Wednesday, February 20, 2008

skiing and tea parties

all right! good connection! now i can explain the mysterious self-portraits.

so, the weekend was my girlfriend's b'day - woot! we dragged out celebrations over three days - my kind of birthday. saturday miriam and i went skiing, up at cypress bowl, which is on the north shore, about an hour's drive from vancouver proper (on the way to whistler). here's a view of the downhill slopes across the way:


it was really foggy when we got up there, but then it magically cleared up and was sunny and beautiful all afternoon. the snow was nice, not too icy, and there were lots of gentle slopes to practise my snow-ploughs on. my skiing ability wasn't too bad, even though i haven't been in years. i only had one fall - a really spectacular face plant. here's me holding ice to my mouth so i didn't get a fat lip:


it was a little more builtup than australian cross-country mountains, but not as much as i had expected. some of the paths had big light poles, and there was a nice red lodge in the middle:


there was a whiskey jack and a stellar jay hopping round the trees near the lodge where we sat and had lunch. you can just see (bum of) the bright blue bird in the top right hand of this shot:


all in all, a very satisfactory day.

then on sunday miriam held a tea party in the park. this was the spread (note welsh tea cakes, goat's cheese brie and chocolate with cornflakes):


and here's my little old lady outfit:

it was very exciting. i love dress ups!

then we went for dinner at the naam with winifred and others, and then we had breakfast at theresas on the drive. ah . . .


and that was my big weekend. now i am answering lots of student emails (pending handing in their revised essays), going to lots of union meetings and FREAKING OUT about phd offers. why has nobody emailed me? why don't they want me at their uni?

alternatively, what if they do give me an offer? where will i go? what should i do?

checking the mailbox is a thing of stress now, so i make sure to do it several times a day.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh, what lovely snow! I wish i was coming in winter now. . .

*sulks*

speaking of which, there are a couple of emails i have sent you awaiting reply. perhaps when you wish to distract yourself from running to the letter box and back?

Anonymous said...

you will be okay!!
lovely snow photos, you lucky thing
xovta

Anonymous said...

all sounds like fun

i was going to send an email saying thanks for fotos, but wouldn't want to stress you out

so , thanks for fotos. will send you some one day
:-)

gumtreefid farmer said...

there's pretty much always snow somewhere, itchy. you might have to travel a bit to find it. vta saw snow *and* a bear at whistler. when were you here, again, vta?


and thankyou for yr good wishes, vta!

gumtreefid farmer said...

groteaux,

unis won't be emailing my yahoo account. you may send your profuse thanks there without worries.

glad you like them!

love

Nimmersatt said...

Hallo!
I do enjoy your blog. Now, there was something I was going to say... oh dammit, can't remember. Have a cold that's my excuse. Your weekend sounded great! and thanks for the apology post.
xox

gumtreefid farmer said...

thanks, nimmersatt! that was a very silly message which made me grin a lot. love!