it seems like little new has happened, i have been job hunting, and made some good contacts, guys who say they will try n convince thier bosses to hire me, but for now im jobless.

i had the car serviced, mainly to check if there were any problems which were not made apparent to me when i purchased it. loe and behold as it was visible, the brakes are buggered, well need replacing, so this will cost a lil bit, but safety first. secondly i had the speedometer checked and thankfully it’s the sensor, not teh dash board, so not a big cost, and next month i will be able to see what speed i drive at! i went to this guy on recommendation, and he’s cool so far. i haven’t had t pay for the sevice as yet, and no quotes have been made, i love the swiss trust system.

biggest change for me is my new snowboard which i had ordered 3 weeks ago arrived (k2 gyrator). i went to the gym, and it was snowing, so had no desire to ride, but i got the call, collected it, anfd can’t stop riding. i can’t explain how different this board is. it’s just for off piste and powder, but omg it is wonderful!!!!! bring on more snow

i am flying to england on the 26th, and returning here on the 29th, so a couple of days to collect a few things and say hey to my friends.

the riding is still great! and today winter started, the town is alive with the taste of carlsberg (town sponsor). so party party.

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i am having a lazy day today, as my legs are achey, i feel like a grandad. i put it down to dancing and snowboarding and walking all day every day, so i’m suffering a liuttle for my enjoyment.

i have been lazy about writing you, because i’ve been soopa busy.

friday i went to the gym, and it was great. i like doing exercise, and without tennis courts it’s great. i feel like a plonker doing outdoor activities indoors, but i feel great for the exercise.

yesterday’s snowboarding was great, with the sun, and lots of fresh snow and off pisting to be done, and olly and i ended the day with a nice drink in a swank terrace bar watching the sun set.

last night i went to coco club. a place that i thought i would never ever ever visit, but nicky, nicola’s boss said she had a spare guest list space, and invited me. it’s crazy that to book a table, you have to spend so many 1000 deposit ensuring that you spend a lot. it’s crazy that they have a man carve a chalet out of a block of ice fill it with drink and sell it for £5000! they place gave me the impression of being in the playboy mansion with girls walking around in stilettos and corsets, and thers just in thongs and bras. so all in all an eye opener, and the dances were entertaining, but i would NEVER pay to go in there. we all went off to cas bah for some free fun, was ace!!!

i have made an amazon wish list clicky!

update, the lifts are closed, so i’m not missing much!

this was friday:

it was snowy and cloudy in town, but oh so beautiful above it!

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so mr mac is repaired, and for no charge. the logic board was broken, and would have cost a lot if i hadn’t the extended warranty, so i’m very glad i forked out the extra £250 for it!

and then:

day 8 in switzerland and i have totally lost the ability to semi touch-type, due to getting used to toto’s french mac.

i have been job hunting in leysin and verbier, and even applied for a job in zermatt. the general response is that it is too early to hire, being that people are waiting for whether people from the previous winter return, and if they don’t then the jobs are open. so i will continue to hand out my CV, and hope.

we’ve gone from 30cm of snow in the town here to 0, but its early yet and the lifts open tomorrow, so the town will begin to get lively.

oh and i need to start looking for a home!

other than that i’ve been getting my car winter ready with winter tyres and snow chains.

i’ve also had loads of trouble trying to replace the car stereo. the audi unit has a cd player and a cassette player. the speakers are great, but i desired something up to date. so i bought a stereo with usb and bluetooth. but…..getting a facia to house a standard stereo has turned out to be a night mare. apparently audi only used the stereo i have for 9 months, and only in this car. the local audi garage suggested i scour scrap heaps. somebody in a car stereo shop in the uk suggested i carve something from a piece of mdf, and he was the most optimistic of all of the people i have spoken to!

i had an great time with ben, harry, amy, leona and felix in barbate near cadiz in the south of spain. it was lovely to be by the ocean, rather than the med. to sum it up, 1.65 euro cava from lidl, long blonde beach, chiringito, waves, sun burn, digging holes, and fussy eating.

then i had a pleasant few day in the north of england. i stayed with ben’s family, saw the sunnyest weekend the north had all summer, and had a nice cool weekend.

there were a few short days in mataro including taking the rover to be scrapped.

