What Else is New?

Dad had mentioned the possibility of paying me a visit; an idea I suspected he would never follow through with but sure enough I was given all of 48 hours notice before he rocked up in my hallway. Go Dad. His arrival was welcomed by all. Along with Pappa Thorpe came ridiculous amounts of snow. 36 hours straight crapping down snow. Fresh snow is something that has been missing from Geilo for neigh on two months now.

Yesterday we hit the slopes and Dad found himself getting his ski legs back after two years by pounding through knee deep powder. Despite being a ridiculously busy time of year (the busiest in fact), I managed to get some time off to go skiing with Pappa.

Glorious snow. Amazing snow. We finished off a long hard day of riding with a solid 2 hour nap followed by after-ski at the highland hotel and on to Hos Martin for more shenanigans. Everyone was a little curious at first but Dad quickly blended in and chatted up a storm. Dad was happy to tell and many were more than happy to listen to Dad's pontifications about my childhood and general theorising on why I am the way I am. It could have been worse. The night carried on almost to closing time.

We awoke this morning after these dumping days to a pure blue sky with the brightest sunshine I have seen in a long, long time. The snow was soft and fresh, the lifts weren't particularly busy and the visibility was infinite. In a word it was the perfect day. We did a little off-piste skiing which had mixed levels of success...

I was on skis for the day to hang out with Pappa a little more. I am pretty decent on skis but I had never tried going through the park. Oh my god it is easy to jump on skis. I was getting huge air with no effort at all. Much more than I can on a snowboard. I wanted to take it easy but the temptation was too strong. I jumped higher and higher and even threw in a grab or two.

"Oh so this is what everyone is going on about!"

Run after run I said to Andrew that we would do just one more, just one more.... just... one... more. I hit one of the bigger jumps and got some serious air and landed with a little bump and kept on skiing... Something felt a little odd.

"Wait. What's this? Oh right, I seem to only have one ski on, I guess I had better stop."

Click. Smack. Ow. A searing pain shot up through my body coming from... my left knee.

"Hmmm, this feels a little familiar. Have I done this before?"

Having just come from the medical center 800 kronor poorer, it seems as though it is probably not all that serious; hard to say with any certainty until the swelling has gone down. So far it's rest, ice, anti-inflammatory drugs and crutches. Regardless of how things progress from here it is safe to say that my season has come to a close a few weeks earlier than expected. But yeah, what else is new?

Sick...

Easter here is hectic. Lessons flying all over the place. Normally if you have an open spot its unlikely it will fill up with a private but now it seems to be the opposite... That means lots of snowboarding :D

I started out the week with a kids group class that was pretty fun. I had the pleasure of Caroline's company; one of our more naturally talented instructors; one from whom I can learn a lot about dealing with young, non-English speaking children. We skied together for 2 days before she took over the group and I headed off on my board.

There are people everywhere.. craziness. Lift lines, lines at the grocery store... lines, cars... people everywhere! It's nice though. To have our quiet redneck mountain country town inundated with people gives it a bit of life towards the end of the season, just about the time when I had lost it with the tranquility while longing for... well something else.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all the best to the two birthday kids; the soon-to-be father of one David Kennedy as well as my beautiful, talented, generous and wise mother; Joanne Thorpe- without whom I would never have made it to where I am today. Happy Birthday peeps.

Mats' little brother Lasse has once again graced us with his presence for a few days. Despite the fact that he is only here for 4 days he came baring a bottle of Grant's Wiskey, Sambuca, Fisherman's Friend, Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum, 8 bottles of Smirnoff Ice and 48 beers. Oh dear... what have we got in store for us I wonder?

While Pappa Thorpe mentioned the idea of coming to visit me at some stage while I was here in Geilo... not only did I not expect him to actually go through with it, but I would hardly consider 2 days to be what one would consider 'notice'. So at possibly the worst time of year, with huge lift lines, difficulty getting time off work, lack of available accommodation, an overloaded house here (Lasse as well as a couple of random friends of our landlord) and general chaos Dad has decided to drop in for a few days. How nice. I am sure we will have a blast and put his time in Stockholm to shame. Good thing I asked him to bring along some duty free alcohol; seems like we're a bit short of it this week eh?

