It's now November 2009!

6 months or more have passed since I left Les Deux Alpes. Am I a ski god? Unfortunately, I am currently more geek! But what happed?

I left Les Deux Alpes in Mid April, nearly missing my plane as I took a coach load of customers to their check-in, only to realise that my flight was before theirs. As they were passing through the airport they suddenly caught me running at high speed to catch my plane.

I made my way to my brother's house in Tunbridge Wells and started putting together the final plans for my next 8 weeks before returning to my job at BT. What plans I ask myself. The plan was to have as few plans as possible!

I organised to get my car serviced and MOTed to get it back on the road after 4.5 months in my parents' garage. In the meantime I was dependent on public transport and was amazed to find a bus that went from nearly outside my brother Charles' house to opposite my parents house 15 miles away. The bus journey may have taken more twice as long, but at least I could make the journey as most of my non skiing clothes were at my parents.

Slowly I gathered together my walking gear and decided that now was the chance to buy a bivi bag, or very small tent. For some reason I have always wanted a bivi bag. Don't ask.

My plans only went as far as arranging to catch up with Susan in Munich one weekend and head down to the Dolomites to do some walking and via ferrata climbing, or Klettersteig as the Germans call it. Nothing else, other than a ferry ticket and car insurance was organised.

After 10 days, I headed off by 13 year old Peugeot 306 to Dover to catch a ferry. The route went something as follows:

Strasbourg
Black Forest
Lindau on Lake Constance where I spent 3 nights
Algund / Merano where I spent a couple of nights
Munich for the weekend
Truden where I spent 3 nights
Pozza di Fassa for 4 nights
Canazei for 3 nights
Arabba with Colletts for 11 nights
Zug for 1 night
France

My memory is getting a bit hazy now.

I did as little driving on motorways, autoroutes, autobahns as I could. I did have 5 weeks to play with, so getting places fast was not critical. I was here to enjoy the view, find interesting places and do lots of walking.

I spent a day walking around Strasbourg. I regret not having a proper local meal of chouxcroute.

I explored the Black Forest by car. It was like driving through a holiday brochure in some places. I must come back.

I then ended up stopping at Lindau on Lake Constance where I set up my very small one man tent and hired a bicycle. I found the tent was very small. Well, it wasn't sub 1kg for nothing! I explored the centre of Lindau and the surrounding countryside on the city bike. The main memories are of lots of fruit farms selling fruit and home made obstler, as well as fresh lake fish.

Merano was where I got some hill walking in through vineyards and bought some wine.

Then I made a dash to Munich where we headed to southern Bavaria to do a number of walks and a cycle ride through Munich with a compulsory stop at a Biergarten.

I then headed south again and ended up in Truden where I nearly slid down a mountain onto a road! It was easy walking up the mountain, but very unstable coming down with stones and fircones making it hard to get a good grip. There were a large number of trees that had come down over the winter across paths.

It was while I was in Pozza di Fassa that I was playing with Twitter on my mobile phone and mentioned the Dolomites in a tweat, only to suddenly get an e-mail saying that "Mountain Holidays (Colletts)" was now following me. Colletts provided the photographs to the two books on via ferratta that I had with me. This e-mail prompted me to contact Colletts to see if they had started their summer season. They were starting in 5 days...

The weather was generlly very kind, although I did get caught in one almighty storm when I was staying in Canazei and was descending from the Pordoi Pass. I ended up making it to a road and hid under a bridge with a stream running through it. As the stream grew and ran more vigorously, I started to wonder if I was shelting in the best place from the heavy rain and hail!

I ended up in Arraba with Colletts. Finally, I did 3 via ferrata, but as I had found out over the previous few weeks, there was still a lot of snow on the mountains, so most via ferrata were still closed.

I originally booked one week with Colletts which I then extended to 11 nights, finally leaving to head off to Zug to catch up with an old school friend and family on my journey back home...

God I Need a Curry!

There is one other thing that I really miss. A good curry!

