Model for a Day!

Whilst at work one afternoon, one of my co-workers mentioned that her daughter Beverly, who is a hairdresser, was looking for some models for the Allied Beauty Association Show.  I haven't done anything with my hair for sometime so offered to attend a trial to see if I would be suitable.  At the trial I met up with Bev and she discussed some styles and colours and arranged to come to the salon where she worked two days before the show to have my hair coloured and then go through the itinerary for the day.  


That Saturday I went to the salon, where i had another consult with Bev and the another award winning hairdresser Russel Surujbally from Ontario.  It wasn't until then that I realised just how big this show was in the hairdressing world.  The Calgary show is one on the largest beauty exhibition and educational event and being surrounded by young, thin girls, having come straight from a busy night shift I felt rather out of place.  After spending the day being weighted on and pampered, we all met up at the exhibition centre for a run through and then arranged to meet at 6:20am on the day of the show.

This is me just before leaving the house.

The first half of the day I was one of the 'live cut' models, where I would have my hair cut live on stage and below was taken just after i stepped on stage.

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In the afternoon my hair was styled in an 'up do' and I was to take part in the catwalk show and then had to pose with the other models while they preformed a live 'up do'.

  
I must admit that at first it was really strange having everyone weight on you, dressing you,  bringing you food and drink and touching up your make-up every 5 minutes, but if I'm honest it didn't take me long to start enjoying it!!  I had a great day in the life of a model with my 15 minutes of fame, I just wish I could have taken the make-up artist, stylist and hairdresser home with me!

Camping in Sicamous, BC

Back at the beginning of the summer, our neighbour Laurie, invited us camping, to her parents acreage on the water in Sicamous, BC for a suprise 40th birthday party for her husband Kevin.  With us not knowing if we'd still be here we were unable to commit, but as soon as we knew we'd be back in work, we confirmed our attendance.


Sicamous is around a 5 hour drive from Calgary so with the car laden with camping equipment, food, drink and one spotty dog, we headed off on our road trip (via Tim Hortons!).  With a 20 minute stop half way for fuel (both us and the car!), we arrived at our destination.  As we had arrived in the dark, Laurie's parents offered for us to use one of their cabins and as we were informed that there were bears in the area, we decided not to put the tent up in the dark and take them up on their offer.  I must admit however that I got very little sleep as every time Domino stretched out her legs her claws would scratch against the wood and I kept thinking that a bear was trying to get in!

Our home for the first night!

The following morning we were all up early for breakfast, put up our tent and survey our surroundings.

Now, firstly we just need to point out a big difference between camping in the UK and camping in Canada, we were the only ones with a tent, with everyone else in large RV's and caravans, but we were quite proud of ourselves when we continued to put up the tent when it started raining (we'd spent many a weekend with Nige's racing putting up tents in the rain!!!)  

 

On the first morning we offered to help Laurie and Kevin bottle an order of wine they were due to collect from a local wine makers.  We had great fun (especially with the tasting!) and decided that next time we were down that way we would make an order of our own.  Alberta has laws which prohibit the commercial production of wine so this being the closest place to Alberta that does the store informed us that a large number of their customers are from Calgary.  

Whilst here we were lucky enough to witness the salmon run up the Fraser River and this year was set to be the largest one in over 100 years.  Although it was reaching its end, we were really treated to one of natures wonders with over 30 million sockeye salmon returning to spawning grounds, more than 20 times more than arrived in 2009.

Domino enjoying the Fire later that evening!

Laurie's parents had a large orchard in their grounds and they had spotted a bear cub frequenting it in order to snack on the apples so we were really hoping for a glimpse whilst we were there and we weren't disappointed!  While sitting down talking with a cup of tea, one of the party guests rushed in to inform us that they'd seen a bear by one of the apple trees.  Now although approaching a bear is very dangerous the fact that there about 20 of us in a group all making lots of 'oohing' noises meant that they would have been well aware of our presence and moved away if we got too close for comfort!


At first we spotted the bear, the realised that it was a cub so kept our distance until we knew where its mum was.  

When the cub crossed the driveway and headed into the other orchard we spotted the second cub and its mother munching on the apples on the ground (we're told that after a few hours of munching on the fermented apples the bears are often seen staggering away into the woods drunk!!)  

