Weekend in SunPeaks

We spent the weekend snowboarding at Sun Peaks with the Guertins. There was lots of lovely ego snow and my leg held up really well. The Delta hotel has a great deal $200 for 1 night and 2 lift tickets. Since lift tickets are $83 each it was a no brainer.

Immigration

I am a permanent resident of Canada which entitles me to live and work here. To prove my status I have a Permanent Resident (PR) Card which I must show when entering the country, cards are valid for 5 years, mine expires on January 11, 2013. Permanent residents are eligible to apply for citizenship once you have accumulated 1,095 days of physical presence in the country. The citizenship application requires you to detail every trip out of the country that exceeds 24 hours and, since I like to vacation it took me a little longer than three years to be eligible to apply.

I mailed my citizenship application and paid the fees back in June 2011. At that time there was a 15 month processing time. In September 2011 I received confirmation that my application had been received, not that it is being processed, just that it has been received. Today the processing time is listed at 19 months. I telephoned the contact centre to discuss my options and was advised that it is OK to have an expired PR card in Canada. Indeed, but what if one wants to take a vacation? I have two options:

1. I can go to the Canadian embassy of the country where I am on vacation and ask for a 'travel document'. This didn't strike me as a) how I want to spend my holiday or b) even a slightly good idea.
2. Alternatively I can apply to renew my PR card. However, renewal applications cannot be submitted earlier that 6 months before the expiry date and current processing time is 4 months. I was cheerfully informed that this is the lowest processing time ever for PR cards.

So now I need to get more passport photos, complete the application form detailing everything I have eaten for the past 5 years, pay $50 and hope the wondrously speedy processing times remain in place for the next 9 months. Worst case scenario I guess I will just have to stay in Australia at the end of our winter holiday ;-)

Tahoe 2012

After an excellent holiday I am back at home with the dogs who are far too exuberant for this early hour. Yesterday's -40 windchill and my lingering tiredness truncated our walk and now I am paying the price with a 7am tug of war / dog wrestling display.

Our trip began on for me on Thursday February 23 when I flew down to Ottawa to join Blaine who was there attending meetings with AFAC and AANDC. He picked me up from the airport and then back at the hotel I enjoyed a draft beer or two then we dined on sushi - both unavailable in Iqaluit. Friday morning he went back into meetings and I set off for a day of rampant consumerism, starting with a 9am hair cut and colour. Keen to get my fix I lunched on sushi, then more shopping. I emerged from Loblaws at South Keys with a trolley heavily laden with goodies to find a heavy wet blanket of snow covering everything and no sign of it easing up. Not good for driving back to the city, and not good for flying. Eventually I made it back to the hotel and dragged Blaine over to the Rideau Centre to look at a snowboard jacket and Sorel boots on sale. He found a snowboard jacket too, and a few other things. We celebrated our shopping success with a bucket of KFC and a couple of glasses Jameson's in the hotel room, then re- packed our bags ready for our early start.

The 4am wake up call came far too soon and we dragged ourselves to Ottawa airport where I endured the line ups and hated self check in kiosk. Blaine dropped the car off and got a cab back before I had made it to a human being at the check in counter where we were informed that our 9am flight from Toronto to San Francisco had been cancelled and that we should go Lin e up for ticketing to be rebooked. I noted that this would cause us to miss our 6am flight to Toronto to which the charming Air Canada staff responded there was no point boarding that flight as we couldn't fly on to SFO until the evening. We joined the fray of disgruntled passengers in yet another line up so that we could be subjected to more surly unhelpfulness by charmless Air Canada staff. Through security we settled in for the day on a couple of couches at which point I examined our boarding passes and noticed we weren't even sat near each other. Miraculously a helpful AC employee got us seats together and gave us a $10 meal voucher each. I went back to the couch and watched some TV. A couple of hours later my brain got going and I pessimistically checked the AC website to see if our flight to SFO was cancelled yet at which point I saw seats for sale on the noon flight. Back to the AC desk where I found the other helpful AC employee who worked her butt off to try to get us to Toronto in time to catch the noon flight. Had we been allowed to board the 6am flight then we could have made it, but we didn't. Instead we got to run around Ottawa and Toronto airports trying to make flights and re-telling our sorry tale. Eventually we arrived in SFO around 1am and rented a car to drive up to Tahoe. By the time we arrived Dom and Tim had woken up so we and a few beers then got about an hour of sleep before our bodies woke us up again. 

