Obertauern skiing - begining to end

Arrival
I think sitting in an airplane at 35,000 feet, and feeling somewhat deprived of oxygen, really brings out the best and the worst of me. As I sit on this Monarch Airlines flight (AKA bargain basement travel) from London to Salzburg, all I can think about is all the screaming babies that just won't stop, the incontinent kids who seem to need a trip to the bathroom every 3 minutes, and the fact that the parents of these snotty little kids seem to be under the misapprehension that I like them just as much as they do. How wrong they are. I guess I have to admit though that I'm not being at all charitable to my fellow passengers who, of course, have every right to be on the same plane as me even though they are hacking me off every time they so much as move a muscle. If I'm honest most of my fellow passengers are OK and do not bother me one bit even though many unwittingly do give me a huge amount of enjoyment as I watch them struggle with the most simple of things. And there's nothing quite like looking at the expression on the face of a seasoned air hostess as another stupid passenger complains endlessly because they didn't get their vegitarian or vegan meal despite having ordered it 11 months ago, when she clearly doesn't give a monkeys.

I also said this brings out the best of me, because, for some reason, I seem to be in a position to think more clearly, and cynically, about everything that's happening around me, and I like that.

We arrived in Salzburg after almost two hours on what felt like a flight through hell.

Day One
We fell out of the hotel at an amazing 9:30 and slid off down the road to the bridge across main road and onto the main piste. After a relatively straight forward run down towards the gondola we were faced with having to pole along for the last 200 meters – not a great start to the day but hey ho. Having arrived at the top of the gondola we were greeted with a white-out with little idea of where we were going, either mentally or in reality. The map wasn't much help. It was a case of aiming down hill, not going too fast, and keeping our fingers crossed. We arrived safely at the bottom with no incidents whatsoever and headed off to meet up with our ski guide who would show us all round the resort for most of the day. His name was Alex, he was from Southport, and was in Obertauern for his first season as a ski instructor after being made redundant at home. Anyway he was a nice guy and took us round the entire Tauernrunde and had lunch with us too. It was a great day despite the weather not really being as nice as we'd hoped, but for the main part it was clear, sometimes bright, and not too cold. Best of all we didn't have to stand in line once all day. Sheila had skied enough at about 3:30 but I couldn't resist one more run down from the top of the gondola – it was still just as foggy as it was first thing!

Met up with some others in the the Tyroller Keller for a beer and a chat at 5:00pm. Cor (the Inghams rep) gave us a load of information about the place that we may, or may not, need during our stay.

Day two
I started the day by realizing that I'd broken my ski glasses yesterday! I must have done it when I fell, but I was still pretty hacked off. I would have just skied in my regular sunglasses but they were pretty expensive and have metal frames so I didn't want to take the chance, but luckily Sheila's regular sunglasses fitted the bill and she was happy for me to use them. We got out of the hotel at a planned 9.45 and met Keith (a fellow Ingham's guest) at the top of the run down to the gondola. Sheila waited at the bottom while we went up the gondola and skied down before we all headed off up the chairlift to all the south facing slopes. We basically spent the day doing the same runs as yesterday plus many of the ones we missed out on because the weather wasn't so great. No such problems today as the weather was absolutely perfect. Cobalt blue sky, about -6 or -6 degrees and no wind, and even better, still no lines anywhere. Stopped for lunch at the same place as yesterday and realized we'd broken another pair of glasses - this time readers. Spent the last part of the afternoon working our way back to the hotel and called it a day at about 3:30.

Went out for a hot chocolate and apple strudel and scoured the sports shops for a new pair of ski glasses. Managed to find a nice pair at the last place we stopped at; mission accomplished.

On the third day
No breakages, that we're aware of today, just very sore muscles and too many early starts. But you've got to make the most of the time and so once again we got out of the hotel at a planned 9.45 and didn't meet Keith (fellow Ingham's guest) at the top of the run down to the gondola. He wasn't there at 10:00 so we headed off without him. So that meant that Sheila and I would probably have the day to ourselves and that's exactly how it was. We skied together most of the time except for lunchtime when she wanted to stop, so I did a few runs on my own – I think I went all the way up and back down 3 times and a couple of half ways as well, so I really crammed it in. Didn't really have lunch as such but we did make a couple of stops for drinks and snacks. We skied a bit more together before completing the circuit and coming back to the hotel just before 4pm. The weather was pretty idyllic again today – same cobalt blue skies, but a much cooler -9 or -10 with a bit of wind that really did start feeling cold after about 2:30pm. The new ski glasses were good except I'm not sure I had them on right – I think my hat was trying to push them off my nose so I'll try to sort that out for tomorrow.

