An old new year

Maybe it's being fifty - something dwelling on my mind, but when the most appealing venue for new year's eve is the Royal Canadian Legion for the only band in town that plays stuff you have heard of and cheap beer, it does make you question if reality is knocking at the door. 

So far most of the tracks they have covered are from bands that are at least half deceased ( including 'Teh' Quo') and there are an alarming number of orthopedic looking shoes shuffling across the dance floor, and I don't think Rogain or Grecian 2000 do a grey-t deal of trade with this crowd. And there is a lot of beige, but given I'm wearing chinos I can't cast the first stone on that one. At least they are not elasticated, although I sometimes wish they were. Must be strong and not give in, although the belt might....And I have got lace up boots, not velcro....

Possibly the only bottle of Benedictine in town behind the bar, and not a jaegermeister in sight....Maybe it's not all bad.

Next year's - Tijuana.....ai ai ai bang bang!

A Merry 'white' Christmas

to everyone, wherever you may be. It has been a glorious, sunny (and rather cold -15C) day today in town but it was snowing at 1am when I looked out of the window, so my first official white Christmas. When Mark came back from skiing, the outside pool was open so he went for a dip to stretch out his muscles

Baking is done, dinner is in the oven so it's prosecco time. The bottles have been chilling outside as there was no room in the fridge, so my first glass was a 'slushy' as the bubbles had frozen

Oh well, time to persevere with the rest of the bottle...

It's not so much the cold,

It's the humidity that'll kill you.... to quote the late great John Candy in Cool Runnings. And at -29 c this is the coolest I have ever been, And probably will ever ski as they stop running the lifts at -30 c

Apparently this is unseasonably cold as it doesn't usually get this bad until January, and skiing can be quite hard work as the snow can get quite rough like sandpaper so there can be a bit more skating and poling involved, all while wrapped up in everything so I look even more like Bibendum than normal

Winter is definitely here

As I stood in the driving snow on Sunday morning waiting for my ride to Banff for our winter concert, I did briefly question what we were doing here. It continued to snow all day and so the mountains had lots of powder yesterday. The temperatures have continued to drop and we have a high of -17C forecast today (it is currently -24C). Here is a snapshot:

Canmore, AB, Canada

Tuesday 11:00 AM

Partly Cloudy

⛅

-24

°C | °F

Precipitation: 5%

Humidity: 70%

Wind: 6 km/h

Tue              Wed             Thu             Fri             Sat

 ⛅      ☀       ⛅      ☁     ⛅

                          

-17°                  -17°                 -17°                -16°            -15°

-27°                  -27°                 -23°                -22°            -22°

I had to borrow Mark's coat on Sunday as mine wouldn't button up over all the layers! Our concert went really well and it included pieces from the concert band and big band too, not just them supporting our choir. Some of the musicians are so talented. Afterwards, I joined a few others to sing carols and excerpts from Handel's Messiah at another venue, this time outside in the snow. It was only -12C then and was lovely standing around roaring fires. This evening we're doing a flashmob outside at one of the local supermarkets then back to the Legion for a bit of Christmas cheer.  All I can say is that I'm extremely thankful for M&S thermals, although I never thought I'd have to wear more than one layer at a time...