Twin Peaks

Diane, I've reached the small town of Banff in the Canadian state of Alberta. I've never seen so many trees in all my life...
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-20 degrees in Calgary when we landed. Bring it on!! Real snot freezing weather - which curiously doesn't stop your nose from running...?

Anyway, I've arrived, here at the Banff Y Mountain Lodge. It's a pretty basic place, but it's cool. Everyone's really friendly, and it's pretty cheap. Actually, it needs to be cheap, because my lift pass just cost me $1100 (and I still have to pay bus tickets). Bummer! Oh, apparently, that makes me an "ambassador", so I've got to go and learn about stuff to do with the national park too. I did get the curious joy of buying my ticket from a girl in a plastic sack. I couldn't resist the temptation to make her calculator say "shoeless" when you look at it upside down. Oh, and smile bounced my credit card - grr!

Anyway, the ski legs seem to be coming back. It looks like all that mental, physical and digital preparation really helped. The Might Idol may well be much of the reason for my good fortune (that and of course the iPod). I'm not leaning down the hill nearly enough, but then I never do. Bad habits - what a bummer. Still, if I keep this up, I'll kick some serious arse when I get out to St. Anton in April.

For those of a photographic nature, I'll be doing the photo thing just as soon as I can stay awake long enough to find a place that has wireless internet (as opposed to the pay-as-you-go machine here at the Y). I'll get some piccies suitably doctored and get 'em up.

Speaking of tired - tut tut, Network Appliance. Your delivery was a right old mess. However, your engineer did a sterling job of getting your (very fine) product in to place. I just hope it all works when my cow-orkers get into the office on Monday. Anyway, we got out at about 1.00am or something stupid. Of course, no taxis to be found in the City, although a suprising number of extremely drunk blokes. I goit home, cleared up, and packed. I probably got 30 minutes sleep. Oh, many many apologies to my neighbours (particularly upstairs) for me running the washer at 3am. Sorry about that.

Anyway, gotta go - just 30 seconds left on the meter...