So I am back, the flight home was fairly ghastly, food was rather poor, we were delayed an hour, and i got no sleep what so ever. I have been back to work now for 3 days and so far everything that can go wrong has, the internet has dropped, the servers have crashed and someone pressed some wrong buttons and messed our data managment system up!

So just a usual week so far then! I did discover that just about 500 yards from work lives the michael portillo, yeah that numpty who is MP for Chelsea and Kensington! (please note that "numpty" is my personal opinion.) I am sure he’s a very nice man but i just don’t like him!

anyhoo the holiday was total triumph which was nice, just got the photos back as well so thats cool!

working late tonight which is a bummer especially when I have a load of things to put into my pc oh well guess it will just be a late night! I’ve been spending too much money on my pc at the mo but never mind it’s getting there now

right must go i need to get on with my work!

Khanbiafo              Bambara (Mali)    

So it has come, the last proper day of the holiday, the last skiing day, and the last day of relaxation.

Well I went up and came down many many times today, I skied as much as I could just because it was the last day I guess but it was good skiing, the snow was very very icy first thing due to the snow being slushy yesterday and then freezing again overnight. But later on through the day the snow started falling and the ice started melting and it turned into a glorious day. Last night we went out for dinner, to a lovely Italian restaurant called Gabriella’s. I had a lovely meal and the beer was good too! Tonight we are off to Kelsey’s for our last dinner so that should be good and probably rather drunk so I thought I better write this before I went!
            So this is the last entry I’ll post before I am back in the UK! So to all of you readers I’ll bid you adieu and goodnight, and i’ll catch you all on the flip-side

Ánágodziih doleel          Apache (Arizona USA) [see you later]      

Well we went to see the Local Hockey team today, “The Fernie Ghostriders” they had just won the divisional title and were on a high. Well the first period came and went and the Ghostriders were 3-0 down . By the time the match was finished the score was 5-1 to the opposition. It was a great match barring the score, really entertaining and nice and violent!!

The Ski School Continued as well earlier in the day with yet more nutso runs, but admittedly they seemed a little less nuts than Sunday. I again learned a lot and improved my technique. The snow remains amazing though I must admit with the unseasonably warm weather the snow becomes a little slushy at the lower parts of the mountain in the afternoon, but with the resort being so high go up to the top half of the mountain the snow remains lovely and powdery!

One more day of ski school tomorrow and not a lot else planned!!!

Dehna hunu           Amharic (Ethiopia) (try and pronounce that)

So we were dumped in it this morning!!! We had ski school starting at 10:30 am and after a long day yesterday and having expected it to start monday we sorry I struggled to wake up and get going! But eventually I got going and headed out for a run or two with my dad before school started.

So we met at 10:30 at the "meeting point" and found the appropriate instructor. A very nice bloke called Nick, he’s from Cornwall UK where, in the summer, he runs a surfing school!! So we did a couple of short warm-up runs so Nick could judge our abilities, after that and him deciding what we needed to work on we were off on a day of, "let’s find the steepest, iciest, craziest runs we can and go down them" Now i’m all for pushing the limits and stuff and I really enjoyed the day, but it was like "oh this is a nice easy one guys" as Nick dashes off down the slope "err… Nick that sign says black diamond" hmmm….. ok so by the end of the day Blacks were looking like the blues looked at the beginning of the day, so i’ll take my big woolly hat off to the bloke he improved my technique and made SOME black runs look do-able and that was all on day one!!!

We have the most lovely accomodation here. We are staying in the Lizard Creek Lodge on the resort which is an amazing place and in an incredible location! We have 2 balconys one facing the mountain and overlooking the hot tub (handy for looking at the lovely ladies) and the other overlooking the remaining rocky mountains. The bar is only a short walk across the road which is rather well designed!!!

right time for a few bevies and some dinner now!

Nomoskaar    Bengali (India, Bangladesh)
 

So I am sitting in the car at the moment, we have finished week one of our Canadian adventure and are now driving from the town of Banff to Fernie the resort that will be our home for the next week! I reckon we have about 170km left to go from looking at our position on the map, course I might be wrong, it has happened before! We just stopped in a town called Radium, not the most appealing name I admit but all in all a nice little town! It’s all a part of the Radium Hot Springs, a local tourist spot where you can go and bathe in these hot springs to get the natural properties of the water, which is supposed to heal things and all that! If you ask me if there is any radium in those springs you don’t really want to be bathing in them! Anyhoo we stopped and had a nice lunch which is where the whole fish thing started. We were in the restaurant (it was a olde English themed thing) and inside was an average size fish tank! Anyway there were 5 or 6 small goldfish style things and one massive fish and we are talking 30cms long!!! Anyway dad was surprised that the little fish were still alive and had not been eaten by the big thing and so the debate began on whether or not it was carnivorous. We came to the conclusion that it probably wasn’t as the little fish were still there but who knows and for that matter how man carnivorous fish are there???

