St Andrews and the Lau/Sallis Wedding

Last week I used the event of Andree and Jason's wedding in New Brunswick as a damn good excuse for a week off and a chance to visit the east coast of Canada. Tim and I visited New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and then to Chicago for the weekend where we caught up with my friend from Uni, Danielle, who was travelling round the states for the summer.

I was super excited to be on the coast again and couldn't wait to see how different the opposite side of Canada is. I'll break up our trip over a few posts.

Tim and I flew to Toronto to meet each other and then caught a flight out to Moncton, NB. We drove the 3 hours or so in the dark down to St Andrews ready for the wedding the next day. Was weird driving all the way without being able to see much of the landscape around us, especially seeing as we know that the sea was just there... It was a beautiful night, a full moon and clear skies. Was great being able to see all those stars again.

The wedding venue that they chose was the Rossmount Inn in St Andrews-by-the-sea. A beauftiful house turned hotel set up on a hillside looking out over the bay. Most of the guests from the wedding were staying at the Rossmount too. The food there on a normal day is supposed to be sublime, although we didn't get a chance to sample it this time. Next time!

St Andrews in a little town on the Bay of Fundy. It's pretty touristy, thankfully we were there towards the end of the season so it wasn't too busy. The town is made up of wodden houses of all different colours and shapes. Theres a nice little pier with fishing boats tied up to it too.

Saturday brought Andree and Jason's wedding. It was honestly the most beautiful wedding I have been too. The day was relaxed and laid back and seriously seriously enjoyable. We were blessed with a beautiful cloudless blue sky, and it was lovely warm day. Andree and Jason had obviously planned the day so well that it seemed effortless. The ceremony was out on the pool deck of the hotel, a record 8 mins of some beautiful vows and my two friends were declared husband and wife. Swiftly followed was champagne and lots of lovely canapes out on the pool deck, Oysters, Goats cheese tarts, salmon, raspberry refreshers and more...

The programming language themed table plan was also a lovely touch. Definitly an 'in' joke. Andree had picked out some lovely options for the dinner, Tim had a pretty damn tasty Lamb dish and I went for the yummy fish. On our tables Andree had left us some really thoughtful party favours. Some how she had managed to find a picture of each of us and Andree or Jason, and put them into photo frames. Such a lovely idea. I was honoured to be part of their day, and they both looked radiant and so meant for each other. Yay.

We spent the rest of the weekend in St Andrews too. The post wedding brunch the next day was pretty fun, more food than any of us could ever manage (even Andree's Dad!), and great wrap up from the day before. Tim and I then took a boat trip to go whale watching. It was brilliant to get out on the ocean again, miss being on a boat. (ironically my brother was sailing with my Dad and stepmum at the time too). We went with Quoddy Link Marine, it was refreshing to see that they were really concerned with letting the whales be whales, they didn't want to crowd the whales like all the other boats were so we went off in search of some more whales. And that we did, we saw quite a few of the massive Finback whales, and also a whole load of seals sat on a rock that gets covered by the massive tides in the Bay of Fundy.

That night saw us having a chilled out evening with those left around from the wedding party.

Lake O'Hara Hike 29th Aug '09

Yesterday the ThoughtWorks hike club set off for another adventure.... this time to Lake O'Hara, in British Columbia, Canada.

This was the most amazing hike I have been on so far. To steal JJ's phrase, "Maximum gain for minimum effort". This was certainly true. In a good way.

JJ and Sarah picked me up at 7am in the Kia Ronda partymobile. To my absolute delight I was greeted with a warm bacon sandwhich and a banana! Legend JJ. Went very well with my tea. Whoop.
The base of Lake O'Hara is just under 3 hours from Calgary, about 25 mins past Lake O'Hara. There we met fellow hikers Kim, Kunal and Mike. We all loaded up into a classic yellow school bus that was going to take us up to the lake. Lake O'Hara is in Yoho national park, and access is restricted to 40 or so people a day to preserve the park (see the national park site for more details). There is a private lodge up there and a campsite. Would be a lovely place for a relaxed long weekend.The bus takes you up the 15km to the Lake and drops you off in the area where the lodge and campsite are. Imediatly you are such a beautiful place. Lake O'Hara is a beautiful aqua marine colour and completly clear. We quite enjoyed throwing stones in and watching them go right to the bottom. The six of us trooped off along the edge of the lake and then took a right fork off the lake edge trail through a lovely forest up to Mary Lake. This lake was much greener in colour. The whole valley we were hiking we were surrounded by grey mountain sides and a view behind us out over the rest of Yoho National Park. Due to the restriction on the people allowed up the mountain we were blessed to hardly meet anyone on the trail. Felt very exclusive!

