Just finished my final snowboard lesson yesterday, so the course is starting to head towards its final stages. My riding has improved a lot, but more importantly, even when I lapse back to old habits – which I tend to do on the steeper off-piste stuff and in trees – I now know exactly what I’m doing wrong and what I should be doing instead. Given that I’ve another 8 weeks of snowboarding to go, I’ve plenty of time to improve even further.

I had a day off today, so I went back up the hill and forced myself to ride switch, as I’m hopeless at that and I’ll never be comfortable doing 180-degree jumps until I can land or take off switch. After a morning on the beginner’s slope, including an embarrasing fall on the beginner’s lift (memo: ride normal when using lifts!) I headed up the hill and managed to link turns down a blue run, which was a marked improvement over the last few days. Still, I’m nowhere near fluid, but at least I’ve made some progress and if I just do a little each day now I should be sweet.

Now that the lessons are over, I start the official instructors exam course on Saturday, with the final assessment being on Monday. There are two parts to the exam – the riding part, where they make sure you are a good enough rider to be an instructor, and the teaching part. I’m reasonably confident of passing, as our instructors have already said we should pass the riding side and we’ve also done some demo teaching sessions as well. Having said all that, if I fail I don’t really care – I’m 34 so there’s no way I’ll ever use an instructor qualification ;-)

Anyway, I’ve finally put some photos online:

Fernie

I’ve been thinking of buying a new snowboard for a few weeks now, as mine is almost 4 years old and it’s also a very stiff board, making it very difficult to start doing some freestyle stuff with it.

I got told last week by my instructor that my bindings were not good enough for my level of riding and that I should really consider buying new ones, so that was all I needed to put a phone call in to Bevin for some family discount at the local snowboard store. I’m now riding these beauties:

So far so good. The bindings are a massive imrpovement, and the Lib-Tech flexes a lot more than my current Option.

As I write I am settling in to my third week in Canada and it’s 21C outside without a breath of wind. Shortly after stepping outside the door I can feel my nostril hairs freezing, but apart from that the cold is manageable. The Mountain Hardware down jacket I got is a lifesaver. It’s so warm that I can walk around with only a t-shirt on underneath. The flip side is that I can’t wear it zipped up for long once the temperature rises above -5C!

The downside to such low temperatures is that snowboarding is pretty tough. The groomed runs are rock hard as we haven’t had any snow for a couple of days, and the powder is so cold that my board almost sticks to it, which plays havoc with any attempt to control turns on steep terrain. I had to resort to toe warmer pads in my boot yesterday as my toes were turning to ice after only two runs. Furthermore, my bindings had to be manually locked into place as the plastic was so much less pliable in the cold that the mechnism refused to lock itself.

The last two weeks have been great fun. The cold snap only started yesterday, and before that we had mountains of snow – one meter in the space of five days. The course is good, though the pace is relentless. We have lessons all day Monday to Thursday, followed by ‘activities’ on Friday and Saturday, leaving only Sunday as a day off. Last week’s activity was an avalaunche awareness course, this week’s is back-country touring. The lessons are definitely paying off and my snowboarding is improving rapidly. Might be time for a new board!

I’ve managed to plague myself with injuries in the short time I’ve been here. I had a huge crash on the first run of the first day of lessons, catching an edge at about 40km/h, being spun around and having my head slammed into the hard snow. If I hadn’t been wearing a helmet I’d have been straight off to hospital. I managed to twist my knee in the process, so that meant I’d three days off to let it recover. There was no way I was risking blowing my knee in the first few days!

No sooner was I back up the slope that I tore a stomach muscle. We’d had 40cm of fresh snow overnight and I’d got my board stuck in powder. I did what I’d normally do when stuck in snow and jumped up to lift my board above it and get moving again – however, a 160cm board covered in 40cm of powder takes some lifting, so when I jumped, the board stayed where it was, as did I since I was strapped to it, and my lower abs gave a painful twinge. Nothing serious that a bit of ice couldn’t alleviate, but I re-tore it last night while toboganning down the beginner slopes after a few beers ;) At least it gave me a valid excuse to sit here writing e-mails rather than slogging through the backcountry in -21C! Still, any sneeze, cough or sitting up or down is painful and it will no doubt take another three days to subside.

Made it back to Ireland last night to see the rest of the family (sans Bevin who’s in Whistler) having caught up with Isabella & Conal in London, and spent a few days with Cormac, Belinda & Jacob in Durham.

Seeing Isabella & Conal was great, as I haven’t seen either of them in years and was unable to make their wedding two years ago. Is met me after work and took me for a whirlwind tour of Selfridges to help her in choosing Conal’s birthday present, then it was back to their apartment to catch-up, followed by dinner and a drink.

