The waiting is finally finished. The Grande Montets ski area was partially opened this weekend and I’ve been up there skiing for the past few days. It’s been a long wait since May, but I’m finally skiing again & it feels great

The snow – for November – was not bad in the least. On and off piste, there was plenty of it.  The avalanche risk is pretty much zero in the area at this point, so the only concern is hitting rocks before the side of the mountain is properly filled in. It’s already looking like a good start to the winter, with ski resorts opening early all over the alps.

Twitter  Delicious  Facebook

This morning was the best morning’s work I’ve had for many months. The alarm went off and I was out of the shower and out of the door before 8:30am – almost like I’ve got a proper job! I was on my way to meet Mark from All Mountain Performance to drive down the valley to the Tecnica warehouse in Annecy. AMP is sponsored by Voelkl, Marker and Tecnica again this year and it was time to pick up the equipment. Skis, Boots, Bindings, Instructor uniforms, hoodies, T-Shirts and even a snowboard or two – it’s all free when you’ve got a great sponsorship deal like this.

The Tecnica warehouse was amazing – stuffed full of all the kind of equipment I find exciting these days – and the Voelkl marketing bods looked after us well. I’m so glad I went along.

So I’m pretty much sponsored by Voelkl this season. I’ve got a brand new pair of Voelkl Mantras (191 cm) with Marker Baron bindings to ski on, a new jacket, ski trousers etc – even a couple of decals for the side of my van, which is going to look well bling! In return for all this great gear I’m going to be a walking (or skiing) advert for Voelkl & make them look great in all the photos and films I take and make this year.

I’ve never skied on a brand new pair of skis before. They’ll be propped up against the wall in my living room for a few days while I admire them before I take them to the shop to get them drilled and the bindings mounted. What do a brand new pair of skis look like? They look fucking cool :)

Twitter  Delicious  Facebook

I risked nearly £500 of my hard-earned quids at the end of last week by buying some Northern Rock shares at what I decided MUST be the rockest, bottomest price they could go to. Unless they went into liquidation. And surely that couldn’t happen?  As soon as a solution to the problem raised its head (ie a buyer was found), the price would shoot up surely? And boink!!! The boy Branson’s offer bounced the share price by 50%! I sold the shares again this morning and made nearly £250. Then I promptly rang up Northern Rock and paid my November mortgage payment partly with that money. Is that robbing Peter to pay Paul? It’s definitely robbing someone – the unfortunate Northern Rock shareholders probably. Damn spivs.

Twitter  Delicious  Facebook

I gave the office back to the landlord yesterday. It was a slightly sad moment, really. I’ve been renting it for 2 and a half years. I worked in it, had meetings in it, argued in it, sub-let it, and even lived in it at times. But I always enjoyed the flexibility of it’s central Chamonix location combined with the amazing view of the midi from my desk. It owes me absolutely nothing.

But as Mr Chavallier, my landlord summed up rather well… It’s time to turn the page.

Twitter  Delicious  Facebook

Taking it slowly. Yeh right. Weeks later and I’m still trying to move in. Hampered by the fact that the snow is waist deep in my garden, my office furniture has been sitting in the back of my van for days waiting for me to unload it. Hampered by the snow and the mother of all hangovers I gave myself with a couple of house-warming parties over the weekend I suppose. I’m so over moving house now, but at least by the end of today I’ll have set up my office again and I can get back to work.

So how do you move sofa beds & desks etc through 100 yards of deep snow? You can’t use the trolley like before. And if you’re trying to carry something heavy up hill in snow you do risk falling and injuring yourself. Which would be heart-breaking at this stage of the winter. The answer?

Put crampons on your snow boots of course.

Twitter  Delicious  Facebook

The promised snow storm arrived yesterday. Shed-loads of snow. 50cm at least in my back garden. It was a bit of a race for me to get down the valley to Carrefour to do a big food shop before I got snowed in. A race I lost in fact. My van (which is full of office furniture) got stuck on the road from Argentiere to Le Tour and I had to put the chains on just to get home. I’m rubbish at putting chains on, it’s a dirty horrible business which you invariably do at the side of the road, inappropriately dressed in a snow storm. But I got home in time to cook a meal for my first dinner guests.

