Some Things Never Change

As much as I might change in some ways; the old James always comes out here and there. So I am well behaved, work a lot, eat healthy, study during the week and a lot of the weekend and generally lead a healthy, responsible life.

This doesn't mean that I am physically able to say no to going out for a 'quiet beer' and have it end up being a big night out where I inevitably run into Mr. Jagermeister. One of the other trainers at work asked me out for a few beers at the local and what started out as a few games of pool over a couple of jugs turned into a big pissy night with stupid dancing and pulling stupid faces in front of the camera. Sweet.

I got myself a new house-mate this week. After putting a couple of ads online I got about 50-60 calls/texts/emails about the room. Seems like the market is pretty tight right now. I narrowed it down to two girls and a guy and to help me make the final decision I got all three of them down to the Arcadia on Saturday night for a few drinks. Best idea I ever had. I was leaning more towards one of the girls but after a few drinks and a bit of normal conversation Ben stood out miles ahead of the rest. A 25 year old legal accountant from New Zealand and his two beautiful leather couches moved in on Thursday and so far so good. Seems like he keeps similar hours to me, has some study to do that'll keep me motivated to get mine done and is pretty keen on his training.


Last month I moved over to the role of a sales consultant with the temptation of commission being dangled under my nose. My first few weeks went really well and I hit my sales target and landed myself a tidy little bonus for the month. This month has been rough. It's one of those 'in between' months and with all the promotions we've been offering of late, it's been hard to find potential members. Looks like I have fallen shy of my target for this month. Not so sweet.

I have started taking on clients at work and I'm loving it. Still doing sales for the time being until I am fully qualified (still 6-8weeks away), the extra hours and experience certainly keep things interesting. Personal Training is a job you can have a bit of fun with provided you have the right clients. So far I have a couple of really cool people to train and because I am not relying on it as my source of income; I can be a bit picky about who I decide to train.

Practicing what I preach is a pretty important aspect of PT for me at this stage. Hopefully I won't fall behind like some trainers who eat crap and hardly work out at all. While so far I am taking my training seriously and being mindful of my diet, when I do go out I am still drinking a lot of beer and grabbing people and lifting them up when there is a camera around.

But hey, some things will never change.

Things sometime take a turn for the... unexpected?

I put it off for a while and realised the stupidity of the whole situation. I was going to be taking a risk with my knee that is still not 100% from my latest injury, the season was looking pretty average no matter how it turned out and I had a bit of debt racked up so I thought... the hell with the snow. I'm going to get a job.

And so that's what I did.

I landed myself a tidy little apartment with a super-sweet catch basically meaning I pay way less than I should for way more than I should be able to afford. Sweet. And as you can see; Melbourne in winter? Not as bad as everyone says.

I got myself a job so quickly I am sure I set some sort of record. I sent off an email; 30 mins later I had a phone call; 16hours later I had an interview and 24 hours later I started work. Wham. I am working in administration for Australia's second largest chain of fitness centres; Genesis. I am also studying for my certificate 4 in fitness part-time which will qualify me as a fitness instructor and personal trainer; I thought it would tie-in nicely with my snowsports qualifications in preparation for future non-shitty non-Australian seasons. Not that Hotham are going to be hiring me again any time soon. They weren't too pleased when they got my 'I'm not coming' phone call. But hey. That's what you get for telling me to sit tight and suck it up for two weeks.

I have slowly been getting myself settled in, catching up with the masses of Perth people who have made the exodus to the east coast: Oli, Monque, Simon, Miles, Miranda and I have recently heard from Mark Nevin as well. There are a lot of us here.

Genesis had their 11th birthday party on Friday night and things got surprisingly wild. Free drinks were flowing all over the place which made for an interesting cocktail of people. I even ran into one of my roommates from Whistler who was a friend of a boyfriend of someone at work. Small world eh?

Saturday was quite possibly the strangest, most surreal night of my life. If I am not open-minded I don't know who is. We'll leave it at that.

So as it comes up on one month in Melbourne things certainly didn't turn out quite the way I had expected. Welcome to James the Wanderer.

In Limbo

So there is still no snow. Awesome. I must say I didn't expect to be held up in a hostel in Melbourne.

So what does one do in this situation? Why go on a massive bender of course, what else? I have been partying it up with my dorm-mate Paul from Seattle. Actually it's probably now a good thing that he's gone: I'd venture a guess that we were a bad influence on each other in one way or another.

So as I wait around for the snow to come I am keeping other options open; I might even find myself staying in the city and getting a... wait for it... normal job? Pretty unlikely that I will actually do that as it feels a little dumb to walk away from snowboarding but cash is soon going to be an issue.



In the meantime I am closely watching the weather and it's finally getting colder. Not much snow falling just yet but as long as it gets cold then at least they can fire up the snowmakers

Oh by the way...

I suppose, considering this is a travel blog and not just a space for me to vent when I am feeling particularly preachy, I should do some travel-blogging instead of being Al Gore's smallest fan.

I am still in Melbourne and looks like I am here a little longer than expected. My first staff meeting has been pushed back indefinitely due to lack of snow.

If you will take a look at the date on this webcam image you might notice that is today. Not exactly looking like ideal conditions for snowboarding is it?

So for now I am setting up at a hostel in the city and waiting until it gets cold. Awesome.

You know what really grinds my gears? (WARNING: Preachy Rant)

People.

Quite simply put: people never cease to amaze me with their utter stupidity. In between my wanderings I somehow manage to find a little bit of time to spend on Facebook. Shocking; I know.

During that time I have come across a couple of groups of Facebook that say something along the lines of "15,000,000 for lower gas prices" or "Amazing new way to lower gas prices!". I try to ignore a lot of the crap that goes around on facebook because otherwise I will have discovered a new way to rot my brain (I have enough of those thanks...) but it seems that more and more of my 'friends' are joining these groups and as such, showing up in my mini-feed.

