Tinges
Back to work today, but my 11 days off have been the longest I've had since I started my proper working life nearly 4 years ago, and I feel refreshed and raring to go! Except I don't and I can't really be bothered to do anything - which is good because I've not got much to do anyway.
My holidays started off on Wednesday 28th June which was the night of Annan cornet's ball, I washed my neck, got a haircut and squeezed my belly out as far as it would go to fit into my Dad's kilt (I really need to get my own) to look good as I knew Stacey had been getting her hair done, had a nice ball frock and looked very pretty.
The night was good, we ate at the Bruce, I drank lots of wine, danced a lot and got home about 6 in the morning and ate super noodles for breakfast. Way better than last year.
After lazing about on Thursday we (me, and 14 others) headed off to Tinges in the French Alps for a spot of snowboarding, it was Pauli's stag-do so instead of spending a weekend getting drunk, he decided to spend a long weekend snowboarding and getting drunk. We flew from Newcastle to Geneva then got transferred to the French Alps by some crazy drivers on a 4 hour journey, it was hot. After unpacking we headed to the Alpaka (http://www.alpaka.com/) for a few beers and to watch the football, thanks to big Tony who runs the place for the honey vodkas and for being a great bar man! We didn't stay out too late but a few of us were pretty wrecked come closing time which meant a rough start the next day.
The slopes were open from 7 til 1 which meant we were up just after 7 each day for breakfast, we all stayed in the same chalet and woody was our chef, he made nice scrambled eggs (I think that's what they were).
I had my first ever shot on the slopes that day with 4 others, James (who rented us the chalet) took us up for lessons and surprisingly I picked it up pretty easy, by the end of the day I was doing red runs but still falling a lot.
Everyone's arse was rotten by this point, high altitude = smelly farts.
Apres-snow we had lunch, a snooze then went out for the football, what the locals thought of 15 Scotsmen sitting in the prime viewing spot for their big tv I don't exactly know. I think everyone knows the scripts now, England play poorly and get knocked out of the world cup on penalties, Drunken Scotsmen cheer, Ronaldo gets treated like Hitler and Beckham cries again.
Sunday was spent hungover, Shaun still didn't know who his roommates were, we were boarding in the morning (injury number 1, I fall and my elbow gets pushed into my ribs, thankfully nothing was broken but it bloody hurt!) We did some walking in the afternoon and at tea-time we had a game of football, France trained here a couple of months ago for the World Cup and I can see why, the air at that altitude kills you when doing cardio, thankfully my rib got sore and I ended up in goals, but picking the ball out of the net so many times is still tiring!) We all went out for a meal at night, the steak was nice but the service was shit. Most of the boys then went back to the chalet for a game of cards and a quiet night in, but the party animals (like me) went back to the pub, there was some guy with a guitar singing and lot's of Edinburgh Uni Students, so we sat in the corner ignoring them getting drunk.
Monday on the slopes was the best day, I'd been mastering one of the red runs and was getting good at it until I injured the ribs again (did the same thing as I did the day before) but unfazed I decided to go with Lee to the top of the Glacier (the picture of me with my hands in the air was taken at the top - 3500m above the sea) and board down that - it was fun, about half an hour of non-stop runs, I managed to fall over trying to link in a turn at quite high speed and my left arm is still sore now, after that we decided to call it a day and return our gear to the hire shop, 45 for 3 days (boots, bindings and board) was very reasonable.
After getting back to the chalet a few of the boys went out on a bike run, up the gondola then back down the hill, Shaun went up and down twice, and had 2 beers and a spliff in-between (the crazy Canadian) 3 of the others weren't so lucky, whilst Shaun and Boggers made it down ok, the others took a wring turn and headed down Val D'Isere which would have added an extra 20Km onto the journey, but on the way one of the guys had a fall and ended up in une ambulance, a broken collar bone (in 4 places) was the damage.
Whilst this was happening, me Dixie and Scott had taken the gondola up the mountains to look over Val D'Isere, it was stunning scenery and Dixie was showing us where the runs are in the winter (only the Glacier where we were boarding had lots of snow on it, further down there was the odd patch) which means I need to go back as it'll be amazing in the winter. At this point a huge thunderstorm broke out in the hills opposite us, the lightning was superb but we figured it would be wise to get off the hill before it came across our way) when we reached the bottom and got back to the lake where we were staying, it had started to piss down, followed by hailstones, we just gave up trying to stay dry and legged it to the chalet where we watched the storm from the patio, it was really cool.
During the storm a few of the lads decided to run to the pub, we waited a while longer for Stuart to get back from hospital so we could hear how the French nurses looked. The rain then stopped, we went to the pub, Pauli got very drunk, we sang stone roses songs, got asked to leave one pub, and I celebrated the early hours of my Birthday with cocktails and Tequila slammers. We got back to the chalet and someone had trashed the place, there was sick on a duvet and I went straight to bed.
Tuesday was my birthday (26!) so I went for a long walk round Tignes, saw some Valleys and some stunning scenery. Then we packed up and waited for the Airport transfers to come get us, they were an hour late but we managed to make it back the Geneva in time, on the way there we passed a lovely lake, it was massive (miles and miles long), the sun was beating down but we didn't have time to stop for a swim :( we made it to the Airport but there was nowhere to watch the semi-final, Geneva Airport ranks up there with Beuvais in the Si Galbraith list useful airports. Fucking awful and the rudest staff I've met.
