the aussie invasion

hey guys
so its about the 8 of december
have been in the courtenay area since the 22nd dont quote me on that though.
My conclusion is i love it up here
got a great crew of lads and lasses most of them seem to be those aussies though
so ive learned how to say i am from australia from cam
it goes something like this
im frommmm 'stralllliiiaaaa
he's one of the cona lads
The cona lads being Cam aka disco Austin aka snowflake ed aka ed... (hasnt done anything stupid enough to get a nickname) sam (the one local guy in the entire hostel) and myself aka weasley (we could all see that one coming)
The crew has changed a little from the start we lost dando, flo, zac and will various houses around town but they still pop in for a little table football session or if theres something going on in an evening this seems to be the converging place.
so to work
we've opened
did that last friday (the 3rd)
luckily i had the day off so with austin and johno ( my future roomie up on the mountain ) we spent the day boarding and we had blue sky weather
it was fantastic
hit up the powder for the first time ever in my life and darn its fun just hearing that crumple crumple under your feet
takes a bit of getting used to but im starting to get it
friday night was chilled as we had been on the beers on thursday as we had the day off on friday
then saturday had my first real day of work
i was on the hawk lift ( its a high speed 6 pack lift ) its possibly the busiest lift on the mountain as it gives access to the boomer lift (this is the lift to the back side of the mountain which is full on double black runs ) but also has a couple of super easy green runs and a few fun blue runs so every man and his dog and his kid come through this lift as it has the most varied terrain.
and it was awesome
another blue sky day
there was 6 of us working it instead of the usual 4 just because it was opening weekend so we paired up into 3 teams
me and dezy
austin and the south african girl
then the 2 aussie lasses faf and caris
so that made 1 brit 1 south african and 4 aussies a nice commenwealth team
we did all the set up put the gates out sorted the ramp out stuck up the signs tested the instrument panels worked and they we fired her up
me and desy took first shift at the bottom with faf and caris up the top
austin and his partner went for a ride break
then we rotated so me and desy were up the top with faf and caris riding
we kept rotating throughout the day
it worked a treat
so got in a good hour and a half of riding in total
was stokkkeeed
sunday i was on the whiskey jack with dave'o mattie and ed
sunday couldnt have been any different to saturday
cold winds fog and snow
the best place to be was at the top of the lift in the drive station hut
it was soooo warm
due to the weather and the lack of people coming on the lift we just had a half day so we were all done by midday so riding was the name of the game
sunday night we ended up at faf's place and we had a little gathering
monday was a day off so rode all day
monday night was karioke in the avalanche
it resulted in someone deciding that we (as a group of lifties ) should sing bohemian rhapsody
only problem was when it was time only me and alex went up with the rest of them either being wusses or out having a fag
so we were left up there to die untill suddenly the other 8 of us ran up jumped onto the stage and we rocked it out haha
tuesday was more riding but we had this horrible super wet powder that just stuck so you couldnt get anywhere fast and as it was snow/raining you got super soaked after a few mins so after 4 or 5 runs me and ben (aussie ben) decided to go sit and drink coffee / hot chocolate in the lodge
it was a great idea got warm drank free hot chocolate
and i even bumped into mike the mechanic from kabuki
was good to catch up
and thats that
love
x

weekend off

hey guys
so this is the first post of the Mt Washington BC era
im still in the cona
and will be for a month which im excited about as we have a great crew of guys here some Aussies a couple of Brits a German or 2 and the token Canadian.
We've done our lifty training which included char lift evacuations which basically meant half the group sat up on the lifts for 45 mins to an hour (we of course were second to last so it was an hour) in a blizzard.
I was on a chair with Austin and Ed and unfortunatly our chair was missing the safety bar and as te chair stopped austin looked down and mentioned that heights wernt really his thing.
a load of waiting around later heckling the people saving us we were rescued
this involved throwing up a rope to the haul rope ( the heavy cable the chairs are attached to) and then a kind of wooden chair gets tied to the rope
then you get on the rope and are belayed down to safety
well thats the plan but our guys struggled a little the fact that the girl who was belaying us deffo didnt weigh as much as us resulted in someone having to put weight on her.
All down safe then we swapped round
A bunch of us have got nick names already and then range from the obvious oi weasley ( or weasel ) to me to disco for cam ( a result of him crip walking through every dance floor he sees) lens cap for conrad the big ol kiwi who took 150 pics on friday night with the lens cap on. Then theres ryan who looks scarily like mc lovin so that was a given
you guys get the idea
As we've had early starts in a evening its been pretty much grab a beer and watch the hockey or play some table football (im the cona's undisputed champ atm )
but we've been told that the starts get even earlier
as the bus that runs to the mountain leaves at 630 am
ahh well just means late nights are off the cards a lil more
the liftys have got the party rep already after friday and saturday with other departments trying to organise stuff also but they dont seem to be able to
50 lifties hitting courtenay on friday was a sight to be seen

