Sunshine & Injuries

Imagine a snowy paradise, with pine trees covered in white powder, mountains reaching above the clouds and stretching as far as the eye can see.... this is my home. It has been for the past 10 weeks, they have been the best 10 weeks of my life, I’ve had experiences like never before, seen things I never thought I would see, it truly has been AH-MAY-ZING! That was until this week, when everything changed....

Spring arrived and with it, warmth! No longer do I have to walk to work in -35 degrees and walk to the bar at night in -47, my hair no longer freezes when I walk outside after a shower, in fact our freezer crate drilled to the outside of our window is now rendered useless with the heat. We now sit on the balcony in tee-shirts and boardies enjoying a beer or two after a long days work in the tropical 3 degree sunshine! Unfortunately with warmth comes the spring melt, and thus conditions get treacherous.

My CASI (Canadian Association of Snowboard Instructors) course had been booked for nearly 3 weeks now and the day finally arrived when it began, April 21^st. I was doing the course with my 2 roommates Dave & Keith and the standard was high. We were tested on both riding and teaching ability over a 3 day period. It hadn’t snowed in 10 days and the overcast weather was preventing the sun from softening the ice, which means we had to ride on rock hard icy conditions attempting to turn and teach without slipping and falling on our ass, for a fall was a nearly certain fail.

Two days went by quickly; evenings were spent studying in preparation for the final exam on day 3. Day 3 came and went; we each taught our 2 lessons and the examiner said “go for a ride boys, the results will be presented in an hour”. Feeling pretty confident that we had passed the course we decided to go for a quick lap through the snow park.

I launched off a kicker and caught an edge, rocketing through the air, the down ramp now long behind me I knew this wasn’t going to be pretty. The solid expanse of flat ice drew closer and closer towards me until I finally had to make the decision, “how the farqqqq am I going to land!” I opted for my left side, and I can’t remember why but my shoulder hit first followed by my hip, ass and legs. Its at this stage that I roared out in agony, my arm felt like it was going to explode! I laid there for a few minutes trying to attract someone’s attention, when no one came I got my phone out of my pocket and, just my luck...... “No Signal”........ unable to move the entire left side of my body, I tried to attract attention, 15 minutes passed before somebody stopped, luckily it was “Ski Patrol” at this stage my teeth were chattering, I was shivering which was causing my arm to shake. The Ski Patrol man spoke into his radio calling for help. Trying to keep me from passing out he asked “how the hell did you get here, your 20 meters from the down ramp!” Unzipping my jacket he tried to determine the cause of injury.

10 minutes later a skidoo arrived with a spine board and 2 more men, after an agonizing “1,2,3,heave” I was placed on the board and towed down to the gondola, every bump in the snow caused excruciating pain in my arm. I was loaded into a wheel chair and onto the gondola.

Thank God there was an ambulance waiting at the base, but my ordeal had only just begun... the paramedics were TRAINEES “ahhhh for goodness sake just give me some morphine!” it took 10 minutes for them to decide which drugs to give me. By now I had waited 25 minutes at the crash site, 5 minutes on the ski-doo, 20 minutes on the gondola to the bottom of the mountain and now another 10 minutes with paramedics, a total of an hour before I finally passed out from pain.

I woke up at the hospital with a neck brace and doctors crowded around my bed. My arm was throbbing and there were x-rays pinned on the wall. The doctor explained that she had to pull my arm back into place before she could brace it, my arm was pinned down by 3 nurses, they gave me an extra dose of morphine but I still felt every ounce of the pain the doctor caused when she yanked my arm. After another 2 x-rays I was given the diagnosis: A fractured humorous and 2 fractured ribs.At about the same time I received a message from Keith saying congratulations you are now a Snowboard Instructor!

I spent the night at the hospital which is when I realised the extent of my injury. I am unable to dress myself, unable to sit up in bed without assistance, unable to tie my shoes, unable to bend my elbow, or cut up my own meals. I can’t shower without my entire left arm being covered in plastic. I attempted to pick up my phone and dropped it on the floor, my left hand now rendered useless. I woke up to a $3000 medical bill and a note saying I needed a check up for surgery on Tuesday.....

Thank God for my roomies, Jenny and the girls down the hall!