When I first see these things I instantly think: pffft... like anyone is stupid enough to think that a facebook group can make a difference, let alone 15 million of them! But seeing this more and more often has driven me to click on the link and see what's going on. OVER 1.3 MILLION MEMBERS!?Utter insanity. OK. So there are a lot of stupid people out there. But this is only the beginning. If you type in "gas prices" in facebook's search bar you get 500+ groups showing up (Facebook searches max out at 500 by the way) many of which have in excess of 100,000 members.

So what is inside these groups? Nothing. Perhaps something like: "description: If you think gas prices are too high Click on "Invite People to Join" from the menu on the right."

Really?! I didn't realise that was all there was to it. So if 15,000,000 people join this group oil companies are going to have this sudden epiphany: "Oh.... I get it now. People don't want to pay so much for oil products. I had no idea. Quick Bob, turn off the giant crude oil geyser that we use as a reading light on the oil rig at night!"

So while this is the largest group I came across I must admit that not all groups take such a simplistic approach. Some of them have an idea!

We need to take some intelligent, united action. (this is my favorite part)

How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying gas. (this is my second favorite part)

But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war.

Here's the idea:
For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL.

Try to buy from like Kangaroo, BP, Phillip's 66, Chevron, Shell, or Q-Gas.

If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.

Genius! In fact that is so intelligent I don't know why people even taking economic classes at university. They should just hang out with THIS GUY!

Because really that is the problem. Petrol stations are simply over charging consumers. They are getting away with it and it's getting worse and worse. It has nothing at all to do with suppliers, increased transport costs, conflict over supply areas, increased labour costs, inflation, inceased market demand and ultimately the cost of crude oil.Sarcasm aside for the moment there is really only ONE thing that consumers can do about the price of petrol. Buy less.

I know it's a complicated notion to get around but I will try to make it simple. My very out-there theory is based on two principles.

1) If you buy less, you spend less and therefore you will have more money.

2) If people buy less generally then this will positively affect the supply:demand ratio and drive the price of oil down right up the chain of supply.

Sure it's a tough concept to grasp. Deal with it.

Here we go again...

A 5 week stopover in Perth: About 15 trips to the beach... in Winter! Ah that is really why I came home. I missed the sun and the sand. Not many places in the world where you can do that in Winter. It was good to catch up with everyone after all this time. People have wives, dogs, houses and... children!?

A few random nights out remind me that Perth is actually not all that bad. Some quiet days reminded me that it is a really small town with small people and small things to do.

And here I am back on the road again. Staying with Oli and Monique again; much as I did a little over two years ago. This time however I won't be going too far away; Hotham is a mere 5 hours away by bus..

I want everyone who reads this to send me positive, knee-mending vibes as the chances of me coming home early with reinjured tibia fractures are scarily high...

End of the Journey

We finished things up in Are nicely. Clinton and I both passed our exam quite comfortably and proceeded to part ways. He's headed off to Greece with his girlfriend as I jump on a painfully long train journey down to Stockholm. 2 Weeks in Stockholm consisting largely of going to the park for a few drinks with the Hard Rock crew. I shacked up at Valeria's place with my own room: Something I have never had in all my time in Sweden.

It was good to see everyone in Stockholm again. 6 months had passed and very little had changed. About the biggest difference I could see was that Jason was now fitting comfortably into his role as manager and they had added Brisket to the menu. Wow.

A couple of short weeks later I jumped on a plane to London- it was a bit of a near miss as my flight was canceled and the replacement almost didn't match up with my connecting flight. It all turned out in the end and I managed to meet up with Ben who had come out to Heathrow for dinner and drinks. Good of him to make the effort as I wasn't going to have time or the money to make my usual week or two pass through London city.

And here I am. Back in Perth after 2 years and here I will stay for 6 weeks before making the trip over east for the season in Hotham. It's good to be back.

I made a run for it

Once again a long gap between posts; paticularly taking into consideration the events of late.

Last news from me entailed pappa's visit, some crazy good snow conditions and a ski induced, repeat knee injury. The same knee I injured about 14 months ago. Though thankfully it's not the same type of injury. A bit of ambiguity remains as to the severity of my situation: I was walking more or less normally in less than a week, so that is a very good sign. I have since been down to Oslo to have an MRI but it will be a while before I am in one place long enough to have the images examined.

As I was heading down to Oslo anyways, Clinton and I headed out on the town to see the sights. One very random night got us an invite to the Backstreet boys who were playing the following evening. At the time we thought it was a brilliant idea but in the light of day our sober/hungover states helped us weigh up the steep costs against the novelty value of the whole thing.

One very long day later saw us make it up to Åre, in the north of Sweden. 12 Hours is a long time to be on a couple of trains but it wasn't too bad really. We've come up here to do the level 1 Swedish ski instructor's certification. Concern over the condition of my knee prevents me from taking part in the pratical component but I am still able to attend lectures and sit the written examination at the end of the week. I am quite happy to just chill out while Clinton seems to be wearing himself out quite quickly with long days of skiing. Sitting in lectures he struggles to keep his eyes open a lot fo the time.

It's nice to be back in Sweden; I can actually understand people again. My whole time in Norway I was very resistant to learning the language out of fear of bastardising my Swedish. I seem to have more or less succeeded in keeping things relatively stable.

So far I love it here in Åre. It has everything that Geilo was lacking. That town was a little too quiet for me- a few bed-bound weeks made me realise that more than ever. I am making enquiries into working here next season. With a bit of ski instructor's experience under my belt I should have a much better shot than last time.

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.