anyway i think thats about that

oh yeh 42 cm of snow on thursday and another 30 cm on friday morning
and another 20 cm last night

so we are opening on the 3rd :) woop

peace

snow snow snow

so so so
i am currently in the cona hostel
in courtenay
and i start my job tomorrow at the ski hill
i got here eventually
so got the greyhound
it has snowed so much in vic that we took like 3 hours to get out
so we were told no more buses north of nanimo today
so was already to get a hotel
then a nice guy called dan was getting a ride from his bro so me and my new german friend lisa were going to get a ride with him
by this time we had bombed it to nanimo
and when there we were told one more bus would run to courtenay
so jumped on this
but by this point i had lost my ticket
so bought a new one
so half way to courtenay and the roads are super icy wer going super slow
and guess what
i find the bloody thing
so thats another 25 bucks wasted
but im gunna go to the depot tomorrow and try to get a refund
so yeh im officially not living at 811 any more which im choked about as had a great 5 months living there
anywho night chaps

remember remember oh its already novemeber

Hows this for my old office ???

wow so its already bonfire night weekend

its really strange to be away from home first time ive missed the whitley gathering at chez Rumens since i was five maybe six i know Ian and dad never can quite remember and always have the conversation.

I did skype them though and was fantastic to see them all even old man webb

so whats been going on the past month or so hmmmm

Firstly I managed to wangle myself a pay rise which im happy about although my hours got cut so swings and roundabouts and all that jazz.

been bombarding various mountains with support theo's ski season emails and got a couple of interviews out of it just waiting to hear back from a couple and waiting for someone to answer a phone at a certain alberta mountain grrrr.

Ive picked up the pretty much all my board gear now just need boots and bag and some gloves and im all set.

Ive taken a bunch of pictures recently and Ive been getting pretty stoked about them actually.

this is one of my faves i took it on the greyhound back from nanimo where i had a job interview

The route we were on was just the standard one but it followed round the coast. Luckily there was still a little light out and caught the bloke doing a spot of fishing.

but heck what a view eh???

we also managed to host an after party for a friends band the after party started at 3 am

finished about ohhhh 8 or so im not really sure but the sun was well up.

I didnt know about it was woken up by kyler running into my room while saskia and me were asleep saying guys i love you but..........

we have 40 people turning up here in ...

knocking on the door

oh their here

my reply was something along the lines of i could kill you right now kyler but with slightly fuitier language.

but turned into a great night except for our current lack of glasses of any sort thanks to jayce's love of losing / breaking / borrowing them.

Heres a cheeky little picture of Kyler blending in with the kitchen cuboards perfect camouflage.

Ive been doing a bunch of cruising round the city on my bike as we've had a beautiful october without more than 2 days of rain on the bounce. We are still spending plenty of time out on the decking.

For Halloween I hung out with the work guys and included in the list of costumes were thor a scuba diver some clowns and myself as tiger .

( essentially the top and head of a five year olds costume with an orange t-shirt underneath) It really was fantastic I got the short straw on helping Kye with his costume but we had a laugh as he went as the sky so we spent an enjoyable hour or so cutting out templates for clouds birds the sun and then stringing on some toy planes to his tee shirt.

