Combining my love for snow sports and people who are much better at it than me with hopefully some photos, tales from London and musings on sport, journalism and anything that takes my fancy.
Currently, Lloyds TSB and I are not friends. The demise of this previous happy relationship is related to only one thing; my debit card.
I take full reponsibility for losing the aforementioned debit card while I was in Val Thorens, made even more annoying by the fact I didn't actually lose it but I had cancelled it before i'd discovered it hiding in a very obscure pocket of my overly technical backpack.
After cancelling the card I waited 10 days, the credit card I had lost and cancelled two days later arrived safely but still no sign of the debit card, i decided to call them up and they advised me to cancel the card again and they would send out another within 5 working days. 2 weeks later, and almost a month after I lost the card in the first place and i'm yet to be reunited with the card. I'm going to France on Saturday and it goes without saying that it's going to be rather annoying to be without access to my bank account (especially when i want that 6th jagerbomb in Malaysia).
I know there has been snow, but we've had post delivered in this time, as far as i'm aware it hasn't been stolen as my bank account hasn't been touched. I just can't understand why it's so bloody difficult to get a card out to me. Lloyds TSB will NOT be invited to my birthday party this year........
But for now, bright side, i'm going to Val Thorens again on Saturday with HUSKIS. I've printed out my paperwork, just waiting for my reps pack and my folder will be complete. Also in the spirit of Christmas I bought N a harry potter book. He loves the flims but claims to have never read a work of fiction in his life! As i am an avid fan of books i've got him a cheap copy of the first harry potter book. We all have to start somewhere right? I'm currently reading Freedom by Jonathan Franzen which is an interesting read, not entirely sure where the plot is going but i'm sure all will come right in the end. I also need to finish reading Necropolis about London's burial traditions. Very interesting but rather depressing as it is essentially about people dying.
So currently that's all to say, i'm still holding onto the undeveloped Diana and Holga photos (I WILL GET THEM DEVELOPED IN THE NEXT 20 YEARS!) and i was given a fish eye lens for my Canon G11 for christmas which sadly i won't have in time for skiing. I will start taking some pictures again, eventually!
So the crack is; since I broke my leg I have steadily been gaining weight, I'm officially the biggest I have ever been and it's time to do something about it.
I think to be honest I've been in denial and consequently avoiding going to the gym. Trying to eat healthily in the week and then totally blowing it by eating absolute crap at the weekend. I think I need an entire attitude and life overhaul. If I don't want to end up breaking my leg again I need to get fit and build strength in my legs so that they can take the battering that I give them.
I used to be so much smaller, and I always think of my AS-Levels as the turning point, boredom eating and then all of a sudden I had love handles. I was a chubby kid and then lost a lot of weight, but I forget this was in school when you couldn't eat whenever you want and I had an hour of PE at least 3 times a week as well as sports team practices and skiing and badminton at the weekend. That's a lot of sport if you think about it, and if i'm honest I wasn't really eating properly and so I dropped a lot of my baby fat.
I think the time has come to accept that I am, and I look overweight. I don't feel comfortable in my clothes and eating things I enjoy comes with such a sense of guilt afterward that it's not enjoyable anymore.
I think I will be joining a weight watchers in the new year. It seems very cringy, but perhaps a more structured approach is what I need. Also getting the nerve up to go to the gym and to do a twice monthly personal training session to get me going and get back into exercise and getting healthy. It's just got to a point where I can't ignore it anymore.
So a bit of a depressing post I'm afraid, but i hope by writing it down i will drive myself to do it and to commit to being a healthier, fitter, lighter person in 2011.
OH and before i forget. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR :)
As i previously mentioned I have recently been out on the snow, lucky as i am to have been able to get some time out on the real thing, it wasn't all mulled wine and long evenings in Saloon.
I was based in Val Thorens repping for the Varsity TwentyTen trip, first of all it was one of the most hectic weeks skiing in a long time but second of all it was a lot of fun! As a member of the comps team, we were responsible for the rather heavy racing schedule that of course was the whole reason Varsity began. As the only member of the team with 'serious' race experience on snow, I took the lead on keeping the courses in shape and checking that the actual races went off without a hitch.
I'd like to think it was pretty successful, no serious complaints (except one that was swiftly resolved) and everyone seemed to have a good time. All credit to the team, with Mark Roost and Will Chambers being our very capable leaders, both in organising the comps and leading us to victory over the ISR reps team in the mountain meal boat race.
