The Callinan Adventure Trail

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rosiecallinan — Wed, 7 Nov 2007 08:08:00 GMT

coming soon.........

Gallery: Baseball & Folk

rosiecallinan — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 08:46:00 GMT

seattle, Vancouver Island and the Rockies

Lets Go Seattle!!!

rosiecallinan — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 08:40:00 GMT

Well we mentioned in our last post that we might like to see a baseball game in Seattle preferably against the Yankees but as it turns out they play away in New York for those matches so we drove across the border, Saturday 18 Aug, for a little adventure and to see the Seattle Mariners play the Chicago White Sox. I had just finished the graveyard shift at the hospital so I made a little nest in the backseat of our 4x4 while Aidan drove. Befuddled by our excitement we did not compute travel time factoring in the hordes of other crazy-driving holiday makers eager to cross the border.
We waited for almost 3 hours at the border crossing – that is Aidan waited I slept - and once at the gate we had to disembark to fill out the green I-94 form (ours had expired) and then we were back on the road after an hour or so and made it to Seattle by the afternoon. Giddy with excitement we headed towards the Space Needle, using the familiar landmark to navigate through the city. Lining up to get on the elevator we were given a glimpse of the souvenirs available for purchase at the end of the tour. I could see Aidan calculating the odds, estimating the drop, judging the distance of security guards, gauging the wind… it was all I could do to stop him vaulting the railing and freefalling to the lower level to the trinkets that looked to his highly trained eye to be of the highest quality. Moving on we did the usual thing up on the observation deck and had a bite to eat at the Skycity restaurant and let Aidan have a quick closely supervised stop in the shop before heading to the baseball stadium.Distracted by the stalls of merchandise we missed the opening pitch but we did purchase a lovely baseball cap and foam finger that would enable us to rally behind our chosen team. We had pretty fabulous seats and we were ready to be enthralled by the diamond field. When I was in Japan as a teen there was a super famous & handsome baseball player, whose devoted and millions strong screaming female fans would gleefully terrorise, just to get a blissful glimpse. He now plays for the Seattle Mariners and is the league MVP who's just signed a massive $90 million five year deal. It was an exciting game - many the rule had to be explained to Aidan who it seems has never played any kind of sport or paid attention to any of his PE lessons. At one point we got caught up in a Mexican wave that was slow to start but I think we all realised too late almost impossible to end. Being in a circular stadium no section wanted to be the ones so lacking in team spirit as to be responsible for the demise of the wave. We were caught wanting to watch the game and nervously watching the arrival of the wave. At last one of the Mariners hit an amazing line drive that released us from the grip of this wave and we all stood as one to cheer as much for the beautifully timed hit as to be free from this up and down motion threatening to make us all seasick. It was the first and only wave of the night. Meanwhile the mojo was rising, Aidan cheered for our team, while I snapped photos of Ichiro Suzuki, the famous Japanese baseball star and giggled like a schoolgirl. We were down 3-0 in the fourth innings but won 7-5. The mighty Mariners had beaten the White Sox on Friday 5-4 and continued their winning streak 11-5 on Sunday. We might go down for another game before the season is out. The Seahawks - their gridiron Team - will kick off shortly too and by all accounts that is an awesome spectacle not to be missed.
So my parents have just visited us on their whirlwind tour of the Americas. We expected to find them at the airport brow beaten by security and jet lagged from their trip to Hawaii but they were in good spirits at 5.30 in the morning, Saturday morning I might add. We had nothing planned for their 7 day stay in Vancouver but a quick discussion had their minds made up about what to do and where to go. Lucky for me I’m only a casual at the hospital so I was able to join them. We took them to Whistler on Sunday and had a look around the village. Our ignorance for Canadian weather was displayed to our disappointment; we didn’t bring any warm clothes and expected to go to the top of Whistler Mountain on the gondola. It was ZERO degrees at the top!! While Aidan worked away, we traveled to Victoria and Sidney on Vancouver Island. We went on a tour through a castle (I’d never been in one before) and we ate the most luxurious breakfast at the very nice Fairmont Empress. We also planned a crazy three day road trip to Canmore and back near Banff, because Mum and Dad wanted to see the Rockies. It was my second trip to Alberta but the landscape was totally different in Summer. We went to Lake Louise (which had thawed) it was a beautiful crystal aqua colour - just amazing. I thought Banff was a picturesque town but Canmore is even more beautiful. It is a small town but is surrounded by rockies which have a great shape to them. One of the mountain ranges is actually called the three sisters. We had a few arguments on the road mostly due to driving issues. I was well used to driving on the right side of the road sitting in the left side of the car and Dad wanted to ‘practice’ because they would be driving from New York to Mexico. I really didn’t have the nerves for this sort of thing but he had to get used to driving I suppose. Let’s just say I’m very happy to have made it home… in one piece.

