It's freezing around here ...

Hi guys,

I've heard innumerable stories from people about airports, airplanes etc and now I've finally got my own sorry tale to add to the bunch. Lets just say that now I feel a huge amount of sympathy for all of those people and the moment you realise that you could be stranded in a foreign country with only the clothes on your back, well it's a nasty one.

So without being a bit of a crybaby about it all, I'll just get on with things - after getting on a plane from the UK for an eight hour flight, I landed in Toronto at 5:30pm and be told that my connecting flight was cancelled due to bad weather in Quebec. The only flight that I could get on to wasn't leaving for another 5 hours, and while there were other opportunities to try and get connections from other cities, they were very long shots and so I decided to stay put. I checked my luggage in for the later flight and then sat down to wait.

There was a flight that left at approximately 8:30 and although it was delayed it eventually took off (we couldn't get on as it was full). I took this as a good sign, which was probably a bad thing. My 10:30pm flight eventually rolled around and then..... it was delayed... until 11:30, then midnight.... until it was eventually cancelled. BAH! They offered us hotel rooms for the night, so at least that was something. I'd been told previously that we WOULDN'T get vouchers as weather is not covered, but then they gave us some...? It was a bit weird and some of the locals started speculating that the weather actually was fine in Quebec and there was some other stuff up which was preventing us from taking off (well, the previous plane got through and Brett and Michelle were already in Quebec and they said there wasn't bad weather at all!).

So eventually I lined up, got a replacement ticket for a flight the next day at 9am and a hotel voucher. The last annoying thing (well, I thought) was that we had to go down and pick up our checked luggage, then check it back in tomorrow for the flight. Everyone tramped down to the luggage carousel and pucked up their stuff.... except me!! By this stage it was about 12:30 or so... and my luggage simply didn't appear for over 30 minutes. I finally got annoyed enough to go to the counter and ask for some help locating it. A lot of other people were in the same boat so it took a little while to get through to the front of the queue and get someone to actually do something. Some people were amazing rude and started abusing the people and everything. Most of these people were Americans! Eventually someone got rid of the annoying people and actually agreed to go and search for a mine and some other people's bags. This took another annoying 30 mins or so. Eventually around 2am they admitted that they couldn't find them, they didn't know where they were and they assumed that they were probably be in Quebec already and I shouldn't worry (but they couldn't check). Friggin brilliant!!

Ok... so I headed to the bus stop where our shuttle service to the hotel was running, there were already 5 other people there. We waited out in the cold for about 15 minutes without the bus coming, so people started getting worried. One dude had a Canadian mobile so he gave the hotel a call and asked what was going on. Then we get told the hotel is full... what the!??!?!

I decided this was stupid so I hunted around the airport until I found an Air Canada worker and explained the whole situation to them. This lady was actually nice and competent (for a change) and she rang the hotel, yelled at the person (apparently there was rooms, just something about the booking method was off) and got us hotel limo vouchers to get there. So finally we got to the hotel, got checked in and got a damn bed... it was about 3:30am at this stage.

Now because my luggage was AWOL, they asked me to get back to the airport at least 2 hours before the 9am flight just in case they managed to locate it. So at 6am (it was the only time the shuttle ran) I walked back in, only to be told that yes, my bag definitely wasn't there and that it was _probably_ in Quebec, but yeah, they still didn't know! Arrgh! (deep breaths Anka) I tried to get them to actually call the damn Quebec airport to check, but they were incredibly resistant. Eventually someone did it but their only comment was "they didn't answer the phone" and "it'll probably be there" which I think is code for "if you go away, it's not my problem anymore". Damn crap people!

The plane did board at the normal time of 8:30ish which was encouraging, but then rather than taking off at 9am, we sat on the tarmac for about 40 minutes... more annoyance. Finally we got in the air an actually got on the damn way - *aaaaah*. I was fortunate to sit next to a really cute 7 year old girl who helped me pass the flight time by telling me about get family, her dolls, her cat, her dolls millions of accessories, her friends.... stacks of stuff. She even asked me for my phone number because she said I was "really nice", but I think it was more because she wanted to show off this little doll size PDA/organiser she had. I put my number in (without the aussie prefix though so she'll never call it) just to keep her happy... there's a new experience, getting picked up by a 7 year old. She was really nice though and I was so tired I couldn't read properly or anything so it passed the time.

