The Day Trip to Fort McMurray

The day generally begins about 4:30am with the alarm blaring and jolting one from precious slumber. Shower, dress, cut of tea, slice of vegemite toast and out the door by 5:15am. Arriving at the aerocentre by 5;30am. Thank goodness for corporate jets - no security, no removing shoes, no fuss. Just a flash of a Suncor badge and your boarding pass is presented.

We file out onto the tarmac and up the stairs onto the plane. Sometimes, if conditions are particularly extreme (-30 with a 40kn wind) they may load from the hanger. This has only ever happened to me twice. Plane departs 6am. In-flight service is tea/coffee and banana bread. The hour's flight is over flat, patchwork prairie. The sunrises can be extraordinary.

We arrive at Fort Mc around 7am and pull up to the main terminal (hurrah for Suncor's influential aviation department. Other companies have to go to the tin sheds down the runway!) Met lift/pick up car,drive to site. Depending on traffic, this can take 1-3 hours aling the infamous Highway 63. Traffic has improved since the completion of the Suncor Interchange. Worl all day. Watch for curfew between 4:15 and 4:30 to allow bus to depart. Drive back to airport, flash ID, recieve boarding pass for 6:30pm departure. In-flight service includes pop and snack such as chips, hickory sticks and chocolate bars. Touch-down around 7:40, home by 8pm. Usually in bed and asleep by 9:30pm!

Some days, I actually do earn my salary!

Spring is in the air!

My first trip to Fort McMurray was in March 2007. It was a day of about -20°C with snow flurries and a wind blowing the snow around. I was gasping with the cold (breathe through your nose and you do not cough as much) and in disbelief that anyone would live in such an extreme environment. It was here I met Adrienne. Adrienne was the client counterpart for the work I was to do for the next year. Just a shade under 5ft, she is a dynamo with a bright, cheery smile and an infectious giggle. Not your stereotypical mining engineer!

Adrienne had arranged to give me a lift downtown where we were having dinner. She picked me up in her monster vehicle and chatting happily, pointing out items of interest, we drove off site. This required us driving along the tailings dam between two ponds. Wind was whipping the snow across the road and I was feeling like a subject of David Attenborough’s Life in the freezer”. Adrienne turned to me and in her bubbly manner declared “Can’t you just feel spring in the air?”

I knew then, she was insane.

Fast-forward two years. There remains a metre of snow on our front lawn. The temperatures continue to dip down to -20°C and it snows a couple of times a week. I cannot believe it but I now understand it. Spring is in the air. The snow looks different, it feels different – and it actually even smells different! The trees look like they are thinking about budding and the river is defiantly thinking about breaking. Spring is coming!

In Calgary, the long weekend in May (May 18th in fact) is the weekend we plant our gardens. Prior to then, we can still get dumps of snow and severe frosts. After that weekend we generally don’t. It is the weekend when we can safely declare winter is done. Only another 6 weeks and I can start to defrost. Hurrah!

And as for Adrienne, she is not insane at all. Like Miss Smilla, she just has a feeling for snow!

Tim Horton's Brier (the what???)

For the last 10 days, our newspaper has sported a picture of a brightly-clad, balding man, crouching down yelling. I even know his name - Kevin Martin the Alberta skip who yesterday, lead Alberta to a record victory over Manitoba. Think of the Australian Open ... the 2009 Brier attracted 246 126 fans over the course of its 10 days. A major event for Calgary and if the locals were not actually attending, they were dashing home to watch the latest action on TV. The showdown in Cowtown. Huh??

The Brier is the Canadian men's curling championship, held annually since 1927.... the what?? Just what I thought too.

Curling is actually Canada's most popular amateur sport and is a little like lawn bowls on ice. It is played by two teams of four players on a rectangular playing field of ice. Granite rocks are slid down the ice and sweepers madly sweep the ice in front of them to make them slide further. I understand this is where the crouching and yelling comes in - the chap who "throws" the rock get to crouch and yell at the sweepers. It is a game of strategy and sometimes refered to as chess on ice.

The 2009 Tim Horton's Brier is over, Alberta are the champions, Kevin Martin is a legend and just what will we read in the papers tomorrow?

Blaire's Stagette

On Saturday evening, a bevvy of gorgeous girls frocked up in our finest to celebrate Blaire's pending nuptials. It started with signature cocktails, champagne and nibbles at Amy's before hopping aboard the bus limousine to transport us between photo opportunities and bars!

There was dancing and singing and generally much merriment and then we stepped off the bus to find ourselves in the midst of a blizzard. This sent us scurrying

to the closest bar and safety from the fearsome conditions. Saved from the threat of frostbite, we hunkered down bravely to wait out the storm.

...and just a note Girls, 3" peep-toes are not the footwear of choice for a snow storm!

A bit of Kulture

Toddled off this evening to see The Canadian Tenors. Four rather dishy chaps with the most extraordinary voices. All the classic arias, a brilliant rendition of Figaro and I still cannot get Leonard Cohen's Hallejulah out of my head! I am now a big fan!