So this next picture is on the greyhound again coming back from up island and i was so excited as i had just found out that i could take light track shots on the little digital camera dad found on ebay just before i came out here anyway ill write again soon hopefully with news of skihill success

happy hunting

lots of fun

Hey so i just chucked in some pics of a misty morning the other week

anyways here goes

so its 11 45 am on a monday morning.
Im sat in our kitchen drinking tea with kyler and Georgia has just rolled in for the first time in about a week.
They are infuriated about the lack of the graffiti wall
(story goes like this the building opposite us is owned by our landlord and it has a giant wall and a local artist said if i paint it then no one else will tag it so it was done all nicely with flowers and flow and looked real good but now its been painted over just plain beige so we give it a week before it gets tagged)
so ive had a great time since i last posted
i got paid
paid off my bills and stuff and went out a few times and am back to square one
but im loving life
we (kyler and myself) had a great few days where we hung out watched movies went hiking had beers had people come hang and got more beers
this culminated in friday night. We started off a little bit hungover from thursday and didnt get a lazy morning as we went and worked at our friends construction site to help him out as they had a day of taking concrete forms down and clearing up in the rain.originally i wasnt going to be there but i get a call after 4 hours of sleep thinking to myself hmmm i didnt set an alarm clock hahah. so Yeh worked from 9 till about 2 then we headed into downtown to do some stuff.
This stuff got done but then we got a call saying that Current Swell ( a reallllly good victoria band) were playing a free gig right now at uvic (the uni in town) so we busted off up there to go see it.
they were really good
then another smaller band took over and we just chilled and watched while in the sunshine and the great thing was we kept bumping into our mates who none of were students except for jayce
was great.
The thing was we found out Current Swell were playing at the S.U that night for 15 bucks a ticket so we got on it !
so we went home got a few beers in chilled out for a few hours then headed out to our buddys house for some pre drinking in a group of like 20 of us
then to the concert and had a greatttt time
afterwards we headed to the student bar for a couple and while there we got chatting to these nice chicks who were partying back at theirs
so we got amongst it there
woke up at like 8 am being were the hell are we as my phone rang and work asked if i could be there at 2 i was just yes im there!
turned out we were literally the other side of the city from were we had left kylers truck
nightmare
especially as we didnt have any bus money
( and now georgia is taking pics of our new kettle) its a whistling kettle me and kye got sick of boiling pans for morning tea lol
so we trekked it accross town stopping in on a few mates on the way for much needed coffee and bathroom breaks lol
when we did eventually get home sustance was needed so hash browns sausages and kylers amazing avacado tomato and scrambled egg on toast was devoured by the pair of us
he got to go sleep then while i went to work
was good
then just chilled out for the rest of the weekend
went for a run on sunday and thats about it
just had a call from work and ive got major shifts all this week major result from 2 shifts to only today and saturday off im stoked!
anyways
peace out guys
:)
x

m i a

hey guys
dont worry im not missing in action
i am actually alive
still living in victoria still in vic west with kyler but georgia is moving out at the end of the month but her brother is moving in so we'll probably see her a load more than we do now
so whats been happening since last time
well this weekend me and claire went camping at china beach we had a great time
we rocked up on friday at about 11.30. Pitched kylers tent which we had borrowed.
Eventually got it up and then we just had a few beers and watched the stars for a few hours.
We even saw a few shooting stars it was amazing
The nice female ranger told us about the fact we were in bear and couger teritory though and so me and claire both didnt have the greatest nights sleep
Also it was freeeezing im talking about hat hoodie pj's tracky bottoms and socks
and it was still chilly though
then on saturday morning we hiked down the trail to the beach
and then probably spent a couple of hours exploring before we headed to jordan river to get fire wood.
we ended up going all the way to sooke and it was their autumn fayre on so we went a had a wee nosy round it
actually a bloke from summerset was playing a concert at the fayre
small world eh
then it was back home to light the fire
and have a couple of bevvies and play some cards
Claire absolutley destroyed me at 'spit' which id never played before darn scots haha
we had forgotten forks for our middle noodles so i went and borrowed a couple
Turns out these people were really nice lisa and larry they were called
when we returned the forks they asked us if we wanted to play cards with them as it was raining outside and we had just been sitting out under a waterproof blanky
it was ok though a 15 pack of lucky really helps you forget the rain
so we took a couple of luckys with us and played cards for a few hours with them
they were nice enough to say if a bear or couger did try to eat us we could crash on their floor
oh yeh and we found out kylers tent leaked
alot .....
but we had a great time and many thanks to kye for lending us his tent sleeping bag and truck to go with
what else have i been up to
oh yeh erica my wee sister has been over to stay
it was the first time id seen her since march and i was super stoked and just majorly excited to see her and we had loads of fun
we went whale watching and saw the 3 groups of local orcas all out together in a super pod
i showed her some of victoria
we hung out and yeh had a great time
also managed to score her a helicopter trip which she loved
and weve had our friend erica and her dog barcley over a few times and he loves our place now
he jumps outa the car in the parking lot runs around to our door and as soon as the doors open he goes tearing up the stairs to kylers room so he can see kyler
then we hang out and have a few beers or watch a zombie movie or maybe kung fu
weve been to thetus lake a few times as well done a little jumping in and swimming and just floating around on boats
oh and i suck at frisbee
what else has happened
been working at sportchek a bunch but theyve just cut my hours back as the summer is over
which sucks so im going to find a another job as just being there wont support me
and the season is over at kabuki
its sad that people are leaving the city for new pastures but there still is a core of people here
anyway ill try to remember what else ive dont and post soon
chow bella
x

