Sorry catch up lots of dates and blogs first one in random order! Enjoy!

Saturday 28th August 2010
Okay cant remember where we are up to but we had Chatau Brionne (not sure how to spell it) 2 for $50 to include a starter of soup which was delicious! Interesting dining at a restaurant - picking the most expensive meal then going to sleep in the van on the side of the road!. It was at a Restaurant called El Torro definately worth going! They have the offer on every Thursday so we will have to go again before we leave. Best meal we have had in ages! The girls at the hotel are not that pleasant - alot of b****ing going on. Actually one of them got sacked this week. They just turn in at whatever time they like and expect to get away with it as the Hotel is desperate for staff. They flirt with the boss and dont really clean the rooms. The houseperson who is Korean and is a nice guy gets in all the rooms first to strip them but - then keeps in the tips - annoying as we are the ones cleaning people's Shi* up if you know what I mean! He only has to strip beds and fold towls and gets all tips! I found out today we get a supplement in our wages for the amount of recycling they collect in the rubbish each month which is a bonus.One of the other girls is addicted to caffine and stressed out of her mind...ah well! Joe who hired us is cool thought and so was Kate but she has now left to go travelling. She was from Nova Scotia and has been in Banff for 5 years. We are on $10 an hour which is minimum wage here. We found $60 tip so that is why we treated out selves to a slap up meal. One nice girl called Leila from Quebec told us to keep the tips as no-one else hands them in. Leila is lovely cannot speak perfect English but good enough. I like her - I think she is getting bullied by the other girls which is not nice. She has since switched staff accommodation we were offered it for $8 a night but when we went round (different one for boys and girls) the people were not very welcoming and the place was filthy and messy. We decided to just stay in the van there are lots of places to park in Banff - lots of public toilets and benches and taps, so we are doing fine oh yeah plus free internet and plug sockets in one of the malls. We just finished from our 2 days off we climbed Tunnel Mountain 45 minutes and Sulphur Mountain 3 hours (we snook back down on the gondola for free!). We went out for drinks at the Pump & Tap and Devils Gap and bathed by various lakes - great weather. Oooh we also tried the Canada "Poutine" which is chips, gravy and lumps of cheese scrumptious!.

Wednesday 18th August 2010
We a- re sat at a beautiful swimming / picnic spot called "Cascade Ponds" It si picture perfect just a small drive out of Banff centre.Crystal clear lake, bridges to jump from, picnic benches and fire pits, perfectly cut grass, huge mountains surrounding every angle and the sun is shining bright. We have just finished work and have been in teh lake for a swim. Mum has just called not spoken to her in nearly two weeks so it was great to hear from her. Trouble is in Canada they charge you for everything so because my mum called me for about 6 minutes it used all my credit and we got cut off!

Thursday 19th August
We bought Black Eyed Peas Tickets for Calgary on Sunday $112 each Eek! There were some for $69 but these (I hope) are better seats. It jus says floor standing so not sure what it is going to be like.
We gave Leila a lift home yesterday with her stuff she had kept in the ski locker at work. She showed me round her staff accommodation which again was filthy! We all went for a few drinks afer work - then pizza then bed. The bed has another hole in it - so we woke up at 2.00am to a flat bed - dry mouth and dying for a wee. Pizza was too big / heavy / expensive and I felt really sick!

Friday 20th August
Made a gorgeious Bollognaise for dinner in the park, fixed the hole in the bed with some liquid filler, washed our clothes at the laundrette, went on the Internet. I emailed our invoices to Vodaphone the invoice ws £60 for July but I cant ring them from here to find out why! Damn!

