Happy Halloween - going out with a bang

There is NO SHAME in being warm - please note THIS IS NOT A COSTUME - it is just me in my everyday getup

🎶 🎵 Oompa Loompa Doompety do 🎶 🎵  I definitely took a lot of convincing to don this onesie and then to wear it out in public. There were lots of protestations. " I didn't wanna do it ..." but thank goodness I heeded the advice of the locals amd actually wore it. It was FREEZING walking the streets at #Tapley's neighbourhood for #Halloween.

To be fair, it was only light for the first 30 minutes and then you were at the mercy of the lights of the decorations.  Mind you, both @Mindy and @Mac commented how easy I was to find in the dark - I am not really convinced that I ever "blended in." Not to worry, we fly put tomorrow and when we return, hopefully, the nightmare of the "Aussie in the Onesie " will have faded. 

Not sure how @Mac survived because he insisted on wearing his jeans. His legs must have been frozen. You could literally see the cold arriving - a mist settled over the neighbourhood as the sun disappeared. You had to keep removing your glasses to defog them. We were both appreciative and relieved when @Chad arrived with the promised hand warmers. We were able to put these little inserts in our gloves to try and thaw the fingers out. You have to take your gloves off to take photos - and that exposure was cruel.

Welcome to #Tapleys - before it got dark and cold

It was such a great night. The entrance road to the neighbourhood was closed off. The #Whistler bus #Spook and Ride was free #Nesters (out favourite grocery store) were the sponsors and the event is a community fund raiser. If you attend, you are asked to bring a donation of non-perishable food or to make a cash donation. 

The locals in the neighbourhood decorate their homes and provide trick or treat candies for the children. And there were dozens of houses set up and hundreds of children and adults. The majority were in costume - all of the children were and an "alarming" number of the adults were decked out. Even adults without children in tow! Seems like a good opportunity to get out there and have some fun.

Manners did prevail. The children made their way from house to house and rolled up to the table or tent or fireplace with a very cheery "Trick or treat" and were rewarded with "candy." The neighbourhood is supported by donations - if you are hosting, other families donate to your stash for distribution. 

Now that's a pumpkin carving!

Can't begin to describe the setup. There were some simple house fronts with cobwebs, pumpkins and lights and then there were the spectacular. One house was a simulated "house on fire" complete with a fully decked out bus driven by a skeleton. There was a pumpkin house, featuring g dozens of intricately carved pumpkins, a spider house draped in webs and dripping with spiders, garages set up with spoktacular effects, movies projected in windows and chimneys and onto walls, ghosts in every shape and size and graveyards and blood. One house was decked out as a pirate ship, sails adorned the multiple stories, dead men's skulls lined the driveway and skeletons dangled from the rigging. It was house after house, street after street of this crazy spectacle. We walked "the loop" and it took just on 90 minutes.

This house is on fire!

Skeleton bus driver

Spider house - they were everywhere

Lots of inflatable stuff in decorations

Who knows how the kids came down from the high of a full school day on costume, this wander around in the dark and the truckloads of "candy" that was in their loot sacks.

There were incredible setups - one house had their own "fire eater" as part of their display

Costumes were crazy. Cute but ghoulish. Lots of lights, plenty of blow up add ons. Ghosts, ghouls, lots of cartoon characters, dinosaurs .... it was endless. Most looked like store bought rather than home made. Plenty of face paint and wigs. Lots of #MineCraft characters and we overheard one little dude calling his mate to "Dig this." Even the dogs had lights and costumes.

Yep, this is a dog, in class!

Can you even imagine how crazy the schools were? The children all turn up in these crazy costumes for a "day of learning." Yeah, I can see that happening. The Year 7 students at school, setup and host a #Halloween House and the younger ones of course love the fun.

They might have added to the craziness - @Mindy and @Mel were a hit at school as #MnMs..

This was a student as #Mickey, in class, a bit of silent reading time. 

And to top all that off, to signal the end of the night, there was fireworks! Think "Mayfair." A 10-minute light show on the school oval. We had the best view and the best park for this finale and we were able to make a quick getaway before the crowds. Perfect exit strategy.

So cool @Mindy and @Ian organised fireworks for us!

