Talking about prints, I have been accepted as a part of the Arts Co-op in town – I got the nod last Sunday with a quick meeting with the president, so I’m really pleased about that. I’ll be putting up my photos either this week or next, but it looks like I’ll have to take even more photos of Fernie and the area!

Anyway, back to Freshies – coffee’s on!

Dr Lesley Dixon, I’m very very proud of you – you deserve this award so much – and I’m very very lucky to be able to say you’re my sister!

If anyone wants to watch the ceremony, you can watch it on the following link.  Lesley is the first award straight after Melvyn Bragg’s speech.  She looks very cool and composed – like only my big sister can!

http://webprod2.leeds.ac.uk/webcast/default.asp?eventtype=G

Way to go, sis…..YAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!

God it’s been hot. The other day I was busy laying bricks at the front of the house (did I mention the path) when I decided to move the thermometer from the shady part of the house to the front. Well within 10 minutes it was registering 46.7C. Not there’s no wonder I was feeling a bit parched.

Must…drink…more…water…

I wandered into the docs today for my second check-up in 6 months. You may remember that my cholesterol was v high the last time I went in and that I was at a moderate risk of keeling over. Well it seems that I’m now in the low risk category as the total cholesterol has been reduced by 2 points – yaay. Well to celebrate I’m making burgers this evening. I’ve got the minced/ground beef already, some sauce and sliced cheese ready with white (not brown) buns. It’s been a loooong time since I last had one, so I’m pulling out all the stops (actually, Cath saw what I’d bought in Overwaitea and just laughed. The food was so bad that I felt a bit self conscious buying it). That said, I’ll be making my own burgers, and the sauce was the one with the least amount of salt in it; oh, and there will be lettuce and tomato involved, so it’s practically healthy!

Anyway, I did have the big scare during the winter at my last visit to the docs, but even so, over the course of 6 months, if you aren’t naturally sporty, the urgency can wear off. This is where Lorinda came in. If it wasn’t for her and Cath I might have given up. Lorinda’s sudden enthusiasm for all things sport has kept me on the straight and narrow. Not in the sense of competition, but more a case of not wanting to let her down – if Lorinda can get up at 5am and go swimming, running 6km, and still be enthusiastic about it, then so should I. Well except for the 5am bit, I’ve done enough of that in one lifetime.

So thanks Cath, and more especially Flo. You might not have known that you were helping, but you certainly kept me going. Next stop 13st – might be a while, and I don’t start until tomorrow

Secondly, and most importantly is the music that’s currently on Cath’s ipod. Apparently she can loop this song for 60 minutes without getting bored as she goes out looking for bears on her mountain bike!

Well there are two route related things going on this week. After blagging it this winter we are finally putting a path in this and next week from the drive to the front of the house. We managed to pretend there was a path there for a few weeks this winter by snow blowing a small section of lawn. The problem was that the spring thaw brough mud along with it, and that dirt got into the house. Anyroadup, the bricks are here. The 3 scoops of bobcat shovel of sand will be here next week, and the back breaking work of digging up the lawn will begin before Monday.

On other route news, it’s not long until my first race; the 10k Sole Survivor in Blairmore. After a bit of a hiatus over Easter I got back into running. I’ve been putting my routes up on a website called www.mapmyrun.com which seems to do the trick. As an added benefit I’ve been able to put this info up on the B&B website as well – lets hope it draws people in! Below is an example of one of the routes I did – it’s a bit snazzy!

Then I’ll have one of these afterwards!

Canada – May 29^th. After leaving a fairly warm sunny England and sitting like a sardine for 9 hours I had my first view of Calgary. It was snowing. I’d left a potential week of sun for snow. I had been pre-warned about the friendly white hat helpers ( I think they are from the volunteer family) but I was unsure about using their little golf carts to get me around the airport as I didn’t know whether they meant if you needed help of just couldn’t be bothered to walk (I was of the latter group).

The meet and greet were very good and easy to spot although I hadn’t read in my pre-holiday briefing pack that you had to wave for a certain minimum time but after being reprimanded by a certain person for not waving enough I will ensure that I pass the advice on to the next visitors so that they don’t make the same mistake. A Freshies coffee and muffin in the car ready for the long drive to Fernie started the holiday off on a good note.

The journey itself was one of lovely scenery and not many cars but more snow which eventually turned into rain the closer we got to BC. I short detour to see the world’s largest truck, from out the window as it was pouring, and we arrived at home. It is at this point that I would like to point out that jet lag is solely an affliction of those of weak mind and body as I managed to beat it without it paying a visit.

The first few days were pretty relaxed and we kind of did things when we wanted as we had no real plans set in stone. We also tried to time our visits outside to when it wasn’t raining. This cut down our potential outside time to 34 seconds per day. After about 3 days I finally discovered that all those photographs Jason had taken of mountains around Fernie were not photoshopped at all and really did exist just out of the window.

North Americans – a friendly bunch, but not if you order the wrong drink. I believe that twice I have taken my life into my own hands by ordering a drink that, wrongly I assumed, because it was on the menu it was possible to order. However I have learned a lesson from my mistakes and now only order water in restaurants, coffee shops and any other place where there is a selection on offer. It isn’t so much what is said when you order the wrong drink but what is not said, and the stare that goes with it!

Finally I would like to give everybody 3 pieces of bush whacking advice:

1. Don’t walk too closely to the person in front of you, especially if said person is Jason. The likelihood of being hit in the face, quite forcefully, by a branch is high and after a token apology you will find that you were in the wrong for being too close.
2. If you think that whilst walking through the wilderness the best course of action when encountering wildlife, and I mean big wildlife that you don’t really want to encounter in the wilderness, is not to jump in the river. This was my plan B formulated in my mind whilst out walking but at the end when I felt the temperature of the water my hands went black and fell off within 3 seconds of feeling the water. It is slightly chilly. Don’t worry though, I’m a trooper and grew new hands.
3. If you go out in the bush with Jason and Cath ensure that you too take a “weapon”. My trust in my tour guides disappeared when I realised Cath had bear spray, Jase had a big extendable tripod and I had the world’s brightest orange coat ever that was visible from the moon, at least.

Overall I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in Canada and would recommend it to everybody to come and see how beautiful it is. Cinnamon Bear Lodge is a lovely place to stay and the other guests that were there when I was were very friendly, particularly Brian who came to breakfast everyday and Henry who came to the airport to welcome me.