Well, as usual things mainly focus around work so day-to-day goings-on aren’t as interesting as they were when I was country-hopping or walking across Europe for charity. Talking of the charity walk, I had a visitor over the weekend – Giuliana who put me up for a night when I was in Turin and had incredibly sore feet. She brought with her a food package from her lovely parents, who’d also accommodated me for one evening when I passed through Cùneo. At which time my feet were only a bit achey.

She arrived late on Thursday evening, not helped by the mont Blanc tunnel having roadworks inside. Thankfully she got to the Jekyll just in time for the comedy show starting. This was our late work’s Christmas do – it’s far too busy around Christmas itself for an office party in Chamonix, so Sheridan delayed it until now and we had a nice three-course meal and tickets for the comedy night. Giuly’s single ticket was only 10 Euros in advance (meal and ticket was €35) and the entertainment wasn’t too bad at all. Well, two out of three comedians were funny. The other just… wasn’t. Still not bad for a night out.

We didn’t stay out on the beer too long as Giuly was only here for a couple of days and had a carful of ski equipment to use. Yes – despite being a lovely person, she’s a skier. I suppose we all have our faults.

I’d changed my shifts so I had Friday off and after ferrying lost luggage around on my day off a couple of weeks ago, I’d scrounged an extra half-day as well. This meant we had pretty much all the daylight on Friday and Saturday to get out and play on the snow. Friday was spent up Brévant and Fleger, where we sunbathed at lunchtime at around 2400m. A beautiful big dog came and sat with us, begging scraps off our sandwiches. I also rediscovered how much fun sledging is by sitting on my board and scooting down some smaller hills!

On the way back down to Chamonix in the bubble lift I spotted an Ibex. I saw loads of chamoix when I was trekking in France and Italy, but I’d not seen one of these smaller deer-like creatures before. It just stood on the slopes and watched the cars as they slid by on the cable above.

Back in town, I introduced Giuly to the gastranomic wonder that is Midnight Express which she enjoyed. Praise indeed from an Italian! To settle the evening off, we watched Nancy Drew which was much better than either of us expected. An early night as we wanted to be up early to dodge the Saturday crowds.

This, of course, didn’t happen. But we tactically dodged the crowds by getting on the bus later than anyone else. It was still busy – the busiest I’ve seen all season as I’m normally out midweek – but not too bad. I expect things to pick up further next week with the UK half terms. Today’s trip was to La Tour, which I’ve heard very highly spoken of amongst the skiers on our staff.

Giuly loved it, I wasn’t so keen. It’s definitely skier country, with lots of steep, hard snow and a couple of long, shallow runs. Shallow and flat are very hard for boarding on, which is a shame as the scenery up there is fantastic. It’s just hard to concentrate on it when you’re trying very hard not to catch an edge or swerve and shove a group of three skiers off the edge of a narrow path as they undertake you. tempting as it may be.

I headed back into town at lunchtime as I wanted to watch the match on telly (I wish I hadn’t), but Giuly stayed there until they virtually kicked her off the mountain. I had work in the afternoon and was very glad to come home to a home-cooked Italian meal! My compliments to the chef!

As I had airport duty on the Sunday morning, it was another early night. I don’t think I woke Giuly as I snuck out past the bunks at 6:45 and when I got back later in the day she told me she’d gone back up Brévent for a few hours. We had a quick wander to the MBC for a sneaky beer (great site-brewed beers, excellent food, crappy service) where Giuly caught the last ten minutes of the Italy Six Nations game (England won, but who’s bothered about egg-chasing? Really?).

And that was about it for my Italian visitor. She headed off and hopefully dodged most of the queues on the way home. I crashed out and watched some old episodes of Spooks while blowing my runny nose into a hanky. Yup, I’ve had a cold the last few days (far away from man-flu, but annoying all the same) but I have to say that getting out in the snow and fresh air really seems to have helped.

So another visitor down and a couple of weeks free before Esther and her friend come down from Amsterdam. At least I know she’s used to bunk beds as we shared a hostel room in Darwin a few times!

Again! Sorry about that. Things are very much in the “do work, go home, wake up, do work” pattern for a while now.

I’m on to my second visitor in a week with Nic flying in on Monday morning. On the same day, Delphine departed after a short stay on her way back to Nice from Paris (and Bruge, and Brussels, and Berlin…). Nic’s opted for the “stay at ground level and paint things” course of action during her visit. Delphine had a go at snowboarding on one of the nursery slopes and after a day of trudging up and sliding down hill managed to stand up for most of the time. She did damage her thumb slightly with an awkward landing, but on the whole she departed uninjured.

On Sundays I’ve started “repping” one of the buses home from the airport. This is a great chance to chat to some of the guests and is usually quite relaxed as there’s not often more than a dozen people heading to Chamonix on the last flight. This week, however, there was quite a delay. One of the planes coming in with passengers booked with one of our competitors had a pilot who… let’s say “didn’t have much experience”. Or he was blind.

Essentially, he would prepare to land, start to descend, chicken out and fly up and round again. This caused a backlog with all the other flights as well. While I’m all for equal rights for the “differently-abled”, hiring a pilot who needs to land a 150-seater aeroplane using nothing but his sense of touch is pushing things just a little too far. The passengers, when they finally arrived, were in good spirits. One even commented that “you have to pay for rides like that at Alton Towers!”

