Here are some links about the Resort I'm at in Switzerland (or go to www.jungfrauwinter.ch, for the English version, the link is at the top, right :
Piste Map: http://www.jungfrauwinter.ch/pages/english/JWR/JWR_Karte_ueb.htm
Webcams: http://www.jungfrauwinter.ch/pages/english/PST/PST_LiveCams.htm
Index: http://www.jungfrauwinter.ch/pages/english/JWR/JWR_index.php

Plane (Perth), 2130:At the minute, we're taxiing out of Perth on a practically empty airbus. Only 54 passengers or something, which is good because I can stretch out; plus it's less people to take down if I need to adjust the flight route slightly.
They just turned the cabin lights down OFF!! I reckon it's because they need all the power they can get to get the plane off the ground.
We just took off. Looking at all the little buildings and cars makes me feel like I'm playing GTA!! Perth's industrial area overhead by night looks just like Los Santos. Ok, settling in for the boringness. lets see what I can do for the next few hours. I wonder if I can get a Conga line going.. Oooo, Menus!
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25th Dec 05:
Dubai, 0620 (1020 Perth Time): Dubai Airport, pre-dawn Christmas Morning. ho ho f****** ho. Flight was fairly good. No complaints, it got in early. got some sleep but it's hard to tell how much. I watched a couple of movies: The Dukes Of Hazzard was pretty good, and The Transporter 2. Scrubs and Joey were on the comedy channel. woot.
I've changed my mind about Dubai International Airport. It's not all that fun if you don't have a credit card. It does have a hotel in the transit/departures area bit though. Which is somewhat impressive.
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27th Dec 05:
Hello. I've got a bit of catching up to do now... Right now I'm on a coach somewhere between Heathrow and Plymouth the 500 service for those of you playing at home.)
Ok, so what's happened worth mentioning (or that I'm going to mention anyway) since the last entry? The flight from Dubai to Heathrow was mostly uneventful. except they changd the departure gate half an hour before boarding from one end of the terminal to the other end about a kilometer away. so I had to trudge aaaaalllll the way down, and it was even further too because I got onto the wrong moving walkway. The flight was nice and empty again. And for some strange unknown reason i got served the kiddie's meals on the plane. Which wasn't a bad thing, I got Jelly and chocolate bars and stuff. And a lunchbox with a toy which I gave to Deb for Naomi.
Landed at Heathrow about an hour late, the co-pilot said "welcome to London, it's... Ooo it's warm: Six Degrees everybody". ho ho ho. BUT nevertheless I made it from the terminal to the car, and then to Pebmarsh in a T-shirt. Which I thought was very macho of me: Hwoarrr.
Went to my auntie Debbie's for Christmas Lunch and prezzies :D I got a Darwin Awards Book, funny stuff. Next day we went for a walk around the whole of Pebmarsh (took ages, no, really* *add sarcasm). Then we went shopping YAY!. The next morning I woke to a snowscape (and to the Mewings of a very cold cat, who I left outside hehe). It snowed a couple more times that morning, leaving a very picturesque dusting all over the countryside. Mum and Deborah were feeling sick, so they drooped about all morning, until mu took me down to Stanstead to catch the coach to Heathrow to catch the coatch to Plymouth. which is where I am now: opposite a slightly crazy black bloke who keeps talking and singing to himself. and either sniffing or licking the radio times at regular intervals as he reads it. The nutter on the bus!! ah well. he seems harmless enough. If I survive I'll ttyl.
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31st Dec 05:
Well I survived :D I got into Plymouth about 20 minutes late (which is actually early for the British transport system); met up with me old man, ate chinese, whatched the new Lee Evans DVD he got me, and went to bed. Spent the next couple of days hanging around with Dad, and Kay, Simon and James (and Izzy). Had a Jam with Simon and his Cousin with the keyboard and Drums. Dropped in on Grandma, and thats about it really. I met up with Mum again yesterday and wandered around Launceston, dropped in on some old friends. Then we went down to Truro, and imposed ourselves on the Loosemores, which is where I am now. using their computer to tell you all this drivel. Kind aren't I? Right. Talk to you later.