It's quite funny having graduated to rep from one of the students I am now in charge of sheperding through their holidays. It is nerve wracking, especially in terms of the coach (will i remember to text danny what ferry i'm on when i leave the uk?! who knows) but i think a big part of being a great rep is a smiley face and the ability to chat to anyone and look like you're having a good time. Scott Woods and Yvette Cooper are without a doubt some of the best reps i've ever had the pleasure of knowing and the quality they both have is a never ending supply of smiles and the ability to chat away to absolutely anyone and make them feel like they are being given a personal experience. I hope that i can do the same to my guys when i take HUSKIS out to Val Thorens on New Years Day.
So all in all a very successful trip, some great feedback and some new mates to boot. OTP repping seemed to be the natural progression for me, a way to have a ski holiday on the cheap in the knowledge you'd have a great bunch of people to hang out with, and i wasn't wrong. I regret not signing up in 2nd year to rep, a mistake i will probably always regret, but hey ho, i've made it now and hopefully they won't kick me out any time soon. Although a new development in the abbreviations dictionary courtesy of the OTP boy reps; I.I.D aka Isolate, Intoxicate, Dominate. Classy eh?
Of course it wouldn't be a post at this time of year without mentioning christmas. I can't believe it is once again that time of year. Presents are bought, definitely not wrapped and i'm sat at work willing it to be the weekend already so i can stuff my face with a load of food and then be disgusted with myself for at least 4 days afterwards. I have offered to work on boxing day because i want to build up as many doils/overtime as possible. I've got two weeks of holiday left until July and one of those will definitely be repping at easter, so for those odd days off it's always nice to have some days off in lieu saved up for times like Friday the 28th when i will be pretending to be a student back up in Leeds.
And that for the moment is all, i leave you with a picture of me asleep on the floor, because i'm cool like that.
I know, I know, i made all these promises to update more and then i left you hanging for all this time? It's a bit of an obvious one this week, the snow that has graced the UK with its presence.
Of course we don't handle it very well, the country essentially comes to a standstill. I drove into my village last night and it was hairy to say the least. A few skids and white knuckles but i got home in the end and to be honest i didn't make bad time, perhaps due to the fact everyone else was far too intelligent to attempt taking on the roads.
I seem to have been the only one able to make it into work, but my pals in Leeds certainly seemed to fit a great session inbetween all their "hard studying". Attached some pictures of their session taken by the most fantastic Kirsty Rose Howe!
Makes me pretty jealous to be honest, this session has been now named the Paul Godsmark Invitational after all his hard work building the kicker for the guys to show their stuff on!
The last two are about as exciting as my snow experience got. I'm off to Val Thorens this evening, so i'm hoping that even though i'm working on comps every day i'll get a little skiing in. The freestyle invitational should be a bit of a laugh, and hopefully some of the VT and Rep crowd will get involved and stomp some tricks.
But for the moment, i'm watching sex and the city 2 with my godfather. Which might i say, is a little awkward. I PROMISE i will take pictures out in VT and do a mega mega post on my return. I hope that my first experience as a student ski rep is successful!
For many the word Olympic conjures up scenes of running tracks, athletes who hone their craft based on 4 year cycles and of course people competing in little more than a swimming costume. But that’s the Summer Olympics, and I love them, but to be honest I much prefer their colder, cooler brother, the Winter Olympics.
The Winter Olympics although an institution haven’t been around all too long, the first games were held in 1924 and the events bore no resemblance to what you might have seen on TV last spring. There was no concept of aerodynamics let alone a twin tip. In fact Snowboarding was yet to be invented, forget being an actual Olympic sport so needless to say it was pretty different to our whole modern concept of winter sports.
As an ex-ski racer (please dear god don’t tell ANYONE) I love the Olympics. When I was younger it was all about the pretty dresses and ladies whirling across the ice in the figure skating. I genuinely thought that Torvil and Dean were the happily ever after story of the sporting world, and I’m still waiting for my Christopher Dean to come sweep me off my feet. Then I started skiing seriously and I could watch the racing for hours, obsessed by the technical brilliance of the world’s best skiers competing for what surely is the highest accolade in ski racing, Alain Baxter briefly thrilled us all with his bronze, but like everything in British Ski racing, our high hopes were dashed (but more on that in another post).
Now I’m all about the cool kids in their baggy pants on boards and on skis generally defying gravity and logic. Freestyle and the Olympics, let’s face it they don’t go together. The Olympics by definition requires strict technical parameters and generally shirks creativity (Gymnastics scoring anyone?) but I think it’s missing out if it doesn’t seriously consider slopestyle as a new event.
