kickthehorse.com- We’re kicking it hard!

Thought i should update you on what happened on Xmas day. It snowed. I worked. It turned out to be the awesome xmas day of year so far. It was snowing almost all day up at the Hill. A white Christmas, plus snow!! I’m still in love with the stuff. I came home, and dinner was set out with all the trimmings, plus around 15 other family members. It was cool eating Turkey, home cooked Ham, eating pie etc. I was totally stuffed. I then went over to my friend Lauren’s Place, where they were cooking there Dinner. So i tried to help with that. Didn’t end up eating till 10:30pm. It was still a great dinner. Great company as well. As an added touch, Clint and Ruth both Veggies, cooked the Turkey and did almost everything. They even had some Turkey! They rock!
Hope everyone got what they wanted for Xmas. I got some socks, from the lady that i live with. It was cool. Other than that i only got some T-shirts from Threadless. It was from Jess, i got her the same. Still waiting for them to come, will put photos up when i get them.

They have boxing day in Canada as well. Not sure what it is for, still worked. It was a cruisey day. i then went over to Amanda and Sonja’s place, were they made dinner. Meatballs and stuff. Awesome again, drunk beer and generally had a great time. They are Albertans (from the province of Alberta- don’t hold it against them :P) They are awesome people, and they bought me a Nalgene, it is totally amazing and i can’t believe that they got it for me. It is unbreakable drinking container. It makes my home made CD and free Calender seem shitty. They loved them though. More the thought than the price i say!

So that is my day or 2. Not bad, i say. I have to work for New Year Eve and New Year;s Day. It isn’t going to be a pretty day, but i have done work on 4 hours sleep. Bring it on!!

Oh almost forgot to say Merry Xmas and hope every one stays health and enjoys the New year!

I’m so sore. I can hardly move. I had a big day yesterday. It was so BIG. I destroyed a snowboard, took the edge out. it is in the shop now getting fixed, hopefully. It was a rock board (one you can bash around and is crappy) but i felt so bad for Tyler. He lent it to me. Tyler was cool about it though, the is from near Regina, Sa. I’m going again today, hopefully when i can move. Need to go and catch the bus though. Speaking of which the big bus that we normally catch caught on fire the other day, just minutes after i got off it. The generator was to blame. So the bus company is waiting for that to be sent in and fixed. It’s all happening in Golden.

OMG, It’s now monday morning but i’m only just recovering from the craziest weekend ever. Starting Thursday night i was at the Golden Taps and meet some great people. Friday night was at Packers playing feuzball (is that how you spell it?) and pool and listening to a cool band. Saturday night went off! I finished work about 9pm and then headed to taps for dinner and drinks but then migrated to The Roadhouse were BC/DC were playing (cover band of AC/DC). They we so good! I mean i don’t really know heaps of acdc songs but man emma would be proud of me, i was rocking out and even made it to the mosh pit once! Violent scene that mosh pit! Didn’t sleep much that night so i slept most of Sunday.

Sunday arvo I walked to the end of my trailer park and found a really cool creek and mountain. I accidentally bumped a tree and a whole load of snow fell on me. Not cool well actually it was freezing but i’ve learnt now not to bump or pull trees while snow is on the trees! Then sunday night luke and i headed down the street to meet up with a couple of guys I met on the weekend to play pool. Different pool rules here too! But i was so tired that i wasn’t concentrating properly.

So now i’m at work and should probably get back to selling some tickets. People keep making fun of my accent! So weird.

Lady Jesslyn

I am so sore, but my god am i on cloud nine. It is going to be a good winter. Snowboarding is so much fun! Bring it on. I can get heel turns down pat, and almost have the toe turn down pat.Whooo!!!! Powder is fun to ski in, it doesnt hurt when you fall down. Ben was a great person to learn with. He was basically at the same level as me. Anyhow im sore, so i am going to drink beer and go to work tommorrow. Hopefuly if you see me, laugh. Cause i will be hobbling like an old man!

This is a random catch up! 

It’s been snowing all day today (only -4C was -15C the other day!!) and have already got my bank stuff sorted and finally have access to the internet. So it’s been pretty good, i’ve downloaded my photos so head to www.pbase.com/jessnichols to have a look.

We live about 25-20 minutes walk from the road up the mountain and then you have to hitchhike up the mountain. Pretty easy to get a ride up there. Everyone is nice and friendly too. And then that takes about 10-15 mins to get up the mountain. You then hitchhike back down the mountain too. Get to meet plenty of interesting people too. There is also a snow shuttle bus which we can catch but that only goes a certain times.

On my days off i spend the morning in pj’s and watching dodgy movies. But sometimes i head down to Tim Horton’s to get some doughnuts. Mrs Butler also put up her christmas tree today so the house feels a little like christmas is coming. I’m not a big fan of christmas so the excitement doesn’t really build for me. I like christmas and all but i prefer new years better.

