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Published: January 7th 2010
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Winners
Martin and me with our winnings Firstly I would like to start by stating how much I love Fernie; great town, nice people and an awesome adventure playground of a mountain. We are now getting more frequent powder and all I can say is wow! The last two days on the mountain have been sensational, the best yet by far.
Well as promised we'll fill you in on our festive activities over the holiday period. As soon as we arrived in Fernie we felt totally at home. The hostel is really comfortable with new and interesting people arriving everyday, great views of the mountain and it is situated in a great part of town. It's almost like being back at uni; everyone goes out on a school night and bums about the rest of the time. We're loving being boarder bums! The night life is loads of fun; bingo, open mic nights, ice hockey and random raves. Although everyone says we should be renting a flat we're happy living the hostel life and visiting those who moved out.
Christmas eve was a very merry event - with free food and competitions delight. Unfortunately Ben and his male dance partner we're knocked out of the third
Christmas day
Top of the Bear Lift. Cedar bowl on your left and lizard on your right round but Martin and I went on to win first place in the random moves dance competition, proudly winning four shots of Jager and a Jug of beer (see pic). After feeling a little queezy I managed to get some sleep. Naturally Christmas day started with the mountain. It couldn't have been a nicer day if it tried; the sun was shinning and the snow angels were glistening all around. Finally the clouds had lifted and we were able to see Fernie in her full glory. The views were stunning and although we were not blessed with any fresh snow the conditions were great.
Finally the previous nights drinking hit Ben a little and after seeing him turn a pale shade of green we decided to go home and get the Christmas lunch on. Seeing all the families on the hill made us have a pang of Christmas day home sickness. As soon as the roast Chicken and trimmings was ready the spirit of Christmas returned. The dinner was delicious and after we had had our fill we opened presents; Ben was delighted with his silly putty. After finishing off at the hostel we headed up the slippery slope to
Ed, Lauren, Marcus and Spruce's house. We drank and were merry until the wee early hours of the morning. Ultimate Jungle speed and squint were had along with some other games we hadn't encountered before.
Boxing day was a traditional affair; vegging out in front of the t.v and watching the James Bond marathon (I hate Pierce Brosnan - how he was ever contracted to do four films I will never know) and Anchor Man to finish off with. We watched five films that day = disgraceful!
New Years eve was great. We went round to our friend Nick's house party; I honestly can not guess how many people were there, but you could not move in the house so we all stayed outside and gathered around their fire pit. Our friend Ed brought with him some chicken wire, wire wool and paraffin; with around 6 helpers and 1.5 hours he constructed two cages which he made fire poi out of. The cubes were huge and the finished product and show was astounding (see video). The party was a roaring success and we all had a great night. So far this New Years we have seen more emergency services
Christmas Lunch
Cooked in the only oven the hostel has to offer. As there was a queue the Yorkshire puddings had to be cancelled than we would have cared to. When the house party started thinning out we were confronted with four fire men and a police lady 'don't even think about taking a picture' - whoops too late. Supposedly in Fernie you have to have a permit to have a fire on your property, failure to do so will result in a $500 fine. We were told later by a Fernie journalist that this is because in the past for one reason or another Fernie has burnt down no less than four times!
New Years day consisted of much merriment and games around a friends house. We decided to get an early night so that we could get first lifts the next day fortunately our arms were twisted and we ended up staying an extra hour or so and thank goodness we did. After feeling all relaxed and fuzzy after a lovely day we returned to a crime scene at our hostel. 'Ben is that an ambulance outside the hostel?', 'no I think it's a delivery truck'. 'No Ben thats an ambulance and two cop cars'. I asked the officer is everyone was alright, 'why do you want to look after him
for the night?' I informed him that we had no idea what was going on we just wanted to know that everything was alright. 'Everything is fine, please go inside'. We walked up the steps to find huge blood pools all down the stair way and both owners looking shocked and shaken. I asked Sadie (the owner) what had happened and she said that two guests had got 'a little carried away'. I asked if we should be worried and she assured us that we were perfectly safe, so up we went to go to our room. In our corridor the door to the first room was open and we could obviously see where the incident had occurred; blood all over the room emanating from the bathroom. I kick myself that I was not quick enough to get my camera and take photo's, shucks! Ben was not keen on the idea of me going back and getting evidence. It was so exciting. Getting to sleep was rather troublesome, Ben went out like a light but my ears were pricked for a good few hours.
The next day we were informed that two men from Cranbrooke (an hour away) checked in
Present time
What a happy boy. Putty? You shouldn't have! for the night and after making a show at the hostel bar by talking crazy and pulling their trousers down and warning people of El Nenio went back to their room broke into the next door room smashed lots of bottles and stamped on them smearing blood on their faces. All very strange. To be honest not as bad as my imagination had led me to believe. They must have been on something very strange.
So three fire men, three cops and one ambulance; we hope that will be the last of it.
The last couple of days have been great, apart from a good friend of ours breaking her arm in three places, life in Fernie is great and we're really enjoying ourselves. The mountain keeps getting better and better with more and more terrain to explore. We're got a great group of friends to board with; it almost feels like running with a pack of wolves. The tree runs are out of this world.
Well I think this will probably be our last blog from Canada; we don't want you to get board with us just writing about boarding everyday and our drunken shenanigans, we'll save
that for when we get home. We love and miss you all very much and will write again when we swap -20 for +40 degrees. Hope you're all well. BIG love Sadie and Ben.
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Jo, David & Bump.
non-member comment
Big & Beautiful!!!
Hi Guys, Thanks for the blogs, I got butterflies reading your blog, i am really happy you are both following your hearts, life is put into perspective very quickly when you sit on the top of a snow covered mountain. My first trip skiing trip at Blue Cow this year has really got to me, and we are all itching to get up this year, but I may have a little too much on my plate. It sounds like you have slipped into ''nomad mode'' really quickly, you start to get job envy meeting people who do the thing they love everyday amongst happy travelers and smiling faces. I guess it was a bit of heart wrench being away from home at Christmas, we didnt do much, we had just got back from a lazy week on the coast with four kids and a few adults, I phoned Nickys at lunchtime and Bev had taken over the kitchen and Dad was talking nonsense so I dont feel like I missed much, I miss the kids more than anything. Its early morning here in Oz and I have already been out for a waddle with the dog, watched the sunrise and I am stationed on my couch with 200 pillows and a heat pad, my world has got so small, I have been nesting and feel ready. I have less than two weeks to go and I am just hanging, she is fully engaged, and in the right position ready to rock, she is very long and is kicking me in the ribs constantly, hence the heat pads. Looks like she is not going to be a half pint like her Aunties, I hope she is nice and tall with Davids skinny legs and not my tree trunks. My blood pressure is low, no swelling, stretch marks and no problems so far, so fingers crossed for a swift trouble free birth. signing off now, love to you boht, take care of each other and soak up those magic moments, they will last forever. I look forward to catching up in the summer hols, will be home for a while. xxxxx Big Love right back at ya.