JIan visit and August Long Sneak Peek

Okanagan Wine Tasting

Whitewater Rafting

Wheels goes on his first adventure

Lake Louise Hiking

Calling the bears

Canoeing Lake Louise

Wine and Cheese

Kayaking Lake Louise

Swimming in the glacier lake

Drunk in Lake Louise

We've had a big week! 

Jemma and Ian visited on their way back to Australia (they've been travelling for nearly 4 MONTHS!!) They went on some local adventures with O'Hara as he was on days off.

We went to Lake Louise for the BC Day Long Weekend. Friends from Cobar, who now live in Vancouver joined us in hiking, drinking, eating, kayaking, drinking and eating.

It's been brilliant! Full update will follow!

Look mum, I can make stuff

Canada has an incredible fruit season over summer. All the stone fruit and berries. I'm in heaven.

I made an attempt to can peaches... It was a bit of a fail. The peaches weren't quite ripe enough and I didn't succeed at all at splitting them in half!

Still 3 jars of potentially delicious canned peaches!

Who is the biggest sports fan?

This is the second time in a row we've been overseas during the summer Olympics. In 2008 we were in London (bad timing huh?) and got to experience first hand the England vs Australia rivalry. This was also the first time GB competed as one "country" (still sceptical) and the first time they beat us in the medal count in who knows how long.

Needless to say it was painful.

The thing I could appreciate though, was fire that goes down between the two countries and their fans. It's brilliant.

Now, I am overly competitive and look for a competition in nearly everything. To a point where I feel it's one of my bad traits, but I've yet to find that same fire in Canada. It's making me sad. I have two friends from Canada who've made the trip to London and are at a few events, they are my heroes. The most I've got from anyone else was "I just hate the f*#$ing Yanks".

On the other hand my boss and myself have been hunched, screaming over my phone screen at work and crying a little every time we got silver. So that's been fun!

My life during the 2012 Olympics

Canadians are super sports fans don't get me wrong. Hockey fans are almost manic and I've heard the winter Olympics are wild. But they don't seem to have the same "if it's a good game/race it's good viewing" attitude that Australia does so well.

I have a theory that Canadians have a deep hatred of losing to America and therefore the Olympics are a brutal display for them.

Maybe it's that they don't get how the Olympics works CTV Overall Medals (they think they're coming 11th -but this works in Australia's favour so shouldn't complain).

It's pretty hard to see, but the total medals are tallied rather than gold being worth more...

Or maybe it's just that their love of sports stems from the winter months and spending days stuck in your house. In summer everyone in Canada is too busy camping/boating/at the lake to get into sports. Australia has cricket, therefore sitting inside drinking beer on a 30+ day is acceptable...

If anyone has the secret I'd love to know. Also tips for getting Canadians riled up about the Olympics?? Please! I've only got a week left!

Happy (dating) Anniversary Lover!!

7 years ago O'Hara so eloquently asked if I would be his girlfriend. And I'm quite glad that he did!!

 I love that you want to travel the world and see amazing places with me.

I love that you push me to try new things.

I love that you think it's cool that I am a giant.

Mostly I just love how much you love me!

Now for your entertainment... when trying to find some cool gifts for you, I came across this impressive Canadian Olympic swag.

Who doesn't want a denim jacket with Olympic patches on it? Especially one of a BEAVER! Given the red jumper doesn't look so bad in the photo. I real life it's pretty bad arse.

AMAZING!

Jeremy "let's go out in Kamloops!" Borowski

WE HAD OUR FIRST GUEST!!! Knew that 2 bedroom apartment would come in handy!

Jez was in Kamloops on a very brief stopover from a site visit in Alberta. He's currently working in Mongolia, so it was probably the shortest and longest work trip ever.

Wednesday is one of my favourite days in Kamloops because we get to play beach volleyball, drink beers, eat wings and drink more beers. It's swell. Jez acting as our personal cheerleader didn't seem to work so well this week as we didn't win a single game (in our defence it was our first week in B division - up from C where we'd been for 2 months!)

Jez managed to keep our friends entertained, and not offend them enough so that they wouldn't talk to us ever again!

We managed to convince him that two-step lessons at a local country bar were probably over at 11pm and instead we made a pathetic attempt at whisky drinking and had a long overdue catch up (those stress ridden days before the wedding did NOT count!)