When I landed at Quebec I had to hunt out some baggage assistants to see if they could help me locate my bags. But even they just sort of said 'there's some unclaimed luggage over there'... brilliant... But there it was, my suitcase.... It was a such a HUGE relief, I just about hugged the damn thing :)

After that things got considerably better. Brett and Michelle came to pick me up and I got a look outside at the snow covered ground (yes it had snowed most of the previous day). It was great to see the Ski again and we headed to the chalet that we'd booked. It is a totally awesome little place on the side of the mountain... really cute, well priced, warm and cosy.

After a little bit of lunch, we headed down to the ski field (the house is a little up the mountain from the main resort/carpark etc) and I sorted out all of my equipment and stuff and then immediately hit the slopes. The fresh snow was awesome, the runs are quite decently long however it's pretty cold here! The car said it was -6 degrees, but the wind is the killer. It literally freezes your face in seconds! The slopes also have a full on snowboard park with big jumps, rail slides and that sort of stuff which can make for some good viewing as you see people launching themselves off the ramp and pulling some awesome tricks. The best thing here though is that they also do night skiing, so where in Austria we were off the slope at 4:30pm, around here you can ski right up till 10pm on most nights... brilliant!.

After belting around the slopes for the afternoon we packed up around 6pm and headed back to the chalet. There I cooked up a full on bbq (we'd gone shopping on the way from the airport) outside. It was so hilarious to be cooking out on a balcony in easily -8 or -10 degrees. If you left your beer too long, it would totally freeze!! I had a blast sitting out there, having a drink, grilling some steaks and chatting with the boys. There's a little stream running past our chalet and the trees etc are very pretty all covered in snow. Around 10pm I totally hit the hay as I was completely knackered.

Today the snowboarding was a little harder because there hasn't been any fresh snow and some of the runs started to ice up. I was also trying to work on my technique so I was a little ungainly for a while as I tried to get things working better on the descents. There were quite a few little places where Brett and I were able to find little ramps where we could start learning to jump and get air man! I stacked it many times but I did start to land some towards the end of the day which I was really happy about, but I've got some pretty sore wrists too from bad landings. Unfortunately a few of the runs iced up to the point where they were basically un-ski-able. Literally I just had to slide down a few steep spots and even people on skis were going flying in all directions.

By about 6pm I was getting pretty tired and I started making some mistakes, so rather than push on (it was getting a colder) we all agreed to head back. I cooked up a massive pot of pasta and now I think it's about time for me to hit the hay. In comparison to yesterday, the temperature sensor in the car we reporting that it was -15 degrees outside, and apparently we spend the day skiing in -12 degrees.. so cold!

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to make some more jumps and get my technique sorted. The wrist guards are definitely going to have to come out though, so I'm glad I bought them (well, my uncle brought them over when he arrived for Christmas). I'll let you know how it all goes.

So from the snow: catcha later!

Anka

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

I've really enjoyed my last 24 hours and although I've felt a little homesick, my family and friends here in London have helped to still make it great fun. Thanks to all!

After getting in at a stupid hour from Salzburg, I slept late and only got up on Christmas Eve with just enough time to sneak past the shops for some wrapping paper, cards and other stuff to finish up my presents. Although the shops were pretty empty, there was some serious competition on for some of the last items, most of which had gone on sale right at the end. I was lucky enough to sort it all out before I left for Austria, thank goodness!

After that little bit of shopping, I headed up to CK's place for a bit of an 'Orphan Christmas' bash. It's a bit of a tradition where all the Aussies in London who don't have family band together and make a Christmas family/bash of their own. There were a few people who'd basically moved into CK's place for a few days (no public transport on Christmas Day makes getitng anywhere ludicrously expensive) and they had started their all partying. I nabbed a few beers on the way in which were quietly consumed while catching up with everyone (they'd had a hard night the previous night) and joking around. Before I knew it it was time to head home.

