Problem was, when Khan was deciding whether to change jobs they didn't tell us that snowmakers HAVE to live in the Manor as they aren't allowed to drive after a 12 hour shift. I was pissed when I found that out as they were going to offer us spots there and it would've been cool living in town.

The weather...
Well yes, some of you may never in your lives experience the temperatures we've been getting and it's not actually winter yet. Winter starts on the 21st of December and we've been having -26 as lows and top temps of about -18. I worked in -22 the other day and as long as the other lifties yr working with pull their weight it's ok but I was out breaking chairs for over an hour and a half as this girl just disappeared...I'm going to talk to my supervisor about it as soon as I can. My hair had turned white and my face and toes were so cold. You just can't do that to people in those sorts of temps...hypothermia and frostbite are serious threats out here...but it's starting to warm up again this week which is great...Friday, a high of -3 low of minus 11...balmy!

We maybe going into Calgary today if Laura is going. I haven't been there since we left there to come here so it'll be good. It's good to have a weekend where you go places instead of just sitting around the Manor...

Anyway, I'd better run as I've got dishes to do...