im in van couvvvee tric!

hey guys

greetings from the mainland

its strange to be off the island

ahh well i'll be back on the uk soon enough

so anyway

the victoria saga dun dun duuuuunnn

read the previous post for the prequel

im stood at the door to my old place in vic and i walk in hollaring

hunnnnnny im hommmme

only to find kyler isnt even home yet

but jer was

sooo we had a few beers

then the boys got home accompanied by jesse the white tooth! and Karin

it was really good to be home again and seeing the guys

we just kinda hit the beers hard and then the whiskey as jer's boss had given him a bottle for his birthday

and played a great game called apples to apples

its a game where you get an adjective card

and multiple noun cards

and play the noun that goes with the adjective

ok so that doesnt sound fun but

when you have words like

furious

and the nouns that people play include

giant squid

pirates

tommy lee

etc

it gets pretty fun

so we played this till i dunno was probably around 2 am

then me and jesse slept on my old mattresses in the middle of the floor

so woke up with a rather sore head

and had to mission it all the way to america ( with a stop on route to print off my flight details )

this was going all to plan until the us homeland security guy took a dislike to me

it went along the lines of youve only got 5 mins till the boat leaves

then you stink of booze

your drunk

my reply sorry im late officer i was drunk last night i havent had time to change and what do i need to fill in

oh some forms you wont do them in time

so i filled them out seriously quick then had my prints and photo taken and i ran and got the boat just as it left

beauty

coming back into canada was easy just the printer died so we had to go across to the vehicle check side

where i bump into some lasses who had been riding during the week and recognised me

so with 10 border guards around me we start having a laugh about how id been having to drag them out of the way when they bailed off the green chair

it was obviously a current office joke as everyone was pulling their legs about it

i then went for dinner with dani , our old couch surfer,

and it was awesome we went and got kd and made deluxe kd ( kraft dinner , its mac and cheese in a box ) with onion and real cheese and red pepper and fake chicken ( dani's a veggie )

and it was delicious!

then we sat and drank beers and put the world to rights before i headed off for my next engagement

it was a beer with brit ( a fellow sport checker ) actually she got my old friday and saturday night shifts poor lass

and it was great we bumped into kabuki colin from last summer and chatted to him for an age

then it was time for a beer in swans

and man id forgotten how busy bars in vic get on a friday night ( yeh i had completely forgot it was friday even now im on mountain time so i have no idea what day it is )

i still had my bag with all my crap in

we eventually found a table

and it was great we just chatted away had a couple of beers and it was such a nice evening

then i headed home

well got home at gone midnight

doors locked

no one in

no spare key

bugger

phone was dead so headed to a call box tried calling kyler and ohh it went to his voicemail damn it

so trekked back to dtown vic

grabbed a beer and decided to stay in the hostel for a night

rocked up at like 130 am

was needing to get up at 4 am so was like hey guys can i crash on the couches

no bueno i had to purchase a bed for the evening

so did and then stayed up chatting to the nice german and dutch girls in my room till about 2 30

then got a nice little nap

then up again and off for the bus

yay

so back up the mountain and i had a great days riding

well a morning boarding then an afternoon planking ( skiing )

i rode every lift and ripped it up

plankings easy me and simon found it a little more social able than boarding as we wernt just racing straight down the hill

saturday night had a fannntasstic sleep

it was awesome to be back in my own rock hard bed with no heat in the room :)

sunday woke up to go riding and it wasnt nice out

was even worse up the hill so did a few runs then called her a day

and that was the end of the season 107 days not bad really

when i got home me and tyler just hung out and drank some beers watched some how i met your mother

was good end to a great season

monday i started packing

tuesday

myself si shay;lee vani and edd went to tofino for the day

and it was gorgeous

tofino is a cool little town right on the west coast of the island and its canadas surfing mecca ( yep i know its not what you imagine in canada )

anyway ill finish tofino off soon

its late and im going to sleep on the sofa bed so gotta set it up

night yawwwwlll

i come from a land down under

ok so im sat at home ( courtenay )
im listening to men at work i come from a land down under
where women glow and men plunder .....