Today I finally got Marek up on the mountain with his Kites. Yup. Finally. It was sick. Totally incredible. I am addicted. I must say that just as I was getting the hang of it the wind died off and we had to pack up. That's not to say I didn't have the time of my life. Flying the kite is easy; admittedly when we first launched it I went flying head first a few meters but I managed to get it back under control and got underway. At first I was having trouble keeping the edge of my board in the snow and just about flew into some power lines... I had to land the kite, ride down to the lift and start again. This is more or less what kiting is about at first. Buggering around getting used to it, fixing tangled lines and the like. But I can see the appeal and I am surely going to be a huge proponent of kiting from here on in. Must get better at it soon though. Not much time before I am heading back to Sweden. To put it mildly; Kiteboarding is Sick.

The Day the Music Died.... Again.

Going to the gym in the mornings they have a little set up in the wall where you can plug in your iPod or whatever to the wall and have the whole gym playing your music. Early in the morning it is pretty much just me and others from the ski school so it works out pretty sweet...

This morning I went to plug my iPod into the wall and to my horror the screen had a massive crack running through it. Dear god, what is this conspiracy against me and my beautiful, beautiful music?! Seems that I had it in my breast pocket while riding yesterday and must have leant on it or something; especially odd considering I didn't take any hard falls. Hopefully I can get it fixed when I am back in Stockholm but I shouldn't think it'll be the cheapest thing in the world to sort out.

Easter approaches

As the Easter weekend approaches so too does the end of the season here in Geilo. Easter marks the last big rush before things die off permanently. It's been a good season here in Geilo and I couldn't really have asked for a better entry into the industry. From here things start to get interesting...

Earlier this week I was luckily enough to have time off while the demo tents were set up on our side. I was able to test out some of the best snowboarding equipment money can buy- I demo'ed about 4 or 5 boards in all. All much softer with more of a freestyle stance than my current set-up. One K2 board weighed about 1/3rd of what I am riding now; very nice. If I wasn't so broke with many expenses coming up I would have bought the Amplid board I tried out right then and there. I spent a solid couple of hours in the park enjoying the flight paths of these beasts. As an instructor (I tested out the gear in uniform so I would get a bit more cred) I would have even gotten half price.

Yesterday was a good day overall. Did a little private instruction with a young English kid, when they're 5 years old like that and starting out it's more of a matter of teaching the parents how to best deal with the kid and help them out getting little James comfortable on the snow.

I was free for the rest of the afternoon so I strapped on my (finally replaced) bindings and headed out for the first time. A few weeks back one of my bindings shattered in the cold and I have been since using one rental binding along side one of my own. With all due respect to the rental department... it was horrible. It also looked pretty messed up having two completely different types of binding on one board; now I have been sent a replacement high back- even though it is black the my original was brown, it looks pretty sweet- they're sending me out a black one for my other binding as well so soon I may have a respectable looking deck to ride around on.

I ran into a few people I knew and we ended up being a group of about 6 people all riding together. It's so nice riding with other people in the park; they push you to try new things and I generally feel better on the jumps with a bit of pressure on. Mats had his video camera but I don't think he got any good footage; not exactly an expert cameraman; I have yet to check it out so maybe I'll get lucky. I am slowly starting to shake off the nightmarish fears stemming from my surgery last year and trying to do new and bigger things... As long as I get a couple of decent shots by the end of the season, I'll be happy.

The weather here at the moment has been fantastic. Nice covering of snow and warmish temperatures sets up a nice soft base to ride on while the lengthening days and blue skies make for great visibility and signs of a bit of colour in my cheeks. Nothing but a t-shirt and my jacket and I am still sweating. Before too long I will have to lose the jacket. This reminds me of the end of last season; everyone is smiling and playful and in a good mood.

As with all busy periods here in Geilo I am going to be slammed with work and sure to be out most of the week enjoying the crowds of tourists in town. Let's hope I survive the coming chaos.

