Nigels Works Christmas 'DO' - Vancouver

Nige and I were lucky enough to be flown out to British Columbia by his company for their Christmas party. They were paying for our flights and a nights stay, on the Saturday, at the Harrison Hot Spring Hotel about 2 hours drive from Vancouver.

The view from the plane window in Calgary as we waited for them to defrost the engines!

(you can see downtown in the distance!)

We decided to make a long weekend out of it and as his boss had offered us his spare room, we headed out early friday morning on the hours flight to Abbotsford their local airport (about 2 mins from the US border) .

The mountains peeping through the clouds as we fly over the Canadian Rockies!

British Columbia may be the next Province to Alberta but it is very different. The climate for example in western BC is very similar to that of the UK and as we were coming into land we both got rather homesick looking at all the clouds, drizzle and green fields!

We had been given one of the company trucks to use during our stay, so as soon as we'd picked that up we took the hours drive into Vancouver.

The City itself was wonderful with more architecture than Calgary and there was lots of activity in preperation for the upcoming Olympics, but it was more like the cities we'd been to in the UK. Unlike Calgary there were more of the stereotypical negatives you get in a city. We had a great time though, walking along the main streets and were able to do some shopping. We found a couple of really nice shops, including a chocolate shop and cafe (which we obviously had to sample......very nice!)

We then headed back to Abbotsford for a Chinese takeaway at his bosses house. After a good nights sleep we headed out to the hotel, about an hours drive, checked in ready for our massages!! After an hours relaxing massage we went outside to the hot springs for some further relaxation in preparation for the night ahead!

This is Matt, Niges' work buddy in Calgary

Nige and Matts two bosses

The meal was one of the most amazing buffets I have ever seen and as all food and drinks were paid for there was plenty going round! This is where the differences between the UK and BC become apparent. At 10:30 we were asked to drink up and leave the dining room (which we took our time doing!), but we just assumed that the party and drinking would continue in the hotel bar, but this closed at 11pm!!!!

To cut a long story short, the majority of our party (about 28 of us) then decided that we would gatecrash another party in the hotel being held by a Honda delarship!

The Honda party!

(We actually only know about 3 people in this picture, although no-one really noticed they didn't know us!!!!)

This went on til about 12:00 and then when that party finished then we all decided to make up camp by the huge roaring fire in the lobby. One of the party disappeared and promptly returned with a large cooler box full of various alcoholic beverages, but after a visit from a friendly security guard/Night porter however, these had to be made 'to look like apple juice' as we weren't allowed to drink alcohol in the hotel once the bar had closed???!!!

The friendly security man (he's the one hugging Niges' boss!)

and the night manager trying to keep us in order!

The festivities continued til about 2am when we all headed to our rooms for some well needed hydration and sleep!

The following morning they had a dumping of snow, something they don't get all that often.

We had booked a second night in the hotel and were very glad we did, as when the rest of the party were heading home with sore heads, we were tucking into breakfast in bed!! The following morning (Monday) we headed back into Vancouver again and drove around Stanley Park and nosed around some very posh houses overlooking the harbor. We even visited the place where some of the movie Twilight was filmed!

Later that evening we returned the van and Niges' other boss dropped us off at the airport. We were delayed by an hour or leaving Abbotsford due to freak weather (they'd actually had about an inch of snow, but like the UK they're not used to it!) and had a shock on our arrival to Calgary in -35 degrees! This was made worse by the fact that as our car had been sat for 4 days in the extreme temperatures, it decided not to start and we had to have airport security help us on our way!!

We had a wonderful weekend and were so grateful to Niges' work for the Christmas treat, but even though we had only spent a short time in Vancouver, we were still happy that we had chosen Calgary as our home!

Outside Christmas Lights!

This was the temperature on the Thermometer the morning of the following pictures. Brrrr!!

Not bad for our first christmas eh! Fortunately we were given some christmas lights, which kept the costs down, but we're more than happy with the result. The bucket truck certainly came in handy.

There are approximately 700-750 lights in total, so not a bad effort!

Winter still hasn't officially begun.....but.....

Here is a a few snap shots that I took this morning following a few days of snow and cold temperatures. The thermometer does indeed say -18, but with the windchill the forecast says its -29!!!!

Goodman-Baines Christmas Grotto transformation!!

Just a quick 'Welcome' to my sister Tiffany, as even though we have been running the blog for almost a year, she found out only today about its existence!!