The X Games has proven that slopestyle can work in a high octane event. Granted the X Games doesn’t have the same bureaucratic streak that runs deep in the IOC, but it’s a worthy model to look at. The IOC’s excuse for never considering slopestyle (and halfpipe until very recently) was that it didn’t have an structured competition schedule in the season, but now with the incredibly successful Dew Tour, TTR Tour and the X Games which now has a European leg, that excuse appears to be defunct.
Of course as a British girl there is a big reason that I’d like to see Slopestyle in Sochi and her name is Jenny Jones. 3 time X Games Slopestyle gold medallist and Britain’s finest chance at snow sports glory. She’s not only an amazing boarder, but having interviewed her, also a hell of a nice girl and someone who has really worked her way up. Unlike our upcoming generation of indoor snow slope wunderkinds, Jenny started a little later in life, did a season in Tignes, and now she’s winning gold medals in Tignes.
Jenny's Winning Run in Aspen:
Most importantly, the inclusion of girls in the pipe and slopestyle for men and women opens up the Olympics to a whole host of people who might not watch because they see it as part of the ‘establishment’. Yes, the Olympics might suddenly mean that we’re a bit more mainstream, but think of how much it would bring in terms of wider sponsorship and funding into the sport. If your audience grows, so does your capacity to achieve more and make competitions bigger and better.
At the end of the day, it’s a chance for the Winter Olympics to embrace some of the younger crowd who have no interest in racing or full body spandex. Skiing is cool, but it would appear that racing has lost its appeal to many kids out there who now look up to Bobby Brown as their idol instead of Bode Miller.
Jon Olsson @ London Freeze
If it’s going to work the IOC need to compromise, get some people on board who have experience in the event, and be willing to work together to get the best of both worlds. If it starts to sound like work, the chances are many athletes won’t be interested because the foundations of these events lie in having fun and pushing yourself to get that grab because you enjoy it, not because you cynically believe that the judge will give you more points.
Case and point is the incredibly versatile and talented Jon Olsson. While I stood on the jump, there wasn’t one time that as he flew off the kicker in the air towards the landing that the man didn’t have a smile on his face. No matter how hard the trick he looked liked he was genuinely enjoying it, and that my friends is the attitude we want to preserve.
The IOC in October said that the level of competitors in slopestyle is not up to the required standard, and to that I have to say; well why don't you go and give it a go and see for yourself, you might be surprised.
I could go on about this subject for hours and look at all the angles and every option and direction to take, but i'm going to wrap it up and put my soap box away, as this is meant to be a lighthearted blog afterall! Hopefully in 2014 i'll be linking back to this post as I write about the slopestyle medals won in Russia in 2014, you never know!
Two posts in two days I hear you cry?! What on earth. Well start as you mean to go on I say, and I do miss waffling on about things so what better place.
I’ve just had a look at Fear of The Park and a brief look at the Burton High Five results from Chill Factore in Manchester. Although it still looks like the Scots are perfectly capable of dominating when they want to, the name that really stands out to me is Katie Ormerod.
I first met Katie when she had just turned 11, she and Tyler Harding (another Yorkshire native) allowed me to follow them around with a camera for a few days in order to put together a ‘Day in the Life’ piece for our local news show at university. At the time Katie was very quiet and to be quite honest seemed a bit scared of the crazy 19 year old who was pointing a camera at her all the time and asking boring questions, but it’s great to see that she is getting the respect she deserves.
A few years ago it was clear she had the skill but not the confidence, her dad was out with her on the slope and it was a team effort, not to mention she was also tiny so getting enough speed and momentum to stomp her tricks on an indoor slope was a little harder for her, but it seems she is only getting better as she gets older.
Katie’s big advantage is that she also trains as a gymnast (her afterschool commitments were immense, and she wanted to do it and her parents supported her, not pushed her) and I think the moment she back flipped across her garden, I was completed fascinated, there was no preamble, no look at me, it was just natural.
Of course you have to take into account the fact she is also a part of a very formidable snowboarding family. She is Jamie and Sophie Nicholls’ cousin, and so will of course benefit from that connection. But these snow zones are becoming families in themselves, everyone supports each other, and that seems to be another great aspect to the rapidly developing UK scene.
She’s now a fully fledged member of the Burton team, and I’m sure they will be very pleased to see her top of the podium at their own event. It scares me (and makes me a little jealous) how young all our British talent is, but it’s a great result for the indoor slopes, who are making excellence in snow sport a viable alternative to more ‘traditional’ UK pastimes.