Gallery: Niagara

rosiecallinan — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 05:45:00 GMT

Lake & Wine

The Tastes of Niagara

rosiecallinan — Thu, 9 Aug 2007 06:21:00 GMT

With Aidan on holidays and Sarah and Luc visiting it was a perfect time for a summer holiday. If not for them we probably wouldn’t have planned a trip to Niagara Falls but we’re so glad that we did because we had such a fabulous time. In Vancouver we did some catching up with Sarah, hearing all about her long travels, she and Luc had been traveling for a solid 3 weeks and would be having another hectic week of travel with us before flying back to Paris. Something that we had all commented on this trip was how appalling Air Canada was, it’s perhaps the worst airline any of us have had the misfortune of traveling with. We had a miserable flight to Toronto. The plane was so hot and cramped that things with Aidan quickly degenerated into a desperate, no holds barred turf war for the armrest. We had little choice but to fly with Air Canada because it is the only domestic airline. We were perhaps foolish to think that a flight that cost us $1500 return would provide good service and the bare minimum creature comforts that you’d come to expect from most other airlines. We were so wrong!! That price was for the cheap tickets but Sarah and Luc’s flight was no better and more expensive. I can’t imagine why anyone would pay even more to sit in the curtained partition a couple of rows in front for virtually the same treatment, perhaps a little more leg room? Even with Alaska Airlines on a small propeller driven aircraft (scary) we were offered free snacks. Well no more about that but if we ever have a choice we will use other airlines.

We hired a car in Toronto which Aidan quickly adopted as his pimped out ride, really it was just a red Chrysler but that didn’t stop him goin’ all gangsta (see photos). We did the pleasant drive to Niagara Falls, an hour and a half drive from the city skirting the edges of Lake Ontario (one of the great Lakes) which is just jaw droppingly huge! I mean I wonder how long they it took them to discover that it was not a sea or ocean… I guess the fresh water and lack of waves does give it away but still it just so vast!!! Niagara reminded me a little of Las Vegas, the humid heat, the casino and hard rock café. I won’t go on about Niagara Falls but it is impressive. Totally worth the trip. We walked up and down the river amongst the hundreds of other tourists from all over the globe. When you look at it you wonder how crazy those people were that sailed over the falls, hoping that a barrel would convey them to safety!! FOOLS!! My favourite was the guy who strapped himself to an ANVIL inside his customized barrel for unsecured ballast – when they fished him out of the river, the only bit of him left in the barrel was his arm. One crazy woman back in the 50s did make it, sheer luck… they were eventually forced to ban the practice due to the great number of other victims longing for glory or a watery grave. A great vantage point and a spectacular place for dinner was right above the Canadian side of the horseshoe falls – The Table Rock restaurant. At night they somehow light the waterfall with a dynamic rainbow of colours! We stayed at the Brock plaza hotel (where Marilyn stayed back in the 50’s, also Garey Busey has been there) a gorgeous old hotel with a fabulous view of both American and Canadian Falls from our room and a fantastic restaurant on the top floor. Totally recommend staying there if only to enjoy the fabulous breakfast with a spectacular view. Best omlette ever – Aidan reckons, hands down.

We journeyed onwards to the wine region Niagara-On-The-Lake. Their specialty is Ice Wine. A tasty, syrupy sweet desert wine made from frozen grapes. Heinously expensive, but I guess you don’t get much juice from a frozen grape and someone has to go out there and hand pick the things at midnight in the snow. We toured six wineries like Jackson Triggs and Inniskillin, they say you should visit only 4-5 in a day but all the vineyards were so beautiful and the wines so deliciously tasty that we had to see just a few more. Some places make a sparkling ice wine which is good….really, really good. I was quite taken with this sweet ambrosia (sorry Sylvie…we uh, kind of accidentally drank your bottle and stuff… we’ll get you another one). The region itself was just so quaint and peaceful. The houses in the area were mostly around 19^th century really beautiful gardens and lush lawns. Our stroll down the street of the historic township had Aidan all giddy for his obligatory trinkets and knick-knackery. Quite the treasure trove!

We stayed at a gorgeous B&B on a Vineyard (aptly named the Vineyard Estate B&B) our lovely hostess Jolene was delightful and the breakfast was just devine, we had home made waffles with fruit picked from their very own orchard. We left Niagara and headed back to Toronto but unfortunately I left my passport at the B&B (stoopid) but luckily I didn’t really need it to get home and they were really helpful in getting it back to me, that’s the first time I’ve lost my passport and hopefully the last. In Toronto we headed straight for the Zoo. My little treat for organizing the trip!! It was a huge zoo spread out so much so that a ticket on the little golf cart like train was well worth the $7, which we were too tight to part with until we’d already walked for 2 hours in the unrelenting heat. What I really loved was that the cutest animals like the chipmonks and squirrels were running around all over the paths. I briefly considered leaving Aidan and running free as queen of the mere cats. We did see a Moose in the Canadian section and it confirmed my suspicion that we did in fact encounter a Moose on our trip from Banff to Jasper. Neither one had antlers which was perhaps why I was confused the first time I saw one. But now I am happy now that I have seen two real live Moose!! Now I just want one with Antlers!

Back in Vancouver we must have somehow missed summer or something because the weather here is not that warm. Well maybe it’s that we’re so used to the hot hot heat of Brissie it’s strange to have to contemplate the need for a jacket, not at all what we’re used to. Anyway we are soon to have more visitors, my Mum and Dad are making the journey here in a couple of weeks which I’m looking forward to as hopefully they will be bringing us some vegemite… also I do miss them. We’re also planning to head down to Seattle in the early September. Maybe then Aidan will stop nagging me about the awesomeness of the Space Needle he’s really quite obsessed by it. It being baseball season we might go see the Yankees play the Seattle Mariners I’m so excited. More wine country is on the schedule too, we have decided that the nine bottles we lugged back from Niagara are too special to drink on just any old day. British Columbia boasts the beautiful Okanagan wine region so a tasting we will go. So in the meantime it’s back to work!!

