Vegas, Baby!

With Emily and Kris now officially on their honeymoon road trip in California, the days are on countdown for us to join them in Las Vegas.

We are looking forward to four days in the entertainment capital of the world and especially spending time with the new Mr and Mrs King. Although, Kris and I need to ensure that we do not come home bankrupt, thanks to our wives gambling!

BC Lions Suck!

Last Friday evening, prior to the skydive, Nancy and I went to our first Canadian Football League (CFL) game at the BC Place, which is one of the major indoor stadia in Vancouver. I had never heard of CFL until moving to Vancouver, but its the Canadian version of the NFL that the Americans play only there is less players on each team and fewer teams in the league. It is the second most watched league sport after the NHL in Canada. We watched the BC Lions play the Winnipeg Bombers with split loyalties. As you should, we were cheering for the local team but Bob wanted us to support his team from Winnipeg.

The game itself was fun to watch when there was action on the pitch, but it was too stop/start and absolutely no flow to it. There were numerous interruptions in which the cheerleaders felt obliged to do a dance and wave to limited effect on the crowd. The play was slowed further by some guy in a red outfit that seemed to be in charge of syncing the game with the television commercials. However, the highlight of the whole experience was heightened by watching a colleague of Nancy wearing a Bestbuy mascot costume and attempting to play football (aka soccer) with fifteen other mascots in the half-time interval. The outcome was hilarious with mascots tripping over each other.

Bob was extremely happy with the overall result as the Bombers won 36 to 10 and the Lions got their arse kicked again this season. Based on the performance I don't think the BC Lions will be winning any trophies this year. Also not sure that we will be frequenting future games, but another experience ticked off our list - I think Nancy's facial expression says it all!

I jumped out of a plane on purpose and survived....

Yes I did it! I jumped out of a perfectly good plane in order to fall to the ground a rapid velocity and what a thrill it turned out to be. Don't get me wrong, I was wracked with nerves doing a tandem skydive especially when the side of the plane opened up at 10,000 feet. I'm not ashamed to say that there was nearly a code brown alert when my instructor shoved me towards the open door and we literally fell out of the plane in open air.

When I first arrived there was a couple of groups and I joined a stag-party of four guys, all of us were first timers and had fear etched onto our faces for the length of the briefing\ training. And when I say training, I mean lying on a chair and sticking my legs and arms in the air! After being suited up and harnessed, we were bundled into the plane and flown to the altitude of 10,000 feet. It was a great view, but none of us were enjoying it.

The only way to describe the feeling is when you reach the top of rollercoaster, start tipping over the edge in anticipation of freefall and your heart is in your mouth - multiplied by a thousand. When I pushed out of that plane it was exhilarating and scary all at the same time and the freefall lasted for about 40 seconds. The instructor informed me that we reached maximum velocity after a few seconds and plummeted at a speed of 200 km/hour. Then suddenly the ripcord goes and the parchute opens, the next thing I know the feeling of weightlessness is replaced by immerse pressure around my genitals as the harness yanks us upwards. The next five minutes is all about gliding down to the ground in a very calm, relaxed manner and as you can imagine with a awesome view of the world below. Landing was simple as I just kept my feet up and let the instructor do all the hard work.

The first question family and friends have asked is "would you do it again" and I can confidently reply that I would (but maybe not for a little while).

Whistler - Day Two

Day two at Whistler was last Sunday with the highlight being the two of us completing ZipTrek. This involved Nancy and myself being harnessed up and sliding down five different zip lines on Whistler mountain, through the forest and over the rushing glacier river. Nancy was especially nervous as she has a slight fear of heights and we were over 200 metres off the ground in the tree canopy. Furthermore, when we were not zipping through the air at up to 50 km per hour then we were crossing the area on treetop suspension bridges. The ziplines on the Ziptrek Bear tour were between 200 and 1100 feet (60m to 330m) in length. As you can see by the photos and video clip we had an fantastic experience and even managed to zip along the last line upside down! However, there is a more advanced tour called Ziptrek Eagle which involves longer and higher zip lines reaching up to 80 km per hour, and is a must for a future challenge.

