The Final Count Down

With 1 week to go it’s looking likely that this will be our 1^st & last year as a seasonair.  There is so much good out here, as I have been banging on about for the past 5 months, but there is also a lot of bad.  It comes down to how much you enjoy the actual snow.  For me, I love it.  I love getting up the hill & challenging myself on the hardest runs in difficult conditions.  But in order to do it again next year I would have to work 6 days a week getting up at 5:30am & not finishing till 11 or 12 pm (granted there would be a substantial break in the middle of the day for boarding) during that time I would have to be cleaning others peoples shit, driving the little shits around, taking them out on to the mountain & putting up with there shit & dealing with all the shit that France throws at you, which is a fuck load.  I would get paid barely any money & it certainly wouldn’t help me in my future return to real life.  I love boarding, but do I love it that much?  Next year we’ll be out here but joining the ranks of tourists again.  As I sit here typing this over looking the amazing view of the Solaise & Bellvarde Mountains it does make me a bit sad, but (& it’s a big but) the truth is I would never get this view again without spending £320,000, instead we’d be in a tiny little bedroom covered in pine overlooking a car park with some brat of a child stomping its foot demanding Frosties for breakfast from its ignorant over indulging English parents who would be staying in our Chalet.

So what to do in the last week?  The snow is poor & getting worse.  I have forced myself out there a couple of times but its borderline torture.  The snow is bad here but there is still snow, the other surrounding resorts (including Plagne, Les Arcs & La Rosiere) are all but shut.  This means all the punters from those resorts end up here making it incredibly busy on top of the tricky conditions.  I just didn’t have the heart to stand in big queues to get to the top of a muddy slushy run, so I gave up after about 2 hours.  To get down though (I still refuse to get the cable car) I came down the black run of which I’ve mentioned before, the Face.  Its tough in good conditions but it was an ever-changing mix of ice, rocks, grass, slush & massive mounds of a combination of the lot.  I can safely say it was the hardest run I’ve ever had to do.  I got down it though without a single fall but my legs were on fire by the time I was drinking my celebratory beer at the bottom.

Without the snow the only thing left to do is drink.  Life is still good.

With the return to England on the horizon I’ve been thinking of the things I’ve been missing & therefore looking forward to most.  Obviously my family.  My parents are towards the end of building their dream house on the coast.  It wont only be great to see them but it’ll be great to see how the home is getting on & trying to help out with the stresses they are facing.  Also, to see my brother & the family.  We missed my little nephews 1^st birthday recently & it’ll be great to see him, hopefully he’ll be walking, then I’ll be able to trip him over! 

Getting out & having a few beers with the boys.   I’ve meet a few people here but nothing can replace the high level of bollocks we can speak when we’re 5 pints down surrounded by people who you have no reservations at all in calling a c*nt. & that understand how your twisted brain works   Bon times. 

Food.  France is famed for its cuisine but is all very samey here in the Savoyard.  I cant wait for a bacon sandwich, a proper curry & a Chinese.  More importantly some proper beer.  The beer here is either piss water or liquorice tasting 8% sludge.  Give me a proper larger or a pint of Guinness & I’ll be a happy boy.

Golf.  I haven’t played for 6 months now so I’ll be even more rubbish than usual but golf is a great way to get out & talk even more bollocks in the pretence of doing sport.  It’ll probably be raining but I’m getting on the course & hacking my way round as many times as I can convince people to come out with me.

And finally & somewhat surprisingly England.  One of the reasons we left was because we were fed up with the way the country is.  It might be a mess but it’s our mess & we understand it.  France is a difficult country to be in.  The language is ridiculous, the lifestyle is backwards & the bureaucracy is quit frankly laughable (or at least it would be if it did make you want to kill yourself then everyone around you).  Getting back to a place where most people are friendly & polite, where you can buy a drink or a meal or anything when you want, a place where supermarkets don’t close for 2 hours at lunch & a place where (as long as you avoid the students) the majority of people wash.