swing low sweet cable car................

it seems that if I had made the choice to go a few km's further down the highway to Lake Louise yesterday instead of Sunshine, I could well have spent the afternoon standed in one of the cable cars - the whole system on the mountain ground to a halt & people were stranded for hours before being rescued in a where eagles dare stylee

i once got in a cable car at whistler and this girl managed to throw up seconds after the ride started, by the end of the 10 minute lift to the top we were literally fighting each other for the tiny window as the smell was devastating - easily one of the longest 10 minutes of my life

i'm going to Lake Louise on Saturday as it's local's free day - better pack an extra bag of Werthers

i'm loving a few new songs at the moment, but none more so than Velvet Cell by Gravenhurst now added to BCR Radio on your right - it reminds me of late 80's My Bloody Valentine - this is in the running for my end of year & not at all much anticipated - Yuletide Dozen (a pointless attempt to emulate John Peel's Festive Fifty with obviously no audience participation & 38 less tracks).

tune of the day Gravenhurst - Velvet Cell

blue canadian rocky radio is up & running..........

well Sunshine was in short supply today at Sunshine but a few inches of powdery snow overnight made for a great days snowboarding - my legs felt good & lasted out 'til 4pm & the lifts closing & then it was a quick dash over to the good old Grizzly Paw to try out their fabulous new Powder Hound Pilsner, I definitely recommend this after a hard days riding

you may have noticed that we've gone all tech' on this site & installed a radio thingamajig to the left of this text - simply click to play or select individual tracks, i'll update it every now & again to keep the playlist fresh

charlton seem to be slipping into freefall, we've got to ditch the crazy 4-5-1 negative tactics & play proper football with 2 strikers up top - but therein is the problem, other than Bent our strikers would be better off out here snowboarding for all the use they are

well thats it for today, pop on a tune from the radio, pour yourself a cool beer or a cup of cocoa & enjoy

tune of the day - Nirvana - Pentecost Hotel

suicide deer from hell...........

freight wagons north of Olds ,AB
(22 November 2005)




i didn't really get a lot of time to look round Edmonton today but the centre sure looked nice - very artsy in places with a smattering of good coffeeshops & nice looking bars/restaurantslooks like i'll be back there again before Xmas so maybe more time to explore

then on the way back to Canmore we got a little lost & ended up in the pitch black on a quintessential Canadian country/mountain road, tall fir/pine trees on either side - terrifying unlit bends & suicidal deer running at you every few hundred yards

i was kinda glad to get back on the well lit Highway 1 after what seemed like forever

tune of the day : Stuck InsideOf Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again - Hugh Cornwell

have you lost your love of life, too much apple pie?

i drove the long straight Highway 2 today from Calgary to Edmonton and for the second evening running we had a spectacular sunset over the mountains in the west - not just a ooh look the sky has gone a bit pink sunset but a fuck me look at those colours man thats unbelievable sunset. i stopped and took a load of pictures & will post some up when i get a chance, the whole sky was salmon pink with fiery clouds underlit by the sinking sun - an unforgettable site

people have been wandering round Calgary & Edmonton in a daze, it was 70+ degrees in Calgary today, you could see people walking round carrying umpteen layers of discarded clothing - even here in Edmonton 300k's to the north of Calgary its positively balmy

it won't last though raging snowstorms are on their way for the weekend, good news for the Bannf ski hills which are in desperate need for refreshemnt

it's the 42nd anniversary of JFK's shooting today, that story has got to be the most interesting, intriguing political saga of the twentieth century - to me it seems obvious that he was bumped off by some kind of extreme right-wing/Mafia related crowd, but maybe i shouldn't say that so publicly - everyone who knew anything about his death met mysterious & sudden ends

tune of teh day - The Wedding Present - Kennedy

oh what big horns you have.........

quiet day today, in fact the highlight was either (a). seeing a sheep with big curly horns at the roadside in Bannf national park or (b). Tabitha not waking up until nearly 9am

as i said a quiet one

we stopped at Johnson Lake in the afternoon & watched people skating on the frozen lake, had a picnic & wandered around a bit

not much happened

then we went home

as i said a quiet one

watched Clerks in the evening, it's just been re-issued on DVD - a classic & very funny film with a sad ending

tune of the day: cemetery gates - the smiths

chocolate & cranberries.......