I might be coming home a little earlier than expected guys.

My Baby's Been Stolen

The day started out like any other, up at 730am for a sweet day of ripping up the slopes. Only today was different we just had 15cm of fresh powder snow and I thought I'd take advantage of my Staff Pass and snowboard at a different resort-'Lake Louise'. WOW what a great decision that was, 3 of us got the bus out there and the conditions wee AH-MAY-ZING. The day was going brilliantly right up until the lifts closed at 4pm and it was time to go home. Then it went all wrong.

I put my snowboard on the rack with everyone elses and went inside for a quick toilet break before I got the last bus back to Sunshine Village. I came out no more than 5 minutes later and thats when it hit me..... my baby had been stolen. 460 GBP ($900) worth of brand new snowboarding kit had simply vanished. AHHHHH! So annoyed! Its things like this that make me loose faith in society!

As if thats not enough suffering for one afternoon, I filled out a Theift Report only to leave empty handed on my way to the bus stop. Thing is the last bus left 20 minutes ago. It was 4.50pm at this time. By 5pm I had decided to hitch hike back into Banff, I couldnt go home now because the Gondola closes at 530pm which left me bedless, snowboardless, and downright cold. It was at this point that Mother Nature thought she would jump in on the 'make Matt miserable day' and pull a violent blizzard from nowhere, of course blowing into my face as im trudging along the highway with my hand out hoping that someone would take pity on me and pick me up. I have to also add that I was still wearing my snowboarding boots which are definatly not made for walking long distances! I endured this for another 4 miles before anyone stopped for me.

So by 6pm I'm back in Banff and need to fill out a formal report at the police station so I truddged along the road only to arrive and find out that the station is closed and only in opperation between Monday and Friday.

To make matters worse I had to be at work the following morning for ASIP training but of course I was stuck in town!!! Thankfully I managed to sleep at a friends place but I was violently ill all night long, dry heaving. So I got a grand total of 30mins sleep and was up at 630am for the bus ride to work. I arrived on time only to throw up during the training sesion and be asked to leave.


AHHHHHH the last 24 hours has been a bitch.

Thats me done complaining now.

The New Life

It all began that fateful day of my job interview... my life sat in the balance between getting the ultimate dream job or failing and heading home. I was merely applying for a Cashier position but the stakes were high, Sunshine Ski Village was receiving 150 resumes a day, it looked tough, and it was. I scored the interview (I'd won the first battle) and it was flawless, I arrived on the first bus and was over an hour early, anxiously waiting by the log fire place for Craig to walk through the door of Creekside Restaurant. Smack bang on time at 9am he came and introduced himself to me. The following 45 minutes went brilliantly, I went home and anxiously waited on a phone call..... which never came.

9am the next morning was possibly one of the worst phone calls I've ever received "Hi Matt its Craig from Sunshine, I'm ringing to say unfortunately you were unseccussful in your interview". Well shit! Back to the drawing board and once again I was up against 150 people! Time to lower my standards... I applied for a Dishwasher Position (also at Sunshine) and once again got an interview offer within 24hours, score, praise God! I got the call while I was doing my shopping, "I know its late notice but can you make an interview in 30 minutes?" YES! I ran 2 miles up Tunnel Mountain to the 'HI Hostel' I was staying at and by the time I got to the top I was exhausted, sweaty and certainly in no state for an interview, but I had less than 10minutes to get to the coffee shop now! A quick deodorant shower was suffice as I threw my resume and visa papers into a folder and ran out of the hostel. Needless to say downhill was MUCH easier than uphill and I arrived with 2 minutes to spare.... phew!

Tick tock... tick tock, 10minutes passed, then 20. I was beginning to wonder if I had the right coffee shop. 30minutes, 40...... 45 minutes late Mark introduced himself to me, grabbed a coffee and sat down. The interview went like this " DO you want a job?" yes " can you start Monday?" yes "see you then!"
Oh man couldnt that have jsut been said over the phone!?

Thing is I had a job and I was stoked! 2 weeks later and i'm now living on the top of the mountain with 200 other staff members. Litterally 2 minutes walk from work and even less from the closest ski lift. With spectacular views of the Rockies from my window, cheap accomodation @ only $200 a month, a unlimited free ski pass for numerous different resorts, what more could I ask for..... oh did I mention after only 3 days they got me out of the kitchen and into the original position I applied for!? Bonus huh!