We then started climbing 200m or so up the side of the cliff onto to Opabin plateau. Amazing view on route of Mary Lake, Lake O'hara and the national park. This part was mainly scrambling up a rocky path. Wouldn't suggest going down that route, certainly not if you are scared of heights. Up is much better.
Once up onto the plateau you are greeted with a surreal world. Feels almost crater like, lush green and big boulders. There are a series of smaller lakes that lead up to Opabin lake at the top and the glacier that feeds them all.We were blessed with the most blue skies and lovely sunshine. Not too hot either. Meant that the lakes were super clear and reflecting the mountains in them. Absolutely beautiful. Feel almost spoilt to see that many lovely scenes in the one day!
To see more of the photos from the hike head to my Facebook page here.

While stopping for snacks in Lake Louise on the way home, I mentioned that I had actually been to Lake Louise or Moraine lake near by, so JJ and Sarah declared we were detouring to Lake Moraine and were going to take me there while we were so close. Moraine Lake is also just beautiful and an easy place to visit if you are in Banff. It's a bit of a tourist trap, but as were there in the evening most of the crowds had dispersed. The most striking thing about Moraine Lake is the colour. The photos don't do it justice. It looks as if it has been dyed.
The journey home of course contained the obligitory Anne and JJ roadshow. We sing out hearts out to some sort of cheesy song, accompanied by some awesome dance moves, amusing the hell out of whoever else is in the car. Sarah's tweet sums it up pretty well I feel

rerevisitedHighlight of the amazing hike to Lake O'Hara: couple of Brits singing their little Shania Twain hearts out. Thx @ateabutnoe & @annejsimmons!

The most amazing day had. Next weekend it's off to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia...

This week I have mostly been reading....

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

Conclusion: Awesome - Read it!

Weddings, Banff and a night out at a "microclub"

Last weekend I had the pleasure of Tim in Calgary for a whole 5 days. Yay!

On Friday we went to I think my favourite sushi place in Calgary, Zen 8 - more pricey that the other sushi places but way nicer in my opinion. Had a nice bottle of sake too. nom nom.

Saturday saw us going to Milt and Judy's wedding. Tim used to go to university with Milt and so it was a pretty good reunion with a lot of his university friends. They got married in a church in Kensington, they are both Chinese and Milt's family is pretty large so they got an impressive turnout.

All glamed up Tim, I, Abe and Carol headed off for a bite to eat and stopped by Mountain Equipment Co-Op for them to get a backpack to put their son Bryce in. We certainly looked out of place in a camping shop dolled up in our wedding gear!
We were blessed with a beautiful sunny day, not to hot but warm enough. The evening 'do was in the stampede grounds. Huge reception of 300-400 people, beautiful set up and for that many people must of been run with military precision.

The next day we headed out to Banff for the day. Tim's sister Kim and her husband were randomly in Calgary picking up a friend from the UK from the airport. They live down in Nelson which is in inner British Columbia, in the Rockies. Tim and Kim haven't seen each other for a couple of years so it was pretty good luck that they both were passing through Calgary on the same weekend. We drove up to Banff town and met them at the Bison Restaurant & Lounge for brunch. The food there is divine..... definitely must go back. Banff is quite different in the summer, nice but almost like a different place. They were right when people told me it was busier in the summer than in the winter though. Feels weird going to the mountains when they're not covered in snow! Wrong somehow.
It was great to meet some more of Tim's family. Have to confess I was pretty nervous. Turns out there was no need to be though. Felt like we all got on immediately, Kim and Wes are lovely people, seem very kind and very in love. Look forward to getting to spend some more time with them at some stage.
After hanging out in Banff for a few hours we headed back to Calgary and went to Farm for dinner. I love that place. We consumed a bottle of champagne in celebration of Tim selling his condo here and ate a large pile of cheeses and local meats. Good weekend on the food front!

This week I have working away as usual. Our dev team on the project I'm working on has shrunk recently and I was quite worried about the dynamics. But actually it's turned out to be working quite well. Which is nice. I am having a super lazy weekend this weekend, which is awesome. Long lie in's, PJ's.... Got all my hair chopped off yesterday, now its just above my shoulders. Then JJ, Sarah, Amit and Michelle and I all headed out for a few drinks last night. We went to Meet, and then the Milk Tiger Lounge. Nice place, lots of petites Bouches, (small food on a stick to you and me). Again, YUM. Then we ventured to Habitat which is a wee Micro Club. It was pretty small.... Although we all showed our age and gave up a 1.20am. Nice night though.

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....