As I'd only just bought my Christmas wrapping paper etc, it took me a couple of hours to wrap everything up. I totally forgot how much I bought, and lets face it, boys aren't the most gifted of wrappers in the world. Eventually I got everything looking semi-decent and covered, so I hit the hay.

Well today was great. I bought my little cousins Spiderman and Power Rangers pyjamas and dressing-gowns. As soon as they opened them they put on the dressing gowns which was really gratifying... they look awesomely cute if I do say so myself. They got a pile of other presents too which I took inordinate delight sifting through. Man kids stuff is cool! Oh, and in the second pic of the little cousins I'd told them to act tough as they were superheroes.. they look so awesome (I think the older one is about to seriously open a can of whoop ass on something off camera!).

After the prezzie ceremonies, the serious cooking got underway. In between helping with the preparation, keeping the boys occupied and setting up I managed to say hello to all my family back in Perth. It was so amazing to see everyone and having them (you) all there on camera (Skype - where would I be without you) almost made me feel like climbing into the computer monitor and teleporting to Perth. Although I've got plenty of family here in London, it is strange to not be with mum/dad and all the siblings dealing out ass-punches, generally annoying each other and whatnot while stuffing my face at the traditional massive breakfast and then late lunch. I miss you guys! (and the food of course!)

Shortly afterwards everyone started arriving and soon the house was full of noise and laughter. My cousin had brought along afew extra guests who'd had their flights (and therefore holiday plans) to Paris cancelled - I wasn't kidding that air travel here is stuffed at the moment! We had a massive lunch/dinner (it went on for quite a while) and a bit of a dance towards the end when everyone started getting fully into the festive spirit (ok, drunk). A really good day in all. Oh, and presents! I got some gloves from my aunt/uncle (which I BADLY needed - thankyou), some aftershave from my other aunt/uncle staying here (very nice) and a DVD from my cousin Claire (perfect as I need something watch when travelling on trains etc).

So now I've just tidied up all my blogging loose ends. I have basically packed for Canada (well, jammed a pile of crap in a suitcase) so hopefully all will be well for my flight tomorrow. There's been a lot of cancelled flights etc this year because of a number of reasons so fingers crossed I get out ok.

Take care all during this festive season (especially on those WA roads) and have a brilliant time. I hope all of you are getting out in the wonderful summer sun and to some of those awesome places like Mandurah, Margaret River etc. My new year will be rung in on a mountainside in Canada, so I'll be sure to get plenty of pics for you all. Everyone please feel free to email me your own pics and reports of the fun you get up to (so I don't miss out on all the stories).

See you all in a few weeks - I'll be in Canada until the 15th Jan but hopefully I'll throw up some blog posts as I go along.

Merry Christmas!

Anka

Snowboarding at Zell Am See (Austria) & crap airports

Hi everyone,

I'm writing this email to myself while waiting in the Passport Control line at the airport after getting back from Austria. The facilities here are just crap and can't seem to handle the influx of passengers. We're going on a hour in the queue and I'm guessing I'm just shy of
half way. BAH!

Well, enough griping and lets get down to business - snowboarding! It's awesome ad I still love it! The place we went to is a little village called Zell Am See. It's a very tiny little town with a lake on one side and a massive mountain jutting up on the other. Snow falls have been pretty sparse in many parts of Europe, but we were pretty lucky in that there was a decent snow dump a couple of days before we hit town.

Although I arrived on the Wednesday, I got in too late to get my board hire etc sorted. I had planned to do a full day boarding on Thursday, but had to settle for a half day as it took all morning to get it all done. Overall, boarding/skiing in Austria is pretty cheap. Of course,
travelling on the pound helps a lot, and because it's close, you can get there pretty easily. The runs are nice and long and the slopes weren't crowded at all (it's still a bit of a secret), so if any of you are up for it.. Let me know!

Zell Am See is a very small village though, and the main landmark (it's on all the maps) is the McDonald's restaurant on the main street. I took a walk around the place on Wednesday night and checked it all out - it's very quaint :). It was especially deserted because of the lack of snow. I was speaking to the operator of our accommodation (Pension Gudrun) and apparently because local people aren't expected to put deposits on books, heaps booked early in the year and then cancelled in the last couple of weeks. The view over the lake is especially nice, but it's impossible to capture in a photo.

