GOODBYE SUNPEAKS….
Posted by Cindy in Canada on 03 15th, 2012We’ve spent a glorious couple of weeks at Sun Peaks and have totally loved the skiing and the annual catch up with all of our friends:)) We have done this again thanks to the fantastic hospitality of our wonderful friends and hosts, Neil & Veronica.
Many thanks to you both for an absolutely awesome time:)
We are now on our way to Whistler before we head back to Brisvegas for another year of ….. ? Hmm I don’t want to think about that!!!!!!!!
Anyways, here are some pics for you to enjoy of our last couple of days at Sun Peaks and of the scenery on our way to Whistler…..:))))
Yeah! So there!
read comments (0)LUMPS & BUMPS!!!!
Posted by Cindy in Canada on 03 6th, 2012The last couple of days have been a whole bunch of firsts!
We’ve skied around various designated runs on Mt Morrisey (and some non-designated runs too!! Oopsthy!!) We’ve also faced quite the challenge on Morrissey…..
Morrissey has a number of runs related to washing machines – Agitator, Spin Cycle, Static Cling, just to name a few…. They are called these names for good reason. There is also another one called Cover Shot. One of these (Agitator) is a Black Diamond Run, the others are all Double Black Diamond Runs.
They are lumpy, bumpy, turn in a multitude of different directions, they are tumultuous. Like most washing machine cycles, unless you are in a delicates bag on a gentle cycle, you are going to get thrown around quite a lot!! They are a challenge that we had not yet faced, nor had we yet been brave enough to face. Mind you –most of the locals here are in awe of these runs. They are so amazingly steep. Like, if you fall, there is not much to stop you from sliding at least 1.5kms straight to the bottom. I’m not sure what it takes for something to be classed as a double black diamond run but whatever it takes, all of these runs should certainly qualify as a triple!!!! It seems this is an opinion shared by quite a few!
A number of times in the past, we have sat and enjoyed a cuppa at Konrad’s (the Bolacco Café’) in Sundance Lodge at Sun Peaks Resort. (This would have to be THE BEST COFFEE SHOP in British Columbia.) Now then, if you are in the right spot at Konrad’s you have a classic view of these runs and and specifically Spin Cycle (Double Black Diamond). It’s not an unusual sight to see some poor soul doing their damnedest to get down these runs in one piece. You see, once you are on these runs – there’s no chickening out. There is no escape. Yep – no side escape options anywhere here. The only way down is to (preferably) ski down to the bottom. If you do this run gracefully, all well and good – it is likely you will get a standing ovation at Konrad’s. You just pray you won’t be needing medical assistance by the time you get there!
Anyways, just because we decided it was time we could – we decided we’d ski down Agitator.
We entered the run. It chopped & changed, lumped & bumped, divided & cambored to the right. Came together again, narrowly slivered amongst a number of tree pods, twirled up, twirled down again, the camber swung further around to the right, the next lot of bumps threw us to the left. OMG! A straight down drop is looming – where did those freakin’ bumps go to slow me down????????? In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit……. What moment of insanity inspired us to do this?????
PHEW!!! Got through that bit ok so now I’m back to lumps and bumps….
Some of the lumps were knee height. Some were mid-thigh height. A few were hip height. Picture this – I am so close to being 5’11” you may as well say I am just a smidge under 6ft!! Thigh height!!!! For heaven’s sake!!!! That means the bumps were close to being 3ft high and we skied it!! SKIED IT!! Not traversed it, not fell down it, not slid down it face first or otherwise…. WE SKIED IT!!!!!
Yep. The bottom of a run never looked so good. And, quite frankly, neither did looking back up the run to see what we’d just achieved either! La’ puff La’ pant!! We were exhausted. Totally and completely spent. Crossing the bridge to Konrad’s involved much guidance of wobbly boots:) BUT WE’D DONE IT!!! WE HAD SKIED AGITATOR!! Y-A-H-O-OOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Or so we had thought…..)
Hmmm… something didn’t gel so I decided to check the map you see because Agitator should have brought us back out onto this roadway that we could ski down (gently) before reaching the bridge to cross to Konrad’s. We had come out directly at the bridge. What had happened there???? 