And after the feast of last night, almost embarrassed to admit that the girls opted for #McDonalds for a takeaway dinner (I wanted the McFlurry) and the boys voted for #Peaked Pies. Took it home and settled in to watch "Hocus Pocus" while answering the "Trick or Treat" knocks at our door.

Little did we know that there was a big secret amongst the #Whislter Family. Apparently @Mac and I were intentionally kept out of the loop and all was not revealed until we were safely in the car on the way home. No joke, the GRIZZLY bear had returned to the #Tapley neighbourhood just in time for #Halloween. We were all wandering around with the bloody bear!!! Who would even have known, I would have just thought it was someone in costume. But, we were assured we didn't have to worry because the Conservation Officers were on hand making sure no-one was eaten. Seriously ... a not happy @Jan moment!

A not so well kept secret

In terms of packing, all is progressing as expected. I'm done, @Mac has potential for growth! @Mindy is NOT helping - her encouragement is for him to "miss the flight" and "stay." The bear is the clincher - we are going - even if he isn't packed.

He will be busy tomorrow.

Jumping for joy applying finishing touches

Big night out - they don't get to eat at #The Four Seasons very often - a bit excited

Consider this a day of "lasts" and getting things done before we pull up stakes.

Joined @Ms_W's class for the last time and the children were very kind with their individual words of thanks. Still in pumpkin frenzy mode which guarantees productive output! Love it. Set up our address details so that we can have a little pen pal exchange. Will be able to do a combination of email and snail mail including sharing our little "Elf on the Shelf" and Christmas countdown fun from #Farrow. I am looking forward to it and am confident our little "Miss_Chief" will keep the children entertained.

Last visit to class - pumpkin fuelled

After school, used the last of our bus tickets to meet up in #The Village with @Mac so that we could hit a couple of the shops we missed including the #Rocky Mountaineer Chocolate Shop. An absolute favourite for toffee apples and we have avoided until today - all so very tempting and I love them. Called into #Blenz for our last coffee visit and only made light food choices to save tummy space for dinner.

Lots of special treats inside and out - can't trick me, I know that's a bear in there!

@Mac commented on the number of venues that we haven't tried yet, so plenty of potential for a return visit. 

We don't mind a brew at #Blenz

#The Village was very quiet and the people who were out walking were definitely all rugged up. There is a bridge that takes you over a water feature of #The Stroll and we noticed for the first time that is now absolutely frozen. It also features random jagged shards of ice which had popped up to decorate its surface. We were walking through around 1 pm and it was still frozen solid. Think that must be its normal presentation from here on out.

Frozen surface with random ice "bits" - now that is cold

We had some unfinished business with #Canada Post and found ourselves at the counter explaining our voice message advising that we had mail to collect. The message had indicated that the delivery person had tried twice to deliver and get a signature with no success. The staff at the counter expected that you would have a "piece of paper" and a "tracking" number. Hmmm. We had been keen to follow up because we thought it was going to be @Mac's very delayed ballot paper for the referendum. The staff did their best and made quite a few inquiries "up the chain" but it ended with the consensus it was "a scam." Moral of the story - still no ballot paper.  And, how do those buggers get your number AND coincide the message with an expected delivery. Very devious.

Still no postal vote for @Mac

It is "dead season" and restaurants are running "specials" and we had all decided that it would be "The Four Seasons" and their specialty steakhouse "Sidecuts" for us tonight as our "this is the end of our trip" dinner. I think @Mac voted that way because he has Drs appointment and a blood test early next week and wanted to get his iron count back up!

Fancy fancy at #The Four Seasons 

 In the 10 years they have lived in #Whistler - @Ian has only been twice - both times with us. @Mindy is one up on all of us as she was a guest a few years balcony as part of a work function. But, it is very special.  Tucked into delicious choices - don't think we had a single failure for any of the 4 course selections each of us made. Cocktails, wine, soups, salads, oysters, scallops, mushrooms, lamb, sirloin, chocolate cake cheesecake and pears. We had it all - oh, and the truffle chips - can't forget those. Have to comment on the level of service, which was impeccable and @Mac of course noted that he didn't have to clear the table here. Hope he left a great tip!

