Dr. Nick

Landed in London

2007-11-25T11:30:00.000-08:00

Well I've just arrived in London. I rode my bike down today and I start work tomorrow. It's not the most conventional living situation. I've moved into Jules' place but Colin hasn't moved out yet so I've got a few weeks of couch surfing ahead of me. Hopefully it all goes well and we can survive with us all in the flat otherwise it could all go wrong. Oh well, I'll let you know how it goes so check back in a bit.

It's all happening

2007-11-09T07:33:00.000-08:00

Well it's been an eventful day. I passed my motorcycle license and have accepted a job. I had an offer from a consulting company for a job where I would be placed at their client, Ford, and work on powertrain control systems. I've had the offer for a week and just needed to sort out a bunch of suff before committing to it and now I've finally sorted everything. My start date is on November 26th so I've got two weeks to get my life sorted and start working. The job is based in Essex but I'll live in London, which is part of the reason for the bike license. Running a car in London is a nightmare so I'm getting a bike instead. Plus bikes are just awesome. So in the next couple of weeks I've got to buy a bike, move to London and start work. Easy. Except that the room I'm going to live in is currently occupied. So I might only half move and get myself down there, start work and get going before moving all my stuff down later when I have the room. Anyway, for now I think I'll just have a brew or two tonight and see what happens next. Working for the man, oh well, it had to happen again some day, and just when the snow is starting to fall in Colorado.

Photos

2007-10-11T07:02:00.001-07:00

Well I uploaded some pictures of Camp Jules but in other picture news I've been looking through some myspace photos and came across a truely great photo that highlights how far I let my beard go. Check it out:

London

2007-10-11T06:02:00.000-07:00

I went down to London for the weekend. Matt GA was having a leaving do on Friday because he's getting shipped out to Iraq in the next few days, I haven't seen my cousin since before he got married earlier this year and I organized myself an interivew for Monday. So I headed down on Megabus on Friday and went straight to Matt's house. It's been about two years since I last saw him because he's been stationed in Germany so it was good seeing him and all his family again. Dave was also there since he's come over to England to work. Again, I haven't seen him in ages and since he only got to England right when I was leaving at the end of last year I didn't have time to catch him then. So it was reunions all around and good fun. I knew about half of the people who came for the leaving do from running into them over the years while hanging out with Matt so I wasn't totally lost but they definitely were not a group of close friends. The whole night was good with the highlight of the evening occuring around the piano. Rory (I think that's his name, sorry) was banging out the flight of the bumble bees and doing it very well. I was listening with Mackey from the beginning and halfway through Matt's mum comes in to listen behind us where Rory can't see her. Then after finishing he turns to us and says "It doesn't half tire out your wanking muscles." as he shook out his hand. I don't know if it went straight over Matt's mums head but she didn't bat an eyelid. I crashed at Matt's house for the evening and stayed the ext day to watch the England rugby match. We beat Australia and it was brilliant. The ozzies where out. As it turned out the French also beat the kiwis so it began to look like we might have a chance. All I know is that the England v. France game this weekend is going to be good.

In the evening I headed across town to meet up with my cousin and his wife, who had not even met yet. I ended up being half and hour late. It was partly my fault, I didn't leave enough time to get across London, but I was also delayed in leaving Matt's house. Anyway, it was quite similar to the last time I met up with my cousin in London when I was coming from Matts house again and was more than an hour late. So next time I'm going to have to be extra careful to ensure I arrive early. Anyway, we had a couple of drinks at a bar. I was just looking around and Mike Fitzpatrick walks in with some friends. A completely random encounter but we caught up a bit before he went off to join his friends. After a drink or two we headed for some dinner at a great Moroccan place. It was really nice to catch up with my cousin and finally meet his wife and we had a great time talking away over dinner. I ended up crashing at their place for the night and after some breakfast in the morning I headed down to meet up with Jules.

