What to blog . . . !!!

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

End of Season

The rugby season is now over for the Edmonton Pirates, and we didn't do too badly. The final game was played with a lot of guts and determination but we lacked the finish on the day!!!! The End of Season Banquet is hopefully being planned for just before I leave so I can attend, so that should be a great night to round things off. Can't believe I've been here for 3 months!!! I feel pretty local now!!! My foreigner status will be given up to Helen, who gets to Edmonton on Friday, so the sight seeing may begin again!!!!

The Ladies World Cup palava starts this week. The girls have picked up some mini vans and are in charge of hosting Samoa and to an extent Scotland too, so I may volunteer too and see what great souveniers I can pick up!!!

Nothing much to report at the minute apart from a strange realisation that I am officially getting old! The average age I currently work with is 18, and my my I feel like a dinosaur sometimes!!! Maybe I'm not Peter Pan afterall!!!

We've had some pretty amazing thunderstorms lately, for those of you who know me well, you can imagine how I hate them and hide indoors!!!! But the sun is shining and it is super hot again, so after a BBQ and party last night, I'm spending the day topping up my tan as it was starting to fade a little.

Hope England is a glorious as ever and happy Bank Holiday XXX

All work and no play . . . .

No update for a while as I've been busy working at the sports shop. The funny thing is that my little sister has started working in a sports shop where I used to work, and now my big sister is going there too!! Spot a trend!!!!

Working in a shop over here though is so different its crazy. Canadians are heaps more laid back. They don't worry much about shoplifters, and if there are empty hangers everywhere its probably just people trying stuff on and wandering around!!!! Empty coathangers were a sign of theft and you got into trouble back in the day!!!! People just leave everything in the changing rooms and expect you to tidy after them too which can be annoying! And the part timers work on a commission basis where they have to sell so much per shift to reach a decent wage. Luckily I am on an hourly rate, but still need to sell $4000 a week.

I went to a ceremony on Saturday to see Rik and Mike? bring home the Stanley Cup in Fort Saskacheuan and recieve a key to the town, and they pronounced it Rik and Mike day (should be Rik and Mick!). In the evening we went out on Whyte Ave and got slightly merry. And we headed to a bar with a mechanical bull!!! It was sooo funny, well what I can remember of it anyways!!!!! There will be pictures on my flicr account so you can see who was the best :-)

Spent Sunday on the phone. Had a huge conversation with my little sis, which is the first time ever. Kinda realised that she is growing up and has stuff going on that I had no idea about. She isn't a 12yr old kid after all!!! Hopefully I can be a good sister to her and advise her on anything she needs. We'll see.

Edmonton Eskimo's . . . link here

This eve I filled in for a friend working at an Eskimo's Canadian Football game (apparently there's a difference between american and canadian football, I've been told many many times!!!! Whatever!!!)

I was good fun, we just checked passes for the more exclusive area and got to watch people being hammered!!! It was quick and easy money too.

The only mishap was when I asked someone for ID and he was a player. He was a little offended but considering he was the only player under 6ft tall and wide, and I'm from England, how the hell was I meant to know!!! Heehee!!!

I start my new job as supervisor in Sport Chek (kinda like JJB Sports but more equipment sold) on Monday so need to learn to get up before 10am again!! Yey!! I only went in for a sales assistant job, but obviously they have bigger plans for me, and I may have told them I am not sure when I'm leaving here . . . . !!! We'll sort that when we get to it though!!

Big game tmrw, lots of players injured, and then a big night out dressed as pirates and wenches!!! How I love my rugby life!! And to add insult to injury some of my wench outfit is my own clothes!!! Maybe its time for a new wardrobe!

Ukranian Heritage Cultural Village . . . link here

This is a traditional Ukranian Church, there are lots around Canada, and a more expensive house from the early 1900's.

We went to this village with a guy called Terry, who is a teacher, and is very into his culture and history, and used to work here, so was pretty much a great tour guide!!!

