Day 2+3 Whistler

12 + 13 December. It is pretty special having the mountains right on your doorstep. Not something I will tire of easily. On the slopes by 0845 and it had snowed about 20cm on the Blackcomb side so found some fresh tracks under Glacier Express and Crystal and we had the mountain to ourselves. It was turning into one of those perfect ski days where I felt utterly contented and had deep inner calm - where you know that the uncertainty of next year and what is to come will be OK as right now everything is good. It then started to snow and close in but after lunch we headed over to Whistler mountain for clear blue skies and amazingly soft snow. Conditions far exceeded expectations of hard packed snow. Finished off the day with a long run down from the Blackcomb glacier (after a short but very breathless walk up). Whistler is expensive but the pistes are in good condition and there are lots of snow canons lower down. Young attractive Aussies are on hand to put your skis onto the gondolas for you and there is a general high level of service which the French could learn from.. The North Americans don't like my queuing technique however.
In the name of research, we hit the apres ski scene hard and did a thorough reconnaisance of several drinking establishments and hot tubs. Not a toffee vodka in sight but didn't seem to matter! Snowing and low cloud today so more gentle cruising but very pleasurable all the same. Happy Days!

Day 1 Whistler

Sunday 6 December

Got back from Chicago and went straight to bed. Woke at 3am excited (I felt like a 5 year old on Christmas Eve). Got up at 6, on the slopes in Whistler by 8.45.
Yeah Baby Yeah.
The first snow report of the season on this blog! Now I have a use for the people coming out to ski rather than the self absorbant drivel so far! This is why I do weeks of crap on calls, biopsy every normal thyroid going and put in every chest drain in every huge pleural effusion they want on ITU....

Hard packed snow; (base 200cm); hasn't snowed for a week, but found some really lovely snow near 7th Heaven (not sure what happened to 1-6 and where did the phrase 7th Heaven come from anyway? Anything to do with 7 deadly sins?) and the Glacier Express.
Pistes - very well groomed. Empty. No queues.
New skis carve amazingly; they like the softer stuff better and have a feeling they won't disappoint in the powder either.
Cold -20C and v windy, so more like -30C. Frostbite warnings on all lifts. Don't fret equipe Robinson - unusually cold for Whistler.
Clear blue skies and sunny.
Food - average but not awful. Canteen style. Not surprisingly no tartiflette or chocolate fondant but waistline won't mind. Therefore no Russian choppers required to get us home after big lunch from wrong valley. Apres ski report next weekend.
Peak to Peak gondola - amazing. Bit scary. No photos this time as camera battery didn't like the cold.
People in yellow checking you don't speed and take away lift pass if do so.
Lifts shut at 3pm.
The best bit (Grace will like this) so far... They have pretty much thought of everything here...



Tissues at the bottom of a chairlift for your runny nose!!

Number of snow baths - 0.
All long bones intact.

The Windy City

I've just spent the last week in Chicago at the Radiological Society of North America which attracts a world record 60,000 delegates. It is incredibly inspiring (I affirm my love of radiology at every conference I go to and am gradually overcoming my fear of presenting to the big cheeses) but massive - a huge convention centre with an airplane hanger sized industry exhibit hall all with the latest bits of kit to wow potential buyers. Great to catch up with lots of friends and colleagues from London and to make new friends too. Life is a bit uncertain for many of us at the moment with consultant jobs needing to be sort, so it had the potential to be slightly tense (and I did wonder I might get poisoned by my rivals) but all passed very amicably! It is so useful to chat to others about their world including experiences of radiology and to share ideas and values (doctors are not very good at 'networking'); and even better over a drink which a large multi national company wishes to buy for you. Our teleradiology company even got as far as getting a name. We ate well (predominantly oysters and large pieces of moo-ing cow; Sunda, Shaw's crab house, Wildfire, Kenzie chophouse), imbibed some quality martinis and showed the locals some of our finest shapes on the dancefloors, and kept the American economy on the magnificent mile afloat for a few more days. Got on the plane broken; I'm looking forward to a quiet healthy week - Vancouver is well suited to that!



Elisa, myself and Deepa before going into the Field Museum behind us for an evening amongst the dinosaurs.



Very good sushi at Shaw's.

Semiprime!