)) We had certainly started on Agitator, but we turned right when Agitator had combored right. This took us on to Spin Cycle and then after the first tree pod, we’d ended up on Cover Shot. Our Black Diamond Run had turned into a Double Black Diamond Run on one of the most treacherous runs on Morrissey. AND WE DID IT!! Yep. Pretty darned satisfied with that!!!! ))
More about our next lot of “firsts” later!
Bye for now:))
Cindy
SOCIAL EVENTS….
Posted by Cindy in Canada on 03 2nd, 2012We’ve enjoyed a number of social evenings including a dinner with our great friends– Neil, Veronica, Gavin & Lynne at Memories – Cahility Lodge, Sun Peaks ) For those wondering where that is, slope side with a great view of the mountain and was held as a “Welcome to the Mountain” type of dinner:))
We were invited to a pizza and darts night….. Run for cover folks – I was expected to participate in darts… OMG! Hope you all have good injury cover!!! Darts which I’ve discovered is not a strong point of mine –is absolutely nothing like ten-pin bowling which is a strong point of mine…. After my atrocious efforts of actually doing something like hitting the dart board (with the dangerously point end of a real live dart), I decided I am much better off sticking to the fun aspect of being at the snow – skiing ))
Still – a good night was had by all 10 of us and I have provided a few hours of amusement to the locals who have all now honed their skills at ducking for cover from erstwhile darts…. Needless to say, after that experience, I don’t think I’ll be invited to play darts again anytime soon!
Another of our action packed nights involved a trip to support our favourite hockey team…. KAMLOOPS BLAZERS – YAY! our home away from home fav sport! You’ve got to love this game – so fast! So much skill! However on earth do they keep their eye on the puck? It moves so fast!!!! Love it!!!
Mark and I had a really special night was on Tuesday 28 February which we shared with our spectacular hosts. This is the night that 2 years ago, Mark proposed to me on a sleigh ride in the snow Neil & Veronica were such a big part of the planning involved in some aspects of that night coming together that we wanted to share our celebratory dinner with them:) We went to the same restaurant – Mantels Restaurant. A truly beautiful evening. Our main waiter for the evening – Corey – was the same waiter we had on that special night! He was stoked that we came back to the same place to have an “anniversary” type of celebratory dinner:) The management & staff went to a great deal of trouble to ensure the night was as special the 2nd time round as it was the first. They even put on a complimentary dessert platter for our table. Unbelieveable. We were all feeling very spoiled and special indeed:)))
Veronica and I went along to the Fondue Dinner on Thursday night:) The boys decided to pass on this particular event and had a boys night at the local steakhouse. I met a very nice couple of fellow Aussies and we had a great chat about their very interesing life. These people travel LOTS and have experienced so many things. I could happily listen to their stories for hours:)))
Now – a fondue night on the mountain means skiing back down the mountain in the dark, that is, except for the guidance of a headtorch. It was great fun – the stars were out, a half moon was out, we had a great guide bringing us down the mountain and can you believe it (I can’t!!), in the dark coming down the mountain, single file in a group of 13, we clocked 39.3km per hour. You What!!!! Yes – I had my SKI TRACKS APP going during this exercise:)) Such good fun:))
Anyways, tomorrow is another day and this of course means MORE SKIING!! So must go now and get some sleep in preparation for another action packed day!!!
G’night all!!
Cindy.
SKIING, SKIING & MORE SKIING!
Posted by Cindy in Canada on 03 2nd, 2012Crikey! It’s all been happening here!!!!! Our first day on the snow – and it was an absolutely awesome bluebird day. No cooler than -4 and no higher than 0 degrees ) Perfect!
Throughout the course of that day – I fell in love with my i-Phone all over again:)) Neil has introduced me to this great APP – SKI TRACKS. It records everything like, your maximum speed, your average daily speed, your altitude, your vertical descent, your vertical ascent, the total number of runs you’ve skied, the total distance you skied, the time it took you to do it, the percentage of your ski slope and it does it all via GPS so you don’t have to be downloading data and costing yourself a fortune for the usual international data connection services. Brilliant! Nothing short of B-R-I-L-L-L-I-A-N-T!
To my running friends…. This APP works on similar basis as Map My Run – but it’s the snow version of it:))) Such fun. And yes… for all those wanting to know what a few of my maximums have been over the last few days– my maximum speed has been 74.6 km, best distance has been 29.5kms from a vertical descent of 4597m …. All in all, we are very very happy with that )
We’ve done tree skiing, mogul skiing, powder skiing, very very fast downhill skiing, cross-country skiing (or I have at least anyway), to name a few.
