Whistler, Reassuringly Expensive.

Word up brethren,



Quite an eventful week this side of the Atlantic, starting with a devilish hangover and ending in powder heaven.

Last week saw the big wrap up party at Sportsworld. Typically me and the boys got warmed up at the local bar aptly named DIX before heading on to Yaletown to finally sink my teeth into some unsuspecting Samsung staff women, who've been locked away in the Hyatt for the last 4 weeks. Needless to say the night went well enough to get home at 5am and find the kiwi and the Auzzie causing absolute mayhem in 610 central. In all likelihood it was Michael Lee's genius that thought Red Wine would be a perfect way to round off a 9 hour drinking sess, with a couple of old birds picked up at the infamous Roxy's on Granville Street. Sure enough proceedings went on till 9 am and the walls of our living room had been transformed in to a new canvas for spray painting (red wine EVERYWHERE).



JWing on the Peak to Peak Gondola, Whistler.

With Vancouver wrapped up it was time to head up to Whistler for the real deal. Jamie and I headed up safe in the knowledge that we had squared yourself away with an absolute steal at the Fairmont luxury resort and spa. And no sooner had I settled in to the miracle of another JW coup did I then find out that for 6 room nights we were paying $1500. FUCK! Skis at $200 dollars, lift pass to come and more importantly beer expenses to be accounted for this was NOT something you could pass of as a MasterCard solves all moment. Nonetheless the realisation of these mammoth fees were allied by the prospect of pigging the powder and then finding some Aussie imports for evening entertainment.......until I saw this huge banner.



You couldn't make this shit up. We'd only ventured up in Gay Pride Week. So not only was my wallet being raped by the fairmont but my ahole was now in serious danger of following suit...
Not deterred by this absolute bombshell we set about exploring the amenities and perks expected from a 5*. Errr none. The only solace would be the Jacuzzi thermals, which were RAMMED full of blokes in tight trunks. Banter.

So what about the Skiing I hear you cry? Thank Jesus, Mary and Joseph for that. The slopes were in perfect conditions on piste and we had 4 blue bird days in a row. And as an added bonus a good mate from travelling, Chris, squared us away with a BOGOF on the lift pass and took us round the mountains for 6 days.



Me and Cristobal.

And then the snow came...




For 24 hours it dumped it down and as if God Himself had finally smiled upon us we awoke to this....



Blue Bird + Fresh Powder means you can forget about all your worries!



Heading up some powder 8's with Rachel, smooth riding!

There were some other notable highs from the week, not least the discovery of $12 pitchers and $5 burgers at Merlin's and some funny outings in JW gear...All in all a mixed week which ultimately ended in the truest of success stories, heavenly, heavenly powder.



Just living the dream.



The sun sets on the JW whistler leg.



A colour co-ordinated outing to the jacuzzi.

So with Vancouver and Whistler in the past I head on to Seattle for a couple of days, it doesn't quite have the same ring to is as Vancouver Winter Olympics or indeed Gay Pride Week in Whistler. But if I've even got half as much banter as the previous weeks outings then it's gotta be worth a read right? oh yeah! tune in shortly folks....



Lots of love from Beautiful British Columbia.

The VIP treatment

And so after 17 days of debauchery, hard work (oh yes, I did some), the odd German date (story to follow) and one blow out final day the games are over here! I have to say these games have been memorable for all the right reasons, Vancouver has been a great host and their incredible Gold haul of 14 medals surpasses any previous record by any other nation, and they definitely deserve all of the success. Apart from the outrageous beer prices during the games($10 a pint, cheers!) there's been very little to moan about, and I do like a whinge.

A little worse for wear at 3am with, Jamie & Michael Lee.

These final few days started with a good old Auzzie piss up, and ended with the mother of all day outings... On Thursday we ventured to the Library Square bar to celebrate Michael Lee's birthday,and for those of you not familiar with this spiritual Auzzie; think of a cross between Trevor Linden and the standard "Oh yeah, get some more shrimp on the barbie mate, and chuck us a sheila would ya". Got it?

Embarrassingly, the rest of the weekend was fairly timid. With the main news being that of Canada's huge Gold Medal tally. Sir Steven Redgrave defended Britain’s only Gold medal, suggesting that he'd take the 1 Gold over 5 bronzes anytime. Err, I'm sure Amy Williams might agree, but I doubt any other British athlete at the games would, cheers though for that pearl Steve.

So instead of doing the logical thing in pissing Friday and Saturday up the wall, I waited...FOR HOCKEY HOUSE SUNDAY, and boy, was it worth the wait. My gamble paid off, and Canada reached the Men's Hockey Final against the USA. My little VIP beauties were about to get a serious outing. Following a quick 3 hour work blast in the morning it was straight down to the Hockey House at Midday for one of those drinking sessions you know is going to put you in bed by 10. Some great gambas, beef steak and gourmet deserts were washed down with a wide array of alcoholic beverages including Beer, Gin and Tonic, Wine and Whiskey and Coke....

The game wasn't too bad either, the USA equalising with 20 seconds to go to send the match in to OT. But the day was saved (at least for me and my aspirations for the mother of all parties) by Sidney Crosby who grabbed the Golden Goal.

Unfortunately these days are never as straight forward as they should be and a call from the office meant that I was saved from complete obliteration to sort out some problems in Whistler. And then after a closing ceremony ticket presented itself, my hopes of bed by 10 were dashed... This little respite provided for some interesting moments, sobering up in front of 50,000 spectators is never great, especially when you've got a grandma on one side and a fitty on the other. The ceremony was pretty tops though....

After a couple of expensive beers at the ceremony to ensure that all my hard work early in the day was not completely lost it was back to the hockey house to ensure that somebodies $450 VIP ticket was money truly well spent.


Fran, Myself and Jamie

So that's it from the Olympic Games, but not it from me. I'm heading up to Whistler now for 10 days of powder and apres...bliss. Ill still try and bring you as many updates on antics as I can afford, however I fear for lack of time due to impending snow/mountains/jaeger/beer/ and hopefully a ski bunny or two inhibiting my computer access. Enjoy the English spring guys...

JW in Vancouver.