In more general blogging news; I’ve still got one more roll of 120 film to finish before I take them all to be developed with the photos I took over summer with my Diana and Holga camera and then I’m hoping to take the Diana out skiing with me before Christmas and get some more fun photos. As soon as I’ve got those photos developed, if any are decent I’ll post them up, but as it was my first real outing with them, I haven’t got particularly high hopes.
Anyway, back to stuffing my face with Chocolate, Christmas is nearly upon us so I can’t let the side down and start eating rabbit food!
N.B As soon as I get those photos back I've got some from the rail jam Leeds Snowriders did in the Faversham pub in Leeds with Damian Doyle and the Standing Sideways Crew, and I will be sorting out this fugly layout.
Yes, i know. Horrifically bad form on the blogging front. I've just been having a bit of a hectic few weeks and i'm slowly but surely trying to regain a bit of control.
I can't say i've been doing anything of much importance, working like crazy and trying to see all my friends and y'know not live like a hermit doing all her socialising through facebook chat (this has become a distinct possibility).
I have been up to a fair bit though, two visits to Leeds, the ski show and London Freeze as well as a quick jaunt out to Val Thorens to have a pre-season look and start preparations for repping with Off The Piste.
Ski show was lots of fun, and my prediction that when left alone i would make a ski purchase sadly was a self fufilling prophecy. Laura left me alone for 10 minutes and a pair of these beauties came into my life.
They are last season's Atomic Elysian skis. I've been looking for something a bit more specific to riding in the park than my current K2 Nancys which are great for powder with their width and light core, but are a little stiff for park and have absolutely zero pop, meaning i'm preparing for my rotations with a wind up more fitting of a 1260 than a meagre 360.
These skis got mega good reviews last year, and if could have afforded the 450 price tag i would have purchased them without a 2nd thought (and the same goes for the 10/11 versions i saw this year) but to have found them at 225 with bindings was an offer i couldn't refuse, especially after the fact everyone who has skied on these raves about them. They are ex demo, but in good condition and a good service will sort them right out. Can't wait to have a go on them and try and find my courage again, i started my season doing flat 540 spins on a box and ended it with no courage and a broken leg following a 360. That's not ideal.
So i think i might be starting at the baby steps, but i think this is a great ski to be making those forays into the park with.
As i write this i should be at Badminton down in Acton, but due to the fact i'm damn lazy amongst other things i'm not there, so now i've missed one i need to actually get myself to next week, the night before Reading......perhaps not a great idea? I should drive home tuesday night! ARGH that means 2 weeks not going, so i think i'll have to send an email.
So i will go to the gym tomorrow (don't know when as i'm going to dinner with Olivia and her pal Kayleigh, so can't really go after work. Before work? HA you having a laugh.
One bug bear i do have about sports is how uncomfortable all women's sportswear seems to be. I mean if you've not got the body of a 12 year old boy, it doesn't seem to fit/stay up/hide what you're trying to get rid of. No i don't want to wear lycra in the gym amongst the skinny minnies when it gives me nightmares, and that was at my smallest.
So basically, i'm not going to badminton because i feel a bid tired and self pitying and i feel like that because i like to eat and not run, and if i ran more i probably wouldn't. Basically a vicious cycle.
So all in all, today i want a body like this:
But maybe not that particular dress or sunglasses. For a more fashionable clothes horse with an enviable figure
I'd take either, just a bit sick of being a short chubster.
Wow a post about an ambition realised?! For your viewing pleasure; MY NEW HOUSE.
Say hello to my new little house in Kennington. Which although means i'll have to get up about an hour earlier, the benefits far outweigh that! Central location, near to friends (who now i suspect will all move away from south east london) and with my parents, which although that sounds sad, it means a cooked meal every night from Mummy dearest.
So no complaints here whatsoever, it can only get better than the current living situation where it's home from work, into room, watch crap TV all evening and have no one to talk to......joy.
So looking forward to moving in this weekend, when i will also be pondering the question of what the hell to take to reading festival!
So I bought the coat from Topshop. What can I say, blame it on the weather! Cold, windy and rainy, it just seemed the right day to buy a cosy coat. If I hate it I’ll just return it at the end of the day. God I really need to curb my spending.
It looks like I won’t be homeless though, having left home for 4 years I’m now in a house share with my parents. We’ve been looking at somewhere rented out by the Walcot Foundation. Tiny cutesy place near waterloo and just near the imperial war museum, rather more rent than I might have initially considered, but I won’t be paying for bills or food and there will be food on the table for me every night as well as two dogs to play with.