We have had so much snowfall it has been truly unbelieveable. We had 20cm snowfall IN ONE DAY!! Crikey! So much fun. I have never skied in such light fluffy deep powder that has continually pelted down on us right throughout the day, in my life. Every run that had been groomed was covered in the stuff and looked like it hadn’t been groomed at all! It was not unusual to sink knee deep in some parts, but mostly – on the previously groomed runs, we were skiing in a powdery top cover of at least 15 cms+!!!!
I’ve had my first taste of cross-country skiing AND LOVED IT!! So full on – an awesome cardio and legs workout – the scenic surrounds are so breath-takingly beautiful. Truly awesome. Lynne – my fabulous friend and my instructor / guide for the day, has introduced me to a new cardio passion– I can see why she loves it so much. It is kind of like snow running. I was soooooo nervous before going. It was the same kind of nervous that I get before I compete in a running event. I couldn’t sleep. I had to do all those nervous “visits” to the bathroom 20 times before we left, had to check and re-check everything a hundred times – what the hell was wrong with me – it was a cross-country ski with a friend, not a marathon!!!! I could stop anytime I was ready to. OMG I was soooo nervous. I totally loved it. Awesome. Refreshing. Breath-taking (literally at times!) . Pretty and the views were spectacular. The exhilaration of achievement when I reached the Lake all in one piece. I’d done it!! I had cross countried to Lake MacGillivray. This was apparently unusual for a first timer. Ah well…. Excellent! I loved it. So awesome:)) Thanks for sharing this experience with me Lynne. Thank you so much )))
Bye for now!
Cindy.
SHOPPING!!!
Posted by Cindy in Canada on 02 28th, 2012Yes. It was only a matter of minutes since our arrival and we had already hit the shops )
Well. What’s a girl to do?? Her “Hostess with the Mostess” needs to shop – and so shop we do!! And mannnn…. Did we ever shop! In amongst our travels, believe it or not – we found a bag of…..
And then we visited about a million other shops to get all necessary supplies for our mountain duration:))
Before we know it…. we’re http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TD_pSeNelU
Ahhh – home sweet home to enjoy a spectacular first night home cooked dinner of Salmon and a lovely fresh salad, have a catch up with our dear friends, find out what’s been happening for the season prior to our arrival, be given our social agenda for the next 4 days by our fabulous social secretary and then beddie-byes for (what turned into a marathon) sleep in preparation for SKIING tomorrowJ
G’NIGHT ALL!!
Cindy
WE HAVE ARRIVED!!!!!
Posted by Cindy in Canada on 02 28th, 2012Yes folks – WE. HAVE. ARRIVED.
That is, after having to divert from the air space of Noumea to Hawaii on the way over here (Canada – Sun Peaks – British Columbia) ‘coz Uncle Sam was hogging air space for “Tactical Manoeuvres”. And didn’t our pilot let us know how inconveniently inappropriate he thought that was! )
Yes…. It did add time to our flight…. Did I care? Nope – I did not care. Like… what’s the point? If you don’t like it – what are you going to do? Jump out of the plane in protest? NOT THISTHH LITTLE BLACK DUCK!!
Besides – we’d either make our connecting Vancouver / Kamloops flight or we wouldn’t. Absolutely nothing we could do about that just right then. And all’s well that ends well. We still made it to YVR in plenty of time to relax with a cup of tea (or in Mark’s case – a beer….) whilst awaiting our connection:) YIPPEE!! Last leg of our journey (for now) is under way….
HI! HO! HI! HO! IT’S OFF TO THE SNOW WE GO!!!!
And… SNOW!! Yes. It certainly has been… :)) here is the view from our room…. Nothing short of SPECTACULAR!!
Hope you enjoy that view and much as we do!
Cindy.
Some Pics for your enjoyment :)) [ April 2007 ]
Posted by Cindy in Italy on 03 20th, 2011
The view "townwards" from Palatine Hill
Palantine Hill - The Gardens
No explanation required... and yes... it really IS that close to the centre of town....
Colosseum - Arched Entry to the Arena
Colosseum... The structure, the basis of which is still used in most sporting stadiums today!
