Hiking, Stampede, Harry Potter and the Calgary Folk Fest

Stanley Glacier Hike - 11th July 2009

The ThoughtWorks Hike Club headed out on another expedition. This time thankfully in much hotter and sunnier weather than the previous hike to Nihahi Ridge. A pretty decent sized group of us (8 in total) headed out to the Stanley Glacier, which is just in British Columbia, past Banff and towards the Radium Hot Springs.
For a reasonably moderate effort we were awarded with spectacular scenery. We parked the car down on the road and walked up the valley towards the toe(???) of the actual ice flow. The first part of the hike was through a forest that had suffered from a big forest fire a while back, you could still see signs of it today. We crossed the creek and carried on marching up the valley into the more rocky residue of the glacier itself.We didn't make it right up into the ice flow, but we got pretty far up. There were some big waterfalls, many cheeky chipmunks and even a Pika, which is the kind of animal that Pikachu is. Weird looking thing, looks like a cross between a chinchilla and a guinea pig. If thats possible!

It was a really nice day out. Always good to get out into the fresh air and enjoy the beautiful mountains that we are so lucky to have just on our doorstep.

The Calgary Stampede - 12th July 2009

Stampede is a crazy time in Calgary. It seems that for the majority of people living in and around Calgary this is what they look forward for the whole year. Stampede is mostly about the Rodeo competition, but there's also Agricultural displays, dog shows, Chuck wagon racing and a big funfair, all in the heart of downtown Calgary.
Not only do people go to this week long event but all over the city people go Stampede mad. Most workplaces have a mandate of Cowboy attire for the week. Jeans, checked shirts and large belt buckles are mandatory if you don't want to look a muppet. Loads of buildings cover the front of their carefully architectured buildings in hay bales and wooden fences in the Rodeo spirit. There are free breakfasts every day around the city and tonnes of other goings on. To be honest I found the whole thing rather surreal.The food is also pretty bizarre at the Stampede grounds. Deep fried is the order of the day, and deep fried Oreos are considered a Stampede delicacy.

I was pretty excited though at attending my first rodeo competition. The Rodeo heats go on all week and I had managed to get tickets for the final day. They run a very slick operation, having constant entertainment and riders for nearly 3 or 4 hours. There was the steer wrestling, where the rider jumps of his horse and brings the steer to the ground. There was the event where the rider has to lasso the steer, jump of his horse and then tie up the steers feet. Bareback horse Rodeo, Saddle horse Rodeo, bull Rodeo where the riders had to stay on for at least 8 seconds, and were given points based on their style and the craziness of the animal they were riding, and then the Barrel Racing, which I really liked. This was the only women's events and boy could these ladies ride. They had to get round the three barrels and back over the finish line in the shortest amount of time. These cowboys and cowgirls are seriously hardcore. The injuries that they must of obtained over the years must be pretty awful. There's not much that would over get me on one of those bulls let me tell you.Really good day out though and definitely something worth seeing one day of you ever get the chance.


Harry Potter and the Calgary Folk Fest - 26th July 2009
Tim came up to Calgary to visit for the weekend. Wicked as always... We had a lovely weekend of weather so got up to lots of nice things. He arrived nice and early on the Friday, which gave us time to finally go and see the new Harry Potter movie. I quite liked it actually, kind of different to the previous movies, and a little bit too much teenage lovin for my liking but other than that definite thumbs up. We then went to the River Cafe which is a lovely restaurant on Princes Island, where the food is all organic and locally grown and raised and you can eat alfresco in the park. I love the place! The added bonus was that the Calgary Folk fest was going on, in the park so we also had the main stage music to entertain us while we dined.
The Folk Fest - Yes there was very hippy moments but in general the music covered loads of Genres from Jazz to Hip Hop, from Big Band to Gospel and everything in between. It was fun atmosphere and it was a seriously hot and sunny day. There were a bunch of little stages with various people playing and then in the evening there was the Main Stage as well. The main stage has a brilliant concept called the 'Tarp'. First thing in the morning the more dedicated of the festival goers charge to the Main Stage and lay down tarps. Everyone 'respects the tarps' doesn't steal your spot, you can leave your things there all day and they'll still be there when you come back in the evening. Brilliantly one of my work colleagues was great enough to do this and let us all come and share her tarp in the evening. There was a great chilled out atmosphere, and it was just a nice way to spend the evening with a bunch of good friends.
I'm actually currently on a plane on the way to Chicago. Via Minneapolis as the flights were so expensive to go direct. There's some nasty turbulence so as I'm typing this my laptop is moving from side to side!

