The Adventures of Anne

Valentine's Day Pasta Making

2011-05-02T19:59:00.000-05:00

Last year thanks to Groupon, Tim and I went to a pasta making class at a cooking school in Chicago (Cooking Fools). It was really fun and surprisingly easy to make pasta from scratch that you can then fill with all manner of tasty things.

We hadn't actually got round to making any since our class. So, Valentines Day, the perfect time for a low key night to try out our new pasta making skills. During the class we used proper hand winding pasta makers, which of course it seemed the whole of Chicago seemed to be sold out of the day we actually want one, so we had to resort to rolling the dough by hand. (I say we, to his credit Tim did most of the hard work of kneading the dough and making it into pasta.)

We have an Island in the middle of our kitchen with a marble top, so it was perfect! We decided on Ravioli filled with Walnuts and Ricotta, with a pancetta, cream and pea sauce. It turned out pretty darn tasty. We have since acquired a proper pasta maker, so hopefully there is more fresh pasta to come.

Skiing in Breckenridge

2011-05-02T19:52:00.000-05:00

In early February, Tim, I and a few of Tim's friends from work headed out to Breckenridge, CO for the first ski trip of the year. I was so excited to be back on skis again. This winter I really felt the pain of not being in Calgary where I was only a 2 hour drive from the ski hills. Getting on a plane for 3 hours and lugging all your stuff around does not have the same appeal that's for sure.

We stayed right at the base of the hill in a place called The Village Hotel which was great. Rolled out of bed and onto the slopes. One of the first noticeable things about Breck is how high it is. The base is 9,600ft so you certainly feel it. I'm not super fit at the moment and even walking across the car park was a little strenuous! I'm pretty sure that Breckenridge has the honour of the Highest Chairlift in North America. You really feel this when you are only there for the weekend, without too much time to acclimatise.

Breck has a gorgeous base village, a pretty Main St decorated with copious amounts of fairy lights and brightly painted shops.

The skiing is pretty darn nice (Even if we didn't see the sun the whole weekend). The mountain is split into 9 different peaks, so there is something for everyone. The group I was with had two snowboarders, one first time skier and then Tim and I. Kimmie (The first time skier) spent her first day in lessons and then was tearing around the mountain, complete natural. Proud to say that Tim spent for time on skis this weekend that we had previously and we even managed to adventure around the mountain and too the other peak one day. There's pretty good beginner terrain. I was just happy to have ski's on my feet!

Update....

2011-05-02T19:33:00.000-05:00

Yes, It's true. I've disappeared off the edge of the blogosphere. I have much catching up to do.

Life has been pretty busy since Christmas (Holy Moly it's May already), and as I'm no longer on a project that I have to fly too I don't have as much time hanging about in airport and on planes that I get most of my blogging done. But - ah ha- I AM on a plane, back from Calgary where I was at my friends Sara and JJ's wedding so will attempt to catch up.

What am I up to at the moment?

Well currently I am on a project for a large machinery manufacturer in the lovely Peoria, Illinois, about a 3 hour drive south-west from Chicago. I left the client in New York in early February. The new project is pretty intense, I have more responsibility that I have been used to in the past and we are working long hours to make the project hopefully end in success. There is a lot more enablement on this gig too, so I am feeling useful again!

Although I don't have to fly every week anymore I feel like I have much less time on my hands now that instead I have to drive every week. I guess less idle time, and blogging and emailing while driving is pretty frowned upon I hear, even in the US.

Since my last blog I have done some skiing, my Dad and Bro came out to visit and we went skiing and then visited NYC on their way home, Tim and I went to Hawaii with his family and I am on my way home from a weekend in Calgary. It's no wonder I haven't had much time. Coming up is my birthday in a couple of weeks (Scary 26), Tim and I are off to Vegas for the weekend, Tim has qualified again for the WSOP in Vegas in July so hopefully there will be a bunch of us going to that, and unfortunately probably no UK trip this summer, but we'll be back for Christmas for sure!

So... let the blogging commence.....

Playtime in New York

2011-02-23T20:59:00.001-06:00

So.... my time in New York has come to an end for now....

Between Christmas and now I did have a little bit of time to play though in New York.

Tim came out for the Martin Luther King long weekend which was awesome. Here's some of what we got up too...

Hung out in a very frozen Central Park...

Ate some yummy vietnamese food at OBao in New York...

Hung out in Bryant Park drinking Champagne watching the ice skating....

Wandered past the Rockefeller Centre....

And went to a Rangers Ice Hockey game and the magnificent Madison Square Garden...

I also went to a new exercise class that they do at the gym I went to in New York called Glee Club! You dance... and you sing.... We learnt the dance moves to Thriller. I'm sure that will come in handy one day.
It was pretty fun. It was pretty much exactly like the show, some nightmare broadway/diva types, some flamboyant guys and a few more round but super keen ladies (i.e. me). This is the video of the class...
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4385954/glee-club-workout?r_src=ramp

Also my lovely team while in New York threw me a wicked leaving party. I was presented with this spangly tiara, we ate lots of yummy Italian food and then proceeded to ride a mechanical bull.... I still have the bruise to prove it and it's been a week! A great send off.

And last but not least I've been meaning to get a picture of this for ages.... we my new found paparazzi skills this is what I mostly look like now...

Christmas and New Years in the UK

2011-01-06T12:58:00.001-06:00

So I spent just over a week back in the UK, mostly in Devon but we spent New Years Eve in London.

Wonderfully we got into the UK in between the snow storms, and it was actually our most on-time arrival in Devon from the US so far. Go Figure. We even packed an extra carry-on full of clothes thinking that it was highly likely that we would lose our luggage. Didn't happen thankfully.

The first few days were pretty busy. We didn't get to Devon until the 23rd December. We had our obligatory pasty at Paddington train station in London before standing (!) all the way down to Devon on the train. Got to love British Rail and the holidays, and to think that they are putting UP the fares. Madness.

First up on arrival to a VERY snowy England was the Simmons' Family Christmas Meal. Me, Tim, my brother, step-mum and my Dad's side of the family. Always great to see everyone even if it is only once a year.

Tim and I at my family's house in Devon and Christmas Day

Christmas Eve was spent at the bar that my brother Mike works in at the moment. Good grub there thanks bro and then in the Bell.
Christmas day was spent at Mums. Usual strange (but awesome) traditions of Champagne in the morning, Whiskey and Pork Pies (for Ken's Midland roots), presents, walk to the pub (which we skipped this year... ), much napping and then a turkey Christmas dinner.

