Quick Update

Well hi everyone - I hope all is well. I am about five minutes off finishing work and returning to the ranks of the unemployed so thought I would write a quick note on someone elses time to let you all know what I have been up to.

I have had a busy week finishing up at work and training my replacement as well as doing battle with my ever-increasing pile of belongings to try and fit them all back in my suitcase. I leave early tomorrow morning to go in to the Rockies for a week and then have two days to get my life under control before I leave - home is starting to feel very close and it is all a bit confusing!

I ended up spending Tuesday night frantically writing a paper on youth offending for one of the jobs I have applied for - not the most exciting way to spend an evening but if it gets me a job I am happy to do that! On Wednesday I went around to Tracey's for some pink drinks and a catch up and we had a great old time - I can't believe there will only be one more night of pink drinks!!! (well ok... one more night of pink drinks with Tracey for a year or so at least). Thursday I hung out with my room-mate and the crazy cat (including trying on his leash - yep... he has a leash... and he is now to fat for it!). Today I am off to meet the lovely Karen and finish sorting my belongings out and then off for some sight-seeing. I am not sure how long it will be until I write again so until then... behave yourselves you lot and those of you in NZ - get ready... am on my way!

Talk soon,
Clare

Winter Olympics

Hi everyone! Hope you are all well. I am now officially in countdown mode with less than two weeks now until I leave Canada and less than three weeks until I am home! Feels a little weird but looking forward to it as well.

Last week was not a particularly fun one - I had three job interviews and learned that working all day and having interviews finishing at 10pm my time is not necessarily the way to bring out the best job interview skills I have!!! Still, fingers crossed that I will get some positive news this week - I will definitely let you all know.

On Saturday I met up with Karen and James to go on an overnight tour to Whistler. Whistler is one of the top five ski resorts in the world and has a very cute village to wander around. Unfortunately my bad weather jinx continued and we were not really able to see the mountain but I did buy a postcard and it looks great! We had a lot of fun anyway - managed to find a bar to watch the All Blacks thrash France (and my first game of rugby for almost a year... crikey!) and then we basically went on a bit of a bar crawl around Whistler as there really wasn't anything else to do in the weather!

It was very bizarre to be somewhere where bear warnings (and bear poop) are absolutely everywhere and apparently bears wander in to people's backyards regularly etc. Our friend Scott reckons he saw one playing golf but I am not confident about the truth in that statement! I did see on on the roadside during our travels but fortunately managed to avoid them on our walks around the village - meeting a bear in the dark did not really appeal to me a great deal!

Sunday morning we headed in to the village again and wandered around the cute little shops, had a hot dog and ice-cream and just generally acted silly for a few hours before we headed back to Vancouver via Brandywine Falls, Britannia Beach and a very scenic "Sea to Sky Highway" (which we got to enjoy for a few extra hours due to an accident!). We also found time to participate in some olympic sport in honour of Vancouver and Whistler hosting the 2010 winter olympics...

The starting gates:

Getting some speed up (look how streamlined we are):

When we realised we didn't know how to work the brakes:

Now all we need to do is get the bobsled to actually move and Karen and I may become quite good I should think.

Have a great week all!
Clare