Thanks for visiting us Jez! You left O'Hara with a significant hangover that was only cured at lunch time by a Dairy Queen Blizzard!

#tallgirlproblems

During my random stalking/creeping/wasting time on the Internet I came across what I think is a hilarious hash tag. #tallgirlproblems.

There is a blog Tall Girl Problems which can be pretty funny, but it's mostly a bit of a rag about being tall so it gets old. Twitter and Instagram are much more entertaining.

I love awkward photos with beautiful people!

These are my personal and favourite #tallgirlproblems

You always know when you're looking good or looking shitty....
Good day
Stranger - "Wow you're so tall and beautiful, you must be a model!!!"
Shit day
Stranger - "Basketball??"

People inadvertently insult you...
Stranger 1 - "It must be great being so tall!"
Stranger 2 - "No.... I wouldn't like it at all"
Me - "Ummmm thanks"
Stranger 1 and 2 - "Basketball??"

People assume it would be really hard for me to get a boyfriend and feel the need to ask personal questions...
Stranger - "So do you ever date anyone shorter than you?"
Me - "I'm married"
Stranger - "Ooohhhh?? How tall is your husband"
Me - "About 3 inches shorter than me"
Stranger - "Reaaalllyyyy? Do you ever wear heels?"
Me - "If I want too??"
Stranger -  "Basketball?"

Really, I think being tall is awesome.

I can ALWAYS see at concerts.
I can put on 5kgs and no one would even notice, also my healthy weight is a 20kg range.
If I'm wearing workout clothes, people always think I'm some pro athlete.
Go Go Gadget arms.

Height is just that great thing that you can't do anything about... though I do get secretly jealous of everyone that can wear beautiful heels!

This is one of my favourite photos from the lovely Melissa Tuck Photography. GIANT BRIDE!! HAHA

While the husband works hard, the wife plays

I have the greatest husband in the word, I'm sure none of my non-married friends would disagree. Over the last few months O'Hara has put in hours and hours of overtime to ensure New Afton will actually start making money. A lot of people obviously made this happen but I love O'Hara the most and I'm super proud of him!

YAY to O'Hara and money!!

So what have I been doing while he's slaving away? Fun things. Lots and lots of fun things.

A friend had her hens/bachelorette party on a cruise. To Mexico! It was amazing and I was so lucky to be living in Canada and therefore be able to justify a cheeky trip to LA for the party. It was a 3 nighter and I think we spent ~1hour in Mexico. We ate street tacos and sampled tequila so that was a success. Her family is hilarious and I spent much of my time with stomach pains from laughing too much. This ended in stomach pains from cruise flu, but aside from that was awesome!

The beautiful people I got to cruise with!

My favourite Safety Manager is making the trip down under to Peak, which means we sadly have to say goodbye to him. There was however, a pretty sweet farewell that included teaching my boss to shotgun a beer and Two-Step (no not Tassie Two-Step. It's a real dance).

Who wouldn't want a cake with all your workmates giving you the finger? (Or "fingering you" in Canadian. Dirty bastards)

I spent a Sunday on a lake out at Barriere, on a supposedly cold overcast day that turned out to be a balmy 27 and sunny. A friend at work has a wake boarding boat which I'm pretty jealous of. We cooked up a delicious feast of cheese smokies and spent the day on the water. The lake was pretty much empty as well due to the shitty forecast. Double win!

First time tubing in a long long time. My face says it all

 An interesting side note, the Canadians jumped in the water and hopped straight out saying "ooohh it's a bit brisk in there". I jumped in a floated about for about 10min noting how warm the water was. It appears they don't breed them as tough as they do in Tasmania!

Smokies are a delicious version of hot dog that you cook on a BBQ

Finally, I had a work trip to Blackwater which is a New Gold mine in the exploration stage. It's basically in the middle of nowhere in northern BC. Helicopter or a 4 hour bus trip from Prince George is the only way in. I didn't see a single Moose though which was a bit devastating, but the scenery is beautiful and it's really interesting to see a mine in this stage.


I wouldn't mind commuting so much if this is always how it was!

Unfortunately, I have a 9 hour layover at Prince George airport waiting for my flight home. This is NOT what you want to see when stuck somewhere for 9 hours (this is the only food stop)....

To all the Kenso College kids... it says Eurest down the bottom there

O'Hara is now on a 7/7 roster which means he gets every second week off. Now it's his turn to relax!!