Very special dinner to say thank you to our amazing "hosts"

The only fail of the evening was when I attacked my "OYSTER Rockefeller." I had a recollection that it was served on a bed of MINT couscous and took what I thought was a great scoop of "the bed." Unfortunately, it was not couscous on this course, it was a bed of ground salt tinged with green food colouring. Took me a few gulps of water and wine to get that mouthful of salt out of the system.

This whole "nearly" our last day is tinged with sadness. We have had such an easy time of it over here and have loved the time with @Mindy and @Ian. Yes, they do have to commit to "work" like everyone else, but there is a different rhythm and flavour to life in a resort town. They are definitely "living the dream" and it has been a "dream" living like a local for our stay. The big bonus is that we have been able to meet all the people who form part of their "close circle" and visit the places they ramble off in the recounts of their adventures. 

Having said all of that - it is a "bitter-sweet" preparation to return home. We will be so sad to leave them but are very excited to find our little corner of the world again and don't mind saying, definitely looking forward to the sunshine. Let's hope the #Sunshine State can turn it on for us.

Look at that sky - will miss it and the mountains

Sitting it out on Sunday

Clear skies just means it is colder over night

 We called a timeout today. It has been a little hectic over the last few days and the smart alternate was to just plonk ourselves in the corner somewhere and relax. That didn't mean that things were quiet around us because it would seem that once the "snow tyres" are on all sorts of other arrangements fall into place.

It was still snooze time for us when @Mindy and @Ian were full steam ahead cleaning up after yesterday and last night's efforts. Meant they had to do a #Nester's run to get rid of all the rubbish and there were numerous loads to get it all into the boot - but they couldn't actually take off until the Sunday opening hours of noon ticked on by.

But the activity in the Common Room precinct seemed to trigger a whole host of activity for "season change." Everything fits in like a jigsaw puzzle - now that summer and the biking, hiking and water activities are over, all of this gear needs to be moved to the storage unit in #Function Junction.  Standup paddle boards and bikes are the first to go to make way for access to the ski gear in all its iterations. This also included the relocation of our empty luggage to inside the unit as a reminder that we were on the countdown for packing up and heading home. 

It is time ... to think about ... going home

And they are not the only ones making this change over. Seems like the group last night was talking it through and there is of course the bigger picture for the Municipality as well. We had already noted that the Christmas lights were being strung. The garden beds have been cleared and are now near naked in #The Village ready for the first fall of snow. The driveways and roadways all feature tall antennae that mark the perimeter of properties and roadways in preparation for the snowploughs. There are enormous piles of wood progressively building outside of houses and units. Work on the chairlift and gondola and the grooming and reshaping of the lower slopes are in full swing and everyone is gearing towards preparation for the re-opening of access to the mountain on November 26.

All sorts of changes as winter preparations are made

One month to go - transforming from biking to boarding

There was a deadline in the day because it was Sunday football and once the 10.15 game time kicked in, the chores were intermingled with stops and starts to catch some highlights. @Mac was dutifully providing the running commentary of the highlights as @Mindy and @Ian continued their mad dashes up and down the highway making swaps and doing deliveries. 

Nothing but football, football and football 

The mood changed for the 12.30 game because the 49ers were on show and the lounge spots filled with the addition of football fans @Phil and @Kevin who took up their prime spots for the multiscreen viewing setup that Ian had going and collectively second guessed every call and flag of the umpires. I think @Mac is going to miss his NFL - he has favourite teams and players he has been following. It would mean some very early starts at home for him to catch these games live.

Not sure that it has been "cold" inside before but for some reason I was feeling it this morning. You can never be fooled by that dim hint of sunlight, filtering through the limbs of the trees and the crisp, clear blue skies. This morning, it lingered on minus 5 until about noon and then slowly climbed to a maximum of 3. First time i have been huddled next to the warm air vent and rugged up in a blanket. @Mindy said my "bones were cold" and I needed to have a hot shower to get rid of the deep cold.  I followed her advice and it certainly did the trick. And it must have been cold because even @Ian was catching his breath as he was dashing back inside during that early morning session.