On my way down I had a stop at London bridge and had a look around to see where my interview was and then kept going to Jules' place. We just chilled out for the evening, cooking a Sunday roast chicken and playing Wii all night. On Monday I headed over for my interview. Now after the shocking performance last time round I was a bit apprehensive as you might imagine so I was going to do my homework. I called up a friend who works for them and asked what to expect inthe interview. He said it would primarily be on my work in my PhD so I was ready to study up on my thesis. The problem is that my computer has been dying lately. I think it has an intermitent hardare problem with the memory, but I'm not exactly sure since I've run the hardware test and it came up with an error the first time but not the second time I ran it. In any case, every now and then it just crashes. I get a message that pops up and says "You must restart your computer" and I have to shut it down. Then it doesn't always want to start up again ... sometimes. So I've been soldiering on and until it has a predictable fault I'm going to leave it (since I don't really have the money to replace it). Anyway, before the interview my computer started acting up. I didn't have enough space in my bag for a hard copy of my thesis so I was relying on my computer. I know this sounds silly considering that I should have brought a hardcopy to study for the interview but I didn't find out that tehinterview would probably cover my thesis until I was already down in London. Anyway. the bottom line was that my thesis was on my computer, which didn't want to start up, and I wanted to read through some of it. Not the best situation. Finally I convinced my laptop to play nice and I got a couple of hours looking through my thesis. As it turns out, this wasn't as necessary as I thought. I went for the interview and just talked with the business manager. I would have a more technical interview at later date and also an interview with the MD of the company. So it was quite alright after all. The interview went well this time around. The company is a consulting company so after the usual this is what we do, tell me about yourself, we discussed a few opportunites that might be a good fit for me. It was quite strange because he was talking as if I already had a job at teh consultancy. Saying things like "We've got this and we've got that. Here are some things that we think you'll fit in quite well with" and going on about it also saying "Well if this isn't exactly what you want to do then we can wait for something else to come along." Which all sounds great but at the same time I didn't have a job yet and I didn't work for them. I guess he was just good at his job. He was making me feel really good about the company and giving me all sorts of positive options to keep me interested in the opportunities that they had. Trying to reel me into the company. But it was all quite strange, like meeting with a recruitment agent but being in an interivew instead. But I guess thats what a consulting company is, some sort of recuitment agency. They have to fill their books with good qualified people and keep them on the line while they also go out and find jobs to match them. In any case there are a couple of interesting jobs going and it went pretty well. I might even be back down in London fairly soon to meet some clients to see if I fit what they want. Then I might actually have a job.

I've been thinking about it a bit and it's not the dream job that I've been looking for. It's not working on racing cars. But at teh same time, consulting work is quite interesting. You get to work on a bunch of different projects and gain a lot of experience. And if you want to push your career in a particular direction then you just have to push for those projects. Also, if something better does come up then its fairly easy to get out of in between projects. So it does look pretty good and since I don't have anything else on the table right now then it looks really good. So the interview went well and I crashed at Jules' place again on Monday before heading back up to Leeds on the Megabus on Tuesday. I must say I'm quite happy with Megasbus. Last time I used them they had normal double decker buses but they were using proper coaches this time so the trip was pretty comfortable, especially since I managed to get the double seat to myself. So I'm back up in Leeds now and playing the waiting game again and I'll let you know if this job comes through.

Camp Jules

2007-10-11T04:50:00.000-07:00

So the other weekend I headed back up to Camp Jules. I got a lift up there with Jules' parents on Thursday night and Jules was coming up from London with Colin and the two Chris' after work on Friday. I spent Friday poking around the boats for a while playing with my new digital camera. I was taking a bunch of arty shots of the rigging on the 14 and playing with the depth of field. Check out the pictures at my picassa site. After enough playing with the camera I realised the wind was up and time was ticking away so I rigged up the laser and went for a spin. I got on quite well and sailed up to the sailing club and then had a run back down the lake (the wind was coming from the north which is a bit unusual). I was doing alright but it always felt like there was more speed in the boat given the wind conditions. I just wasn't quite getting it. Maybe I was sailing too hard up into the wind or maybe I didn't have the sail properly set for the wind. What ever it was, there was something not quite right, which is always a bit frustrating but oh well, I had a good sail anyway. Jules and everyone else got into camp a bit after midnight and we looked forward to teaching the two Chris' how to sail.

Saturday came and the wind wasn't really blowing. There was enough movement on the water to get the boats around but not much more. So we rigged the two merlins and got Jules and beardy Chris in the new boat while I took out vegy Chris. Colin jumped on the laser and had a little float with us. We managed to beat up to the sailing club again but the wind was dying. We turned around before it got too calm and started heading back. We had to jump from one patch of wind to the next, getting caught in flat clam in between. Colin was just sitting out in the middle of the lake going nowhere. We put up the spinaker and tried to catch a bit more wind with the extra sail but just ended up going round in circles as the wind floated around with no apparent direction. At least we did better than Beardy Chris who was helming the boat when Jules dropped the spinaker pole. The pole went with the excellent auto-retrive rigging and shot straight back into Chris's forehead. It was a perfect shot. On our boat, I lost the spinaker pole once but thankfully it didn't have quite as good aim and missed Chris. So we all got back to camp after a bit of a float. Adey had made it up for the weekend but not in time for a sail so we all went for a wander through the woods. It was really nice and calm in the forest. It was full of trees and moss that really deadened the sound and gave it a great sense of peace. It just looed amazing with all the lush green in the late afternoon light under a cloudy sky. It reminded me of why I enojy being outside so much. After getting a bit hungry we headed back to camp for dinner then cruised into town for a pint in the pub.