The on call birthday weekend passed pretty uneventfully.
It rained here and snowed a lot more in Whistler.
The boys enjoyed knee deep light powder while I reported endless CT scans.
I accidentally fell into Tiffany's for respite.
We went out for a lovely supper and my pager didn't go off.
Dawna my housemate made an excellent mango cheesecake.
Quite a few people remembered by birthday which was nice (facebook reminders help) as I do wonder whether out of sight is out of mind.
I sometimes wonder how many people will turn up to my funeral (if there isn't a live web link by then).
I'm not sure I can even get away with lying about being 30 anymore.
Will continue to tick wrong age demographic box in questionnaires for a while longer though.
Found lots of grey hairs today - at least the expensive highlights are justified now.
Will stay away from the botox until the early mid life crisis kicks in.
Body clock clearly malfunctioning, or battery broken. Maybe will sell eggs, freezing too expensive.
Chicago in 4 days. Then skiing begins in earnest.
Hope not too osteoporotic yet.

(35 is a discrete semiprime (or biprime) (5 x 7); the tenth, and the first with 5 as the lowest non-unitary factor.)

Highway 1

Highway one is the pacific coastal road from San Fran to LA. It is part of the pan- American highway which starts in Alaska heading south through the Yukon province of Canada, into BC past Whistler to Vancouver (where it is called the Sea to Sky Highway) across the border, into Washington, Orgeon, California and then all the way to Panama and onto Valparaisao in Chile.



It is spectacularly scenic hugging the rugged coastline with crashing surf and remote sandy beaches, interspersed with towering redwoods.



Big Sur was the destination - a selection of high end lodges and eco cabins nestled amongst several national parks stepped in anicent redwoods on the pacific coast ; a calming place with excellent hiking and stunning panoramic views. Great burritos, quiet, and incredible stars as no light pollution. Cabin in woods (+ heated floor + internet for her) + wood fire outside (for him) made for a relaxing few days.

Always good to leave a place wishing you could stay longer. California is cool.

Wet Dog Kinda Day

Without exaggeration it has rained non stop since I landed from San Fran on Saturday. I remain unadjusted as to how foul the weather is. I'm told that the yearly rainfall in Vancouver is similiar (sic) to the UK and I quite frankly didn't believe it. Cue Prof Google. With good reason - the average annual rainfall in Vancouver is 1117.2mm, with November being the wettest month with 167.2mm of rain. Average rainfall in London is 585mm with Devon + Cornwall receiving about 900-1000mm (another place to potentially live dismissed) and parts of western Scotland a tsumanious amount of over 4,000mm (not sure that is a word or not). In true British style I whinge daily about the weather whereas the Canadians continue to be ever cheerful and charming. They clearly know something I don't - hopefully about the amazing snow which is dumping in Whistler - a record 233cm base this morning. Total bummer that I'm on call this birthday weekend as my new skis are eager to play in the powder.
It has been a wet dog kind of few days - where even the dog wouldn't want to go for a walk and then remains damp and smelly for a while afterward. Perfect baking weather though. North American chocolate is like dog chocolate and I'm currently loving Reece's peanut butter cups which is strange as I don't particularly like peanut butter; however it is the combination of salt and sweet which works so well. Crispy salted oatmeal white chocolate cookies may just get me through a weekend on call and into a new age demographic....

San Francisco

Just over two hours flight down the coast and the climate is totally different. For the humid obsessed amongst us (n=1), it is actually more pleasant than the dryness of Vancouver; the skies are clear and it is a very pleasant 16-18C (packing exam failed with too many jumpers and no sun cream). And not a rain drop in sight. HEAVEN.




Home of the Golden Gate Bridge and the huge bay, cable cars (brilliant invention on the steepest of hills - the cables are changed every 2-3 months as they wear out), Alcatraz (vastly inferior to Robben Island), the second largest Chinatown town in the States after NYC with amazing dim sum to name but a few attractions and of course the HIV epidemic where in the 1980s a third of the gay male population were infected.

It is a really lovely city; cities and water go together like gin and tonic. It feels a little edgy with an interesting melting pot of cultures, people and (importantly) cuisine. Not too much of America to sour the taste. Good discovery of a happy hour in this recession ridden country (with a headline the other day announcing unemployment at a new record high of over 10%) was 1$ oysters!

Anything goes here. It really is a uniquely distorted place.