Whistler inspires a new addiction.

So after the text-attack of last week I'll hopefully have some more pictures ready for this weeks entry. With the success of recent weeks it was finally time for a significant trip, and what better trip could one ask for than a trip to the Winter Olympic mountains. The set up was as follows; 9-11 people. 2 cars. 2 hotel rooms. We gathered at what was quickly becoming the meeting place for most of us in Burnaby at around 6pm on Friday and made our way towards the mountains. Unfortunately it was pitch black and so there was very little opportunity to take in the sights around us but I'm told that they're quite amazing so that will have to suffice.

Once we arrived at the hotels (about 8pm) there was a clear divide between the wants and needs of the people. Essentially, some wanted long nights, and some wanted short. So that left 3 people in one hotel room and 6-8 in another. No problem. The discrepancy in numbers comes from a couple of friends of friends who were going to be staying with us for just the first night. Well the extra couple showed up and had been drinking since about 12 which was without doubt only going to lead to greater and greater things! We skipped the hotel room for a while and got some food outside. Walking around the village at Whistler was a joy, the christmas lights had all be strung out and snow peppered the rooftops and window sills of the hotels, shops and apartments.

The first night was reasonably quiet, with the exception of the midday drunkards. The fella in the couple snored like a good thing all night and 6 of the 8 people in the room that night had less than optimal sleep. Thankfully the excitement of the mountains meant that we were all still reasonably fresh-faced when we woke up at 7am. From here we went and collected any rentals that needed collecting and generally got ready for everything. When it came time to go up onto the mountains I was split from the group as I was going to be doing lessons for the day while the rest of them would be riding the mountains by themselves having all had some sort of previous experience.

The lessons were done in a group of 7 students and 1 instructor. It was fine to learn in the group but was a little tedious as you weren't able to consistently practice things as you had to wait your turn or wait for others to complete something. This was OK at first as you got a chance to see things done before you tried but after a while I just wanted to be on the board as much as possible. We had lunch higher up the mountain and then closed out the day with more practice until about 3pm.

Well I only had one problem with the day; where the hell had this stuff been for my entire life? It's funny that growing up in Ireland I've had basically no opportunity to go and do this, and maybe that's a good thing as I get to experience something completely new to me. I've always been told by people that I had to go skiing or snowboarding but I'd never been quite that enthused about the whole thing but now I see what I've been missing.

I was completely bursting with energy and excitment for the rest of the day and there was absolutely nothing that could slow me down. We meet up after the mountain closed and returned all of our stuff. The next step was clear and not particularly difficult; locate, obtain and consume alcohol. The hotel had a hot tub so once we had our stash we all made our way to the hot tub and relaxed after the days activities. We hot-tubbed and swam outside in the snow until about 9 and then made our wobbly way back to the room. We stayed in the hotel for a while and then made our way out at about 10.

We slept like logs that night and most of the group got up the following morning to go back out onto the slopes for a few hours since they had 2 day passes. Conditions were supposed to be great but then it rained on the mountain instead of snowing and that spoiled things a little (or so I'm told). We drove home in the afternoon and missed the scenery again for a second time. It was a great weekend all round and certainly one that will stick with me for a long time to come.

Most of the group Sunday morning. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of all us in our full gear.










A picture says a thousand words.

On Monday we had a post-Whistler reunion at the bowling alley where we played until the wee hours of the morning. Tuesday was a treat for the house mates as they were finally exposed to my culinary delights. I had been promising them coddle for a while now and even the Irish couple in the house had never had it before and anticipation was reaching dangerous levels. Armed with instructions from dad I hit the supermarket and picked up all of the required elements. I even had to send someone out for a new super-sized pot for all the stuff. As I was preparing things I was sure that something was going to go horribly wrong but much to my surprise it actually turned out quite well! It certainly brought me right back to Dublin and apart from the store bought ham instead of butchers ham the whole thing was quite satisfactory indeed. I know what I'll be living on in Halifax for the first few months anyway.

The spread of ingredients before the super-pot arrived. I'm still not sure if the 2pints of water/cider was correct or not but it didn't look like it at this stage, so I just went for the whole 2 liters instead and that seemed to sort things out.


Delish!