In 10 Days Time…

In 10 days time I’ll be…

– Jobless (just until I start at Whistler Blackcomb)
– Flat-less
– Car-less (though have been for a month!)
– Sat in the airport bar with fellow Working Holiday Clubbers heading to Vancouver
– Stressing that I’ve forgot something but not caring as much as usual as I’m going to Canada baby!
– In disbelief that we’ve actually taken the plunge to do this

Can’t believe how quickly the last few weeks have gone. I feel like I’ve wrote a still to do list loads of times and still not completed it. Here we go again… Still to do:

– Finish packing up our flat
– Finish packing our lives into 2 suitcases and hand luggage (actually started now, go me!)
– Finish at work (4 and a half days working days left!)
– Print all documents
– Check into flight

Three Weeks Today…

Arggghhhh can’t even explain how excited I am! It’s getting harder and harder to get up for work (doesn’t help it’s dark now when my alarm goes off) But also starting to panic that we’ll run out of time to get everything done. Still need to pack up our flat, buy a few more bits then pack our 2 suitcases. Still no idea how we are going to fit clothes for three different climates for about a year into a suitcase each without going over the 23kg limit!

My blog has hit over 1,000 views already now, so big thanks to everyone who has been reading so far. Hopefully I’ll have more interesting things to write about in 3 weeks time and have some photos and footage from my GoPro to share so it’s not just me rambling!

29 Days to Go!

Arrggghhh only 29 days til we fly to Vancouver! I can’t believe how quick it’s come round, it seems only yesterday we were talking about it being 5 months away! I’ve only got 17 days left at work too 🙂

Starting to panic at how much we’ve still got to do though, as I’m spending all the time I should be doing something productive watching videos of Whistler on Youtube/searching Whistler on Instagram & Twitter.

Already Sorted

– Flights

– Jobs – Thanks to The Working Holiday Club we’ve got our jobs sorted before flying out

– Insurance (got a great deal with skicover.com – £489 for both of us and it covers everything we need!)

– Accommodation in Vancouver

– Staff accommodation in Whistler

Still To Do

– Stock up on Winter clothes

– Attempt to get fit – Just a little fitter than I am now would help so I can attempt to snowboard at least 3 times a week!

– Pack – Attempt to fit everything we need for a year into one suitcase and hand luggage!

– Move out of flat

Roll on 28th October! 🙂

Whistler To-Do List

One of the things I’m looking forward to about live and working in Whistler is living like a local and a tourist at the same time. We’ll get to know all the cool places the locals go (if locals actually exist, heard it’s mainly Aussies), how to avoid lift queues in a morning (hopefully!), learn which runs have the best powder stashes and get discounted food & drinks! But we’ll also have time to do all the touristy type things. Here’s my Whistler to-do list:

• Achieve 75 days snowboarding
• Zip lining & bungee jumping
• Bob sleighing at the Whistler Sliding Centre
• Snow mobiling
• Heli-boarding (or at least cat-boarding)
• Master t-bar drag lifts
• Attempt the student lifestyle again  (just swapping the studying with working)
• Learn to do jumps and tricks on my board
• Do a double black run (possible double black but not getting carried away)
• Get a google tan
• Do fresh tracks a few times (get on the first gondola up the mountain and have a big buffet breakfast)
• Go to the coca-cola tube park
• Back country boarding / tree runs
• Make lots of videos with my GoPro
• Go to the fire and ice show
• Work and play hard!
• Have an awesome time and make the most of every minute

Not to do list

• Get injured
• Not have fun
• Take enough photos / videos

The Planning Starts Now

I’ve been a little distracted from starting to plan our trip recently due to football. I’m a Bradford City fan and have just had the most amazing season which has been a huge distraction to anything else. For anyone interested in reading about this, check out my other blog here

Now the football season has officially finished, we can really start to plan our trip. If you’re new to my blog we’re planning on going to Whistler to do a working season there from November – April ish. Then onto America for 3-4 weeks to do a road trip then we’re planning on popping down to Brazil to the World Cup. It’s a dream trip that I still can’t believe we’re doing, especially since we’ve been talking about going to Canada for years. However…. we still have it pretty much all to plan and we seem to keep adding more and more to our to do list.

So far, we’ve signed up to The Working Holiday Club to get our jobs in Whistler sorted before we go. We know these job programs are a little bit of a con as you’re paying someone to get you an interview for job, however with neither having us worked a season before and are not able to go out until just before the season started, we didn’t want to risk not being able to find a job. We decided we’d rather pay to have the peace of mind, especially with two of us needing to find work. If I was going on my own I don’t think I’d have signed up to a program but at least this way we know we’re both guaranteed a job before we fly out. I’ve got my initial phone interview with a guy at the Working Holiday Club next week, then they arrange an interview with the Whistler mountain team in London in July. So in July we should know what jobs we’ll be doing and when we’ll be starting.

Visa – Check

Job – Check-ish (as long as I don’t attack anyone in my interview, I should be okay…)

Accomodation in Whistler – Check (going to live in the staff housing, but will see how that goes!)

Still to sort:

– Insurance

– Flights to Canada (probably going to go to Vancouver first)

– Accommodation in Vancouver

– Canadian Bank Account

– USA Road Trip Itinerary

– Flights from USA to Brazil

– World Cup Tickets

– Winter Clothes – Not sure whether to buy in Canada or here in the UK before hand