I must say that after not boarding for a couple of years, I was VERY rusty at the start. After getting my 'feet' a little I started to get more adventurous and picking up speed. As you'd expect, this lead to a couple of nice big stacks so I sort of backed off for a bit after
that. No serious injuries for the first day, but the mountain closes around 4pm, and the sun starts to go down around 2pm, so you need to make the most of the time.

That night I met up with Damo, Zac and Bartle (all Perth mates) and it was awesome to catch up. Lots of travel stories were swapped but I did manage to get some updates about some of the going's on in Perth.

The next day was the first day of snowboarding for all the guys. Watching them learn and basically fall over made me remember how totally painful and frustrating it was for me. Annoying people like Brett also make it worse because they picked it up really fast (curse
the Ski!). Bartle did really well for his first day and by the end he was able to make it basically down a full run with me.

As the day wore on, I also got more confidence up and a better feel for the board. By the end of it I could reasonably fang down the mountain and even got a teeny bit of air from a jump. The lifts closed at 4pm and I was lucky enough to be one of the last on the mountain. It's so
awesome when you've got the room to do whatever you want. I caned it down!

The other thing I remember from the day is the views from near the top of the mountain. I went way up to a real high part (close to the top) and got almost a 360 degree panorama of the surrounding mountains, other towns, the alpine lake, resorts on the sides of mountains etc.. All with the sun dropping low over the mountain tops. A really amazing sight.

The previous night we'd caught up with Damo's brother's boyfriend (Giles) and his mum. They were both really cool and we got an invite to dinner on Thursday night. Despite being knackered we enjoyed the company and the spaghetti bolognese. I was also put onto the idea of getting a bus from Zell Am See to Salzburg. Buses in Austria are amazing well run, and sometimes they even get to places faster than trains! Each bus timetable shows all the stops and even an approximate time that they will be reached. It makes it very easy for travellers to get around.

That night I found out that my whole professional snowboarding career could be in jeopardy! Apparently if you are right foot dominant, you should have your right foot forward on the board!!! Hmmm! When I first learnt in Australia, I was sure that we were told to put right foot
back. As I skated as a kid (and that's the 'regular' skating stance), it all seemed good to me. I queried a few other people later and apparently it is better to have the dominant foot forward, but really whatever is most comfortable is fine.

Just to try it out, I gave right-foot-forward a go this morning. Oh boy I sucked! It felt so wrong and I kept moving my weight in the totally wrong way. After falling about 6 times on one run (one where I fell backwards and totally smacked the back of my head), I switched back and belted around for a bit. The day was warm though and because the snow hasn't fallen much the slopes were beginning to ice up in places. It did make things a little tricky so it was difficult to cruise at the crazy speeds of the previous day.

The last thing I did was meet all the guys at the very summit of the mountain for a warm Gluvine (something like that, it's basically warm mulled wine) before having one last long ride down the mountain. After a bus back to Salzberg, and delayed plane flight and around...
An hour and a half in the passport queue, I'm almost near the front.I guess I'd better sign off then!

Extra note: After getting through all that, I still had to get an hour and a half bus ride into London, and then get a cab to Southfields. I made it in the door around 4am, and considering I was on the bus to Salzburg the previous afternoon at 4:50pm, I think nearly a 12 hour transit (considering the flights from Salzburg to London is just over an hour) is pretty crap!

Later all. It was great to see some Aussie boys again and now I can't wait for snowboarding in Canada.. Only 2 days away! I did take some picture of us skiing using a disposable camera however I've still got lots of shots to use so I plan to finish it off in Canada, then post the lot.

Anka

Aussie Cricketers Cane!!! - All I seem to cane is my liver....!

Yup, I'm just a teensy bit proud of being an Aussie at the moment. A lot of people around work are hearing about it too... Yup, Aussies are awesome. I wish I was like the Ashes team.. absolutely destroying everything in my path! That would be much more preferrable than what I have been doing lately, which is basically destroying my sleep pattern and liver. As you can guess, it's been another rough couple of weeks of Christmas parties, friendly get-togethers (obviously involving drinking) etc and I am definitely feeling the pinch (does this mean I'm getting old!?!).