Superb meal in the hotel, too much to drink, and early to bed.

Day four
The weather wasn't looking so good today. It was overcast and the light looked very flat, but it was bright, and it wasn't snowing. We got out on time again and Keith was waiting for us at the bridge across the road, so we quickly headed off and started by going up the Sonnenbahn lift that took us up to the wide open area that Sheila likes. We decided that she would ski on her own for an hour and we'd go off and get to do some difficult reds and blacks, which we did and a lot of fun they were too. As the weather wasn't so great it seemed generally quieter today so the snow was holding up very well. We stopped for a drink well ahead of the pack and we were back out again just as the ski schools were stopping – perfect timing! By now though it had started snowing and it was steadily falling harder as the afternoon went on. Sheila quit after we'd all skied down from the top of the Zehnnerbahn but I, despite the rapidly deteriorating weather, carried on for another hour. This may not have been one of my best ideas because it really was snowing heavily by now and the light was so flat that at times it was almost impossible to see what I was skiing into and across, as a consequence I must have looked like a complete idiot on one of the first run down as I lurched from one disastrous mistake to another. Luckily we ended the day with a really nice cruisey blue run all the way from the top of the mountain that flattered our skiing and made up for the previous near catastrophes.

Day five
Got out on time again, although more easily today for some reason, and met Keith as before. The weather was looking a bit changeable with snow coming down and the light very flat, but the sun didn't look too far away and there was a chance things might improve; the temperature was about -11. We followed pretty much the same route as yesterday and headed off up the Sonnenbahn and then up to the Treff 2000 restaurant. The snow was very variable. There had clearly been a lot of new snow overnight and most of it didn't look as if it had been pisted so it was quite difficult to know what you were skiing on until you were actually on it. Coupled with the very flat light it was difficult to ski very confidently at all, although after about 11:00 the light did start to improve significantly to the point where it was pretty good and gave us all a lot more confidence. We stopped in the Hockalm for a hot chocolate at 11:30 and when we came out it really was getting good and we were all skiing much better so decided to stay out for another run down from the top of the gondola. That was both good and bad. Good because it's a nice long run but bad because the conditions were quite tough – both snow and light. Anyway it can't have been so bad because as soon as we got to the bottom I did it all over again, but that was it, my legs were done and I had to call it quits for the day.

I met Sheila back at the hotel before we got the bus that would take us to Mauterndorf about 20 minutes away. It was a nice little place with a lot of very nice old buildings, some modern but traditional style hotels, and some small shops. Had a massive lunch of Weiner schnitzel and a beer before a stroll around town and finally getting the bus back at 4:00 (precisely).

Last day
Got out a little earlier today – must be that last day mentality that says I've got to make the most of it! The weather didn't actually look that great. It was very cold, snowing a bit, and there was a lot of low cloud. We headed up the Sonnenbahn lift but actually by the time we got to the top everything was looking a lot better, the sun was trying really hard to peep through and the snow had stopped falling. The snow was in great shape and must have been bashed down well the previous night. The pistes were very flat with just a few centimetres of fresh snow on top – perfect. Strangely it seemed quieter today than yesterday so that coupled with such good conditions made for an excellent day. We skied together all day and made a couple of stops for drinks and food. On the second stop we just couldn't resist sharing a Tyroller Grostl for the first time this week - fantastic. At the end of the afternoon we headed back to the gondola as we wanted to ski down the Gamsleiten 1 run that'd we've skied so many times in the past. Unfortunately it had turned really cold and windy by the time we got there so to be honest it was more like and endurance test than the fun experience we'd hoped for. That was our cue to call it a day and so we headed on down to bridge 5, took off our skis for the last time, and hit the Qubar. A couple of Glueweins later we went over to the bar in the hotel and polished of a plateful of kiesserschmarn each before heading up to the room to think about doing some packing.