We watched in amazement for around 15 minutes before they wondered off into the woods, although they made frequent visits to the acreage during our visit, so we kept Domino fairly close to ensure it was only the apples they ate!!!

This picture was taken before the bear started sniffing around 

the cabin in which we'd stayed the first night we were here!

Although the weather was very much like the UK, sunny one minute and pouring the next, we made the most of the last of the warm weather, and even managed a dip in the neighbours heated pool!!


We had a wonderful weekend with good food, beautiful scenery and good company and it was exactly what we needed to unwind after the last four months; plus we even managed to cross a few things off the 'bucket list' whilst we were there!


We'd been informed of an awesome ice cream factory just near to where we'd been staying, so in true 'British' style we started off our journey home in the pouring rain, with a large ice cream!

The last two pictures are for anyone who's seen any of the Twilight movies and the entire journey home was like driving through the film set with the low clouds and drizzle, I was just waiting for Edward to run along side the car!!

Day Trip to the Border

Well today Nige and I headed to the Canadian/US border with all our paperwork in order to activate our new work permits.  In order to activate our permits, we have to do what's called, round the flag pole, which entails exiting Canada, entering the US border office and them sending us back to re-enter canada.  

The nearest border crossing to us is Carway which is about 3 hours drive south, so we headed down with our passports, Nigel's LMO letter and our Common-law agreement.  The first half of the process went very quickly and we headed back to the Canadian border and declared our intention to activate our work visas.  We were directed to an office where we handed over our paperwork and were asked to take a seat.  Now I can 'talk' normally, but the fact that we were sat in a room surrounded by cameras and a very intimidating Immigration officer made us both very nervous and i think I only stopped for breath once the entire time we were there!!!!

What we weren't expecting was the 'grilling' that we were given by the immigration officer and 40 minutes of questioning and waiting.  Although on the surface it looked very suspicious that we had been able to support ourselves without having worked for four months and that we genuinely hadn't worked illegally.  For those that know us, they had listened to us moaning about our situation since May and were aware of the two bottom shaped indents on the sofa as Nige and I stayed at home trying to conserve money, but it was very frightening having to convince someone who didn't believe that was the case when we had no evidence.  They were also very suspicious that we had employers that were willing to hold our jobs, something that we hadn't really thought about, but after sometime the officer returned and after a few more questions he handed over the visas and the passports were stamped.  

Thankfully, as I had a letter from my employer at the Foothills, he agreed to give me a permit that entitled me to continue working in healthcare, without another medical.  We also believe that he may have contacted our bank to ensure that we had had no payments enter our account and as we were heading out the office he asked if we'd managed to see much of Canada whilst we'd been off work; we pointed out that we'd only just had enough money to pay the rent, let alone travel.  We thought afterwards that he may have been testing us, but as we had nothing to hide and were nothing but honest, he had obviously been satisfied with our answers.   

We cannot begin to describe the feeling we had as we drove home with that bit of paper stapled in our passports, but its straight back to work tomorrow for Nige and I return back on Tuesday.

At Last!!!!!!!!!

ITS HERE!!!!

Well after what feels like an eternity waiting to hear our fate at precisely 4:11 pm this afternoon we received the news we'd been waiting for.  Service Canada have issued Nigel a positive LMO letter which will allow us to head to a border immigration office to have our work permits processed and issued.  Nigels boss rang yesterday to say that they had submitted the application and that they had spoken to Service Canada (SC) and they assured them that they would review the application as soon as possible.  Then early this morning Nigel received another phone call from one of his bosses to say that they'd had a call from SC in order for them to discuss the application and that they would hear before the end of the week what the outcome would be.

Obviously we were really nervous, so didn't want to get anyones hopes up by giving them the latest news until we knew for sure.  Nigel had decided to go out o0n the bike and on checking his cell phone on his ret

urn he noticed a missed csll from each of his bosses, a voicemail and text asking him to call them back.  Not knowing whether it will be good news or bad news he rang them back, only to be told that they had received a fax of a positive LMO.  

I am writing this before we head out into Downtown for a few celebratory drinks, then its off down south to the US border early next week to activate our work permits.  So a big thank you to all of those that have been crossing various body parts, it obviously worked, and to all of you that have been waiting to book flights, get booking cause it looks like we're staying!!!!

