Back to Work

Well it was back to work and back to normal yesterday. I was welcomed back with banners, balloons and chocolates (they know me well) which was especially nice. It's strange as in many ways I feel like I've been away for ages, but in others it's as though I've never been away.
There are several new faces around and it'll take me a while to catch up on everything, but so far it has all gone smoothly. I'm happy to be back, but I'll miss Lethbridge too.
Even now I'm back I have no regrets about the whole experience whatsoever. I've seen that my work colleagues did a lot of extra work to make up for my absence and I'm truly grateful for that, but they also enjoyed sharing the experience with me and having a new person to work with and learn from.
The only question remaining is ... where next????

Last few days in Canada

It took a long time, 3 suitcases and backpack to pack up all my stuff in Lethbridge, but I managed and finally left on Tuesday 7th November. I was very sad to leave but have many happy memories to bring home with me.
We hired a car for our last 2 days and drove up to Banff where (thanks to a buy one night get one free offer) we stayed in style at the Fairmont Banff Springs. It was a lovely hotel and made extra special by the great staff there who didn't complain about the fact we had 4 suitcases and 2 heavy bags for only 2 people who were staying 2 nights and happily unloaded the car and took them up to the room for us.
The hotel had Christmas decorations up which were especially pretty and we enjoyed the outdoor pool which was fortunately heated as we were swimming while we it was snowing!
It was Rachel's first trip to Banff and it all seemed to different to me compared to the summer, but I think it looked prettier in the snow.
The first picture is Rachel and I at Lake Louise and the second is me at the top of Sulphur Mountain, overlooking Banff townsite.
As they say, all good things must come to end and all too soon it was Thursday and D-(departure) day. It was only a short drive to the airport and after a few delays we were on our way. Sadly we couldn't sneak past the staff with our overweight luggage; Rachel had to unpack a few things and wear them and my bags were 17lb overweight so I had to pay $70 excess baggage fees (don't worry I still love Canadians, but maybe not Air Canada).
I arrived at Heathrow on Friday 10th November and shortly after landing was sick - hopefully that isn't a sign of things to come now I'm back home!!!!!

Soggy in Seattle

I was lucky enough to be able to take almost 2 weeks holiday after finishing at LCC before I had to return to Burton. My friend Rachel was able to join me so I went to pick her up in Calgary on Nov. 1st. It was quite a shock to Rachel as it was freezing (about -10c) in Calgary that night!
Making the most of the fact it is only an hour and a half's flight from Calgary, we went to Seattle for 2 nights.
It was a bit of a culture shock there for me as it was just like home - rained all the time, more trees and no prairies! It didn't stop raining at all for the whole time we were there, but we had a great time anyway (even with reduced visibility from the Space Needle). We especially enjoyed the Pike Place market and had plenty of hot chocolates - even visiting the first ever Starbucks. The picture on the right is me and Rachel (the name of the pig - honest).
All in all a fantastic time and it had warmed up by the time we returned so no worries over starting the car up in Calgary. Sadly, we both came back without umbrellas, the weather was so bad they both broke!