December!

Frozen river

Well its now the 2nd December and its been pretty white out for the past few weeks, expecting it to be March or April before we see some grass again here. The river is now frozen solid. The pic above is the view from our balcony at the moment. Some freezing fog so its not the clearest picture. I'll have to try and get some better ones.

Got some new snow boots rated for - 40 so they will hopefully keep my toes warm going forward. We went to see some more show homes and condos. We seen an amazing 4 bedroom house on Sunday which would be way to big for us but would be amazing to live in, you would never need to move. Why look at houses if were only here for a year you might ask? We are still weighing up the options for the end of the year about staying here and going home so we want to have a good idea of the prices of the real estate here.

Still waiting to hear about jobs, Shane was speaking to the HR girl I am still in the running they just are being slow at making a decision so hopefully will get a positive response.

Let me see what else happened? I broke 2 toes while in the show house my toes and the kitchen Island did not like each other! Nothing else really going on at the moment. We will try and do some interesting stuff in the run up to xmas!

Snow, snow, snow

Winter is officially here! It was minus 28 when I woke up this morning so just a tad chilly. When I looked out the window the North Saskatchewan River was frozen over but not solid yet as it breaks up a little when the sun comes out. 

the river during the day

Shane making himself at home

Frozen bedroom window

We've been for several walks in the snow so that we are getting acclimatised and not just hiding indoors. We've realised why the Canadians call snow powder cause that's exactly what its like, more like talcum powder than the wet slushy snow we get in Ireland. This makes it really bad for snowmen, we have tried- unsuccessfully.  The worst part is when you come back in the heat and am defrosting its so painful. 

Shane's in his second week in work and he seems to be settling in ok in the office, which is good. His hardest adjustment seems to be that he has to wear proper clothes. He is actually like a school boy. 

I've had 3 interviews since my last post, 1 I didn't get which I don't mind cause I didn't really want it, as the guy was talking a lot about aggression etc. So I don't think it would have been for me. 2nd one I got its just a part time job working for events at the local arena doing the bar etc like I used to do when I was in college so good for money but still need a proper job to. 3rd one was yesterday and was for a position in the same company as Shane is working- I applied before he got his- I'd really like it, they said I'd know within the next week so fingers crossed. Its getting hard not working now that its so cold I cant do as much and I'm skint so I cant wander the mall all day. :( 

We've had a pretty boring week this week overall. Well Shane has sorted all his paper work for his new job and he starts on Monday (tomorrow). It seems like it will be a good job we will just have to see how he deals with starting work early in the morning :). I've been applying for everything going this week- my fussiness moved on. Remembrance day is a holiday here so its pretty slow here for people getting back at the moment :(.

On Tuesday we went for a walk around the art gallery part of town and went to a gorgeous bakery that has been highly recommended to us a few times- The Duchess. We had a lovely coffee and shared some macaroons and a chocolate torte. We will def be continuing that recommendation.

Macaroons

On Saturday we went for a walk down-town to go to the Christmas market and see the Tree and the lights. We were hoping that it would be like the continental market that's on each Christmas in Belfast and Dublin- wishful thinking! Unfortunately there was only 4 tents at the market with a few stands in each, we were finished looking around in less than 15 mins. The highlight was some mini cinnamon donuts. I'm noticing a trend of deserts this week :)

Today it was wet so we didn't do much. While we were out at Starbucks we seen that the Condos beside us were having an openhouse so we went in to explore. A few white lies to the relator and we were in to have a good snoop. The condo was gorgeous two bed, two bathroom and finished to a really high standard seems the going rate was around 410,000 for that so there might need to be a lot more loonies and toonies hit the piggy bank before we consider that. I'm going to have a look this week for some showhouses to get an idea of prices for proper house.

Just a quick update to say Shane got offered the job and all looks good to go and start on 15th Nov will be fully confirmed tomorrow but so far we are not anticipating any issues with it. As for myself I have passed all the interviews for the bank and I'm now on a short-list and will hear in the next few days if any suitable positions come up. So hopefully we will both be working in the next few weeks.

I'm at the stage now where if there's no update in the next few days or sign of a job I will be heading to the mall and applying for the Christmas temp jobs just to get doing something. I've loved being able to explore the city and parts of the province but - and I hate to say it- I'm missing working.