I bought a Chocolate & Cranberry Sourdough loaf from The Urban Baker in Calgary today, talk about delishusss - the loaf was the colour of cocoa powder & it had more chocolate than your average Cadburys bar - I had to exercise sterling self control not to wolf it down in one. Sometimes the flavours are mish mashed beyond redemption in North American cuisine but this was as good a combination as you could hope for. Not sure what sandwich filling I'd put in it though!

I realise after yesterdays photofest of cool scenery & blue skies that I should redress the balance a bit & list some things that aren't as good over here as in the UK, the list could actually be a really long one but here's some ideas...

Dumb-ass Trucks & SUV's - I'm tired of seeing ridiculous gas guzzling SUV's & Trucks, usually the size of army tanks - cruising through the City streets. You hear about the ice caps melting & then see some baseball be-capped, slack jawed chav driving one of these things & all faith in humanity is lost. Why? Why? Why?

Radio - god the radio over here sucks, if I hear Billy Joel, REO Speedwagon or Huey Lewis one more time I will buy a SUV. Daytime radio is stuck in a timewarp where Bonnie Tyler is cutting edge & the DJ's probably look to The Hairy Cornflake for inspiration.

Sport - Ice Hockey is just about OK, but American Football & Basketball - aaaaaaaarggggghhhhhhhhh!! I do miss Radio 5 Live & Sky Sports (even though you can get both on the internet)

Coffee - I have yet to have a really good coffee from a coffee shop here in Alberta, Vancouver no problems - but over here they seem upset if you don't dump half a tonne of sickly hazlenut or vanilla syrup into a freshly brewed latte.

I'm sure I can rectify the above & (a). understand why it is you need a truck the size of a double decker bus to get your groceries on a weekend (b). learn to appreciate the finer points of Men At Work's back catalogue (c). enjoy the 5 minutes of action & 6 hours of analysis that seems to be a "Football" game & (d). savour the flavour of hazlenuts & sugar, sugar & more sugar with my morning coffee.

Or maybe not. Who knows.

Tune of the day - Gravenhurst - Cities Beneath the Sea

party pictures are here....

but to protect the innocent on;y those who know me can see the pictures

drop me a mail & I'll pass on the web address

have fun

in the blue canadian rockies website.......

don't get too excited, it's the very crappiest of efforts with dreaweaver but at least i have got some photos up now of Canmore

most of them are taken from our house, from the front, side & back windows & the rest were taken on a sunny Saturday morning walk into town

enjoy & let me know what you think

to follow very soon will be the leaving party pictures - finally!

tunes of the day

the paramounts - you've got what i want
the troggs - evil woman
bob seger - two plus two is on my mind

down on the street.......

this is our street, we are on the left as you look down the street towards Ha Ling Peak - it was about -6 when I took this but it's warmed up considerably since then - in fact today we reached about +5

balmy 

man do I ache.......

2 hours of indoor soccer tonight, an hour in the gym last night, a massive trek to the Nordic Centre on Sunday pushing a stroller through the snow & a good session on the slopes on Saturday - muscles I didn't even know I had are aching - all good I guess, as fitness comes quickly at these higher altitudes

fitness is one thing you could discount for the contestants on TV's "Barbecue Challenge" tonight - as some real lardy monsters competed in a televised cook off to produce the best barbecue. this must be some kind of regular show but it had me hooked as these guys cooked a small farms worth of meat using all kinds of ridiculous chemicals, fancy gadgets & copious amounts of sweat which appeared to be dropping from their meaty brows right onto the meat - no wonder one judge thought the chicken was salty - yuk!

well england lost the cricket - i abandoned hope after watching courtesy of sportingstreams.com us collapse to 104-6 - i hope it's not a slippery slope but messrs flintoff & pietersen need to learn the art of buckling down & chasing totals patiently

i finally got round to buying a coffee grinder & percolator today, the house smells of coffee & i love it - i know its bad for you but i drink gallons of the stuff & kicking horse coffee here rules man!

tune of the day - devils is in the details - broken family band

such is life......

as we walked up the road today to the Nordic Centre, a fluffy little chipmunk type creature bound across the road to greet us - realsing we had no food to offer it turned it's back & made it's way back towards the trees only to be flattened by a passing truck!

oh dear.

totd - 84 Pontiac Dream - Boards of Canada

ice, rocks & more ice...........