It's been ages since my last post so I must apologise to everyone for being boring. Unfortunately the loss of my work laptop has had a nasty consquence in that I've lost a lot of correspondence and partial blog entry posts and now had to re-do them all. I am limping along with a total piece of crap laptop from work (it's one of the ones which is so crap that it just gets passed around to the next unfortunately victim) but have been temped to throw it out the window on more than one occasion.

While my lack of posting is boring, life certainly hasn't been! With January planning kicking off in the last two weeks I've started to get involved in the management of the teams and the individual rollouts. My boss hasn't been around as much as he used to so I've sort of been doing his job which has made things more hectic. In his defence, he's finally been able to work in the office and get some of higher management type stuff sorted, which has been put aside for a long time now. I actually got a cold (first time I've been sick here) and had to take a whole day off work to sleep, so now that makes 3 days off in the last 2 months (well, just under it) - wohoo for working everyday (I just keep thinking of the money). It is getting tiring though so I'm happy we've now finished for the year.

So aside from always working, I've had Christmas functions (3 of them, though one was a double whammy - more on that later), friends birthdays, Christmas shoppings, two farewells (aussies going home), holiday planning, Ashes games to listen to (on the web), and general catching up to fit in. Some of my friends politely let me know that they haven't seen me for over a month... whoops (time flies when you're manic).

Oh, and to all those who remembered my birthday, thank you very much. I know it was ages ago but I don't think I actually said anything before. Special kudos go to Jen for my CD of photos and music - one thing I _really_ miss here is my TripleJ and all the nice music. Although it's all available online etc, I simply don't have the time to search for it (plus my laptop went AWOL, so that was all the new stuff I'd collected GONE!).

Boring stuff first - work. I had to go back to Manchester for a massive site migration a few weeks ago (the post hotel posting). From a technical standpoint things went really well, but personality clashes between the boys and the manager of the site made things quite difficult. It was pretty nasty actually. After that we came back to London with the hope of trying to clean everything up before the end of the year. It didn't really happen and the really annoying part of it all is that we've had to basically become shift workers so that we can work nights (obviously so we don't disrupt the business with the migrations). Working nights bloody sux! For some reason it's just stacks more effort, it screws your sleep patterns and you miss out on all the good stuff. Still... every job has bad patches, we just had to push through this one.

Now for the fun stuff - Christmas functions! Our major office Christmas do was on a Wednesday night, but the whole things was complicated by the fact that our recruiting company representative wanted to take us out too. The only time we were all available was the afternoon before the main Christmas party, so that was what we did. We started drinking at 3:30pm or something and I was sort of ok, I paced myself (stuck to the Guinness) until it was time to head to the office bash at approx. 7:30pm. The bash itself was really awesome. There were stacks of people there, the venue was great with party games and stuff inside one big room of a nightclub and someone had actually found females working at our office (it's sausage-fest heaven at our work - all IT nerds). All the guys we'd been working with at the various sites around London and Manchester etc were there too so we got to all catch up. The problem was the there were a couple of girls going around with tequila bandoliers... and yeah... things went downhill VERY rapidly.

Not many of the Deployment team boys can really remember what the hell went on, but we all had a good time! :P I was semi-saved by a mate called Rob from the office who lives in Southfeilds too. At about midnight he told me he was leaving, so I (realising I was totally plastered by this stage - which I'm actually pretty happy about) decided it was a good time to go for me too. I got chauffered home by Rob, so big thanks go out in that department :)

Now to the Ashes!!! so cool!! we caned so bad!!! *strut*
BUT, victory doesn't come without it's price! And as I said earlier, I'm feeling pretty awful at the moment. Working at night, then staying up and listening to it on the web (it started at midnight most nights) has just been killing me! On top of that I've got numerous sms's at 5-6am from a few people which have made me get up and turn it on. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for the sms's as some amazing things have happened (the final day of the second test for example), it's just been quite a testing (get it!!!) time :) I can hear a 12th man type voice saying going: "marvellous joke that, really super stuff" hehe.... (ok, dellusions of grandeur).