There are more pictures on my flicr account too, including Crayola Crayons from 100 years ago!!!! Crazy!!!

The site took us around 2 1/2 hours to walk around, and then we had some tradition food of cabage rolls, pyrogies (which I love!!!) and a sausage beginning with a K, can't remember the name but it was all good!

This is very similar to Fort Edmonton Park, in that its oldy worldy, and it has people dressed up pretending that they live in that time. It was so funny because you can ask them where their husbands are, what they did today etc and they have to stay in character. If they live in a house they even have to weed the gardens and cook food and eat it etc. It was very funny to get the inside info from an ex employee!! Aparently years ago, if you were hung over, you went in the jail cell and slept it off, pretending to be a prisoner!!!!

By the way, Helen, why have you never told me about pyrogies, they're so good!!!!

Telus World of Science . . . link here

When I grow up I want to be . . . . .
This is more aimed at kids so we had a great time!!!!

Obviously there were things to pose on . . . . . and we did a weather forecast, played scientific games and didn't really learn a thing but it was good!! We went to a Laser show about stars narrated by the big guy from The Matrix, and then one about the Universe, stars etc and how insignificant we really are!!!! It was in a huge planatarium dome thing which you sit back and look around at. We also went to the Imax Theatre and watched Fighter Pilot (there was a boy with us!) which was crazy. The camera was in the plane with him as he was flying and it made my head roll a few times as he looped the loop!!!

It also had a few areas about energy etc kinda like at Sellafield but without the nuclear spin, so all in all a good time, but go in a group or with kids who would run around and play!

Later on we headed to Sadie's friends house for a party where I learnt 2 new drinking games that I will be bringing back to England!!!! Look out rugby girls!!! I also met two guys who said they were sheriffs which I found hilarious and spent the rest of my time teasing them at any opportunity!!! Their badges said Peace Officers so I'm thinking they may be giving themselves a cooler name at parties!!!!! Tee hee!!!!

Heritage Day . . . . . link here

This festival is to celebrate heritage from all over the world, and people sing, dance and have tents for their country selling food and crafts, artwork and clothing!!

Countries represented included France, Italy, Greece, Wales!!!!!! who sold rock and toffee????, Hawaii, Fiji Islands, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ukraine, Japanese, Venezuelan, Thai, Serbian . . . . everything you can think of . . . .except English, Scottish and Irish!!!!!!

We tried a few different things, but I can only remember some beef I tried from Nigeria which was yummy!!! And some stuff that was like a potato/banana which was deep fried and yummy!!! A lot of things were like kebabs, or curries, or rice dishes but it all smelt amazing and it was a nice hot day but not too busy.

Later on we headed for Sushi downtown which was also delicious!!! Forgot the camera though!!

Capital Ex . . . . (link here)

A few of us headed down to Capital Ex, which used to be known as Klondike days, no one is happy about the name change apparently!!!

Its basically like the Calgary Stampede with less cowboys and therefore less area's to do with agriculture.

We went there as Tara knows the guy who was doing the hypnotist show. We first had a wander round, tried some food out, as you do . . . . and then I headed to the Sling Shot.

Since the Calgary Stampede I have been trying to get someone to come on this with me but all Albertan's are afraid of highs! Really, whats that all about! They need to head to the Rockies to get over that!!!! So, after moaning and whailing and nobody giving in I headed across and paid to go on it on my own!!

While I was waiting, 2 guys offered their friend up to go with me but apparently he was a 60yr old and they couldn't find him, so one of the kids working there got on with me. He thought it was boring, I had a great time.

We then went to the hypnotist show which was hilarious. I was offered up to be hypnotised but for whatever reason he couldn't get me asleep, PHEW!!!! So I got to watch the rest of the show. They had a big guy called Keith who was doing the river dance and the usual stuff like a guy who falls in love with a mop etc etc. It was soooo funny. I'm just relieved that it didn't work on me!!

