And finally my body clock has adjusted and I awake at 8am instead of 3am. The previous evening was the first night I’d made it past 9pm as well!

Our room at the Marketplace Hotel is basic but comfortable, and opening the blinds onto

the balcony reveals the splendid view of a building site, for a second making me think we’d ended up in Torremolinos before realising it’s 6 degrees outside and I can see snow-capped mountains everywhere.

The building site isn’t an overly bad thing, as I get to see some big trucks up close and also get an idea of what the new Olympic Square might end up looking like. The 2010 Winter Olympics put Whistler solidly on the map (even more so than before) and the works outside are a continuation of this legacy.

A quick watch of ResortTV and (with a cold-filling Jo) we’re ready to take a wander around the village/site… which is a lot bigger than I originally thought.

There are a plethora of shops in the village which cater for absolutely every need. There’s a cigar shop (kudos on the $20 Junior Monte Cristo I enjoyed) which will make them while you wait; countless conveniences and supermarkets; LOADS of stores selling warm winter gear; a hat store where you can get your own hat adorned with anything you fancy; several nightclubs; several food places which also moonlight as clubs/pubs; a spa; a jewelry store;  books shops; gift shops; two phone shops; an accountants (!); a medical centre (obviously); a post office; and even a lingerie shop… although I can’t imagine many ladies skiing in their camisoles.

And in the middle of all these shops and stores, and medical centres and bars, we walk into a throng of people which immediately makes me slow my walk. There’s something false about them that I can’t put my finger on…

And then a voice yelled: “CUT!”

Yep, we’d walked straight into an advert being filmed for the new Nissan Infiniti. It was surreal, walking into a crowd of beautiful people (luckily I fit in perfectly… Jo, on the other hand…) who kept walking, looking up at nothing, smiling and twirling, and then resuming their original standing point. Apparently the snow would be added later.

I don’t think I’m breaching any confidentiality rules by showing you what I filmed of it:

We have a good walk and scout around and make a plan of action for our next few days in Whistler… but today will start with a mean old bison burger in the Citta Bistro (not a million miles away from a beef burger, but gives you an arse to rival Chris Ettritchs’), a relaxing afternoon in a book shop/internet cafe before retiring to the hotel room to read the local/national newspapers (ie The Globe and Mail). It’s a habit I’ve always enjoyed, although when I was in Rome I didn’t get much sense out of the Italian newspaper…

The Twinkie search continues, but without luck – apart from finding a Baby Ruth (thanks to the Goonies film I’d always wondered what these were like!). I did also find a roll of cookie dough! Unheard of in the UK! And today I started to devour it… I got quarter of the way thru before Jo dragged me to the cinema (did I mention that there was also one of those?) to finally get round to watching Inception… which was great!