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FRIDAY 13th Jan 06
HAPPY NEW YEAR. Just letting you know I'm still alive. I'm in switzerland ATM. I'll update in more detail later on. but I've been snowboarding here for a week now and it's wickid awesome!! BTW if you happen to see the skiing world cup on tv, that's where I am. the FIS Ski Weltcup, high speed skiing. aanyway. I'm gonna go now. but ttyl.
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6th Jan 06
In Lauterbrunnen, first evening here. After my NYE entry at the Loosemores' they had their New year's party: snacks and silly games galore. Then we went into the piazza in Truro for the countdown to the new year (which happened 10 minutes late) and to watch the fireworks, and all the yobs groping each other, and 2 entoxicated blokes in destructive pattern camouflage slacks climbe up the christmas tree in the square. Then it was back home for drinks and Texas Hold 'em poker - I lost �2.01 but only because we had to go to bed, so we played all-in, blind on the last hand.All the bits in between that evening I spent playing Nintendogs (don't ask, but look out for a review soon).I hung around at the Looseymores place for a few more days till Monday 2nd when I met up with Mike Jones and Matt Radcliffe(old mates and drug dealers) in Truro. we did the usual thing: wandered around aimlessly for a while, until we realised we werent going anywhere, so we started again in a different direction. Later we went to see 'The Producers' at the cinema. A very funny film; especially when you take into account that its a musical.
Dad picked me up from Truro on Wednesday (about time too, because the loosemores kicked me out Monday morning). we went to see King Kong cos it was Orange Wednesday - half price day at the cinemas if you have an orange phone. King Kong was good. Long tho- 3 and a half hours. on Thursday I wandered around Plymouth, looking for a warm bus shelter, but luckily Kay took me in for the evening. then Today I got up Bright* and early (*actually it was still dark **grumble grumble**) then drove to Heathrow. En Route, I educated Dad about Metallica (and oddly enough, he likes it... but then who can't like the Black Album). I left Heathrow at 1310 on Swiss LX333, got to Zurich then caught the Oak Hall Minibus to Lauterbrunnen. And now I'm here. Easy, right? right. Night then.
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14th Jan 06
Beginning of a new week here at Lauters. Today, the Alpine, downhill speed skiing Worldcup thingy was on at this Resort, so most of Switzerland was at the train station and ski lifts, so it was a tad busy as you can imagine. A pain in the Arseophagus to get up the slopes - Especially because my earbuds/headphones started falling apart (is it bad when theres bare, frayed wire which you have to squeeze together to get a sound from?) I got bored of that, so I pulled them to bits to entertain myself. The earbuds with wire sticking out looks like sperm hehe.
The past week was good, the first group of guests were really good. a cool, tight knit group. I collected a few e-mails. there was a bunch of girls: The Beginner Snowboarder Chicks 2006 - A bunch of complete loonies, but a good laugh. They wore out the poor Snowboarding instructor, Gregor. it was funny, he said that before he left for Switzerland, his Girliefriend told him not to fall in love with any girls in his class while he was away, especially if he gets a class of all girls. He assured her, 'Noo it woont be like that' (he's Scottish, they talk like that. No, really). So, of course, his first class of the season is 7 mantal girls. Poor bloke. ah well, we're all mates now. there were some awesome UNO games lasting half the night. playing all the house rules. Also I did some table climbing with some of the group which was fun. UNO takes it out of you though, I've had to (yes, HAD to) sleep in a couple of mornings. One afternoon, I almost fell asleep on the train on the way back to the Chalet. So, Ive been having fun. And thats not even mentioning the Snowboarding! - About that, I reckon I've well Improved over the first week. I'm more confident with turns, and I'm getting one or 2 jumps in. I've only had a coupla minor stacks- just mislanded jumps.