Tim and my brother Mike during Christmas Dinner

My big present this year was a DSLR Canon Rebel T1i Camera from Tim and my Mum. It's awesome. I've been wanting a fancy camera for a while now and Tim has been making me put it off so that he can get me one for Christmas. I did, admittedly become a member of the paparazzi though over my time in the UK. I decided that I was determined to catch all the things that happen over Christmas that we just take as "normal" but then one day realise that we have no pictures of. I'm definitely having fun with it though. So far I'm still just trying to figure out what all the settings mean, but its such a nice camera sometimes nice ones just happen without me even trying. I'm all about black and white and portrait people photos at the moment. Watch this space for my new hobby!

Usually on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas), my brother and I go surfing. Last year we dragged Tim along too. Although this year we broke our reasonably long running tradition. There was snow on the ground and Mike had the flu... didn't seem like our most sensible idea ever. Although we did go for a nice walk on the beach instead. I really love going down to the sea in Devon. It's a beautiful part of the world if you ever get the chance to visit it you should. This does mean though that I haven't been surfing for a year and a half. Boo. Hawaii in April should make up for it!

Mum, Ken, Mike and Tim on Saunton Sands

Tim and I walking on Saunton Sands

Then we headed off to my Dad's for dinner. This has turned into quite the feast of lots of our favourite food and often results in us being pretty hammered... No less than 8 courses later, fun time was had by all.

Dad's flat for Boxing day dinner

The rest of the time in Devon was spent mostly lazing around, eating and of course, included the obligatory trip to Squires Fish and Chip shop and a trip to the Thatch for a pint. I got to drive my old car for the day too! So happy, haven't driven for at least a year and in my own little car too. Brilliant. Even with My Dad, Tim and Mike crammed into my little Fiesta. Good times.

Squires Fish and Chip Shop in Braunton

The Thatch Pub, Croyde

Dad and Mike looking over Croyde Beach

Our last night in Devon was spent in our local at The Bell for the quiz night. We weren't particularly good but it was great that for the first time in years my 3 childhood friends were all in the same place at the same time. Really great to see them, even if the first thing Neil said to me after hugging me was "Wow your accent has changed" and then walked off. Hmmmm. I guess it had to happen at some stage.

Tim and I then left Devon to spend New Years in London where we were to be joined by the lovely Miss Danielle. The very helpfully do lots of railworks on the route from Devon to London in between Christmas and New Year so we persuaded Mum to drive us up to London for a much more eventful than liked journey. Half way along the M4 motorway we had a puncture. Nightmare. Tim changed his first ever car tyre right there on the edge of the motorway! Eventually we made it to my cousin Jasper's house to meet his new addition baby Thorin.
Then Tim and I got a cab to our hotel to meet Danielle. After much of a cluster later, someone had already checked in as me and taken our room and then the next room they gave us already had someone in it, sigh. Much annoyance later we had a room in the hotel opposite Danielle.

Tim and Danielle outside Tim's favourite coffee shop in London

To top it all off at this point I seemed to have contracted Mike's bug and was developing a pretty hefty cold. Determined not to let everyone down I probably trekked around London for two days too long and made it worse, only to fly home on the 1st and have so much pain in my ears as we landed that I have been rendered useless with an ear and sinus infection for the last week, not able to go and join to my project in New York.

We spent New Year Eve itself in both the Winter Wonderland in Hyde park in the very impressive beer garden and in Covent Garden too. The crowds were too crazy to get too close to the London Fireworks so we saw the top of them over the buildings in Covent Garden, took part in an impromptu ring of people doing Auld Lang Syne and found a camper van full of hot Somerset Cider to hang out in. Pretty Good fun.

The cider van!

Hyde Park Winter Wonderland

Danielle and I at Hyde Park Winter Wonderland

Now I'm back in Chicago spending the week here recuperating from my stupid cold and looking forward to the exciting year I already have planned! We are going skiing in Breckenridge for a weekend in early Feb, my Dad, Mike and step-mum are coming over to go skiing in Park City, Utah for a week and then a few days in New York on the way home, a week in Hawaii in April with Tim's family and two weddings to attend and thats just up to May! All very exciting!

Ooooh the weather outside is frightful.... But the fire is sooo delightful

2011-01-05T16:07:00.001-06:00

(A slightly delayed post...)

So Wow, December has come and almost gone.... amongst a sea of Christmas Parties, Work and Flying.

I wanted to say...

Happy Christmas and Have a Wonderful New Year!

Literally I have been at a party of some kind (at least one) every weekend so far in December. Which for generally unsociable me, is quite the feat. It's definitely been fun though. Two TW christmas parties, one in Chicago and one in New York, the DRW party with Tim, and a few house parties and a birthday thrown in for good measure.

This is Tim and I's tree in our apartment in Chicago. There's been lots of snow there but I've mostly been in NY, where we haven't had any big snowfalls yet. That's fine with me, keep the snow on the mountains!

I'm currently sat at O'Hare airport in Chicago waiting to meet Tim and we are about the fly out the the UK tonight. Can't wait. Thankfully it seems that the snow and travel madness in the UK has somewhat subsided and so far (touch wood) our flight looks to be on time and leaving!

Tim came to visit New York last weekend, so we had fun soaking up NYC at Christmas. We were stupid enough to try to go skating at the Rockefeller plaza.... unfortunately thousands and thousands of people had the same idea. Couldn't even get close enough to see the rink let alone skate on it! Thankfully we headed to Bryant park instead and found the outside bar that was serving spiked hot drinks to sip on in rocking chairs under heat lamps. Awesome. The next day we also discovered the Food Hall inside The Plaza. Lots of good grub.

These are some pics from both the New York and the Chicago Holiday parties

The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing 2010

2010-11-21T11:36:00.002-06:00

In early October this year, 2100 (mostly) women in technology congregated in Atlanta for the 10th Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. 900 of those girls were students.

ThoughtWorks sent a small troupe of us ladies down to Atlanta for the week mostly for recruiting and networking but also to enjoy the many sessions that were happening throughout the week. I am really grateful for the opportunity to go and to become part of (what I now know) of the Grace Hopper phenomenon. We were a mixed bunch, Julie and Yewe from recruiting, fabulous Tarsha from HR, our CTO Rebecca who had specially come back for the week from her sabbatical in Uganda, that's how much she is a fan, Joanna, April, Smitha and myself. We had a super fun time and worked hard too of course!

