Besides the train being really cool looking (although we didn't actually get to see it at night when it is at it's best, but at 4:00pm or so) there is also a musical guest on board that sings you some sweet sweet tunes. This year, the musical guests were a woman named Tracy Brown and a man named Johnny Reid, both of them country singers. Now you may thinking "ewwcountryeww" but believe me, Johnny Reid is not an "ewwcountryeww" country singer. To begin with, he is Irish and has a delicious Irish accent. Also, this song is just not an ewwy song. It's really good. In fact I had heard it for this first time in the Katimavan in our first week here and I liked it so much that I tried to remember lyrics so I could look it up later on Google. Then I listened to it over and over. I like this song A LOT. In fact it is a house favourite. And when I realized that the singer on the Holiday Train was the very same singer on my mp3, I got very excited. He sings so well in person! As does Tracy Brown, but I don't know any of her songs where as I DO know Johnny Reid's 'Darlin'. Oh my god, it is such a good song. I'm going to include two Youtube videos that you can look at so you can see and hear what I did.
This is Tracy Brown and Johnny Reid singing a duet. When I was at the train, there was about this much light, so you can understand why I didn't really get to appreciate the lights as much.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMByEK2JyM8&feature=related
This is just Johnny Reid, singing 'Darlin'. It is night time in this video so the lights look much more impressive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b3-Gb4x6cQ
We all had so much fun that day. It was absolutely frozen and we were all cold but we moved an danced and waved our hands in the air and had an awesome time.
The next day we went to the Rec Center and painted all the windows in the gym, the games room and another room that I think is used for town meetings or something. There is a very official looking gavel in it and big comfy tall chairs. Basically, all the windows that can be seen from the highway have been covered in winter themed Katima-graffiti. Because I am a perfectionist (especially when it comes to artsy things and painting) I took about three hours to draw up and paint my window. It wasn't helped by the fact that I was in a very awkward position, squished from behind by a treadmill, which was actually being used while I was painting at one point, and in front by a magazine rack that refused to come off the wall it was attached to. But the painting is so cute and lovely (though you can still see streaks because it wasn't very good paint).
And here is the finished picture. Please ignore the grubby hand prints all over the place, but it is impossible to not put your hands on the glass while drawing and painting...unless you are wearing gloves I suppose.
Because I am such a perfectionist when it comes to painting, I ended up being the last person there and had to clean up and walk home on my own which was very :( and cold and not something I enjoyed in the slightest.
A funny sidenote, while Simon and Rosie were waiting around for everyone to finish, they started commenting on some of the people who came in to work out while we were there. In particular they were commenting on this one man who was about 40 years old, attactive and with a very nice butt...and they commented on this out loud but in french. Now they had no idea that he understands french, nor that he was going to be joining us the very next morning for our walk to Secret Beach, which he did.
They were so embarrassed. It was pretty hilarious to see their reaction when Terri told them that the man they had been making such complimentary comments about could hear and understand them and would also be walking with us for an hour or so as well as having dinner over. It was all quite hilarious.
Last weekend we went sledding with our new crazy carpets and had so much fun...but also a lot of sore muscles. There were a lot of kids on the hill with us so we had to be careful with the sledding, but it worked out okay. On the hill there is this crazy dip and mogul that hurts like hell if you hit it the wrong way or really quickly. It turns out that crazy carpets aren't all that good for moguls because, although you move fast and get a a lot of hang time, you have to land sometime and there is no padding when you use a crazy carpet.
There were two really bad landings, mine being one of them. I hit my head on the ground...and then it bounced up and hit the ground again. I ended up lying on the hill backwards with my head lower down the hill than my feet. It was fun though. And it didn't actually hurt all that badly at the time. I was wearing a headband/ear coverer which was really thick so it actually padded my landing somewhat. Terri was very concerned that I was concused in some way and I couldn't give her a confident answer that I wasn't since I've never been concused before...but I ended up being fine. Well, the next day my neck was sore as hell, but that was too be expected. Rosie was another person who landed very badly. She was on this large tube that the other kids on the hill were using and let us borrow. She just flipped off that thing after the mogul and hit her back, shoulder and head. It was a mess and we were all concerned but laughing because it was such a spectacularily bad landing. Actually it was a little scary at first because when she landed she kinda fell, rolled and then ended up on all fours with her head just hanging down. At that point we all started to walk down to her (and Terri ran) but then she started colourfully swearing in french. It was quite impressive. And she was lucid enough after that fall to know that it would be a bad idea to say any english swear words since there were still kids on the hill. I should explain that the f-word is very popular in Quebec to the point that it is much less serious there than it is in english Canada to use and it is thrown around in conversation much more easily.
Anyway, we caught the fall on Jessy's camera and now watch it anytime we feel the need to laugh...we also show it to everyone who asks what we have been doing lately.
And that seems like enough stories for today.
Toodles,
Sara
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