I now work 7am-8am shoveling snow (if it dosent snow, I dont work) 9am-12pm is my daily ride break where I can rip up the slopes at my own leasiure and have a brilliant time. Then I return to serve people and clean the buffet area from 12pm- 7pm. Add 2 days off a week and you have the ultimate of all jobs!

I LOVE LIFE!

STD's, Snowboarding & Sunshine

I'M IN CANADA! Do you believe it? I still don't, that was until I stepped off the plane into temperatures of -21C! Wow what a shock to the system that was. Now 2 weeks later I'm well and truly adjusted to the sub zero temperatures and have learnt that if it gets above -5 then its a tropical day outside. So heres the not so great news I'm living in the STD capital of Canada with aids ripe for the picking amongst other diseases, oh man!

So after the snow cleared off Heathrow's runways I re booked my flight and I left the UK on Sunday the 8th Feb, 2 months later than originally planned. After a 9 hour flight I arrived at Calgary International airport and thankfully did not run into any major problems with immigration like my England incident, infact it took me less than 10minutes to get a 2 year working permit in my passport. I was picked up from the airport by my couchsurfing host Meaghan and I habitually went and got in the passenger seat door, which is infact not the passenger seat at all! After a frightening drive home on the left hand side of the icy Canadian roads I crashed on the couch.... my new bed.



I ended up staying on that couch for 7 nights while I got settled in to my new home, setting up bank accounts and phone numbers and trying desperately to find a job! In that time I went cross country Skiing, swimming, and to the gym. The most exercise I have done in MONTHS! As such I couldn't move the next morning. But the country side out here is beautiful, and despite the icy temperatures its always sunny.

A week later at 6am on Monday morning we road tripped out to Lake Louise and I had an opportunity to try out my new snowboarding kit, the weather was beautiful, not a cloud in the sky and the snow was powder.... heaven on earth. My new kit felt like driving Scotty's Lancer after a long day in a tractor, I hit a black run on my first day out on snow in 2 years and IMMEDIATELY regretted it after picking up too much speed and completely loosing control, it must be noted that when your feet are tied to a plank of wood, this is BAD! I managed to draw a significant crowd who all stood back and watched me drop down the near vertical slope totally out of control yelling look out to the people below me, I plummeted down the hill and stacked it directly below the chair lift, only this time it wasn't me laughing I was the one being laughed at. I didn't care it felt like I had broken my back and I'm surprised I didn't after sliding 200meters at about 60km an hour. I just wanted to fade out there and then.

However after about 5 minutes my dignity was long gone and I struggled to my feet. Went slowly down the rest of the slope and called it quits for a lunch break. I met some great people over lunch and all of a sudden I was compelled to get back out there on the powder no matter the pain! I snowboarded till the last lift closed at 4pm, at which point I realized this was going to be my life for the next 4 months!

Meaghan drove me into Banff on her way home and I made my way up to my hostel dragging behind me my snowboard, with my backpack on my back, my travel pack on my front and a load of shopping in my arms. Had I of known that my hostel was at the top of a hill I might have considered waiting to do my shopping. I immediately found my bed and fell asleep after a long day out on the slopes. I went for a wander around the town the following morning and found out some interesting facts; like banff was Canada's first ever National Park and I can see why its BEAUTIFUL.... I also found out that Banff is the STD capital of Canada. Looks like I'll be confining myself to solitude on the slopes, me and the snow are totally going to have little snowboard babies and its going to be amazing! 4 months of solid snowboarding madness I'm psyched!

It's now Wednesday night the 18th Feb and I have my first job interview bright and early tomorrow morning out at "Sunshine" ski village. I'm super pumped - if I get the job I get unlimited free skiing at 6 different resorts, staff accommodation on the slopes and meals! What more could I ask for!?

Wish me luck!

The Neverending Story

I'll jump at any excuse for a party but when your hit with 3 in a row, life goes crazy. From birthdays to casinos and everything in between I have had an IMMENSE Australia Day weekend! Sure it differs from Australia in that its below zero here, Brits are lucky to know what the abbreviation BBQ stands for and there are certainly no beaches, but the people and the night life nearly make up for any losses.

