Still – I’m going to try and resurrect this with some posts over the next few weeks (as I’ve got nothing else planned apart from work), and in the meantime I shall leave this post with a photo from a recent trip to Scotland (click to go to the flickr set with the rest of the photos):

The time between being roped in and the trip coming round seemed to disappear, along with money on various things such as clothing, insurance and then hire and lessons for the week itself. We were going to Alpe D’Huez in France, apparently one of the better resorts for beginners such as myself (and most of our group) with plenty of green runs, but also with enough more difficult runs for the more experienced members of our group.

So it was on the morning of the 21st of February that a few of us met at London Bridge train station at the early time of 8am (which was especially early given my going out the night before…. whoops) such that we could head to Gatwick. Our flight wasn’t until noon though, so once we got there and checked in this left a few hours to kill. Still, the flight was fine and we even got a meal, which was unexpected given that the flight was only 90 minutes, before landing in Grenoble.

Once in Grenoble we walked to the shed (there’s no better description for it really) that is arrivals, and proceeded to wait about two hours for our bags to come off the plane, before we got on the bus for the two and a half hour drive up to the resort. This drive took us along part of the Tour de France route, which winds its way up to Alpe D’Huez via 21 hairpin corners, which was bad enough on the bus so I dread to think what it’d be like to cycle. Once at the top we got to our chalet, and went to collect our ski hire before some food and then grabbing some sleep ready for our first morning’s skiing.

The first morning started with a load of us attempting to find where the ESF (who we had our lessons booked with) met and therefore getting to our lessons. Once we’d managed this we were split into various groups, with the majority going off with one instructor and me and one other from our group joining another few others in the slightly lower group (or, as we termed ourselves “Team Special”). We spent the first day practicing our snow-plough so we could actually stop, and everyone fell over a couple of times (especially when they had us doing little hops). After a rather expensive pizza lunch we tried our hands at a few other slopes, one of which was clearly a bit too much for me as I ended up off piste and in a foot of snow (probably for the best given I had no control). A few games of pool filled the evening, with Matt and me taking the undefeated record for Warwick. Not that we wasted our time at uni in the bar playing pool. Honest.

Day two saw us learning how to turn during the lessons, and then having lunch at the top of the Marmottes 1 lift (2300m). Another valuable lesson was learnt here, a “large coke” is actually a litre, and cost 11€. I didn’t order one of those again. The afternoon was spent on slightly more sedate runs than the previous day, and was much more fun as I didn’t feel like I was completely out of control. That night a few of us ventured out on a bar crawl, and explored the old town a bit better with beer and shots in a number of different bars that lead to plenty of amusement and not so much sobriety.

The next few days saw us learning more control in the lessons, and slowly increasing our speed and the difficulty of the runs before finally on the Thursday afternoon I gave the blue run down from Marmottes 1 a go. This was great fun, and I only fell over twice right at the top. Sure it took us an hour to get down (compared to about half an hour for the others) but I was happy that I’d made it.

The last day skiing saw us collecting our certificates of completion of the lessons and then a nice relaxing afternoon skiing, including making it back to the chalet without having to walk in our boots – which was a great improvement on previous days. The evening started with a 5-course meal (including frog’s legs) and then continued with the anticipated drinking, including watching the France – Wales six nations game, various games and Jaegertrains, before we headed back to the chalet and got some sleep before returning to the UK.

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed the trip, and am hoping to be able to get another week in before my annual insurance policy runs out early next Feb!

Of course, these days snow can still prevent me from getting to where I need to be, as Monday’s mass-failure of the entire transport network in London showed (I think at one point there was a single tube line operating a normal service, with all buses being cancelled at that time). This means that as long as my internet connection is still functional I still have to work, through the wonders of modern technology. This is all well and good, but my working from home setup is severely sub-optimal compared to the office, mainly due to only having a single monitor and not having a proper desk phone with headset for long conference calls.

Fortunately I had Monday booked off anyway (so as to get some sleep after the Superbowl) and by the time I came to head to work on Tuesday the transport system wasn’t too broken. We’ve also seen no snow since (and hopefully won’t have a tonne fall overnight) so even the woefully prepared councils around here might be able to get away without doing anything and I should still be able to get into the office tomorrow.

Of course, snow isn’t always an irritation – I’m off skiing at the end of the month, where a lack of snow would be quite frustrating. However in the case where I’ve got other things to do (like work) it’s going to prove to be an annoyance.