I’ve been training all week. Just learning the computer systems and I learnt how to issue lift passes and other passes also. There is a lot to learn adn it seems that it all comes back to Guest Services. We have to know everything! There is about 8 people in our department and they are really cool. I’ll have to get use to the Canadian currency fast. I hate pennies, so annoying, they should just ban them all together like Australia did and the five cent is larger than the 10 cents, sorry the nickel is larger than the dime and then they have quarters! But it should be fun. I think they said that we usually work 6 days a week but the shifts might only be 8am to 1pmish. So might get a run or two in the afternoon (after I take lessons!).

I’ve been up to the eagle’s eye restaurant which is the highest restaurant in the northern hemisphere i believe. You can get drunk so much faster up there because it is 7700ft above sea level and the altitude makes you light headed, not that i have got drunk there but it does happen. It has been snowing all day today so we didn’t get to see much of the view but the other day that i went up i just stood and did a 360 spin and it really was breath-taking. Man, i have to remember all these peoples names! Lots from Australia (none from Perth) and NZ and some from Canada.

I got home the other day and had a bit of a moment to “what the hell am i doing here?” People kept asking me why i chose to come to golden/canada and i don’t really know why? Why am i here again?? I hate winter, i don’t really enjoy skiing or snowboarding and i here with people who love doing both. I’m still kind working through it at the moment but it made me a tad emotional. 

I’ll takes some picture of my house and pop them on my site for all to see where we live.

Lady Jesslyn

Well everything has happened and been and done in San Fran. What a great place. It is so cool, both figuratively and metaphorically. (Like the big words?) Well anyhow it is a really nice place, lots of hills like you would expect, but still great fun. I did lots of walking, my legs were sore after each day. But let me start from the beginning, our flight. Before that, let me tell you this is going to be a long one, so get ready cause here it comes…..

I got the exit row on this flight, which meant unlimited leg room, it was sweet. The only down side was I was near the bathroom, so had visitors almost all night. I didn’t sleep much though, to busy watching movies, or documentaries. The whole trip went along really nicely. It was only a 12 hr plane flight so felt as though we hadn’t missed much even though things in date had changed. We caught the BART from the airport to the hostel. The BART is the train, it is really fast, clean and not to bad for price, $5.15 all the way into town. We then got off the BART to be confronted by a gazillion peoples, it was the Thanksgiving weekend. So many people, I think there must have been people every square cm. It was ridiculous. We manage to struggle thru the crowds waiting for the trolley and find our hostel. It was nice and clean and not far from things like Union Square and good shopping and everything neat in SF.

Had an afternoon nap and then went to China town for dinner, I think. I don’t remember much of it. I remember walking lots and eating food. That might have been on Sunday. Anyhoo it was lots of fun. We went to China town a few time for meals, I always look in the windows of places before I go in if I can. Why? Well it is a symbol of how good the food is. If you have lots of Westerns in a place in China town, it is going to be a shit restaurant. If you have Chinese in a Chinese restaurant, it is good. Cause it is more authentic than the other. That is my logic anyhow. It paid off though, cause it was a really nice restaurant. I think we went to that one on Monday night.

We went with some British Peoples, Dan and Grace. They rock. The only arrived on that day, so we showed them around, Union Square and the small sights on the way to China town. They loved the tacky gifts from China town as well as we did. I was thinking of buying some to take home, but thought that it would cost more to post them than they cost. I also had a thing for oriental slippers, I don’t know why. They looked cool, plus there was so many styles.

 So what sight seeing did we do? More than my legs could take! We walked from the centre of town down to the Fisherman’s wharf, up and down the hills. Window shopping, jumping down the steep driveways. It was raining on this day, so we had to stomp thru the water. It did clear up for a short while. So I was able to take photos. I have to yet upload them for you to see. I need to go thru them all first.

 So down at Fisherman’s Wharf we looked at the old game Museum. Lots of signs to read for those interested. We didn’t read that many, just played some games. Jess played one where you had to put your hand on the meter and it told you what you love life was like. She got cold fish, I laughed so hard. Then she bribed me to do it, I got cold fish as well. I swear it was rigged! We had a good laugh about it.  We then went to Hard Rock Café, it was really nice. Lucky Jess had been there before, so knew what not to get. We didn’t want to get meals, at we already had lunch somewhere else. I think from a vendor of the cocktail sausages or hotdogs. So we got an Appetiser. Bloody hell, that is no appetiser. It was so huge, it fed us both, with leftovers. Meals are freaking huge in America! Think of an average meal anywhere else in the world, and then double to triple it. That is the size of meal we were eating everyday. You could have lunch late and that would do for the rest of the day. We were lucky though cause we got a free shot glass, that was sweet.

We caught the trolley home, that was really cool fun. Cold but good. It is interesting how they get pulled up the hills, and then have a brake person for down hill. We were going to have a look at a snow shop, but the address was totally confusing. They decided to name a new street the same as one in the city. So it is confusing for everyone who tries to read the address. We gave up on that place. We managed to find a place that was closing down and picked up some cheap but good gear there. Without it we would have frozen our asses off! Literally, it was -10C when we arrived in Canada.

