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.