Sunday was even worse than Saturday for sailing. There was almost no wind. We ended up taking the tents down and cleaning up camp a bit. Then in the afternoon it looked like a bit of wind was picking up. I rigged the new merlin and went out with Colin to gauge the conditions while beardy Chris got ready to sail the laser. As it turned out the wind didn't pick up, it died quite quickly which left Colin and me floating around in the middle of the lake and Chris just sitting on shore watching us with Jules. So the weekend was a bit of a failure for sailing. I felt bad for the Chris' who had rented a car and come all the way up from London expecting to learn how to sail. As it was they did get out on the water but it wasn't like it should have been. I remember my first weekend up at the lake and the brilliant sailing we got in, racing away in the 14 by the end of it. But I guess they did get out of the big smoke and had some fresh air and countryside, which they really did seem to enjoy. So it may have been worth it for them but knowing what it could have been with some good wind, I still felt a bit sorry for them.

Camp Jules

Failed

2007-09-26T05:56:00.000-07:00

Well it's official, I failed to get the McLaren job. The crappy thing is that although I only interviewed for the controls job, the vehicle dynamics people decided "not to take my application any further." Maybe this would have been the case regardless but I know that the control people talked to the vehicle dynamics people and I can't imagine they gave me any positive reviews. Like I said it kinda sucks that interviewing for the control job, which I wasn't really expecting to get when I applied in the first place, ruined my chances of getting the vehicle dynamics job, which I was more comfortable with and better qualified for. Oh well, there isn't anything I can do about it now. I've been to the promised land and I firmly slammed the door in my own face with a horrible interview. God I wish it had not been my first interview. Why couldn't some other company I didn't want to work for give me an interview first. Well, back to finding more jobs. There have been a few nibbles here and there but nothing very concrete yet. So hopefully I can sort out something good in the next week or so.

The problem with a performance like the one I had in the McLaren interview is that it introduces all sorts of self doubts. I began to think that despite thinking of myself as reasonably intelligent I actually don't know anything. That I managed to squeak through my undergrad with the bare minimum of work and no actual knowledge retention. That I also pretty much sailed through my job in Detroit without having to think and again did just about the minimum required of me to not get fired. And that my PhD was a load of missguided research that looked quite nice because I managed to write it fairly well but actually didn't contain anything that someone in industry would find remotely relevant or interesting and has about as many holes in it as swiss cheese and once again I pulled it off without actually retaining any knowledge. I'm not sure if this really is the case. Although I can think of all sorts of holes in the research and looking back on it I can think of a million ways of improving it and giving it some credibility, patching holes etc, from what I hear, pretty much everyone who has done a PhD says the same thing. I guess you never really know what people mean when they say their work was rubbish and it could have been better by doing a few things and how that compares to how rubbish your own work was. So maybe it's not that bad. However, what I do know is this. First, I have passed my viva and handed in and completed everything I need to do so unless something goes horribly wrong, I'll get the degree. So at least three other people have read my work and consider it good enough, in fact they keep saying its actually very good (but I'm not sure if they are refering to the writing and presentation or the actual work). And second, I don't know enough to hold my own in an interview so I've got a lot of work to do in revising and studying a bunch of stuff that I should already know (and claim to know) so that I can actually understand everything properly and defend myself in an interview. Basically, fill in all the background for what I've implemented in my research so I not only understand it but can explian it to people who don't know what I've done.

So plenty of work ahead of me, and plenty of time to do it since I have nothing else to do. I just have to get of the internet and actually apply myself. So on that note, I'll see you later, once I've filled my brain with knowledge.

The job hunt, or should that be with a 'c'

2007-09-20T11:20:00.000-07:00

So here I am, working away trying to pull the fleece over employers eyes, trying to convince them to hire me, and then it happened. I got a response from someone that wasn't a small, one page letter saying:

Dear applicant,

Thank you for your interest. Unfortuantely, due to the large response and quality of applicants we have not given you the job but we will keep your records on file and if something should come up in the future we'll give you a call. Now go fuck off and don't come back.

Sincerely,
Cockblocking assholes.

or something along those lines. So I finally got a response from someone. Well, that's a bit of a missrepresentation because it wasn't just someone, it was McLaren. Who you might ask? Oh wait, they're a Formula One team, yeah, that's right, one of the most successful teams out there, the one thats also made the McLaren F1 supercar and the McLaren Mercedes SLR, oh and hang haven't they been in the news lately? That's right, one of their employees was being supplied top secret information from a Ferrari employee and they got busted for cheating with the biggest fine in history ($100 million) and kicked out of the constructors championships. Well that last bit isn't so flattering but I won't go into that, there's already plenty of crap on the internet discussing that and it really doesn't bother me too much in my quest for a job. They are a fantasitc company and dspite the actions of a few bad apples they will fight on a continue to be a top F1 team.