Today we went for another long walk around the river valley and the ravine while its still in the fall stage as it is due to start snowing tomorrow and by all forecasts this looks like its in for the winter so our next river valley walk might need snow shoes :)

Moving day - been and gone

First post of November and first post from our new apartment. :)

Well since we went to Banff, we've both had two interviews and Shane even worked for a whole day and a half!! My 2 interviews were for a bank and a store, for the bank I've done an email interview, a phone interview, an aptitude test, and a face to face interview (lot of work) and I'm due to hear back in the next few days. The job  in the store was a management position which I wasn't qualified for so I don't know how I managed to get an Interview so I'm not surprised I haven't heard anything back.

Shane has had 2 IT interviews one is doing a reference check at the moment and the other was just today so its a bit early to tell yet. So he went and got a few days work doing some manual labour which didn't last long as the guy he was working for lied a bit and Shane wasn't going to tolerate that, so he didn't go back. But as always Shane managed to injure himself. He got a giant splinter in his face (I have no idea how but he managed it).

view from apartment

So We've now moved we're on the 19th floor downtown (see above for view). We had to go an buy a bed and everything seeing as the apartment was unfurnished. The apartment looks lovely now and is on its way to my favourite place we've ever lived. We even have a 40inch flatscreen with our unemployedness!! 

Other than that we haven't done much so its a bit of a boring update for now. Maybe by next time we will have more to tell.

Our unemployment was becoming sickening- we had seen all the movies that were out and we had wandered around the mall so much that we actually knew our way around so we decided to take a trip- to the Rockies!

We hired a car which was an extremely awkward process, booked a hotel and headed off to Banff, AB. It was about 3.5 hour drive with Shane adjusting gradually to the automatic shifting of the car and then starting to love the cruise control. Half of the drive was extremely boring and the other half was exciting and mountain spotting.

Mountains in distance

Our hotel was ideally positioned in the town centre and we had a great view out of our balcony of the Bow River which was lovely. The hotel was just basic but it did the job, 

Saturday morning we got up and we headed to Banff gondola up Sulphur mountain. It a 4 person closed gondola which takes you up 2292ft of the 8041ft high the mountain up is. It was great. From there we had a brilliant view of the area and the surrounding mountains and climbed the remained of the summit of the mountain. 

Then we had an oh so classy lunch at McDonalds, before heading off to Lake Louise. Lake Louise is amazing the colour is cause all the water comes from the nearby Victoria Glacier (in the background of picture). There's also an amazing hotel on the edge of it, where we got the nicest coffee since we left Ireland. There was a wedding at the hotel when we were there- all I can say is lucky couple them wedding pictures will be amazing!

We had a lovely dinner on Saturday night. Baby back ribs and Filet Mignon- Yum- followed with chocolate fondant and strawberry daiquiris, no better way to end the day. 

On Sunday we started off with a brunch, and what a brunch it was! There was pancakes, bacon, sausages etc, paad thai, roast beef, mixed veg, and fish. followed by a chocolate fountain, fruit salad and a million different cakes. Shane had so much food he couldn't actually move for a long time afterwards.

We then decided to go for a drive around the area was a so-called wildlife drive. We didnt see much wildlife- some rocky mountain sheep and squirrels but the drive went through some remarkable scenery so we had fun nonetheless, we even seen our first frozen lake.

Then just as Shane was losing hope on Monday morning on our way home we seen a bull Elk in the park, being chasing by a park ranger with a gun!

Overall a brilliant weekend. 

Unemployed again!

Well so much for my giving it time, I went to work today for my long/late day 9-7 shift. After a two hour chat with the boss- inspirational? I think not- and the morning of actually working I was pretty sure it was not for me so when lunch came at 2.30 I checked with Shane for his opinion and it was decided it wasn't worth it. I mean really me being polite and having manners was a problem apparently. That's part of my ethics so I wont be changing it. So I'm back on the job hunt and I think I'm going to have to stay away from my previous field as they seem to have a very different moral code here compared to Ireland.

In other news we got the apartment :). So come 1st Nov we will be moving to the 19th floor from our lowly but quite lovely basement. So far we have a sofa bed and a chair :) Furniture donations welcome !