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VICTORIA-VANCOUVER ISLAND
Over the weekend we had a big dump of snow- a level 15 inches here on the coast and much more in the rest of the island and the mainland. Apparently, it is the heaviest November storm on record and the worst winter snow fall here for 10 years. The locals say that it never snows - they are coping about as well as the British do. Central Canada has temperatures of -20 C, heavy snow and a serious windchill-people there are wondering what we are fussing about!
Sandy has got very excited about the snow-are you surprised? She e-mailed every one in sight to tell them. Thank you to those who replied with the appropriate exclamations of delight-sincerely meant I am sure. We(mostly Sandy) have taken dozens of snow pictures with every building and scene covered from many angles. One cold, cold night I was despatched for filming of the night scenes. The locals looked on indulgently and were clearly puzzled by the antics of their visitors from across the waters.
Luckily we are holed up in a luxury hotel( The Fairmont Empress}. The hotel was built in 1908 to mark the easternmost point of The Trans Canadian Railway. It is a splendid building overlooking the inner harbour of James Bay- a spectacular building! When we arrived we took afternoon tea in the tea lounge overlooking the harbour-as one does. We also ate in the Bengal Lounge- an old colonial room with log fire, tiger on the wall and snoring retired generals in the corner; had Sunday Brunch in the Empress Dining Room; Thanksgiving meal { I know we are not American and Canadian Thanksgiving is in October, but what the heck}; and an evening meal in the Empress Harbour Lounge - we ate where we got the most food for the least money{ and delicious the meals are too}
It cost us the equivalent of a stay in a Travelodge and we have 2 out of the 7 nights free as well! For the princely cost of 25 shillings we received not only a junior suite with a lounge, but a butler too! In the evenings we came back to find our duvet turned down,ice bucket and wine glasses at the ready{ pity we had no wine}, bathroom light and radio turned on, and best of all the weather forecast for the next day on a piece of headed paper detailing the history of the hotel. Did you know that the wives of the original owners{ the Dowagers} stayed on at the hotel when their husbands lost all of their money in the Great Depression, for the princely sum of 1 dollar a week? The last Dowager reportedly died in 1988,but ghostly figures have been seen walking around the deserted corridors at night- just maybe they are our mysterious butlers!
Despite this hotel serving the very wealthy,the staff are very friendly and down to earth.In fact they have taken us under their wing-even smuggling us staff birthday cake and giving us unauthorised tours of the hotel to areas normally inaccessible to guests. We even sweet talked ourselves into being shown the Gold Lounge.( where the extra posh hang out). As we had toured every floor and explored every corridor( we were trying to walk off our meal and not disturb the butler) We probably had the security cameras tracking our every move. when we eventually re-emerged from the warren of corridors everyone had gone to bed.
The exhibition pavilion centre attached to the hotel hosted a 4 day Christmas Fayre( we got a season ticket).We tasted all the free chocolates,cheeses,tunas,dips and anything else that was going on a regular basis.Thus saving our lunch meal costs.
The hotel has a wonderfully festive atmosphere and we feel that we are living in colonial splendour. They are hosting a festival of Christmas Trees to raise money for charity- the building is very festive. We have listened to carols whilst staring out at the snow. When we did venture into town guess where we went? The Christmas Shop-straight from a page of Dickens-The Old Curiosity Shop! After nearly an hour of browsing we bought a really festive gift- a wooden totem pole.
It is a tough life being a colonial so far from home
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