Conclusion
After a short debate, we decided that while the USA may have a better lift system and organisation, France the big resorts and great food, and Switzerland those picture perfect looks, there really isn't anywhere that can put it all together and do a ski vacation quite like Austria.

Too much water and too much snow

As there was a lot of snow forecast for our area this evening I, and most of my colleagues, decided to leave work early so we could beat the traffic chaos that would definitely be caused by even the slightest amount of the white stuff landing on the ground. I was feeling quite pleased with myself as I arrived home just as the snow started to fall.

However, when I got indoors it was clear that all was not well. apparently something had gone wrong with the hot water tank upstairs earlier in the day and had flooded the cloakroom! Sheila had called Southern Gas and they were on their way to fix the problem despite the impending bad weather. Not bad eh, but then I do have to pay about £400 a year for the privilege!

The man arrived bang on when he promised, was here for an hour, and according to plan the problem was fixed. So far so good. However the new problem was that while he was here the snow was just falling out of the sky like crazy and we now had about 10cm on the drive. He was determined to get his van out and the snow was doing it's best to stop him. Having tried to back it out the darned thing became stuck so we had to spend almost an hour digging it out, moving it back and forth, and digging some more before we eventually got it up the drive and onto the main road that oddly was blocked in the direction he didn't want to go, and completely empty the way he did. Amazing.

New TVs

I find that the whole process of buying a TV can be a very time wasting exercise if your not too careful. The problem seems to be that before you get too far in you find yourself looking at piles of specs telling you about all kinds of features that sound important, but are probably totally irrelevant or unnoticable to anyone but a complete techo-nerd.

I knew the size of TV I wanted and I, like most people, have experience of a few TV manufacturers, some good, some not so good, but I would always stay clear of the very cheap brands. Most of them look cheap too, so unless looks are not at all important or relevant, and to me they are, they're out.

Anyway just as we were getting drawn further and further into the never ending web we made a quick trip into John Lewis in Southampton, and looked for TVs that met the following criteria:

1. It looks good when turned off - it's now just an expensive ornament.
2. It looks even better when turned on - it's now a TV.
3. It doesn't cost much more than the average for its size - why pay more than necessary.

It seems pretty apparent to me that once a 40-42" TV costs much more than about £700 that the law of diminishing returns kicks in. And in a big way. Small extra features start costing a lot extra and are barely noticeable probably to anyone other than a real enthusiast.

So unless you want, or even need, a TV that's not much thicker than a CD case, and I didn't, I say stick to the ones that have sensible prices.

Anyway what we ended up with was a Samsung LE26B450 for the kitchen and a Toshiba 42XV635DB for the living room. The old Toshiba 37WLT66 is now in the bedroom and the 15 inch LCD cheapy is in the spare bedroom.

Don't shop in Comet - they're idiots!

I went into two Southampton area Comet stores today hoping to buy a 42" LCD TV. On both occasions their sales team refused to show me the TVs I was interested in displaying an HD (Sky or Blu-Ray) feed. I noticed in one of the two stores that the only TVs that did have HD feeds were the most expensive Samsung LED TVs, and in the second store HD feeds were only being delivered to TVs costing over £1200. So - strange they can manage HD feeds for those expensive TVs but not the cheaper ones. John Lewis stores can provide HD feeds for all their TVs without question - and typically they have a heck of a lot more TVs on display.

On both occasions I was told by Comet sales staff that their customers don't understand the difference between SD and HD so that's why they don't put HD signals through all TVs! So, either the company is patronising it's customers, or their sales team are incapable of explaining the difference between SD and HD. Either way Comet must be the only company I can think of that choose to not show the products they sell in the best possible light. That's has to be a pretty odd selling technique.

I may have been fully prepared to buy and carry home a new TV from either of these Comet stores today but after this episode I will avoid shopping with them at all costs, as they are a company that is clearly being run by a bunch of complete idiots.

Acorn type 2

I've just discovered that according to upmystreet.com I'm classified as an Acorn type 2 and represent 1.3% of the population. Maybe I should be proud of this, but the trouble is it says lots of things about me many of which are not true, especially the bits about having kids, an executive position, and driving a company car. But anyway what it does say to Harry Burglar is that I'm probably worth the effort of a quick visit, preferable when I'm not in.