Grace Hopper was a remarkable woman, She was a “mathematician, computer scientist, social scientist, corporate politician, marketing whiz, systems designer, and programmer,” and, always, a “visionary. [Howard Bromberg]. In 1953 she invented the compiler... yes you heard... she invented the compiler. This lead on to the development of COBOL. Hopper’s work also foreshadowed or embodied enormous numbers of developments that are still the very bones of digital computing: subroutines, formula translation, relative addressing, the linking loader, code optimization, and symbolic manipulation. [The Anita Borg Institute website] And if that wasn't enough in her spare (!) time she was a Rear Admiral in the Navy. The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is about celebrating the achievements of women in computing and to pledge ourselves to extend them. In computing more than other disciplines, women in the right place at the right time have made an enormous difference. If computing has led the way in making space for women’s participation on an equal basis, it is because the discipline was pioneered in large part by women like Grace Murray Hopper. What was true for Hopper is all the more true for women today because of her work. [From the Grace Hopper Celebration website]

Tuesday was mostly the career fair. We had a wee stand and were very busy... (admittedly lots of people thought we were Yahoo! who had the stand next to us, but we chatted to them and told them about ThoughtWorks anyway, whether they liked it or not!). We had had special t-shirts made up with a shoe logo that was made out of a tag cloud, initially we thought maybe this was even sexist, but turns out lots of the attendees spotted our advert and loved the shoe and wanted to come talk to us because of it and we were constantly getting stopped and asked who were were both because of our t-shirts and because we were having a lot of fun and people wanted in!

I have to say that before this career fair I hadn't really given much thought into how to explain what ThoughtWorks does. After the hundreds of times I explained it during the career fair, pretty sure it came out differently every time. How can you explain our special sauce in an elevator pitch without it just sounding like BS. Hard, it turns out, answers on a postcard please.

The career fair was actually probably my highlight of the whole week. It was so energizing to meet so many excited, enthusiastic and extraordinarily bright young ladies looking for a great place to start their careers. I was in their position just two years ago, and it really hit home home much I have grown since I became a ThoughtWorker, it was simply amazing to be in a position where I could give advice and put people at ease.

Us at the ThoughtWorks booth during the Career Fair

Two big things that I have been thinking a lot about recently are:

I have been lucky enough to work with lots of amazing people at TW, who have been in the industry for 10/15/20 years. I have learnt an awful lot from these people but you naturally then compare yourself to them thinking "well if they are this good at blah, I should be too, I work alongside them after all", only to be supper frustrated because of course I can't know everything now that I will know when I've been doing this for 15 years. It's madness. What is perhaps just as important is having people who are 1 - 2 years further down the track than you that you can look up to and realistically look at and think "that is where I want to be in a year". For whatever reason I feel that TW are lacking in devs that are in the 2-3 year out of college mark. Being at that career fair it suddenly dawned on me that I could be that person for these girls, there were a standout few that made a great impression (we've since hired two...), and I offered my support to and we're still emailing. It's a great feeling and I'm excited about keeping in touch with them, whether they end up joining TW or not.

The other is that women coming out of computer related degress still think that a career as a developer will mean you are locked in a basement with no windows or men that wash, not allowed to speak to the business or heavon forbid a customer. To be honest thats what I thought too at the time. As girl after girl told me they had a PHD in computer science but wanted to be an analyst (no offence), I always asked why, and they all described that they like coding but that it would lead to a life like I described above. Watching their faces and their excitment as I told them that at ThoughtWorks being a developer does NOT involve the above (unless of course you really want to I guess), as I told them about my role and what I did on a daily basis they all started changing their minds and wanted to submit their resumes as devs instead. I feel like the industry as a whole is really missing this education, but from a TW marketing perspective we could really play on that misconception. I was giving a quick lightening talk about our experience at Grace Hopper on Friday to ThoughtWorks and I was talking about this topic and one of my co-workers mentioned that he believes that it's Agile that's keeping women in technology. He said that many of the women he know wouldn't be in technology if it wasn't for the open communication and collaboration that is at the heart of Agile. I had never thought of it that way but can see that that definitely helps!

On Wednesday the sessions kicked off, getting into full swing on the Thursday and Friday. As a lot of the attendees at Grace Hopper were Academics, there was an interesting mix of content. I was expecting techy, QCon type content, but instead there were lots of topics that people were studying for their PHD's as well as industry tips and tricks for surviving as a women in the IT world. Each Grace Hopper celebration has a theme and this year it was "Collaboration Across Boundaries". I will follow up this blog post with two of the sessions that I particularly liked.

Rebecca Parsons during her Panel Discussion

I am super excited to say that recruiting have been amazing this year at following up with people that we met and loved. We have offers out to a few Hoppers already. We all felt like there wasn't much representation of Agile, or what it means to be a consultant so we are already plotting and planning on how we can make a bigger impact there at next year Grace Hopper Celebration and hopefully I can go again too!

Where is Anne now?!

2010-10-26T20:00:00.000-05:00

Since my Canada vacation my new project has me in New York City!

I'm consulting for a small investment bank here. I have finally become a "real" ThoughtWorker, constantly flying!

Although I must say I don't have it too bad.... ;-) I have a lovely little corporate apartment on E 63rd St, and I'm hoarding airmiles for some emergency ski trip at some stage! And hey, New York on expenses, Hoorah! Below are some pictures of my apartment:

My life is mostly now, fly from Chicago to La Guardia on Sunday night, work 10 -12 hours each day, attempt to go to the gym (normally fail if I'm honest!), and fly back on Thursday night. It's nice to be home for an extra day and normally I head into the Chicago office to say hello.

My new team are lovely, it's a bit of a boisterous banking environment, so of course I fit right in! And I'm back doing .Net with a tiny bit of Ruby thrown in which is a nice change. Not to mention the fact that I really knew nothing about banking.... Yay for new things.

The other great thing is that I can fly people out to visit me if I want to stay the weekend. So right when I started Danielle and I had a girly weekend here, which was awesome fun, and then Tim came out last weekend, great to have him here. And here are some pics from Danielle's visit.

Finding The Strengths in Your Team

2010-09-28T13:21:00.001-05:00

Strengths Finder 2.0

(This picture is taken from their website linked above)

I rolled off my previous engagement with ThoughtWorks in mid-August. I had a brilliant time on that team, which felt like one of the most well bonded team that I, and many others have come across in a while. (admittedly biased). We had gelled well and were pretty productive, but I think that we all also learned a great deal about ourselves and grew enormously throughout the 9 months we were together. On paper we were a pretty mixed bunch of people but I guess we all had a similar goal of work hard, deliver great software to our client and have fun doing it. I could harp on forever about some of the things that we took away from the project but I want to focus on a tool that really helped us work better together.

One of the exercises that we did do as a team was take the Strengths Finder test. Some co-workers had mentioned that they had done it and thought it was great and so one by one each of us gave it a go. At the time also I had started pairing more frequently with one of the others on the dev team, we were also down to 3 people now making pairing that bit harder. The two of us felt like we were worlds apart in our approach and were admittedly driving each other crazy with our dysfunctional pairing. One of the things that really helped was the results of the strengths finder test, once we understood where each others strengths were and where they were coming from it all suddenly seemed to make sense and we've since (through a lot of hard work and honest conversation) become very effective pairing partners and awesome friends.

