Ground Hog Day!!!

I can't believe it, it's Ground Hog Day. I thought that it was made up for the movie but apparently it is real. So... they monitored the Ground Hog's at a place called Balzac which is just north of Calgary about 15 minutes and the Hog's have stuck their heads up out of the ground and as they couldn't see the shadow of 3 of them apparently legends says that Spring is going to be early this year. Pity it couldn't come earlier.... I am sick of the snow.

Mind you there is no sun today - any wander there is no shadow!!!!


A quick history of Ground Hog Day...

The legend of Groundhog Day is based on an old Scottish couplet: "If Candlemas Day is bright and clear, there'll be two winters in the year."

Every February 2, people gather at Gobbler's Knob, a wooded knoll just outside of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

Residents contend that the groundhog has never been wrong.

The ceremony in Punxsutawney was held in secret until 1966, and only Phil's prediction was revealed to the public. Since then, Phil's fearless forecast has been a national media event.

The groundhog comes out of his electrically heated burrow, looks for his shadow and utters his prediction to a Groundhog Club representative in "groundhogese." The representative then translates the prediction for the general public.

If Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, it means six more weeks of winter. If he does not see his shadow, it means spring is just around the corner.

Approximately 90% of the time, Phil sees his shadow.

Phil started making predictions in 1887 and has become an American institution


At 7:28AM on Friday February 2nd, 2007, Punxsutawney Phil, King of the Groundhogs. Seers of Seers, Prognosticators of Prognosticators, Weather Prophet without Peer, Imitated but Never Equaled gave the following proclamation:

El Nino has caused high winds, heavy snow, ice and freezing temperatures in the west;
Here in the East, with much milder winter we have been blessed.
Global warming has caused a great debate;
Mild winter makes it seem just great.
On this Groundhog Day, we think of one thing:
Will we have winter or will we have spring?
On Gobbler’s Knob, I see no shadow today;
I predict early spring is on the way!

Sunrise at 8.30am

I took these photo's out the window from work at 8.30am the other morning. I couldn't believe it when the sun was still rising so late in the morning. Unfortunately they came out blurry but thems the breaks...





This is a picture of Joyce's new truck. Joyce and i worked together and Calgary stampede.

New Years Eve

I spent New Years at a Pub called Aussie Rules in Calgary with Trina and her friends. There is practically nothing Australian about the pub except it is called Aussie Rules and they serve VB and Bacardi Rum, which is no good to me as i drink neither. But a good time was had by all. Aussie Rules has 2 grand piano's and they play music all night, mostly what people request. The only aussie songs they know are Land Down Under, Tie me Kangaroo down sport and Walting Maltilda. Pretty weak, but it was a different kind of atmosphere and loads of fun. So thanks to Trina for taking me to Aussie Rules and making it a great new years....

Photo's from Fernie

Assorted photo's from Fernie. I took some up on the Ski Hill and some down town.
















Thank you John and Julie for letting Nathan and I come and stay and spend Xmas....

Xmas in Fernie

Well this year was really good to be able to go to Fernie and spend xmas. My friend Nathan came with me. We debated for quite some time where to spend xmas as all we wanted was a white xmas and we were invited to go and stay with John and Julie O'Shannessy. Their house was really nice and we were greeted when we got there by Julie's parents. They were so welcoming they were offering us drinks and food as soon as we walked in the door. We got comfortable very quickly and soon met up with John and Julie. They had to work nearly the whole time we were there but all is good Nathan and I entertained ourselves. We spent time walking around the town and then on xmas day we went up to the Ski hill with John and Julie and skiied while they worked. John is a ski instructor and Julie works in guest services. It actually snowed on xmas day and i had my first real go and skiing. So it was a great day. We spent all day on the hill and then came back to the house to get ready for dinner. We did presents at 7 o'clock and dinner at 8. Dinner was great. I made everyone a prawn cocktail and we had turkey and potato's and plum pudding. Of course i made sure that there was lots of chocolates and we had good wine.

After xmas day poor Nathan got sick and spent time in bed and so i spent time wandering around the town and cooking dinner for everyone. Boxing day we had left overs and on the 27th i cooked Gnocci with chicken in my garlic cream sauce. It went down well. I was lucky that i had it ready when i did as we had a power black out and had to eat dinner by candlelight which was actually really nice.

John and Julie have the most gorgeous dog. It is an Alaskan Mallamute called Nooksie. He was so friendly he didn't even bark.