We got home about 1am Wednesday morning, the do was ace and I got bit by the Snowboarding bug.
My holidays started off on Wednesday 28th June which was the night of Annan cornet's ball, I washed my neck, got a haircut and squeezed my belly out as far as it would go to fit into my Dad's kilt (I really need to get my own) to look good as I knew Stacey had been getting her hair done, had a nice ball frock and looked very pretty.
The night was good, we ate at the Bruce, I drank lots of wine, danced a lot and got home about 6 in the morning and ate super noodles for breakfast. Way better than last year.
After lazing about on Thursday we (me, and 14 others) headed off to Tinges in the French Alps for a spot of snowboarding, it was Pauli's stag-do so instead of spending a weekend getting drunk, he decided to spend a long weekend snowboarding and getting drunk. We flew from Newcastle to Geneva then got transferred to the French Alps by some crazy drivers on a 4 hour journey, it was hot. After unpacking we headed to the Alpaka (http://www.alpaka.com/) for a few beers and to watch the football, thanks to big Tony who runs the place for the honey vodkas and for being a great bar man! We didn't stay out too late but a few of us were pretty wrecked come closing time which meant a rough start the next day.
The slopes were open from 7 til 1 which meant we were up just after 7 each day for breakfast, we all stayed in the same chalet and woody was our chef, he made nice scrambled eggs (I think that's what they were).
I had my first ever shot on the slopes that day with 4 others, James (who rented us the chalet) took us up for lessons and surprisingly I picked it up pretty easy, by the end of the day I was doing red runs but still falling a lot.
Everyone's arse was rotten by this point, high altitude = smelly farts.
Apres-snow we had lunch, a snooze then went out for the football, what the locals thought of 15 Scotsmen sitting in the prime viewing spot for their big tv I don't exactly know. I think everyone knows the scripts now, England play poorly and get knocked out of the world cup on penalties, Drunken Scotsmen cheer, Ronaldo gets treated like Hitler and Beckham cries again.
Sunday was spent hungover, Shaun still didn't know who his roommates were, we were boarding in the morning (injury number 1, I fall and my elbow gets pushed into my ribs, thankfully nothing was broken but it bloody hurt!) We did some walking in the afternoon and at tea-time we had a game of football, France trained here a couple of months ago for the World Cup and I can see why, the air at that altitude kills you when doing cardio, thankfully my rib got sore and I ended up in goals, but picking the ball out of the net so many times is still tiring!) We all went out for a meal at night, the steak was nice but the service was shit. Most of the boys then went back to the chalet for a game of cards and a quiet night in, but the party animals (like me) went back to the pub, there was some guy with a guitar singing and lot's of Edinburgh Uni Students, so we sat in the corner ignoring them getting drunk.
Monday on the slopes was the best day, I'd been mastering one of the red runs and was getting good at it until I injured the ribs again (did the same thing as I did the day before) but unfazed I decided to go with Lee to the top of the Glacier (the picture of me with my hands in the air was taken at the top - 3500m above the sea) and board down that - it was fun, about half an hour of non-stop runs, I managed to fall over trying to link in a turn at quite high speed and my left arm is still sore now, after that we decided to call it a day and return our gear to the hire shop, 45 for 3 days (boots, bindings and board) was very reasonable.
After getting back to the chalet a few of the boys went out on a bike run, up the gondola then back down the hill, Shaun went up and down twice, and had 2 beers and a spliff in-between (the crazy Canadian) 3 of the others weren't so lucky, whilst Shaun and Boggers made it down ok, the others took a wring turn and headed down Val D'Isere which would have added an extra 20Km onto the journey, but on the way one of the guys had a fall and ended up in une ambulance, a broken collar bone (in 4 places) was the damage.
Whilst this was happening, me Dixie and Scott had taken the gondola up the mountains to look over Val D'Isere, it was stunning scenery and Dixie was showing us where the runs are in the winter (only the Glacier where we were boarding had lots of snow on it, further down there was the odd patch) which means I need to go back as it'll be amazing in the winter. At this point a huge thunderstorm broke out in the hills opposite us, the lightning was superb but we figured it would be wise to get off the hill before it came across our way) when we reached the bottom and got back to the lake where we were staying, it had started to piss down, followed by hailstones, we just gave up trying to stay dry and legged it to the chalet where we watched the storm from the patio, it was really cool.
During the storm a few of the lads decided to run to the pub, we waited a while longer for Stuart to get back from hospital so we could hear how the French nurses looked. The rain then stopped, we went to the pub, Pauli got very drunk, we sang stone roses songs, got asked to leave one pub, and I celebrated the early hours of my Birthday with cocktails and Tequila slammers. We got back to the chalet and someone had trashed the place, there was sick on a duvet and I went straight to bed.
Tuesday was my birthday (26!) so I went for a long walk round Tignes, saw some Valleys and some stunning scenery. Then we packed up and waited for the Airport transfers to come get us, they were an hour late but we managed to make it back the Geneva in time, on the way there we passed a lovely lake, it was massive (miles and miles long), the sun was beating down but we didn't have time to stop for a swim :( we made it to the Airport but there was nowhere to watch the semi-final, Geneva Airport ranks up there with Beuvais in the Si Galbraith list useful airports. Fucking awful and the rudest staff I've met.
We got home about 1am Wednesday morning, the do was ace and I got bit by the Snowboarding bug.