With the exciting, adrenalin rush out of the way by lunchtime we headed back to Whistler Village for a spot of food. On the way back home to Vancouver we popped in to see Nancy's gran - Betty and then collapsed on the sofa at the end of the day. All in all the weekend in Whistler was fantastic, but we both agreed we need to revisit it in the winter time when everything is covered in snow.

Whistler - Day One

In between the extensive traveling around Canada with work, last weekend, Nancy and I managed to visit Whistler up in the local Mountains. This turned out to be a fantastic trip that saw us complete a number of exciting activities, plus we got to stay in a top-class suite at Whistler Creek. Thanks to Nancy, we found a Vancouver-based couple renting out their suite at Whistler for a bargain price with access to all the facilities, including hot tub, steam room, gym, swimming pool and games room.

After a evening of relaxation on the Friday night which involved pizza, beer and a hot tub dip, we spent the early part of Saturday afternoon watching the 2nd Annual Cheese rolling contest. This involved watching a number of Canadians almost kill themselves chasing a round block of cheese down the side of the mountain - lots of fun was had by all contestants and spectators. Check out the video to see the carnage.

We then headed up the mountain using the chair lifts and then experienced the Peak to Peak cable car ride between Blackcomb Mountain and Whistler Mountain. This newly opened attraction boasts three world records, including the longest free span cable car ride in the world, and I have to say it was certainly a spectacular view of the nearby glacier. Once at the peak of Whistler we took another chair lift to the very top of the Whistler Mountain and we were literally on the top of the world at 7156 feet or 2181 metres.

And all this was just day one of our trip to Whistler, more to come.......

Travelling around Canada

The last week has seen me traveling the length and breadth of Canada with work. I left Vancouver last Wednesday for Winnipeg, which was a 3 hour flight, and the very center of Canada. Winnipeg in the province of Manitoba (which is the home of Bob's family) didn't really offer much, except for 1970s architecture and a huge postal office.

My travels then took me to Regina which is in the province of Saskatchewan, where we have a great Mercedes-Benz Dealer, but the town did not offer too much. I then drove from Regina to Saskatoon, which took two and half hours, but on the straightest and most flat road I have ever driven. There was no distinguishing features of this road except for its flatest. The only interesting moment was the sight of Mount Blackstrap, which was a man-made hill created from rubbish and old tyres for the purpose of skiing! Let's just say I would have been highly disappointed if I had booked a ski-trip to Mt Blackstrap - more of an hillock than a mountain. Saskatoon had a scenic centre, with a little castle over a river, however, the rest of the town was similar in style to Regina and Winnipeg. Flying back to Vancouver on Friday, we visited Whistler for the weekend and more blog entries on that to come.

This week has seen me take a ferry ride to Nanaimo - yes, where the famous nanaimo bars come from, although I didn't get a chance to taste any on this trip. On the way to down the Island to Victoria I stopped off at Bob and Wendy's for an excellent lamb chop. On returning to Vancouver on Tuesday evening, just in time for an early morning flight to Calgary. Wow, I'm knackered just writing the blog ariticle, but I am certainly seeing all the different parts of Canada at the cost of Mercedes.

Congratulations to Mr & Mrs King

With over a week gone by, the new Mr and Mrs King have had time to settle into their new lifestyle as a married couple. Ever since the 31st July at 1.30pm, Emily officially joined the King family with a gift of a bible and a pair of scissors from the Reverend. A fantastic day was had by all with everything going to plan, even the British Summer weather provided a chink of sunshine. All the wedding speeches were fantastic and one of my particular highlights were the goldfish bowls, complete with real, live goldfish as the table centerpieces.

I'm still coming to terms with the fact that my little sister is now all grown-up and a married lady! Once again congratulations to the happy couple.