In which I mention films more than usual

Right, you know what, I've decided I'm going rogue. No more of this attempting to stick to some sort of schedule, oh no, I'm going for the total anarchy, perhaps it'll be more frequent perhaps less so, who knows? And you know what no-one can stop me, I mean what's going to happen, I am going to have my licence to blog revoked. No, of course not, and you know why? Because I never even bothered getting one in the first place, am I one of those dangerous radical types or what?

Ok so now that has happened, I feel I should explain my recent experiences. Last week I finally managed to get round to seeing Django, I mean this had been quite a challenge. Plans were made and changed, remade and discarded so after many false dawns the sun finally rose and I made my way down the road to the local cinema. I have to say it is a fairly brilliant film, some cracking dialogue and totally ridiculous violence. Certainly it was worth all the effort I had gone to, to actually get there and see it.

After managing this feat I returned home for around 5 hours of sleep before jumping on a coach to Montreal. I realise now that over the past month and a half or so I have been in Montreal ever other weekend or so, it's beginning to feel like a second home. This trip was for the track meet at McGill, it's pretty big people come from all over the east of Canada, and a few brave souls travel from further west. The first event I did was pole vault, now I didn't really know what to expect here, the last time I had vaulted was before I left England, and the prospect of turning upside down and landing back on the track was one I was more concerned about than usual. Fortunately these fears proved unfounded and I vaulted far better than expected, going out trying to equal my pb. The next day I did my first pentathlon and to be honest it went fairly horrendously. However I am going to say some unusual for a combined eventer here, the best bit was definitely the 1k, I think this was because all the teams were lining the inside of the track and were in the lanes from about 3 outwards, so there was an absolutely brilliant atmosphere. Also it meant I had no idea how long I had been running as I couldn't hear a thing or see the clock, I ended up with a pb. Anyhow after I had regained my ability to stand I walked back towards the hotel, by this time the feeling of "I'm about to throw up" had also subsided, but I quickly brought it back by absolutely destroying a double cheeseburger. Anyhow we then coached back and I slept fairly well, discovering Avatar is much improved by sleeping through ther middle hour and a half or so.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what has happened to me recently.

A Visitor

Right so I'm back in Halifax and started with the whole learning thing again. It's going ok, taking an arts based class it's interesting but I doubt the way it's assessed is going to play to my strengths, so the chemistry class and physics one are going to be far nicer I feel.
Anyhow the main thing that has happened since I got back was that James came and visited me. This was pretty awesome of him, even if it did ruin my chances of doing much work at the start. Naturally his visit involved a fair bit of drinking, discovered a nice bar with plenty of choice of drinks, also visited a Scottish pub, it was ok just dead because it was a Monday. The nicest bit was running up a $100 on cocktails, very very tasty and very handy for falling asleep afterwards. Of course we had to go to a hockey match, and it just happened to be the best one I've seen. A 4-3 win for the Mooseheads, behind for most of the match then got the winner with 5 mins remaining off an absolute beauty of a pass to set up the one-on-one. Even better as the teams were more evenly matched they were a little bit more fighty which definitely does increase the spectacle. Had a nice wander around a very icy Point Pleasant, which made it look fairly amazing, if a little difficult to wander around. Also Air Canada left his bags in Heathrow, so you know well done guys.
Starting to get used to the Halifax winter. Essentially it snows, stays cold for a few days then gets up to around 10C all the snow melts, before it plummets by around 20C and gets covered in ice and then snow, and the cycle repeats. This whole cycle takes around a week to happen, so yeah there's some pretty indecisive weather.
Also the NHL started yesterday after being on strike for months, everyone has gone just a little crazy it's great.

The USA is colder than Canada, who'd have though

Even the cement mixers get festive

Right so I left Canada for a bit... and went to about the most Canadian bit of America possible, Vermont. So first thanks to Lauren for putting up with me for a week, quite an impressive effort. It was a pretty cool time, although started badly, protest on the tracks meant I didn't arrive at Montreal until around 3.45 in the morning, unfortunately at this time I couldn't find a bed not that would've been much point anyhow. This meant I went to a 24 hour McDonalds for a couple of hours, had a bit to eat and read A Feast For Crows, so not all bad, then I waited at the station for a few hours before I got myself driven over the border. Getting into America was as fun as normal, I wonder if my prints have changed since the last time they took them?

Shooting fireworks from the hip sometimes works

I was there for New Years, so went to this thing called First Night in Vermont. It was this mixture of music, comedy and drama, not exactly the best quality ever, but still not the worst thing I've ever done either. This band called Frenchy and the Punk weren't exactly my kind of thing musically but they were at least pretty good entertainers. The best part was the midnight firework show, on a lake, in the snow.

The mountain before my camera froze

I also went and enjoyed the fact the place was covered in snow. Did some sledding (strange word to spell, I want to write sledging but it definitely wasn't cricket), this was pretty awesome, steering was challenging and going from the top of the hill was a lot of fun. Or at least it would have been if I wasn't following someone down, which meant I was essentially in an icy blizzard and totally blind and, of course, half way down I realised I was heading straight at a small child, so had to bail and roll down the hill. I also went snowboarding for the first time in a few years, it was great fun. The fact I had forgotten how to turn didn't put me at too much of a disadvantage, picked it up fairly quickly and perfected the fall and roll back onto my board fairly quickly. The main point was that it was below -30°C, which isvery cold for those of you that don't know, my scarf froze and I could feel ice forming in my nose. Still at least I won't be complaining about it being cold in the UK any time soon. The slopes were pretty empty and the runs were fun so it was a pretty amazing day, although I couldn't get many pictures as the batteries in my camera froze.

I spent some more time around the ice as well. I saw a girls high school game, it was nice to be right next to the ice even if it wasn't the most engrossing game ever. I also went and spent a little more time skating, going in a straight line is getting easier, although I feel my turns need a little more practice. Also I should point out that Ben and Jerry's is from Vermont and I went on the factory tour and got free samples, for this reason alone I think Vermont is a pretty amazing place.

Fixing trains canadian style

And now for the train rant, I have complained about trains a fair bit in my recent blogs and this time I just want to say that they also go ridiculously slowly and it's just depressing a journey should not take longer by train than it does by car and yet somehow they manage it. Also the carriage leaked so we got to fix it with bin bags a duct tape which was kind of cool at least.