howdy folks

ok guys sorry i havent posted in froever lifes been busyyy
so biggest thing is i moved
i now live at 811 craigflower
v9a 2w8
victoria bc
canada
and its a sick old pad
my buddy from work kyler was all hey need a place i was like yeh why not and so i moved in about 3 weeks ago now and im loving it
we are above a grocery store so after 9pm we can make pretty much as much noise as we like and we have full roof top access which is so cool
so we have a little bit of decking out there with our couch and barbie on and then on the rest of the roof weve got some tables and chairs and kylers sick little garden
also lonnie gave us a bunch of coloured pool lights so we are in the process of rigging them up for night time illumination
so yeh what else have i been up to well ive been working a bunch to support the general food and housing needs as well as the cost of partying and doing various things like buzzing off to saltspring island for a day or so and going tubing
tubing rocked a bunch of about 20 of us from kabuki went on the cowichan river in a bunch of inflatable tubes and for the majority explorer 100 boats
the 100 is a fine vessel definatly built for cruising down rivers and navigating rapids
well we ( that is team euro and myself ((team euro consisting of me and the two swedes oskar and marckus) decided to step things up a notch and so navigated the rapids backwards for the most part
it was a general shit show as ever
also on some of our nights out we have done many memorable things including supporting the gay pride festival in which we got a bunch of free drinks and the drag show was real good yeh thats were all of the guys ended up topless in the middle of the gay bar and oskar flipping the 30 set stairs and sticking it
that was sooo impressive
also we had the best sunday ever we (team euro lonnie and kyler) just got some beers grabbed a guitar and headed out to see what we would find at the beach
we found just the most amazing spot ever it was a little trek from anywere else and there was this sick decking up in the trees and it overlooked a little cove in which there was a concrete pipe accross the mouth which had trapped a load of drift wood so it was like a floating floor and so it was all moving and undulating
and then a bald eagle with a rabbit in its talons literally flew down and landed probably 30 ft away and it sat there for a while till a couple of crows started getting all anal and just kept dive bombing bob (oh yeh thats what we named our eagle friend)
and then like halfway through the afternoon kyler just started playing one of his songs and it was just a perfect time and situation and place and he reallly has some awesome pipes on him
so yeh it was one of those perfect days were everything falls into place
what else hmmmmm
ooh canada day shit show when team euro decided to go round giving out our phone numbers still getting harrassed by some girls that was one of our less well thaught out plans
me jess and kyler went up to thetus lake ( i kept thinking people were calling it fetus lake blummin accents lol ) and it was soo nice we hung out in boats on the water and did a lil jumping in off of stuff
so yeh im not coming back till this time next year ass 1 im having tooo much fun 2 my work visa has aaagggeeees to run on it and 3 im ready to do the whole uni thing yet
in all honesty this has been the best thing ive ever done
yep its a big call but yeh its just immense out here it really is home :)
love
theo
x