sarah vs the world

Not a video game, not a comic, not a band, but an amazing adventure continues...

Friday, January 08, 2010

Closer to the gig, but still time for relaxing...

So a bit of time has past now and I figure it is time for a bit of an update.
Quite a few things have happened in not a lot of time.
Melanie and I managed to scrape a day off at the same time and drove ourselves to the hot springs region for a night. Harrison Hot Springs is about an hour southeast of Vancouver and a gorgeous mountainous region. But then again, what isn't gorgeous mountainous region here? We drove up when it was dark, but got straight into the spas as soon as we arrived. Braving the subzero air temperature was difficult, but at least the water was warm. We had breakfast the next morning and hit the spas again. Unfortunately to our surprise the resort was quite full of children. So it wasn't quite as relaxing as we would have hoped, but the salt scrub/massage was far enough away from the kids that we didn't seem to mind. The drive back was in the day time so we enjoyed the mountains and even managed to stop by a little cheese shop for some samples and some takeaways.
The view of the pools from our balcony

Mel and I in the Spa

One of the mountains of Harrison

One last housemate photo before we went back to Vancouver

Of course in true Sarah style I cooked turkey for American Thanksgiving. I am sure all of the Aussies were sadly missing it, but the folks who were here were quite appreciative. But the most hilarious part of the entire night was the fact that in order to host the event in the party room in my apartment building, I needed to actually get a license to serve alcohol. AND to make matters more silly, I actually had to go online and take the responsible service of alcohol exam. How ridiculous! So $75 later for just the exam and the license, I was able to allow my guests to bring bottles of wine to Thanksgiving dinner. But a lovely time was had by all. Turkey, stuffing, mash, green beans, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake and choc chip pecan pie. All delicious. Brock and Kelly came up from Seattle for the occasion.

Me and the Turkey

That pretty much takes us up to the big trip for Christmas. My parents and brothers and I all met in Mt Baker in Glacier, Washington in our cabin at the base of the mountains. It was fantastic. On Christmas Eve, Andrew Mackonis and I took the train down to Bellingham and all of ate a lovely Christmas dinner at Dirty Dan's. I ate the crab stuffed prawns. They were absolutely sensational.
Andrew and I on the train

We headed back to our cabin and the Christmas present opening began. I got a beautiful diamond bracelet from my parents and my siblings got me one of those fancy Flip Video cameras, which we put to good use on the trip. Christmas morning we awoke to all of our stockings filled with typical Santa presents including sticky tape, band-aids, toothbrushes and tooth paste.
The Cabin

Dad cooked us an amazing Christmas breakfast and we started playing games. We got out the Trivial Pursuit which Jonny purchased at a garage sale only to realise that there wasn't a board. But not to worry, Jonny, Brock and Andrew made one out of paper and chocolate wrappers. It was pretty impressive.
The Trivial Pursuit Board

The Obama puzzle was constructed, not in its entirety mind you, but a good effort was made. We got in the car and drove up to Nooksak Falls for a bit change of scenery. It was beautiful.
Nooksak Falls

The River at Nooksak Falls

Crazy Ice in the river - we smashed it good.

Then back to the cabin for hot chocolate and more board games before we cooked a Christmas chicken.
The Fam at Christmas Dinner

We closed the night up with a few rounds of the colander game which is a bit of a guessing game which my old housemate Eloise introduced me to.
Always hilarious - see the videos!
Brock being silly during the colander game

Brock's Charades round of the Colander Game

We drove into Bellingham on Boxing Day, met up with Kelly and some friends of Dad's, saw Sherlock Holmes and spent some time at the Boundary Bay Brewery. Andrew went back to Vancouver that night. The next morning we got up early and headed up Mt Baker for a bit of snowshoeing. It was absolutely fantastic. Much different to Whistler. A bit more casual and all about the snow.
The snowshoeing experience

That night we had delicious Italian dinner at Milano's and played a bit more colander game.
Milano's Dinner - Kelly was there too!

I got on the train the next morning and headed back to Vancouver. But knowing that everyone will come up for the games was great! And being with them for Christmas was absolutely magnificent, even though it was only for a little while. It was over 7 years in the making and it really did seem perfect. If only Rachel and Josh could have come, but we did all have a fabulous time together at their wedding in July! We will all be together at Christmas some day.
Back to work for a few days and then it was New Years Eve. Had a bit of a low key one because trust me, doing New Years in winter just isn't as fun as it is in summer. Alycia Stanley started working with me at the stadium in the past couple of weeks, so we decided to hot tub it at my place, watch DVDs and drink Pims. Mackonis convinced us to head out to a party for a bit at Tanya's place which was fun, but by 1:30am, Stanley and I were pretty wrecked. And that wrapped up 2009. Wow.
And now we are sitting at less than 40 days to go and not many days off in between at all. Can't say much more about what has been happening at work, but just know that I am working hard. Will be much looking forward to the shows and some post games time off.
Missing all of you in all other parts of the world. Know where I will be when you watch the Opening Ceremony!! I have become quite fond of BC Place in such a short time. It definitely has it's faults, but I think it will always be a nice memory for me.
Lots of love,
Sarah