Saturday, August 14, 2010

STAMPEDE 2010!!!

Im sure we all know by now I love Stampede, its 10 days once a year where you can live and breathe country music and rodeos. The whole city gets involved and they put on free breakfasts and parades all over the ciy. I went down to the stampede grounds 4 times, and saw some great concerts, ate bad for me food and watched the rodeo! Unfortunately the weather wasnt that great but it didnt dampen our spirits!
I tried not to put too many photos here but if you want to see more they're on facebook too.

Starting the day with a free Stampede Breakfast.

Bacon Ranch Fries!

Stampede Grounds

Bon Jovi in Concert

Catching up with friends from my first winter in Calgary

One More Girl playing at Nashville North

Anne and I with pies best Ive had here in Canada

Just a little rain! (but it cleared so all was well!)

The Stampede Cowboys!

Me in front of the rodeo arena

Skyline At The Park


Last month I was able to ride the zipline at work. One of our bosses organised for our department to to ride for free. I had the day off but came in especialy for this. It was great (especially because it was free!) but it went so quickly. Another thing done i can cross off my list before I leave!

Sheena and I riding up the lift


Watching two of the trail boys going before us.


After the big line from the 90m tower


Me with some of the guys I work with in grounds and lifts

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Heritage Park

I know its been awhile sorry! I do have a few things to post but thought I would just do atleast one today!

A few weeks ago Sam, Mat and I visited Heritge Park. I had wanted to visit for some time and we finally all had the same day off and some beautiful weather.

Heritage park is quite large, it was nice to wander around they have a car museum, a historical village, a steam train, and a few old style shops. We stopped for lunch at the hotel and finished the afternoon enjoying the sunshine and sitting outside.


Sunday, June 6, 2010

What time is it?




Daylight Savings!!
I took this photo at 10:20pm and we are still a few weeks away from our longest day!
At the moment sunrise is around 5:30am and sunset about 9:45pm.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Recycling Money!


It's been a while since I posted anything so I thought i should put something up even if only a short post!
Me and one of the guys from work James have been doing some recycling, we collect a lot of garbage around the park but it doesnt get recyled so we have been collecting it and sorting it. We took in our first collection a few weeks ago and we made $140 and split it. (I know theres only $60 in the photo but i had already used $10 when I decided to take the photo) We have another load probably worth a little less ready to take in to the bottle depot. It's great to get a little bit of extra cash for not much extra work!

Monday, May 10, 2010

Brooks And Dunn Concert

This week I went to the Brooks and Dunn Last Rodeo tour. They are retiring this year and this is their last tour so I was really excited when I heard they added Calgary to their tour schedule and I had to go! Then I heard the opening acts were Jason Blaine and Gary Allan and was even more excited because I love them both as well.
So it was a great night and great music!

About to begin!


Brooks And Dunn!

(PS If you want to see anymore photos i put more on faccebook)

Saturday, April 24, 2010

It's Melting

We've had some nice warm weather this week up around 18 degrees most days (though right now on saturday its raining/snowing)so the snow on the hill is melting quite fast. We open for the the summer and mountain biking in 4 weeks.

..........Thursday April 15th

.................Monday April 19th

.........................Thursday April 22nd

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Winter is Over - Kind of!

Well Canada Olympic Park (otherwise known as the hill, where i work) is closed for the winter season! Though unfortunately the weather did not get the message that winter was over and this week we got snow again and have more snow forecast in the week ahead! As much as the snow looks beautiful it makes work harder for me and getting around is not fun!
This is the view from my bedroom window of the snow this week.

Canada Olympic Park on the last open weekend for winter.


So i realised talking to Amy at easter that many people might not actually know what I'm doing for work these days so thought i would try and let you know the sorts of things i have been doing over the winter.

During the winter I worked 2 days a week as a lift attendant and 3 days a week in park grounds. I worked the lifts last winter and most of the last summer but i was starting to get bored i had done some work in grounds and they needed more staff so thankfully my boss Tim had me move into grounds but staying in the lifts aswell, though this summer i will only be working grounds.