The only downside to the Sunday work is that I can’t catch any of the footie that’s televised which means I miss the Boro game next weekend. I do get to catch what promises to be a dull encounter against Villa the following Saturday and an inevitable trouncing by ManUre two weeks after that. Jolly-ho.

Coming up, I have visits from Giuliana (I hope) from Turin; Esther and friend from Amsterdam; Viv from back home; and Leah from back home (again!). There’s also a “possible” regarding Sharon and a friend of Noah’s from Israel. I just realised that every one of my visitors is/will be female. I’m going to get quite a reputation here!

I’ve also started planning my summer out. I have a couple of weeks to spare over June around the festivals, so I’m thinking of doing the Baltic states as well as (maybe) Berlin and Warsaw. Somehow I need to get an updated passport as I also want to go to Vietnam again and I only have one spare page in my existing document. However, I’m not going to be in the UK for long which means I might have to resort to the pricey “appointment at the passport office”. A 10-year, 48-page passport on a same-day service is a whopping £123. Ouch.

And yes, I know I still haven’t posted any pictures…

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A few words for ‘boarders as well, but this is mainly a mini-rant at skiers. I know not all skiers are pompous, arrogant, selfish, ignorant, piste-greedy idiots, but far too many of them are. They annoy me, you may have guessed. I have seen several accidents on the slopes, and without exception every single one has been the fault of a skier – some very experienced (and therefore reckless), and some beginners (who then ski off very quickly without helping out or apologising).

There are a few rules on the mountain. A very few. Basically, they revolve around politeness and common sense. Most people seem to get these rules, or are just polite by instinct. An annoying number don’t.

1. The person lower down the slope has right of way. That means if you’re cannoning down a piste at 80km/h, it is your job to avoid people further down (they can’t see you, remember?) and it’s not their fault if they swerve into your path. This can easily be avoided by skiing/boarding within the bounds of your ability and the current terrain. If you’re on a narrow piste, don’t go so quickly as someone else can get in your way more easily. It’s common sense. I see too many skiers in particular crouched in a “speed” position, zooming down green runs where beginners are trying to practise.
2. Don’t stop, sit down or rest in the middle of the piste. If you have to stop for whatever reason, get to the side. This includes the areas just off the lifts. Again, just today I had several incidents where I saw skiers blocking the exits from lifts as they ski’d off, then just stopped on the middle of the run. On one of the green runs, I saw three people stopped while one of their friends built a small ramp off-piste. The boarder was to the side of the piste, the two skiers in the middle, round a corner and under a crest from the upper part of the run – and therefore in a bloody stupid place to loaf.
3. Before you set off, check uphill to ensure you won’t get in someone’s way when you set off. Again, skiers assume they don’t have to – my experience – though I notice boarders making the same mistake from time to time. However, tie this in with the previous point and at least most boarders are at the piste’s edge so less likely to get in someone’s way.
4. Give suitable clearance when overtaking someone. This one really, really gets my goat. Boarders are more likely to be guilty of this one than the others in my experience, but skiers are horrendous for doing it. Cutting someone up is rude and dangerous. Just because you’re used to haring downhill at speed and letting someone slip past you on the inside doesn’t mean that the kid who’s skis/board you missed by 3cm doesn’t mind either. So often I have seen skiers/boarders wooshing past people with virtually no distance to spare and the person they’ve narrowly missed panic and fall. Sure, you’re great and you have control, but the person you’ve just gone past had no idea you were there till you overtook them – it’s scary especially to a learner.
5. Don’t pull in and stop suddenly on a slope right in front of someone. I have had arguments with skiers who’ve done just this – never a boarder. They cut me up, skid to a halt and then I either collapse in a heap, collide with them or clip their skis. They complain that it’s my fault due to point number one – I’m higher up so it’s my job to dodge them. Thing is, one second they weren’t there and then *pop*, they appear and block my way. This also happens when I’m just about to set off. I’m stationary, about to start sliding and a skier decides to stop in the one path I can take to get some momentum. Imagine you’re parked on the side of the road. You’re indicating to come out and just waiting for a car to go past. Is passes you… then stops half a metre in front of you and puts on its handbrake. Pretty damn rude, isn’t it? You can get round it, but it takes effort and the guy could have parked two metres further down and given you space but just decided to ignore you.

There are more “rules”, many of them spelled out on a per-resort basis. I’m sure you can see by looking at the above that they’re simple enough and generally are common sense. I also try not to rail against skiers in particular, but as I said it’s just my experience that the vast majority of people who do cause problems are skiers. The ratio hugely outweighs the number of skiers:number of boarders one.

Anyway, besides all that I had a good day off and finally figured out how to snowboard again. I can now actually go down a good few runs without falling on my backside. This is a good thing. I’m getting there! I feel sorry for the guy (a skier) who was airlifted off in dramatic style by helicopter, however. He was conscious and hopping prior to being loaded on the trailer of a Skidoo so I suspect just a badly broken leg. The worst I’ve had so far is a bruised botty – and I hope it stays that way.

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