skiing 2 - Happy NY

Happy New Year!

Well all the restaurants were charging about 100 euros a person for New Year's eve, so we decided to do the self-catering thing, get a bottle of wine and a beer or two and have our own celebration at our place. But come 11.30ish, we hit the streets to go and take in the fireworks over the ski slopes.

Cath and Lou.

They were pretty awesome - we took about a million photos so I'll just put up my favourites - (Thank God I hear you say) it was pretty smokey after a while cos there really were about a thousand fireworks going off - most of them the shooty up into the sky ones.

The crowd at the fireworks.

More photies of us. Like I say, pretty smokey.

No filters used in these photies (and no photoshop either) - this is as they were taken.

So after that we headed back to the Olympic village and had a piccie in front of it.




I think this was from another day - meal time. Werner looks a lil tired.

This was on our last day - we took the camera out with us on our trip to Saulx de Oux or whatever its called. We were now so confident in our brilliant skiing ability that we risked taking it on the tough slopes.

But first we had a few runs on our cool lil blue slope - just to get our skis to the right temperature of course! This is Cath gunning it down...



Damn! I say damn! I got myself a fine wife!

She's so speedy.



Alan ponders his descent... his descent to... CERTAIN DEATH!

No trip would be complete without the
customary 'hold the camera and take your own photo' shot.

The lil ski brats that are flying past you at 100km p/h. Nah, these ones are just learning.

I think that's me in the foreground.

Cath. This wasn't a sunrise or sunset or anything - just a steepy slope.

Your's truly in the gondola taking us over the mountain.

View from the gondola.

Of course, all this travelling over mountains and taking various routes meant it wasn't easy to know where we were going. Cath had the map and so for about a two-hour period, we would stop every 15 minutes and try and figure out where we were and where we wanted to be to meet up with the other two.



But we did get some good pics at most of our stops.

Oh oh - here comes Cath. she's going a bit faster than normal. She doesn't like too much pace so she's probably gonna stop herself from going too fast by doing...

The Plop.

Singing: "I'm on the top (top) of the world, looking down (down) on creation..."



And we did catch up with them and had another lekker lunch.

Werner shows us how the snowboarders do it:

And Lou shows us how fast SHE can go.

But they both went a little too fast to get any more photos of them.

Stunning.



Who's that person in the funky hat. Oh I know...

Lou and Werner on the ski lift behind us. Our lift beat there's - the only time we were faster than them all week.

Cath skiing at sunset.



Last piccie together before we hand back our skis.

Of course, we stayed as late as we could, which meant a real battle for the ski lifts with every other Tom, Dick and Luigi.



Heading back at our train station, catching the train to Milano (that's Milan to you simple folk)..

At our supper stop before we said goodbye to Lou and Werner - they were staying the night and heading back to SA the next day - I couldn't resist having a pizza with some 'cow ham' as mentioned above on the menu.

And that was that. What a cool trip. Being a bit tight with our savings, I have to admit, Cath basically made me do the skiing thing when I was concerned at how much it cost. But she was right - it was well-worth it, and we probably couldn't have done it much cheaper than we did, so all in all, I was uber-chuffed with the experience.

Good one babes.

Sestriere, part 1

Where is Sestriere you ask? Fear not, I'd never heard of it either. I think Louise (Cath's bridesmaid, of Stellenbosch fame) was the only one of us who had, and she was eager to go there as apparently the slopes are good.

As it turns out, its in Italy, in Torino (that's Turin to you ignorant peasants) and as the Winter Olympics were there in 2006, we had the opportunity to test ourselves on a few Olympic runs - shah! Like that was gonna happen.

The Start

This was in the Turin airport actually, I just thought it looked cool... but back to the skiing stuff...



We caught up with Lou and Werner (the first time Cath and I had ever met werner) at a train station and bought some tickets to a place where we had to catch a bus to another place where we had to catch a bus. If that seems vague, it's because it was. We only got to Sestriere at about 5 or 6 pm. We were tired, not only had we been dragging our wheelie bags everywhere, it was so snowy that we'd been dragging about a ton of snow along too.

But when we had checked in, etc, we headed off to the place where you hire the skiis and ski boots and got ourselves kitted out.

Later that night - we went walkies looking for a shop to buy some FOOD.

When we got home, we found a place to keep the beer cold on our stoep, and proceeded to bury our reserve drinks...
... and then we made food.
It was the 26th of December, so Christmas hats were still appropriate.