The Journey Home Has Just Begun

rosiecallinan — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 09:44:00 GMT

The second half of our journey to Banff was certainly the highlight for us thanks to our trip to Gold class. We lunched in the fantastic dining cart with proper tables, actual menus and even wait staff. It felt a little special not because we’re unaccustomed to this kind of treatment but because of the major contrast in style and service. The meal was deliciously prepared in an actual kitchen – not airplane food, beautiful and tasty deserts and many glasses of wine. Aidan who almost always opts for beer rather than wine I think felt a little more sophisticated drinking wine, looking out the window and the magnificent rocky mountains. After we finished our meal we were taken to upstairs to the glass domed seating area that people in the gold class enjoyed the scenery from and were plied with may more glasses of wine and also a couple of cocktails. We noticed even the attendants were better in Gold Leaf, wittier, more informed and just more fun!! We tried not to brag too much about this experience, with Renae and Peter missing out but I think we did go on about it a little but it was all such good fun we had more fun on a train than I thought was possible. We arrived in Banff ready to start the next leg of our journey and stayed the night in a cosy inn.

The next day was pretty fabulous and we took heaps more photos. We totally loved Banff the atmosphere was completely different to whistler I’m not sure why. We spent much of the time on the lookout for knick knack shops – as Aidan liked to call it. You know the kinds of souvenir shops that your grandmother might frequent hehehe but we did find a few good items. Many t-shirts later we sadly left Banff in our people mover along the Icefield Parkways.

We drove to Jasper at our leisure or more like under Lauren’s dictatorship. Our first stop was Bow Falls after glimpsing the fairytale castle of Banff Springs Hotel – I’m sure you’d feel like Cinderella staying there… so beautiful anyway there were many beautiful rest stops along the parkway, it’s definitely the way to go if you want to see more of Alberta/British Columbia. With the glaciers melting many of the falls along the way were a great place to settle Lauren down now and again. She was for the most part very tolerant of this major disruption to her life.

We stopped off at Lake Louise and I must say I was both impressed and disappointed. The lake was bloody frozen, all this time I had been anticipating the emerald waters of Lake Louise. Bummer but it was still an amazing sight. One other memorable restroom stop was at an unassuming park, but on closer inspection you could see little gophers sticking their heads out of a maze of underground tunnels. They were sooo cute. They chirped little warning noises to each other as we all attempted to get close enough to them to snap a good photo. Just gorgeous!!!

We beat a hasty retreat through Sun Peaks a deserted and oddly green ski resort where we stayed for a night and kept driving back through Whistler taking some very dangerous back roads. Whistler was dramatically transformed. No longer blanketed by pure white snow but muddy and infiltrated by gangs of dirty mountain bikers. It still maintained some of its charm as the village has great atmosphere. We eventually made it home safely and I’m sure Renae and Peter never want to travel like that again with a little one but we had a great time. We miss them all. I hear Lauren is now standing up with the aid of furniture now.

So it’s getting to that time of our journey abroad when the emails slow down and in some cases stop all together, the calls come less frequently but we miss everyone no less. We have settled into a sort of rhythm, a lazy comfortable beat that makes the days fly by. I can’t believe it is already July, over halfway, with less than 6 months to go and we have begun to think more about our returning to our life in Brisbane.

Some people may have already heard but I finally have a job. I am an ER admitting clerk at my local hospital less than two blocks walk from our apartment. There were some hiccups to start with, unfortunately I had been buddied with a rather passive aggressive bully with little to no patience. It was from this very unpleasant woman that I tried rather unsuccessfully to glean some information about my job that I had no training in. No one likes new environments and mine felt as comfortable as having iced water trickling down your spine. I endured a couple days of this before reporting her behaviour and thankfully being reassigned to a very lovely girl with lots of experience in training. So having finished my training we thought it might be time for another holiday. Sarah, Aidan’s sister, traveled to Vancouver from Paris for a quick visit at the end of May promising to return with her fiancé Luc and true to her word they have come to join us for a short vacation. We fly to Toronto on Monday, staying at Niagara Falls, touring some wine country by the lakes and hopefully take a peek at the Toronto Zoo. Oooh I love zoos and monkeys. So hopefully we will have some great photos for you next time.

Gallery: Canadian Adventures

rosiecallinan — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 12:21:00 GMT

Vacation

Rocky Mountains and Beyond

rosiecallinan — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 12:17:00 GMT

Where to start? We’ve had such an amazing adventure it all passed in the blink of an eye and I’ve barely had time to put podgy fingers to keyboard.

Well I hear Peter, Renae and Lauren are safely back in Bris Vegas and we miss them all dearly, especially the little munchkin whose giggles and squeaks brought us all so much joy. It was really brave of Pete and Renae to travel with a 7 month old and she seemed pretty well behaved but we did however uncover her evil plot to infect the entire world - the little one had contracted some kind of antipodean superflu from some inconsiderate fool on their flight to Canada and she was not content to be the only sufferer. Her genius went undiscovered until almost too late. With her disarming cuteness she could lure people in close enough for a well timed sneeze or a cuddly touch with her snotty fingers, most were blissfully unaware of either this airborne dispersal or the ghastly germ transference as she looked so mesmerizingly adorable. I was such a victim. Anyway…