Globalfest 2010

Long term readers will be aware that Nige and I attended the Calgary international fireworks competition last year and this year, despite our current uncertainty, we decided at only $15 each it was a must!  As we still have our house guests, along with our neighbors, the six of us headed up to Elliston Park in Calgary's Greater Forest Lawn district around 6:30pm to make the most of the festivals International Avenue Arts and Culture Centre area for dinner.  We had remembered that last year, still being somewhat new to Calgary and still a little 'green' we had gone very unprepared in order to be comfortable when the sunset.  This year we had been more aware of the sudden drop in temperature that occurred and has brought plenty of layers!  This year we had decided to watch Portugal's performance and were very impressed.  

Although we aren't sure of the exact marking/scoring criteria for the displays, we know that marks are given for the timing of the display to the accompanying music, choice of music and how well the appropriateness of the display to the music.  We had felt that it was far better than the display we'd seen last year and were so pleased that our house guests enjoyed themselves as we'd been raving about it for over a week!!!!!

However, we are yet to reach the true canadian level of 'non-weather specific preparation', as although we were a great deal warmer than last year, as it had been so warm in the day, the drop in temperature felt more severe.  As a result Nige and I have already made a mental packing list for next year which includes a double sleeping bag (I kid you not!!!).

Strange But True!!!

Yes today we were hit by another strange Calgary weather phenomenon.  All day it had been warm, if a little overcast with smoke from the BC forest fires, but certainly pleasant.  Then Sophie went to let out Domino she spotted the unmistakable black clouds in the distance.   We decided that if a storm was on its way in we'd better close the windows, but little did we know that it was more than rain heading our way.


We have had some amazing storms since we moved here, especially in the last 6 months and a month ago there was an enormous hail storm in the North of the city with, apparently, tennis ball sized hail, yet we had missed it here.  As soon as we heard the first crack of thunder the heaven opened and the house was pelted with ping pong ball sized hail.  We'd never seen anything like it and the sound from inside the house was deafening.  The hail continued for around 20 minutes gradually getting smaller and smaller until eventually it became rain, but with the temperature having dropped to around 9 degrees, the hail took most of the night to melt away.


Below are some photographs taken from our back yard.

An Afternoon on the Elbow!

As a Birthday treat, our friend Deedee and Haydn had planned for Nige and I to borrow their equipment and travel/float down the Elbow River, so as the weather forecast was good all was planned for yesterday.  Since we first moved here, we have often talked about getting into some sort of water sport and were hoping to buy a kayak this summer, but obviously with all spending on hold we were really looking forward to some fresh air and relaxing on the water. We headed to theirs in the afternoon and Deedee took us to our Starting off point, a place called Sandy Beach, helped us inflate our vessel then pushed us off down the river.  

NB: For those of you that have forgotten, we are still without a camera so the photos are again coming to you courtesy of Nigels' works iPhone, which for most of the pictures was inside a ziplock bag, hence the appearance of a smog/haze like entity on some of the photos!

Below is a link to a map where we have plotted our route.

Our Route

Areas of the route took us into fairy deep water at times with enough current to float us down the river without having to row and I just steered with the oar out the back of the boat.  There were however, times where it was quite shallow so we did have to get some momentum by rowing, to get to where the stronger current was to going again.

What with the hot summers here, on the weekend especially, lots of people head for the river, so the City is very strict on water safety.  Because of this life vests are compulsary for all and the comsumption of alcohol is prohibited.  We had been very good and were thankful that we had adheared to these rules as the police were out in force issuing $250 fines and stern 'tellings off' to those who didn't comply!

The journey itself took just over an hour and we had a great time.  Apart from a few other groups of teens floating down in lilo's and blow-up recliner chairs it was so peaceful and the scenery was beautiful.  We even got to float by some huge 'posh' houses that backed onto the river.  After we'd reached our docking point, we  met up with Haydn, Deedee and their two children for a fabulous barbeque with homemade burgers, salad and a gorgeous homemade Victoria sponge.  I'm sure we bore you all by repeating this all the time, but you almost have to remind yourself that you're in a huge city, when you're surrounded by nature, plus even though our sky has been very hazy recently (due to the smoke from the huge forest fires in British Columbia) the sun still forced its way through for some awesome temperatures.

So another great day in Canada, thanks to such a thoughtful gift from our friends, that has definitely given us a taste for the river.  We're hoping, if all goes well, to be able to buy our own equipment before the end of the summer, so we can plan an all day trip from the North of the city all the way down to the South City limits.