Bursting the Banff bubble and other related activities

So the last few weeks have been a bit of a struggled for me. Definitely as the result of a combination of things, and I've tried to focus on why I'm out here..  to have fun, blow off steam and ski loads/ mountain bike in the summer before going home and adulting... but Banff is a pretty small place, and after a number of little incidents, I've found myself a wee bit down. The Banff bubble as I've come to call it is an interesting phenomenon. Don't get me wrong, I'm used to bubbles, from boarding school, to Uni, to living in Aberdeen (awesome city but literally everyone knows everyone), so why has this place been so different. Still not a hundred percent sure but it's getting to the point where I've been going out and getting hammered on a regular occurance as there is always another group of people doing something on any given night. Worryingly have been the number of evenings I have had mind blanks from the amount I've drank. Friends informing me what I did the night before is ok maybe once in a blue moon but three times in a week is just silly. Genuinely concerns me how I've been acting out of character and I'm meant to be the happy guy, so being down has been a wee bit poo. I guess everyone feels this way every so often but it could be to do with all the drinking and skiing on repeat. Added to this, I think it hasn't helped that many friends have moved out of the hostel and has left me feeling a little alone if I'm honest, I mean I still live with 3 of my mates but as everyone now has full time jobs and has moved out, bar Dan and I, the group of friends has split in physical terms even if we do try and meet up as much as possible. I don't know, I'm working on it, and I've decided to try to take days out from skiing to work on my CEng.. really do need to get this done. Come on Bridges!! 

However, not to write about a sob story as it's just been a sh*t few weeks, I've also decided to start exercising more, mainly as the 31yr old Dad bod is ever an annoyance.. damn the genetically perfect Lithuanian TUM!!! So outside of the workouts I was doing in the shared room, much to the annoyance / laughs from my roommates, I've started trail running, and joined the sports centre, where I've been swimming regularly. I think this will be a great excuse for not getting smashed each night, or at least I won't feel as bad if I've swam for half an hour before having as beer. I should also mention that my mates back home and family have been great. So onwards and upwards and I'm just trying to make this actually a great experience and take more control over what I'm doing and enjoying the whole experience.

Below are some pictures of Adam and I running up Tunnel Mountain, little bast*rd used to run cross country for England and destroyed me up the hill, but it was a sweet feeling reaching the top. The trail shoes he was able to get discount on are ridiculous. People used cleats/ crampons and we just ran passed them. Looking forward to a few more of these.

Whilst I kind of started the tone a little low, apologies, it's not like I haven't had fun over the last few weeks... The skiing has been brilliant and I can really feel myself getting better every day I go! WOrking on my on and off piste and riding with other skiiers has really pushed me. Big shout out to Dutch Dan and Fluffy who have been pushing me over the last few days, smashing it down Black diamond runs which I'm now finding quite doable.

Lake Louise with the crew, it's come to be my favourite place to go. 

Which way to go?!?

One of the funnier images of a night out, which was a great night, was in the Dancing Sasquatch, when Dan (room mate) and I actually got a photo with the Sas!!! We tend to save ourselves for the Sunday bar crawl.. I say tend, there are a few nights in between as well. 

We found him!

So what of the other adventures?? Well an event that really did give me a boost and raised my spirits was when Denise and Chris (gliding friends) came out from Calgary to see me. We went for an awesome hike at Johnston Canyon. It was great to get out of Banff for a day. Hiking and chilling is good for the soul! We saw ice climbers, hiked all the way to what is called the "Ink pots", pools of different colours that have percolated through the sandy rock bed to make pools of bright blues and greens. Pretty cool, not if you're color blind, genuinely struggled to see the difference, but everyone else said it looked great. LOL.

Me holding an ice climber.. obviously

Posing on the walk

Cover photo.. Album dropping soon

Love these two!

Then there was Wednesday just gone, where I tried snowboarding for the first time. What a day!! So much fun. I mentioned this alot, we Bridges tend to be a family that are very much the average. Not that good at anything, but not bad at stuff either. Kind of a B+ family, well I am anyway. So it was a pleasant surprise to find that boarding, whilst yes I still fell over a lot (bottom is so sore), by the end of the day I was able to go down runs turning the whole time from heel to toe and back, what is meant to be quite a difficult this to master, I mastered, all on my own. SO a very successful day!! So I now plan to try to board at least once every two weeks, but hopefully once a week, so by the end of the season I'll have mastered both skis and board. That's the dream.