So our journey started off on lovely Vancouver Island. During the beautiful drive across the island to the Westside town called Ucluelet (you-clue-let) we scouted four ferocious black bears, well actually they weren’t doing anything exciting but there is always potential for peril, word is bears are fast, like really fast and pretty darn clever, clever enough to open car doors for the promise of a pic-a-nic basket. We weren’t going to find out but it was so exciting I wouldn’t have guessed they’d be right by the road. We were totally ignorant of bear protocol, I’d not planned on getting out of the car and staring straight into their beady eyes but overcome by bear frenzy I did, with Aidan cowering behind me – he figured as long as he could out run me, things would be ok. Now it’s highly recommended that you keep approximately five bus lengths between you and the wild animal, we may have gotten a bit close to a Muma and baby bear. Not that any harm came to us but doing so may endanger the next hapless tourist or even the bears themselves. When they get too accustomed to our presence they might get just a little less afraid of us. Not a good thing. We need them to keep that fear apparently as they have to kill bears once they get the taste for human flesh. So anyway we stayed in a spectacular cabin on Terrace beach for my birthday. It was nestled in the forest and right on the beach with an amazing view and it fulfilled my birthday retreat criteria of possessing an outdoor hot tub. Fabulous!!! We had a pretty relaxing time, we went for a walk along a nearby trail through the forest, I got to carry Lauren in the baby bjorn, and we had an amazing dinner at the Wickaninnish Inn such a scrumptious meal with a superb view. After a few relaxing days on the Island we had to go back to Vancouver and ready ourselves for a five day adventure to Banff and back. Aidan and I slept soundly again that night we had both instituted an earplugs for bed rule at the start of this happy family reunion.

The next day we set off on what would be widely regarded as the best train trip ever! The Rocky Mountaineer. The day started early, after arriving at the marshalling area and wading through a sea of blue rinses we were branded with a red maple leaf pin which was used to reflect our restricted couch class status. We were happy with our selection though envied all who carried the glossy gold leaf. Oooh the gold leaf. Those guys got to ride in a glass domed carriage with an unobstructed view and sit in a dining cart for meals. We in the red class got to peer out dirty windows on either sides of the train and eat airplane like meals with rationed drinks. Because of Lauren were afforded a little more room on the train and occupied the last few pairs of seats at the back of our carriage. This was pretty handy as Lauren found that more often that not if you were not her mum or dad and were inclined to carry her she would prefer if you stood close to the afore mentioned parents while doing so. It didn’t take long to figure out that we totally skewed the mean age of travelers on the train, maybe people our age just don’t have the time for it but it was truly a spectacular first day. The train stayed close to the major rivers, crossing them from time to time. We were all transfixed to the windows taking many photos that just didn’t do the scenery justice and that kinda end up looking the same. Our cabin host pointed out areas of interest, telling interesting stories and everybody kept their eyes peeled for wildlife. Hosts in carriages ahead of us would sometimes radio in bear spottings or my favourite big horned sheep but I kept my ears and eyes peels for the elusive Moose call. Calls for “Eagles on the left” receded as the hunt for big game was on. All in all I think there were four Bear calls, a few big horn sheep a couple of beaver lodges…. and Zero Moose.

We stayed in a hotel in Kamloops at night and were back on the train for the second half of the journey to Banff. We were having another wonderful day enjoying the view, which was far more spectacular now that we were in the rocky mountains when we were interrupted by train staff and asked if we were the Callinans. Looking quizzically at each other I noticed a very guilty look creep into Aidan’s eyes. Moments before, Aidan had spilled his precious beer everywhere and mopped it up with a couple of company pillows. He was about to deny deny deny but too late I had replied yes, we were the Callinans. Apparently and I’m still not sure how but the president Peter Armstrong whilst surfing the web had stumbled upon our blog site. ?! I know weird. We had mentioned coming on the Rocky Mountaineer in our last post and he wondered if we would like to have lunch in Gold Leaf today. Oh boy would we ever. Before we realized that we could not take our companions with us she was off but really who would miss this chance it’s like being bumped up to first class. So the lovely lady whose name I forget had said she’d be back in a moment to take us on a little tour through the train to the Gold Leaf section. We were so excited… but I see I’ve been blathering on here for quite a few pages already so I think I’ll leave the story there... to be continued in the next post. Please check out the new photos in the Canadian Adventures album I know there's a lot but I'll try to make some comments to make it more interesting. There were really some breath taking places we went too.

Hope you are all well!

Viva Las Vegas

rosiecallinan — Sun, 6 May 2007 04:08:00 GMT

Well I am breaking one of those cardinal rules here by writing this blog – as what happens in Vegas… well you know but I’m sure this PG rated holiday won’t be sentenced to jail (poor Paris Hilton hahaha). We crawled out of the depths of Sin City reasonably unscathed but it was tough when our destination although fun was designed to screw you out of your money and leave you poor and out on the street trudging up and down for miles in the sweltering heat. With a top of 12 degrees in Vancouver the 36 in Vegas felt pretty hot! But I guess I shouldn’t complain to you. We flew in at night over the bright lights of what I’ve got to admit is an amazing city. There’s really nothing else like it… glitz and glamour (and cheesiness) surrounded by dusty red mountains and desert. We stayed at the Tropicana, the little neighbour to the big green MGM Grand. In its heyday it was known as the Tiffany of the Strip but that jewel ain’t so bright anymore but hey it’s all about the location.

