Allee

Fun! That's another been-on-my-bucket-list-forever trip. My uncle used to race his MG's at Goodwood, it wasn't far from where he lived, and he's told me plenty about the GFoS.

I'm so happy that we're travelling again!! I book-ended two concerts in Dublin, Ireland with ten days of roaming the countryside in between in April. Ireland has been on my bucket list forever and I finally had the perfect excuse to go. I loved it. I spent the ten days driving along the coast and tripping across fields and looking at Old Stuff and it was epic. I was at the Dublin kickoff of Ed Sheeran's new world tour ... that was a night. It's been a long time since I've been ground level at an 80,000+ person gig. Then a cheap airfare popped up so I spent five days in Paris - another city on the forever bucket list - at the start of July. Just the best time, even if I did walk so much I basically collapsed into the airport at the end. Off to San Diego with girlfriends for Canadian Thanksgiving in Oct - two days at the beach, two in Joshua Tree - and then finally, back to New Zealand for three weeks in Nov. One of those weeks will be work, the other two will be all play. Lots of cool things have opened up since I was last there four years ago, and I can't wait to try some of them out. @JohnE - did you love Norway? Friends and I are looking at a motorcycle tour there next year, but I may just end up going solo. The tour they want to take doesn't ride enough and costs too much for my liking ...

The elite outliers ARE just outrageously faster and better at this. I was just watching a video about an elite weightlifter, and they were discussing what made him so good. SO interesting. He's Chinese, and sport in China is a whole system where they ID these kids young and yank them into sports school pronto. This is a use of data that people don't think about that much, but data is transforming sports. Some of the best coaches in the world now aren't necessarily the ones with eyes or talent, they're ones with the ability to capture and interpret data.

I'm an intermediate rider, and Snowmass is far and away my favorite of the Aspen hills. I could easily spend a week there and not be bored. Buttermilk is fun for a day, if you've never been, but that's about it. It's definitely mellow.

I know! I would have come down for that, if not for the fact that it was month end and I had to work Next year. I have Calgary friends who really want to come.

Sounds like it's time to break out the fishing gear.

Mexican Gothic was great. The reading list that recommnended that one to me also recommended Ninth House (gets another vote from me) and Bethany Morrow's A Song Below Water. Thumbs up for all three. I binged my way through Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Cycle over Xmas. That series is definitely YA, if obsessively good, but the follow up trilogy - Call Down the Hawk, Mister Impossible and the October 22 release Greywaren - are much more adult and just as good. A couple of books I really liked that the sci-fi crowd here might enjoy - Claire North's "Touch" and Peter Clines "14". A re-read recommendation - Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel trilogy starting with Kushiel's Dart. If you like Game of Thrones/middle ages type stuff with a side of S&M you'll probably like this. This is on my re-read list because a new book from the POV of the main character's consort is coming out this summer. On my to-read list : Piranesi Laura Weiss's Leftovers Catherine House (supposed to be Mexican Gothic-ish) The Nightingale Sex and Vanity (because I loved Crazy Rich Asians) The Night Circus An Ember in the Ashes series Sorrowland The Code Breaker

There's a lot to be said for keeping your knees warm. I never lift without sleeves, and I've been (touch wood) relatively knee pain free so far. I wore my sleeves riding last season, and they definitely made a difference to crawling out of the car after the 90 minute drive home.

The ski racer kids at our local hill give me the jeebies. They think the own the place, and they fly down at max speed with no regard for anyone but themselves - and they also think you're supposed to stay out of "their" way. The last face back in to the lift at Nakiska drops away blind for probably 150 feet, and one day one of them is going to collect someone in a big way down there, if they haven't already. Gotta say that if you hit dredman the way he dresses, then I hope you didn't drive to the hill that day ...

That's them. Mine were black and blue, but same design and definitely old school!

They don't. I had some of those too, and they were bombproof. They stopped fitting over my legs when I took up weightlifting

I saw this on the big screen at the Banff Film Festival last year. So good!

Yes she is, and the entire country was stoked to win our first Winter Olympics gold medal. That last run was clutch. The American girl who came second was stiff competition too.

Do you have the buckles moved across? You can unscrew the buckle assembly, and there are holes in the shell to reattach them in different positions. I had to move mine on my UPZ's as I had the same issue at stock settings.

If you use red electrical tape, it's faster.

Put it in position and wrap some electrical tape around where the bale meets the binding. Then it can't fall backwards.

^^^ I understand that. When I ride with my crew I hate crossing their trenches too!

This season's starting to look about as good as the last one. Which is to say, snowshoeing is looking like a great outdoor activity right now.

Chair 2 had vegetation sticking up, but it looked pretty good from the Instagram pics yesterday. Alas, the Canadian govt revoked the "Go to the US for less than 3 days, get out of jail free card" today, and the covid return test requirement has gone from 72 hours to 24. Which puts a trip to the Fish firmly in the "mega PITA too hard" basket right now

Looks like the weather pattern's finally starting to change. About time. This fall and early winter have been weird.

Let me know what it's like. I'm going to drag the gear out of the storage locker this weekend, and maybe go pick up my Sunshine card.

Oof, delayed opening, and still warm. Not great

Hahahaha. Can I tell you about how last week, our news here was all "All those danm people over the border in Montana are gonna bring covid back to Alberta, now the borders are open." I think we're as redneck as each other ... we still have you soundly beat on vax rates though. Glad you got yours and boosted too, that must be a relief for you. And yes, I'd crack a beer with you any time ... the Northern reopened yet?

Let's catch up for a drink soon. https://globalnews.ca/news/8380444/canadian-government-negative-pcr-test-cross-border-trips-us/

Link doesn't work?