I think it been a long time again. I’m sat in the restaurant at lake louise having some lunch. I’m on a pre course level the snowboard instructor level 2. I think I’m becoming accustomed to the cold a little, yesterday it was -10 and felt almost warm! Monday they couldn’t even open the lifts because it’s was over thirty below. People say this is freak cold for this early in winter, but so good for getting used to it. I tend to lose feeling in my toes after twenty minutes outside, and frostbite comes in around ten.
So it hasn’t snowed in a while, just nice and sunny, the sun not feeling warm. But everybody is waiting for the next snow, after all snow is what we came for.
After being here around 5 weeks, alan and I finally have a place to move into, so that’ll end my almost 8 months of homelessness. It’s unfurnished so were trying to find our furniture online at no cost. It’s been done, so doable. I can’t wait to have a home.
So we decide to stay here for the winter, and have season passes for the local hills, so we are totally committed to Banff, expensive as it is.
I have a definately job lined up for January onwards, but only part time, so I’m still looking. But instructing is what I’ve been working towards, so excited!
Most of the time here is spent cold, on the snow, drinking, eating, and having lots of fun meeting new people.
Oh and one bad thing, I failed my level 1 for ski instructing. I passed the teaching but failed the technical skiing. It was pretty ambitious taking the course having barely skied In ten years. So there is a another course next week so I have to get practicing, and make sure I pass this time.
I guess last thing is ???

Photos; cheese, dice and drinks, bingo, robs new car, elk in town, more bingo, me riding, circular rainbow and my leg bruise after landing on a tree

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We’ve had a great couple of days. After an uninspiring drive across new Mexico we went to Santa Fe to kill some time, couple of days, and stopped in a nice hotel, used the gym and went for Chinese. They even make the Chinese food with chillies, well this is the state of chillies.
We then took out bloated selves into town to find a bar, and found a good long bar, good music called el paseo. Beers later and we got chatting to cha, jack and katy, with 2 hours until cha’s birthday we drank until it came time to start doing shots, and when that bar closed at two onwards to the next bar for some smokey magic, and fuzzyness before getting a lift to the hotel.
Yesterday morning alan and I went for a wander around town. It’s pretty, all classic architecture, brown, earthy and full of art. The city is known to be a centre of creative people, and is america’s oldest capital, celebrating it’s 400th anniversary this month! America is barely over half that age.
So we had some brunch, a priceyish rooftop cafe, and I had a salad. My salad involved a lettuce cut into clean quarters and placed on my plate just like that with some decoration. Nice!
So after that we hooked up with the guys from the last night and Thomas and off we went into the wilderness to shoot off a rifle. We can’t shoot for damn, missing bottles, but it was about the experience. Not an experience I care to do any time soon, it was strange to say the least, but all part of our American adventure.
After that we drove down to diablo canyon near the rio grand and wandered up to a cliff. This is the first time for me to climb since indoors at Zurich last autumn, first time ever on a real mountain, and same for alan but maybe he hadn’t climbed in many a year. Fun for sure, scary too, tiring definately, but one hell of a view and great to hang out with some awesome guys.
After, we headed back to jack and katie’s where we all mucked in to cook dinner, other people coming and going, yum and fun.
On to poker, I like to take risks, make it exciting, and got kicked out thrice, great, so shots an later alan won.
Today we gathered our heads together, said our farewells and drive off into the country.
We randomly found Madrid, otherwise known as Mad rid. Once a mining town, then and now a hippy town, but made famous by a john travolta film ‘wild hogs’ it’s super bizarro, eclectic, new age, pretty cool. I tried me some fried green tomatoes on a salad, not bad. Well that was it for Madrid bar a few photos and we drove on, wishing grandpa happy birthday by phone and off yo get lost.
Lunch hadn’t been filling enough so we took a right turn, signed to a diner, toward a ski area. We ended up a mile higher, overlooking Albuquerque, so cool view, bloody cold and had lunch número dos.
Fun fun, now we are outside jessica, not rachael’s place in Albuquerque, our couchsurfing hosts for the next two nights waiting for their return home.

We’ve been drinking too much and watching family guy too much.
I can’t wait for the season to end, and the drinking to be done!
Saturday ian, courtney, alex, alan and I drove through Italy to lucarno in Switzerland. We went there to do the craziest thing we’d all done in our lives maybe. Coming around the corner to see the dam, all of our hearts stopped. The verzasca dam is the largest bunjee jump off of a dam, at 220m, it was scary to look at. Even more scary to walk along, but stood at the edge of the gantry was fairly nerve wracking. It was a seven second free fall at 120kmh. We then bounced almost all of the way back up. We had to climb up our cord a bit, then hook ourselves up to a cord to pull us back up.
It was awesome to the point at which I can’t describe!!!
Afterwards we had a pizza by lago maggiore, beautiful place, awesome pizza, wonderful drive all day. A day that was amazing, beyond words.
Sunday, alan and I drove to Chamonix to escape, but the skiing was crap, the snow was good but it was snowing too heavily to enjoy. We headed down to town for a proper raclette, the three of us managed to eat a kilo of cheese, which was super painful.
It was the last night of casbah. Which was great, but I won’t be sad to not go there any longer. Too much drinking went on in there, and my body could do with a rest.
Yeatsrday we drank from midday, went to l’atelier for hog roast and party. I had to bring alan home at midnight, hi being too drunk.
Last night of wonderbar tonight, so the same again :s
I’m going to try and get plates for my car this afternoon, so thumbs crossed.
Anne gets here tomorrow, and I haven’t riden much in ages.

