220420041745 Vancouver, Canada

I’m finally getting the chance to write about the weekend and it’s nearly Friday again!

I went up to Whistler with Michelle on Saturday morning (slept in yet AGAIN and nearly missed our bus up there, especially after the essential stop at the 7 Eleven for coffee and brownies). When we got up there we called up Josh who is one of the guys we went to Lynn Valley with who had booked himself a room in a lodge for the weekend. He had mentioned that he had a spare double bed in his room and we thought it a shame to waste it. So we met up with him and went up to the village to have a look around. The Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival (TWSSF … ?) had just started and they had an outdoor stage, a pro mountain bike rider doing tricks, demos and competitions, the Playstation 2 truck that you could go in and try out their games in, and a lot of sponsors’ tents giving out free samples (Davidoff Cool Water, Yoplait yoghurt, Milk to Go (or something like that), soup and crackers, Mars bars, trail mix bars etc … ). We scored big time on the free stuff. There was a breakdancing team sponsored by milk called the Cold Crew who were giving out flavoured milk and t-shirts etc. I think one of the comments of the weekend had to be the breakdancers giving props to milk: “Don’t take your bodies for granted. Give it up for milk!” I managed to scam a t-shirt off this kid who had two girl cut shirts that he was trying to swap for a long-sleeved guy’s shirt. He didn’t have any luck so I just asked if he’d give me the spare one. So he did. It wouldn’t fit me though and it was see through and white so I gave it to Michelle.

We spent most of the afternoon wandering around the village (in the rain, yuck) and looking in the shops etc. Unfortunately we missed the Mascot Challenge (as we didn't see it, I don't actually know what it involved). The Beluga had come up from Vancouver Aquarium and there was also Big Air Bear and a woman dressed as a beaver dressed as a mountie (I took a photo, naturally). As it was Big Air Bear's birthday (??), they had a massive birthday cake from one of the markets and were giving out pieces, so score again for the Free Stuff Scammers (I will be the president of the club soon). I also got an RCMP badge from the Mountie beaver. Woohoo.

We went to the pub and had the biggest plate of nachos I’d ever seen (and believe me, I’ve seen some fuck off sized plates of nachos, especially in this country). Three of us couldn’t finish it which shocked me just a little. We ran into another guy we knew from the hostel just before the Big Air snowboard competition started. The actual comp was wicked, although the actual jumps were a bit hard to see with huge spotlights shining in our eyes. The live music was all rap and hip-hop and breakdancing, which was odd for a snowboarding event. Oh, except Mat the Alien who was a very good DJ by my judgement. The MC of the comp did actually say "What up Whis?" which we found pretty entertaining. There were some completely weak poi-twirlers on the stage at one point, but this was made up for slightly by some fire twirlers at the end (I was seriously thinking about taking one of them down so I could play).

We went to a club afterwards where we were subjected to some of the best outfits that The Town that Fashion Forgot had to offer (and that's not even including mullets and bad snow suits). The winner at the end of the night had to be the teal boob tube jumpsuit that zipped all the way down the front. There are no words that can do it justice but it was a stunner. The asian girl in the men's hawaiian shirt tied up just under her breasts also deserves a mention. I also scored 3 bucks from some people we were playing pool with. I won't go into details ...

Other unlikely but true happenings in Whistler:

- not being able to watch the snowboard half pipe unless we skiied or snowboarded down there

- seeing two geese with scarves and nappies on

- finding Duncan's chocolate in the candy store (only the ginger kind, and I didn't buy it for you Mick, sorry)

- Josh deciding that since he couldn't handle two Frisk mints (the really potent kind that I usually buy) at once, he'd try 10 instead. We took lots of pictures of him doubled up unable to breathe.

There were so many more funny things that happened but for some reason I can't remember what they are. I just know that I haven't laughed that much in forever. Maybe it was the lack of oxygen at altitude.

When we got back to Vancouver (after scamming more yoghurt and assorted other things), we went out for Andy's leaving thingummy at the Royal. No poi this time but I somehow managed to win 7 of 8 pool games that night. Score. Just trying to cover up how sad and jealous I was that Andy was going back to Scotland ...

And just wrapping up, I went to see Kill Bill Vol. 2 last night and it gets a resounding two thumbs up. And since I'd only seen the first one last week, it was all fresh and good in my mind.

Also - I got an upgrade on my computer so I'll be on Messenger all day if anyone wants a random chat. It'll take my mind off the horrible spreadsheets I have to deal with.