How does it work?

This book summarizes that as a world we spend far too much time focusing on our own (and other peoples) shortcomings that we are seriously limiting out own growth. "What's more we had discovered that people have several times more potential for growth when they invest energy in developing their strengths instead of correcting their deficiencies". While I don't believe that you should stop working on your weaknesses, this is a great theory.

You have to buy the book (see below) and you get a code that you can take their online test with. You rate a hundred or so questions on how much you agree with the statement, and the strengths finder then comes out with your top 5 strengths, and a personalized action plan, among many other things. There are a total of 34 different themes. You can get a lot out of reading the whole book, but you can also get what you need by taking the test and referring to the sections that apply.

What did the results show?

Well these were my top 5....

Empathy

Harmony

Arranger

Responsibility

Restorative

Go figure. I suppose those of you that know me won't be too surprised. Initially I was annoyed at how "fluffy" my strengths were, and was jealous that I didn't have things like Maximizer or Woo (self deprecation is my number one weakness...), but my team mates (and the book) helped me realize that I am lucky to have these strengths, that don't come as easily to a lot of people.

There is a chapter on each strength, there is a description, examples on things that a person which this strength might say or do, some ideas for action, and in my opinion, the most useful three bullet points of them all, "Working with others who have X". By each of us reading about how to work with the strengths that the rest of the team our understanding of each other went up exponentially. This is an extract of the "Working with Others who have" section from one of my strengths, "Responsibility", it certainly explains a lot...

This person defines himself by his ability to live up to his commitments. It will be intensely frustrating for him to work with people who don't.

This person dislikes sacrificing quality for speed, so be careful not to rush him. In discussing his work, talk about it's quality first.

Help this person avoid taking on too much, particularly if he is lacking in the Discipline talents. Help him see that one more burden may result in his dropping the ball - a notion that he will loathe.

This is just one example of the great things this book has to offer. It really helped out team and I help that it can help yours too. Or just for some self reflection.

I have also included a chart that shows all the different strengths across our small team. Quite a mixed bunch, but we almost all shared at least one strength with someone else, which I think is what really helped us gel and gave us such a rounded team.

Canada Vacation - Edmonton, Nelson and Calgary

2010-09-19T21:28:00.000-05:00

During the last week of August Tim and I ventured back to Canada for what felt like a well earned week long vacation. The project that I was on at work since coming to Chicago had just finished and I was definitely in need of a break. In classic Anne and Tim vacation style, it involved lots of flying, good friends and hanging out with family. But this time it was Tim's!

We spent the first weekend in Edmonton, attending one of Tim's university friend's weddings. Theres a pretty large group of them that have been friends since collage and still meet up at each others weddings. They're a nice crowd and have been pretty friendly to me as the newcomer to the bunch. Some of them I've met a few times now and so that made it easier :-S. It was a lovely wedding and it was nice wandering round Edmonton seeing all the places that Tim used to hang out and work in during University and for a year or two afterwards. It was also blissfully cold in comparison to the boiling Chicago summer that we had been having.

Next stop was Nelson, which is in British Colombia where Tim's sister and parents are now living. To get there we had to fly Edmonton to Vancouver (which looks lovely must actually go there one time...), and then take a little plane to Castlegar which is in the heart of the southern BC Canadian Rockies. Tim's parents picked us up and then took us back to his sister Kim's gorgeous house. Kim and her Yorkshire husband Wes moved to Nelson from Alberta and picked an amazing spot. They have done their house up themselves (helps that Wes is an electrician) from what sounded like a dump initially, and now have a 3 story house with a wrap around deck, and a self contained basement that Tim's folks now live in. Tim's mum has done an amazing job on the garden which has a massive veg patch and loads of fruit trees, which, as this is serious bear country, get ravaged every night, much to their annoyance.

The house is located just up and across the road from the West Arm of the Kootenay Lake, a huge freshwater lake that runs down the middle of this part of the Rockies. They have an enviously slow paced, outdoorsy life. You can't help but be relaxed the minute that you get there. I could of quite happily stayed. Tim and I spent most of the week lying in the hammock on the deck, enjoying the sun and reading books. Fantastically self indulgent. We also ventured into Nelson itself to see the Farmer's Market, which turned into marvelling at how Nelson seems to have an awful lot of Hippies per square inch, possibly only challenged by Glastonbury Festival. As there have been lots of bears this summer Tim and I were too chicken to go out hiking, which would of been fun, but actually relaxing, and admittedly napping for an hour or two every day, seemed like a pretty good alternative. We also managed to go Kayaking one morning too. It was super hot while we were there so we dragged ourselves out of bed early enough that it was still cool. It was pretty windy and the lake was pretty choppy, I loved it, made me think I was at sea, Tim, not so much!

Tim's Mum also mothered us well, it was lovely to have some "mum cooking". It was really great getting to see Tim's family. He hasn't seen them much for a few years so it was good to just hang out. Wes and I had a lovely time bantering over the north/south English divide, and Kim and I are frighteningly similar despite the 12 or so years between us. It was just what we both needed.

Next stop was Calgary for the final weekend. I desperately wanted to catch up with old friends there on our way home. We had a pub night in my honour (hurrah!), organised by the awesome Miss Patricia, and a great turnout, it was amazing to see you all, I miss you all very much. It felt like a long long time ago that I lived there, despite the fact that it's only been 9 months. Lot's of life changes in that time I guess! Talking of which we had a great time catching up with the newly Canadianified JJ and his gorgeous fiancee Sara, seeing their new pad, eating at the Farm and catching up with Sara's little critters. Also the soon to be parents Jason and Andree (they had their gorgeous little boy just a few days after we left).

A lovely week away and great to see so many friends.

Summer Devon Trip. Weddings, Fish and Chips and a new family member.

2010-08-29T22:15:00.003-05:00

Amy & Rob

Back in July (Seems like forever ago now..), Tim and I embarked on a whirlwind trip to the UK for a long weekend. Yes, I hear you say, we are indeed crazy for going that long of a distance for that short of a time. But, it was worth it.

My cousin Amy was getting married and it seemed like the perfect excuse to go home for a few days and see everyone. Most of the "Simmons" side of the family would be at the wedding (unfortunately my Dad and step mum where off sailing in Sweden and didn't make it back), so I could kill many birds with one stone, as it were.