The next two weeks were much more enjoyable. Living in a big house backing on tho the woods near California base we spent our days snowboarding and our evenings BBQing, drinking and hot tubbing. We rode Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood mountains and even got free S'mores at Northstar. The weather was a little crazy, ranging from +4 on top of the mountain sunny days to wild winds that shut down all but Powderbowl chair. We took advantage of the free Epic Mix photographers to get some photos, unfortunately some of them didn't show up on our accounts so we don't have the group shot on the rock at the top of Powderbowl chair. The photo of me falling while wearing a bikini top did make it and is now my Facebook profile picture. On the last day I was struggling with my leg so I was escorted to Sky Deck where I sunbathed and sipped Shock Top while the rest of the group rode over to Stagecoach lodge.

Saturday morning we got up early and packed the cars then breakfasted at the Lakeside Casino before driving back to San Francisco. After saying goodbye to the others at the airport Blaine and I headed over to Pacifica for some Gorilla BBQ. As always we were defeated by the delicious stack of meat and tasty sides. Next stop was Infineon raceway then on to the Napa Premium Outlets for more shopping. Back at the hotel we enjoyed a refreshing bottle of Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc and In n Out burgers. 

Sunday we got to the airport super early so we had time to check in our oversize bags. So glad we chose to fly at lunch time not the first flight of the day. The return flight was moderately uneventful, just the usual rudeness that we have come to know and expect from AC. By the time we got our bags and the car it was almost 1am when we checked into the hotel, then I re-packed ready for my flight home in the morning. Another early start but this time the First Air check in agent was super nice so the day started happy. Blaine and I had a coffee together then I went through security and he went back to Ottawa for three intense days of meetings with the CAFC.

The dogs went crazy when I got home, both jumping around and circling me furiously wagging their tails. I was supposed to be moving offices but while we were away there was a small fire in the empty room that was to be my office. It is now being repainted and I should be able to move in later this week, excitingly it has a window!

November Road Trip

During the first week of November Blaine was out in Vancouver taking a course at JIBC, the third week of November I am attending a conference in Toronto. We took the second week as a vacation and met up in Ottawa for a road trip south.

My flight arrived at 5pm and I took a taxi to the Hilton Garden Inn where I picked up our truck then headed over to Bayshore Mall for a cut and colour. I had a couple of hours to kill so watched Puss in Boots in 3D then headed back to the airport to collect Blaine from his flight. Soon we were on the road and arrived at the Thousand Islands border crossing around 1:30am. As usual they were very confused by the Nunavut plates and couldn't wrap their heads around the idea that we had travelled to Ottawa from different locations but the one thing they kept asking about was money. We sat inside for an hour while the whole night shift pulled apart our truck looking for the bag full of cash that Blaine was going to use to buy cigarettes to smuggle back into Canada. We later discovered that they had taken a knife to one of Blaine's bags. Of course they didn't find anything so instead of apologizing for holding us up for an hour the duchebag guard covered up his embarrassment by telling us over and over and over that we should buy a new truck in the US. Asshole. The next place of any size was Watertown NY where we found the cheap motel to be full. To my continued annoyance I paid $130 to stay in a shitty ass Comfort Inn because I was too exhausted to argue or go to another hotel.

Sunday morning we consumed as much free breakfast as humanly possible then jumped in the truck and continued south. Our ultimate destination was Atlanta GA but we were fairly flexible about how to get there so with a combination of maps, sat navs and our awesome brains we devised the route on the fly and headed for the Appalachian Mountains. The clock change and mother nature combined forces to make it dark as we approached the range and after a few hours dodging deer we decided to stop at the Red Roof Inn near Roanoke WV. We had planned to drive to Lynchburg TN to visit the Jack Daniels distillery but since it is in the middle of a dry county the idea became less attractive. Some googling taught us that the entire state of Tennessee is by default dry, counties and cities can opt out and choose to sell liquor by the drink or retail. The JD distillery can sell JD retail but you can't drink it. Since Mr Daniels' product is widely available and our time in Ireland and scotland had taught us all we need to know about making the stuff we elected to skip the tour on this trip.

Monday we filled up the truck and headed to Bristol Motor Speedway where we were allowed to roam around the track all on our own. We inspected the safer barriers, stood in victory lane, ran across the finish line and marveled at the angle of the banking. The guy in the gift store recommended Cracker Barrel for lunch. Unconvinced we went along for lack of a better idea and were pretty impressed. I had chicken and dumplings which was poached white chicken meat served with thick pieces of pasta like dough about the size of a gnocchi, covered in a white sauce. Really simple and really good. Because Blaine is such an awesome husband and driver we made it all the way to Douglasville GA where we went to Hooters for dinner. This was my first Hooters experience and Blaine tells me it was not as good as the one in Texas. I liked the deep fried pickle slices and am thinking of basing my 2012 Burning Man costume on the Hooters uniform.