Now that Luke has gone home to celebrate Australia Day on home soil its given me the motivation to get up and leave the UK after weeks of procrastinating. Originally my flights were booked out for the 29th Dec but after 7 date changes the date is finally locked in for the 4th Feb, in fact I've changed my flights so much that the entire call center working for Air New Zealand now knows me by my first name, saying "Hey Matt, its Lisa, how have you been? I take it you want to change your flight dates again?" haha now thats service!

With leaving only 10days away all of a sudden I realized that I NEED to squeeze all the things I've been wanting to do into my final week. So here goes:

Saturday the 24th Jan was Jessica's 20th Birthday party and also the start of my 82hour party streak. We went to Rich's place for pre-drinks and pizza before heading out to hit up Liquid. No-one wants to take a jacket out clubbing so we all left the house in shirts, sure it was freezing but at least it wasn't raining as we made the 2mile walk into town. We arrived at 11pm and didn't leave till the club shut at 3am, where low and behold we all suddenly wished we had jackets. It rained the whole way home, the only break was when we stopped for a kebab.

I crashed on the sofa at Richs place at around 4am and was up at 8am to catch the train home. After I got home I chillaxed on the sofa and cleaned myself up ready for a night out at the Reading Casino, and what a night it was! Dad gave me 100 quid to gamble and it was my lucky night!! We got picked up in Steve's twin turbo charged Jag and FLEW to Reading where I got signed up and went on in. First stop was the pokies which are nearly a guaranteed loss, I mean ask any of the lads who came to Jupiters Casino with me on Schoolies week, right boys? Turns out I once again managed to hit the feature and my 5 quid gamble quickly turned into 65 quid!

Counting myself lucky I went for a meal with Dadio, Steve and his son, before once again returning to the gaming floor. This time I went to the Roulette tables, where I put 1pound on red 7.... what do you know red 7 came in. followed immediately by a 1pound bet on 0.... dah dah dah it came in!! Now 70 quid up on my 2 quid bet I was going alright. My luck continued through the night and I ended up winning about 500 quid which is just under $1200 AUS. Then it all went tits up! It's now 3am and I was left with 6 quid which I put on and around 24, lucky last bet..... it came in and paid 200 quid! I happily walked out and the night was over. Got home at 4am and was on the phone till 6am.

Up early the next morning admittedly I didn't feel too bad after my winning streak last night but was still in need of some relaxation time, so what did I do? I organised an afternoon of go-carting with Dadio on Thurxton raceway, with a top speed of 58 m/ph these karts were not to be messed with! I drove foot to the floor along the back straight which ended up in me driving through a tyre barricade and onto the grass... oops. I quickly learnt from my mistake and came out winner with a best lap time of 58.095 VS dads 58.109 heck yes! Thats an ass whooping. haha. After that we went to the cinema and watched Role Models, which was about the time I realised its Australia Day and I although exhausted could not turn the opportunity down. I caught the train into London with nothing planned, no where to stay, 80 quid in my pocket and alone.,after all it was a Monday and most sensible people are in bed early for work on Tuesday morning. Hitting the most logical bar in town, 'Walkabout' I was in for a treat. Finally some real beer, VB stubbies were on sale and thats unheard of in these parts. To top that off they had an Australian band playing and it was easy to spot the real Aussies from the London wannabees! The Aussies sung along patriotically to songs like 'A Land Down Under' and 'I'm a Bloke' where as the Londoners just danced mouthing unknown lyrics to try and fit in lol.

So amongst all the Australian celebrations I met some Brazilian girls who invited me to hang with them for the night, not such a bad deal I didn't think. We caught a cab from Temple Walkabout on route to Piccadilly Walkabout where the party continued. We danced all night long and for a fleeting moment I actually thought I was at home. But 3am came and the bar closed, having lost the Brazilian girls at this point I meandered out of the bar en route to some unknown place to rest my head. I went back to the only place I know.... Waterloo Station. Found myself the most comfortable rock hard bench I could find out of the wind and pulled my hoody tight around my head put my gloves on and plugged my iPod in and what do ya know a bed was born. Sure it was the most painful and cold sleep of my life and honestly I only laid there for an hour before realising that the hope for sleep was long gone. I caught the first train from the station and rode around on the subway for 2 hours waiting for the shops to open.

