Ex Frosty Frolics

I'm back and just about recovered from the annual wives winter exercise; Ex Frosty Frolics! (Phew!) On Friday 40 of us girls were bussed up to Trails End Camp in the Rockies for an action packed weekend of Snow Shoeing, Dog Sledding, Quad Biking and Ice Climbing. What fun! Trails End Camp is the Army Adventurous Training base up in the
Rockies and true to it's title it is rather remote with camp style accommodation, dormitories and bunk beds! Luckily we were able to spread out and each had a lower bunk (I'm sure you can imagine the giggling!).

After arriving on Friday evening & being issued our kit we all went out for a curry in 'near by' Cochran. Despite the distance and the late hour, a curry is always a welcome treat! We were all quite sensible though as our day was starting at 6am the next morning. My groups first activity was Snow Shoeing and I had visions of strapping tennis bats to my feet! Technology has advanced though and we strapped these rather fetching flipper type things to our shoes and went on a 3km stroll
through trees & the open with the mountains for a stunning back-drop. And unlike others in my group (Gill!) I managed to stay upright - it was great fun!

Our next activity was Dog Sledding which is something I have wanted to do since we arrived in Canada - and I wasn't disappointed. Julie & I 'drove' our sled whilst we were pulled along by 8 dogs. Contrary to my belief, it is not a case of sitting in the sled and enjoying the view; you need to be behind the sled helping the dogs pull it along by 'paddling' with your legs. It was such an amazing experience and set in
one of the most stunning places I have ever seen; Spray Lakes. We even passed some people Ice Fishing!

After a busy day of Snow Shoeing & Dog Sledding, we had a 'Granny Bingo' night in the camp. We all got dressed up and had a laugh and as we were all so tired the majority of us were in bed by 11pm! It was good fun though.

Our final day was another 6am start and our first activity was Quad Biking. This wasn't something I had in mind when we arrived in Canada! Again it was great fun. Having never driven a Quad Bike before I was a little on the nervous side, but once we got going it was a real adrenaline rush and there was no stopping me! Such an experience; biking through a snow covered Forest. We were even lucky enough to see a pack of wild horses run past in front of us. Amazing.


Our final activity was Ice Climbing. I have to admit to looking forward to the 1/2 hour hike to get to the climbing area more than the actual climb! It was truly stunning; picture postcard scenery. And as I thought, for me the walk was the best bit about it! A few brave girls from our group got really high up the ice wall; I however, settled for giving it a go and only getting a few feet up. Not my thing; but hey, at least I can say I have done it. Ish!


So a fantastic weekend all in all. A great bunch of girls doing some extraordinary stuff. Truly a weekend to remember. Of course, so I could go off and do this in the first place, Leigh was temporarily promoted to 'Commander-in-Chief Home Command'! I think he coped rather well; when I got home the children were fast asleep, all was tidy and even the packed lunches were ready for the next day. Maybe I should do this more often....

Snow & Rocky Mountains

We have woken today to another big snow dump and we are expecting another 15cms this afternoon and overnight. Even the children are getting fed up with it now! 'Oh not more snow'! Olivia said this morning!

We had a great time in the Rockies last week. It it such an amazing change of scenery to go from the very plain flat Prairie to the awesome sights as you approach
the Mountains. Very beautiful. We visited Lake Louise again to see the ice sculptures that are there and the children had fun skating on the frozen lake (Leigh & I were too lazy to put our skates on!). It was a lovely day and for once the temperature was only just below freezing so we were able to spend a great couple of hours there.


Leigh & Ben skied at Sunshine for a day and had a great time. Ben came home with excited chatter of Black runs, 'Ollie's', 'Grinding' & attempts at mid-air 360's! Not content with just pointing his ski's downhill - how boring is that? I think Leigh's ears were bleeding by the time they got home!

We had a trip to the swimming pool in Banff; the children spent the whole time going
up and down the water slides whilst Leigh & I watched from the hot tub. Heavenly! We also managed to squeeze in a couple of visits to the Science Museum in Calgary as we stopped there en route to Banff and again on the way home. It's a great way of breaking up the journey.

