After a month of minus 30 degree weather, searching for jobs and facing the very real possibility I wouldn't have anywhere to sleep on New Years Eve, everything finall fell into place, two days before Christmas.
Louisa was offered a job at one of the many chocolate shops in Banff, which included accomodation. Soon after her boss decided she needed someone extra and hired me purely on the basis i was Louisa's friend. So despite looking for different work in different companies, we were working together and sharing a room.
The chocolate shop paid badly by Australian standards but well by Banff. And we did get to sample an awful lot of lollies - especially the macaroons, which were chocolate and coconut pieces that looked like a turd but tasted like tropical paradise.
We needed the sugar fix to get through the day. The customers were often difficult and the boss psychotic. She would go from telling you she loves you to saying you're the worst emplyee ever and she wants to sack you in seconds.
There were a few quetionable practices like picking things off the floor and putting them back on the shelf or rubbing expiry dates off with metho. But after a month of searching i was happy to have any job.
Blake and Andy found work in Canmore, the next town. It was only 15 minutes drive but the buses were so unreliable and expensive we didn't get to see them ovten
Luckily we made a good group of friends to go tobogganing, ice skating and snowboarding with. I learnt that winter is actually fun if it is cold enough!
The two months workign there went by far too quickly and all of a sudden it was time to leave. This time Louisa wasn't coming with me because of a visa issue, and saying good bye was very strange after 11 months together.