Tuesday morning we drove to the very well hidden Tactical Armour Group workshop to get the Tahoe fitted with a custom rear bumper. Originally we were to arrive on Wednesday but it turns out that we needed that extra day... he asked us to come back at noon as it wasn't ready yet so we drove down to Atlanta Motor Speedway which is an enormous track. We couldn't get on the track itself but we did go in the stands and drive around the outside. I wanted to eat a peach but I guess November is a little late and we didn't see any roadside peach stands to satisfy my craving. Back in Douglasville we left the truck and took Kyle's car to the disappointing mall, then for some disappointing BBQ. Liquor stores here are called package stores, we found one and got some JD honey and a big bottle of Gentleman Jack. Dominic asked me to report on prices... 750ml is around $25, 1.75l is around $60. Back at TAG we hung around trying to be unobtrusive but hoping they would hurry up. We walked to the gas station and bought some "World Famous Boiled Peanuts" which are presumably famous for being so vile. Around 4pm we learned that there was a problem with the bumper and that they would have to completely rebuild the whole thing which would take 8 hours. Strangely enough we were quite happy because by this point we had decided to visit as many NASCAR tracks as possible so we took our bumper less truck to Talladega AB. We arrived just before dusk and drove down to the security booth near the track where the old man security guard (who we later learned is called Crowbar) informed us that we were trespassing. We took this information and drove on to the bizarre town of Talladega which is populated almost exclusively by fas food restaurants. Embracing the cards we had been dealt we checked into the Super 8 and bought a bucket of chicken from the KFC across the street.

Wednesday morning we breakfasted at a BBQ place next door to the RBC and pondered the presence of the Royal Bank of Canada in Alabama. Both of us failed to consider that we were in the US so ended up with enormous plates of meat and carbs, all of which was delicious. At the Talladega Super Speedway we paid $8 each to be driven around the track by a charming chap. We were allowed out to take pictures at Victory Lane but no track or stands access. As you might expect the bumper installation was not without issues but we did get on the road and drove to Charlotte NC where we ate at the DDD featured Cabo Fish Taco then checked in to a hotel near the track so we could visit as soon as they opened in the morning.

Thursday we had an ambitious day planned: Charlotte to Dover via Martinsville and Richmond. Charlotte Motor Speedway was another lock down location so we were only able to visit the gift shop and take some photos by the sign then head north into Virginia to visit Martinsville. the only souvenir left was a mug which we bought but it messed up our shot glass collection... Guess it is just a really big shot glass. The track was awesome, just like Bristol they let us wander around freely and Blaine even climbed up into the box over the finish line where the guy waves the flags. At Richmond International Raceway we climbed way up to the new Commonwealth Tower and looked down on the track but we couldn't get onto the track itself. We jumped back kin the truck and drove to Arlington for another DDD hit before continuing to Dover DE where we got to the gift store in the Casino 15 minutes before it closed. There were no rooms at the casino so we stayed across the way in the trusty Red Roof Inn where we hauled in all our bags to do a little repacking and to audit our collection of NASCAR hats, T-shirts, mugs and shot glasses.

Friday morning we drove over to the track and were intrigued to watch them preparing for a harness race. There is a horse race track running inside the oval, to access it they have poured a bridge of gravel across turn 4. We could only get onto the inside stands so were behind glass, around the far side we took our photo with the giant monster but were a little disappointed that there was no sign saying "Monster Mile" I guess maybe you are just supposed to know that. Blaine very sweetly drove around looking for welcome to Maryland and Delaware signs to humor me in my photographic quest, we didn't find any but we did get shakes from Hardee's then plugged Orange County Choppers into the sat nav and headed north through New Jersey and into New York state. I bought Johnny an awesome pleather biker jacket - can't wait to dress him up hee hee. Our accommodations for the evening were not a hotel, thanks to Facebook I learned that my school friend Lynne now lives in Garrison NY (alas not NJ as in Copland) so we spent the evening drinking wine and catching up.

Saturday morning we feasted on croissants and fruit salad then headed back to Ottawa. We decided to cross the border at Cornwall Island to check out the Mohawk blockade, to get there we drove through the beautiful Adirondack Mountains and the picturesque town of Lake Placid which has twice hosted the winter Olympics. Our border crossing was uneventful and there was no blockade for Blaine to join so we drove to Walmart and bought groceries for him to take home instead.

