Waving Goodbye to the World of Unemployment

As the title suggests, the three of us have now kicked off our working lives in Whistler, and we're hoping the cash will be rolling in before too long. While we have all nailed down jobs and had our first couple of shifts, getting enough hours is now the next hurdle - Coote has endured a couple of depressing 45 minute shifts and I've been told I won't be able to work more than three days a week until mid-December. The town is gradually getting busier though, so hopefully we should be able avoid life on the breadline for a while yet. Coote and I are looking for a second job to help supplement what we have already, and Leo has managed to land himself another already - working as a cleaner in a hotel and earning the princely wage of fifteen bucks an hour; I may soon be relying on my younger brother for cash handouts.

The unquestionable up-side to limited hours at work is the resultant scope for extra-curricular activities, with skiing top of the list. We've been getting up the mountain at every possible opportunity - Leo is leading the way so far with ten days skiing out of a possible twelve, although KK and I are close behind with one less. This has inevitably resulted in a certain amount of hungover skiing, and while the mountain air does seem to be a good cure, I have found myself resorting to snowplow turns on particularly painful mornings. We've now covered the vast majority of open pistes (some of the higher lifts are still yet to open) and have been gradually getting more adventurous; having eyed up a lengthy off-piste trail from a lift the other day, we decided to take the plunge... and immediately regretted it. A particularly memorable moment was watching Coote struggle to get back to his feet in waist-deep powder - after five minutes of watching and giggling I got my camera out, only to capture the moment he got back to his feet... See below (and also marvel at the fact I have worked out how to include a photo in the blog!)

We also took some time out of our busy schedule this weekend to take in the World Bobsleigh Championships, which were being held in Whistler, which has its own dedicated 'Sliding Centre'. For the bargain price of ten dollars, we watched the world's best sleighers strut their stuff, and it was bloody impressive. Having started the day hoping for a 'Cool Runnings' style underdog to support, we quickly seized upon Monaco who, unsurprisingly, proved to be pretty inept, although Slovakia gave them a run for their money. The track they go on is, in parts, a vertical wall of ice and they go absurdly fast - the Canadian team also had a pretty spectacular crash which we narrowly missed, alas. The blokes who do it are also pretty impressive specimens, and getting a glimpse into the team changing rooms certainly brightened up KK's day... In the end it came down to a head to head between the German and American teams, and the Americans won to become World as well as Olympic champions, just in case anybody cares...

Now for the first, and probably not the last, injury related paragraph of the holiday. Leo came a cropper on a particularly treacherous blue run the other day, resulting in an impressive black eye which is now turning a nice shade of yellow. He puts the blame down to 'icy patches' and 'catching an edge'... I can only cite poor technique. Meanwhile, Coote's ski boot woes have continued - after suffering all day recently, he took his boot off to find his toenail had turned a nasty shade of purple. He's had a couple of days off now and had his boots readjusted so is hoping to return to the slopes on Saturday - he also attacked the offending toenail with a hot pin tonight (on the recommendation of the ski boot chappy), which seems to have done the trick; I won't go into further detail.

Extended members of the Gadsby family will hopefully be pleased to hear we have brought 'Corks' to a wider audience. While we did substitute the corks for spoons, levels of competitiveness were as high as ever, and Leo and I managed to keep the family name intact with an all-Gadsby final. While Leo did eventually prevail, I direct you to the photos of him man-handling me as some sort of explanation; never before have I witnessed such outrageous cheating. We also had an interesting incident following a night out this week, waking to find saturated carpets down two flights of stairs. We can only assume somebody left a tap on, and there has been an in-house witch hunt to find the culprit; Emily continues to protest her innocence, but we are all quietly confident she is to blame... Anyway, we have a night out to attend to -  much love to one and all, Josh, Leo and Sam xxx