In lieu of actually doing anything - I did have some time to think about some little differences that have made an impression on me living as a local #Canuck. 

a. The people we have met are so chilled, so polite and so demonstratively affectionate. We have been welcomed everywhere - people have been smiling and patient. When we were touring, it we looked like we were standing with a map in our hands, someone would offer to help. Everyone says please and thank you and invariably if you thank someone - they will respond with a "You are most welcome." I have not seen one passenger on any bus in #Whistler who did not thank the bus driver on alighting.  We haven't seen police or patrols of security (other than going door to door looking for that missing gentleman) and at the same time haven't noted any altercations or brawls or even antisocial behaviour in any venues or on the streets. Amd the standard in your friendship circle is high all round - males amd females - welcomes amd goodbyes to your home - everyone very demonstrative. I figure it's an extra layer of warmth against the chill of winter.

b. As an extension of this - when cars approach a 2, 3 o 4 way set of stop signs at an intersection - it is not a matter who is on the right or left - it is all about "turn taking." I am serious, vehicles just glide in, if you arrived at the intersection first, you take off first - it is all about "turns-ies."

c. Not sure why, because I have never, ever had the need to use one - but every toilet we have been in across the breadth of #Canada has had a toilet brush and a PLUNGER. There are no signs to advise how or when to use a plunger - but it certainly seems as if it is a distinct possibility here. And they are BIG HOO-ERS. Hope my run of "never trying" continues long into the future.

d. There is no litter - and I mean none. Well, none that I have noticed. Guess every community needs a good old natural population of bears to make everyone litter conscious. You don't really see people walking around eating either which might contribute to the cleanliness. The school grounds were immaculate - not a speck of rubbish anywhere.

Bins everywhere - none overflowing - always litter free

Absolutely pristine playground after recess - not a piece of litter in sight

And I think that everyone in #Whistler  (there may be one exception) recycles. When you pull into #Nesters, there are bins amd bays for all types of rubbish. Everyone rocks up with their own little method of sorting - and people run from bay to bay dropping off bottles, cardboard, electoral and garbage.

e. There is no smoking! #Whistler prides itself on its "clean air" and there just aren't smokers walking around. I am sure they are here "somewhere" - I just don't know where. As well as the benefit of the clean air, there's the added bonus that you don't have those piles of filthy cigarette butts covering the pavement. We really noted the smoke once we left #Whistler and started our journey to the east coast. And when we hit the #French speaking towns - yuck, it was back with a vengeance.

f. The clean air quality is a "big" thing. Vehicles are not permitted to have their engines "idling" for longer than one minute in order to help maintain the clean air of the #Municipality.  Only found this one out when @Mindy took me up a little higher to see if we could catch some "flurries" last week. We were the only vehicle in the Sliding Centre car park but @Mindy was quick to turn off the engine to avoid the "idling" fine. 

Municipality guidelines for engine idling!

Don't mind admitting that we have enjoyed the pace of our lazy laid-back Sunday. Starting to cast our thoughts towards the #Southern Hemisphere and transforming our winter garden at home to summer. Grateful that #Harris Lawnmowing was able to duck in to tidy up the yard for us. I somehow have to break it to @Mac that we desperately need to get that topdressing down - maybe I should preorder 🤔  a few cubic metres now as a welcome home surprise. Googling #Nuway now.

PS Had correspondence from #Printhe Wines - perfect timing - should arrive in 7 days.

Carving capers completed

Carving it up - lots of background encouragement

Fail. Fail. Fail. Admitting that we didn't quite understand the task at hand but feel we would be much better in the future. There can be no excuses - we had all the tools, the fairy lights, Hocis Pocus movie in the background, books for templates and of course Dr Google. But when all was said and done, we literally couldn't cut it!

In a no holds barred analysis I can see where we went wrong. First mistake for me, undoubtedly, is the realisation this was a carving NOT a diorama. I went simple and cut out one rectangle, created myself a prison space, added two prisoners, completed with hand crocheted beanies, stuck in my LED light and poked in some bars. Interesting, but hardly a carving. Substitute my pumpkin for a shoe box and I was in the diorama classification! Boo hoo. 

