ROC Guitarists

It was such a privilege tonight to have all the ROC teenage stars to practice their music pieces at our home. There were three guitar players and one base player. The drum player is a girl! The coach a girl too!

Drummer's necklace

Ski Lake Louise

This would be our last trip to Lake Louise (180 km west of Calgary) for skiing before our move to Kuwait. The air temperature was perfectly set at -3 degree for two days. The second night had 5 cm new snow. The boys and I have decided to ski together, and I have tried to avoid double black diamond successfully. In my opinion, Lake Louise Ski resort is the best among the North America, except Whistler, as I've never been there, if the snow condition is great. The beauty of the Rocky Mountains has never bored our eyes.

As usual, we took the two express chairs and flip over to the back side of the mountain, where there are fewer people and lighter line ups. There is a long green run in the valley that makes me always feel like a deer jumping in the woods.

You can see Lake Louise and Chatea Lake Lousise in the far.  There are several rivers of clouds in the air like ribbons around the mountains.

We are on the chair lift to the Larch hill.

To make my younger son happy (he begged me several times with his evil "follow me, you are in good hands"), I agreed to follow him to the Rock Garden - you ski literally among the rocks. I hate to hear the scratching sound when my skis touch the rocks; and I also hate to fall forward. Luckily neither has happened this season so far.

The valley on the left side is the Larch Valley.

Every year there are different kinds of ice carving.

Winter Olympic 2010 will start soon in two weeks in Vancouver.

After taking two chairs, we took a T-bar (some people called it poma lift) to the Summit, where there are no easy runs.  Snow here is always better than other areas and the black runs are much longer and challenging.  Even the T-bar is quite long and steep.  If you are not careful, you may fall off and you will find you have to ski down on the black runs.

The boys planned ski to the cliff on the right. Then they would take off their skis and climb to the cliff as there are no lifts at all there, but they wanted to experience the straight free fall. This was the first time for my younger son, as my elder son challenged him. I prayed a little and agreed with their plan. This requires a lot on leg muscle strength.

Before we set to leave, we took the last pictures of the view on the summit.

Now we set to go.

My two brave sons! 

I've offered to take video and photos for them when they ski from the cliff, and this means I have to ski on a long double black run.  I really enjoyed everything!

There they are!  Whenever I see my elder son coming from the cliff or I cruise on a power run, the song "Walking in the Air" from the "SKI to the MAX" movie rings in my ears.  ("Walking in the Air" is a YouTube hyper-link.)  Unlike the IMAX movie, the ski patrols here always ensure the avalanche is under control before the runs are open to the skiers though.

This was not that easy, eh?  He is worn out. 

Baby Polar Panda baby and mommy.  We love skiing in Canadian Rockies!  We stayed at Lake Louise Inn where we found that 70% of the tenants are from Europe.

Map Town Guy

When my husband was offered a job from an oil and gas company in Kuwait in October last year, we were excited but frightened to think about moving to a strange country. ExploreMan went to the Map Town store and asked for a Kuwait map. Pulling out the Mideast and Kuwait map, the map guy with the Arabic accent obviously became excited and started his lecture, “Let me show you how beautiful Kuwait is!” ExploreMan frowned and pored out all his concerns. The conversation lasted for over an hour, and I suspect that it was the determination point for ExploreMan to move to Kuwait. He has been working as a white collar geek in downtown Calgary for almost seventeen years, and this Map Town guy truly opened our eyes to the rest of the world, "Come on, you do what you want to do, not what you need to do."  Isn't this what our elder son told us too?  Thank you, Map Town guy!

Help - Bu Yousef's Calling

My Kuwait blogging friend, Bu Yousef, will send a donation to the World Food Program to help Haiti. Please visit his blog and comment on his post "Help". For every unique comment, his donation will go up $1 from $50. It is up to us.  Click here to visit Bu Yousef's blog.  God bless.

White Tails

I try to hike to the Nose Hill every Sunday afternoon to be alone and to see how the white tails doing. Today was not easy, as the snow became hard ice on the path and I had to walk on the crunchy snow by the path with more muscles involved. It took me one hour in stead of thirty minutes to get to the view point where I bring the deer closer with my new camera lens. The sun started to sink, and the deer roamed to the ridge and tried to catch the last ray of the sun light. What a beauty from God's hand.

Our Friendship is Soda-Licious

Xavia called one night in December 2009 and said she and her husband GeoDoctor would like to come to our home and chat with me and my ExploreMan. Mysterious, as she did not tell me why she was coming as usual. She pulled out a framed cross-stitch art work from a shopping bag , "Well, as soon as we knew you were seriously leaving us, GeoDoctor and I started this cross-stitch together, rushing day and night..." She could not move on, as we were all in tears. Our twenty-three years Friendship is Soda-Licious and precious indeed. If I were a kite, Xavia would be the string that always pulls me to boundaries, patience and self-control. We read mind each other and exchange eye contacts more often than words. We share the same hobbies (Amazing! Cuz both of us are artistic!), except she is a painter and I am a photo taker (with no patience and endurance). I'd better stop writing as the words are blurry on the screen ...

Shark Mall - Souq Sharq Shopping Mall

ExploreMan was taken by his driver to the Shark Mall. I suspect that almost everything is related to a sea creature. By the way, the first picture in the previous blog is - water fountain! Did you get it right?

My favourite, as I am a food person.

Holt Renfrew?

Eau Claire Market? Love the veggie corner!

What is this beside Starbucks? A new type of coffee maker?

Give me a break! (1 K.D. = $3.75 CAN)
I'll stop shopping in Canada then.

Nice and quiet...

Sentera Market?

Oh, right!

Food Court...nice...

Don't you like the cool Arabic letters?

Cigar Shop ??

Comfort Zone

ExploreMan sent me this picture naming "I do not know this". Since I've done some intensive research and analysis on Kuwait via Internet and books, surely I know what it is. Do you know?

Unlike my elder son Doudou, my younger son Niuniu did not want to move to Mideast, as he likes his school and friends, and I guess he may have fear of leaving his comfort zone, even though both of them said they could not wait to learn Arabic. One of the promises we made to promote his willingness of moving is to get a cat or a bunny for him. ExploreMan send this picture to Niuniu to show him that Kuwait has nutella too! People do have fear in changes, uncertainties and risks , and one of the comforts is to see or taste something familiar with in the new environment. Sticky rice balls are my comfort food for me when I miss China.