So we are now on our way again, We have been through all manner of weather today, when we started it was snowing hard and the roads were near on impassable and now the sun is out and the temperature is a scorching 4^oC which for this last week is t-shirt weather! I suppose the nice thing is that, as it has been all week the sun is out so I can put on my sunnies and write this latest entry!

Well that’s about all for now folks I’m gonna have to go now I’ll need to start navigating soon as we are getting to the tricky bit of the journey and mum navigates about as well as a “TomTom™ GO” with no battery!!!

Maanak parov (Armenian)

            No I have not suddenly turned into the worlds greatest illusionist, nor have I mutated into one of those funny long legged lizard things that run across ponds and things! But I have walked in water, ok it was a frozen solid lake that you can ice skate on but still. Today I was a Lake Louise the ski resort was incredible, the town was a little small but the Lake and Fairmont Chateau Hotel was amazing! we skied for the morning then went and got some lunch in the hotel. After lunch dad hired some skates and went for a spin on the lake whilst I walked around, I didn’t fancy making a fool of myself skating as I have not done it in some 6 years. Ho hum so I walked around on the frozen surface and watched dad try not to fall over!!! After that we got in the car and did some more sight seeing of lakes and stuff! On the way back we were taking the scenic route when we saw a wolf on the side of the road! Just a lone one plodding along I tried to get a photo but when we stopped it moved off into the trees and by the time I had got my camera out it was well hidden! I did manage to get a shot off but you can hardly make out it’s there! After that we got back to out accommodation and low and behold there were 2 deer about 5 foot from our door! That time I did have the camera ready and so got some good shots off! I’ll upload them soon!

That was today not much else happened, had a few drinks watched a movie and went to sleep.

Da pabaczenia         (Belorussian (Belarus))

Well I have been here 5 days now and so far we have seen snow, a little rain, temprature ranges of +2 to -16 and skiing has been incredible! We have been to all three resorts now, Norquay, Sunshine Village and Lake Louise. The views are amazing with rolling mountain views all around. We have been doing a bit of sight seeing this week as well going to different lakes and hot springs and such! All in all so far one amazing trip! The internet connection though is slow intermittant and rather irritating but i’ll survive!

Right better go need to get some food and stuff before I go to bed!

Adios! (sorry I know I have used that before!)

So after a short 3 hour delay I am in the air and on the way to Calgary. We are currently just under 2 hours into the flight and somewhere north of Stornaway and the top of Scotland. According to the in-flight console we have 3,574 miles left which is due to be completed in about 7 hours. I did have a rather attractive girl sitting next too me but she has moved now . No not because I smell or that I scared her off by oooh…. talking to her but because there are a number of spare seats on this flight and it gave us both more room!! The food so far has been bearable (for plane food) but the drinks are good lots and lots of vodka for meee!!
Just saw aeon Flux on the movie channel, a good film if not a little weird!! Well, I’ll pause here and update you guys n gals a little later………..
……… Hello again guys! So a little more time has passed now infact there is now only 2.773 miles to go or about 5hours 30 mins. We are just now over the south coast of Greenland so we are getting ever nearer to our destination. I’ve been up near enough 11 hours now and I still have another 12 hours before I can realistically go to sleep. I say 12 hours because I have found that crashing out early in the day once you arrive just prolongs jetlag so if you go to bed at the appropriate time for the time zone your in then get up at the right time it generally sorts you out fairly quickly.
We just got the landing cards oh what a joy ha. The little cards are such a pain they are too small to fill in and you never have enough room to actually write anything when sitting on the plane. Oh well I’ll do my best.
Ahh it’s the latest vodka just placed on my table by the lovely air stewardess jenny, I’m sure she’s trying to get me drunk you never know she might fancy me! Pah yeah right but one can dream. Right again I’ll pause here and come back I little later……..

Ok so we now have just under an hour to landing, I have watched all the movies the flight was showing, read 2 magazines cover to cover. Listened to 2 of my podcasts of kenradio  www.kenradio.com and had one of the best plane meals ever. It was Malaysian beef and bloody lovely! We had a nice green salad a salmon and prawn starter and a great cheese board for afters I guess that’s the advantages of flying club class! Right well as I have spread my mess right across the collection of 4 seats we have I better end here and tidy up. I’ll and another blog entry soon  but it won’t be this long I promise, and if you got to the end of this Well done give yourself a pat on the back!

Buenos Noches (spanish and the spelling might be wrong)

Ok So I am sitting at Gatwick in a wifi Hotspot at the mo and it’s 10:24. hmmmm thats not right I am sure I was supposed to be in the air now?  oh yeah my flights DELAYED. Yes guys n gals I am delayed here in lovely England! We are stuck here till 12pm so I thought i’d write and entry for you all to read!! We got here today in plenty of time, actually we arrived bang on 7:00, so much for forward thinking! So now we have been eating drinking and shopping (like everyone else here)

Well not much else to say here, i keep thinking of love actually with hugh grant and all that (ok i know thats heathrow but still)

right 30 mins till boarding so better get finished with the ole e-mails!

Paa gensyn (danish today)

Well I said they would return! It’s still not perfect but I sort of have it working

Ta Ta For Now (Toffs Language)