So after a lovely break we are now back in Ralston. I'm off this weekend on the Wives Winter Exercise; Ex Frosty Frolics! It promises to be good fun and I can look forward to some Dog Sledding, Ice Climbing, Snow Shoeing & a tour in an ATV (All Terrain Vehicle). And a couple of sensible early nights. Obviously!

Hockey & Supper

Yet another quiet, chilly week in Ralston. That feeling of spring in the air which we had last week was swiftly put to an end with the return of temperatures around minus 20! There's not been much new snow though which is a bonus!


Leigh went up to Calgary on Monday evening to watch the Calgary Flames v Montreal Canadiens (ice hockey!) with a couple of guys from work. They had a great evening; beers, hot dogs and live sport, what more could a man ask for on a Monday night! They certainly had a birds eye view of the game! I think it is indicative to the size of Canada that people over here think nothing of making a 5 hour round trip for a night out!



Tuesday evening we had supper over at the Commanders house, well us and about 16 others; they have a very big table! As usual or so it seems, I get to sit next to the visiting Brigadier. But unlike the time before when I asked the Canadian Chief of General Staff if he was in the Army, I managed to work out that this chap was indeed in the Army therefore saving myself from further embarrassment! It did not occur to me however that the other 16 guests were all part of the same Brigade out here visiting and said to about the 6th guy I spoke to who told me he was from Catterick 'Oh really? Did you know the other guy I just spoke to is from Catterick too'... Quite a coincidence wouldn't you say, well I thought so anyway!


So we are just on Half Term out here this coming week (or Reading Week as they call it out here). We are having a quiet weekend before heading up to Banff of Tuesday for 4 days. Maybe a spot of skiing, ice skating, outdoor hot tubbing in sub zero temperatures.... we are all really looking forward to it. So I'll blog from The Rockies next week....

All quiet on the Ralston front!

It's been another quiet week in the Ralston - even the weather has been quite unremarkable! The temperature has barely dipped below freezing (causing a treacherous thaw!) and even the odd Gopher has been spotted around the village giving us all the false sense of hope that spring is almost upon us!

It seems that the weather in the UK is more of a talking point! Indeed I nearly fell off my running machine when I saw a picture of the A38 near Plymouth being shown on the Canadian news channel! It must be bad back there to get sympathy from the Canadians!

So not much to blog about this week; last Friday we had a good night in the village pub, followed by a fun Dinner party the next night... followed by a few much needed quiet nights! I`ve started a quilting course (yes, quilting!) which I really enjoyed and will (hopefully) end up with a patchwork `Quillow`, which is a quilt which folds up inside a cushion! So with that and my Ceramics I am turning in to quite the picture of domesticity! I`ve even been cooking a lot! Time to leave Ralston me thinks!

The children are all happy and well. Olivia said her `Promise`at Sparks (Brownies) this week and is now a fully fledged member (i.e I have a lot of badges to sew!) and Ben and Charlie are happy sledging just about everywhere!



Leigh took these fantastic pictures of the sunrise over Ralston very early O`clock en route to the gym... not something I will see first hand!

Minus 47. Again!

We've had a week of all work and no play (well for Leigh and the children anyway)! Leigh is back in one piece after his advanced ski course and although he took the camera, he didn't take any pictures! So I guess we will have to take Leigh's word for it that he did have a hard weeks skiing in the Rockies and it wasn't a 'cover' for a boys week in Vegas!

We've also had another week of the extreme Canadian weather. Last weekend temperatures plummeted to around -40 and the school had to close for a day on Monday as the windchill brought the temperatures down to -47. It was definately a day to stay indoors, hold a Wii Olympics and bake cookies!



I thought it would be
interesting to show how different the view looks from our garden in Summer and Winter... We have all forgotten what green, lush grass looks like!

A spot of Cross Country skiing

We've been enjoying some really beautiful weather here in Canada this week; blue skies, glistening white snow and temperatures hovering above freezing. Perfect weather for enjoying outdoors; the children are sledging everywhere and on Thursday a bunch of us girls decided to try our hands at Cross Country skiing.