I said farewell the following morning, picked up my bags from the left luggage at Paddington station, then had to lug all 30+ kilos of them to King’s Cross to get the express up to Cormac. Arrived in Durham to a rainy afternoon, to see Cormac with a brand new X3, but it turns out that it was a loaner as his car was in for a service.

Back at their place I got to meet Jacob for the first time – my sole nephew who’s almost three years old! That’s one disadvantage of living at the opposite side of the planet to your family. He’s a bundle of laughs and not too much trouble, particularly if he hasn’t been fed full of sugar. Still, it was interesting to sit in on a young family and realise just how little time you have to yourself while he’s awake… and once he does go to sleep both Belinda & Cormac are shattered. They wouldn’t change it for the world, but it reaffirmed my intention to never have kids!

While Belinda went shopping with her Mum, myself and Cormac took Jacob to the Shildon Train Museum (photos) yesterday, to tire him out before we flew to Ireland last night. It worked up to a point, but when Ryanair were an hour late (for a one hour flight) we had to respond to “I want to go on the aeroplane” repeatedly. To top it all off, Cormac bought him a toy aeroplane on the flight, so we had to listen to high-pitched toy plane noises for the rest of the flight as well :-)

The welcome party of Dad, Cliona & Dave were conspicuous by their absence when we landed as they were too busy chatting and didn’t notice us coming through customs! I haven’t been home in four years and they’re too busy yapping to notice! ;-)

It was obvious on the drive back home that a lot has changed since I was last in Dublin (notably the Luas), though since the weather’s pretty crap today, and Mum’s throwing a party here tonight for Dad’s birthday, I haven’t been out of the house. Still, I’ve another nine days in which to explore.

I finally met my nephew Jacob yesterday.

Photos from my day trip to Bruges with Kate & Sébastien are online.

Back in London after three days with Kate & Sebastien in Lille. It was great to see Kate again, and to finally meet Sebastien. Kate’s looking well, with only a few weeks to go until Biloute arrives. They’ve yet to decide on the baby’s name, so Biloute (“thingamygig”) is the working name for the moment!

The weather on Friday was typical for Northern Europe at this time of year; low grey clouds and pissing rain. Saturday and Sunday were much better and today it’s back to rain. Friday was veg around the house day, catching up on our goings on over the last few years.

On Saturday, Sebastien took me out for a blast on his Yamaha R1, topping 190km/h on the highway. I was a bit freaked out at first, as he was zig-zagging in between the cars, but apparently that’s legal in France, and all the drivers expect it, so it was no worries after that. I had noticed drivers moving out of our way, and I was wondering why that was. I just thought French drivers were very courteous! We stopped off in Lille for some vin chaud (mulled wine) and a walking tour of the city centre. It was absolutely packed as everyone tried to get their Christmas shopping done.

Sunday saw us all jump in the car and take short drive to Bruges in Belgium, to sample the local beers, mussels and chocolate. Bruges itself is a beautiful city. Lots of old buildings in good condition and in regular use. I have photos which I will organise and get online in the next few days. I’ve no photos of Lille as I wasn’t taking my camera on the motorbike!

Again, it was notable that French drivers don’t really give a toss about the speed limit. The limit is 110km/h on the motorway, but we managed 180 in the fast lane at times, and the slower lanes were still doing 130-140. Apparently it depends on what area of France you’re in, with lots of police around Paris, so not as many people speed around there.

Today’s blast back to London aboard Eurostar this morning was better, as it was daylight outside. There’s something hypnotic about watching the countryside rush past at 300km/h, with steeples marking all the local small towns en route.

I arrived in London and met up with Paul for a semi-liquid lunch, and am now taking advantage of the free wifi in the Apple Store on Regent St. while waiting to meet Isabella ;-)

Update: Bruges photos

Well, I’m sitting here on the Eurostar, about to enter the tunnel on the way to Lille. The experience is a little underwhelming, partly because it’s dark outside, so, coupled with a lit carriage, it’s impossible to see the landscape speeding by, and at this stage I’ve been travelling non-stop for about 39 hours with only a fitful four hours of sleep within that period. I’m trying to keep myself awake!

The trip was relatively plain sailing: Sydney – Melbourne – Hong Kong – London. We’d lost some time between Melbourne and Hong Kong, but we’d made it up by the time we were over France, only to have air traffic control in London tell us to do a pointless loop to kill time. It just so happened that we were almost over Lille, my final destination, when the instruction came through. If I’d had a parachute I could have cut about 10 hours off my journey.

