Still Life With Books: Happy 2007!

oops... sorry for disappearing for a week or so there - I had intended to blog a little from Vancouver, but what with all the last minute shopping, christmas-ing, boxing day sale shopping, and then skiing at whistler, there just didn't seem to be the time! Heading out to Vancouver takes as long - and costs as much - as flying to England, so I rarely seem to get out there much any more - so when I do have time to spend with my family, it tends to be all-consuming!

Mike spent Christmas day with his family, and then flew out to join me on the 26th. We then spent a day and a half shopping for my new ski-jacket, and preparing for a few days on the slopes - thanks largely to a 1/2 price accommodation deal that we bought the week before Christmas! Couple that with one day of free lift pass that we got by trading in Air Miles, and the discounted lift passes we bought from the 7-11 in Vancouver, and we actually had a pretty good holiday for not as much as it could've been! My brother and his wife came up also, but we didn't get to see them as much due to a combination of things - the hotel messed up their reservation, which resulted in them getting settled late the first night, then they got a complimentary dinner at the otherwise unexceptional (and too pricey!) hotel restaurant for the second night, and the third night was New Year's Eve and Mike and I weren't interested in paying $150 each just to go to a club that Dominika had chosen, on top of the $50/meal restaurant that she had selected... and people think Christmas is over-marketed!

But enough chat - here's the photo essay:

here's my parents' tree, which was supposed to have been posted on Xmas day, as Merry Christmas greeting...

now jump a few days and we're at Whistler:

this chilly looking Inukshuk lives at the very top of Whistler Mountain. His not quite so chilly looking friend lives just a little further down the hill by the Roundhouse, Whistler's main hill-top lodge. Personally, I think someone needs to knit this guy a sweater!

Here's Mike skiing...

This is one of the runs at the peak of Whistler Mountain... can you see Gavin the snowboarder sitting on the right there?

Here he is actually moving (on a different run)...

This is taken in the Harmony Bowl - the ski run in the middle ground is the green run that takes you back to the front of the mountain after the lift closes (at 2:30 in the afternoon! Whistler and Blackcomb are so big that they have to close at 3:30 so that everyone is sure to be off it before dark)

Here's Mike having lunch in the Roundhouse lodge...

Oops... that's Mr. Grizzly Bear in the Roundhouse. This is Mike in the lodge:

This is when we were silly with exhaustion on the last day and decided to try and use the phone camera's mirror to take a photo of ourselves... I think Mike's phone got better results... maybe I'll post those tomorrow!

Then it was New Year's Eve... we went to Earl's, a chain restaurant with surprisingly good food, where one entrance price got us dinner and dancing...