Did someone mention a small brown furry thing that answers to the name of "Choccy"?

Yes, dear readers, for those of you who have been missing the moose, he's made a comeback. Having filled out a bit, he's now back to his usual shape and in great form (the great snowboard squishing incident of October 2005 is but a mere memory). So much so, that we decided to take him up the mountain for some snowboarding action.

So how do you take a moose up a mountain? Well, you employ a tactic known as plagiarism and copy what your friends did a few seasons ago with their toy tiger... you attach him to your goggle strap! (Sorry to Wendy, Lucie and Tina for the blatant borrowing of furry-toy-up-mountain techinigue!)

What with the weather being so clear and the skies being blue, Choccy informs me that he loved every second of our jaunt today. Although he found the chairlifts a tad high, the feeling of the wind whipping through his fur was more than enough to compensate. And he almost let me forget that I stacked it big time at the bottom and buried him in a load of snow... sorry Choccy.

In other news, Jethro got back on his skis - video below. (Apart from whinging for a good ten minutes about how bloomin' uncomfortable the hard boots were and complaining about having more to carry than usual, he couldn't disguise the little grin on his face when he cruised down the runs we did today, looking like he had been skiing for more than the five hours or so he has dedicated to it). Most of our party were astounded when I told them how little time he had spent on two planks. HIgh praise indeed.

I can't wait to get hold of a pair of ski boots from work as I can share Jethro's skis, what with us being roughly the same height. I now know how to change all the settings on a ski binding and the intricacies of how they work, due to my training at Fernie Sports. Conditions are perfect for skiing the groomed runs, what with the sun shining and the snow being hard packed. We could really do with some more snow, but you know what they say: A bad season in Canada is waaaaay better than a good season in Europe, so I aint complaining.

When we're not out on the snow, I am mostly working (as we're getting busier, but I don't have to work on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day - yay!) and we're also out socialising. We went to our first Pot Luck Dinner the other night. This is a very Canadian thing and my friend Nicky told me all about it back in London. Everyone takes one dish, either sweet or savoury, to the party and it's pot luck as to what you end up with! Genius! About 12 of us trooped over to Lisa, Simon, Gerry and Mins house and all took various dishes of stuff. We ended up with a good spread - home-made soup, salad, bread, pizza, dippy things, blueberry pie, muffins, noodles, veggie pasta, fried potatoes and a rice thingy. All very nice! I highly recommend that we bring this idea over to the UK. It saves the host a fortune in food shopping for a start!

Alex and Choocy reach new heights


Choccy eavesdrops on a top secret recipe swap between Alex and Lisa (Lisa is one of the best cooks we know - seriously!)


Choccy continues his stealth mission on the Elk Chair as Alex and Lisa natter on


Jethro and his incredible natural talent for skiing...