Still, this post marks a year to the day that I started this blog… and the rate at which I’ve posted stuff has been erratic to say the least so the above should come as no surprise really.

Fortunately this wasn’t as bad as I was expecting as I was able to stretch out into the aisle a little and didn’t have to fold myself up too much. Additionally the small child that was seated a few rows in front of me was well behaved so I didn’t have to put up with a screaming kid all the way home, which was nice.

Now I have to get used to the little things in London again. Night buses instead of trains, using my oyster card rather than my metrocard (and not having to worry about topping it up manually) and the differences with the etiquette in bars with respect to tipping. I’m sure I’ll soon slip back into the usual ways though.

For now, however, it’s time to get on with the mass of unpacking and washing that I need to do before work starts again on Tuesday.

The last couple of weeks have flown by, and I’ve got up to a fair amount of stuff, including going to the previously mentioned NBA game between the New Jersey Nets and the San Antonio Spurs, which was good fun. I also went to an NHL game between the New Jersey Devils and the Tampa Bay Lightning, which was more fun as the crowd seemed to get into it more and while the basketball had a couple of moments of skill, the hockey game was far more entertaining overall (especially with there being a couple of fights).

Last weekend I also managed to finally do some sightseeing, taking a wander around Manhattan to  see a number of the landmarks – although I still haven’t done all of them, or any of the museums, and that’s not likely to change any time soon.

I’ve also fully experienced the problem of being a guy trying to go out in New York when a few of us were told it would be $700 for the 6 of us (3 guys and 3 girls) to go into the club… needless to say we declined and went elsewhere which was far cheaper and probably better.

Still, I suppose I best do some work and maybe head to the office as part of that.

The most noticeable differences that I’ve encountered so far have been when going out. It’s strange having to tip bar staff for every drink I buy (along with making drink prices rather expensive) and also the very strict male:female ratios that some places seem to enforce when letting people in (not a great thing when I’m here with work and work in IT with mostly other guys). This has only really been noticeable once so far, which was on Saturday when a few of us went to a comedy show (after being thrown out of a bar by the NYPD earlier in the night) and then went to find a bar for a couple of beers afterwards.

While this might seem negative there’s a load of positives. The transport system runs 24/7 and is pretty reliable too. This makes getting home from a night out at 4am both cheap and easy (especially living only a few hundred yards from the station). The snow also doesn’t seem to cause quite as much suffering as it does in the UK, with the infrastructure actually handling it without issue.

This weekend a few of us are heading to see the New Jersey Nets on Sunday, and possibly the New Jersey Devils on Friday so that should be good.

Of course, fitting this in with the training is a whole load of fun, as we’ve got early starts two days a week and a late night on one of the other days… in this case tomorrow when we have a C++ assessment. So with that in mind I’m having a rare night in watching some TV.

Yesterday started with the trip to Heathrow airport for the flight, which all started well but we soon discovered that we couldn’t check in easily as there’d been some mess up with thetickets or something. As a result 2 people got free upgrades from economy to premium economy, and through the use of the names-out-of-a-hat technique I was lucky enough to get this.

The next seven hours were spent sat on the plane, mainly watching films on Virgin’s in flight entertainment system – which is pretty good (with the exception of the slow interface).

Upon landing there was the fun with customs, where we got directed down to the side that’s supposed to be for US citizens only, which didn’t go down too well with the officer there – who said (whilst stamping the passports) “welcome to the United States – try not to have too much fun”. Baggage was then collected and a cab taken to the apartment here.

The place itself is very nice, although the view isn’t too great from the 10th floor where I am as there’s a lot of high rise buildings around here that block the view of the Manhattan skyline.

A few of us then went for a wander, got wet in the rain, and eventually ended up in a bar and grill not far from here. As my first taste of a proper American place it wasn’t too bad, and the prices were pretty similar to those in the UK… only in dollars not pounds… so it was rather cheap.

Today will see some more exploration, as all of the grads are here now and we’ve got all day before the 8am start tomorrow morning.

Of course, time does seem to speed up at certain times more than others, weekends are a prime example of this. I swear I only just got out of bed today, and I know that no sooner will I get up tomorrow than it be time to get a decent night’s sleep before Monday’s work.  (And no, it’s not because I’m sleeping all day)

Ah well, just another fact of life I suppose.