ok back on track so the past few weeks have been crazy
since my birthday weve had spring break here which has equalled non stop 6 day weeks and even a 9 day stint
so im glad the season ends tomorrow just so i can get a real rest and a lie in
its still been snowing regularly with a dump predicted this week so the mtn has decided to open next weekend too
but my work permit has run out so i cant work

ok so the real craziness started on the last tuesday of march
vania my adorable Chilean roommate told me that there was one last CASI level 1 snowboard instructor course being run that weekend.
so i talked to tom the lad running the course and hey presto i was on it
it was running friday through sunday
unfortuantly i work friday saturday and sundays.....
so after a frantic searching of someone to swap shifts with johno the other chair boss on the green agreed to trade his weds and thurs for my fri and sat ( thanks johno i owe you big time for that ) so this was my 9 day stint
then i did the 3 day course and i passed
i must of had good karma that day
on day one we worked on our riding skills in the morning
sorting out our balance and stance on the board and then moving upwards
we then worked on our pivot and steering which was getting out weight onto the front foot in the start of the turn and just adjust it back a little
then it was onto edging control which as it sounds was having the board on a edge
then its pressure control which is all about absorbing bumps and changes of terrain
and finally timing and co ordination which basically is putting everything together and just having a good flow and nice symmetrical

this took all morning and the next 2 days for me as my riding style was horrible after 7 years of no lessons and 99 days riding that way this season
i had my weight too far back and i needed to stop breaking at the waist and keep my body more upright and my head up more

then in the afternoon we all rode switch ( so your wrong leg forward ) doing a beginner lesson to remember what it was like
so we went through the basics putting on a board skating around slide slipping etc

by this time all our brains were fried ( there was 7 of us )
out of all of us about 4 of us worked on the hill the other 3 i knew 2 simon and maddie

day 2 started and it was gorgeous outside blue skys and super warm
we finished off the second half of the beginner lesson with learning to turn and linking turns

then it was our turn to teach
si nailed the basics
then elmar rocked the skating part
i had slide slipping
it was going well until tom told the group to just follow the fall line and i hadnt taught them how to control direction yet so i ended up with them all scattered over the bunny hill doh
then we went through the rest of the lesson and ended the day with some blasts down the hawk

day 3
i was completely bricking it as today we were teaching 2 lessons each and riding and being evaluated all day
to start the day we were given a class to teach
for my first one i had a private with a 16 year old lad who wanted to go on to riding park
i had a couple of minor things go wrong but it was a pretty solid lesson

for my second lesson i had the basics for a group of 30 somethings on a stag weekend
and i nailed it
we had a great time as a group the 3 lasses joined in and pretended to be guys and we were all laughing and having a good time

and so i passed despite messing up my last run

anyway i then worked my last 3 days of the season mostly on the green chair with johno and german mel and we had a blast
on my last day mel rocked up with a load of naachos for us all and yeh it was just a super fun time and way to end the season with my buds i worked with for most of it plus any day with johno is always hilarious

so on thursday i headed down to victoria as my work permit ran out
i headed up the mtn and did a couple of runs and was going to get the ski shuttle bus down
but the bus wasnt running on thursday
so at 330 i started hitch hiking
first ride was just down the mountain to the highway and maintenance guy mike gave me a ride down
then i started to walk with the thumb out 10 mins later i got a ride from a guy who had a super sweet dog ( taz ) who was an aussie desert dog and had a light gingery and white coat in splodges
he gave me a ride to cumberland which is only 15 mins down the road but every little helps
my next ride was from one of the liftys em who gave me a ride all the way to qualicum beach
so this put me about 12 k's from parksville
i walked about 3 k and then got picked up again by a nice teacher who drove me all the way to the northen side of nanaimo
i then got another ride through nanaimo
and had to start trekking again
15 mins later a nice old bloke in a pick up picked me up and we drove all the way to duncan
this is when i hit trouble
it was getting dark and it was about 830 or 9 so my hopes of getting a ride wernt too high so i started trekking again
and probably got 5 ks before i got a ride
just before i got the ride i was at the point of just jumping the side barrier and going to sleep as i was hella tired and thaught i would have better luck in the morning
luckily a stella lass picked me up because her brother was hitch hiking in the other direction and she thaught it would give him some good karma also she said i was damn hard to see in the dark and she didnt want to be killing anyone tonight
we had a great time just chatting the entire way to victoria she was studying opera at uni
she was nice enough to drop me right to the door at my old place

right thats half the story more to come tomorrow