Back from skiing...
Well, I made it back in one piece from skiing - which is really kinda surprising, given my snowboarding ability <IMG alt=":)" class="emoticon" src="/images/emotions/emotion-1.gif" border=0>.
Anyway, about our week. We went over with a group called Mark Warner, which does holiday packages all around. Pretty good all up, except for a few things that were out of their control, but thats getting ahead of the story. We all got there and got organised with the renting gear and getting ski passes and all that, and got settled in happily. Minor thing was that we didn't really need to get the ski passes, as we spent most of the week on the free nursery slopes, and hardly got out to the other ones. Ahh, but never mind - we all did it, so we all lost out.
Next day, we headed out, and thought we'd have a bash at the whole snowboarding thing, before our lesson in the afternoon. Well, let me tell you, as a complete beginner, going to the top of the hill, and pointing the board downhill is a baaad move. Kinda funny though - lots of face plants and falls. After a very boring lesson (the basics are always boring), we had a lot more success with it all.
Generally, we had a lot of fun, though Biscuit got a mild concussion from hitting his head, Paul stuffed his wrist/thumb, and then a few days later stuffed his knee (stopping his skiing antics), Biscuit, Jon, Leigh and I got a pretty bad bout of food poisoning (or gastro, one of the two), and we all got lots and lots and lots of bruises. The only one of us that actually made it out every day was Lydia.
Even though most of us were out of it for at least one day, we all got lots better at boarding (except for Paul of course). By the end of the week, I got the whole linked turns thing going. Was pretty proud of it, though I could've done with a few more days of it, just to let it sink in, and get some time actually boarding, rather than falling over.
The 'best' part of the trip was the flight back. We had to get up at something stupid like 5am, and on a bus by about 5.45am. A few hours drive, and then we ended up stopping at some random little town café, as we'd been told that Geneva airport was closed, and they didn't know what was happening. About 2 hours there, and then we found out that the plane had been redirected to Lyon. So, back on the bus for 2 hours, arriving at Lyon about midday (the time that our flight was originally planned to leave from Geneva). The thing was, the airport was so disorganised, it was a disaster. Quite a few flights had been diverted there, so it was pretty painful.
Our new flight was supposed to leave at 4pm - only problem was that the girls behind the checkin desk had serious issues checking people in. It took them about 3 hours to check in one flight. Very painful. Then serious issues with getting through security (the line was very long, and not moving for ages). Then, finally got through, and had to sit for ages, waiting to get onto the plane. We finally got on at about 6pm (amid cheers), and we ready to go. Took off, and found that the food was no longer safe to eat, so no food on board either. Just about to land, and the pilot is apologising for the crap days that we've had, and then slips in a “by the way, we left the luggage in France”. Apparently, they had a choice, take off without most of the luggage, or load it on board, taking an extra half hour, and miss our take off window - with an estimated 8 hour wait until we could take off. So, I can kind of understand why they did it, but really, was it that hard to get it sorted in the first place?
So far, I've had my luggage delivered, but everyone else hasn't got theirs. I'm happy, cos I had no clean clothes. Insurance would've covered new clothes, but its just the annoyance of it all.
So, all in all, it was a good week, with a few painful bits. I could've done with a stomach that wasn't queasy for half the week - lots of nice food that I couldn't enjoy. Hopefully, next time, it'll be a lot better <IMG alt=":)" class="emoticon" src="/images/emotions/emotion-1.gif" border=0>.