 The next day, Tuesday we biked around the city, we caught the bus down to the wharf again and hired the bikes. It was cool fun, we saw the Golden Gate Bridge. It is awesomely cool. We then rode up this ridiculously steep hill on the other side of the  bridge, Battery point I think it was called. Great view, should do it in a car, not on a bike. I made it up riding, but Jess had to stop and walk up. She doesn’t like hills. We had to keep going on up for a little bit more till our turn off, we then went downhill at around the speed of light, amazing feeling. When I could feel it. My face went numb from the cool air, rushing over delicate cheek bones. (ahahah, joke!) We then when thru a tunnel, which was cool, it was long and damn. Somehow we found our way down to Sausalito, had lunch and hoped on the ferry. It was a great day. But it wasn’t over yet! We returned the bikes and then hoped on the same bus back into town, it was meant to take us back to where we got on, after a short detour. We ended up near the airport before we hoped off the bus to get one back the other direction. It was eventful.

There was 2 black guys, African Americans, what ever you want to call them. They were having words and almost starting to fight, they were talking funny. Jess was a bit scared, I thought it was funny. All they kept on repeating was “I’ll drop you to the ground nigger” “Don’t make me drop you nigger” I think every second word was Nigger, quite tense for a bit. They eventually calmed down and we arrived at somewhere we knew. We jumped off and had some dinner at some where. I think it might have been Jack in a Box. They have the best fast food burger I have ever tasted, Sourdough Jack. Awesome burger. Light but filling. Jess and I laughed at the sizing of cups. I got the small, she got the Medium. The small was what Australians would call a Medium, the Medium is something even we don’t have. It was like a keg! I would say it was at least double and a bit more bigger than the Small.

I went to Alcatraz on the Wednesday, WOW, what a great place. It truly is awesome to look at the conditions, the audio tour is great as well. Truthfully informative, it is a lot bigger than I thought it would be. I ended up walking all around, trying to get some good shots of the island, ended up taking nearly 100 for the day. 70 of them on Alcatraz, not bad for ½ day on the island. I would like to put accommodation on the island, and bring it back to its grandeur of the hey day. Somehow I don’t see that happening. I also walked to Lombard St, the Second crookedest but most famous street in San Francisco.  It is really quite windy, but the view is amazing from the top. You can see the Bay bridge from the bottom. The tree lined streets all the way down the hill. Something that I won’t forget any time soon.  I then walked home, via the Grace Cathedral ( I think it was called that). It is make out of Concrete peoples! Concrete, it has all the ornate cathedral stuff, but it is concrete. Totally blew my mind. Anyhow it was really nice, I then walked down a ridiculously steep hill, that I could probably sit down on and slide down. Oh one thing I forgot, was outside the cathedral was a park, it had a slippery hand rail. Did I slide down it? Hell yeh, it was awesome fun. It even had some kinks in it, so was more like a slippery dip. I couldn’t help but laugh at how fun it was, I bet I got some weird looks, but my god it was awesome fun. So then I got lost after going down the big hill. Found my way again, and when home to the hostel. Big day all up.

The next day we had to get up early and get a plane. The plane was stupid, ok maybe not the plane, but the Airport was. We thought we were on Air Canada, but we were on United. So we were walking everywhere with out bags, heavy things they were. On average they grew by 5kg. At least mine did. So we eventually got checked in, via a computer, but they still needed to sight our documents anyhow, so I don’t know the reason behind that. Anyhow, we got put in a special line to go thru Security. This is the stupid bit. We got our shoes taken off, belts, bags searched, bags scanned for bombs, bags tested for bombs. We had the works. All to get out of the country. To go to Canada! We did not have to check anything thru x-ray to get into the country. We even went thru customs the hard way, and had no problems. We even have Cow shit on our shoes and got thru, they don’t seem to care if you come thru. That is the bit I found weird. If you’re a terrorist, you can get into the country, but to get out is almost impossible. So we waited for a bit, and then got on our tiny plane, to Calgary. Where this post will end. Hopefully I haven’t numbed your brains to much. I’ll update again soon.

Luke and i arrived into Golden on Thursday night. We left San Fran on Thursday morning about 5am and flew to Calgary and then caught the 5hr bus to Golden. Snowing all the way up through the rockies. We got in to Golden about 11.30pm so we checked into a hostel and then made our way in the morning to Mrs Butler’s house. So we have settled into her trailer and each have our own rooms. We made our way up to the mountain on Friday to introduce ourself and check it out. Luke actually has been working for the last two days, helping with the lifts. He starts each morning at 7am so he has to get up pretty early. Me on the other hand don’t start till next week so yesterday i tried snow boarding. Failed miserably. Have no idea what i am trying to do, i need a lesson i think. But the mountain is gorgeous and the snow is so white and light. While snow boarding i fell into a mountain of snow up to my waist and couldn’t get out for about 20 mins so that was a new experience. But now my knees and muscles hurt from learning, i also couldn’t feel my hands or toes but all in all i’m having fun. I’ll try and write more later. Luke is like a kid in a candy store about seeing snow!