The moral of the story, Canadians are wuss bags!!!!

A Taste of Edmonton

Me and my usual accomplice, Nadine, headed to Churchill Square for the Taste of Edmonton Festival last week.

There are stalls from various hotels, restaurants, even the airport, etc in Edmonton who put on a variety of small taster dishes from their establishment. We shared some tickets and tried a few dishes each. I had frozen yoghurt as I haven't had ice cream in a while, and I figured it would be lower in fat!! Nadine saw a guy eating the biggest rib I've ever seen. She found out where he had got it and went and got two slightly smaller ones which were still pretty damn huge. Everything was going well, people even asking where she got her yummy ribs until . . . . . she dropped it on the floor!!!!!! She gave out the biggest scream as though someone had robbed her and she was going to cry!!!! I could do nothing but laugh and laugh!!!!! My food was yummy :-)

Fishing Lake . . . (bear hunting link here!)

Last week I headed to Fishing Lake with my old work colleague Fiona. The pressure is on as she will be reading this!!!!!

It took us 3 hours to get there from Edmonton, but along the way, we saw the big sausage again!! and we saw a wild bear just before we entered the town. It wasn't as big as I thought a bear would be and it was quite cute, although I'm sure it wouldn't be a good idea to get to close. The town also wasn't as big as I thought it would be either. There are around 300 residents, and they've just got their first pavement!!! CRAZY!!

Fiona's family were lovely and made me feel very welcome. We had lots of food!! including Elk burgers, Bisons burgers and Buffallo saugage. The Elk burgers were the best though.

Her mam acted like a personal chauffer for us, taking us all over to Lloydminster, Elk Point (suprise suprise no Elk here!!!), Fort George, Reill Beach and I'm sure there were other places but I can't remember now! The lake was right by Fiona's house so we headed down there to cool off. Little did she know that it had been lowering for the last 8 years and it was further than she realised. Not to worry though, we took machetties and cleared a path! A sight that would have kept you all amused for hours!!!!

We headed back to Lloydminster on the Friday for Fiona's friends wedding. A real cowboy and cowgirl wedding. It was amazing! I had a great time! The table pieces were plastic cows, bulls and bails, and there were so many cowboy hats it was unreal!!! Congrats Jamie and Terry and I had a great time attemping the two step and whatever the other dance was that I attempted! Can you believe that they do the birdie dance here too!! I thought it was a cheesy english dance but apparently not, and the macarena!!! which I didn't dance to . . . . . honest!

Fiona's brother also dropped of his quad bike so we could have some fun! Initially I followed Fi's dad and took it easy, it was pretty bumpy. We went off piste, until her Dad got trapped over a fallen tree, so we pulled him out, and headed to the sand. There were a few jumps but loads of room to must go crazy and get used to the feel of the bike!!! Her brother took me for a ride and I nearly fell off a few times while he whizzed along. The next time I went on it, I had Fiona on the back and nearly tipped her off by accident a couple of times. Don't think she was impressed by my fearless driving! ooops! The funniest moment though was when Dave drove off with his aunt on the back and returned with her driving and him sitting on the back, He's not the smallest of guys so it looked hilarious!!!

Fiona and I camped out one evening. Dave got the fire going, told us a ghost story about wolves and then left! Thanks Dave! We managed to stay put for a few hours and then went and hid in the trailer, just incase!!!
I finally managed to see some Elk with full antlers which looked amazing, heard some wolves and coyotees howling, but still no moose! Maybe in the rockies . . . .
We also went tubing on the lake, which was so funny. I've never held on to something so tight in all my life and have some funny pictures!!!

I now know how to spot a real cowboy too. Look for the Wranglers, hat, boots and belt buckle.

And I also have an invite to head back in October and go bear hunting with Fi's uncle (Apparently it has to be the right season) so I have to see if my conscience will let me. I have attached a link of the business for all potential hunters out there!

It was a great week, with temperatures around 38 degrees and I was super chilled out when I got back.