Winter...finally

Typical! I've been waiting for snow to play in for almost a month and a half now, I even came to Canada for Christmas. Thought that would be a guaranteed white one. No luck there, just a little bit of rain. However....we finally got an ice storm that was crazy. As a Brit i've never seen that before, everything from leaves on trees to cars were covered in atleast an inch of solid ice. Over the past two days we got half a foot of snow and yes - you guessed it - it's almost time to go home back to rainy (and by the sounds of it excessively windy) England. Not all was lost though - we managed to get in an epic tobogganing (sledging if your english) session yesterday had some huge whipe-outs, usually when we piled myself, Jill and her mom, Terri on to one crazy carpet!! Had a blast on a little kicker some of the local kids made, although my bum is still suffering from that right now. No pain, no gain!! We are heading back for some more torture with a bunch more unsuspecting family members this evening after an afternoon get-together and goodbye party at Grandma's house.

New Look

After a few weeks of threats from Jill's mom, Terri the ladies at Ziggy's Hair Salon in Ingersoll (Terri's salon) finally got their hands on me to fix the mess Katrina Miller made of my hair at the last round of the World Cup in Schladming. I have been putting the whole event off since I knew it was going to take hours. Sure enough...3 hours, 50+ pieces of foil and three different colours of hair and voila- a new look! After sitting still for nearly 2 hours while Tabitha put the foils in, I had to take the opportunity to amuse myself and everyone into the salon and turn my foil covered head into a Knights Helmet! After all our playing around the colour turned out great!
Unfortunately Terri couldn't just stop there. After discovering that I have never had my ears pierced and have chickened out of the event quite a few times in the past, she jumped at my suggestion that I might want them done now. Without a moment to question myself we had the gun out and next thing I knew I was trying hard to sit still. I am proud of myself....Terri said I didn't flinch nearly as bad as the 2 year olds she normally pierces! Thank you both Terri and Tabitha for all the laughs today.

My Tunes

I compiled this list of songs as my favourite list of warm up songs for the crew at CharityMix.com. I never realised this before, but have a read through all the song titles in the list below and see if you notice how relevant all of these songs are to the race run I am warming up for!

Paul Oakenfold: Your Not Alone
Sarah McLaughlin: Delirium
Paul Oakenfold: Faster Kill Pussycat
Lee Cabrera: Shake It (Move a Little Closer)
Paul Oakenfold: Hypnotised
Love Inc: Broken Bones
Paul Oakenfold: Time of Your Life
Prodigy: Breathe
Nelly: Number 1
Orbital: Spin Spin Sugar
BodyRockers: I like the way you move
New Order: Confusion
Stereophonics: Superman
Paul Oakenfold: Ready Steady Go

Visit to Courtice

Jill and I took off yesterday to spend a day with a few young fans who have been emailing me for the past while. Since we were alreay in Toronto it was an easy 45 minute drive east to meet the boys and their family. We met up first with Jeremy Wood (on right in Norco jersey), his brother Travis, and their family. We spent the day hanging out in the garage working on his Norco hardtail, which was in a few pieces! Turns out all we needed were some cables and housing, so we took a quick trip to the guys at Impala Cycles (the local Norco dealer) and they sorted us out with everything we needed. Afer a couple of hours in the garage we had the bike back together with only a few minor adjustments left to finish before he can get back on the trails and enjoy the unexpectedly warm Ontario weather.
After that Jeremy invited over another young rider and fan, Ian Lusted (above with Jeremy and I), and we all went out for a bite to eat with their families at the local English Pub. We had a great time laughing and cheering on the Canadian Jr. Hockey boys as they beat the US in the semi-final game!! We took a quick trip back to Jeremy's house to pick up our car and meet one more of the guys, Andrew, who turned up racing down the street on his own Norco hardtail!! These guys are true Norco fans! They were all wearing Norco t-shirts, they all had Norco bikes and it was cool to spend the day with them.
I really appreciate all the support and hospitality they showed both Jill and I. I can't wait till these guys build their new 4X track in the local park and start tearing it up! Best of luck to all of you in your races this year.
Oh, and Shelley...not sure if the $0.50 offer for your gorgeous dog still holds, but we forgot to pay you and we forgot the dog!! Sorry about that.