The next day we hit the slopes. I was sick as a dog - all sinusy, so I tried to sleep it off and only went out after lunch, but they went out the whole day.

Now admit it. If you saw that guy behind you, you'd poep yourself too! This was Werner's attire. I had to continually stop myself from throwing my hands in the air and yelling 'Don't shoot!'

The main thing is that when you're sick and not feeling great, that you don't overdo it by carrying heavy stuff and walking in heavy boots that make walking a metre a mission, up a hill. That's the main thing. ..



Okay, these pics are for Martin basically, these show Sestriere and the other area we skiied to, and some of the slopes we went down. They won't mean a lot to you if you haven't been skiing before so don't bother clicking on em if you haven't I suppose.

And here we are... your heroes. It would be great if we had different clothes for each day but alas, one wears the same stuff for the week and only changes the underneath stuff. So get used to the pink and the blue. We got Cath a nice pink one in case she ever got lost, we'd be able to pick her out from the other 1000 people on the slope - and the plan worked!

These are the bum type ski lifts. They're can actually be quite scary as they give you a moerse pull to start off with and you really don't wanna fall off (which happens quite often to the kids) cos then they have to stop the whole thing and everyone looks at you and thinks... doos!

Looking down on Sestriere, Alan was hit by the blue steel urge. Louise is in the middle and you've met our bank robber friend.

Louise, on left, goes for some pace while Alan, on right, takes the windey route home.



This was us at the top of the mountain, about to ski into the other ski area - Saux de Oulx. I think I spelt that wrong, but hey.

Bloody good looking couples if you ask me.




And what ski trip would be complete without the customary trip to the eating hole at the top of a mountain. Sorry for the grubiness of the photo, the camera was cold after a morning of skiing and was steaming up every two seconds so this was a quick snap before it did it again.

On a ski lift.



I went walkies one night to try and get a few night snaps of our place. Lou, Werner and Cath are poking their heads out of our place below near the right of pic. This was, remember, the Olypic village. We could have stayed in the same room as Nolaf Njorjallsonn, the Olympic gold winner in the ... okay I made him up, but could you really tell? Could you care?



Me walking around, snow falling heavily.

We took it in turns to cook and wash up too, which was very good of us.



Catch a falling snowflake on your tongue...

Now, seeing as I'm secure in my sexuality I feel I can admit that this must have been the hottest damn policeman I've ever seen. I thought he was so good looking I insisted Cath have her photo taken with him! She didn't protest too much.

Cath cooking up a storm...

Another night of entertainment after a hard day of skiing. Cards... poor man's bridge, canasta, poker or 30 seconds. Louise is smiling cos she's cheating again and thinks we don't know. Werner's patience is being tested as he's teamed up with the doos that doesn't know the rules...

The Olympic sign thingy for the Torino Games.

Aussie cabinet for sale - email forward

AUSTRALIAN MANUFACTURED CABINET FOR SALE

Cabinet for Sale - details below

DISPLAY CABINET, one of the most elegant and functional display cabinets currently on the market.

Features

o Fine timber details

o 4 leadlight options

o 4 side access doors (there is maximum frontal display)

o Adjustable shelves are extra deep to accommodate large items

o Halogen down lights

o Mirror back with glass shelves provide max illumination of collectables from top to bottom.

To give indication of size of the Cabinet it previously held the following:

o Rugby League World Cup

o Rugby Union World Cup

o International Rules Trophy

o Tri Nations Trophy

o Super-12 Trophy

o Trans-Tasman Touch Football Trophy

o Davis Cup

o Hockey World Championship Trophy

o Bledisloe Cup.

All these trophies are now overseas and the Cabinet is excess to requirements.

To make an offer call R Stuart, R Ponting, S Mortlock or P. Fitzsimons who once commented "The Australian Cabinet is groaning under the weight of all the trophies!"

They can be contacted on: 1800-LOST-THE-LOT

Christmas 2008

HO HO HO

This Christmas was a real 'fly in, fly out affair, what with our skiing trip starting on the 26th and me working up until the 23rd. Mart picked us up at Gatwick. Our flight took 50 minutes, the wait for our luggage was longer - not just ours, everyones. Thank God I had my cellphone or Mart would have thought we missed the flight.

Anyhoo, we got there in the end.
Inge spoilt us rotten and we had a super meal everytime we sat down to eat. Roast lamb... doh! Drooled on the keyboard at the thought.

Jake's a bit older now so he kinda makes sense, although he's still a bit shy. This was him with his pink sheep. Every boy should have a pink sheep.



