Day 30 - Exhausting weekend

[Lisa Blundell]

Day 30 - Saturday, 9th January, 2010

My goodness me, I am tired. Stupid Sporting Life. Stupid rental ski lines.

If you are at all interested in becoming a squillionaire then do this. Open a large shop in Toronto that sells ski gear and winter sports wear (which in Summer switches to Summer sports obviously). Then open another one till you have a chain. There are two shops in Toronto (and I include downtown, mid-town and uptown) that sells skis, snowboards and skiwear. Two shops. Two shops!! This is CANADA people!! They have a Tim Horton's (doughnuts), a Canadian Tire (hardware) on every other corner. But they have more snow than oxygen yet only two ski shops. Which are jam packed to the rafters with stock and customers a thousand service staff, a parking attendant and it must have turn-over of a million dollars a week.

It has been a busy busy day. Starting at 5am with Lucas' elbow in my eye socket, Connor's 9.45 haircut, Elliot had to meet a friend for tobogganing which Ian took him to via Subway for 2pm.

Elliot and his new mate Cole at the Toboggan hill

Elliot had the greatest time. Very steep hill, travelling at a million miles an hour. We had to pick up skis from Sporting Life - which appears to be the number one of only two ski shops in town. They must turn over $1m per week, no exaggeration. We have been there 6-8 times. It's not cheap, it's not organised, it's POS is ancient. This game is seriously a license to print money. Hundreds of people, flood through every hour. They have a carpark attendant to sort out the heavy flow of traffic. Anyway. Then we went skiing at Earl Bales park, about fifteen minutes north of Sporting Life (ten mins north of us). Lucas did a great job and Cesy loved it so much. She said several times how much fun she had. It was beautiful today. It's a community park in the suburbs. It's maybe the equivalent to Rowville but with this enormous park. It has two lifts - one is a baby lift and the other a very old chairlift that is most efficient and even a bit speedy. There are three runs serviced by this lift. They are very good challenging runs that Ian, Connor and I can enjoy yet the three younger ones can do. It was interesting to note that the conditions were just like Mt Buller and other Australian mountains. Sharp, icy and scratchy.

Then I took my three charges to Paul and Steph's for dinner. They are just the most wonderful people. Their four kids are so great. They were able to just slot us into their evening meal with no worries. And, just when I thought I was going home early, Steph, Katie, Honor, Cesy and I started winter boot shopping online. Too much fun. We are quite interested in other people's winter boots and coats. It's a challenge to stay warm AND look good.

We oohed and ahhed over the new boots I've ordered on-line thanks to Sal and Jehrom's excellent tip. sierratradingpost.com for outdoor adventure type gear ultra cheap.

Lisa's new boots

[Samantha Gary]

I LOVE those boots!!! I've been admiring these ones from Timberland....

http://www.planetshoes.com/itemmatrix.asp?groupcode=5995

[Stephanie Smyth]

Looooove the boots! You can NEVER have enough footwear here! ;)
And always a pleasure to have you all around - sorry for the chicken and garlic!