I know I said I was trying to save, but having my own little place and having it to myself Friday morning-Monday night will give me freedom when I want it over the weekend. I’m looking forward to being back in with my family, saves me petrol money driving down to Dover every other weekend.
So with the thought of perhaps selling my car, perhaps some alternate wheels need to be considered. I’m quite keen on doing the London to Brighton sponsored cycle next year, and although I’d love a road bike, something a bit more stable might be appreciated. So options at the ready:
Tokyo Bike Sport:
It’s blue, it’s pretty, it’s 10.5kg and is kind of perfect for gadding around London. £520 quid, anyone got that kind of money to give away?
http://www.tokyobike.co.uk/index.html
Cannondale Bad Boy
This is a little more butch, so perhaps not ideal for someone trying to make their work wardrobe less tomboy more professional well dressed fashionable London lady, this might not be ideal. Would be pretty good for the London to Brighton though? 599 pounds though. Ouch
This bike actively markets itself as a bit of everything, and even name checks the London to Brighton in it’s little selling blurb. It’s perhaps a nice compromise between the two, and the cheapest at 499.
If i could justify one of these i'd definitely get one (with my lottery winnings naturally) but all i can think i'd use it for would be for watching movies and TV in bed. I like having actual books so wouldn't use the ibooks and i like real life papers and magazines too, so that's out. Typing is a bitch on it so email would be no good. Basically i want one, i just can't figure out why!
But we all would if we could right? Disposable cash is made for these sorts of purchases!
Why is it always rich people who have guestlists and tables in places. Those kind of places where it's grey goose vodka on tap and you don't have to reach in your pocket. Why is it always the rich kids who get these kinds of perks? I seems like you can't throw a stick in well-to-do circles without someone knowing a promo girl for that new club that it costs an arm and a leg to attend.
I'm whinging because my friends and i are still trying to find out place in London. You know that place where you always go which is open past 11pm (so that seems to count out most nice pubs, wetherspoons is not a NICE pub) and everywhere else just seems astronomically expensive or very exclusive. We just want somewhere chilled, and nice to go and have a drink on a friday night without paying out half a week's wages. Somewhere fashionable with nice people would be great, but at the end of the day somewhere that everyone likes and wants to go back to. Did i mention it can't be in brixton either....haha
Taking something back tonight. I really like it but it's so out my my style sterotype i just can't see myself wearing it day to day. I'll always choose something with clean lines, and I don't think i can really justify it.
Ruffles are just not me at all. I know i should think outside the box sometimes, but i just end up feeling uncomfortable and looking awful!
This is what i really want, paraded in front of me by Olivia at Gone With The Fashion, it's £175 which is WAAAY out of my budget, but i tried it on and i'm in love. DAMN.
I am apparently keen or torturing myself, and sadly on the lowly salary that I currently earn, this torture comes in the form of things I would very much like to purchase. All girls love to shop, and i've always been on a budget, but getting to grips with being out of my parents home (and financial backup when needed) for the first time is causing two reactions; an inability to act like an adult and cook a decent evening meal, and another more startling sympton is thinking I have way more money that i think, setting my sights on some delightful item, discovering i can't have it and then mourning not being able to wear/hold/have the item by just looking at it online.
I won't say my taste is particularly fashionable, I err on the very casual side of life. But i'm trying to develop some work wear that at least looks semi smart. But i'll always come back to my scruffy roots.
The ASOS Pow wedge, that i'm not sure would entirely work in real life but i really like the look of them anyway.....what i really need is a nice pair of flats, but everything i see i find horrifically ugly.....these boots are 90 down from 150 but this is still just out of my price range. A shocking check on my bank account today has really hit home that i need to stop being such a damn spendthrift.
Another on my hitlist is this topshop pea coat, which i have a nasty feeling would turn me into a football manager, but it'd go so well with the shoes....
Needless to say i could just afford one, but there is no way in hell i could have both without a serious talk from my bank manager. Which is probably already overdue anyway!
After cancelling the card I waited 10 days, the credit card I had lost and cancelled two days later arrived safely but still no sign of the debit card, i decided to call them up and they advised me to cancel the card again and they would send out another within 5 working days. 2 weeks later, and almost a month after I lost the card in the first place and i'm yet to be reunited with the card. I'm going to France on Saturday and it goes without saying that it's going to be rather annoying to be without access to my bank account (especially when i want that 6th jagerbomb in Malaysia).
