Banff and COP

Dear Lynette,

Well its been a busy couple of weeks for us here in Calgary. James and I were lucky enough to have a visit from James' Dad Piers for a week at the beginning of February. Along with a friendly face came Milo, Vegemite and Pineapple lumps.....essentials for Aussies and Kiwis alike!!!! (THANK YOU PIERS!!).

By all accounts Piers had a wonderful time with us here (and we definitely enjoyed having a familiar face around).

Not only did Piers get to experience a real Calgary Chinook wind he also got to experience the plunging temperatures that saw -30 with windchill on the 9th Feb. We decided to brave Canada Olympic Park (COP) that morning though I should let you know it was cold enough that they canceled all ski jumping events at COP that day!!


Piers and James atop the winners podium at COP.


Telle takes 1st place!!
The Main Street of Banff
Piers and James at Earl's for Lunch in Banff
James attacks the local cuisine.
Defeated
Banff and the Rockies
Telle gets friendly with the locals
Heading up the Banff Gondola

Telle on top of the Rockies
Piers and James on top of the Rockies
In front of the ice explorer
Leaving Banff.

This place is beautiful!!! It was so nice to get out of Calgary and have a look around!!

Love Telle

-40 windchill aka FARRRRK its cold

Dear Lynette,

just a short post to let you know that this week has been colder than anything we have ever experienced!!

On Monday we woke up to to -33 with a windchill that fluctuated between -48 and -50. It was unbelievably cold!! I can't begin to describe how odd it is to have a skin freeze warning, basically the amount of time it will take you to get frost bite on exposed skin. For Monday and Tuesday this week (28/29th January) it was 2minutes. I can also say that you know its cold when you are waiting for the bus and you can feel your snot freeze in your nose and have icicles on your eyelashes!!

I think James and I were both impressed however with how well the public transport coped with it all. Neither of use had to worry about our buses being late. Though we wisely waited to head to work late on Monday to give the roads time to settle a little and also in the hope that it would warm up a little (it didn't). Kudos to the bus drivers who have had to contend with a huge increase in traffic on the road as a result of people deciding to drive in and did it with a smile!!

Love Telle

Australia Day in Canada

Dear Lynette,

So we thought that we should show the Canadians how to celebrate your countries national day with style!!!

What does that entail you might ask when its -15 out and you don't own a bbq.....no problems. You bump up the thermostat to 30, roll out the flag, slap on the Aussie tatts, bing out the stubby holders, cue up the Australian Rock and put on an Aussie spread to make any Aussie proud!!
Welcome to our humble version of Down Under!
The North American labels for Tim Tams..appropriate really!
James Australian Pavs!!
Some of the Aussie spread.
Lamingtons yummo!
The Vege sangas!!!....drool!
Luminea not sure about the vegemite!
Fellow Aussie Yasmine does us proud...right down to the thongs!! (No my North American friends they are worn on your feet, not your bum).
Nothing like an Aussie day with snow!
Our Crew 1.
Our Crew 2

All in all it was a fantastic day/night!!! I hope we managed to show our multicultural melting pot of friends from Canada, America and Britain how it was done!!

Love Telle

Canmore and Work

Dear Lynette,

I was recently lucky enough to have been able to attend a mini conference for my workplace in Canmore literally surrounded on all sides by the Canadian Rockies. It was an awesome weekend away, my first out of Calgary since we arrived. The conference itself was fantastic and consisted of postdocs and grad students presenting their work to us over a day of seminars. The research was top notch not and I have to say that I am really impressed with the way the PhD is structure in North America v Australia/NZ. Basically they start off with 2 years of course work and a little bit of research and then spend another 2 to 3 years after the initial phase solely undertaking research and maybe working as a TA. You are also usually expected to have a Masters (2years research/coursework) before you start. What it means is that you are in uni a lot longer, but by the time you start your PhD you are actually a lot better prepared for the trials that it will you through. The caliber of the work these students presented was amazing given most of them had started in August 07.

