Day 195: End of the line

And so, just as quickly as it had began, the Whistler dream ended.On Thursday 30th April me, Jules, Katy, Andy and a motley crew that grew with each run and chair lift we did sped down the slopes for the last time with wild abandon hitting jumps and drops on a gloriously sunny day.

That evening we all had a BBQ and impromptu bonfire (using paper plates - sorry Mother Earth) by the lake with lots of seasonnaires which ended with much merriment in the form of bad singing and even worse dancing around the fire.It was a fitting end to an amazing experience -not ever to be repeated for fear of financial and mental ruin.

I have been asked several times why I stopped writing my blog and the simple reason is that it was always meant to be a travel blog and I haven't been travelling.Repetitive tales of snowboarding and drinking may have been a bit annoying after a while not only to read but to write so I took a break.I will however update you with a brief synopsis on some of the intervening months that I haven't written the blog.

So, after the angst that I experienced visiting Banff on my return to Whistler I realized that I needed to embrace my Whistler experience and stop pinning for something else.

I returned from Banff with no money as I was still waiting - well over a month - for money to be transferred from the UK.Every 3 days would go by and I'd contact my Canadian bank and they'd inform me that the money - a large sum of my savings - hadn't yet been transferred from my English bank.

These were some of my darkest, lowest days in Whistler.I had no job, no money, and no food, no lift pass to go snowboarding.Nothing.I had to beg and borrow and it was extremely humiliating.Over the course of a month I lost about a stone in weight on a bland diet of 'Mr Noodles', an instant noodle dish costing $1 for 3 packs, that to be fair had a wide enough assortment of flavours to add a certain excitement to mealtimes especially when I discovered there was a 'Curry' flavor that I could swap with a housemate for 'Shrimp' that I'd accidentally mistaken for 'Oriental' - their packaging colours where painfully and confusingly similar.Anyway, I became the butt of my housemates' jokes with my Mr Noodle dishes and constant presence in the house.I eventually took action by absolutely venting my anger and fury at the manager of my UK bank responsible for putting me in this predicament.2 days later my money appeared.

Ok, so ask anyone in Whistler who knows me to describe my season and they'll all tell you the same thing…11 days work.Yep, that's approximately all I did.

Now, can I just state for the record, those 11 days were bloody hard work.Working on various construction/renovation sites, I in official role of site skivvy, swept floors clear of sawdust (didn't they know who I was??!!), pulled staples out of floors on my hands and knees, shoveled huge piles of stone, frozen ice and snow in -10 c and installed itchy insulation for days on my own in a dark 4ft high aptly named 'crawl space' in dirt with mushrooms growing freely about me.

Two of these jobs are worth mentioning.To give a bit of background: My house mate Glen had taken pity on my poverty stricken situation and offered me some work with him on his renovation/construction site.I won't lie to you, the first couple of days were easy.Dusting cupboards, sweeping floors, hanging valances on curtains, re attaching cupboard doors.It was easy, you might even say interesting.I'd never worked in a construction environment and it was fascinating to see the finishing touches given to a renovated house.

My boss was a humorous French Canadian called Pierre who expelled larges volumes of gas loudly and frequently from both ends of one's anatomy and was prone to bouts of air guitar to various radio played rock ballads that he would duly inform me he'd seen play live, telling me"They were f%$£&* awesome. Awesome".I did a couple days work.Got paid handsomely and went merrily on my way.

Nightmare Job 1: A week or two later another job came up at Glen's company and I was recommended having proven my worth.This job was totally different.

I turned up at the job knowing it wasn't going to be easy as Glen and Pierre had warned me with a smirk.An affable Canadian called Tim greeted me in the morning with his dog 'Bigs'.A half built shell of a house overlooked a lake and Tim led me downstairs into the basement of the house.We clambered over piles of rocks and half finished walls to get to a corner of the house.In this corner a pile of stones and snow approximately 7-8ft high and about 15-20ft wide was piled up enclosed by 4 small walls.Tim informed me that he wanted the whole area leveled off.Flat.

It was a daunting task.Armed with a pick axe and a shovel I had to repeatedly hack at frozen piles of stones, then shovel and fling them over a 4ft high wall, then flatten the area out all in - 15c.Luckily I was intermittingly joined by a funny, friendly Canadian called Isaac from Ontario who was saving money to go to Thailand with Tim.Isaac informed me that many people had come and gone doing this job.He said one guy had turned up, been informed of his task and had promptly left.Others had lasted till lunch time.The current record was 2 days.I was determined to beat this.In the end I didn't have to as me, Tim and Isaac went to meet Pierre and Glen for lunch and ended up staying in the pub for a good proportion of the afternoon (this later to my annoyance got docked out of my wages).

However, on the second day I had to do 9 brutal, repetitive hours of this godforsaken task.By the end of the day my hands were sore, my back hurt, my ankles were swollen and I was exhausted beyond belief.I got home and was too tired to even cook my obligatory pack of Mr Noodles.The next day was just as bad and I could barely clench my fist to hold a fork that evening from the strain of holding the spade in the cold all day.My ankle had swollen so badly by day 3 that I could barely walk on it.I managed to get through the day but I was bed ridden that evening and couldn't walk for the next week.I had lasted 3 and ½ days beating the record but had to ring Tim and quit.

Nightmare job 2:Pierre told Glen he had a bit of work and he wanted me to help them out.I spent the first day pulling staples out of the floorboards on my hands and knees.Not my finest hour but easy enough.

On day 2 I was pulling staples out and it was pretty uncomfortable on the floor.Seeing a huge piece of foam I pulled it over and lay on it.Pierre entered the room and screamed for me to get up.It appeared I'd been lying on a piece of itchy insulation.I had no idea having never worked on a site and no dealing with insulation previously.He informed that I'd be itching later on and boy was he right - I spent a nite in bed trying desperately not to itch my skin raw.I would learn a lot about insulation soon.

A day later Pierre took me down into the basement of the house aptly named the 'crawl space' as it was only 4 ft high, forcing you to crawl around on your hands and knees.Wooden slats all around the walls and ceiling were bare with bits of old insulation hanging off like candy floss.I knew what was coming.For 3 days I worked crawling around on my hands and knees in the dirt with mushrooms growing freely in the damp, dark space with only a face mask for protection.It was horrible.Just to add insult to injury it coincided with the heaviest snowfall we had all season and text after text referring to how awesome the powder was to ride.It was painful.Every evening I had to have a cold shower to wash away the fiberglass fibres which just made the experience more annoying.I finished the job and told Pierre I wouldn't be returning.And that was my last day of work in Whistler.

I spent the remaining weeks entertaining my friends visiting from home, my friends Beck and James on their honeymoon and friends visiting from the beginning of the season.We partied the last days of Whistler in the amazing Telus festival week and I ended the experience on Friday 1st May.

On Friday, my friend Steph and Tim who had driven up from Banff to visit me packed the minivan Steph had driven up and Alison and I jumped in not looking back.

Whistler had been filled with highs and there had been lows.I had dramatically improved at snowboarding - my main goal - and had met some amazing people along the way.

We were driving to Vancouver to spend several days there, and then off to Vancouver Island for a week.I would then move back to Vancouver for a month before heading off to Brazil.

The globetrotting was about to begin again….