Good times!!

UK Trip Jul '09 - Part 2

Continued....
Tuesday
Feeling seriously worse for wear this morning. Tim jumped on a plane back down to Devon from Belfast. Wondering if I would even survive the day, I managed to sleep on Tim all the way back, felt much better once I'd woken up!

It was a lovely evening so we decided to head to Codden Hill, which is a short drive away. I managed to stay on the correct side of the road and negotiate the tiny lanes after 6 months driving on the wrong side of the road. This place is a nice spot to go for a short walk up onto the top of a hill that has awesome views over North Devon. You can see the sea, the beaches, Exmoor, Dartmoor and even Cornwall in the distance. Lovely way to spend the evening. On the way home we did our good deed for the day and helped a baby calf who was wondering about the lanes back into the field with, what we hope was, his mother.


Wednesday
Today was spent hanging out with my younger brother Mike. The three of us went into the local town, Barnstaple, (the metropolis that is...) we had a nice lunch in Pizza Express and headed to Orange Wednesday, yay for 2 for 1 cinema tickets to see the Transformers 2 movie. So cheesy I was laughing out loud at moments, not at good as the first one by any stretch of the imagination. Ask Tim and he'll say it was rubbish, although I secretly kinda liked it...

Thursday
We decided that Thursday would be beach day at the beginning of the week. So predictably again, it poured with rain. I had been looking forward to going surfing for months. So again in typical British style we went anyways. There was a massive 1 foot of surf so my brother and I valiantly attempted to surf. Caught a few good waves. Admittedly it was probably the most easy going surfing I've done in a while. you would get a few little waves and then a surfable one, then none for a few mins... just had to catch the one good one when it eventually came along!

Annoyingly Tim wasn't able to try out surfing for the first time. Mike and I have our own wetsuits and boards, so we planned to hire them for Tim at the beach. Only when we arrived the rental guy seemed to think it was too rainy and said he was closing early so he could watch Neighbours and Home and Away.... hmmmm.

We did admit defeat when it came to the BBQ and had this at home instead. With great delight I headed to Tescos and trawled the shelves for all the things that I had been missing since I've been away. Although apparently Tesco no longer produces the burgers I had been craving for so long, guess I must of been the only one buying them... Still awesome comfort food and made me very happy.

Friday
Tim and I took the day for ourselves. The sun was shining and I could finally show Tim Devon in its best light. The Sun! We went off to the beach. As you near the the beaches the roads get smaller and windier, lifts my heart every time as I drive around the cliffs between the beaches. There's a bunch of well placed lay bys that look over Saunton Sands, where you can get some lovely views. We then headed on to Croyde Bay and walked along the National Trust footpath around Baggy Point. Great being able to look out over the Atlantic sea, really feel at home on the coast, very refreshing.

Next came raiding the surf shops for some new clothes, and yummy Devon cream ice-cream in Croyde. It was so hot they melted way before we had time to eat them, it was definitely a challenge! We finished of with an awesome roast dinner at home, nice one Mum, and an awesome night down at the Bell with some of my childhood friends, Marc and Neil. Great way to end my time back in Devon.
Saturday
Saturday saw us heading up to London on the train (a very excited Tim!). As we were only in town for the afternoon we decided that the easiest answer, instead of giving everyone allotted times to come and see us, that we would just plonk ourselves in a bar and let people come to us!
Covent Garden was really sunny and busy and lovely as usual. London in general was chaos as a bunch of roads were closed for London Pride Parade.

It was awesome to see everyone that turned up. Really appreciated everyone making the effort to come and see us for our brief return. Much love to Lindsay, Chappers, Beccy, Val, my cousin Jasper and his girlfriend, Matt and Dawn, Pat Kua and Xuemin. Meant a lot to see everyone. It was lovely being in London again. Hopefully we will be back one day not to far away...

Tim and I then spent the rest of the evening together walking around London, along the river, enjoying the evening sun and being able to spend some time together.

Sunday
We headed back to Chicago on the Sunday. Thankfully the trip went swimmingly. Always good when that happens!

We arrived in Chicago in the afternoon and headed back to Tim's. It was nice to spend a night there before heading back to Calgary the next day. It was just brilliant being able to spend a whole week together with Tim, instead of the usual stolen weekend every couple of weeks. Can't wait till we can spend the week together every week.

I was very special for me having Tim with me this week. Lovely to show him my world and a great way to round off our first 6 months together.