it was an icy kind of day today, my car was covered in a thick layer of ice when I lurched out bleary eyed into a cold Canmore morning.

the road from Canmore down to Lake Louise was little more than an elongated ice rink making driving a nerve wracking affair especially with huge trucks sweeping past on the other side of the two lane highway you negotiate just before you get to the resort

finally Lake Louise ski hill was little more than a thin covering of snow & yep ice - with a liberal dusting of board grinding rocks, all in all not ideal conditions for the first ride of the season but i stuck it out for a few hours before a combination of tired legs & one rock grind too many sent me scurrying for the warmth of my car & the slide back home

tomorrow we plan to check out the possibilities of a bit of cross country ski-ing up at the Nordic Centre, which is a few minutes from our house - i have never X Country Ski-ed before so it should be interesting, all i know is that teh skis are very slender compared to downhill skis & it looks like hard work

Canadian TV is poor, really poor - we watched a decades old edition of Blackadder tonight - it was the best thing on! The one where Blackadder has his Puritan relatives round for dinner at the same time as a drinking competion with Lord Melchot, to squeeze the show into a 30 minute slot & accomodate at least 10 minutes of commercials during this half hour the programme was savagely cut - i reckon the pesky programmes over here are a real nuisance for the advertisers

oddest thing they are tring to sell at the moment is a kitchen worktop appliance cookbook, where some loopy old guy is trying to sell you a cookbook for making gourmet food without using the oven or the microwave, hence you get chilli con carne cooked in your kettle & pizzas made in a toaster - why? surely if you are in a kicthen & you've got electricity you would use the oven to make your pizza & the hob to heat through your chilli???

on the music front i have just ordered the ne walbum by The Singing Adams - this is the guy from the brilliant Broken Family Band going solo for a bit, i've heard a few tracks & I love it

totd: Joy Division - Ice Age

far below the country rolls like a mighty boiling sea..

we hit it at about 12,000 feet & for the next few minutes it was cling on to your seats time as we descended through the infamous Rocky Mountain turbulence - despite knowing & hearing all the time that turbulence is no threat to an aircrafts safety, it's a pretty horrible experience & something I'll have to get used to as it seems I will be on a plane pretty much every week

it's rememberance day today & i dedicate this blog to the memory of my Great Uncle who perished in 1915 during the slaughter in France - here in Western Canada we get a day off to remember the fallen & it's certainly well observed in terms of TV covergae & local services

tune of the day - sunflower river blues - john fahey

walking down the trans-Canada highway, I was talking to a firefly.......

well, one year ago tomorrow little T entered this world, it was quite possibly the worst day of my life as she clung on for dear life on a life support machine after a traumatic birth, it wasn't until about 6 weeks later after a spell in intensive care & the all clear from her brain scan that we were able to relax & enjoy the sheer pleasure that a little baby brings - she is absolutely fine now, i think the mountain air is doing her a world of good - she is perplexed by the snow though - we took her up to Lake Louise on Sunday & she was as quiet as a mouse as we wheeled her round the lake in tempertaures of 6 below freezing - poor thing

the ambience of this beautiful scenic spot was somewhat spoilt by 3 busloads of Japanese tourists who came tumbling out of their coaches & spent 20 minutes photographing & videoing everything that moved - most hilarious of all was a Micheal Jackson lookalike in long black coat & fedora hat who struggled through the snow in thigh high black leather boots with six inch spiked heels!!

i picked up my car today, a brand new Audi Quattro - not the most fuel efficient I admit but the deal was very good & it's a safe car for transporting little T around these wintery mountains

so I love Neil Young's new album, check it out if you haven't already, even more suprisingly I like the new Rolling Stones LP & I have never said that before - partly because the last time they released a decent one, I was a mere slip of a lad - I also dig new LP's by Richard Hawley & The Reigning Sound

well thats about it, I had a great night last Thursday with the wonderful Sabs - we sat OUTSIDE & ate a spot of dinner, OUTSIDE in November in Toronto - the world has gone mad I tell ya...

my tune of the day for little T
my girl - otis redding

just a quickie.........

busy, busy week in Toronto - and I am about to spend an evening downtown with a friend of mine who lives here

back in Canmore tomorrow evening & looking forward to the weekend, i think we'll go and explore a little bit, if the weather is good

totd - cortez the killer - neil young