Also, Sarah (my step brothers wife) and here two girls were spending the summer at my Mum's house back in Devon. They spend the majority of the year living in Nicaragua and then Sarah brings the girls back over the summer months (I think Nicaragua's raining months too), so that Ebbie can spend a term of school in the UK each year. Ebbie is just turning 8 and little baby Zia has just turned 1. Last summer when I was back Zia had not yet burst onto the scene so it was great to meet her, and I have a huge soft spot for Ebbie. Sarah is the most patient and brilliant mum ever. I adore her!

With two days of travelling and three days of actual time in Devon I had planned out down the to second all the things that I wanted to do, that I have been craving or missing or just plain enjoy. I think it went along the lines of:
Day 1
- Get off plane, train to Devon, go straight for Fish and Chips, and then to the local pub, The Bell.
Day 2
- Go to wedding
Day 3
Go surfing, have a BBQ and hang out on the beach.

I'm sure there was more but that pretty much sums it up. As with all these things I didn't have time for everything. When you throw in the delightful British summer weather and the fact that getting that many people organized and out of the house is like mobilizing an army. We did manage Fish and Chips. Hurrah!, a trip to the local pub and a walk on the beach, but unfortunately no BBQ or surfing this time round.

Me and my brother Mike

Tim and I

Amy's wedding was beautiful. She got married in a small village where she grew up about half an hour from me called Winkleigh. She looked beautiful and I think that everyone had a great time. There was perhaps the worst organist in the world, to which my Aunt lent over the pew to whisper to me "If you hire this organist for your wedding I will not come". Noted. The day had an overhanging of sadness to it too. Our Grandma Yvonne died earlier this year and she would of loved to of been there. As I was in Chicago during the funeral this was the first time that I had seen everyone since she died, which was pretty hard. However, I think that she was watching over and would of been very proud of Amy on her beautiful day. They had some particularly brilliant touches that I thought worth mentioning, instead of a traditional wedding cake they had a huge tiered pile of round cheeses that everyone tucked into at 10pm or so, accompanied by bacon sandwiches all round. Genius! They also had a guest book with some blow up picture frames that they asked people to take photos with. Was pretty fun.

The wedding venue

The Wedding 'Cheese' Cake

It was great to hang out with my close family too. Sarah seems to have her hands full with the girls. It was great to see Ebbie again, within the first 5 minutes of playing top trumps with her I got, "Your voice sounds funny", hmmmm, out of the mouths of babes. Apparently I have lost the pronunciation of the letter "T" properly. Damn. Zia is adorable, shes just started walking so is charging around the place, and is very chatty, even if it doesn't make any sense. My brother Mike is brilliant with them too.

Ebbie

Zia

All in all, a great trip. I wasn't ready to go back to Chicago (probably two more days would of done it ;-)), so I was sad to leave, but glad that we made the trip over to see everyone.

Today in New York...

2010-08-25T21:23:00.001-05:00

Funny things from today in NYC ....

Saw my first NYC drag queens! In awesome flouresecent tutus walking down Park Avenue.
Ventured into the Abercrombie & Fitch store on 5th Avenue to be greeted by topless guy A&F models. Seriously... who employees models as shop assistants?!
While creating my login credentials at my new client site the dev manager, as he didn't know my middle initial just used the first letter of my last name instead. I am no longer AJS I am ASS. The jokes just write themselves. Goes without saying that my new team love my new name...

When I get a chance I will make some posts about my time in the UK, Canada, the end of my old project and as you may have gathered how I am now working in NYC!

Vegas Baby!

2010-08-08T14:03:00.000-05:00

My first trip to Las Vegas...

Tim won a place in the World Series of Poker Main Event, so I went out to visit while he was playing...

Tim playing next to the Player of the Year, Frank Kasella. Courtesy of World Series of Poker website.

I flew in Friday evening, met Tim at our hotel, we were staying at the Rio, which is where the poker tournemant was. We pretty much headed straight out onto The Strip and settled on dinner in the mall attached to Planet Hollywood. I was in serious sensory overload, my eyes were like saucepans that whole first night, everywhere you look bright lights and noises. Most people seemed drunk and oddly tall. All was a bit much. Thankfully the next day I was "meh, another load of slot machines, another casino...".

The next day Tim was playing in Day 2. Our friends Suzie and Ian had also come to join us in Vegas to see Tim playing so they met us at the Rio down where the tournament was. I'm not sure what I was expecting of a poker tournament, maybe silent concentration, restricted access... It was pretty different. Huge rooms of thousands of people playing poker, the constant clinking of people fiddling with their chips. Most people were chatting with friends who were watching, playing on their iPhones, most looked pretty bored. I guess 12 hours of poker a day is a lot.... Suzie and Ian and I stayed for an hour or so marvelling at the madness of the whole thing and then decided to venture off, not knowing whether Tim would bust out and join us or not...

The New York, New York.

It's seriously hot in Las Vegas. 42 degrees celsius during the day and not a lot cooler during the evening. Like being in an oven. We wondered around the malls, and looked at the famous Bellagio Lake. Tim and I had watched the fountain show the night before. It's pretty cool, apart from all the cheesy music. We then headed into the Bellagio, a spectacle in itself, and tried our hand at some gambling. Turns out Suzie has some freaky good luck and the roulette wheel. So that was pretty fun.

Ian and Suzie looking out over The Strip

The Paris Hotel

The botanic garden inside the Bellagio.

In the evening we went to see the Cirque de Soleil show, Zumanity at the New York, New York hotel..... It was, erm, interesting! Some impressively flexible and daringly crazy people thats for sure. Definitly adults only. ;-) Then we went to a lovely dinner at the Venetian. Tim was still in at this point, so I went back and met him afterwards to celebrate his successful day!

It was a flying visit to Las Vegas. Next time I definitly want to go to the "Old Vegas" part of town and see some random people getting married in an Elvis chapel and hunt down that famous Vegas Sign. Loved it though!

Mad few weeks coming up.

2010-07-05T18:27:00.000-05:00

I have a crazy few weeks coming up.

We are in the last half of what looks to be our last release with our current client. We have had the luxury of being in the ThoughtWorks Chicago office for most of the engagement since February. So we're taking a trip to Kansas City tomorrow to show our faces and then most likely will be spending the first week of August there too. Goodness knows what project and in what city I will be working out of after mid August!

Tim is playing the the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas this weekend, (so proud....). He is leaving for there on Wednesday night. I'll be following him on Friday, once I've got back form KCMO on Thursday. I
I've never been to Vegas, so I'm pretty excited. Although not so much about the heat down there. 40 degrees celsius on a a good day. We have some friends joining us down there, so if Tim's still playing at least I'll have some people to keep me company.

I'll be heading back to Chicago on Sunday, Tim may or may not be with me depending if he's still in the tournament or not.

