But this made me laugh:

Because of this:

To celebrate this new found heat-wave, myself and a friend who works up on the mountain went for a bit of a hike through the national park that surrounds the hostel.  It was a beautiful day, and was really nice to see the transformation from winter to spring.  We got stuck a few times in some pretty dense bush, so we retreated and walked along the still frozen banks of the river.  A bit scary at times, however still safe as long as you don’t walk right out into the middle.

We came to a part of the river which had started to collapse on itself, and it confused and amazed both myself Debbie, as the freaking river was freaking hollow.

Anyways, we continued along our merry little way - this freaked out Debbie a bit… didn’t worry me too much though as it was going the opposite way to which we were going.

This however, worried me a lot more:

The head and rib cage were together, but one leg was way up the mountain, and the other a couple of metres away…. Not a good day for this Elk, or Caribou or whatever the hell it was.

Anyyywayyyys.  Bent Tree!

This is why events unnerve me,
They find it all, a different story,
Notice whom for wheels are turning,
Turn again and turn towards this time,
All she asks the strength to hold me,
Then again the same old story,
World will travel, oh so quickly,
Travel first and lean towards this time.

Oh Ill break them down, no mercy shown
Heaven knows, its got to be this time,
Avenues all lined with trees,
Picture me and then you start watching,
Watching forever, forever,
Watching love grow, forever,
Letting me know, forever.

Working nights then shifting to days for some training has left my sleep patterns completely rooted.  Soon I’ll be working night audit two shifts a week and three shifts a week tending bar in the hostel.  Looking forward to it. 

I know I’ve been neglecting this a lot of late, apathy has well and truly set in and I haven’t really been motivated to write anything about anything.

I am enjoying being in Banff, and I really am loving boarding - but being here is like being in some distant cold state of Oz.  A Canadian accent is now an odd accent, chants of "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie" drifting from the bar constantly make me cringe and if it weren’t for the surrounding mountains I’d probably despise this place rather than love it.

Don’t get me wrong, its not that I don’t like the people here - the people I work with and the people constantly flowing in and out of the hostel are for the most part brilliant people and have made some friends here that I will make every effort to see again.  I wanted to avoid resort towns, avoid talking about the things you miss from home, football scores and all that crap.  But when you get here, its just so frigging difficult to leave - from those first few steps off the bus where you take in the mountain air and look around at the log buildings dwarfed by snow capped mountains - you get a very sudden realisation as to why people come here.

So here I’ll stay - make the most of the rest of the winter season and get in as much boarding as possible - what can I say, I’m addicted.  The feeling of adrenaline pumping through my veins as I fly down the mountain, cutting past people who once used to piss me off for cutting past me.  Finding new and more challenging tree runs.  Watching the slight dings and scratches build up on my board, once a nuisance, now a sort of badge of honour - this one from a tree that I hit through the back-country at Sunshine, that one from a hidden rock at Kicking Horse.

Then from here, I’ll use this as my base through the summer time for some camping, paddling and hiking through BC, northern Alberta and the big one - Alaska.  All things going Ok, I’ll also be in Canada for another winter - I sent off my application to extend my visa yesterday and have told work that I want to stay here until the end of May 2009 after which I plan to finally go on my European adventure.

Home does seem like a distant memory, but at the same time my thoughts of friends and family remain unchanged, and it feels like it was yesterday that I was playing cricket in mighty collesium of Norfolk Rd and making trips up to Brisbane with the family to see more family.

Then the thoughts of all the people I’ve met and places I’ve been kick in and I realise that I really have been gone for a year - I’ve crossed a continent nearly twice and really do feel that its impacted me for the better, I’ve done things that I never thought I’d do - some good, some bad, but none that I’d change for anything. 

This past year has left me more confident and stronger than I ever have been before.