So what to do in Vegas when you don’t gamble and have a head that keeps pounding like a drum… oh and most of the time I was by myself. In planning this trip I almost forgot its primary purpose- so Aidan could attend a Cardiac CT conference (its all the rage). So most of the day I wandered the strip, window shopping, I think I touched every shoe in Jimmy Choo and fingered all the lovely things in the shops I can’t afford. The Venetian hotel was something else, inside the Grand Canal shops there was a domed ceiling painted like the sky and back lit, the canal had gondolas that as you ride the pole pusher serenades you. I gambled a little, very little and I even won a little money on black jack well $40 which is good because I think that put me out in front. I couldn’t bring myself to put a bigger bill that $1 in the slots.

At night we went to the shows, Cirque du Soleil’s ‘O’ at the Bellagio which was fabulously done in water, Carrot Top the comedian, I use that term only because he does and The Amazing Jonathon who was pretty hilarious. I really wanted to see The Comedy Pet show, this guy uses like 7 domestic cats and lots of other pets, Fantastic! it looked so cute on the ads. Ari, you might be interested to know that the star of The Producers is currently ‘The Hoff’ but only til May 8 or something… bummer : ( but I suppose you would be up on all that is the Hoff. For those wondering whom I’m on about I’m referring to David Hasselhoff of Baywatch fame.

In the beginning we had delusions of eating a little more healthily than we have been in the past but that was almost laughable. Buffets galore. It hard to be maintain moderation at a buffet cos really why even go? The best by far was the Bellagio Buffet and we went there for breakfast, I can still taste those juicy sweet strawberries. The deserts were to die for, you just wanted to sample a little of everything. We tried!!! Unable to walk for a while we were able to appreciate the grandeur of our surroundings, it would be very nice to stay there. After that it was off to the fountains to watch the show – but of all the days to save this sight for it was unluckily our last and they were doing some repairs on what is usually a spectacular water show set to music. Out on the boulevard walking with the throngs of people towards what surely must be a mirage because although you can see your destination you never seem to get any closer also and you only move as fast as the slow poke in front of you. Now and then you can see the fountains jet high into the sky, wishing it would land on you, most people stop and stare just for a moment, which really does nothing to help pavement road rage. Really I hate it when the person you’re walking behind suddenly stops. Phew anyway…

Aidan had a few firsts on this trip, his first monorail trip (really not that exciting where has this poor boy been) and as we said goodbye to Vegas vowing to return we scored a ride to the airport in a stretch Limo – another first for Aidan. Well we had so much fun – but it’s back to Vancouver. It’s nice to come home.

So we are planning our next trip already and I’m counting down the days. So exciting. Peter, REnae and my favourite little niece Lauren are coming for a visit. Less than 6 days now. It's also my birthday on the 14^th of May woohoo so we are going to Vancouver Island staying in the beautiful town, Ucluelet, on the west coast near Tofino. Then we are going on the Rocky Mountaineer scenic train tour to Banff. From Banff we are hiring a car and driving back through Lake Louise, Jasper, Kamloups and back to Vancouver through Whistler. We’ve been in Canada now over 4 months so it’s about time we saw more of its beauty.

Gallery: Las Vegas

rosiecallinan — Fri, 4 May 2007 10:31:00 GMT

Sin City

Whistler Wonderland

rosiecallinan — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 09:15:00 GMT

Aidan and I have been quite spoilt for a few days, while Hugh was visiting. Our usual daily routine generally involves several phone calls back and forth asking the question what is or what do you want for dinner? Our lack of imagination and willingness to go shopping every couple of days is compounded by our total lack of foresight when it comes to preparing dinners. Most meals end with regrets, a bigger blow to the budget than we are willing to admit and promises to go to the gym or start the diet tomorrow. A few weeks ago we had a breakthrough with the coming of my friend Hugh. I had long heard of the Granville Markets and have even seen it on maps but I was unwilling to venture into uncharted territory without a wingman to back me up. Luckily one was on hand – after navigating our way down under the bridge to the ‘island’ we found a cluster of shed like buildings brimming with arts, crafts, foods. Everything looked delicious, we picked up some fantastic ingredients and Hugh made each of them into wonderful dinners.

We went to Whistler that weekend again - I know you must be sick of hearing it but we had a great time. The weather was just terrible though it’s close to the worst conditions I’ve ever been in. When arriving at the top of one of the chair lifts, you are forced to navigate your way across a narrow ridge to avoid some jutting rocks before pointing your board downhill, usually not even a major. But this day when you got to the top the more than 40 knot winds and blinding snow made it difficult just to stand upright let alone see you hand in front of your face. A slight problem when you knew you were on a near precipice with a giant drop somewhere to your right. One time Aidan and I tried taking off our boards and carrying them across this pass but it was even more treacherous and you felt the board was just going to fly out of your hand, also the added wind resistance made me go backwards rather than forwards, I abandoned that method quick smart. I found myself in situations I would imagine a less courageous person would have simply broke down and cried in. At one point, had I not navigated my way down this slope a couple of times in the past, I might have truly panicked, I was way off course, knowing no one would be coming my way, out of sight of everyone and a little confused as to which way was which, I couldn’t see the ground, couldn’t get moving on my board and in thigh deep snow. I think it took more than 20mins to get moving again and find the guys. This happened more than once, to Aidan too. You might wonder why we kept catching this perilous chair lift again and again but after that initial nightmare at the top, there was the most amazing ride down, beautiful uncharted powder snow all the way to the bottom. By the time you got to the bottom you forgot how horrible the top part was. Soo much fun!!!!! There are a few new photos of our trip.