Being back in the UK was great. I've really missed it. Although now I'm struggling to work out what city or even country I'm in. A lot crammed into a week but totally worth it.

UK Trip July '09 - Part 1

Tim and I charged over to the UK for a whirlwind week long holiday. In the space of 11 days I managed to touch down in Chicago, London, Devon, Belfast, back to Devon, back to London, back to Chicago and then finally today back to Calgary. Needless to see I think we are both slightly in need of a holiday to recover from our holiday, and jet lag is always fun, but a great time was had for sure.

I was thinking how to write this blog, I think that as we were so busy it would be easiest to write it day by day so here goes...

Friday
Fly to Chicago from Calgary and get on the plane to London. This part of the trip was surprisingly easy, they checked my bag straight through to London, the transfer between terminals at Chicago wasn't too painful and immigration let me through fine. Always a win!
Tim came and joined me at O'Hare terminal 5 once he'd finished work. This terminal by the way is absolutely rubbish. For one of the busiest airports in the world there aren't a huge amount in international flights leaving, so there's just a small food court and that's its. Although, in my excitement of seeing Tim for the first time in 2 weeks and the prospect of being able to spend a whole week with him I proceeded to spill my gin and tonic all over my (thankfully closed) laptop and the table and the seats.

We then hopped on the overnight flight to LHR. Have to say it's nice have a lovely boyfriend to cuddle and fall asleep on the whole way home. Don't suppose he appreciated it too much though!

Saturday
We are met by my Mum at the airport around lunchtime and then head off on the 3 1/2 hour drive back down to Devon. Have to say though that when I stepped off the plane I thought maybe we were in the wrong country. Hot and sunny and humid isn't the weather that I remember from when I left the UK 6 months ago...

Once we're back in Devon I show Tim around our family home, more often than not resembling a zoo. A chaos of family members, animals etc. There were Tim and I, my younger brother Mike, my mum and her partner Ken, Ken's heavily pregnant daughter-in-law Sarah and her daughter, the energizer bunny fueled 6 year old, that is Ebbie, our dog Molly, our crazy cats Jinx and Joshua, my goldfish, chickens.... I *think* that's about it at the moment. Takes a bit of getting used to being surrounded by that many people when being used to living on your own, but all part of the fun I guess.

Not doing too badly on the jet lag front in this direction, Tim and Mike and I head down to our local in the nearest village, the wonderful place that is The Bell. You can pretty much guarantee that you can walk in and know at least 1 person in there. It's great that I can wander in having been away for 6 months and everyone is just happy to see you. Of course I came across an old maths teachers, my mum's friend from school, my friends mum.... and we got invited to a pig roast next weekend. Good times. Also possibly the cheapest pub in the universe. Where else can you get a round of drinks for 8 people for 12 pounds. No where.



Sunday
Today we mobilized the small army that we are in the house and added my step brother Guy and his girlfriend Fi into the mix, and headed down to the beaches. In classic England style it was pouring with rain, but we trekked on like proper British people, walking along the beach, Croyde Bay, playing a small game of French Cricket (I have no idea), chucking a Frisbee around and then headed to The Thatch pub. Which as usual was the place where everyone was hiding from the rian so we sat outside underneath some hung up umbrellas and drank pints.

Next up was fish and chips in Braunton at Squires. Best fish and chips for miles and miles around I would say - although I may be biased - had been craving it pretty much since I left Devon in January. Although as there were so many of us we ate in the restaurant on proper plates instead of out of paper with a plastic fork, never quite the same but awesome none the less.



Monday
Tim and I left for Exeter Airport (where I spent an unusually large proportion of my childhood) and jumped on a plane for the short flight up to Belfast City. We lucky to again have gorgeous weather for our very short trip. I went to university in Belfast and was on a mission to catch up with my uni friends whilst I was back. We stayed at Malmaison hotel which was lovely. We met up with Danielle early afternoon at the City Hall and then went on the City Bus Tour, in an attempt to show Tim as much as possible in as little time as we had. I first went on this same bus tour when I first arrived in Belfast in 2004 and the difference in the city and the attitudes in the city went round were quite astonishing. It was a nice thing to see.


We then met up with my other uni friends, PG, his girlfriend Rozzie, Barton, George and Quail in the Apartment, one of my favourite cocktail bars looking over the City Hall. Had a nice dinner and followed by drinks in a few of the Belfast bars, ending in my former workplace Benedicts, for some live music, and too many shots for Anne to be able to handle. Say no more. Was really lovely to see this lot again. And I really enjoyed showing Tim around this part of my life.

To be continued....