Boarding.. completed it!!

Then there was tubing last night. I took the GoPro so definitely going to put together a short video as it was hilarious. Tubing is throwing yourself down a snow slide for hundreds of meters, in a inflatable rubber ring and we did it at night as a big group. Was actually one of the best evenings. SO fun!!

The tubing track, with Anais - Top tube spinner - sending off her latest victim.

Ryan and Alex - top lads

So yeah, sorry to start on a low note, but sometimes people feel a little down and I'd like to think in a few years when I look back at all this, it wasn't all just fun and games. I am living out here and with that comes the ups and downs of normal life. Importantly, I'm feeling good now, and it's Australia day so big up to my Aussie mates "Down Under" and have VB on me. We're going skiing in boardshorts and then having a BBQ in negative numbers.. couple of snags listening to the Hot 100.. It's an australian thing. 

Peace!

Pups, peeps and frozen lakes

Well this is my first update in quite a while, and it's certainly been an interesting few weeks. 

The Christmas/ New Year period was a rather messy affair, as I presume most peoples were. Following this I tried to start the new year by doing something charitable. So when an ad came up on one of the local facebook groups to puppy sit, I thought, BOOM! This is my kind of charity giving. 

As you can see from the picture I think I enjoyed it more than the pup, but we had a lovely day going for a walk up one of the local hills and to the dog park. I suppose this was a great test to see how much I want a dog, it's been one of those things that has been playing on my mind. Worryingly close to the thought around the whole "settling down"thing.. not yet though! But yes, the dream once I'm back, get myself sorted career-wise, get a house, get a pooch/ a paddock with a mini horse. If there's a girl in the mix then great but at the moment I can't see that happening haha.

I should also point out that my birthday was great. Ski'd in the morning, got drunk at Apres and then went for a lovely meal in the evening. So yeah, I'm feeling my age now.

A few days back I managed to squeeze in wee break to Calgary and it was great to get out of the Banff bubble. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but it can get a bit much. So meeting up with Chris and having the afternoon chilling and catching up on his travels around India was brilliant. The picture below was from a walk along the river. 

So what adventurous things have I been up to?? Well, more skiing obviously, and it's really coming along which I'm pleased about. Still being shown up by children, but I can now say the black runs are no trouble, and even some of the black diamonds were a breeze. So I can't be that bad. 

(Insert picture of me on a mountain.. )

Other than that, we headed out to Abraham Lake, a vast frozen lake that has some pretty cool bubbles frozen in it. But the most hilarious thing was trying to get the car we had up and out from the lake where people who had 4x4s were cruising up, well the rear heavy Dodge grand caravan just wouldn't make it. After 10 attempts we started to think whether we would actually be able to get out. It was getting darker and we had no phone signal to call anyone. Don't get me wrong there were people there, 4 chinese tourists, but they were content in watching us from a far. So Army Al came out and I decided to chop down most of the nearby forest. I should probably mention my thought was the fern branches would improve the friction. Well it worked a dream and was enough with the help of us removing the entire contents of the car, including wooden bed frame, and one of the chinese tourists helping us push the car up whilst Anthony drove. So yeah, that was fun.

Oh and I have a new profile picture for my modelling site... funny how no one has called me yuet.

After this we hit Johnston Canyon. Absolutely stunning winter wonderland with frozen waterfalls and an awesome raised boardwalk around the canyon. You could actually see where people had been ice climbing the water falls. Definitely need to give this a go.

Back in Banff, I've started to become a pretty big deal on the local ice rink. Having mastered the art of not dying, i.e. I didn't fall over, it was pretty fun. Skating up and down, hitting the pucks and scoring was great. And I totally beat the 4 year old goalkeeper hands down. She also taught me how to play so that was a low point in my life.

Then there's more ski ski stuff. Being able to ski at 3 resorts nearby is great. The runs though at Lake Louise are my favourite. Long and fast, I'm still finding areas that I haven't ski'd before. Ever pushing my skiing ability.

I should probably mention the good bunch of chums I've made out here. I'm very lucky they put up with me, most of the time. Picture of Steph, Ryan (Jerry) and I half way up the slope. Just before we met up with more friends and hit the black Diamond where Ryan would bail halfway down.

Below is the picture from the top of the Black Diamond run. Such a nice view!!