Diorama rather than a carving

@Mac got much closer with his rendition of the apparently "classic" vomiting head. Rumour has it that everyone gives this a bash at some stage in their lives. Had to give @Mac extra kudos here because he delicately, or should that be indelicately, had some of the "vomit" coming out of the nose orifice of his pumpkin. But the honest assessment was that the holes were too small and light was not escaping to give a decent view of his efforts. Any suggestion that he change any aspect was shrugged off. Based on prior experience no doubt, he had a clear vision of a pumpkin definition of "hungover. " Mind you, I think I should had spotted him some red paint - because my last memory of him hungover was a post @Tony Barber party some 38 years ago where he came home with a red wine stain above his top lip and I literally had to carry him up the stairs.

Loved @Mac's attention to detail - squinty hung over eyes, tussled hair and vomit 🤢 coming from nostrils

As novices, what we totally missed was the importance of that original scoop. We were done and dusted and sitting back enjoying drinks and were patting ourselves on the back wondering what was taking the others so long. It was the scooping that was both the hold up and part of the reason for their success at the end. The more flesh of the pumpkin you can remove, the more translucent the skin and the more your design "pops." Oops, missed that finesse  by about 4 cms of pumpkin pulp! 

Pumpkin focus

@Josephine and @Johnny arrived with what I thought was a little mini go-bag because @Josephine was pregnant and you do have to be prepared a little ahead of time. How about this as the real story -  they unzipped it to reveal an electric drill, complete with a selection of bits and a cake beater. Battery operated, they plunged that sucker into the bowels of the pumpkin and ground away that slimy flesh leaving a thin, workable skin. Genius.

Not a traditional go-bag - a battery operated drill

The pumpkins came in all shapes and sizes and the resulting designs were all incredibly unique and as the evening progressed (and we were still sitting back sipping wine and munching on pizza) the concentration and intensity of everyone else actually amped up!

There were delicate and cute creations that were gently worked that featured intricate carving or detailed accessories and decorations.

Intricate work for cute finished products

Recognisable characters and/or scary faces from nightmares emerged in some of the larger creations when candles were added and Mickey's smile was outweighed by the toothy anticipation of others.

The frightening or funny faces

There were witches and bats streaking across the sky. The bat was suspended upside down, one witch had a pumpkin on her broom and the other was dodging the peaks of the mountain and the puffs of smoke from the chimney.

Witches and bats with details

And when all the mess was cleared up and the last seed collected for roasting, the finished products were lined up, admired, photographed and posted to social media for the annual vote. The voting is an impossible task - means, out of all the fine exhibits, you have to select just one. For a variety of reasons, I want to vote for each one. But rules are rules. So, I'm picking one.

Here it is. 

It was a clever little gem - and wins my vote because it was about association and connection - and as well as being very reflective of its creator - it absolutely engendered the most intense feeling of ANXIETY, FEAR and FRIGHT. This little creation was the stuff of genuine nightmares. (It also had a background story -  originally the creator may have had something a little more phallic in mind but cleaned it up for "the oldies.") Nonetheless, this weird and unlikely gem at number 9, depicting an engine failure warning light, gets my vote.

Can you imagine getting the "Engine Failure" warning light on the mountain roads of Whistler - now that would be mega scary! 

The full collection ready for voting

No doubt like many others around the world, our morning session had focused on the Australia vs New Zealand World Cup Cricket match where the #Aussies clinched the win in the last over. 

That was followed by a lunch gathering here of the pumpkin carvers, representing both #South Africa and #New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup Final. It was a fabulous atmosphere with another close result on offer to keep the fans literally on the edge of their seats and the roars echoing through the apartment.

Could have gone either way

A full house here all day and happy to report that no blood was spilt in any of the forms of competition throughout the day.  And just saying, it's not even #Halloween yet. 

Flying off the shelf like hot cakes and BOO to you.

In the spirit of Halloween - ghastly

Going to give that bake sale a big tick. We were obviously not the only kitchen cooking up a #Halloween storm, because there were so many donations. The goal had been to raise $100 - they made over $400! Don't want to blow our own trumpet - but because we had lollies on our little treasures - they just flew off the stall. Was very pleased that we didn't have to bring any home - I am still wary of walking with food and attracting the bears.