We went to a place in Medicine Hat called Police Point park where we hired skis and shoes for $4 (what a bargain!), given a 2 minute talk on how to use them and were then left to our own devices! After a pretty wobbly start we all got the hang of it but it was a little more `cross country`than I imagined it would be; there wasn`t a cut track and it was very, very bumpy! I had visions of gliding along deep powder, picking up speed and a good rhythm... but it was more like shuffling along whilst trying to stay upright and work out where we were going! It was great fun, a good giggle and a really good workout. And as I`m not much of a downhill skier, it`s a good alternative for me!

Over all it has been a pretty quiet week. The children are all happy and well. Leigh went off the the Rockies on Sunday for a weeks adventurous training, so he is having a great week of `extreme` skiing. Can`t tell Ben where Daddy is - he`ll be gutted to be missing out on double black diamond hills!

Mostly sledging!

Leigh & I have had a lovely week; the children have been in school and Leigh was still on leave for a week! Luckily for me that meant Leigh did the -20 morning school runs; the children were very happy that Daddy was pulling them on the sledge to school! So, at the expense of our waste lines, Leigh and I took full advantage of being child free and for 3 out of the 5 days went into town for a spot of shopping and lunch - what a treat to order food in a restaurant without having to do colouring in or make towers out of ketchup sachets whilst waiting for the food to arrive!

On Saturday, with the warmer Chinook winds blowing in our direction, we saw tropical highs of +2! This weather could only mean one thing - Sledging! We had a great fun filled day at Kin Coulee park in Medicine Hat. You may remember the footage from last winter - not much has changed except the children are a bit bigger! Charlie was still very cross at not being allowed to go from the top but settled for a mid-hill start!


Olivia had a great day too with many goes down. She hit maximum speed on this one coming down with Daddy! They both had a face full of powder at the bottom!



And finally... Ben had a fantastic time too... along with a few choice words!

The Arctic Tingeys!

It's been a while since my last blog update as we have been away in Calgary for three weeks, (which was great!) but frustratingly we did not have Internet access. So there is a lot to catch up on; Nick (my sister) and Stu's visit, Calgary, Christmas & New Year and of course the good old Arctic weather!

I'll start with Nick, Stu and the Arctic weather as they both arrived on the same day! About an hour after getting back from Calgary airport the severe Arctic weather front that we had been warned about finally set in. The temperature dropped to around -47 (with wind chill) accompanied by strong winds, blizzards and snow drifts! We were very relieved not to still be on the
Highway! That weather, whilst occasionally warming up stayed with us for about 10 days! Sledging was out of the question, Ski Hills were closed and school had to close for a day. However in true Canadian style the Mess Xmas party that was planned for that evening still went ahead; there were a couple of empty tables as people couldn't get in from Medicine Hat - but we had a great 'cowboy' themed party never the less!


We all headed up to Calgary on the 16th Dec staying the spacious Army house, where after unpacking we promptly ordered our first take-out Curry in what feels like years! Stu is as Curry starved as the rest of us as he is currently working in
the U.S. and had to depart back to there the next day. Nick stayed on with us for a few more days and courtesy of Leigh, Nick & I had a lovely day out to Lake Louise & Banff. We had a posh lunch in Chateau Lake Louise with amazing views of the mountains... so peaceful without three fighting children in tow!


The day Nick left was the day the weather warmed up; it would be fair to say that she has experienced some of the most extreme weather this part of Canada has to offer! At a balmy -12, Leigh and Ben were finally able to hit the slopes. First they Skied at the Olympic Village so Ben could get some practice in before hitting the big hills in the Rockies and it wasn`t long before Ben was going down the Black runs with Leigh in Banff. Amazing. Leigh got to try out his new skis and Ben had his first snowboarding lesson which he really abolutely loved.


We had a great Christmas Day; the children were all very pleased with their Christmas Presents and a `Family` present which was a Nintendo Wii. We spent most of the day playing Tennis, Bowling, Boxing and racing cars! I`m not sure who had the most fun and Leigh definitely turned into competitive Dad! Even Christmas dinner was enjoyable; none of the usual arguments and food fights from the children which has been the case in recent years!

