I just got back yesterday from quite possibly the best snowboarding holiday I’ve ever had! You know when you’re looking forward to a holiday and then you get there and everything is just perfect and the way you wanted it to be? Well, that’s what it was like!

We flew out last Sunday to Basel (on the border between Switzerland and France) and drove 4 hours to Meribel which is a well known resort in the 3Valleys of the French Alps. As we arrived it was dumping down snow everywhere, to quote Damien Rice, “cold water surrounds me”. According to the weather reports it had been laying down the snow on the mountain for a full four days before we arrived and it was due to stop on the Monday (our first full day on the slopes). I couldn’t have asked for better conditions.

As soon as we stepped out of the door to go to the lifts that beautiful sound was all over the moutain. Silence. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but when snow falls it makes everything quiet, from crunching footprints in the snow to a board hitting a slope. I love that sound, and it was sheer heaven. The snow was like icing sugar just sitting on the sides of the valleys and stretching right the way all to the top of the peak.

I really can’t describe how good the conditions were. Going up the lift was a sight to behold, fresh, untampered snow stretching for as far as the eye can see, I looked down at the slope below me and I lost all conception of movement, the snow was just like looking at a blank sheet of perfect paper close up. You couldn’t make out any lumps, bumps or contours of any kind. Heavenly!

Anyway, you get the idea that the snow was unbeatable! Then comes the chalet. In itself it was fantastic, from the warmth of the living room to the unbelievable taste and variety of the cuisine, flawless. And added to this was a “magic fridge” full of beer, Orangina, Coca Cola, Evian, Orange juice and a whole load else. It was a magic fridge because viurtually every time you opened it, it was always full and it was free! Now how good is that?!

All in all it truely was a fantastic holiday!

I’ll go into more detail about other aspects of the holiday at a later date…

Here are the people we went with: www.purpleski.com

Last night I had a powercut

Normally I wouldn’t be too bothered, I’d just go to sleep and by the time I woke up it should be restored. However…. as sods law would have it, I had just woken up from a marathon sleep, as I was waking up I heard my PC click off, (that horrible sound that means something bad has happened to it). I keep my PC on ALL the time, so this was bizarre. So anyway, I disregard it because my bed was too warm for me to leave it and opt to doze for a bit. Then I get a phone call from jim to wake me up again. Perfect.

I look at the clock, bang on midnight. Shitting perfect. “Hold on,” I think to myself, “why is my PC and TV off? I left them on.” Cue bedazzled expression while trying to hold a conversation with Jim. So I turn on my bedroom light. No shining brightness from above, just dim darkness
In fact, that picture you see up in the top left, that was the last picture taken by my webcam before power went out!

Jim rang me so I could do something for him, something that necessitated me being on the net. If he’d rung me just 5 minutes earlier I could’ve done it. But no. The power went sodding well before he rang. So I had to give him my password to complete his task. DAMN IT!

I’ve had power cuts before, but in the majority of cases I’ve just gone to sleep and woken up to full power. Since I’d just been asleep for 12 hours it was highly unlikely that I could manage to get back to sleep again. Once I’m awake, I’m awake. Just like once I’m asleep, I’m asleep.
So there I was, stuck at midnight with no power. No PC, no net, no phone, no TV, no xbox, no music, no light (note my priorities) and all at midnight. God phecking dammit!

So, I sit down in my chair and start to think. I hate having nothing else to do apart from think. It makes me use my brain in an introspective way (not something I enjoy). It was during this “thinking” malarky that I realised just how dependent the human race is on power, not just electricity but all forms of power. Just think about it… what would you do if there was a power-cut at home when no-one apart from you is awake. I realised that I had nothing to do. Quite sad really, I know. I admit it, I depend on modern technology far too much. This whole theme fits into my theory, but I’ll save it for part 3. At man’s most productive, we weren’t dependant on electricity. The dawn of civilisation knew nothing of electricity, indeed just a couple of centuries ago you would be accused of demonology if using the power of electricity to do something.
(Note to self: this is theory material, not blog.)

SO… here’s hoping that EVERYONE has an AWESOME
New Year

and as few power cuts as possible!

See you in 2005!