Starting to worry - might be running out for second session

The stall was initiated and run by a committee of the year 7 students and they did a fabulous job. All very organised as they systematically invited all of the "divisions" through to make their purchases. Did note that as the sale progressed and it looked like some items weren't moving - they employed astute marketing skills and did some price reductions. Glad they had imposed a "two item" limit on sales, otherwise they would have been sold out before half of the children got a chance to visit. 

You'd have to be motivated to get out each day - minus 5 this morning - and this isn't even cold!

But the cake stall was the afternoon fun. My morning was spent with the lovely @Ms_W and her class of pumpkin painters. What a morning we had. The children were super excited and attacked those feathers, googly eyes, glitter, pipe cleaners, pom poms and paint with passion! Once the "plans" were submitted, there was no stopping the little artists. Have to confess, there were 6 adults in the room helping the 17 children in attendance - so there was no shortage of support for their every creative need. 

Kids' classroom pumpkins

After that creative freedom of the morning session, the children rocked up with equal enthusiasm for the serious business of of the next session and I was overwhelmed with "volunteers" to come outside and play "Bingo" with me - mind you, I did have to be on my toes because there were a couple of little #Canucks who were "over competitive" and were jumping the gun with covering words that hadn't been called. Put a stop to those sneaky moves quick smart!

Got my little BINGO pit firing- got to watch the false starts - need to keep some "friends" close

It was a late return from school and I didn't get back home until nearly 3 pm. @Mac had braved the #Nester's walk solo because the grizzly had been relocated and without me dragging the chain and enforcing photos stops and toilet stops, he understandably clocked up a PB. I was on the bus and was receiving incentivised texts as to his purchases! There were only two "essentials" on his shopping list.

Master of hints and "fake news" on his walk

A quick turnaround in the afternoon because we had to set up for the ladies evening of painting pumpkins. Think "paint and sip" - but hosted by @Mindy and without the expertise of a guided art instructor. This was roll up with your pumpkin and do your best. My "plan" was to create two vases that could be used as "centre pieces" for our table over the next few days in the lead up to #Halloween.

Pumpkin Princess ...  Pumpkin apPrentice ... and the pumpkins

Quiet, artists at work

 Popped out the first artistic creation by getting each lady in attendance to provide me with their thumbprint which I attempted to turn into a ghost face. My second one was a red headed vampire. I have historically been challenged by any sort of drawing of a mouth = my round open mouth efforts usually look as if they belong in an "adult" store - but I wasn't going to let that hold me back as I tried to sketch and them paint with confidence - but, you know, some things are never meant to be.

BOO - 👻 👻 👻 and a 🧛‍♀️ 

I am convinced, in my mind at least, that I managed to create two "dreadfully frightening" creations which blend in with the other horrors of display. Other ladies obviously had more experience - they were doing MULTIPLE undercoats of white - and were definitely keeping it all very simple. As expected, everyone was extremely encouraging and found something positive to notice on every creation - even mine. Most comments focused on the store-bought flowers that topped my vases!

Simple creations

The best outcome was that with all the girls together, they have successfully tied down the upcoming Hen's Night" for May 2024 for @Mel. Great planning. And (using a #Canuck expression), "it makes my heart smile" to see this group in action. What a great group of girls in this #Whistler_family. They just talk and laugh and share and of course support each other. All easy going and supportive - and such fun loving and adventurous souls and definitely possess that little streak of "naughty" simmering below the surface. No doubt it erupts out when "mothers" are not in attendance. 

Girls showing me the FACE attoos they are thinking of getting in Vegas .... not happy Jan.

Meanwhile, the men had opted for their own cultural evening and headed to the local pub for a game of darts. Definitely hit their targets in the beer count, but if truth be told, didn't throw a single dart. "Apparently" all the boards were taken.

A big day and there were a few tired bodies at home tonight. Have left everything set up in the Common Room because tomorrow is round two of pumpkin creativity - the carving with the whole crew! You never know, if the bears visit our porch tonight and pilfer our pumpkins, we could be ruled out of the competition. Here's hoping ..... not sure for which outcome.

PS @Mindy and @Ian brought this treat home for me from #McDonalds - hope they have them at home!