The reality of living in Le Tour – officially the snowiest village in the French Alps – is sinking in. This is what my van looked like this morning.

So rather than digging it out, I thought I’d ski down to Argentiere instead. It didn’t take long. It’s around 5km and gravity was on my side. The buses are running, so I didn’t even have to skin back up, which I think would have tested my enthusiasm a little. As the first ski of the season it was an unusual one. I didn’t get many turns in – only when I got to a stretch of road with a nice flattened covering. At that point I even overtook a struggling van. Chuckling as I did so I might add. Skiing began as a mode of transport & today it proved to be the best form of transport available to me. That and the bus for getting back up the hill.

Twitter  Delicious  Facebook

So I mentioned in another post that I was dreading moving my broadband account with France Telecom. Perhaps I’m just more used to how France works these days, or perhaps the company has got much better, but either way I’ve got internet in my new place, and it was easy.

My friend Mimi came over to help be making the initial call last week. She has perfect French (she’s French Canadian) & also works for a company called Chamonix ten80. Ten80 is a property management company here in the valley and they have a lot of clients for whom they have to sort out France Telecom business. So when they finally came across someone who could actually get the job done they begged, pleaded and bribed with a case ofChampagne the France Telecom lady to give them her personal number.

So one phone call in clear, concise French outlining exactly what was required and sure enough, the next day I got 4 or 5 calls from various people explaining to me what they were doing. Difficult to know exactly what they were telling me, but it was an opportunity to say… “Oui”, “Ca marche” & “Tres Bien” quite a lot. The final call was to say it was done. The accounts would be transferred within the week. To which I gushed my best French and wished the lovely lady (who actually liked me despite my Englishness by then) un bon weekend.

And sure enough I got a text message to let me know the process was complete and my account was active. And it was. Amazing. And very, very welcome. France is easy if you know how, but don’t expect anyone to help you learn how.

Twitter  Delicious  Facebook

It’s been a slog, but I finally moved into the new chalet last night. I thought it was going to be when the internet worked that I would feel I’d moved, but it turns out it was installing the cat that finally made it happen. There’s still a few more runs up and down the valley to do but I’ll be finished by the weekend. I’ve driven at least 700km to do this move, spent a fair bit of wedge and generally feel like I’ve worked quite hard for it. But it’s worth it.

I’ve got lots of good things to get used to. Things I’ve been living without for a long time. Here’s a few of them… a kitchen that I can actually cook in, a real bed, proper oil-fired central heating that isn’t expensive and isn’t wasteful of energy, plenty of room for visitors & guests, a shower, a freezer – even a dishwasher & washing machine. But most importantly – plenty of space and some peace and quiet.

The cat loves it, and so do I.

Twitter  Delicious  Facebook

A few days ago I woke up convinced it was Saturday. I’d gone to bed the night before thinking it was Friday night and that the week hadn’t gone too badly. So I was pretty amazed that Radio 4, my computer’scalendar and even my iPhone told me it was, in fact, still Friday. I’d got the day wrong in my favor for once.

It had been a fairly productive week up until that point, and the extra day made it even more so. I finished it off with a trip down the valley to BUT (a kind of pikey French alternative to Ikea) where I spent a couple of grand on a cooker, freezer, dish washer, washing machine, bed and a few extra sticks of furniture. I also managed to fully empty my lock-up storage box and close that down. I was back in town in time for Friday evening apperros.

So that gave me the whole weekend to spend time up in Le Tour putting together flat-pack furniture and setting the place up. It’s nearly there. There’s still some significant work to be done, but I think I should have it all done by the end of this week, and movepermanently up to my mountain village retreat by the end of this week. I hope so – I’ve got my first dinner guests coming on Friday and I want to be ready.

Twitter  Delicious  Facebook

Well, seeing as I’ve been launching a zillion sites and upgrading a zillion more recently (it HAS all been work, work work, you know), I quickly created and launched another one today. Best-Of-Vimeo.com.

It’s a new thing – for your RSS feeder, and for somebody elses. It’s the best of what I watch on vimeo. I simply blog what I think is good from vimeo and regurgitate it on a drupal 6 website

(ubercart)

As a way to buy advertising, it could be worse. As least I know my visitors more than google does.

Twitter  Delicious  Facebook