I find it quite alarming that it's so easy for the criminal element to spend their time (once they've finished watching that days Jeremy Kyle or Trisha show) checking out where all their potential business, for later that day, can be found. Then, handily, once they've identified me by post code they can checkout the ariel views on Google maps to plan the best entry and exit routes from my house.

It seems ironic that the internet is a handy little tool for me and my friends to checkout all the nice stuff we want to spend our hard earned cash on, and even more effective for the dirtbags that want to come round and nick it off us when we're not around.

Pointless signage

Today is my birthday and for a special lunch we went to the Chewton Glen in the New Forest. This place is consistently voted one of the top 10 hotel restaurants in the country so as you'd expect it is a really nice place both inside and out. As always we were not disappointed. The food was great, the service was perfect, and the place itself was immaculate.

However, what I did notice, and it's becoming something that's a constant source of irritation, was how much the pointless signs businesses are forced to display can ruin the overall look of a place. In the lounge there are two large French doors that lead out onto the patio. I know what a door looks like and would guess that at least 99% of the population has got a firm grasp on what a door looks like too. But obviously the powers that be aren't entirely happy with that situation and have insisted that exits (external doors) are marked with ugly green signs that do nothing more than state the obvious and ruin a nice looking room and the view. Looking around the hotel I rather annoyingly couldn't help but notice more of these pointless signs telling me what I could easily see for myself.

Another example of the government telling us what we already know, and making businesses pay to do it.

Vacation diversity

Diversity is basically not tarring everyone else of a certain group with the same brush. But that's what we all do, and what we always will do, and with very good reasons to do it.

If you have a positive or negative experience with something new, be it an object or a person, you will automatically tend to have a positive or negative anticipation towards the next object or person of the same type that you may meet. The more the experience goes one way or the other the more reinforced that impression becomes, so it's natural that once it begins to get negative you will begin to avoid objects or people of that group wherever possible and you may even start warning your friends to do the same.

An example might be wasps. Wasps tend to sting, not necessarily all of them but certainly most of them, so most people tend to hate the nasty little things. Of course there could be lots of wasps that don't sting but the experience of the bad ones naturally means that you don't want to take any chances, so you avoid them all like the plague.

And so on to our most recent trip to the Maldives where everyone I met who was a Muslim was really nice and friendly, most of the Russians I met were miserable and rude, and all the Europeans were fine.

Maldivians, who are mostly Muslim, are a very friendly bunch and are happy to stand around talking for ages if you let them. The problem is that life for them is so different than it is for us that it can sometimes be very hard to know what to talk about with them. Cars are something that men can usually turn to as an easy topic of conversation but a car in the Maldives is about as much use as a surfboard in Southampton, so consequently most of them have very few opinions and views on the subject. Sports works for some people, but as I'm only really interested in F1 and skiing I'm once again barking up the wrong tree. Anyway, they're all really lovely people and I've now convinced myself that this positive attribute obviously extends over the entire Muslim Maldives population.

Russians on the other hand can be a complete pain in the backside, and I'd say that from my experience the majority do seem to fall into that bracket. They are very rude by European and US standards rarely thanking anyone for anything and usually barking orders at anyone providing them a service, such as waiters etc. Every morning we would see Russians go to the omelet chef, grunt out the filling they wanted to him with no politeness, or even eye contact, and then, when he slid the completed product onto their plates, they would simply turn around and walk off. Not a word, not a nod, not any any recognition of appreciation whatsoever. Many staff told us that they hated the Russians for their rudeness but they do apparently spend a lot of money so are naturally welcomed trade.

The Europeans were all absolutely fine, especially the Germans who I always like and find very easy to get along with. The Italians were good fun even though they all seem to smoke a lot, have a very thin grasp of English, and appear to be scared of live fish. But they do all like to have a good time. That was about it for Europeans this year out of all the folks we spoke to anyway.

Finally there were quite a few Indians this year. They all seemed very polite but kept themselves to themselves. That works for me. If only the Russians would do the same and stay at home.

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Speederz

Just after I got the SLK I took it over to Germany, I found a nice long stretch of empty autobahn, and I took it up to 145mph which was absolutely amazing. After I did this I couldn't stop thinking about everything that could have gone wrong and the fact that it could have happened so quickly and that I could have done absolutely nothing about it. A tyre might have burst, a bird flown into my path, or I could have sneezed! Any one of these would have resulted in possible catastrophe. But hey, I was doing 145 and it was big fun - or was it.

