Well

It's been a busy time!

Fernie was amazing, all Rocky Mountain-y and stuff. Not much snow, more rain (which I complained about - I mean I went all that way for snow and got rain! The cheek!).

Christmas felt a bit strange away from home, I felt like I'd missed it somehow! But I got to talk to all my family and stuff so that was good. The Tullochs are a friendly bunch too, so even though it was strange it was still good and I felt very welcome. Lots of Christmas pudding too, which is always good!

When we actually got some snow, Alison (Rob's brother's girlfriend) and I went for some snowboarding lessons - it was so much fun! Our instructor was a guy from Glasgow, which made me feel like I was at home... there was lots of falling over as you might expect, but it was easier than I thought it would be. Well, part of it was! I can heel-side quite well, because I'm facing down the slope and that's ok, but I can't toe-side very well - facing up the slope and going down effectively backwards is really strange! Anyway, we eventually got brave enough to go on a proper run and not the little hill we were learning on... I was working on going from heel to toe (I can do toe to heel) when I had a bit of a fall and sprained my wrist really painfully :(

So we came off the hill, unsurprisingly cos I don't like being in pain, and Rob's mum made us go to the hospital. Canadian hospitals are expensive for a Brit who is used to walking in and being treated for free! $400 as a standard fee and then another $50 for seeing a doctor... but the x-ray was free. It's not broken so that's good! I felt better than the guy who came in as I was leaving who had his arm all bandaged up and a dislocated shoulder... when the doctor asked him what he'd done, he just said "You tell me". Good answer.

Anyway, I now owe Rob $450 which I hope my insurance will pay up. I have enough paperwork to keep them busy for a while, so it should be ok. I still can't heel-to-toe either. Next time (I can just picture my mum shaking her head in despair!).

Other things I remember from Fernie are Peter learning how to dance like an Oompa-Loompa, which was hilarious, sitting in the hot tub with beer (mmmm) and the madness of the stockings (aka ski boots... yes, eeewww but they fit more in :) ) - Billy's stocking stuffer was a pack of cards which had George Bush's head superimposed on lots of different women's bodies (creepy), and Peter's was a Santa made from toilet roll, complete with hat. Genius!

New Year's was spent at a friend's house here in Winnipeg. Good party which lasted far too long!

Now we've only got another couple of days before I head off to Montreal, and Rob leaves for Chicago. That's going to be strange! But before that, we've got people to see and films to watch. We saw Narnia the other day, which I enjoyed, and today we're planning on going to Harry Potter because I still haven't seen it and that's bad.

Ok Rob's finally got moving so I think we're off shortly. Like I keep saying, more when I can!

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Coffee is thicker than water...

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