It's now Tuesday morning and I've had a total of 9 hours sleep since Friday night, I just spent the last 2 hours on the subway and partied for 3 nights in a row... I looked like death, and Death is in my experience not what you want to look like when going to meet some girlfriends for coffee later on in the day. I dashed into Primark on Oxford St and got myself a new outfit- one that wasnt sweaty and covered in alcohol- followed by a quick dash into a chemist to permanently borrow some aftershave and I was as good as new!
I went to Tower Bridge for the rest of the morning and ate my lunch before heading out to meet Alexis Medrano and Hayley Parker.... the first 2 girls, and two of the best, I met on my trip all those months ago in Thailand!! After some serious catching up I went back to Alexis' place and waited for my train home. Not surprisingly I got on the c2c train from Rainham and fell sound asleep, after all I had over an hour to get back home to Hook, or so I thought. I overslept my stop and had to get off the train and turn around so the journey took an extra 30minutes ahh!!

Finally the walk home from Hook station took 20minutes, I stopped off to get Indian takeaway on the way home. Then collapsed into bed which is where I have remained for the last 12hours until now.

With only 7 days to go before I leave the country the countdown is still on to squeeze in as many events as possible before 130pm on Wed 4th! Let the fun begin....

SMILES =]

A white Christmas?

Well as you all know I spent my Christmas this year in England with dad, Luke and the family. Unfortunately there was no snow! But the incredible 3 course meal we had on Christmas day soon made up for any other disappointments, it melted in our mouths. Johnny & Jake had spent the entire day in the kitchen preparing a feast and it was exactly that!

On Boxing Day we had 38 people over in the new house in Holt Lane, talk about crowded =] But we had a great time, family and friends came around for the celebrations and Georgia and Elliot brought their Wii along with Shaun White Snowboarding and Guitar Hero! Well man I was set, JD and coke in one hand and a guitar in the other, we partied the night away.

Some might say that I’d already had enough partying in 2008 but I was ready to see in the New Year in style. The night was organised, the girls from Bristol had invited me to a house party and I was all set to go, copious amounts of alcohol and fireworks sounded like a night that I would never remember but never forget! That is until the death flu got a hold of me and confined me to the sofa. Home alone on New Years.... not anybody’s idea of fun, talk about a quite night in!

I couldn’t move my muscles were aching, I hadn’t eaten in 4 days, I couldn’t swallow, I was shivering in the cold, I thought the world was all coming in on me. But I powered on through, trying not to listen to the loud music coming from down the road, or the fireworks and celebrations from town. I think I may have fallen asleep before the clock struck midnight only to be woken up by my mobile ringing and screaming voices wishing me a Happy New Year. I guess I’m just gona have to make New Years 2009/2010 twice as good!

It’s now Monday the 12^th Jan and I’m currently sat in Dublin International Airport waiting to check in for my flight back to the UK. I’ve been in Ireland all weekend and it’s been a blast (on the credit card that is!) at $13 a pint it’s nearly too expensive to go out, souvenirs are way over priced, actually I’d go so far to say that Ireland is even more expensive than the UK. But with all that aside I had free accommodation with the lovely Maire who was a fellow Gap Year representative, and he has been an absolute angel. I arrived into Dublin on Thursday the 8^th Jan to a smiling face at the airport, and after 8months of travelling alone it’s a great feeling to have someone meeting you once you get off the plane in a foreign country! We spent the afternoon wandering the streets of Dublin and the rest of the weekend doing the tourist thing.

I get home in a few hours, heck the flight is only 45minutes followed by an hours train journey. Now in all logic a flight should cost more than a train right? WRONG! My train costs $37 return and yep you guessed it I only paid $21 for my return flight!! Now why can’t Australia offer these deals!? Luke heads home on Thursday back to the sunshine ‘Down Under’ which means I’ll be heading back to work soon before leaving for Canada on the 2^nd Feb.

Wait they just called my flight over the PA system that’s my que to go. I wish you guys all the best of luck at uni this year and I’ll see you all back home in June!

Till next time...

SMILES =]

TIME FLYS!