Sunday we dragged ourselves out of bed and Blaine just made the flight. I stayed in Ottawa for a couple of days doing more shopping. Last night something bit me on my finger, both arms and my left eyelid so I am swollen and itchy and feeling sorry for myself as I sit on the train bound for Toronto, I hope this doesn't impact my enjoyment of the waters at Body Blitz Spa this afternoon.

Ireland & Scotland

I wrote this post on the road but evidently failed to publish it...

Holy cow what a trip this has been! I thought that I would have time to blog during our travels but we have been going non-stop. Bon Jovi are on tour in Europe but their schedule is not as punishing as ours. Blaine and I are so proud of our parents for their stamina!

We spent 3 days in Ireland checking out Dublin and Belfast... The whole holiday is a (drunken?) blur so I am struggling to recall the order of events. I believe that our first day in Dublin was spent doing the bus tour and visiting the Guinness Brewery, Kilmainham Goal, Dublinia and the Jameson's Distillery. In the evening we went to the Brazen Head pub for a drink and then got some Chinese takeaway in Temple Bar. The next day Blaine and I took the train to Belfast for a very interesting bus tour around the peace walls and such. The northern Irish are very proud that they built the Titanic, Blaine bought a t-shirt proclaiming that the Titanic was "built by an Irishman and sunk by an Englishman" I got a Titanic Swim Team one. Back in Dublin we went to the pub again but with the parents this time and we all ate a feast then listened to some real live Irish music.

On Wednesday morning we checked out of our apartment and flew to Edinburgh where we stayed in a beautiful Georgian apartment in the new town. Blaine and I went to the Cafe Royal for drinks and dinner with Rhona and Duncan before they set off for Glastonbury. Thursday morning I ascended the Nelson Monument atop Calton Hill and was rewarded with spectacular views over the city. We lunched at the Bow Bar in the old town and then took a bus to Leith where we tried to see the Royal Yacht Britannia but it was well concealed from anyone unwilling to pay an entrance fee. Back in the city we dined at the Kennilworth pub on Rose St, as featured in the CAMRA book of historic pub interiors. Our final day in the Scottish capital featured more of the same... Strolling around the old city soaking up the atmosphere and drinking real ale.

Digital Scrapbooking - Sunday Roast @ The Doghouse

My first attempt at digital scrapbooking using Photoshop CS5 and the free Happy Go Lucky collection from Shabby Princess.

Summer Vacation, week 1

I am composing this post onboard the 0935 train from Dublin to Belfast. It feels like this is the first time we have stopped since leaving Iqaluit on June 10! We flew KLM from Vancouver to Heathrow via Amsterdam where we passed the time in the Irish Pub watching a guy play golf in the middle of the pub... Blaine and I marveled at the bargain basement prices in the duty free shop and invested in a bottle of Caol Isla for me, JD Silver Select for him and Johnnie Walker Blue Label as an early birthday present for Ted. Arriving in Heathrow we all made it through immigration and customs and were greeted by our driver who was identified by a sign that read "Emma Jane Hull to Swindon". Presumably my parents felt it necessary to include my middle name and our destination as there might have been hoards of Emma Hulls expecting cars at the airport and we might not have found our man! This attention to detail did not extend to attention to driving and we t-boned a car as we pulled out of the carpark! I fell asleep on the motorway, the Canadian contingent stayed wide awake with terror.

Swindon
After a quick trip to the bank we then set off in a two car convoy to the pub. By some cruel twist of fate the traffic was insane and it took us half an hour to travel the three miles by which time it was too cold to sit outside. A sign posted on the wall read "Dogs must be on a leash in the garden" which I interpreted as don't let your dog run smock in the garden. The rest of the group took it to mean dogs are allowed only in the garden. So it was that Riddick and Echo's walk was from the car to the beer garden and then back to the car. We enjoyed a pint inside the pub. Dinner was deliciously tender steaks that were so large they had to be cooked separately, Ted cooked four steaks on the BBQ outside in the drizzle while Dom smoked out the kitchen with three steaks on the griddle pan. A good many beverages were consumed and we all enjoyed sleeping in beds instead of airplane seats.