Last night though, the first group left. :'( except those who went on the coach had some trouble. the coach wouldn't start, so they had to wait for a mechanic, and then a replacementr coach. They ended up getting away at 0020 this morning. I hung out with them while they waited, forgetting that I had to be up at 7 the next morning. I did my first ever load of washing (clothes, not me) yesterday too (with a little help) but I forgot about it till I went to bed, so I had to find somewhere to dry it out in the dark. I only just had dry clothes by the morning. Right, well I think I'm late for a meeting or something. TTYL.
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Friday, 20th Jan 06
As the sun sets on one group, it rises on another. How philosophical... no wait, thats not it... Lame, thats the one. How Lame. I had a good week last week. The group wasn't as great as the week before. But I got to know a few of them. The last 3-4 days were really good, it started to snow a little on Tuesday while we were up at Mannlichen, which was a welcome change, it covered up most of the Ice and nasty hard packed snow. The next day though, the cloud really came in, and we got some nice, heavy snow- it's like millions and millions of tiny invisible fairies throwing snowballs at you - The problem was that you couldn't see more than 1 1/2 metres in front of you: barely past the end of your board. So I had to navigate the pistes mostly from memory. So there was a Sh-load of fresh powder which is lush to ride in: its basically like surfing on the snow. But if you fall over or get stuck at the bottom of a trough, you've got about four feet of snow sitting ontop of your board strapped to your feet, which you have to heave through waist deep snow to get out and get moving again. Not as easy as it sounds.
The next day visibility was perfect so I did as many runs as I could, trying to take advantage of the fresh, soft snow while it lasted. The only problem with fresh powder is that it gets everywhere, and its cold. Because of this my bindings froze open a couple of times which got on my nerves, and to add to that. when I got off the chair at the top of the Wixi chair lift, my glove got caught on the chair in front and the cord broke off. As I was POed already I thought 'Right, I'll Get It Back' So I strapped into my bindings and rode down the Wixi as fast as I could without seriously wiping out. When I got to the bottom of the lift I thought 'Nah, I took way too long, I would have missed the chair by now' so I glumly got onto the lift, and as I looked back I saw my glove cord hanging from a chair about 5 or 6 places behind me. I'd beaten my chaire to the bottom and then some! so when I got off the lift I waited at the top and got my cord back. (laugh if you will that this was my most exciting snowboarding adventure yet, but I was proud).
After that I was cheered up a bit so I went back down the Wixi a few times and spent the rest of the afternoon jumping off the ridge at the edge of the piste into the soft powder below. I got some nice, big air and even pulled off a few tricks and Grabs (mostly indys: grab the middle of the toeside of the board with the rear hand whilst in mid-air).
The next day (today) I did the same sorta thing, doing lots of jumps and some more grabs in the soft powder. luvvely. Dad arrived Tonight so it should be good to catch up with him for a week.
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Saturday, 21st Jan 06
Got a coupla 180 airs in today, some Endo 180s, Grabs and some switch turns :oD
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Sunday, 22nd Jan 06
Still working on some tricks, getting better at the 180s & I'm still practicing endos and riding switch. I had a couple of wipeouts today during my lesson, on the first run down. I didn't get hurt so don't panic (or party) yet, but I was lucky. The first one happened off piste, there's a trainee instructor shadowing Brian my instructor this week. She and I were traversing through powder back to back (she's goofy, I'm regular* [* she faces the opposite way to me when riding*]) Not seeing me, she turned in towards me and we collided and stacked it. We weren't hurt (well, her board got chipped but that doesn't count) but we were laughing about it for a while. I think she went off me slightly!
The second one was more spectacular. Off Piste again, I'd Just turned onto my heel edge and as I was moving diagonally down the mountain, I noticed a lump of snow moving rapidly and inevitably towards me. It must have been the bottom of a snowman at one time or other. Optimistically (or Näively) I thought, 'Maybe it'll be a soft boulder of snow' - No such luck. It hit my toe edge right between my feet, flipping me into a perfect faceplant (for those of you not up to speed with their snowboarding lingo: thats a very impressive and technically difficult maneouvre). My legs idn't stop there though, so I wasn't on my face for long. I flipped right over again arching my back dodgily, and landing on my arse. I'm okay :D but I did freeze my beard though. I've got some photos , and if i can be bothered, I might make an animation to illustrate that particular anecdote.