After the day of talks we got to let our haid down at dinner, where we had yummy maple smoked duck for an entree, Alberta beef for the main and a yummy mango mousse for dessert. The company was spectacular and I have to say that it was nice to finally be able to meet the people in my field. It makes work a lot easier when you can put names and faces together!

The view from my hotel.
The Rockies as we were driving out.



James and I are both pretty flat chat at work these days. Below are shots of our buildings (so you can at least visualise where we are talking about!). I think my only real complaint about being at the U of C is the fact that it is sponsored by Pepsi, there are no cokd products sold at all on campus which also means no Sprite!!! It really sucks as the 7-Up they serve as "lemonade" tastes like dirt!!

James work.

My work.

I hope you are all safe and well and will post again soon!

Love Telle

Skating at the Lagoon

Dear Lynette,

So we discovered that not far from our house is a really big lagoon that we can skate on over winter. Neither James or I have skated outside of a rink before and thought it might be a good time to try! Apparently I looked so painfully inept one of the locals stopped me to give me some pointers. You lean forward when you skate......it helps but you go way faster and end up on your butt a lot!!! James looked much more graceful!!

The lagoon
A littlie learning how to skate.
Us at Bowness River (near the lagoon)
James ponders the deeper meaning of whirlpools.


James shows me how its done.
Graceful like a fox!
Canada Olympic Park from the lagoon. We have yet to brave the slopes!

Can you believe it!! You can make your own ice rink its that cold right now!!!

Love Telle

Pictures from Calgary

Dear Lynette,

I must apologise profusely for not having written a little earlier, it has been a hectic month for work and play for us here in Calgary. So I thought I would add some pictures to show what we got up to!!

Love Telle

Our tree and goodies!

The Reid's on Christmas morning.
Our turkey (the smallest we could find!!)

Yasmine and I at National Treasure 2 on Christmas night.

James and I at the movie.
Luminea and Toppy.

My first attempt at felting a bag I knitted. Its too cute!!
How did they know we would be there?
Icebergs down at the river.
Walking on water.

Hello!

Dear Lynette,

Hello and Happy New Years to all of our wonderful friends and family. This is just a quick post (which I will follow in the next few days with pictures) to let you know that James and I had a wonderful Christmas. Turns out Santa knew exactly where to find us here in Calgary and spoiled us rotten (lots of geeky goodness with DS games, DVDs, books, shirts etc) and he even managed to find my fav perfume in the whole world!

James cooked an awesome Christmas lunch, including the smallest turkey we could find...all 5kgs of it! (We had left overs lasting us more than a week, actually we still have half of it in the freezer). It was yummy! After lunch we got to spend the afternoon with our friends Luminea and Toppy and fellow Aussie Yaz at the movies. We saw National Treasures 2 and I can honestly say that it was a great way to spend the afternoon!

We rang in the New Year with Toppy and Luminea and Guitar Hero III. It was fantastic, you should have see how well James handle the guitar!! I also got to spend much of the evening cuddling Toppy and Luminea's beautiful 6y/o chocolate lab Kinder. He is truly beautiful and has such a lovely personality! The night was so much fun that we actually missed the New Year count down!

James is back at work this week, and I am back next week. This year will see us visiting with Piers who is coming across for a tour of one of the world's most stunning countries, heading to Montreal, Vancouver, Banff, Lake Louise, Edmonton and possibly up to Yellowknife to see the Aurora Borealis, and Niagara. We will be heading to LA LA land in May with our mates Aimee and Emmett for Disney and the Tar pits (maybe a stroll down Rodeo Drive?). We are also hoping to see more of Calgary (unfortunately many attractions are closed till May), the next day trip is ice skating at Bowness Lagoon, then we have ski lessons at Canada Olympic Park (though I am still debating that one myself!), and when they open again for the Spring Fort Calgary and Historical Park. So many things to do and so little time to do it.

Anyhows I am stuffed so am going to sign off and sleep for awhile!

Love to you all.

Chantelle and James