then i came to switzerland. my goals for this trip were:
- buy a car,
- find a place to live for the winter.

so goal one, i flew to zurich on the friday, and got a rental car, which was great, just 20pounds per day. it was a big renault scenic automatic. i now know i don’t like automatic, but i guess that is my style of driving. i couch surfed for 3 nights with lisa. in the day time i’d drive around and check out cars which i had found to fit my bill on autoscout and stopping at every garage i passed along the way. and by evening i did things, like walk and dine with michelle another couch surfer from brazil, goto the freestyle festival with lisa followed by the after party, go indoor rock climbing. watch a couple of films on the projector.

on the monday i stayed with another girl, kim, but we were exhausted, so just chilled at her flat. so i found 2 cars. one racy Audi S4, and a more conservative Audi A4TDI. I wanted the diesel for economic reasons, but in the end i had no contact from the garage, that and desire lead me to buy the S4:

So i spent a night with one of dad’s friends from uni, which was very nice, so much chatting and cheese.

i dropped the rental car off at the airport and a 2 hour train ride later i was across the country and there to buy my car. I had gone through a bit of stress to get temporary number plates. You get the plates after the car, and only in the region you live in, so i had to get the actual ones later. It was a lovely drive from there to Verbier. Which is where my worries began. They refused to give me plates, my permit for residence being for last winter. I have tried asking for assistance from everybody, but no luck, the car is now parked here, no plates, and un-driveable

The biggest problem is that i can’t drive to spain to get my stuff (clothes, computer, cat) and i have had to fork out for a last minute flight back to barcelona. The rush being that I fly to london on Monday.

Swiss people don’t take risks, and the beaurocracy is absurd compared to what i’m used to, and I thought the UK was bad.

As for finding a place to live for nic+Toto and I is nigh on impossible. It’s possible to find the odd free room, with people who have rented a place bigger than they need, but not a 2 bedroom place. So I tried other resorts. Crans Montana wasn’t to my liking, and no places available, likewise Villars. But in Leysin I not only found lovely people, lovely vibe but also a great place to live.

So now i must decide whether I goto Leysin on my own for the winter, or lump Verbier again. You can tell that Verbier isn’t such a hot place in my opinion. I’ll try to bag the flat, and see what happens later on this month when I return.

This leaves me sat here in Yoan’s flat with his lovely big cats listening to VH1 on his ginormous TV. My plans have not worked out this time. So much for being organised, i’m better at last-minute disorganised.

Oh and its snowing here yay

The trip to england, I promised to spend time with izzi, and after trawling the net for a cheapish place to meet her in the sun I thought gran canaria would have to do. But lo and behold an email from British Airways and they had a sale on holidays, and I chose Barabados as it turns out to be cheaper

So off to the last sun of the year for me, and I can’t wait.

Oh and I can’t express how happy I am to be in the mountains.

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so i haven´t bene doing much. i wake up, walk a bit, look for things to do.

mainly i spend the day trying not to move unless it´s worthwhile, because otherwise i sweat a bit. i´m glad i´m not a big swaeter, because i think it would be horrible here.

the most productive things that i have done are book some flights.

on the 8th i am flying to seville to meet harry ben and amy to spend some time on the beach at cadiz. so life as usual, except stronger sun, so need to get some stronger cream.

i return here on the 16th, only to fly to england on the 17th. i´m flying to manchester. dad wont collect me until the evening of the 17th, so i have to find something to do with myself for a day.
then we are going to go walking in teh lake district, so some cool weather which i can´t wait for!

then i´m back here the 21st.

harriet has an appointment with the vet on the 25th. and then maybe i will make a move. unless i have to make another vet appointment. i want to get harriet her passpiort as soon as possible.

i had a serious look into buying a car,
so to register a car in spain and get licence plates will cost over 3000euros!
cars in spain are more expensive than say germany.
cars are nicely cheaper in germany and switzerland.
if i really feel i need a car when i get back to switzerland, i will get one there, as most other countries will be difficult to get my own insurance in.

cars wise i was looking at audi a4 estate diesel 4wd, as this looks the most sensible option. i can afford a nice one, but do i need it.

needless to say i will forget about that for now, and hope that the rover does it´s job.

more flickr updates to see:

here

fin.

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