At the carpark at the gondola station at the bottom of that run there was a coach on which someone had sprayed in red paint 'Red Revolution, My Solution'. I'll bet the coach driver was happy.
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Monday, 30th Jan 06
On Friday Dad's group left and the New group arrived. There's a few more guys my age in this group and a bunch of Welsh blokes too. (They're cool cos they're Welsh. Don't ask me how that works, I think its to do with the accent.) There's a coupla guys from Exeter staying in my room: Sam, and Luke: a cool metalhead, mebe we can get together and Jam when Im back in the UK.
Anyway. on Saturday the resort shut down because it was too windy. Most people went up to the nursery slopes in Wengen (A town kind of in the middle of the skiing slopes). I couldn't be arsed, so I went back to bed, then wrote some postcards and e-mails and stuff.
The next day we went up to Mannlichen - pretty much the only slope where all the snow hadn't been blown off the piste - the rest of the mountain was either blue Ice, or bare rock because of the wind yesterday. Fun fun fun.
Today we went up to Winteregg (on the other side of the valley... I should upload a map or something shouldn't I? ok, watch this space.) Anyway, in Winteregg we found this awesome kicker just off piste. I made my day by holding a back-scratcher* for about 2 seconds and landing it after about 2 metres of air. I was just gutted that I didnt have a camera on me to prove it to you lot. (*back-scratcher: front hand grabs centre heelside of board with no hip flex, only bent knees.). At lunchtime we had a massive snowball fight, and we learned the hard way why our instructor Brian was nicknamed 'Fast-Arm Bri'. The rest of the day we spent playing on that kicker, and watching Gregor fail 3 backflips hilariously. Now back at the chalet I'm sitting with Sam and with Luke playing guitar and annoying Sam about not giving him a go on the guitar.
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Tuesday, 31st Jan 06
Today we went up to Winteregg again and played on the kicker for most of the day. During the lesson in the morning I failed 5 or 6 times which disappointed me. I got some nice grabs and some big air, but I bummed out on the landings. After the lunch, Luke, Sam and I did a couple of runs and had a Snowball Fight on snowboards on the move (I won :D) I also got 5 or 6 nice grabs on that kicker (and landings too) whic made up for the stacks in the morning. and I even got some video footage.
Later I boarded back to Lauterbrunnen on what turned out to be a thin, icy track that wound its way through thick fog. I got back in reasonable time, travelling at a leisurely pace. but I just found out that a group of beginners and intermediate boarders were following me down and only half of their group have now arrived, well over an hour after I got back. I had time to send some postcards, walk up a little nursery slope, have a pee, board down the nursery slope, have a shower and a stretch, and start writing this before Sam got back. (apparently 3 or 4 of them are still up there: one hit is head, so they're walking down with him). oh well, dinner time.
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Thursday, 2nd Feb 06
I went up to First this arvo, did a coupla runs and started trying some backside 180s on the flat. Then I hit the halfpipe (not literally). It was the first time I'd tried it so I didn't pull any impressive stunts, but I did get around it better than I thought I would. I had a go on the snow park too (like a skate park, just on snow). I didn't go too hard at it though. they were massive kickers with solid landings. I got some air though, and some nice landings (and a not so nice one)
Later I boarded back down to Grindelwald. on the way I had a massive fall: I was sliding on my front, backwards down a wall of ice and hardpacked snow for about 30M untill I dug my board in and flipped onto my back and continued sliding for another 20M (thank God for kneepads). So that was fun. Later, on the same run, but a less treacherous section, I didn't quite land a frontside 180 and landed on all fours so that both of my water bottles shot out of the water bottle holsters in my bag, and shot down the piste like a pair of guided torpedoes. Funny as hell. They rounded the corners nicely because there was a build up of snow. So I managed to catch up to both of them just before they slid off a prescipice!