Kiara is of course, also uber cute - or was she just being REALLY good cos Father Christmas was visiting that evening?

The biggest surprise of the trip was not the cool prezzies we got from the fam again, but the fact that the kids let us sleep in this year - only waking us up at abou 7am. What a bonus! Kiara, of course, was first to the tree.

And she got just what she wanted! A baby born doll. It wasn't long before the doll was going number one all over the house!



Jake, content to play with his sheep at first, warmed to his train set thingy-majigy
(bob the builder) and ignored our gift. Rat! That's okay, last year he just played with the wrapping paper. At least cath and I played with his toy!

Inge helped Jake put the trainline together. Note the tongue out the mouth thing. Cath does that too when she hits her forehand, etc. Maybe it's an accountant thing? Louis?

Mart opens his Dara O'Briein DVD from us.
Lucky fish.

And Cath with her prezzie of creams, oils and lotions.

Christmas party memo (joke, email forward)

Found this on, of all places, the Southern Cross Newspaper (a Catholic paper) website.
When all and sundry seem to be trying to be as PC as possible, I found it refreshing.
It's one of those email type forwards so you may have seen it before...

The big Christmas party communication breakdown

The following was an email exchange between the HR boss and employees...

FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: All Employees
RE: Christmas Party

I’m happy to inform you that the company Christmas Party will take place on December 24, starting at noon in the private function room at the Grill House.

There will be a cash bar and plenty of drinks. We’ll have a small band playing traditional carols…feel free to sing along.

And don’t be surprised if our chairman shows up as Father Christmas!

A Christmas tree will be lit at 1:00pm. Exchange of gifts among employees can be done at that time; however, no gift should exceed R50 to make the giving of gifts easy for everyone’s pockets. This gathering is only for employees!

Our CEO will make a special announcement at that time!

Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Patty

The next day:

FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: All Employees
RE: Holiday Party

In no way was yesterday’s memo intended to exclude our Jewish employees.

We recognise that Chanukah is an important holiday, which often coincides with Christmas, though unfortunately not this year. However, from now on we’re calling it our “Holiday Party”. The same policy applies to any other employees who are not Christians.

There will be no Christmas tree. No Christmas carols sung. We will have other types of music. Happy now?

Happy Holidays to you and your family.

Patty

The next day:

FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: All Employees
RE: Holiday Party

Regarding the note I received from a member of Alcoholics Anonymous requesting a non-drinking table (you didn’t sign your name). I’m happy to accommodate this request, but if I put a sign on a table that reads “AA Only” you wouldn’t be anonymous anymore.

How am I supposed to handle this? Somebody?

Forget about the gifts exchange, no gift exchanges are allowed since the union members feel that R50 is too much money.

Patty

The next day:

FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
To: All Employees
RE: Holiday Party

I’ve arranged for members of Weight Watchers to sit as far away from the dessert buffet as possible and pregnant women will get the table closest to the toilets.

Gays and lesbians are allowed to sit with each other. Lesbians do not have to sit with gay men. Each will have their own table. Yes, there will be a flower arrangement for the gay men’s table.

Yes, for pity sake, we will have special seat cushions for short people.

Low-fat food will be available for those on a diet. We cannot control the salt used in the food we suggest for those people with high blood pressure to taste first. There will be fresh fruits as dessert for Diabetics, the restaurant cannot supply sugar-free. Sorry! Did I miss anything?

Patty

The next day:

FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: All our damn Employees
RE: The damn Holiday Party

Hey, vegetarians! I’ve had it with you people! We’re going to keep this party at the Grill House whether you like it or not, so you will all have to just sit quietly at the table furthest from the “Grill of Death”, as you so quaintly put it. And yes, you’ll get your damn salad bar, including organic tomatoes. But you know, tomatoes have feelings, too. They scream when you slice them. I’ve heard them scream!! I’m hearing them scream right NOW!!! I hope you all have a rotten holiday!

Patty, the witch from HELL!

The next day:

FROM: Joan Bishop, Acting Human Resources Director
RE: Patty Lewis and the Holiday Party

I’m sure I speak for all of us in wishing Patty Lewis a speedy recovery, and I’ll continue to forward your cards to her. Meanwhile, management has decided to cancel our Holiday Party and give the money to charities that look after tall, short, gay, lesbian, Christian, non-Christian, fat, thin, carnivorous and vegetarian poor children.

Happy CHRISTMAS!
Joan