So I got a response (did I mention it was from McLaren, you know F1, anyway) it was just a nibble at first. They wanted a phone interview for a control job I applied for. I had also applied for a vehicle dynamics job with them which is more my specialty, but never mind I did some controls as well so lets go. The phone interview went well and I was pretty happy with my performance. Then I got another nibble. They wanted a phone interview, and I was going to be interviewed by the same two people. Now This wasn't what I expected. In the first phone interview I had mentioned I had also applied for a VD job (vehicle dynamics you dirty minded bastards). They said that was fine, it was a different group but they talked. So when I had a second phone interview with the same people it didn't make much sense. So I asked the HR person if it was for ths VD job and she said yes it was. Ok what ever. So I was dilligently waiting by the phone, waiting for my second phone interview ... just waiting ... by my phone. Time was ticking by and I wasn't getting a call. Not the most reassuring feeling, not a good feeling at all. Then twenty minutes after the interview was scheduled I got a call,. Hey, a bit late but no big deal, feeling good now. However, it wasn't the people who were supposed to interview me, it was the HR person, which sent the feeelings down again. Damn this job hunt thing is a rollercoaster (if only I knew about the following week). Anyway, I figured I should heart out what the HR girl had to say. Wait, what was that, there wasn't any point in conducting two phone interviews so why don't you come down for a proper interview at the McLaren factory (which I was to learn wasn't a factory at all. It was the McLaren Technology Centre and it is a thing of wonder and amazment). So the nibble had turned into a good bite and I was on my way down to Woking for an interview, no more bad thoughts, just high spirits.

So it was that I found myself on the train down south, reading through some things, trying to study up on some control stuff and the VD stuff as well. just getting my mind in the right frame for the interview. I got down to Woking and grabbed a cab to teh McLaren Technology Centre. Now I should say that it is absolutely phenomenal, I was completely blown away by it. Now keep in mind I have already visited the Renault F1 Factory, which was amazing but this place, wow, it's just on a different level all together. We got to the security gate and the security shack was no shack at all. It was a circular glass building that wouldn't look out of place in a comtempory design gallery. So I signed in. The guard gave me a pass card and one for the cab. He told me to be dropped off at Rotunda B/C, go inside and down the steps, along the corridor, up the lift to Level 1+ and go to the racing reception. Ok, no problem so I got back in the cab and gave the driver his card and the directions. He dropped me off at Rotunda B/C, which was just a small circular glass building at the back of the main building. Oh did I mention, all the transporter trucks where parked right between me and the main building. They had jsut come back from the Belgium GP at Spa, pretty cool. Anyway, I wasn't there for the sightseeing so I swiped my card by the door and went in. There wasn't anyone there. Here I was, inside a top F1 facility belonging to a team just convicted of a major cheating afair, and they just give you a pass card and let you loose. Well not entirely I had a stair case in front of me. So I went down the stairs and got ready to "go along the corridor to the lift" like the guard at the gate told me. But this was no ordinary corridor. It was a gleaming, white 200m of perfect, underground corridor. It looked like it was out of a spaceship, maybe from 2001. It was fantastic. There were some doors but they were flush with the wall so you didn't even notice them. I was impressed toi say the least. But no time to dilly dally, I didn't want to get caught gobsmacked when I was here trying convince them I actually belonged there. So I wandered along, quite casually I thought, to the other end of the corridor, which just had a circular white pillar in the middle of the circular room. The lift entrance was around the back. So I got in the lift, but it was really disorienting. It was a glass lift but in a black chamber so it was all super reflective and you couldn't see anything. It took a little while to find the buttons to hit 1+. Before I did though, I looked up. Through the black hole was a white light at the top. I hit the button and started to move towards the light. I came up out of the floor and moved up to Level 1+. Now Level 1+ was a floating level, or at least the part I was on was. I had been brought up straight out of the ground and up to these floating walkways. I got out of the lift and looked around. How about right, oh there are a bunch of race cars that Bruce McLaren raced back in the day, including his first ever race car. Oh and check that out, there are a bunch of McLaren F1 super cars and behind them there's the work shop where they make the McLaren Mercedes SLR. Not too shabby. How about we look right. Oh, a bunch of F1 cars and whats the name on the side, just Ayrton Senna, no big deal. And beyond them, just the current F1 cars in various states of build. And guess what, there's not a single drop of oil anywhere. Everything was pristene and perfect. Did I say this place was absolutely phenominal yet? So I managed to get my feet moving and looked for anythign that could be Racing Reception. I saw a floating circle with a desk in the middle with a lady. I went over there and it turned out to be Racing Reception. Result, I had made it. It was a good thing I was a few minute early because that let me calm down and get used to the place. By the time I got called for the interview I felt pretty good and relaxed, which is good because that feeling wasn't going to last through the end of the day.

