Whistling Away at Whistler...

Yeay! We’ve finally settled in a new home! We arrived in Whistler two days ago & have already settled into our new home in ‘staff quarters’. We’re actually located on Blackcomb, about a 10 min walk down to Whistler village and 20 min walk up up from the village. While we are yet to be official Whistler staff, we have interviews lined up for tomorrow that we are fairly confident about. As long as one of us is working for Whistler Blackcomb resort, we will both get subsidised housing and a season’s lift pass, (+ heaps of other discounts around town) so have settled.

Our current flat mates, Anna & Mike are a lovely Kiwi couple. Have only known them for 48hrs but feel really comfy with them. Anna & I are considering doing ‘boot camp’ next month. Of course, we don’t want to rush into committing to it straight away... as A) not sure if we can really be bothered... and B) it costs a bit so need to wait until Row & I have some income coming in & know our hours before we can commit to the ‘no excuse’ training sessions. In any case, Bootay Camp starts in a few weeks so we should be up for it by then... In the mean time, Anna & I may well have to spend an evening or two sipping over fine wine considering the pros & cons of doing BC - Hmm PRO: we will get fit & bootayfied in good time for the debut of the ski season... CONS: we will have to move our bootays and get up way early... As you can imagine, the jury is still out - will keep you up to date on the final verdict.

Exciting news - Row spotted our first bears yesterday arvo - pretty impressive considering we had been in Whistler for less than 24 hrs! We were on the gondola going up to Whistler peak when Row spotted them - was awesome. So amazing that they just cruise around up here - along with moose and other wild animals. I’m not ashamed to say that the thought of bears cruising past our window does freak me out a bit - our apartment is sort of halfway underground so our lounge room window looks out onto ground level and a thick band of trees is just 2m away. Apparently there is a local bear who has taken a liking to our neighbours' place and has broken into their house a couple of times and just cruised around the apartment! Ahhh - so hope Mr Bear doesn’t break into ours while we are sleeping...

Anyway, we have been assured that they aren’t the ‘grizzly bear’ type and that they aren’t really that aggressive. Although - we have also been told that if they feel at all cornered, or if they are with their cubs, stuff the “don’t panic, don’t turn your back, just walk away slowly facing them” rule and just run, scream and prey you don’t die! But, apparently there haven't been any bear attacks for "ages" & we know of people actually stumbling into them in the streets while making their way home of an evening without being mauled, so here’s to us surviving the next 6 mths not being killed by bears.

Apart from bears, there are SO many other cool things to see and do here over summer. We are rapped we decided to head to the mountains now rather than stay and work in Vancouver until the snow arrives.

We went on a luge yesterday - was fun - and, sorry Row, but I have to say it... I BEAT ROWAN! Ahh yes... t'was me who clocked the highest speed out of the two of us. Proud of punch I was :D

Played mini golf this arvo (extreme mountain sport I know, but we got it included in our “Adventure Activity Pack”) it actually became strangely exciting as the game moved on. Row started off caining my bootay but I made a stunning comeback. It ended up a draw - we had onlookers... Probably THE match of the season I think... we were SO much better than all the other 10 y.o. on the course.

This arvo we are going to give the “Skyline” a raz - a cable-like flying fox where you can “reach speeds up to 100km/h and heights up to 250ft above the ground”. Should be fun! There is some insane mountain biking to be done around here - rad to watch people doing jumps etc. as you go up the gondola Think there is a big race here in a couple of weeks so will be coolies to have a squiz of crazy boys just doing crazy things. So impressive.

We have our interviews tomorrow so will be having a quiet one tonight. Its been so nice to just do some basic things like put our clothes away into proper bedroom drawers, hang up our jackets etc., have a bathroom dresser to put our toiletries in, and to do a proper grocery shop (buy ginger, chilli, garlic, balsamic etc. - key ingredients...) so we can have proper meals. Food is pretty exie up here, but we figure we will be right once we are earning, and hey, its not as if I don’t know how to stalk out the bargains in the grocery aisle! We’ve got a blender, microwave, big fridge, stove top, kettle etc. + Anna & Mike have a TV set up in the lounge so its nice to have a few home comforts.

In fact, I’m in our apartment now, writing this on Mike’s laptop - internet is SO exie up here so please excuse us if we are not in much contact over the next few weeks. We are considering getting a basic laptop to use over the next 8 months so we don’t have to walk down to the village each time & spend $$$ each time we want to check our mail, sort through photos etc.Anyway, that’s enough for now me thinks - for those who are just hanging out to send the hundreds of letters they have been writing and storing over the past months, our new address is:

104 - 4802 Glacier Lane, Whistler BC, VON 1B4, Canada.

Not sure how long we will be in this exact apartment but we should be here for the next month, if not 6 months. Oh yeah, and for those who have been trying to call us best time to call is during weekend as there are only a couple of hours during the weekdays that you can call us during daytime for you/evening for us that’s in our ‘off-peak’ call time. SO, best idea is to call during our weekend, which in TAS time is between 2pm Saturday - 2pm Monday (W.A. time: noon Saturday - noon Monday).

- OH MY GOODNESS - in internet cafe now posting the blog and Stop Ze Press, Ashley fam - Mr N. Diamond and Ms B. Straisand have just come on the sound system - "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" ... ahhh beautiful. Funny memories of listening to some classics during our Ashley childhood. Deb, still can't believe you got to sing the best bits from "Enough is Enough" every time while Bookie & I got stuck with the crap bit. Hmmm... why am I not surprised... Which reminds me, I don't think I ever got over Michelle & I having to do the 'egyptian dance' to Walk Like An Egyptian while the pair of you, Lauren, & Trevor got to play funky tennis raquet guitars and drums...

Okidoki - another day, another essay - sorry... I can't help but get a bit excited when I start to type. As you can imagine, it's a very stimulating experience. As always, lots of love to everyone back home & thanks to those who have been writing - always great to hear from you. Over & Out 4 now brown cows.