Another lovely day to ski!

It was a big weekend for physical activity. Friday: ball hockey. Saturday: Hike and Sunday: Skiing. Phew. My legs feel like logs.

The hike, Saturday morning, was in Hal Jackman forest with the Klienburg Chapter of the HVTA. This was our first ever hike with a group. It was a very different experience. We usually hike at a pretty good pace, so having to hike at the speed of the slowest person, was interesting. It was really more of a collaborative walk. It was quite icy at times, usually on the hills. So, we spent a good portion of time helping each other up and down the terrain. The property is a huge private property that weaves around the Humber River. It’s owner, Hal Jackman, very generously, allows hikers to use it. It is quite a beautiful property, I expect we’ll return in other seasons.

The people were a lot of fun. We enjoyed espresso and sambuca and fun interactions all along the walk. While I don’t think we’d ever group hike exclusively, it was certainly an enjoyable experience, and a different way to get out into nature.

Yesterday we went to Cold Creek to ski. We’ve never been to Cold Creek to ski. Did I mention we had tickets to see The Last Ship at 2pm? So ‘of course’ we got a bit lost in the park, and our skis become coated in snow and ice, completely unusable and we got hangry in a hurry. (We subsequently got a new vial of ski wax at MEC) Cold Creek was surprisingly good to ski in. On a day without anything else scheduled it would probably have been fine. The trails are flattened, but there isn’t set ski tracks. Still, in most of the park, the snow was quite fast. I found it to be pretty tiring… but we had to leg it pretty hard to get home, shower and get downtown for the show.

Don’t leave your program there!

I didn’t read too much about The Last Ship prior to going. I’m a big fan of Sting, so seeing him was the real attraction for me. It was interesting, sombre story about union workers in the shipyards slowing losing jobs in England as they couldn’t compete we ship building costs overseas. Some of the actors were incredible singers, most noteworthy was Frances McNamee who played Meg. Sting played a rather minor role and certainly did much less of the dancing than the cast. But I enjoyed his salty performance nevertheless. Overall it was a solid production and good story but not spectacular or terribly uplifting. I also found some of the dialogue was hokey at times. The majority of the performances were very good, it is an impressive ensemble.