So I met the guy interviewing me and he briefly showed me around before we headed into the interview proper. Everything went nicely to begin with. There were two people interviewing me and they were nice and friendly. They started off giving me a run down of what they did and the job they had open, which was actually three positions and a bunch of work that needed to be done. After that we got into some more technical stuff, but that was fine because we started out just talking about my research and what I had done. This went well and I was quite happy and comfortable talking about it. But they certainly looked at it all with an eye for the control stuff and I got caught a little bit here and there trying to explain the control stuff in the terms they were familiar with. So not entirely smooth sailing but no big drama, yet. We ended up getting caught up with one thing in particular, sliding mode control, which I had trouble understanding myself and with an eight month break I was having trouble understanding it again and trouble explaining it again (as you might imagine if you don't remember it yourself). So we moved on. Maybe not the best if you can't fully explain work that you claim to have done. But like I said not a big deal, just a little slip. So we moved on, like I said. Fine, I was quite happy to no longer be interrogated about my own work, and fail to explain it properly, or thats what I thought.

"So I'm going to give you an example problem and just see how you do it. If we have a valve here and the flow rate is proportional to ... blah blah blah ... (stuff that's not really interesting to 99.999% of the people reading this)"

As he was saying all this he was drawing out a diagram of a hydraulic system. I hadn't even looked at a hydraulic system since my undergraduate days, about eight years ago. Ok don't panic, it's really not that complicated, actually it's about as simple a system as you could create. Even if I can't remember anything I should be able to at least just think logically and think my through this.

"... blah blah blah ... so what's the relationship between the current and the position of the piston, x?"

Ok, don't panic. Just think this one through ... right so we've got i, Q, x ... I need A so I'll introduce that ... then there's this ... oh wait not sure I need that ... how about if I do this ... hang on, this isn't going well ... ok, stop, this isn't that hard, just think, you can do this ... nope not getting it ... come on Nick!!!! ... right start again ... ok so you've got ...

And it just didn't get better. My brain froze up and I may as well have been sitting there drooling on myself, scratching my balls and farting. After some proding and a little help I fumbled my way through it, very poorly.

"Ok, so now whats the response of this system to a step input?"

Ok, put the last failure behind you and, wait, don't say failure, we need positive thoughts. Put that behind you and crack on with this ... ok, so its a first order system ... erm ... um ...

So once again I was fumbling around, and with a little guidance I managed to get to what could have been the right answer. I'm not sure if it actually was the right answer because they never really gave me any positive reassurance to that effect. Well shit. I was sitting there in a pool of dispair. I was embarassed by my performance, it was humiliating. It's not like they had asked me a really tough question or posed a problem with a tricky aspect to try and catch me out. They had given a problem that was about as siple as possible that was a direct representation of the work I would potentially be doing, or not as teh case was beginning to look like. Anyway, they had beaten me, or maybe they hadn't beaten me, but rather I had beaten myself up over my complete incompetence. Well they moved on and we had a few HR type questions, whats your salary expectation? when can you start work? etc. Things got a bit better and I did manage to move on from the previous suicide attempt and get back in the grove of talking confidently again. It did end with a more positive feeling. I asked about the jobs available and it did seem like they were suggesting things that I could do, and that they were thinking of were I might fit in. But in any case I had already committed suicide and the job was gone. I left the interview and walked out with my head down and my tail between my legs. If I was them I wouldn't hire me, in fact I would wonder how I had managed to graduate from university let alone got a PhD. I left the promised land ashamed and thoroughly dejected.

I headed back to London and was staying with Jules for the night. He tried his best to cheer me up. We all know you are your own harshest critic and maybe it didn't go that badly? No, I'm pretty sure it was that bad. Well, who knows what the other applicants are like? Good point but if they have a pulse they'll probably get the job over me. I suppose maybe I was being harsh on myself. First, everything went well until the final part of the interview, my resume/CV and therefore my qualifications got me the phone interview. So they must have liked the PhD and thought I was a good candidate. The phone interview went well and I did present myself well (until it all went wrong). I wasn't a control engineer, I was a VD engineer that did controls and I did bring this up. I never had any formal controls education. I had just taught myself what I needed to know for the PhD and it was a very well received piece of work. The fact is that no matter what job I end up with I'm going to have a steep learning curve, but just like my PhD, I'll get stuck in, learn what I need and get the job done, I just need some one to give me a chance to show what I am capable of. On top of this is that it was a controls job, not the VD job. The VD people would contact me separately about that job if they wanted to. So the VD stuff is my specialty and what I want to do, but the controls stuff is still very interesting and it has a much broader scope. It can be applied to almost anything so it would give me more opportunities in the future, unlike the VD stuff which would be more limited to the automotive industry. So maybe I would have a tough time getting going with the controls job but it would still be an amazing job. It just sucks that my first interview, which you always tend to fuck up since you have no idea what to expect, was with a company and job that what I've been dreaming about for years, its the whole reason I'm here now. And it killed me to fuck up the interview so badly when it was all actually easy stuff that I shoul dhave been able to do. The other crappy thing is that I thought I was also interviewing for the VD job. If I had know it was only the control job I was interviewing for I would have tried to sneak an interview with the VD guys while I was already down there. Oh well, they only told me that after the interview. Not much you can do about it at that point. I just hope that any negative feedback from this interview doesn't work against me for the VD job. So maybe it wasn't all bad, just 99% bad. Well Jules was trying to cheer me up. Needless to say we hit the pub and ended talking to a bunch of people I really didn't want to deal with when I felt so shitty.

