Ellicottville AKA EVL

To say that it has taken me 3 days to recover from the past weekend is the understatement of the year. From the battle bruises I managed to obtain when I had a fight with a ski lift (he won) to the massive LC I was wearing on the Sunday made me realise what an epic weekend we had in New York State - at the very awesome town of Ellicottville (pronouced Alcoville by all Canadians until a South African tries to explain to the US Boarder control official that that was where we were headed).

We arrived in Ellicottville to a wonderland type town. Christmas lights beautifully strung throughout the town. Heading off to our friend’s house felt like it was a complete welcome from the work that we had been doing for the past few weeks.

Up bright and early to hit the slopes on Saturday to make the most of the snow that had finally arrived – winter was only a few months late this year. My mustard jackets got some remarks with many people telling me they hadn’t seen a jacket like that since the 80's… Had a good laugh, but at least people could see me coming down a slope and move out of the way before I ran over them. The lady spotted in mustard… joy



Cupid on the mountain



Quick lesson before heading up



Guru and I hit the bunny slope for a refresher on snowboarding – my second time ever and his first. And well he is seriously talented. He was up and boarding in no time like a pro.

Best teachers EVER

Got some amazing lessons and tips from Carrie and Jen – guys to you I’ll always be grateful. You taught me in 2 hours what the instructor last week failed to mention. And after the crash course the sadists in the group thought it would be funny to get Guru and I up a proper slope. After a run in with the ski lift where I bruised the right side of my body to the point where I thought I had internal bleeding and an almost torn groin ligament from the board heading in one direction and my foot staying in the snow – I was up and running to get some boarding in. Look its 5 days from the boarding trip and I’m still blue. I suppose that’s what you get when you manage to get run over by the ski lift and then get stuck under it when the operator stops the whole lift to try get you out – possibly my most embarrassing sports injury to date – but also the one I think I will laugh at most when I think back on this weekend.



Bail... AGAIN...



FLO (AKA GURU the PRO)

After the amazing time spent on the slopes we headed back for some much needed R&R time in the hot tub while watching the snow come down. Absolutely best thing a person can do after a day on the slopes. I tried the Spring Bok recovery idea by rolling in the snow… I still question whether it actually works – but was amazing getting back into the bubbling hot tub and a glass of wine after rolling in the snow that’s for sure!

  

The most amazing R&R ever!

Saturday night we tried to introduce the word “braai” to replace barbeque… but it was still fun having my first official BBQ in the states. It wasn’t long before we learnt what Vodka slaps were (were 2 people have Vodka shots and literally slap each other) – which was incredibly entertaining… South Africans have NOTHING on Canadians when it comes to partying up a storm… this was followed by a dance off circle in the lounge, being picked up by a cab driver to take us to the towns local and a slight memory gap in which time the collective lost a camera, 3 credit cards, 1 debit card permanently lost, 1 debit card left behind the bar with a $20 tab on it and a lost South African Drivers license. Shit got messy – just saying…

Rumble in the jungle

Needless to say, Sunday's drive home was not one of my most pleasant and I was grateful to be sleeping in the back seat where I could open my eyes every hour to see the weather change from a snow storm to a beautiful winter’s day.

That is meant to be the road

Snow storm hit - poor Jambles could hardly see the car in front of him

The boys and I got back to Burlington and headed for chicken wings at Wild Wings to lick our wounds and have possibly the best wings in town (although I’m convinced the boys only go there for their choice grade in waitresses (although they’ll never confess to that)).

                                      

My camera got donated to the town of Ellicottville. So I’m grateful Guru had his safe and secure so we had some evidence of the amazing weekend we had.

So far this has been the longest week of my life – but SUPER excited for the long weekend trip up to Montreal… going to be another incredible weekend in good old Canada.