These are some of the photo's i took on xmas day:

The Hockey

Since my last update i was really lucky and was taken to the Hockey to see the Calgary Flames play against Detriot. As i managed to stay friends with Brad from the Oil company that i worked for and there were some spare tickets that night we got to go. The tickets are in the second row and we sat behind the players bench. The flames won 4 to 0 that night so the atmosphere was great. Thanks Brad!!! I have posted a few of the photo's that i took that night the last one is funny. Seeing the other team pout as they were losing.

An update

Well it's been a while since i have updated everyone. Since coming back to Calgary i stayed in a hostel for about a week until i finally got my own place. I have been lucky to share with some really nice guys. It was an all male household until i moved in and even though they are only about 23 they are nice guys to share with. The house is usually messy with beer cans everywhere and empty pizza boxes in the lounge but it's a cozy and friendly home so i don't care.

So i have been working as a temp since i got back and at the moment i have been placed in a great position in a hospital. I am working with the Southern Alberta Tissue Program as a secretary. My position involves doing an awful lot of Data base work and updating clients files. I was even allowed to go to the lab and help to throw away human hip bones (Femur Heads). It was not grose like you would think, it was a good day. I am also working nights and weekends at a store called Shoppers Drug Mart. It's my first time at being a check out chic and although it's boring and hard to stand on your feet for a long time i am kind of enjoying my first experience at being a check out chic. It's also good because staff members get a 30% discount.

Calgary has been experiencing some of the coldest weather on record. We have days where the weather has been up to minus 28 degrees with the wind chill making the weather feel minus 40 degrees celcius.. I have had to wear thermals to and from work. One day stupid me forgot to wear them and man did my legs hurt. I have never known my skin to hurt so much. I have to wear snow boots to and from work and take a pair of shoes in my bag and then change my shoes when i get inside. Winter is high maintenance. But once your inside the snow is really pretty to look at. Bloody slippery to drive and walk in and looks yukky when it goes brown. Makes for a really funny scene when i try to walk down the street and fall over with arms and legs flying everywhere like something out of a cartoon.

It's only about 4 weeks now until my visa expires and then it will be time to head home. I have not started making plans yet for coming home it will all be last minute after Xmas when i see how much money i have. So god only knows i night be swimming.

Anyway am gonna fly now...

More later

Shell
xxxxx

Photo's from Grand Cache and Fort McMurray

Walking thru the bush and Falling down the hill in Fort Mac, Quad course in Grande Cache

11 Days in the field

Well after 11 days in the field i had to quit. I got up to my new job and the terrain was much easier to handle. Compared to Grande Cache it's flat but by flat this means compared to mountains. The ground is very uneven, the forrest is mossy and most of the ground is really soft. So again i go out having to bush bash to get to each point that needs surveying. The bush was getting thick sometimes and i was finding it hard to crash my way through. I have so many bruises on my leg it's not funny. I am sporting some of the biggest bruises that i have ever had in my whole entire life. So i struggle through even after my first 2 days of falling in the swamp. The first day i fall in and get that wet that i had to go and sit in the truck and dry off while everyone went back and kept surveying. The second day i literally walked 5 minutes on the way to our line and get to my first creek and tried to cross and i literally fell in up to the waist. I had to be pulled out. Again soaked we went back to camp and i spent the day in camp because they had to keep working and i was too wet. You have to be so careful of hyperthermia especially me i am not used to the winter weather so i stayed in doors that day. So on day 3 we go out again and i get through the day without falling in. Cool. But then after a couple of days, even though i was getting used to the work that i had to do, the weather started to go below zero. It got to minus 10 and i just found it so hard to cope with the weather that on what turned out to be my last day one of my bosses looked at me and said i think you should stop doing this, you can keep doing this if you like but you look so miserable and i think that you are going to struggle more when the weather gets worse. Minus 10 sounds so cold and believe me it is, but to a true blue canadian it's not that cold. People kept saying to me what are you are going to do when it gets cold. I was not sacked and it was completely my choice to go in the end and i cried tears of relief when i made the decision and it does take a while to get used to a winter this cold. There are some that adjust very quickly and then there's me. Most of the time i struggle with Melbourne winter. So i gave it a go and decided that it just wasn't for me. I am back in Calgary now and think that i will just stay here for the next couple of months as i only have 8 weeks left on my visa and i know a couple of people here so i shall just stay here and then decided when to go and where i am going to go on the way home.

It's beautiful watching the snow and seeing it all around on the roof tops and across the paths and stuff but man it's cold. Also i find that the snow sticks to everything and then it melts and things get wet. So what is a pretty thing turns out to be a right royal pain in the ass. But only about 8 weeks left and then i come back to summer.