Then on Wednesday night we fly out to the UK!!!! So so so very excited. It's the first time i've attempted a long weekend to the UK, so we'll see how I survive! It's my cousin Amy's wedding on the Saturday, so it'll be great to see all my family at once. Unsurprisingly I already have my eating itinerary all planned out. Fish and Chips, BBQ and surfing on the beach, roast dinner and a good few pints down in the local pub. Can't wait to be back!

The rest of the summer is shaping up to be pretty cool too. In mid August Tim and I are going back to Canada to visit his family, go to one of this friends' wedding and dropping in on everyone in Calgary. then in September I'll be catching up with Miss Danielle Topping in NYC for a girly weekend. It's a tough life ;-), no really it is......

It feels weird posting without any pictures so here are some that I took last night at a friends house for their 4th July celebration up on the roof of their place, and some others from this summer.

San Francisco - Anne's Birthday Trip May 2010

2010-07-05T17:54:00.000-05:00

For my birthday this year Tim and I headed out to the west coast, to San Francisco.

We flew out during the day on Friday, it was actually quite nice not to just rush from work to the airport on Thursday night like we normally would for a long weekend, but its does mean you lose most of that day, however we were much more relaxed!

We were staying at The Clift, a hotel that I had found on my latest obsession www.jetsetter.com. Turned out well. We were a few block from Union Square and the Trolleys. Once we got in we set off in hunt of some food for a picnic lunch the next day. We used the Trolleys, which although are a tourist trap and actually pretty handy to get around. We bought 3 day passes which turned out to be pretty worth the money.

Those trolleys are mad, there is a poor brake guy with and actual giant lever on the back of the trolley, and is the only thing stopping you from flying down the super steep San Francisco hills. Rather him than me. We hopped off near China Town and wandered towards the Italian area, where we found lunch for the next day and a lovely bistro/cafe to sit in the sun and watch the world go by. Good espresso too.

Saturday (birthday day) was jam packed. We took the trolley down to Fisherman's wharf. I love being down by the sea, hanging out with boats and seafood is one of my favourite pastimes. We watched them turn around the trolley at the end of the track, amazing that they still just do it by hand, and then headed off towards the Golden Gate bridge for our picnic. It was an irritatingly hazy day (as I'm told it often is in San Fran), so we couldn't quite see the top of the bridge, but it was awesome to see it anyways.

After the trek there and back we went for a quick walk through Fisherman's wharf, lots of yummy looking crab and seafood stands. And of course the pier 39 Sealions.

We then jumped on the Ferry to Alcatraz Island. There is a great audio tour around the old prison island. It's amazing to imagine what it would of been like to of been there, both as a prisoner or as a guard or their family. You can even hear to sounds from the city from the Island, must of been tortuous on its own. There's a great view of the city from the ferry and from the island. We returned back to the hotel to discover we both were seriously sunburnt.... you would of thought we'd learnt by now. We met a bunch of Thoughtworkers that Tim and I are friends with for a birthday dinner. Awesome to see everyone again, and also to meet new people that I'd heard an awful lot about.

On Sunday I decided that I hadn't eaten enough of the seafood at Fisherman's Wharf so we headed back there for lunch in the Ferry Building. Really good fresh crab cakes and shrimp sandwiches. We then met up with Ian and Suzi and headed towards the Haight district. Forgetting that it was the Bay to Breakers fun run that day, the place was a mad house. Definitely a time to see the more erm eccentric side of San Francisco.

We had a lovely time in San Francisco. A great place for eating! We didn't go to the Wine Country on this trip as we thought it would be too rushed, so I'm definitely looking forwards to that someday in the not too distant future hopefully.

Baconfest Chicago 2010

2010-05-02T13:11:00.001-05:00

See the main website for Baconfest Chicago 2010 here.

Tickets were sold out within the first day of sale, the very first Baconfest came to Chicago in April. I was sat in Atlanta airport waiting for my flight back to Chicago in February and I got a text from Tim saying "Fancy going to a Baconfest in April?" my reply was "You really need to ask?! I'm in." We love bacon.

Our friend Steve had been to a preliminary run in the Fall at The Publican. They asked a bunch of guest chefs to cooks a bacon-oriented dish and it was up to the audience to taste and judge the best. It was such a success they organised a fully fledged Baconfest for the spring.

For $45, you could choose from the morning shift (11am to 2pm) or the afternoon shift (3pm to 6pm). There would be 12 chefs from local restaurants, with their bacon-inspired dishes. You also got a goody bag, drink tickets and access to the downstairs vendor area.

Some sample dishes:
Bacon Tacos with Ramp salsa and truffle cabbage - The Primehouse.

Vanilla Bacon Icecream with Ahi Amarillo caramel and a Curry Bacon Crumble (YES! Bacon icecream!) - Chalkboard

Spring Pea Bacon and Pecorino Salad - The Purple Pig (one of my favourites)

Pork Belly Frisee Salad with Soft Boiled Quail Egg - Balsan (this WAS my favourite)

Bacon snickers Bar and Bacon Cappuccino - Atwood Cafe. (By all accounts this was really good, but they'd run out by the time we got there :()

At the bar there was:

Bloody Mary - with bacon in it...

And... Bacon Vodka Milkshake...

There was a vendor selling area downstairs. I never realised that Bacon could be put into so many things...
Bacon flavoured popcorn, chocolate covered bacon, bacon cupcakes.... to name just a few. There was also an awesome array of bacon-inspired board games, jewelry (?!) and action figures.

There were a few die-hard bacon fans sporting some awesome t-shirts too:

For the first few dishes I said "This is genius, and a bargain.....". Tell you what, after all of that I was feeling pretty yuk. When you walked into the room there was literally a wall of bacon fat air that hit you... So lack of air was a bit of a downfall. It would be awesome if it was outside next year in a street vendor style. Also, I didn't even get to try everything as lots of the chefs had run out of their dish pretty quickly. But, for the first year, it was an awesome experience. Sign me up for next year!

Spring Skiing at Park City, Utah

2010-04-17T14:38:00.001-05:00

We managed to get away for a final weekend of skiing before the season is over for the year. Yay!

We took off Friday and Monday and headed to Park City. Amazingly easy to get to. A three hour direct flight from Chicago to Salt Lake City and then a 40min drive up to the base of the ski hill. Added bonus was that Ryan and his now fiancee Helen were instructing at next door Deer Valley. Ryan, George and I shared a house together in New Zealand one season when we were all ski instructing. So it was great to catch up with them.