I spent the evening helping Luke with a song he's writing.
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Monday, 6th Feb 06
Woohoo, finally getting up to date. On Friday I went into Interlaken (the nearest big town/small city) with Luke and wandered round. we weren't exactly sure where we were half the time. We passed a Japenese Garden, a Triad looking Casino, an English red phone booth, an American Hooters Bar/Diner, then later we had a drink in a Latino bar with Photos of Ernesto Che Guevara all over the place. It must have been one long train journey.
Since then the groups have changed over again. and this one is crappy. I'm sharing a room with a bloke from Plymouth who's alright, and a South African guy who swears a lot and likes to wake up (and wake everyone else up) at 6am, or before. I'm starting to get tired this week. The snow is pretty poor for boarding atm, so I havent been doing a great deal. Also I'm knackered as, so Ive been lying in a lot. oh well. 4 days left Lets make the most of it.
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Wednesday, 8th Feb 06
IT'S SNOWING! IT'S SNOWING! IT'S SNOWING! IT'S SNOWING! IT'S SNOWING! IT'S SNOWING! IT'S SNOWING! Conditions have been getting worse the last couple of weeks, bare patches and ice. But it doesn't matter now. It's snowing. Nothing can be wrong, tomorrow will be great: it's my last day boarding so I'm gonna make the most of it.
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Friday, 6th Feb 06
Yesterday was a good day boarding. It kept snowing the whole day. I got up early (yes, EARLY!) and left before anyone else. I walked to the Train station and went up to Kleine Scheidegg and boarded there for most of the morning. The powder wasn't as deep as when it snowed last time, it was only about a foot deep. Which is better than nothing but it was quite light so it swept off easily so I foundmyself boarding on grass and rocks once or twice when I went off piste. The pistes were nice and powdery though so I carved and bounced all around the mountain. Then I boarded down to Grindelwald and caught the gondola up to First. At First it was snowing really heavily, almost blizzard conditions. I tried the run from the very top which goes back down to First, that was OK, but it was COLD. So I went lower down to the board park. I didn't put much effort into the Jumps (my knees are starting to feel knackered after 5 weeks) but I did get some air ollieing from the top. I gave the box* a try for the first time, just slowly straightlining up it and ollieing and pulling a grab from the end (* A Box. literally. a smooth wooden box that comes in various shapes for people to grind/slide along the top or the edges) there were also some grinding rails, but I only tipped the end of one - I thought I might need my Coccyx for later. I ran the park a few times, until the conditions got to the point where I literally couldn't see the piste (and more importantly the umps and obstacles) for the snow. So after trying the Halfpipe once (too powdery to turn properly on the sides. I ended up with a pile of snow straight down my front). I boarded back down to Grindelwald, then caught the Firstbahn Gondola up one stop to Bort ("Waring: We're out of Bort licence plates, we're out of Bort licence plates") then went down what turned out to be a Black run (it's yellow 20 on the map) back to Grindelwald again. A nice long day, going hard at it to make the most of my last day. I hurt in the evening. On the train back to Lauterbrunnen it dawned on me that I'm leaving here, my home for the last 35 days (Reuben: **Sniff**, Reuben's Legs and Back and All of Reuben's muscles in unision: "Yipee!").
I spent most of the evening packing. It took well on 2 Hours to pack my bag, on emptying it to start I found all this stuff I'd brought which I'd forgotten about and not touched since I got here. Like 3 Thermal shirts, another pair of Salapets*, 3 Pairs of trousers, my bathers and a dress shirt, all of which I hadn't touched since I packed them in Perth (*Yes that means I've been wearing the same pair of Ski Pants daily for 5 weeks. Good thing I can't smell right?). So after I squeezed in all that crap, and turned around and realised I had another stack of clothes to fit in, and packing that. I played cards with some Irish folkfor a while, then went to bed.
Today I bought a Snowboard (that I'm prolly not going to be able to use for another year, but oh well.) and am now waiting for the coach to the airport which leaves in... 10 minutes. Ah. Talk to you later.
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