Landed in Heathrow, now 40 mins late, only to find out that the bay we’d been given still had a plane in it. Had to wait a further 30 mins out on the tarmac until they got their shit together. Not what I wanted after a 13 hour flight. London decided to lay on the charm by pissing rain while we were sitting there. Finally got off the plane, waited for my baggage and jumped on the Heathrow Express to Paddington. That ran like clockwork, so my worries about missing the Eurostar were unfounded.

Dumped my snowboard stuff in the left luggage office so I didn’t have to lug it around for the next few days then jumped on the tube to Waterloo only to find that there was a delay because there was a problem on the track behind us??? Who gives a shit – we’re not going in reverse! Couldn’t figure that one out. Had two hours to kill so picked up my ticket and then just loitered around the terminal watching the world go by.

No insightful observations; I’d just forgotten how busy London is, with non-stop heavy foot traffic between 3 and 6, and for an hour or two after that as well I’m sure. One thing that did strike me is how much more dull and drab London is than Sydney. It’s like a painter took the palette used for Sydney and dunked it in muddy brown water before going to work on London. I love the fact that there’s so much history around every corner, and the historical architecture is a big plus over Sydney, but I’d probably end up depressed if I lived here for a significant period of time. Dublin has a similar problem, though on a smaller scale.

Anyway, I’ve just made my first trip through the Chunnel in complete darkness and am now in France. I meet a heavily pregnant Kate in 25 mins plus partner Sebastien, and am looking forward to a good coffee, a shower and bed. I will undoubtedly be useless company until tomorrow. Bloody exhausted.

U2 finally came to town last Saturday night. I’d got tickets for the original April gigs, which were then cancelled due to a serious illness affecting one of The Edge’s family members. I wasn’t sure whether they’d get back here before I left for Canada, so when they announced November dates it was a big relief.

Jacqui decided not to go as it was Anna’s 30th on the same night, but as I hadn’t seen them live before and it’s probably the last time they’d come to Oz, I was definitely going. I headed out to Stadium Australia with John, Sarah and a whole gang of their mates nice and early, hoping to avoid the crowds. It was still pretty busy, but we had a couple of hours to kill once we got there.

Kanye West was the support act, which was a bit odd. If you look at the support bands for Europe and the US, they’re all bands that fit pretty well with U2 – The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Snow Patrol, The Thrills, Kings of Leon… how Kanye West fits in with that lot is beyond me. Anyway, we’d no interest in seeing him but were inside the stadium while he was on stage and he was crap. The sound was pretty awful, presumably because the acoustic setup for a bass-heavy hip-hop artist is markedly different from a rock band’s requirements? Anyway, he was only on stage for 40 minutes or so, which was a relief.

Once U2 came on stage everything changed. It was dark, almost 80,000 people waited expectantly, the stadium lights went down and it was on! The atmosphere was incredible! I’m not a regular concert goer, but I’ve been to Robbie Williams with Jacqui before, which was a pretty big concert, but this was a whole other league and just underlines how massive U2 really are. Even Kylie, who’s playing Sydney right now as well, only fills the Entertainment Centre with a capacity of 21,000. I can’t think of another rock band who could comfortably fill an 80,000 seat stadium three nights in a row in Sydney. No-one else even comes close.

The night’s song list:

City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
Until The End of the World
New Year’s Day
Beautiful Day
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Sometimes
Love and Peace
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride
Where The Streets Have No Name
One
Zoo Station
The Fly
With or Without You
The Saints Are Coming
Desire
Kite

A good mix there, and not too biased towards the more recent stuff, which was something I was a bit concerned about. Nevertheless, myself, John & Sarah sang our heads off and I for one ended the night almost hoarse.

Overall an amazing night and well worth the wait. My only regret was that I took the “No Cameras” warning on the ticket seriously and left mine at home. I saw at least one punter taking pictures with a good camera, so I’d love to have had mine there, however, I certainly didn’t want to arrive at the gates with my Canon 350D and be told I couldn’t go in with it!

The U.S’s big three car makers, Ford, General Motors and Chrysler, had a meeting with Bush yesterday at which they asked for assistance “in fending off Japanese competition and in shifting vehicles towards environmentally friendly forms of fuel.”,1),
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These are the same car manufacturers who lobbied the US Government to make it tax efficient to drive monster trucke, lobbied so that they would not advocate for fuel-efficient cars, and then sued California when that state mandated lower emissions.

To ram home the point that they intend to shift away from petrol, Mr Mulally and Mr Wagoner arrived for the meeting in hybrid fuel vehicles.

You hypocritical bastards. It’s a pity you only saw the writing on the wall when you’re about to crash into it ;-)