A weekend of firsts!

1. Our first ice hockey game! I didn't understand a bar of it, it was so fast I couldn't even see what was happening half the time and missed our team's goals...and I loved every second of it.

I'm writing my column in the Canmore Leader about it next week though (and yes, I promise I'll link to it once it's online!) so I'd better not say too much lest I get hit upon by the Canadian mafia. I believe they say: "Fugget aboot it."

2. My first experience of wake-boarding on dry land. Well, experience kinda implies I was actually involved - and while I did get a little wet, that was only from the rain.

Check this out: yesterday the town of Canmore demonstrated just how committed they are to active, way-out Canadian fun, by shutting down the main street and setting up a wakeboard competition on its path. "Traffic? We don't need traffic! What we really need is an extreme sport!" Damn I love this place!

Notice those snow-capped mountains in the back? It was COLD. I think every single competitor earned the right to shelter for life, purely based on this fact. Or at least a year's supply of hot chocolate.

And finally...

3. My first Canadian winter jacket.

It's snuggly as hell, but has the unfortunate side-effect of making me burst into loud renditions of "From Russia with Love".

Would you like a wodka?

The honeymoon is well and truly in flight

I met this really cool chick at the park yesterday (I somehow avoided the temptation to wrap my arms around her legs, drag her back to my place and demand she be my friend), who told me that since moving here a year ago, she's met umpteen people who came here 'for the snow season' and ended up staying for life.

The thing is, already I completely get that.

I've been spending many beautiful minutes dreaming about spending our entire life here. Just go with me here: picture hubby and I, wrinkled-bordering-on-pickled, snowy hair as white as the mountain-tops, racing our wheelchairs down the snow-covered slopes at a fiery pace. Tell me it's not a beautiful vision!

Oh alright...gees, you're just like Tim!

He, as usual, is the down-to-earth one, pointing out that we've only been here two weeks and to give it time, that we're simply in the honeymoon period. We sure are, baby: I am head over heels IN LURVE.

(And there you were thinking he was going to point out the impracticalities of wheel-chair boarding...)

But just check out the snow that fell this very afternoon! Can't you just SEE us there, wheelchairs and all? There we are, just a little to the right, no, left a little, just near the...

Oh alright, so there's lots of rocky bits and we'd end up mulshified on a ledge being eaten by famished eagles, but come on...it's called optimism, people!

The Comic Mummy goes to Print!

Well, not exactly, but sorta-kinda.

In some of the best news since we got here, I'm very stoked to report that as of today, I've scored a fortnightly humour column writing for the local rag here in Canmore! It's pretty much gonna be a little bit of my take on Canada through Aussie eyes, a little bit of parenting and a little bit of whatever else I feel like throwing in the mix. Hooray for freedom!*

*I hope that didn't sound as shallow as it is.

We're kicking things off with tix to our first ever ice hockey game this Saturday: given that I was considering trying out for a local team here (stop laughing now - a little decency if you please) spectating seems a far superior - and warmer - alternative.

Yee-haw!

Your opinion, please.

Is it just me, or is the latest fashion being advertised on the back of Canadian newspapers (see left) a little...erm...unflattering?

I just don't see how leotards and tights - especially WHITE tights - are gonna be bringin' sexy back. Maybe fourteen years ago I felt a little differently, but:

a) that was fourteen years ago; and
b) I also thought Michael Bolton was all that; because...
c) that was fourteen years ago.

In fact, the only way I think leotards and tights could even come close to sexy is if they were used to strangle Mariah Carey. Then, maybe (just maybe) I could be convinced to give them a second look.

But even then, I wouldn't be attaching them to my buttocks. I'd probably just frame them, light a couple of candles and chant.

Or...is that just me?

Oh, oh, and also...

Massively belated yet righteous applause, kudos and shots of tequila to my gorgeous mate Leon, who is responsible for the muchly-schmicktafied banner you see above.

If this was Facebook, I'd buy you a drink.

You'll just have to come to Canada, eh?

xxx

Ella's First Day of School

Wow.

It feels like just yesterday I was popping her out and unleashing her on the world, and yet today, here I am, five and a bit years later...popping her out and unleashing her on the world all over again. Well, the world in its microcosmic form - in other words, grade one.

She woke up at the crack of dawn, crawled into bed with me and started asking "When can I go to school?" "The sun is already starting to come out!" and my favourite, "You know mummy, I don't really need breakfast today, I can get ready quickier if I don't eat."

She insisted she go on the school bus alone, even though I desperately wanted to do it with her, hold her hand, lead her into her classroom and cuddle her if she felt insecure. But no. Apparently the only insecure on in this whole fiasco is me.

So for now, with the home-days of Ella officially over, I'm trying to make the most of my first day of my new life with just me and the Cay-man.

Now excuse me while I go locate the nearest bottle of Canadian vodka.