Sunday 22nd August / Monday 23rd August
2 Days off Ye Ha! Mini road trip to Calgary. I washed my hair in the public toilets of Banff Park - classy. We went to the internet and called Danny, My gorgeous Sister, Mum and my GDog. Chels Dad is not doing good so I am thinking positive thoughts and attraction through the wise words from the book "The Secret".We finally left Banff and at lunch in China Town in Calgary, trying to choose a place where there wasnt one in Banff - we sat at the table only to notice they had a "Silver Dragon" in Banff - ah well we here now! Calgary was like a big Industrial Estate Ghost Town! It looked like you would only go there to work? There were no people around just high rise office blocks? We bought a load of alcohol including beer, jagermeister and vodka and bought overnight parking at the Saddle Drome where the concert was playing. We parked in a corner next to a big Recycling Dumpster that way I could go for a wee in the night behind it without anyone seeing - this is what we have to think of each time we park up for the night! Is there a covered area I can wee behind in the night / morning! We had a few jager bombs ( we had to buy the redbull from another place as it is illegal to sell them together in Canada becuase Vodka makes your heart slow down and redbull makes it speed up) drank a few vodka's did my makeup and got changed in the car and walked to the Concert! We snook some vodka in strapped to Mikes leg and had a great spot with only one person in front of us at the front of the stage! 2 minutes earlier and we would have been right at the front! The Black Eyed Peas were great and I was stomping around with as much force as my friend Shelly on a crazy night! I missed my friends... We got speaking to a lady called Shakira who we were stood with originally from Barbados but has lived in Calgary since she was 7.00.

The next morning we were seriously hungover, worst dry mouth which i'm sure is worse in the van! I was sick various times in the morning and Mike had to keep pulling over and stopping for a while until I recovered. I drifted off to sleep in the back of the Van and woke up feeling fine! Great! Retail therapy we did a bit of shopping in a Mall. Mike got a spare key cut for the van which we have been saying we should do for ages! I bought some comfy slop grey baggy pants for $10 and a couple of vest tops. We had an ice cream from "Dairy Cream" Strawberry Oreo Blast they were doing an offer buy one get on 25c sucked in we bought them. We ventured to the Canadian Olympic Park in Calgary where they hosted the famous 1988 Winter games. This is where the Jamacian Bob Sleigh Team crashed - facinating to all who have seen Cool Runnings - Classic Film! We paid $5 to get the gondola up to the Hall of Fame and Watching Tower. Lots of bikers were getting the gondola as there were lots of bike tracks and jumps going down. The Hall of Fame didnt have anything about the Jamacians which I was dissappointed about. Just about all who won medals etc. There was a tour guide there which I asked him about. He said the film was correct except that the Jamacians did not carry the sled over the line themselves - this would be impossible given the weight of the sled and the fact they were walking on ice! Also they crashed a little further away from the finishing line. The officians pushed the sled over the line for them with the Jamacians walking behind. Great storey and it was weired seeing the Bob Sleigh track that they raced down in the movie! They tour guide was speaking loads - we just wanted to look round in peace with our hangovers but he went on and on and on and on! Ah well!

We grabbed a KFC (called PFK in French!) Everything here is in English and French. We did a big shop in Canmore on our way back to Banff for the van buying mainly tins and pasta, we went to Canadian Tyre - a huge retail place that sells almost everything and cheap! We stocked up on bottles of propane for our cooking each bottle is $5 each.

Thursday 26th August 2010
Back to work with a bang - back to cleaning toilets - remind me... why did I leave a perfectly good job back home to scrub peoples faecies and pick they pubic hair out of the bath? We made a gorgeous tuna stirfy with Soy Sauce at the park. We found some cheese in one of the rooms un-opened which is great as we cannot afford cheese! (so expensive!) Cheese toastie and soup for lunch tomorrow! yey! We tried to play a game of tennis after work with dismal array. We bought some tennis balls from the dollar store that didnt bounce - we got eaten by the vicious mosquitoes, It started to pour down with rain, the wind gave me ear ache, Mikes poorly finger (the one he nearly chopped off with the Shi* $1 tin opener) that was nearly healling was torn further and the racket handles were disintergrating all over our hands which were then covered in black! - We gave up and read our books in the van!

Saturday 28th August 2010
Found a few items today which we were allowed to keep! Fabic detergent and sofener, 2 packets of vegetable crisps, some mentos, a 10 litre water container (super useful to us!), a bottle of magnes, a bottle of coke and my personal favourite - a tub of butter! Missing butter so much! (not very practical in the van!) Great - no tips though x I will now in future every holiday I go on will be tipping the housekeeping. Its a bloody hard and horrible job!

It seems to have just turned into winter over night. Freezing in the mornings now I had four layers on last night - a sleeping bag - hat, snowboarding socks and eye mask!