In the last few days I've managed to get a bit of sleep, but more importantly I've got the Christmas shopping all done. Whew. Around here Christmas is actually a really nice time. Sure, it's dark by 4pm but there are stacks and stacks of Christmas lights all around the city, it's cold so people rug up and head out to shop at all hours as everything is open... it's pretty cool. Negotiating stores with thousands of shoppers can be a little trying though, and the tubes are packed solid at all hours of the day/night. But there's Christmas trees up in places like Trafalga Square, a giant snowman somewhere in east London, Christmas window displays, outdoor iceskating rinks, mulled wine (yeah, it's gross, but still..) and stacks of other nice things to get you into the spirit.

The other thing which has dominated my shopping expeditions is my impending SNOWBOARDING holidays (yup, holidayS, as in more than one!) which are coming up. Time to 'toughen up buttercup' and get out into -10, -20, maybe even -35 degree weather. In preparation I've bought a nice new ski jacket, I've got some gear off my uncle David (ski pants that come up to my armpits!), socks, snow-resistant-shoes and yup, I even went and bought real-proper-super-gay thermals! Yup, I'm now officially English (apparently everyone has a pair of 'johns') and if anyone really wants to see me in skintight leggings.. well you are in for a treat it you come skiing!

I'm actually all packed tonight (and it's getting late, so I'm ploughing through this blog quickly) to leave for Austria tomorrow (well, it's today now as it's 1am). I'm flying straight into Salzburg and then getting a train up to a town called Zell Am See. It's a small town right on the edge of a massive alpine lake and lots of ski runs. I've been told there's also a glacier 20 mins away which basically guarantees there's somewhere to ski (there's a lot of places which haven't had decent snow falls yet, apparently it's really bad in some low-lying places with no snow at all!). There I'm meeting Damo and Zac for a few days of fun in the snow before Christmas, sort "just cause I can". The flights and accomodation are costing absolutely bugger all.. it's awesome. That will give me 3 days in the snow before heading back to London for Christmas.

After Christmas, it's straight back on it as I head off to Canada on the 26th (Dec) for nearly three weeks. There I will meet up with Brettski, Michelle, Damo and Zac for another full week of snowboarding before heading off to jetset around Canada and see some places. I reckon it's going to be an amazing trip as I've heard all sorts of things from other travellers and almost everyone has great reports. I also get the chance to hang with Ski again and catch up on the stuff all of you are getting up to back home.

After getting back from Canada we've got one week of work in London then it looks like we're off to Paris for most of February, then heading to Brussels. I really hope it comes off this time (some of you may remember there were plans to do it this year, but it all fell through). My sister is due over here for a holiday too in February, so I'm banking of ski trip #3 taking place then (cmon Kath, let's go!). It looks like a big new year coming up for me! If only I could go somewhere warm and sit on a beach as I'm getting insane jealous of all of you and the warm weather.. Trigg beach.. *sniff*

I think that'll do things for now. Hopefully I'll have some nice pics of me in the snow to post when I get back in a few days. Thanks Stoney for the Christmas card (and no thanks to Jen for the note in the email - I will _SO_ kick your arse Jen for that one).

And Happy Birthday Mum for Monday.... (I sent flowers people, no nagging!)

Talk to you all soon!

Aussie-proud-Anka (.. on a snowboard.. wooo!)

Bugger!!!

Last night somebody nicked all of the team laptops from a 5th floor conference room of a client site. There were three of us with our units there and possibly two more laptops on the floor (including one big manager) that are gone.

My only consolation is that I did something fairly nasty to my laptop about a month ago (i.e. installed some dodgy software) and had to re-image it. As a result I hadn't really had time to put any personal stuff back on it (it's a work laptop anyway so I don't keep anything too sensitive). Unfortunately my boss and another team member had some bank details on there so they've had to cancel all their cards etc. The other guy also had something like 10 years of photos on his which he's lost - that really hurt.

So to everyone out there (using a laptop or pc at home) - BACKUP NOW!

I've gotta download and sort all of my recent photos again now, so hopefully I'll have those ones up for the last blog post soon.

Anka