Anyway, done me long run, nice and hot, sweat drips off my elbows which I find quite funny and then home to quickly get in the car to pick up the food shop.
Why does it take so long to put it away! Took me ages to get it all in the fridge/freezer. I had to rearrange drawers and cupboards. 1st World problems I know.😐
This morning was spent sorting the house and garden out as we were having the lovely Hale family over for drinks and nibbles. I cleaned and tidied, Rob did the lawn and cleared up the garden. The pool is looking good 👍
I managed to read my book for 5 minutes before everyone arrived and I think I'm going to like it. I am able to just pick it up and carry on from where I left off and I seem to be ok concentrating on it so that's all good. 📖
I'll just sum up the visit. We all had a really lovely time. We ate, drank, listened to music, laughed, watched the boys in the pool and talked for hours. I think they booked their Uber home and left around 10:30pm ish, nearly 7 hours after they arrived 😂😍
 |
| Toes got cold 😊 |
I cleared up the garden and kitchen while Rob put Leo and Oscar to bed who were both shattered from all the playing and socialising and I wasn't far behind them. 😊😴
Where they to? - 1st August Banff
It's not very often that a day goes by where you get to say that you've fulfilled one of your lifetime's ambitions but, for Mush, today was one of those days. Despite our best intentions of getting out of bed early to hire some bikes and have a look around the town, I think yesterday's bus journey took its toll and we didn't end up leaving our room until about 9:30.
The accommodation here, despite being a YWCA hotel again, is far more humble than in Vancouver. Gone is the fridge. Gone is the sink. Plus, despite being inland where Canada is generally hotter, there is also no air-conditioning. It's still perfectly adequate though and we still have a private room. Sadly, we were the victims of our first mugging, late last night, only minutes after disembarking from the bus. A horde of mosquitos were lying in ambush after they heard a rumour from an advance party they have stationed 20 miles down the road that some fresh meat was being delivered. The problem is, it's impossible to swat a mosquito who is dining on your leg when you have a 75 litre rucksack on your back. Well, that may not strictly be true but, given the choice of losing 2ml of blood or hitting the floor like a sack of spuds with 15 kilos of your wife's belongings coming crashing down on you, the mozzies just about win. With hindsight, we must have made for quite an entertaining spectacle to the people sitting on the terraces of the bars that we passed, as we can-canned our way down the road while occasionally kicking ourselves in the shins. Perhaps they heard our accents as we cursed the insects and just thought that Monty Python's Flying Circus was real and that we were in Banff on some overseas business on behalf of the Ministry of Funny Walks.
Having had some breakfast and doused ourselves in insect repellent, we set off for town. The tourist info centre gave us some great advice on where we could cycle to get some nice views and photo opportunities but, with lunchtime approaching, it didn't work out economical to hire bikes just for the afternoon so, we had to find something else to do for a few hours. We'd seen a sign for some stables on the way into town so we decided to take a look. Mush has spent much of her life around horses having grown up either having one of her own or having ready access to them. My only horse connection, on the other hand, is that I'm hung like a donkey - or is it just that the other hand's very small?
The lifetime's ambition I spoke of earlier, was to ride a horse in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, so, against my better judgement, that's what we did. For 2 hours of hacking our way alongside a beautiful river, over some rugged hills and through some dense pine forest, and for some time afterwards, Mush's face had a beaming permagrin attached to the front of it. She's been on a high for the rest of the afternoon and her joy made it, every bit, worth the discomfort that I endured. It might not have been that uncomfortable had it not been for the fact that 2 of the three points of contact between the horse and I were in-operational. You see, my stirrups were too long. For those of you who have never ridden a horse before, this means that no matter how much I straightened my legs, I was unable to take the slack out of those leather strappy bits that you put your feet into. Therefore, the third, and only, point of contact had to bear the full impact, for 2 hours, of 16 stone of oaf being lugged around the Canadian countryside. And, remember, I said there were rugged hills involved. When we got back to the stables, I was able to perform a pitch-perfect rendition of "Walking in the air" to entertain the horses while they rehydrated themselves and had a good roll around in the dust.
The picture below is the route that we took on the horses. You can see the river that we followed for the first part before we diverted off into the trees.
We have postponed the bike ride until tomorrow now, but first, we must check out of the YWCA and check into a hostel up the road; our first time in dormitories. The dorms sleep 6 so I've no idea what to expect. Neither of us have stayed in a hostel before and have no idea if there is a special etiquette that we're supposed to know and observe? Am I supposed to wear a pair of jim-jams to bed to save any blushes? Are we allowed to have a lamp on to read in bed, indeed, will there even be a bedside lamp? What if we are in a room with 4 big, hairy blokes called Hank who take a liking to the cute little Englishman in the corner? Will we be surrounded by crusty dope-smokers called Brad who have to get up at 1AM because they've got the munchies? Will we need to use our special bed-liner sheets for the first time? If one of our room-mates snores, are we allowed to give him a knee in the ribcage to shut him up? Will anyone take offence if I put my head under the covers to smell one of my farts?
As long as all our stuff hasn't been nicked, I'll let you know the answers to all these questions and more in tomorrow's diary. Meanwhile, keep your fingers crossed for us.
----------
Just a little quiz from the Travel Diary. We took a GPS tracker with us, we lost it in Mexico after leaving it on a coach but can you guess what routes these pictures show?
Hope my head feels alright tomorrow although I'm feeling okay now so should be fine. 🤞
No comments:
Post a Comment