Friday morning we had a leisurely start to the day with a cooked breakfast and lots of coffee and juice to combat fatigue and dehydration respectively. After a couple of attempts I finally succeeded in entering all six passengers' travel information onto the Ryanair website within the undisclosed time limit and was able to print off our boarding passes. This important task accomplished we then distributed ourselves between two vehicles and set off for Avebury. Dom drove Blaine, Ted and Riddick in the Volvo while mum drove Carol and I in her car, Dad stayed home to look after Echo and cook dinner. Dominic navigated by GPS, mum by very fuzzy memory... an important fact that she did not disclose until after the men sent a text message asking where we were. With the aid of a map book we found our destination and enjoyed a splendid view of one of Wiltshire's white horses. The six of us ate lunch in the Red Lion pub which did allow dogs in on that day, but not tomorrow. Happily full once again we joined the sheep in wandering around the stones and earth mounds puzzling over their point. Carol read the pamphlet so presumably she could inform us. The next hour was spent marveling over the ancient church and manor house before rain stopped play. The boys went straight home while the ladies demonstrated stronger touristic tenacity and went to Marlborough to take some photos of the high street.

Back at the house we regrouped over a whisky then prepared the TomTom to guide us to Swindon's legendary "magic roundabout". We piled into Dad's Peugeot 405 estate, Blaine in the driver seat and Dom as his brave copilot, in the back I took the seat of death sandwiched between Carol and Ted. We had to navigate an inordinate number of roundabouts of varying sizes to get to our destination which gave Dominic the opportunity to run through some basic principles of right of way and lane discipline. For the purposes of today's exercise it was agreed that roundabouts should be treated as stops rather than give way and that lane discipline was best addresses by following the car in front. I should point out that dad's car is an older model with character, not only did Blaine have to contend with driving on the wrong side of the road, changing gear with the wrong hand and the four of us as passengers, but the electrics are going so the windscreen wipers kept failing and the clutch, brakes and accelerator are a little temperamental. Neither Dom nor I have driven the magic roundabout so we were most impressed by Blaine's bravery and skill, he successfully navigated it twice without even being honked at! Cee came down for the night and the eight of us made a valiant effort to drink everything in the house, stopping only when there was no more room in the recycling bin for the empty bottles

Bristol
Blaine and I got up early and went to check out the firehall where we enjoyed a cup of tea and some homemade flapjack. We got back to the house with two minutes to spare before Crash turned up to drive the six of us to Bristol leaving Dom and Cee to clean up and then take the dogs to London. The drive to Bristol was without incident and we arrived at the hotel, dropped off our bags and went in search of food and drink. The heavens opened and we all got drenched but Tony and Ted sniffed out a pub and established themselves at the bar. Carol and Jean pottered around St Nicholas market and Blaine and I headed down to the waterfront. Back at the hotel we celebrated my birthday with a bottle of champagne in Jean and Tony's corner suite overlooking Welsh Back and then commenced an ambitious pub crawl.

A gentle stroll through the scenic Castle Park led us to Bath Ales' Bridge Inn where we were greeted by Henry, Sophie and Ned. We sat outside in the sunshine and enjoyed a pint before moving on to the Cornubia. Next stop was the Kings Head pub which is featured in a CAMRA historic pub interiors book that Adi once gave me so it was only fitting that he, Ali and Evie joined the party there. Pub 4 was a short stumble down the street to Ye Shakespeare where the wise ones ate. The Bristolian contingent departed and we moved on to the Seven Stars where Carol and Ted challenged some other patrons to a pool match. At the Portwall Tavern a strange transaction occurred in which we traded Blaine for an accountant named Simon. Blaine and his new friends Dominic and Martin went to Hooters (because the wings are really good) while Carol, Simon and I went to the Ostrich. Jean took Ted and Tony back to the hotel. Those left standing reconvened at a bar called Sublime where we continued to drink until Carol and I surrendered at 1am. Blaine finally gave in at 2am.

Sunday morning we gently explored the new M Shed but were overwhelmed by the noisy kids so retreated to the more sophisticated atmosphere of Loch Fyne restaurant for a light lunch. The hotel ordered us a taxi for 6 plus luggage so we and the driver were initially a little put off when he presented his 6 seater without luggage space. He gamely followed Blaine's example of shoving bags in every orifice and ontop of each passenger, Blaine and I were squished in the very back seat with suitcases on us acting as restraint systems in place of the now buried seat belts. Our driver almost crashed as he pulled away from the curb but then made it through the 20 minute journey without anyone screaming. After check in we walked what felt like a mile to the Ryanair gate and squished onto the plane for the short hop over the sea to Dublin.

Enough blogging for now, stay tuned to find out what happens during our 3 days on the emerald isle.