Birthday present

Got $1100 back on my taxes. Nice. On the other hand it means that the Canadian government has borrowed $1100 from me without interest but I prefer to look upon it as bonus money.

Time goes by...

So, one year older again. This time I have become a bit wiser, or at least richer in experience. I still claim though, that surviving one more isn't that big of an achievement. This does not mean it's not a reason to celebrate, I'm just saying that there are bigger achievements more worthy of celebration that tend to occur more often than birthdays.

I'm slowly, but reluctantly, starting to accept that I'm not 25 anymore. Despite of that, a small part of me was still happy when I had to show ID at the liqour store the other month.

Castle Mountain

This week's hike went to Castle Mountain Lookout in Banff. This time we didn't only have 85 year old Ed in his runners with us but also a girl with a bionic foot.

What's next?

Ha Ling Peak

On Saturday it's above 20 degrees and one gets sunburned whilst sitting on the deck drinking beer. On Sunday, when [cmh] is going hiking, it's 7 degrees and raining. Despite the grumpy weather it turned out to be a good day arranged by the Calgary Outdoor Club. The destination was Ha Ling Peak in Canmore, a peak which looks very impressive from the highway but the backside offers an easy scramble, i.e. steep hiking. On the way up it was not raining but on the other hand there was a fog that robbed us of the view. On the way down it started snowing and we got lost. After quite a bit of walking in knee deep snow some coward pulled out a GPS and got us back on the trail.

Ha Ling Peak got its present name in 1997 when it was changed from Chinamans Peak to the more politically correct Ha Ling Peak. Ha Ling was a cook in Canmore that made a bet that he could reach the summit and be back in Canmore within 10 hours. As proof that he had really reached the top he placed a flag there. We actually only had to climb 734 m to reach the top from the parking lot. Still, one gets 2407 m above sea level which actually is higher than Kebnekaise, the highest point in Sweden.

One other noteworthy thing is that our organizer was 85 years old and did the scramble in runners.

Big in Peru

The amazing goal that IFK Göteborg's midfielder Andres Vásquez scored this Monday was for a while the most popular video on YouTube. However, the coolest video about this goal comes from Peruvian television (Andres is, despite his thick Göteborg accent, born i Peru).

Miscellaneous

There is green stuff coming out of the trees, the grass that has always been yellow starts taking another colour and the mercury is approaching 20 degrees C. Can this be spring? Probably best to wait until after the May long weekend before proclaiming that.

The house now only has one dog. Lady got her final rest this Friday. Lately she didn't want to eat very much, she had problems walking and her kidneys were bad. Her time had come but that didn't help the landlord J from feeling a bit low. Lady was half german sheperd and half greyhound. Can't help to wonder how that happened.

Hurting IT bands suck.

Getting a new room mate. I wore down one Dutch guy. Next in line is a Chinese post doc.

Click here. Close to pornography.