I had a little complaint from Lukey D that he hadn’t heard much from my blog recently so… although there hasn’t been any major developments, here is an update and some pics. The bar that gives gingers a free bar tab on Wednesdays, also gives bar tabs to people with moustaches on Mondays. So I’ve been grooming my stache, trying out a few styles. Combined with my head of curly ginger hair, it looks truly hideous. My style on the slopes hasn’t improved either, as I ripped a hole in my blue board pants. Leaving me with the purple pair of womens ski bottoms that Ash kindly left behind. There hasn’t been much partying of late as everyone is a bit on the poor side. I spent nearly all of my drink budget fixing my board after I smashed it off a rail. The rest was spent fixing Kenny’s after I borrowed it for one day and managed to hit every snow covered rock on the mountain. On the same day I managed to break my head phones, rip my gloves and pants, and discovered a hole in my jacket. My plan of buying second hand gear has well and truly backfired, and I now look like a bum. On the plus side, there has been a good group of us riding every day and we did get to see another competition, the Red Bull Rail Jam. We have taken in a little night skiing at Coronet Peak and there has been some fun stuff going on at The Remarkables. The demo days allowed us to try out some new gear, there was a retro day for The Remarks birthday, and we have seen the odd bit charity on the mountain. The boarding had been coming on well too. The nose and tail have been secured in my arsenal of grabs, and the biggest jumps on the park have been safely navigated. The rails weren’t proving too much of a problem and on the odd day of snow, we were letting loose off-piste. Everything was going well until my ninth day in a row, when fatigue set in. I meandered up to a rail, tried lazily to hop on, slipped off and busted my knee on a supporting pole. I know it doesn’t look like much on the photo, but it kept me out for whole week. A week where I missed Kenny’s first 180, Chirsti’s 90 board slide, and Solli’s first grab. I was gutted to me missing out, and I imagine it is a very similar feeling to missing your baby’s first steps. Thankfully I was back in action today! Just in time for some fresh powder tomorrow… hopefully. Today was a bit of a whiteout though. The weather was so bad I even tried skiing for the first time. Claire tried to tell me some basic techniques, but to quote myself: “don’t think I need any lessons…” Off I went. And was taken back by home much fun two planks could be! So enthused was I that a plan was hatched to edge my self halfway down a black run tomorrow. Halfway should be past the rocks and cliffs. In theory I should be able to straight-line the second half of the run without too much danger. Tips down!