The Day the Music Died

Who would have known Don McLean would have predicted the downfall of my speakers? One of the best purchases I have ever made in my life has finally put one foot in the grave as the sound starts to crackle out at higher volumes and the bass shows its age.We have been through a lot my old girl and I. I originally got her from eBay at a dirt cheap price of US$50. I was working at a summer camp in the US at the time and it was a beautiful sunny day when the package arrived. It's been over a year and a half since and she hasn't let me down. Amazingly good sound and amazingly compact. A perfect traveler's companion: she really came into her own recently when I finally got my hands on a cable to hook it up to my laptop. Suddenly I had a portable home theater and James the Wanderer hasn't been the same since.

We have been through our share of tough times. One fateful day in Seattle we were almost parted forever. Through a rushed packing job, hungover daze I left my beautiful mm50 all alone in a hostel locker as I headed to the airport on my way to Orlando, Florida. It wasn't until a few days later I realised the gross act of irresponsibility I had undertaken. Getting thrown out of camp for the indirect supply of alcohol to minors? Bah. Getting the sack in the last weeks of work for embezzlement? Pales in comparison to leaving my pearly princess all alone in the dark. It took some time to forgive myself.

I was in a panic. I made frantic phone calls in an effort to find out the fate of mm50 and after several night without sleep I managed to find her securely in the hands of the hostel reception. My extreme panic settled to mild heart palpitations from time to time as the silence began to take hold. It was a painful process riddled with financial blockades but I eventually worked out a deal with the hostel staff. I worked out that I would be in Montreal around the time my precious cargo should arrive and I awaited patiently...

Days went by and turned into weeks and still no news from my beloved. My sedated apprehension slowly returned with no news. As I began to pack my things and rang for a taxi to the airport my heart sunk and I had all but given up hope when the doorbell rang. The timing was incredible: My taxi was due to arrive within the hour and there she was. Her majestic ivory gleaming more brightly than the first day she had arrived on my doorstep. It was like falling in love all over again.

As I sit here and reminisce about our past together I begin to lament her imminent departure and I feel dirty as I search online for her replacement. I would like to say that you will forever hold a special place in my heart mm50, but I know that the dazzling spectacle of her succeeder: the Pure-Anywhere will quickly wash away the pain.

The day the music died. We were singing...
bye-bye, miss Logitech mm50... Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye And singin’, this’ll be the day that I die. this’ll be the day that I die.

Simmering Down...

...is not what is happening at all. It is officially dead here. Weeks 7 and 8 were pretty full on, booked solid all week with hardly a second to scratch myself. Now I have all the time in the world; giving me a lot of time to work on my skiing/riding and to start thinking about my next step. I went through the park with Roberto and his camera the other day and I must say I was very disappointed with myself. I need to grow a pair. Those terrible pictures have fired me up to practice as much as I can. Seems I still haven't gotten over the horror of my 'incident(s)' last season. Since then, I have been hitting the park as much as I can in preparation for the next photo shoot. My goal is to get a photo like this one that didn't need a helping hand from Photoshop.

I will be wrapping it up here in about 6 weeks. I have the option to head up to Sweden again and sit my ski instructor's certification but I don't know if I can afford it. I still haven't got my visa sorted out and so I am still not really sure how much I am getting paid. It should be sorted out in the next week or so. At any rate I am pretty set on heading back to Sweden for a while. It is so nice every once in a while when I hear someone speaking nice clear Swedish and I can understand what they're saying... not like these crazy Norwegians and their mumbling. Pontus gave a biomechanics clinic at work yesterday and I got at least 90% of what he said. Not being able to understand Norwegians gets to me sometimes...

My good friend Roberto has sadly left us to be closer to home. I am surprised he lasted this long away from his wife and newly born son actually. I am going to miss the crazy Peruvian... We had a nice heterosexual dinner at the local Chinese place the other night as a kind of send off. One of the best non-Mexican meals I have had in a long time...

Marek had a friend of his come to visit for a few days and sent him off with a 'P' party. Right in the middle of my white week I was not up to my usual partying standard but I still managed to get my costume on. Marek the pizza and James the Pervert. I am doing my best in a battle against the cold that is going around town at the moment. I have been putting up a strong fight but today I fear I may be loosing the battle... Wish me luck. Marek the pizza again along side Christina a.k.a. Pippy Longstockings