Colosseum - The gallows... bit drafty now and was a bit drafty then....
Mark & Cindy.... OH! And the Vatican too:))
The Vatican - the arch leading to the Guards Arena
The Tiber River
Castello St Angelo on the Tiber
A little bit of Brisbane in Rome....
"The People's Square" leading to the Carabinieri Academy
Carabinieri Academy (the Police Academy)
The Invention of Banking….
Posted by Cindy in Italy on 03 20th, 2011| Saturday, 7 April, 2007 5:07 PM |
|
We have visited the Museo Nazionale Romane ( National Museum – Rome ). I was most interested to find out about the “eras” of Ancient Rome so that I could get a better appreciation of the ingenuity of their inventions and the impact of those on our lives today. If any of you are ever in Rome …. I highly recommend that you do this. The sculpture, coin and jewellery (over the various ages) is absolutely fascinating and very telling of the differences in classes of people during Ancient Rome. Well folks…. I now know the origins of banking as we know it today!! Although banking originated in the Ancient Greek world, it was the Romans who fashioned it as we know it today (Hmm….!!) The profession of “Banker” arrived on the shores of the Tiber as early as the 4th Century BC. Butcher’s shops that opened onto Rome’s City Square were replaced by those of the “money changers” in order to increase the diversity of the Forum. From the second half on the 2nd Century BC their presence also became common at auction sales where they would lend buyers the sums necessary to conclude their transactions and draw up the relevant documents. The activities of banks where initially limited to simply changing money. With time however, their operations became increasingly cashier-service. One of the latest services offered to clients was the safe guaranteeing of their deposits. In some instances, interest was paid for that deposit on agreement. In some other instances loans were provided on consignment of an object value. The problem of the cost of money was a matter of concern to the Romans. Numerous measures were taken with an intention to reduce the interest payable on loans which fixed the interest rate to a 12th of the capital at that time. This was later reduced by Justinian (527-565AD) to 6%. So this is the origin of the secured loan with which all too many of us are familiar today!!!!! CONCLUSION…… There you go folks…. You can blame the Romans for our banks charging us exorbitant fees today!!!!!! |
Ancient Public Baths
Posted by Cindy in Italy on 03 20th, 2011| Saturday, 7 April, 2007 5.05PM |
|
Also on the archaeological tour we were informed about the Ancient Roman Baths. Of course, there were private baths for the generally well-to-do. However these were generally less ornate than the public baths. The public baths covered vast expanses of land and were particularly ornate. It was considered a place of congregation and in some instances BUSINESS! To use the public baths attracted a small fee. However, the Emperor and Government of the time was considered quite generous in that the baths would be available at certain times for no fee. Interestingly though, the municipal government decreed that men and women must use the baths separately so as to prevent the risk of promiscuity. (Ah …. It’s good to know that the powers-that-be were looking after our morals even way back then) Can you believe in the times of Ancient Rome they had enough ingenuity to realise that water was the key to a flourishing City. (Hmmm…. I can think of a few governmentarians in Brisbane who could take a leaf of their book!) It was at this time that the ancient Romans created Aquaducts. This was their mode of transporting water to the City. It was such an impressive feat that they were able to transport 13,000 litres of water per minute to the public baths!!!!!!!! AND THIS IS ANCIENT ROME !!!!!!! Anyways.. the acquaducts…. We saw a few these ruins. Can you believe that way back then, they stood over 75m in height, were ornate in appearance in that they were constructed in a manner of arched stone and decorated in a typically Roman style. The water ran in a tunnel above the decorative arches. There is a 1400m section of the aquaducts still standing today. And to give you some idea of how early in the piece the Romans had this ingenuity…. in an archeological dig close by to these ruins, they have found water piping dating back to 500BC. 500BC!!!! Can you believe it??? !!!!!!!! Mind boggling!!! 500BC and they were building these arches 75m above ground. No cranes in those days!!!  Life-giver of early Rome... The first Acquaducts!  Ancient Acquaducts Ruins - this one is from the 1300's...  A 1300's Water Tower in the middle of town and yes... it's functional and still in use!!!!! Ah well….. need to put on my Indiana Jones hat back on now to investigate further….. Cindy
|
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Posted by Cindy in Italy on 03 20th, 2011