So Alan is here, and everybody had last night off work. So much for the plans for a BBQ, it snowed loads. So we had a house party, we were all a mess by five pm. It was a fun evening, with a big bad head day today.
Alan and I managed to go skiing, boarding today, I even took him up mont gele, pretty hardcore for his first day! Maybe thirty cms of powder, now, in April, insane, and awesome!!!
We got my car back from the garage, with the summer tyres
So off to lugarno tomorrow to jump 220m off a dam, same one that James bond did at the beginning of goldeneye. Ace or what.
Good luck to us all.

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finally after 2 weeks of very little snow and lots of sun, it seemed like all of the snow would soon be gone, and as i speak it is snowing now yay for a powder day!

with christian here and beautiful sunny days, i’ve been out partying so much, so now i need rest. i feel a bit shitty, and need less booze for a while. i want to get soem snowboarding done, and that’s difficult when hangin!

today’s skiing just about killed me, after one sketchy run i could barely hold a bottle to drink from.

well anyway, yesterday was the verbier extreme competition and the finals for the world freeride championship. it was a lovely sunny day and loads of people were perched up on mont fort to watch the action. i don’t think i can imagine how to describe how extreme it is, so watch the video:

so i’m quitre excited about thsi year. we are only 1/4 done and it’s been crazy, i expect it is going to be crazier yet!!!

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i just watched the best f&*)ing film ever. Doomsday. it’s like a cross between 28 days/weeks later, braveheart, waterworld, and mad max. it’s almost all set in scotland, some in london. and it is cheesey as hell, and great fun!!!!

come on look, at the end a mad max style chase with a bentley!

watch it!!!!

so i’m back in verbier and it is sunny and warm and is lovely!

mayrhofen was great, but i had enough of the crazy germans who can’t ski, and the apres ski music, though i did buy the cd for a laugh.

ian’s bro is here from new jesey for a week, so time to party again :s

oh and my stitches are out and my mouth is looking much better. i’m still a bit swollen. but time to see the dentist tuesday, and i want a new tooth!!!! any thoughts on a gold tooth?

i’m ready for summer now!

off to ride, so ciao

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today ian and i and 2 others went para gliding, it was great!!!!!

parapent verbier suisse vol flying

check the video:

me paragliding over verbier

so i’ve had two days off. i’ve mainly been partying, and a bit of skiing.

monday i hurt myself a bit. i was doing a rail in the park, and was super tired, biut hung over, so i fell at the end, and then after my body bouncing off the rail, i hit the ground hard, and hurt my hip. so i hurt the whole left side of my body. i’ve been taking it easy and skiing the past 2 days.

did i mention that i bought some skis? well i have, they’re kinda park skis, but good all rounders.

so tomorrow i have french lesson, and then am heading top martigny, so a day off, and work in the evening, so yeh, time to chill, except the partying tonight.

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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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i’ve been skiing today, demoing skis, and it was great fun, but ssooooo much more tiring than snowboarding.

they were huge 185cm and wide for powder, twin-tips. and different.

i’ll try some different skis another day.

at the weekend we had at least a meter of snow, so things are looking good for the winter.

so tuesday was nicola’s birthday, which was fun.
monday i snuck out and drive to chamonix, which was fun considering they had barely plowed the road, and i couldn’t work out how to fit my chains, but the car works fine in the snow.

driving from verbier to chamonix in the snow

so in the morning we had croissants and champagne. nic went for lunch with her boss in bosses restaurant with the kids she looks after.

in the evening we had a treasure hunt for nic, and when she came back in cold and snowy there was big fondue! so lots of merry fun.

appartment hunting is a little like a rollercoaster. i went to visit the flat with the couple, and the girl said no way she wanted to live there, and they didn’t have the cash up front anyway.
so today i now have the descion over who gets to stay there, as there is lots of interest. it had been a trouble to get half the season’s rent up front for people, but now there are so many people so desperate that there’s no problem.

job wise, i keep getting optimistic responses, but no jobs have yet materialised.

i am ACHEY!

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so ts now super dark, and seems to be most of the day.
it’s supposed to have been snowing a fair amount, yet all we get is drizzle and cloud.

nic and i have our first french lesson today. there was an aussie there too. it’s not a bad price, and the teacher lady is cool.
we’ll probably be taking these twice a week for 20 weeks, so come on the ability to finally chat up a foreign girl!

oh yeh, i went snowboarding sunday!!!! it was ace, and my body is still aching. the lifts are only open at the weekends. the winter has begun!

hot!

i tried a snowboard, and will keep on demoing boards to find one more appropriate to the big mountains.

the job hunt is slow, as is the house hunt.

a photo i took from the bottom of the mountain the other day:

evening

so tomorrow the car is going to the garage to have the block box recorder fitted for the insurance company.
so nic and i can have a good swim and sauna, and maybe food too.

also, i have started copying all of my dvd’s to my hard drives, so that i can carry my dvd collection without a huge cd wallet, it’s taking time, but no rush. when i’m done i will sendf the dvd’s back to teh uk to be stored. the beginning of the end of physical media.

last thing, i made a great paella last night, and everybody even said they loved it, without teh need to threaten them!

me n me baked rice

also i began to use adobe lightroom 2 today. i think it may avoid the necessity to use photoshop so much. the program will allow me to organise photos, make small modifications. i’m liking it so far!! supposedly i can upload my pics directly to the net.

what else, i’m going to try to convert all of my camera’s raw files to .dng, as this will hopefully become de-facto, and wont become out dated as raw is already.

so now i have downgraded from my slr to my compact, and from photoshop to lightroom. easier to use and with plenty of usefulness.

ciao ciao for now.

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