Wow I'm sitting here and it's Christmas Eve and has been 2 months since I left my last blog! So sorry for the delayed and lazy blogging. I guess we have alot to catch up on!

So in a nut shell: I got a job, Luke arrived, I went on another traveling adventure, and amoungst all that I've been renovating the new house!

So the New House has been nicknamed the Whitehouse where Dad is the President as EVERYTHING is being painted white. We thought we might have it ready for Christmas but putting in 3 bathrooms, a new kitchen, 3 bedrooms and changing all the plumbing jsut dosent happen in 10weeks so here we are at Christmas eve after weeks of hard work with a house that is half finished but livable and hopefully able to contain the 38 people coming on boxing day!

As for my new job, I'm working as a barman/ waiter at a pub and I'm having a ball! Possibly the best job I have ever had! So good infact that I've delayed my Canada trip by another month to hang around and spend some more time in the UK. So with that job and working on the house I was racking up 70+ hours a week which helped pay off some debts to dad and the bank but I was in need of a hard earned break.

On the 4th December I left the house headed on the midnight train to Gatwick Airport, I had planned a weekend away in Amsterdam with some American friends that I've met along the way on my travels. The flight didnt leave till 615am so when I arrived at Gatwick at 1am I still had alot of time to waste. I ducked upstairs and checked in my baggage then went downstairs to try and settle in for some sleep on the chairs, apparently every other man and his dog had the same idea and so there was zero room for me to lie down. So I did the next best thing, I scanned the room for some good looking girls and spotted two, conviently-with one spare seat beside them. So I got over there only to realise that they were speaking a TOTALLY foregin language which never helps when you are trying to make conversation. I tried Hello in numerous different lanugages and after several failed attempts and loads of girlish giggling they said hello in English.... GAHH! Why couldnt they just do that to start with? Turns out they were from a country called Estonia which is apparently somewhere in Europe. We went and got coffees and chatted for the next few hours waiting for our flights.

Come 615 I was on the first flight out of the country on route to Amsterdam. I imediatly passed out from sheere exaustion on the flight only to be woken 30minutes later as everyone was disembarking the plane!! Short flight!
The American crew arrived at 830am and we made our way into the city on the train. When we got off I was shocked to see a place I recoginised! Not from my own travels but rather the movie "Euro Trip" haha. It was Amsterdam Central Station. We got off the train and were confronted with an icy blizzard of snow and rain only to find out that we couldnt check into our hotel for another 5 hours. Being as we were in Amsterdam we went into a coffee shop, which arnt hard to find! Now it shoud be noted that Amsterdam is one of the only countries in the world where it is legal to publically smoke weed. So instead of being given a menu for coffees we were given a menu of joints and hash. And I was shocked to see this sign posted on the window....

It's legal to get high but smoking a cigarette inside can get you behind bars for the night. lol But I'm not a smoker never have been and never will be so I stayed well clear and stuck with my trusty bottle of English water!

We stayed at a fabulous apartment not far from central station for 150Euro ($300) a night, might seem expensive but between 5 of us it was affordable. Next day we hit up all the sights, and of course being the home of Heniken we went to the original brewery. Imagine 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' but replace Chocolate with Beer and you have the perfect vision of this factory. Complete with beer waterfalls and beer tasting, with a lounge room bigger than any normal house complete with 7 projector screens and suround sound, with the roof made of beer bottles, it was the ultimate boys day out! Top the day off with a city organised club crawl throughout the streets of A'dam we didn't get in till 4am!

Unfortunatly though it was only a weekend away and 3 days quickly passes, before I knew it I was on a flight home. On the 9th at silly o'clock (5am) Luke arrived from Australia. Was great to see him after 7 months of being away from home and family. The past few weeks have been spent working and chillaxing saving up some cash for the Snowboarding season in Canada. Last week Luke, Dad and I went and played Laser Tag which was a blast, followed by Ten Pin Bowling and I kicked some serious sibbling ass! 151 Vs 110

Now its Christmas Day tomorrow and we have loads of people turning up so this is me signing out! Hope you all have a GREAT Christmas season, I'm missing you all loads and look forward to seeing you next June! Have an AH-MAY-ZING New Year.

BLESSINGS & SMILES FOR 2009 =]

Matty