Snowy German Trails

I'll refrain from clogging this place with ALL my biking rubbish, but it was just SO nice out there today, I couldn't resist just this once.





More photos here

Snow arrives in the Alps

A rapid Ryanair jaunt to Turin, a blitz across to France in a Multipla, and 5 days in Serre Chevallier the jewel in the crown of the southern Alps. This was an unexpected revisit to an overnight refuelling stop on Sapaudian and Banksy's 17 day epic GR5 transalpine crossing of 2002, - the town of Briancon.
We were infact just up the valley in Villeneuve courtesy of Monsieur Michel in his lovely 1960s French appartment.
My lucky coin, that I now carry at all times in my wallet, allowed us to be pretty much the only people to successfully depart from Stansted, we left the rest behind in an unbearable 3 hour queue to claim their refunds on cancelled flights due to high winds.
However, the forces of nature dealt us a mixed bag on the weather front. From 120km/h winds (some of the unsavoury sort in the appartment), mediteranean temperatures, slush, ice, and finally on the last day what we had all been waiting for, 50 cm of the good stuff!

The last day was phenominal!



A nice little appetiser for Canada in 5 days,- Main course and a sumptuous dessert will be served in Fernie. Ciao for now ..

Hi

Nice start guys.

Interesting thoughts Matt - put the measures in place.
Here's a photo from this weekend just gone in Haute Savoie: a bit of evening alpenglow on the Dru (west face climbed by Smith Senior ca. 1994) and Aiguille Vert. The Chamonix valley is one of quite a number of nice places.



I'll try and think of something a bit more interesting to say next time.

Perspective

".....It takes a few little things to put a lot of big things in perspective. And one big thing to put everything in perspective....."

I have lost count this week how many times i've nearly been taken out my 18tonnes of metal being driven by a suicidal maniac. The pure stupidity and mind-boggling ignorance you see on the roads each day astonishes me. Before 10 months ago, I would say i drove a lot, weekends in Wales / Sheffield / Lakes etc not counting the odd trip to France. That was until I decided a 90 mile commute each day taking in the QE2 bridge and Dartford tunnel was a good idea.

90 miles a day, 450 miles a week, a staggering 23,400 miles a year. My carbon footprint must be laughable.

Why do I do this you ask? Good question, well the job is excellent as well as the benefits being good - company car, petrol and tolls paid for and for each hour i sit in the car i get paid for. So when i'm sitting on the M25, listening to Essex FM for the latest traffic report and hearing that the reason i've been sitting stationary for the last 2 hours is because some "suicidal maniac" decided the luxury yacht on the back of his wagon would fit inside Dartford tunnel, the saving grace is i know that the meter is running and i'm being paid. If it wasn't for this i'm sure I would either have quit a long time ago or be in the nearest maximum security mental hospital.

When you have the time and focus to think about work-life balance, you start to understand exactly what that term means. If someone told me a year ago they commuted 90 miles a day over Dartford I would have laughed out loud, called them a stupid **** and then felt mildly sorry for them. However I am glad i have done it, otherwise i don't think i'd fully understand the true meaning of a perfect work-life balance. Now I can put the measures into place to rectify the situation.

Is there any meaning to this rant, well probably not, but I was sitting there in the car this morning watching 0.005mm of snow turn the entire population of drivers into idiots thinking, god i feel sorry for myself, i'm tired, its cold outside, got a load of work to do blah blah blah, whinge, whinge, moan, when my phone rings, and i learn that one of my very best friends has just found out his dad has a brain tumour.

And that, my friends, is when you stop, think, think again, and then realise that everything you have been moaning about to yourself is completly and utterly insignificant. It takes one big thing to put everything in perspective.

Bring on Fernie!

Oh and a pic of me with my Helmet!!!!

Severe Weather Warning

Its snowing in the south of England, I take Nadia to work and the traffic is worse than ever. Severe Weather warning!!

Take a look from outside my window, its a blizzard, looks like the Arctic or Fernie

The commercial weekend

A very commercial weekend. I bought some jeans, trying to find some jeans that are so skinny that i can them over my skees and somewhere near my waaist. i was going to get them in red but then if i go the US i would be accused of being metrosexual. so i bought a pink and grey sweater and a cashmere jumepr with gieft vouchers. Then some CDs.

I was super stoked and feeding off myself when I got my Seths back, with the bases redone and repaired after my trip to Cham. loving it.

BUT i got something useful! The mountain leader guide book and the guide to British weather. which I am loving after arguing with someone over the weather forecast and I got my baromoeter sorted. what a GIBBON i am

And i got a powerball http://www.powerballs.com/ which i can not use yet. too weak.
www.powerballs.com

right. so my challenge for this week is to be allowed to go to Canada next week on holiday. i need some powder fix as this season has been pretty sh1t so far. and i am wathcing Ski Porn to make up for it. and anyway my company are letting go of 3500 people..... so.. mne and bleh

riding this weekend was great too. in swinley. freeride mecca of Wokngham district. it rooled, as did i cos i am ace.