Lifts is pretty much what it sounds like attending the lifts making sure people get on and off safely, making sure all the snow ramps are in good working order, shovelling snow, setting up gates in the mornings to form the lines people wait in, also watching the magic carpets (a conveyer/treadmill like contraption people stand on to move up the lower areas of the hill), helping people if they fall etc.
Me at the lift loading station (not watching the people load!)


This photo is taken from the top of the progression carpet we have 4 carpets and 2 lifts at the park.


Park grounds surprisingly is also as it sounds, I pretty much attend to anything within the grounds of the park that needs doing. One day a week I work with James and the other two days Im by myself. We take care of the outside of all the park facilities during the winter i've done things like snow plowing, emptying all the outdoor garbage bins, putting daown salt when needed (the salt helps melt any icy areas around the buildings), fixing signs, changing flags, shovelling snow, helping set up for events, painting, daily walk/drive around to make sure everything looks good and more i cant really think of now.

Truck 34 with the snow plow on front, that I get to drive around the park.


This is James and I changing the large flag at the top of the hill. James unhooks all the clips and i use the winch to raise and lower the flag. It is a huge flag and weighs about 80 pounds.



The Olympic Flag that I helped put up for during the winter Olympics.


This time of the year there are lots of geese at the park, unfortunately one morning two got hit by a truck and I had to remove them off the road. I didnt think I'd have a problem doing it but it was kinda creepy.


This is the flag court out front of the main building that has all the flags from the countries that competed in the 1988 Calgary winter Olympics, we have to keep them in good condition and change any that get ripped.

During the summer there is alot more to do but ill put that in another post later when i get some more photos to add (also this post got alot longer than planned!)
I hope this helps enlighten everyone as to the things I've been doing at work here in Canada!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

New Laptop

Well as the title suggests I have a new laptop! My old computer has been dying for some time and it finally croaked it and I had saved up the money so on my day off I went laptop shopping. I bought a 14inch Acer Aspire its nice and a bit smaller than my last so it will be easier to travel with. Its been fun playing with it and reloading all my programs etc.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Tim McGraw Concert

I've been so lucky while living here in Calgary to see some amazing concerts and last nights concert was TIM MCGRAW with the opening acts The Lost Trailers and Lady Antebellum. I was a bit disappointed with my seat as the stage was so big I was further back than anticipated so I spent most of the night watching from behind, but i got over it pretty quick as it was great music and I really never expected to see Tim McGraw in concert so was excited to be there.
The Lost Trailers - you can see from this the position of my seat on the side of the stage. Lady Antebellum at the end of their set.
Tim Mcgraw at the Saddledome arena which holds approx 20,000 people and it was full!
He came across to my side of the stage a couple of times. PS Amy and Michael if you guys want to see the rest of the pictures I'll post them on facebook.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Water Shortage

When I came home from work on wednesday thankfully I showered straight away because when my roomate Tom came home 30 minutes later he had seen in the street a busted water main and we had no water! Within 3 hours we had emergency water supply trucks (you could take a bucket and fill it with water) in the street and so assumed we would be without water for some time. In the morning still no water and when I came home from work the water supply trucks where still in the street and so i assumed we still were without water but to my suprise we had water! Yeah! 1 day i guess was not so bad considering we had assumed it would be longer, I never thought about how much i used water until we had none!
PS meant to take a photo of the water trucks for the blog but forgot before they moved them away, sorry :)

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Joining the Trend!

I have decided to join the blogging trend! I know I have slacked off in the emailing department and am hoping this will inspire me to update everyone back home a little more often than I have been! They may not always be big exciting posts (as my life though being lived in another country is not always that fascinating) but everyday bits and pieces that I've been up to. I love reading Amy's blog and now Tammy's as well so I'm hoping you can enjoy my updates aswell!