Well today we headed out Christmas tree shopping. Its been a long time since we last had a real tree, but as we had not only a better selection of real trees, the silly cost of artificial trees here and the room in which to have them I managed to persuade Nige that we should get 3 real trees!!!

There are many places selling trees here and although we really wanted to see the trees in full before buying, the first place we looked at that didn't have them wrapped up, didn't really have much of a selection. So we headed off to Home Depot (Basically B&Q). They had one of each tree on display and we picked one that looked good. However when we went to pick them all the others were wrapped up. We decided that we would just pick two 8 footers and a 5 footer and hope for the best.

When we got home we had to defrost the trees (I kid you not) for a few hours til all the branches fell into place and we could see what they looked like. Well they were the widest, bushiest, most perfectly shaped trees we'd ever had. Below is a picture of them before decorations so you can see what we mean.

This is the bonus room tree and in the background is my new favourite channel, Christmas Fireplace. Basically its a real log fire burning away and occasionally an arm in a 'lumberjack' shirt stokes it up and adds another log. Its on 24hours a day and is great to have on when you are in the room without watching television as it makes you feel all cosy and warm. They had a similar thing on one of the sky music channels last year as I remember my best friend Katie and I drinking a couple of bottles of wine whilst it was on in the background.....anyway I digress!!

Bonus room tree again (with out Christmas fireplace channel!)

This is our second tree downstairs.

These are the trees decorated, with the addition of a third, our toy tree.

The house is now all lit up outside (a huge thanks to Niges' Bosses, although they don't know it, as the works van and lift came in very handy!!!!) and as soon as it gets darker I shall take and add some pictures to the blog.

Blizzard Warnings!!!

This is an extract from 'www.theweathernetwork.com

Snowfall will intensify Friday evening for much of Alberta, with sustained winds approaching 40 km/h at this time. This combination will likely result in widespread near-blizzard conditions for Friday evening and through the overnight. Local heavier bursts of snow could result in near-zero visibilities and very hazardous driving conditions.

Snowfall will ease through Saturday morning, with the exception of Southern Alberta. Winds and blowing snow will continue to be an issue through Saturday.

This was last night, then early this morning we woke up to this

Although we have had extreme temperatures and are set for a high of -19 week, with the weather being so unpredictable you never know if what the weather person says will happen actually will!

Nige thankfully left very early this morning so he can get home befor ethe worst of the weather comes in and I only have to nip down the road to get weighed at Herbal Magic so thankfully no long trips planned!

An Unexpected Week Off

Unfortunately Sophie had some bad news recently when she found out that she had failed the CRNE nursing exam and had missed out by only 2 marks! She was obviously devastated and really disappointed, and immediately applied to re-write the exam in February. Well as this was at the forefront of her mind she totally forgot that her current nursing permit was due for renewal on the 1st of december. To cut a long story short, this wasn't as easy to renew as the person from CARNA had made out and without her permit she has been unable to work.

Thankfully she was able to gather the required documentation and have it couriered to their office in Edmonton in the hope that it arrives by the end of the week. She has had a difficult few weeks with her nursing and all the problems she has had to face and the last few days wasn't helped by the fact that she went to attend a refresher course in life support, only to be told that all the previous courses she has done in the UK don't count here in Canada, so she has to redo all her basic life support training, not something that she really didn't want to hear after the week she had just had!

There is a prep course available for the exam in February but it cost nearly $800 for three days and that doesn't include travel or accommodation so that isn't really an option. But she now has more of an insight to the exam format (something that is completely different to the UK) and can now work her revision around that information.

Planning for the Festivities!

We had originally planned to have four of our closest friend visit us for christmas and new year but unfortunately due to medical and financial reasons those plans had to be cancelled and Nige and I were set to spend christmas, just the three of us. But as Sonja and Alan, friend whom we have met since arriving in Canada were also due for a quiet christmas we decided to get together for Christmas dinner and things are looking a lot more exciting!

As well as our Christmas celebrations we have finalised our plans for new year. Although the temperatures are extremely cold the downtown core of the city comes alive with ice skating, fireworks and entertainment so aswell as getting together for Christmas the four of us have booked a meal in the revolving restaurant at the top of the Calgary Tower. This means that not only will we have a fantastic view of the city whilst we are eating, if the weather takes a turn for the worst we will be able to celebrate in the warmth with unrestricted views of the festivities!