Move on a few years and I have discovered a certain joy in actually sticking to the speed limit. I used to be like everyone else and think it was just fine to do 40 in a 30 limit and as fast as conditions would allow on a motorway, but no longer. Now that I'm a magistrate I definitely don't want to be caught speeding so I have no choice but to stick religiously to the limits, and you know what, I like it, I really like it.

Going to work now is no longer a mad dash along the M27 and M3, but is now a nice drive through Fair Oak and on to Hursley casually following the guy in front with the cruise set at 30. I can look around, see what's going on, and never need to have one eye constantly scanning for plod. I can enjoy the music and enjoy the car.

Today I had to drive up to Heathrow and had a nice easy 70mph drive up the M3, no stress, no problem. It was nice being able to spend the time not thinking about my next manoever, but thinking about all kinds of stuff, in fact whatever I felt like. One thing I kept drifting back to was concerning all the cars that were screaming past me in the outside lane. Why was it that the majority of them were small Renaults and Peugeots - could it be that those cars are so dreadful that they're only going fast in order to get their journeys over with as soon as possible? And all the repmobiles scrambling to get to their next sales conference or client, or whatever it is that reps do. And the mindless idiots in driving their vans that tailgate the car in front leaving a gap that can be measured in microns.

All I know is now that I've accepted this new way of driving I can get to where I'm going feeling relaxed, in a good mood, and ready for whatever lays in store, whereas before I just arrived stressed out.

How many pillows?

Once upon a time a bed used to have two pillows for every person who used it, but this age old rule no longer seems to apply, and certainly not in my house. We do have a pretty big bed, it comes from Norway and is a 'super-king', which means it's almost 2 meters wide, and it takes three pillows across it's width, however we actually have 10 pillows on our bed. Apparently some of them aren't pillows at all but are in fact cushions, not that I'm at familiar with whatever the difference is between a pillow and a cushion. We also have this other thing that lays across the bed just in front of all the pillows (or cushions) that seems to serve no obvious purpose at all. I have no idea what it's called, but it apparently needs to be removed when we're in bed and put back on when we're not.

We were at my mother in law's place this afternoon and moved some furniture around in her bedroom for her. When we were almost finished she put the new linen with two pillows on to her bed, and asked me how it looked. I said I thought it was fine except she was apparently three pillows short. She looked very confused and asked me what I meant - I still am very confused and told her I didn't have a clue.

I love Wimbledon but I hate it.

Wimbledon - there are things that make me both love it and hate it in equal measures. I love that fact that it's such a big deal tournament, and that it's a really nice day out - assuming your lucky enough to get a ticket - and that even though I don't really like watching tennis that I can still enjoy it so much.

But what I really hate is the Britishness of it all. It's just such a stuffy event and all that clinging on to tradition makes no sense at all to me. The place is full of posers who are so far up themselves you just want to scream and then there are all those old fashioned middle-class types who simply exude everything I hate about being British.

When we were there last week I found the unreasonable partisanship incredibly embarrassing, especially in games where neither of the players was English, like most of the crowd undoubtedly were. The people sitting in the sun endlessly complaining about the heat were tiresome, and the people who were walking around looking down their noses at everyone else were even worse.

But the strawberries were fantastic and so is just being there - especially when you're in the front row right next to the net.

Stupid cyclists or stupid bike?

I was driving the SLK home last week and overtook a couple of guys on racing bikes - the ones that have the really skinny tyres. They were traveling at about 20mph when I passed them and I traveled on about half a mile pulling out a reasonable gap ahead of them.

Then came up behind an indecisive driver who couldn't make her mind up if she was going to pass a parked car just ahead of her or not. In the end she abruptly decided not to, and stopped quite suddenly. I stopped too and instinctively looked in my rear view mirror to see the two cyclists heading towards me with their faces full of fear! Next thing I know - bang - one of them has gone into the back of me after skidding for what must have been 50 feet or so.

I switched of the engine, took out the key, and got out too see what damage had been done. The guy that had hit me was already yelling out that there was no damage, and he was almost right, just a very small scratch that would polish out.