There were some photo's taken of me out in the field and so when i get ahold of them i will post them so you can see some of where i was.

take care as always

Shelley
xxxxxx

A quick update on the work situation

So after touring for the month of September and then coming back to Calgary to wait to be sent out in the field Shelley starts to run out of money. This of course became a bit stressful and i was extremely lucky that i was able to stay with a couple of Australians that i became friends with at Stampede. Poor Rachel and Tim. When i got back from my travels i was supposed to be going out to the fields within a few days but the job kept getting delayed and i ended up staying there for nearly 3 weeks. I also bought my friend Nathan up from Vancouver to come out to the fields to work with me and he was staying there also. So after staying longer than ever intended due to lack of funds we finally were able to go out to work in the field. Although not before i had another lot of stress fall on me. As i was getting low in funds and i had already been a temp with Wolf Surveying (which is how i came to know about jobs out in the field) the company needed a temp Receptionist again and so agreed to let me work for a few days on the Reception desk for some extra money. So when all of this was happening with the phone calls to the agency to let them know i was working in the office for a few days the agency then realised that i had agreed to take up a position with Wolf and then asked for a fee for me as they introduced me to the company. So suddenly i was faced with the prospect of not being able to go out into the field and work as Wolf would not pay a fee for an unqualified employee. Oh my god. So the company was kind enough to negotiate with the agency for me. This went on for 2 days and to cut a long story short they eventually agreed to waive the fee. So 2 days later we finally get sent out to the field.

My gosh what an experience it has been. So i end up going out to the field one day later than everyone else as i was looking after the Reception desk until Friday so i went on the Saturday instead. So on my first day i get to do Quad training in the most mud i have ever been in in my whole entire life. So then the second day i set off to the fields. I wear my Australian Ecco hiking boots and layers of clothes and set off up the mountain. Well that turned out to be a big mistake wearing the Ecco's. I slipped about 8 times going up the mountain, which was about 800 metre's vertical and about a 55 degree incline, and then kept slipping throughout the day even though the terrain was flatter and then just to top things off we decided to take a short cut home straight down the face of the mountain. It was bloody steep practically straight down and of course i just about went all the way down on my bum. After about the 78th time that i fell i finally burst into tears through sheer frustration and so was made to wear better boots the next day. If it wasn't for two of the Slashers - who are Newfies ( People from Newfoundland for those who don't know what newfies are) i wouldn't have gotten down safely. I had one holding my hand behind me and the other one in front of me to make sure that i didn't fall too far. They looked after me all day. They gave me a dry pair of gloves, they cut me a futon to sit on at the fire that they made at lunchtime, they cooked me weiners on a stick for lunch, and on one of out breaks they cut me a bench to sit on with their chainsaw. Talk about spoilt..... Ya!!! Newfies!!!!

The next day i wore my Canadian bought boots which worked a whole lot better. Not as much falling over but lets just say that i have quite a few battle bruises to show off. Again the next day we had to walk too far up the mountain for me to handle and again we came staight down the side of the mountain and though i did not slip over half as much it still scared me a little. The Newfies stayed with me again, they are such gentlemen... I should bring one home with me, though the only problem with that is that i barely understand their accent making conversation difficult at times. Their accent is very influenced by Irish decendents so mix that with Canadian and i am sure you can figure it out for yourself how hard it would be to understand them.

So after my second day i went to the company and explained that i thought that the terrain was too hard for me and thankfully they understood and are sending me to another part of Canada which is flatter. I still worked the third day which we started in a different area which was flatter than the previous days.

With the work that i am doing in the mountains it is supposed to be that you survey about 1 to 2 km's into the bush and then when that is done you are supposed to be taken to work in a helicopter and fly over the part you have already surveyed and then get out and keep going. The client for this job is tight with money and didn't want to pay the expense of the helicopter and so far haven't supplied one. So on my second day i had to do a 3km walk into the bush survey 1.74 km's and then do a 2 km walk out. So you can imagine my apprehension at completing the job. knowing i was going to have to walk up mountains everyday when i had already had so much trouble staying on my feet. So i completed the third day and then came back to Calgary with someone who was driving come back and am going out to a new job site on Wednesday. This time the terrain is flatter and i may even get to do some quad biking which will be cool fun....

I am just lucky that the company was so understanding about it. so fingers crossed that the next job goes heaps better.

take care all and keep me up to date with news back home...

Shelley
xxxxxx