We were staying at Park City Mountain Resort in a little condo right at the base of the ski lifts. Tim was brave enough to let me help him learn to ski too so that was really awesome. After a few runs on bunny hill we were up and about exploring the mountain. There are some really good progressive greens meaning that even beginners are able to explore the mountain and not be confined to one or two runs. By the end of the three days Tim was pretty much parallel turning, yay!

The snow was surprisingly good for end of March. I was expecting slushy, patchy spring snow, but what I got was fresh powder and some beautifully groomed solid snow. It was pretty quiet there too, no lift queues and there were many times when I went of skiing by myself, leaving Tim with a pint, where I was the only person on the run. Georgeanna and Tycoon were my favourite runs so far.

The facilities are great, lots of on mountain places to stop and eat or get a drink, good rental equipment for Tim. What I love about skiing in North America is its all about the "Customer Experience". People scrambling over you to help.

We also spent a day at next door resort Deer Valley. Which is where Ryan and Helen work. Now that place is like a parallel skiing universe. I read a really entertaining article about it, which pretty much sums it up. http://www.deervalley.com/about/ski-magazine-deer-valley-goes-extreme.html

It's all about the Customer here. There are gourmet restaurants all over the slopes. Amazing dreamlike mountain lodges and gold taps in the bathrooms. Normally you walk into the public toilets at a ski resorts, and people are sweaty from skiing, kids have runny noses and it smells a bit funny. At Deer Valley there was one woman in there with GOLD Gucci ski pants and another doing her lipgloss. Nuff said.

The town of Park City was also really lovely. An old mining town, there was a great vibe and some good grub. There's a handy free shuttle bus that goes between all the ski resorts and the town. We had a really lovely time and I would definitely go there again.... next season...

I am so happy when I'm on top of a mountain. It was great to get away for the weekend, really felt like my blood doesn't go round properly unless I'm on snow.

Norah Jones Concert

2010-04-17T13:42:00.001-05:00

I got to see Norah Jones in concert at the iconic Chicago Theatre last month.

I wasn't sure what to expect, and was worried that as her music is quite downbeat it would be hard to sit and watch it for a couple of hours, but I really enjoyed it. Tim fell asleep, granted, but we had just had a lovely dinner at Cibo Matto and a few glasses of wine.

It was amazing to see someone who's music I have listened to and played for such a long time. From what I've read she has had quite a transformation in her performing style. Supposedly when she first started performing years ago she just hid behind the piano and didn't say much. Now, however she was up and about the stage, playing a guitar and singing. She seemed to have a real sense of humour and lots of banter with the audience. She also had some very nice shoes...and a truly gorgeous voice.

The Chicago Theatre is amazing inside. Giant chandeliers, red velvet everywhere. I felt as if I had gone back to another era and should have an evening gown on and be dripping in diamonds, perhaps with one of those long cigarette holders. The seating is very high and steep so you get a great view from everywhere, a great intimate feel for a concert venue.

St Patrick's Day in Chicago

2010-04-17T13:09:00.000-05:00

I should say St Patrick's Day weekend.... I'm not sure many people in Chicago actually know that St Patrick's Day is on the 17th March every year and is on a Wednesday not the Saturday that all the celebrations are on.

Anyways.... The city goes crazy. Everyone is Irish. Or Chi-rish as they like to call themselves. Now obviously I guess having lived in Belfast for 3 years I have a different view of St Paddy's day celebrations than your average American, but still.... you are not Irish if a distant five times removed relative knew someone who was Irish. So there.

I ventured out on an appropriately soggy Saturday to see what all the fuss was about, and specifically to see the river dyed green. Yes, you heard right, they fill the river with green dye.. apparently it was the mayor's idea.

Literally everyone in Chicago is wearing leprechaun green and it's next to impossible to get into a pub. Everyone also seemed hammered and it was only 11am. They also have a parade in Grant Park, which I only caught the tail end of.

Either way it's quite the spectacle and probably worth seeing if you are in the area on St Paddy's Day. http://www.chicagostpatsparade.com/

New City - New Client

2010-03-07T20:50:00.000-06:00

I have finally experienced what it's really like to be a consultant.... travel!

For the first 6 weeks of my current client H&R Block I was travelling between their head quarters in Kansas City, Missouri and one of our ThoughtWorks offices, Atlanta. You really feel the grind, and your short weekends at home become very precious.

The view from the TW Atlanta office

It's the smallest team that I've been a part of, just 4 of us. 1 client principal/project manager and 3 devs. Although quite daunting at first to be in such a small team, it also allowed me to shine, and to play a few different roles. Developer / Business Analyst / Quality Assurance depending on the hour.

The Hilton President in KC, viewed from the HR Block HQ

The whole project was a short 6 weeks, at times frustrating we definitely delivered what we and they wanted.

I have now transitioned onto another team with the same client. This time we're based in Chicago. Yay! It's great to actually spend some time in Chicago and I'm more than happy to be able to spend more time with Tim. Hoping to be able to make some proper friends here too.

A gorgeous evening in Chicago, from our space in the TW Chicago office

The team is larger and fully staffed with all roles, and much more rigorous agile. I'm getting the chance to work with some awesome people. Always takes a bit of time for me to find my place in a new team, but hopefully I'm getting there. Should be an exciting project!

The Pixar Touch - The Making of a Company by David A. Price

2010-02-21T20:41:00.001-06:00

Just finished reading this.... Awesome.

The book chronicles the rise of Pixar from the wild dream of using computers to animate by a handful of brilliant people to the multi-billion Mega corporation that is now the Disney / Pixar franchise that we know and love.

For us geeks it provides tantilising details about the technical animation of the first few movies, you also get many lessons on how to create a culture in a company to nurture truely talented people who love what they do.

Mostly though when I watched back the movies I grew up with as a kid, like Toy Story, while reading the book, I came at them with a fresh pair of eyes. Pixar never did anything less than their best. Each movie pushed the boundaries past what the industry thought was even possible.

An inspirational story.

So where have I dissapeared to?

2010-02-02T18:52:00.000-06:00

As normal it would seem for this time of year my blogging has been pretty quiet for the last couple of months. So, as i'm sat here at a hotel bar in Atlanta with a beer waiting for my pizza (diet clearly out the window) I thought I should just mention that yes, I am still alive.

Since I last blogged I have left Canada, gone back to England for Christmas and New Year, moved to Chicago, moved in with Tim, started a new project and been to Kansas City and am currently in Atlanta with it. Phew, no wonder I haven't blogged.

I was thinking of retrospectivly writing about what I've been up to but, you know what, it's putting me off writing anything at all! So, new year (yes I know it's already february) new start, we start today.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Punk Rock Bingo - The BEST night out in Calgary.