Unfortunately as luck would have it we had to have major repairs done on the car, damned second hand cars, if only we had taken it to be serviced when we first got it we might not have been in this situation. We had to spend $1400 on new brakes, replacing a broken cable (yeah that sounds great) new something else that was broken and leaking all over the rear brakes, heaps of stuff. So we had to lay off whistler for a while. Good news though they had a biggest snowfall yet the last week woohoo : ( oh well.

Aidan and I are heading to Las Vegas in April for a Radiology conference, we are both very excited hopefully one of us will get beginners luck. Anyway that’s all for now, hope everyone is well. We love hearing from you all.

Take care.

Gallery: Whistler

rosiecallinan — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 08:42:00 GMT

let it snow

Moving again! Argh

rosiecallinan — Tue, 6 Mar 2007 15:57:00 GMT

Hey everyone how you all doing? We’ve been very busy over here for the last week well that’s not totally correct it’s more that I’ve had to get off my arse and do something a little more strenuous than lifting my vodka glass. We are now officially moved into our new apartment, which unfortunately was unfurnished so I spent much of the last week looking for cheap second hand furniture that doesn’t exude an odour like something’s rotting. Normally I’d rather be doing exciting stuff like picking the lint from my belly button but I’ve had to abandon that search to pursue another - on the net, writing emails, making calls, inspecting and carrying the heavy furniture and also driving Aidan to and from work. It’s a lot for a little munchkin like me… Well we now have a bed, a sofa & love seat ?! and a few kitchen items to keep us going. Oh and I nearly forgot the most important thing a 32” television. I also in my wily ways seemed to have swindled from one poor salesman a big-ticket divx/dvd player, HDTV capable, for a mere $39. Yes as many know the sole purpose of my existence these days is the viewing of certain tv programs, so yes we have digital cable now too. Though I’ve noticed they get a hook into you right from the start, giving you a taste of all the things you could have but only for 30 days - what a tease!

Aidan is getting worked pretty hard at the hospital. The Canadian work ethic though little known is quite impressive or crazy whichever way you want to look at it. Some of Aidan’s colleagues are using their noggins well into the night and early morning long after most of us have switched off. The other night Aidan made arrangements to go to the gym after work which is not unusual, with his boss (slightly unusual) – but in my mind 10.15pm is getting ready for bed time not heading out for a little grunt and sweat in the cold cold night.

Next week an old friend of mine, is heading to Vancouver for a visit. He’s just traveled from Oz to Victoria (on Vancouver Island) last week. He’s a chef and in town for a job interview. So maybe I can pick up a few tips. Hugh, will be staying with us for the weekend so we can head up to the slopes.

It’s hard to believe that we’ve already been here for two months. The time just flies, as you would expect. But soon the snow season will end and we will have to find other fun activities to entertain us. Generally people are really active over here, there are always people outside doing crazy things no matter what the weather. Maybe some of that will rub off in time.

Well that aboot sums it up for this week. Take care.

Slopeside with Lane & Hev

rosiecallinan — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 07:17:00 GMT

Hi Everyone, Aidan and I are well and in one piece if not a bit sore. We have just returned from our trip to Big White, a ski resort 440km from Vancouver, near a little town called Kelowna.

But let me back up a bit and start with some news, no not really big news but we have found a new apartment. It’s closer to the heart of the city and unfurnished but a lot cheaper than where we are now, so hopefully even after buying furniture we will still have saved some money. I also still lack a printed resume but the shoe shop sales position is available so my hopes remain high for that job. We finally made it up to Whistler again, well we have been a few times now but there was a radiology conference up at whistler two weeks ago which was pretty cool except for that I was a little out of action due to a tooth ache and subsequent root canal, I know serious stuff. Haha well I was a little scared only cos they usually liken root canals to all things horrible and unpleasant but it actually wasn’t that bad. It took a long time but wasn’t painful at all. I went up to whistler anyway after the first trip to the dentist not realizing that the high altitudes would wreak havoc on my newly created cavity my tooth. It was aweful and I didn’t even make it out of bed the next let alone go snowboarding.

In other news Alaina and Heather arrived in Vancouver last week. Well it was bound to happen, two parallel nomad worlds colliding, and most of the collisions occurred on the snow. After hearing about their fantastic trip to San Francisco and lack of luxury in the hostel, actually I think it was a total lack of cleanliness that disturbed them the most, they seemed happy to be in a comparatively clean and cosy apartment. We were treated to dinner by the girls, went to this amazing Belgian place, a little too close to Gastown for Aidan’s total comfort but gorgeous inside and great food.

The three of us went up to whistler the next day, Aidan sadly had to work. It was a beautiful day. Heather had never been to the snow before let alone strapped to her feet a well waxed board and hurtled herself down an icy mountain without any professional instruction but she did well to only come away with some sore muscles and a bruised coccyx. Alaina played it safe sticking with her trusty skis and together we carved up the slope, taking turns to pick runs, whilst Heather got some proper guidance from someone more suitably trained. It was pretty fun. I think we got a few snaps, they should pop up on Laina’s blog site sometime soon I think.

So these girls were wearing us out and had just one more request, which really tested our friendship but a good hostess does not deny such things from her guests… they wanted to go Shoe Shopping?! I don’t know who they think I am but 5 hours of hunting for the perfect boot is not my idea of fun… hang on!!! Yes, Yes it is… we visited nearly every shoe shop within a 5 km radius of our apartment. I did pick up a little something for myself with a semi- sensible heel. It also happened to be Valentine’s Day so Aidan and I embarrassingly exchanged very similar red heart shaped boxes of chocolates. I’ve always wanted one.