7

Work

is sh1t...

Yeah the wind

Its great! Trees down all over the place. The bird was told to leave the office as 2 windows blew in and broke and the metal facade vlew off. WOODEN. I left work and trees down. Just hoping the tree in our car park does not fall through the roof. At least I am not flying anywhere but dont want it to unlucky my riding this weekend. Or shopping in LANDAN. Work was good having to deal with the people with slopey shoulders and finger pointing. may do some sit ups tonight....

2007: the year of becoming a beast.

Windyville........

........ not cause I ate too much curry last night! 80 mph winds, our little river has just broken its banks, our garden fence has been blown down. Half the roads in eesex seem to be closed due to overturned and jack-knifed lorries, and we are flying to France in 2 hours. Oh Good. I'll be packing several clean pairs of undies!

Music for 2007

If you are searching for some uplifting beats for the ipod in 007, then look no further than the podcasts from DJ phil, funky house London Style..... Proper feel good music, ideal for pumpin' iron or beastin' oneself!

http://funkylondon.podomatic.com/

The US of Aieeee

Good idea Banxi....!!!

My life from the last 6 months in 06 was a lot of travel to and from Chicago and so it seems to continue. Spent New Year in Geneva and saw the New Year in watching a spectacular fight. Jan 3rd I arrive home in Berkshire, take the skis to Snow and Rock for repair then work until 10pm. Unpack my bags, re pack my bags, go to Heathrow on the 4th. Now, my life is sad... i am a silver Exec club member with BA, Platinum something with AA and Exec Plat with UA. I fly business class minimum and First trans atlantic. I hold the highest ranking card with Sheraton so i get a suite for a family of 4 and free breakfast. I know the waitress at Chez Gerard in T3 at Heathrow and the films they show on each leg of the journey. I get to the US, i even recognise the immigration officials. I know the staff at the hotel, Renee who takes my room service order and Jose who delivers it. The gay dude on reception i am not sure of... I can tell you the different parts of an I-94W card too. I have travelled to the US something like 8-10 times and spent about 16 weeks there at least. I get to go to Moscow and Singapore and Germany. when i go in 2 weeks time i will get 2 free flights to Europe. Fortunately I love Chicago



So, it is pretty much what i set out wanting in life... comfortable lifestyle and money. I guess things have changed, I would still like the money and the travel and the opportunity to speak to loads of people. I love that and I love the challenges in my job. No day is the same, i speak and meet with people all over the world. I dont work 9-5, i work the hours i want. So my work normally i love, maybe right now its not. just one of those times in life. May go work for a charity or set up my own company.



Something is missing, not sure what yet! Maybe putting money in some other persons pocket is not what I want. I would like to ski or ride more. And be less self concious about my work.



I want to go to Canada on Jan 31 and do the thing i really love. SKI. I want 2007 to be my year of change. RIDE. Move abroad.

2007 Year of the Lad - The number seven and Luck

2007 Brings together certain unusual obsessions. Since early university days an obsessive use of the number 7 has been evident. The number 7 is seen in many cultures as having unique lucky properties.
As a good friend Alex Seelig pointed out, this year should be duped the chinese year of "the lad"! After all we will have to wait another 1000 years until another 007 year comes around! So I guess we should all make the most of it!
It will certainly be a good year for 007 himself after the brilliant Casino Royal that was released last month. The opening scenes involving the pioneer of the street movement parkour were truly breath taking.
Following on from the cinematic theme, today we saw in pursuit of happyness starring Will Smith and his real life son as his son. There were many things in this film which certainly hit me, and I can draw a few parallels to my own life through this well told tale.

Never let anyone tell you that something is not possible, not even me! If you have a dream then you do every thing in your power to realise this dream is the basic message behind the film.
Will Smith in the film is a very intelligent character who finds himself in horrendous financial mess trying to bring up his son after a break in his relationship. Through good fortune and determination he manages to land an intership with a stock brokers.
A fear that he talks about is that excelling at school gives you possibilities, and people start talking about all the things you can possibly become. However the danger is that you spend too much time thinking about what you could become and don't actually become anything!
I have to say this is a big fear of mine............ I have the potential to be alot of things with focus , motivation and determination.
Hopefully this year will breed success and initiate the momentum for future success.
The reason I mention the film is due to the fact that it has inherently motivated me, for one this blog is as a direct result of the highly motivated mindset I currently find myself in.

I feel that writing a little piece about an event or thought, serves as a very powerful tool for analysis that can then be used in an effective way.

Anyway after some frantic typing my hands are starting to cramp.

Year 2007 Year of the Lad, lets make it a huge one!

Everyone should list 3 things they want to achieve in 2007 and "scale" some new heights!

Serre Chevalier on Thursday for some skiing - bring it on!