Work and Play out East!

Christos had a need to meet up with the technical team based out of St. John's Newfoundland that he is using to advance Canstar's projects so he decided to time such that it coincided with the technical team's Christmas Party!

So off went Lisa and Christos to St. John's on a Friday morning for a weekend of wintry fun!

One of the first things we noticed upon arrival was that winter had definitely arrived in St. John's! The snow was everywhere!

We arrived in the mid afternoon and Lisa checked out our B&B, the Roses Heritage Inn, while Christos went to the Altius office to discuss progress to date and plans for 2019 at Canstar's Buchans-Mary March project as well as Daniel's Harbour.

Once work was done, we met up in the early evening and off we went with another couple (Flora and her husband Paul) for dinner. Flora works for Altius in the same Toronto office as Christos and Paul is in the mining space as well!

We had a decent dinner at "Get Stuffed" before heading down to Water Street and eventually George Street where we drank and danced to live music until some time after midnight. It was wonderful and the performer was soon taking requests from the mainlanders (ie us) such as "Fast Car" which he did justice to even if not all the lyrics made it in!

The next day started a bit blearily for the four of us ... only Christos managed to make it to breakfast at 9AM! With the day finally getting started around noon we wandered across the street to the "Some Good Market" event across the street at the St. Thomas Anglican Church. The market was chocked full of hand made Newfoundland goods and we stocked up on bath bombs and knitted goods! We then wandered downtown for a tour of Water and Duckworth streets visiting each craft shop we discovered on the way.

Our favourite store was "Nonia"where Lisa acquired a lovely knitted sweater on Saturday. We liked Nonia so much that on Sunday we returned and Christos bought a sweater as well.

After an afternoon out we met up with Flora and Paul in the early evening for a walk over to the Mallard Cottage  where the Altius Christmas dinner was held. The walk over was a blast as it was snowing quite a bit and when we arrived for dinner covered head to toe in snow! Dinner was good; chicken, steak and cod served family style and Guinness on draft! After dinner, it was time for "Darts at Marks", Mark being an Altius employee who lives nearby.

Darts were played into the wee hours and while al most everyone elected to taxi back to their various lodgings, Lisa and Christos opted for a wintry walk ... with the snow having stopped it seemed a much shorter walk back to the B&B then it had been from the B&B to the Mallard Cottage!

Sunday was once again a bit bleary but Christos had wisely asked for breakfast to be moved to 9:30 to 10:30 from 8 to 9 ... even so, only three of the four of us could make it (Paul remained ensconced under covers until later). Lisa and Christos opted for another day of wandering downtown (with some shopping) before heading out to dinner around 7PM at "The Adelaide Oyster House" where we had an amazing dinner (best we had in St. John's) although we had not a single oyster!

After dinner, the plan had been for a single pint at the "Black Sheep Pub" but such plans soon went awry due to the wonderful live music and intimate setting! After multiple pints of Guinness and much camaraderie with the locals, we finally made it back to the B&B around midnight for a good night's sleep.

Monday morning saw Christos take a quick trip to the Altius office before meeting up with Lisa back at the B&B for a bite next door. Then it was off to the airport for our 2PM flight back to Toronto ... St. John's we love you!!!!