Well I woke up the next day, feeling shit from the booze and feeling shit from teh interview. I didn't really think that a night getting drunk would make me feel any better about royally fucking the interview but it worth a try. Actually, the hang over probably made me feel worse about everything, which is generally the case. Anyway, I got up and moved out. I jumped on a train, not back up to Leeds, no not yet, I was heading out to Salisbury. Why might you ask? To visit Kirsty. She had broken her back at the start of summer and being down south and so near, it would be criminal not to visit. In any case I wanted to go down and visit, see how she was doing and try and brighten up her day. She had an incomplete spinal which means that its not complete paralysis. She can feel everything down to her knees and then after that she still has sensation but its a bit strange. She is recovering well and generally cruises around in a wheel chair but I was around when she had some physio work. She managed to walk around the building, about 100m, very slowly and with walking sticks. For someone with a massive spinal injury this was amazing. She is having to teach herself to walk again and it's amazing how well she is recovering. We also headed into town and got some lunch and a drink. It was awesome to hang out with her and jsut chill. We were sitting in the pub and it was like there was nothing different for when I saw her last. But then when we left and she wheeled away instead of walking it brought it back again. But she's fighting hard and I have no doubt that she's going to keep improving and getting better and she will walk again. It was a good day and I'm really glad I took the time to go and see her. It did put a few thigns in perspective. Here I was moaning about doing poorly in an interview, which really did mean a lot to me, but here was a really good friend and what she was going through just put all my trails and tribulations to nothing. So my job hunt (or cunt) isn't going too well, but I don't really know, maybe they will offer me the job. If they don't, there are more jobs out there and I'll get one sooner or later. I'm just thankful that I have a sound body and mind (at least for now) and that I have all the opportunities open to me because things could be very different, there are many people out there without the opportunities that I have and they are fighting on with more strength than I could ever hope to have.

So I potentially didn't get a dream job with an F1 team but come on, I've really got nothing to complain about. I'll let you know how it goes when I hear back and till the next nibble or bite on the job front I wish everyone well and I hope in particular that both Kirsty and Marco have speady and full recoverys, my thoughts are with you.

Hanging out

2007-09-14T06:42:00.000-07:00

So I've had quite a bit of free time lately. I've been keeping up to date with the job hunt but it's really not a full time activity. I've had a couple of outright rejections but I do have an interview next week so hopefully that goes well, I'll let you know. Apart from that, there's been a lot of sitting around and web surfing. I've got myself on Facebook now, to add to all the other stupid networking sites that I'm on. So that took some time and is providing something to do, searching around and seeing whats up. I've also just received the CF card reader I ordered. What does this mean, well I can now download the pictures from the digital camera my brother gave to me. The result, a new gallery in my picassa site with some pictures from when I was in the Bay Area. Although the camera is vastly superior to the crappy 2 megapixel point and shoot I was using I doubt you'll really see much difference in picture quality over the net. It just means I'm wasting more space on my picassa site and it takes 10 times as long to up load them. Oh well, I'll have to figure out how I can automatically resacle them or reduce the file size. Anyway, cehck them out.

Bay Area stop over

Leeds

2007-09-12T06:55:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back in Leeds and settling in a bit, hopefully not for long. As much as I'd love to stick around, the jobs I'm looking for aren't here so I should be moving on if all goes to plan, and hopefully soon. On the job front I have had a couple of nibbles and hopefully they'll be enough to turn into the full bite so fingers crossed something comes from it in the next couple of weeks. I've also printed out my thesis and sent it to the binder to get bound. I had to print out five copies of the 250 page thesis. I was going to check through them but realised I didn't really know what I'd be checking for. I certainly wasn't going to re-read each of them so I was pretty confident they were all complete and in order so I just left it at that. Hopefully all the pages are there and in order. So on that front things are almost sorted. There are a few other things I have to sort out, claim on my insurance for the cactus incident etc, but soon enough my to do list will be exhausted and it will just be the job hunt. On the social front, it's my birthday coming up on Friday so I'm going to watch the England vs. South Africa rugby world cup game then head out into town for a bit of drinking and dancing. It'll be the first time I'll see most people so it promises to be a good bit of fun.

