Happy New Year

For Christmas I caught the Greyhound to Penticton to my Aunts and together we drove to Calgary. The roads were terrible, due to heaps of snow and freezing temperatures… both on the Greyhound and driving! We spent a couple of days in Calgary with Toby, Kathryn and Jack, it was great to see them and Jack is getting so BIG.

From Calgary we drove to Edmonton, to spend Christmas with Glen and John. We had a white Christmas and the temperature was about –15. Glen and John threw a dinner party for their friends on Christmas Eve, which was a lot of fun. On Christmas day there was just the four of us, which was nice, Santa came in the morning and then we opened our other presents after that. We had Christmas dinner then played Super Mario on the Nintendo Wii and watched movies, very relaxed.

The drive back to Penticton from Edmonton was a lot better than on the way, the roads were clear for most of the trip! I had a couple of days in Naramata before heading back to Vancouver, we just chilled out, played the Wii and watched movies. I did manage to catch up with the girl I worked with in the Naramata Heritage Inn in the summer, which was good.

I got the bus back to Vancouver for New Years, the hostel has a bar downstairs and they had a party on New Years Eve, which I went to with friends from the hostel, we had a great night, with people dancing on Granville Street!

Parties ans BBQ’s

We had our ball tournament to mark the end of the league, we played 5 games over the course of the weekend, we didn’t win the tournament but we had a great weekend, playing and drinking! The same weekend we went to a fundraiser BBQ in aid of Naramata Wildfire, the local girls fast-ball team, who have made it into the Provincials in Victoria, which is a great achievement for such a small place like Naramata!

We were invited to a Bocci Tournament Party, if you lost you were out, we lost our first game… we stayed to see friends of ours get into the final, only to be beaten by a team of kids (they were very good players), it was a great night and the house were the party was held had the most amazing views over Penticton and Skaha Lake!

It was our turn to have a party last weekend, so on Canada Day July 1st, we had a Scottish themed night! We cooked Scottish food, we even cooked haggis, which everyone tried! We taught everyone how to dance, Strip The Willow and The Gay Gordons, it was so much fun and such a laugh! By the end of the night the die hard partygoers were sitting round drinking whisky and getting even more drunk! A fantastic night was had by all!

Cousins and Horses

My cousins Glen and Toby came to visit for the weekend with John (Glen’s partner) and Kathryn (Toby’s wife) and baby Jack, Toby and Kathryn’s 6-month-old little boy, who I have not met before!

It was great to see them all again and all together, it was a very full house for the weekend but it was great fun! I had a ball game on the Sunday night and we were short a player, so Toby played for us, he was very good and so fast he overtook me!!

I few weeks ago I was introduced to a local family who have three horses and in exchange for grooming and mucking out their stables, I get to go riding whenever I want, which is great as it is such a beautiful place to go riding!

Living and Working

Nothing much happening over the last couple of weeks, just working and living! Fiona was heading back to Vancouver so we went out for dinner in Summerland before she left.

The weather has been fantastic so I have been sunbathing and relaxing after work, we opened the pool and have been swimming, although the water is still a bit cold for me…

We took the Mustang into Naramata to see the market which had been set up on Robson Street for May holiday weekend, then we drove out to Indian Rock, which is a lovely drive along the lake.

We have been to BBQ`s with friends and had friends over to play Bocci in the garden (it’s like bowls) and we have been playing Zelda on the Nintendo Wii.

My travel plans are staring to take shape, I am planned and booked up till the middle of September, and I am getting very excited about it all!

I played ball!

My friend Fiona arrived from Vancouver this week, We went to Penticton and Kelowna to show her round, we also went to a couple of wineries where we learned how to properly taste the wine and smell the aromas, Fiona met me from work one day so I could show her round Naramata and we went to the pub on our walk for some refreshment before we tackled the hill home!

It has been fantastic weather here over the last week, up in the 20`s and it is only going to get hotter! We went to the weekly ball game and I played for the first time, I really enjoyed it and everyone said how well I played for my first game! I think I will be playing every week from now on! We went to the pub with the team after the game for munchies and a drink, it was a fun night!

Orroville Trip

We had a whole day of rain, the first since I got here!