The eating arrangements are, as a ski guide, I eat guest breakfast, get my lunch for free at the mountain restaurants, join guests at afternoon tea with cakes, biscuits, ham and cheese, etc, and then have staff tea at 6pm, unless some guests invite me to join them for the guest 3 course dinner.

The worst meal of all the above is staff tea. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it can be excellent, but sometimes it is pretty poor. Yes, I have been made to eat Jamie Oliver's worst meal... Chicken nuggets and chips! Jamie, if I get this again, please save me!

Sometimes staff tea has been a curry, not a bad curry, but not a proper curry. I need a decent curry, very soon!

Things I Miss - 4 Months In

There are many things I miss but here is list of the ones that come to mind:

My Own Space - I am still sharing an apartment with an 18 year old and a 21 year old. Thankfully, for me anyway, the fourth person in the room who slept on the bunk above me got fired for being a not brilliant barman. It all seemed unfair, but now I have a small corner of the small apartment to myself. Sometimes it is good to be a little selfish!

A Toothpaste Free Sink - What is it with these young lads. They seem to squirt more toothpaste around the sink than they put on a toothbrush!

Clean Crockery - These young lads have been so spoilt that they think by putting a plate near the sink it will automatically wash itself. I have explained in detail that this is not the case. I wash them up so that I can have my toast on a clean plate. It's not magic!

A Pint of Bitter - Lager, lager, lager... Yuck! Give me a decent pint of bitter. Harvey's, Pedigree, London Pride, but not John Smith's Smooth.

Older Colleagues - All these young colleagues that I work with, whose average age is about half of mine, can be fun company for part of an evening, but I'm not sure I could manage it for another month. Thankfully, I don't have to!

Friends & Family - Yes, I miss my friends and family. I can contact them by e-mail, text or hand written letter, but it's just not the same. I'll be back soon!

Oh, there are so many other things I miss...

Life Distilled Down to Two Colours

My life has become very simple and straightforward.

I only have two keys: one green and one red:-

Green = Go = The key for the ski guides' room where I store my skis and boots.

Red = Stop - The key for the apartment where I go to bed to sleep. Note: Red rhymes with bed, a very useful aide-memoire when I have had a few drinks.

How simple is that? No other keys are required in my life out here.

UPIs

Tuesday night was the Miss Les Deux Alpes competition.

It all started to get hazy after two Long Island Iced Teas at the bar in the hotel that I am based in as I prepared for the night.

I went as Boy George... Yes, I know, Boy George is a guy not a girl, but that is who I went as.

After finishing the Long Island Iced Teas and the make-up we went down to Smokey Joe's, the bar where the event was taking place. Being one of the contestants, I went back stage. A continuous supply of vodka bottles were being passed to us. That was probably the end of me!

All I know is that I didn't win. I fell off the judges' table and I woke up with a number of UPIs.

What is a UPI? Unidentified Party Injury.

Posh On The Slopes...

It's very important to protect your skin from the sun and glare of the sun from off the snow...

Well, that was my aim when I decided to purchase some factor 50 sun cream. The array of sun creams available in the shop in Grenoble I went to was large, and none of the brands were known to me. Eventually, I selected a tube of sun cream, paid for the most expensive sun cream I have ever bought and eventually returned home by bus.

It was only the next day when I squeezed the tube that I realised the cream was tinted! Not what I intended at all. This must be what Posh Spice uses...

Well, I bought the expensive stuff. I'll use it!

New Ski Boots!

It was finally time to buy some new ski boots. The inners have been "leaking" foam for about 6 weeks, but I have found a piste map acts as a very good shoehorn, holding the foam in place as I slip a foot into each boot.

I went to 3 shops and tried on 8 different models of boot. Some models in several sizes... Trying on ski boots is a tiresome task. They might feel good in the shop, but the pain, if there is to be any, may take several hours of skiing to appear.

So... It's goodbye to my Nordica Grand Prix boots

...and hello to my new Salomon Falcons.