In other news, back in Colorado, Arthur is probably on the mighty Colorado river in the Grand Canyon right now (or soon). How, you might ask, does a first year guide who wasn't into rafting before this summer end up on an 18 day Grand Canyon trip? Well Gouch from Four Corners got a permit through the lottery system and due to the late season date there were some places left open. Arthur just happened to be in the right place at the right time (along with a couple of other people, Podo and Mike among others) and scored a trip of a lifetime that a lot of people have been waiting more than 10 years to get on. So I hope you're having fun you bastard and you better have some good stories and pictures to share when you get off the river (not that I'm jealous or anything).

Home again

2007-09-06T23:41:00.001-07:00

Well after almost nine months of having fun I'm back where it all began, lovely Leeds. I'm not too sure if the title of this post is really acurate, "Home again". I certainly have all my stuff here now and I'm here for a while until I find a job. But thats just it. When I get a job I'll probably move so really I'm just hanging out here until something comes up. It could be a couple weeks if things move quickly or a couple months or more if things aren't looking so promising. Hopefully I manage to find a job in good time and don't have to sweat it out here to long. Not to say that I don't like it here, on the contrary, it's quite nice. I have a good group of friends here and like the city. The weather is even nice and sunny right now, but I'm not sure I can call it home.

I've been thinking about this concept of home the last few days. I was talking Glen on the ride home after hanging out with the boys for the last time about this and he said "The Bay Area will always be your home". I guess he's right. There is something there which I will always be connected to despite the years passing but I can't really see myself returning there for a couple of years minimum. So England has to be my home. But to call something home by default just because you live there doesn't work. I found this in Detroit. I moved out there with no real plans to move on at any time. I was living and worknig out there for almost two years and yes, if someone asked where I was living then I would obviously say Detroit. But thats different from where home is. Although I think I would have said home was Detroit at that time I'm not sure I really believed it. I think in the back of my mind I always knew I wasn't really home, or if it was going to be home it would take a good few years to earn the title. So where is home? I guess I don't know right now because I don't know where I'll be next year. I don't really want to call Leeds home because when I get a job, chances are it won't be here. It will be down in the midlands somewhere. So I guess home will be England but I just don't know where yet. Even when I get a job and move to where ever it may be it will still take some time to really feel like home. I suppose thats really it, you need more than a quick few years to call something home. I've never quite resolved where I'm from or where home is because I've moved around quite a bit. I suppose home is the Bay Area. I grew up there and my parents live there. But I wouldn't say I'm definitively from the Bay Area since I did grow up in England and that was a big part of who I am, even just through the influence of the culture through my parents. So I guess it will take a while before I can call some where home again.

Anyway, I had a pretty good trip back with only a few delays. It started after a couple hours sleep at 4:00am in California (12:00 BST) on Wednesday and I didn't get into Leeds until 4:30pm (16:30 BST) on Thursday. So almost 30 hours travelling with maybe 8 hours sleep a couples hours at a time in the last 46 hours before I went to bed last night. Like I said I was only delayed once waiting for my flight out of Charlotte but I still made all my connections to trains once I hit England. The most testing thing was the final bus ride back in Leeds. I'd been travelling for close to 30 hours, I had a 70lb (32kg) snowboard bag that thankfully had wheels to roll it around, a 50lb (23kg) backpack and a heavy carry on that I'd been dragging around through airports, train stations, the underground and across town and I'd finally made it to the last connection, the bus home. I heaved all my crap on the bus and was ready to settle down for the final leg but there was stil one test for me. As I sat down this guy sits right next to me. Fine. Then he starts talking to me in this low mumble with a broad yorkshire accent. It wasn't so bad that you couldn't understand what he was saying but it certainly took some effort. He starts saying something about going to university and how he's starting a course and has to buy a laptop and sign up for classes and all tha sort of stuff. Now this guy is probably in his 30's and doesn't really look like a university type but he's on about open university and who knows, maybe he's taking a class or two and trying to improve himself, who knows. One thign I do know is that he stinks of booze. Anyway, he won't leave me alone. Starts asking if I'm going to university and all that. I'm crap at lying and I actually was replying honestly that I didn't go to uni any more but trying to give the shortest most deadend answers to end the conversation. But he was having none of it. In fact he was convinced he knew me. Well maybe not. He might have known that he really didn't know me but it didn't stop him pretending he knew me to carry on the conversation to try and learn about me. He would say things like:

"So, yeah, you still ... err ... living up the road, you know ... err ... by the um ... what's it called ... you know the shop there ..."

To which I'd reply "No, I don't know what you're talking about." trying to end the conversation. And he would carry on.

"Oh, I know, I remember now, you're up the hill from my misses, my ex that is ... you know Julie round the corner ..."