Although there was no real damage I was still pretty mad that this guy had hit me from such a distance - was it that he just wasn't careful enough or maybe those tyres are so skinny they are just plain dangerous? I can't help thinking it's mostly down to the tyres...

I wish I was more impulsive

A few weeks ago I needed to buy another guitar stand so headed of to my local music store. While I was there I had a look round to see what guitars he (Wally) had in stock and immediately spotted an interesting looking 12 string. It was a used acoustic, but only 2 inches thick, and made by Godin, a maker I'd never heard of. Wally plugged it in and left me to play with it for as long as I wanted and it sounded tremendous. It had a really nice bright jangly 12 string sound and I thought I wanted it but really wasn't 100% sure.

I came home and jumped onto the web to checkout Godin and find out what the guitar was worth. Turns out they're manufactured in Canada and assembled in the USA and are bit of a niche manufacturer, and the price Wally wanted for it was about half of what a new one would cost so it was a bargain.

Then I go through my usual routine of weighing up all the pros and cons for days, and ultimately weeks, on end trying to decide if I really do want it or not. So last week I decided I'd would get it only to find, of course, that it had been sold weeks ago!

Now I'm kicking myself - even if I'd decided I didn't really want it after all I could easily have sold it on for what I'd paid for it - I really do wish I was a bit more impulsive!

Packaging and instructions

Packaging is just so difficult to get into sometimes, and you have to wonder if the people who design it, and subsequently decide to release it on to the unsuspecting public, ever actually use it themselves or think about whether or not it even makes any practical sense.

The other day I came across milk that was packaged in a soft plastic tube that seemed just about impossible to open without either spilling a few drips on the table or totally covering yourself in it's contents. What wrong with the little cups with the peel back top that hopefully everyone has now mastered. We frequently have juice in the fridge that requires a foil strip to be peeled back that seems to be stuck down with super glue so that when you do eventually manage to get it started it shoots off with such force that much of the contents inevitably end up all over to worktop. And, the hole in the top is so small that there is not enough space to allow the carton to vent correctly resulting in even more liquid landing outside the target area.

There are endless other examples of poor packaging - salad bags that can't be opened without them tearing to the point they're useless - cans where the ring snaps off, cold-cut packaging where you need a microscope to find the tear strip, it's just hopeless.

The other major challenge on packaging is instructions. There is always way too much written material, so much so that it takes forever the to find the important bit - the cooking instructions - and then when you do find them the writing is so small you need a microscope to read it. Even with my glasses on I struggle so I really can't imagine how old folks manage.

Back from NY

Well we're now back from our 10 days in the land of the cheap jeans, endless bargains, and nachos, and we managed to enjoy all of them to one degree or another. The main purpose of the visit (apart from IBM business) wasn't to just do a lot of shopping but to visit our good friends and the places we used to hang-out at when we lived in Fishkill, New York around 10 years ago. This was the first time we'd been back there since July 2002 so it was interesting to see just how well we'd managed to remember our way up from JFK up 687 and into the Hudson Valley – almost without a map in fact! We also managed to skip right over to our good friends John and Martha, with only one minor directional blip on the way, without even checking on directions.

The whole 10 days panned out really well with places seeming so familiar it was like we'd never been away for any time all, and the same could be said with all our friends, they were all just as we'd remembered them, and our conversations carried on as if there had never even been a 7 year gap at all.

We made three trips down to NYC, one on our own, one with John, Martha,and Liam as he had an appointment at Sloane-Kettering, and the third time Sheila went down with Martha, Liam, and Meg to see a show on Broadway. That resulted in me and John being faced with the unexpected, but very welcome, bonus of an evening on our own - yeeha! We were so surprised that it took us over an hour, and a glass or two of wine, to decide what we were actually going to do! We finally decided on a trip out to get a couple of rib-eye steaks and very nice they were too – especially with a couple of glasses of Rioja to help them down.

John and I managed two evenings at the Dutch Cabin in Poughkeepsie to enjoy the amazing nachos they serve there. We were joined by Dave Surico the first time and Sheila, Dave, and Rich the second time - so now she knows what the lure of the nachos is!

We had a really great time, some fantastic meals, some good weather, picked up some super-duper bargains, and of course, lots of happy memories of the fun we had with our truly good friends. Looking forward to our next visit very much...