Walking in a winter wonderland is actually quite fun if you are rugged up, have decent boots on and keep your wits about you. Watching people trying to get their cars over the snowbanks also provides endless amusement, and can be a good way to get some community spirit if you help push a car on its slippery way. It really makes me wonder why people living in this city would have a car without the luxury of a garage, it seems far more trouble than it is worth. Sure, I have to walk to the metro station, pretty much strip naked when I venture down as the temperature is so much warmer in there, pay through the nose for the privilege of using public transport (at 26 I am too old to be considered a student) and endure some terrible busking but anything has got to be better than scraping tonnes of ice of your car before trying for ages to bust over the snowbank, only to get stuck in more snow at the next corner.

Prior to clearing the streets of snow here, a vehicle goes down the street with a loud siren to warn people the snow clearing machines are coming and they need to move their cars. Any cars not moved are then towed to the nearest cleared street, so it's like a game of hide and seek when you need to use your car again if you didn't hear the siren. Just hope it's not when you are having to rush to the pharmacy for immodium or something.

Um yes well to use that segue, I have fully recovered from my stomach bug and am back to my full eating prowess and gym regime. Just as well, as the first of many Christmas dinners/lunches is tomorrow night. It's actually at a restaurant famous for its amazing steaks, but luckily they also have a "salmon slab" on the set menu so I won't be stuck eating bread and vegies. I'm curious to see just how large a slab of salmon is. It better not be more 'slice' in nature.

Speaking of food, what a surprise, my pudding seems to be doing just fine. Well, at least I assume it is and Oli hasn't actually eaten it and covered the bowl back up again. I told him in very clear terms what I would do to him if anything untoward were to happen to the pudding, so I think this is unlikely. He told me my language was more becoming of the prostitutes down on St-Catherines than a young lady like myself.

Given the cold weather we've been having lately and the fact our apartment is old and draughty, all our windows are now covered in insulating plastic. I did mine tonight, which basically involves putting double sided tape around the window frame, sticking the plastic to that, and then using a hair dryer to shrink the plastic so it is taut. My bedroom window faces the street, and as I was drying the plastic I wondered what it must look like from down there, watching some crazy girl blow drying her window. We'll see how effective it is when I need to get out of bed tomorrow morning I guess. It is getting a little more difficult now to will myself out of bed and to the gym, but with the power of my morning banana, good tracky dacks and some interesting podcasts, anything is possible.

Before I go, I must give an honourable mention to my fabulous sister for cutting all the "Matthew Pavlich Pre-Season Diary" clippings out of the paper and posting them to me (along with some amazing disappearing chocolates). I can now stick them up on the wall to help launch me out of bed in the morning - with banana, trackies, podcasts and Pav I can achieve anything. Even in minus 25 degrees.