New Year was good too. Though it was -22, early evening we all wrapped up warm and went to the Zoo to see the lights, entertainments and fireworks! Yes, we are mad but there were about 2000 other people there so at least we were not the only ones! There was lots of Hot Chocolate & fires to keep us warm but in true Tingey style our kids favoured the Haystack field where we spent most of our evening having hay fights! At least it kept us warm!


And finally... Leigh's Christmas present from me... A trip down the Calgary 1988
Calgary Olympic Bobsleigh track! Yes, with 14 neck breaking turns and speeds up to 120k per hour, I can only hope he doesn't get me back some day! He had a really great time and Leigh being the adrenaline junkie that he is absolutely loved it... maybe the Eddie the Eagle Olympic Ski Jump next time...

Snow & Nativity plays

The first snow dump of the season finally arrived on Sunday. What started out as a snow flurry in the morning continued all day until we were under a foot of snow, scuppering any plans we had of a family day out! The novelty is already wearing off though as I remember shovelling snow from the steps and garden path, digging the car out of the drive as the snow plough dumps the snow at the side of the road, getting 3 children out of the house each morning in full winter kit and pulling them to school on a sledge as I disappear down a snow covered Gopher hole...! It's all coming back to me now!


The children are loving it though and Ben was out sledging with his friends as soon as school was out! Luckily Olivia & Charlie are a bit more sensible, preferring to make snow angels in the garden and bounce on the snow covered trampoline where they can get indoors quickly!


Charlie has had his Nativity play this week and looked very cute dressed as a Shepherd and carrying a sheep; not a real sheep though, as he pointed out to me! He was very confident and was waving excitedly at Leigh & I. Olivia has her play tomorrow and is almost bursting with excitement as she has a sparkly crown and a speaking part! Ben is bursting with joy too as we go away on the day of his Christmas concert and he therefore has to miss it!

Leigh is on about his 15th Christmas lunch this week and is currently in Medicine Hat on another one. Funnily enough when he left at lunch time he said he was 'pretty confident' that he would be on the transport home at 6pm... it's now 10pm! No doubt by now, Leigh & his colleagues will be telling each other what great blokes they all are... really great blokes, just the best...hic!

-24 And Some Snow!

Well, we've had quite a busy week on the party front (well by Ralston standards anyway!). On Thursday evening we had a Regimental Dinner night in the Mess, which gave me the chance to wear the one dress I brought out here, and the men the chance to squeeze themselves into Mess Dress, which for most of them was tailored at least 20 years ago! Leigh didn't do too badly; only the one button pinged off his trousers but more odd than that was that one of his boots didn't fit anymore - just the one boot, which resulted in Leigh having this kind of Cowboy/Woody from 'Toy Story' strut! And if that wasn't funny enough, the bloke I was sat opposite had to apologise to me, as due to the tightness of his jacket he couldn't lift his arm high enough to pour the wine!!! And that, by the way, was the Commander!! A funny night indeed!

We've also had the Prairie Wives Christmas Party which was an 'Arabian Nights' theme in the Sgt's Mess. That was good fun and some of us girls 'got ready' at Marluz's house, which is something I haven't done for about 20 years! We had a good giggle, and luckily I had the sense not to have a Henna Tattoo which was available on the night, unlike Marluz who had one on her forehead!!!

On Sunday it was the annual SSAFA Christmas Fair which is held here at the gym in Ralston. Following the roaring success I had with my Roasted Tomato Soup at the recent Safari Supper, I agreed to do a Soup Kitchen with Patrick, the BFBS manager here. Laden with bubbling cauldrons of soup, Patrick & I set up stall selling my Roasted Tomato & Paticks Leek & Chickpea soups. We did have a laugh though I think Patrick fared better than I did as I hardly broke even by the time I paid for my stall! And to think I skinned 120 tomatoes! Oh well, it was all for 'Charity mate'! Needless to say, I don't think I am going to be head-hunted by Alan Sugar for my Sales Skills!

That's all for this week! The children are all happy and well. Oh and just to say Happy 41st oops I mean 21st Birthday to Mike Turner!