Ayooooooo!

Leo and Coote have flown the nest! I've been alone in our bedroom for the last few days, as the other two have headed down to Vancouver for a few days, along with our housemates Emily and Katie, and Katie's friend Chris. They were hoping to hit the shops, watch an ice hockey game, and sample Vancouver's nightlife, before heading back for work tonight. Thanks to Katie's job at the Hilton in Whistler, they've been hooked up with cheap rooms at the Hilton down there, so are seeing the sights in style! I've had work for the last few days, and am saving all available cash for the planned Vegas trip, meaning I was unable to join them unfortunately. Latest news is that Leo and Emily were waiting at the bus stop, and it was looking like Coote was about to miss the bus home, so it remains to be seen whether they all return in one piece - fingers crossed.

The last few weeks have also seen mumps infiltrate our circle of friends in Whistler; our housemate Andy was the first to fall, and had to endure nine days off work and snowboarding, much to his disgust. His symptoms were somewhat less extreme than the next to be affected, our friend Jonny, whose swollen jowls led to overweight bullfrog/Fat Bastard from 'Austin Powers' comparisons. As his ever unsympathetic friends, our immediate reaction upon seeing his unfortunate state was to burst into helpless laughter.... which lasted for the best part of five minutes. His symptoms have now subsided and his face is returning to normality; the mental image of his over-sized head stays with me however, and never fails to bring a smile to my face. We're hoping that the worst is over and none of the rest of us will get mumpy; Kara has expressed concerns over the past few days, but we've so far put it down as a cry for attention....

Our working lives are still going well; Coote and Leo are enjoying working together at the Keg, and have an immediate point of call when they need shifts swapping. Leo has his sights set on a laid back working attitude for the rest of our time here; he's handed in his notice at the hotel where he has been working as a cleaner, and is going down to two shifts a week at the Keg for April, with the aim of showing his friend Felix a good time when he arrives for a two week holiday. I had my first (unwelcome) spot of action in my bouncing job the other day, arriving at my 8pm start time to find Jono, the bar manager, locked in an argument with a couple of irate customers, who had been wrongly accused of walking out without paying. Things eventually got a little out of hand, and Jono motioned me over to eject the troublemakers. I grasped the more worked up of the pair, which didn't go down well; he stood up, shouted 'YOU CAN FUCK OFF TOO', and shoved me, pretty hard, in the neck. Doing my best to live up to my bouncer title, I returned the shove, at which point he pulled back his fist and I braced myself, resigned to the fact that he was going to punch me in the face. Fortunately, one of his friends stepped in and grabbed him just before he landed the punch (a wise man, who knows how a hardened bouncer like myself would have reacted...!), and Jono and I managed to bundle them out - certainly a good way to get the blood racing at the start of a usually uneventful Monday night shift! In other employment news, I was crowned 'Employee of the Month' for February at the Spaghetti Factory - rest assured I am going places in the spaghetti industry.

We have also been swept away by Whistler's latest night-time phenomenon, 'EuroApres'. As the name suggests, this is an apres-ski event, held in one of the village clubs, and supposedly with a European twist. As far as we are aware, the only European aspect is that Jagermeister is in plentiful supply, but we haven't let this put us off. So each Wednesday, our gang troops down straight from the slopes, and proceeds to have a beer or two - it is certainly a surreal feeling being in a fully functional nightclub at 4pm; it also inevitably means that most are tucked up in bed by midnight. I came a cropper the other week when, having finished work at 6, I joined the others and 'caught up' rather too effectively. Fortunately, Jam was on hand to take advantage of my inebriation, video camera in hand... being a nocturnal kind of girl, she had fully edited and compiled the footage by the time I woke up the next day and was ready and waiting to drive home the pain of my hangover. Many of you will already have seen the video, and for those of you that haven't, I am glad.

The skiing has been good as ever, with plenty of fresh snow this week, and another metre or so expected by Wednesday. It is gradually getting a little warmer so some of the lower runs can be slushy by the end of warmer days, but there is enough snow that the mountain has extended its winter season until the end of May, which doesn't usually happen! News has just broken of some extreme bad luck for a fellow Whistler resident; the girl in question spent a rather chilly night stuck on a gondola up the mountain last week. She somehow managed to get onto a gondola which was only supposed to be running on its lower half, and was still on the upper half when the gondola was turned off for the night. Having set her scarf on fire (ha!) to try and catch attention, and without her mobile phone, she settled down for the night in what the report described as "a skirt and thin jacket" - definitely an unenviable place to find oneself. Having said that, every cloud has a silver lining, and in this case that lining is compensation to the tune of $25,000, as well as a lifetime ski pass. We've been discussing how much we'd have to be paid to spend a night on a gondola in a skirt, and the general consensus has been around the $5000 mark - Whistler Blackcomb really could have saved themselves some money...

Love to all, Josh, Leo and Sam.