2010-01-11T10:59:00.000-06:00

Tuesday nights at the Ship & Anchor, 17th Ave, Calgary from 8pm

Punk Rock Bingo - the best night out in Calgary for sure and something that I feel the rest of the world should start adopting. Perhaps I will bring the sensation to Chicago....

What is Punk Rock Bingo I hear you say?

Well, it used to take place on a Tuesday night at Broken City run by a guy called Steve.... Steve then left and took Punk Rock Bingo with him the the Ship & Anchor on 17th Ave. Punk Rock Bingo (or PRB) still continues at Broken City but it isn't as good without Steve. (sorry new guy but it's true)

It's kind of like normal bingo but instead of Grannies and the retired, it's mostly a young, "alternative" crowd. Instead of silence and ultimate concentration, it's yelling, boisterous and the odd swear word. Instead of winning $10 at the bingo hall, there is a random selection of prizes ranging from ice skates, to board games, to tattoo sessions, to wrestling masks, that Steve runs around town blagging from local stores and the odd flea market. Instead of tea, it's beer and wings. What's not to love?

Started by JJ, there's a crowd of us that would go regularly. A nice early week break in the evening. I and some of my fellow ladies, seem to get possessed and turn from quiet, well behaved young ladies, into screaming, yelling hooligans (in a good way), for a couple of hours. It's brilliant.

You have 3 rounds per Bingo, ending in Blackout Bingo (getting the whole card), there is also the Kite Round, and the X round, all with associated hand signals that will earn you a beer if you are the first to do it. The bingo is also interspersed with random rounds of Rock, Paper, Scissors, head banging competitions, and the odd trivia round. This is where I finally won a prize. The question was "Where were the last winter Olympics held?", pretty sure that I knocked a table over and maybe elbowed someone in the face in my haste to get to the stage with my answer. My reward? A guy in the crowd had donated a AssOlympic calendar that he had created for charity, consisting of him doing various Olympic sports, ass naked. WIN.

Brilliant night out and well worth going to. Below are some other blog entries from my fellow PRB goers.

Andree Lau's Blog - http://ugonnaeatthat.com/2009/04/17/calgary-wing-night-punk-rock-bingo/

John Johnston's Blog - http://ateabutnoe.com/?p=227

Suzi Edward's Blog - http://binkysilhouette.blogspot.com/2009/05/punk-rock-bingo.html

World Cup Downhill, Lake Louise, 28th November 2009

2010-01-05T09:48:00.000-06:00

Last year I went to one of the World Cup downhill skiing runs and had a brilliant time. So I managed to persuade Tim to come with me for a weekend in the mountains this year. It was the first time we'd attempted to go skiing together, so I was quite nervous and excited!

It was US Thanksgiving weekend so I had the luxury of having Tim in Calgary for 5 whole days. It was a particularly wet snowy evening when we set off, seemed that Calgary was caught unawares so the roads hadn't been treated and were particularly treacherous. It took us a massive 2 hours to get to COP, a trip that normally takes 20 mins, at which point I drove up the on ramp to get onto the Trans Canada highway which goes to Banff, as I drove up the sheet of ice that was supposed to be a road, everyone started sliding backwards including me, most scared ever been, thankfully having a Canadian sitting next to me who knows what to do helped, and as everyone else was stuck too, they all got out and helped push each one of us up the road. Some crazy stupid drivers out there.

Thankfully the snow hadn't fallen past the outskirts of Calgary and the road to Banff was completely dry. We made it to our hotel and I was defiantly thinking that I had deserved a bottle of wine.

We made reservations at The Bison, on Bear St in Banff. We had had brunch there when we met up with Tim's sister in the summer and were really impressed and also had heard rave reviews from some of our friends, so were looking forward to having dinner there.
The atmosphere was nice and there are some interesting things on the menu, we had an unusual bottle of wine called Boom Boom! (admittedly we picked it purely because of the name) accompanied by a meat and cheese platter full of bison meat, duck, venison and wild boar. Yum. Highly recommend it to anyone wanting a nice meal in Banff, slightly elevated tourist prices but worth it I reckon.

The next day we headed to Lake Louise, we got Tim all geared up for his first ski in 15 years or something. I always love the atmosphere at the races. It's free to go and watch so if you don't want to ski and just watch the racing in the finish area that's perfectly acceptable. They have free hot cider and cookies and a marshmallow roasting fire pits. They also give out wee cow bells, meaning that all the racers get a rapturous reception as they cross the finish line. A great positive energy, and it's fun spotting all the "famous" racers ;-)

We then went for a bit of a ski, and credit to Tim he was pretty receptive to his ski instructing girlfriend trying to help him. heehee.

Opening Day at Sunshine Village!

2009-11-12T20:35:00.000-06:00

This Wednesday was a public holiday in Canada for Remembrance Day, so we had the day off work. The very clever marketing people at Sunshine Village (a ski hill about an hour and a half from Calgary) decided that they should open for the season on this very day....

I made a call out to my ThoughtWorking friends to see who would take up this mid week escape to the mountains, and the four of us embarked on our first ski trip of the year.

Since the first blast of snow in September we've had pretty much no snow in Calgary, yet in the Rockies, an hour up the road it has been a very different story. Tonnes of the stuff. More than I have ever seen for so early in the season. So we were all VERY excited. I've never been a normal visitor on opening day of a ski hill, wasn't sure what to expect but we figured that we weren't going to be the only ones who thought that heading up there yesterday was a good idea. One good run was all going to make it worthwhile we decided.

With our expectations set (thank goodness), we left Calgary at 7.30am ish. As we got further into the mountains it started to snow lightly, and by the time we were 5kms from the turn off to Sunshine they were big fat flakes. And then we hit our first of many line ups of the day. Sunshine has had a very respectable 40 cms in the last 3 days alone. They had to re-sand the road so we all queued up to get up the access road, then crawled on up the access road. One good run and it'll all be worthwhile....

Good job that I had the company I did in the car. Never a dull (or quiet) moment with that lot. As we were nudging up the road a whole herd of mountain goats decided that they wanted to hang out on the road, causing at least some entertainment for us all. About half way along the road, we noticed that people were starting to come back down in the opposite direction, and grinning a lot. Odd. After another 20 mins we reached some parking attendants who told to go back down and park on the road, all the car parks were already full. Honestly have never seen it as busy.

By the time we had kitted up and walked all the way up to road, driven by our need for that one good run, it was 11am. All was forgotten as we headed up the gondola and got some runs in. Such good conditions for so early, gorgeous powder, and a great atmosphere with everyone just ecstatic about being back on the snow.

Our two last runs mad the whole day. The most fun I have had skiing in a long time. Not a care in the world. Now who do I h ave to talk to to get every Wednesday off to go skiing?!