The next day Heather and Alaina were to leave Vancouver to head off on their adventures to the snow and beyond. Listening to them plan and organize their trip made me a little sad that we couldn’t go with them but then we asked why not? Aidan had a four day weekend coming up and Big White was only 440km away. We left early Friday morning and could meet them in the resort (we were invited by the way). So that’s how we went on our first mini road trip. We drove through some beautiful countryside, you could have almost filmed Lord of the Rings there, an arrived at Big White 5 hrs later. It was an amazing little ski resort. Snowshoe Sam’s has been voted the #1 Après Ski Bar by a UK magazine also #1 in Canada and North America I think. It‘s also Aussie owned. We bumped into the girls halfway through the first day and were awed, like a duck to water Laina took to her snowboard. We have some photos to post and some video footage that will go up on you tube later. But sadly for me today I have to go back to the dentist. It was only a temporary filling.

Gallery: Big White

rosiecallinan — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 07:06:00 GMT

The road to recovery

rosiecallinan — Sat, 3 Feb 2007 06:41:00 GMT

So I’ve finally recovered from whatever nasty virus it was that Aidan brought home from his stanky hospital. Unfortunately it forced our little excursion to Whistler on the backburner for a little while. But all trivia goers will be happy to know that I can now be their resident expert in Veronica Mars! We all notice how much Harry loves slipping those questions in. I thought I would have nothing better than Heroes and Prison Break amid all the cable that is all the 70 odd channels of it until I stumbled on an episode of Veronica Mars. I gave myself the little project of catching up on all three seasons and I loved it. Much to Aidan’s annoyance I had myself a little Veronica Mars-a-thon! So I’m down to my last episode and I don’t know what to do with it because I don’t want it to be over. Do I do it like a bandaid and have this saga be over…. until next week of course when another episode airs, or do I do it in ten minute lots and keep the suspense going for the next few days. Hmmm…. I need a hobby.

So I have been house hunting the last few days, as we can’t stay in this apartment forever and I think I’ve found an equally lovely apartment a few streets away, which we are going to have a look at tonight. Its down by Coal Harbour, closer to the water on the 21^st floor I think. Aidan and I were asked to take out a prospective visiting fellow for dinner, to talk about the lifestyle here and lure her into coming in 6 months. It was all on the company’s dime and we were suggested a few places that would be nice. I chose the most fabulous geographically close hotspot called Lift, down at Coal Harbour next to the Westin. It was gorgeous, on the water, totally beautiful in design and the food was fabulous. I had the Lobster and 3 Martinis…. kidding well about the lobster anyway, I can’t go past duck and this was no exception, so tasty. And the fellow? She was lovely, an absolute doll from Madrid but has been spending time in Chicago doing some extra studies (very keen). I don’t know if we convinced her to come because we had to be honest about the situation and she was very interested in what we thought of the pay and if one could survive here on it. I hopes she comes though we had a good time.

Job hunting has been a little slow, I’m doing what I like to call window job hunting. This is mainly because my nagging powers have not attained critical mass with Aidan and he has not been able to remember to print out my resume. So its window job hunting and guess what!! A shoe shop has an opening. I’m putting all my eggs in one basket here and pinning all my little hopes on this shoe shop position. I feel that what I lack in experience I will make up in shoe retail knowledge, I do love shoes. I think Aidan is a little worried I will agree to being paid in shoes. I hope my reminders will work today.

Next week there is a conference at Whistler – WooHoo – so I must get some new boots, that’s a kind of shoe shopping. Anyhoo Aidan gets to go the first half of the week and the other fellow gets the rest. So this time for sure we’ll get a few photos. Plus I bought a new phone that has a better camera than mum’s actual digital camera, not hard of course, so maybe it will be a little easier to get those snaps.

Hope everyone is well, enjoying the sun and weather. It is a clear but cold day here.

Blue skies and fresh snow

rosiecallinan — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 17:20:00 GMT

Hi everybody,

Sorry its been a while since our last post. We’ve been busy settling in to Vancouver, checking out the sights and lazing around the house... sweet. Its been so rainy here, almost every day it seems to be overcast and grey with a light drizzle or a little snow. Things took a turn for the better once we got our kick-ass new truck. We headed up to mount Seymour after we sorted out our gear, about a 40 minute drive out of town, and hit the slopes for the day. Pretty cool, but quite short runs and a little icy, which makes it hard when your such a gimboid. But it wasn’t long till we got the itch again and it was off up to whistler for a couple of days. I’d heard a lot about whistler and blackcomb and I’d built it up in my mind so much I was secretly a little worried that we might be disappointed…no snow, long lines, crappy runs, that sort of thing. I was totally wrong – IT WAS AWESOME! I don’t know if its just cause I can struggle down a blue run now without doing any serious damage to myself or anyone else but I have never had such a good time on the slopes. Cool as hell, maybe even better than Japan. I think it was a bit of a different story for Rosie though, things where going just fine for the first day, but that night there were the first signs of trouble. It seems that snowboarding on the x-box doesn't really use the same muscles as the real thing and all Rosies chickens where coming home to roost. And they where big chickens. Poor little thing could hardly bend down strap on her little boots. But she soldiered on and we had a great day none the less. The little township was so beautiful and there where plenty of familiar accents – seems that almost all the lifties and waitstaff are aussies. And then it was over. Time to start work again. So far so good.