On my day off we took a drive down into Washington State, USA to Oroville, the last time I was down that way was when I was 14 years old and on my very first trip to Canada, so 13 years and eight trips to Canada later I go back! This time was different though, we stopped at a few wineries on the way, Burrowing Owl and Inniskillen both near Oliver!

I have never visited any wineries before so it was interesting, the Burrowing Owl winery gets it’s name from “Burrowing Owls” which are protected, the winery does lots to help them survive, it builds man made burrows for the owls so they cannot be got at by predators or hurt by humans!

At the Inniskillen winery I tasted some Ice Wine, it was lovely, very very sweet though! The reason it is called Ice Wine is because the grapes are left on the vine into winter and are only picked when it is minus 10 or colder… that is what makes it so sweet!
Every night this week and for the past few actually I have been going to bed to the sounds of frogs ribiting away to one another in the garden, by the ponds.

My New Job

I have been working for a week now and it’s all going well, the Inn is so beautiful and very posh! Each of the rooms has it’s own little balcony, cast iron roll top bath’s and huge beds! They have had a few famous faces stay there, hopefully I will get to see some this year.

The history of the Inn goes like this, The Naramata Heritage Inn & Spa was originally built in 1908 by John Moore Robinson who started the fruit industry in this region of the Okanagan Valley. Mr Robinson had made his fortune in the newspaper business in central Canada when he decided to head west in search of gold during the Klondike gold rush of the late 1800`s. Stopping briefly in the Okanagan valley he succumbed to the serene beauty and idyllic climate and quickly realized the agricultural and development potential of the area. After surveying and developing the townsites of Peachland and Summerland as well as many fruit bearing orchards, he set his sights on what he believed was the ideal location for the “Perfect Community”. The “Hotel Naramata”, resting on the shores of Okanagan Lake, was his crowning achievement in land development. Over the years the building has functioned as a hotel, a private girls` school, and as the home of the Robinson Family.

I have spent a few afternoons in the garden when I finish work as the weather has been lovely! We went to Kelowna for a day away on my day off and did a bit of shopping, which is always fun!

We have been to a couple of ball games, as my Aunt is part of the Mad Dogs team, they are trying to get me to play, but at the moment I am just watching and learning the rules, but I am sure I will be playing before long, it looks like great fun.

My First Week

I got unpacked and settled in and got the bus into town to get a bike so that I can get around and travel to work! I took the TVR Trail home from Penticton to Naramata, it was a beautiful cycle with views over Okanogan Lake, and this is when I saw the Groundhog, just sitting beside the trail sunning himself!

I cycled to work in a vineyard on Tuesday, we were putting in the irrigation system for the summer, it was very hard going, but I made it through the day and went home for a hot tub!

The weather was hot and sunny for the rest of the week and there was not enough work for me at the vineyard so I spent a lot of time reading out on the deck and I cycled into Naramata and looked around for jobs and went down to the beach and watched the Canadian Geese.

I got an interview on Friday morning and start work at The Naramata Heritage Inn and Spa on Sunday morning!

My flight, arrival in Vancouver and bus to Penticton

After saying my good bye’s I got my flight from Glasgow at 2:30 to Vancouver via London Heathrow, I arrived in Vancouver at 6:35 and got the bus to Downtown, were I walked to my hostel, which turned out to be in a bit of a bad area, but I was so tired I just wanted a bed for the night!

Woke up very early due to jet lag and got ready to go to my orientation with BUNAC, I had a few hours to spare so I wandered around downtown for a couple of hours getting my bearings before going to the SWAP orientation. The orientation wasn’t very interesting, but I applied for Social Insurance Number, which I must have before I can start work and got information on opening a bank account.

My friend Fiona from Inverness who has been in Vancouver for 5 weeks now came and met me and we spent the day together, wandering around Downtown, we had lunch and then we went to her apartment for the evening, I stayed over there before heading to Penticton in the morning!

I got the Greyhound bus from Vancouver to Penticton, it’s a 6 hour journey through the Canadian Rockies, it’s a very scenic route, there is even snow still lying in the higher parts! My Aunt picked me up from the bus and we went home to play on the Wii, wow that is an energetic game!

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