Aidan

_{_{Hi Guys, just a quick Hiii-dii-hoo from me too. If you knew how much I had to nag nag nag to get my lovely husband to write on this blog, you would forgive me for my lack of communication of late, I was itchin to write something but hey what are wives for? I will write again soon now that I have the token contribution out of the way. We are hoping to head back up to Whistler again this weekend, now that I have regained the use of my legs. We'll try to get a few more action shots.}
_{We're sorry you couldn't make it Ben we'll miss you, we were looking forward to some extra company on the slopes.}
_{Love Rosie}}

A New Car

rosiecallinan — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 08:03:00 GMT

Hi everybody!
Well we survived our first day on the road in our new car without incident and yes even from here I can hear all your scoffing, not so hard you say BUT yesterday was an unusual day for our new home city of Vancouver. It snowed all through the night and continued to snow throughout the day, this great day we had chosen to go see about a car or truck as they call it. I had researched my little heart out on our new laptop ( I luv it ) – wrote a few ? emails (thanks Andy) and found this ’93 black Ford Explorer 4x4 for sale on the net for just short of $2000 which seemed like a bargain. So we had to get all the way south to Surrey, which by bus, sky-train and cab took us no more than an hour.

We looked at the truck, which was in good knick – we were too scared to drive it – so got the guy to drive it around for us (also not keen to drive it as it had no insurance) gosh the Canadian accent gets a lot thicker when you get out of town. So we loved the truck!! & bought it We found the Canadian accent mixed with Indian was hard for us to decipher but we think in the end we got it registered with insurance which took forever and a lot of $$$ and went back to the truck – you don’t have to bring the vehicle to be inspected to get registered, no roadworthy… but it must have Aircare which is a strict emissions testing thing they have here.

So by the time we were driving home – we got the guy to back it out of the driveway – there had been a whole day of snow laid down on the roads and we were just hitting peak hour…. All in all a bad day to be driving a new car, on the wrong side of the road, in dangerous conditions with millions of other drivers. It took us about four hours to get home, the first hour we fishtailed all over the road, slid out to the side every time we stopped and almost lost it a number of times before Aidan got a feel for the car. Lucky for the new tyres and 4x4!! We moved 600m in that hour and had to pass many vehicles stopped, turned around, and in accidents. On one of the bridges into town there was a 29 car pile up and many other bridges were out due to semi-trailers losing traction on very icey inclines. What a nightmare! its kinda scary to see cars all around losing it in the slush, sliding sideways towards you or worse backwards into you But we got home safely and are spending the day inside today to recouperate. Gosh if only we weren’t so lazy the day before, we could have avoided all this.

Well it is a sunny today with a top of –2 degrees. It’s certainly looks lovely outside with the snow and sun. So take care and good luck!

Gallery: Vancouver

rosiecallinan — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 06:38:00 GMT

home away from home

myth bustin the big apple

rosiecallinan — Sun, 7 Jan 2007 08:54:00 GMT

So our time is up in the big apple for now but we have lots of awesome memories and while we didn't get to do everything on our very optimistic itinerary, we did see and do a lot of things. For the most part we found New York was just incredible. It was pretty clean, we didn't even see any cochroaches but that may be mostly due to the fact that we changed hotels a week befor we left, phew that was lucky. The hotel we stayed was pretty nice, and spacious, the people not that friendly or helpful but for the most part new yorkers were just kinda like that. We did see some very small rats (or mice really in my opinion) on the subway but other than that better than expected. Also it was really safe, the security could really interfere with your plans and these guys take their jobs really seriously but it did make you feel quite comfortable walking around the streets of new york.

We did catch the city having a little nap from time to time - I mean sure it was after the new year and most people should've been in bed at 3am but we found it hard to find a place to eat and not many people about. The food was pretty good, in fact Aidan found what he claims to be a burger that ranks in his top 10 no 8 burgers of all times. When pushed though he couldn't tell me what other burgers were in contention for this most coverted title of worlds best burger, I did agree it was an awesome feed. If the grease dripping down to my elbow was any indication of how good it was it would be in my top ten too... if I had such a thing. Portion sizing well I expected big and it was... no myth busting there. We did develop a taste for bagels too... never before did I expect to be eating so many bagels what's so good about bread with a hole in the middle you say? Mmmm it was delicious with a bit of cream cheese, so soft and surprisingly sweet. I'm afraid we can't say the same for our hot dog encounter, after searching many the street corner for a hot dog stand - mostly there was crab kalash and shishkebabs - we found one - lets just say that the next day I was never to be found down wind of Aidan... nasty!!

Well anyway all that is behind us now and we are settling in to our new apartment in downtown Vancouver and I'm pretty pleased with our little apartment. We have amazing views of the mountains, harbour and park and a great little gas fireplace making our stay warm and toasty. When we arrived yesterday it was actually snowing. Which is unusual for vancouver but it looked spectacular. Today is a beautiful sunny day though still chilly at about 6 degrees. We are lucky to be pretty close to everything we need here as we haven't figured out the transportation situation here, looks like buses are our best bet. We really loved the subway in new york and were happy to walk everywhere there but not so sure here. There are heaps of Japanese restaurants minutes from us and starbucks and Maccas even closer. All the high end shopping in near by too and Aidan has alreay noticed that The Gap clothing for Kids store is looking for staff - could be our little Lauren is going to get even more spoiled than she already is.

Well our mission today is to find a few things like a car, laptop and I so need a hairdryer so we are off to search the nearby streets and see what they have to offer.