After a while I was trying to stop him by saying "Look, I really don't think I know you, I have no idea what you're talking about." But that was no sign to stop for this man. He just carried on.

"Oh no, I remember you ... I see you all the time. You know Doncaster Dave right? You know ... he's the one who came round with Ringo the other night ... if you need a phone he's got the best deals, just go round tell him I sent you, no problem ... You can get pay as you go from the bank ... or no, don't bother with the bank, see Jimmy up the road ..."

And on and on it went. I tried ignoring him as much as possible but it just wouldn't work. I wsa just praying he would get off at a stop before me. I had all kinds of visions of him stalking me off the bus and trying to come over for tea or something. Needless to say this was not what I wanted to deal with. Luckily he got off the bus after a while so I only had to endure about half an hour of this onslaught. In the end I guess it was harmless but certainly not the welcome home I wanted. In any case I made it back. I was safe and sound in Leeds with my stuff and thats all that mattered.

I think it really helped me that the weather was at least sunny and nice. I began this post with my struggle to figure where home is and I think if I'd landed in London and it had been pissing down with rain and generally miserable, like England can be, I would have been having second thougts. As far as I could guess, if I stuck around the USA and got a job, I would be on about double the salary. Meaning that I'd have about twice the spending power over there. So I could afford a nicer car, buy a nicer house and have more toys. Basically I figure that I will have taken four years (well five now), and bunch of money to get a PhD, a further qualification, but take a pay cut compared to what I was earning in Detroit. Now, there are some stipulations though. First is that getting a job out there would be a lot more difficult. I don't have any professional connections out there and if I wanted to live in California or Colorado the industry I'm interested in isn't there. So in practicality, if I was to get a job it would have to be in Detroit or it would take a while to find one in California or Colorado, which may not be very possible. But regardless, for the purpose of this argument lets assume I could get a job out in the USA some where nice, like California or Colorado. If we go with that, I'd be on a much better salary that could get me a lot more toys and I'd be living some where with big mountains and good weather for all the outdoor fun I'd want. The problem is that I wouldn't have the job I've been working towards for the last, oh I don't know lets say, 10 years. I really want to work in the racing industry and the best place to do it is in England and thats why I'm here. Now don't get me wrong, England isn't all bad, it's certainly much better than Detroit. Out here they actually have some mountains, even if they are small. But if I want to go climbing, hiking, paddling or what ever else they do have it here, it's just on a smaller scale. Whats more is that I have a good group of friends out here who are into all the outdoor stuff so I have people to do it all with. So really its pretty good in England, its just that after having a season boarding in Breck and rafting on the Arkansas I've had it good. If I'd come back to the prospects of no job and less money when I do get a job, and to top it off the weather was miserable I think I'd be having some pretty depressing thoughts about why I'd decided to come back. Luckily, that isn't the case. The weather is nice and I've got a call back from McLaren about a job so all in all things are starting to look up. The real test will come in the next few weeks and months so I'll keep updating the blog and we'll see where I live next, maybe it will become home some day.

Labor Day weekend

2007-09-04T17:03:00.000-07:00

So we just had labor day weekend, my last weekend in the USA. I went into SF on Thursday for a big old meal and booze up. We went over to a place in Japan town that did an all you can eat and drink special. So we hit that up and got a bit carried away. We had quite a lot of food and an excess of booze. Needless to say it was a good night, except for a bit of the usual couples getting into drunk arguments. But I managed to avoid it all and not get involved in trying to mediate any of it because I was blissfully unaware of it in my drunken state. Anyway, it made for a difficult Friday. I can't imagine how it was for the guys who had to go to work on Friday. As it was I just felt shitty sitting on the couch watching TV for the morning. In the afternoon I went out to Golden Gate park and hit up some frisbee golf again. I met up with Chupa and Jaime and ran the disc golf course. Its a good way to chill out and get outside, wander around a park and have a bit of fun. However the bus ride over there was pretty difficult. I was clenching my jaw the whole way and ready to run for the door if I was going to vomit, which could have been any time. Friday night was pretty relaxed, at least for me. We hit up the marina district in SF and although we were out till the bars closed I wasn't drinking much but still feeling pretty rough. I would have been quite happy to give up and go home around 10ish but it good seeing more people in town and hanging out.

Now Saturday was the big day. Cal vs. Tennessee in the football season opener. It was the biggest college game of the weekend and it was a home game for us. We headed over to Berkeley and hit up the house. Again it was good to run into a bunch of guys I hadn't seen in years and catch up over a few brews. There was the required foosball and beer pong, the shit talking from the deck and all the good old pre-game fun. I didn't bother with tickets but headed up to tightwad hill with Chupa and Kim. We hit up the game and saw a good victory for the Bears. All those Tennessee hillbillies could run back home to their trailers and go do their incest thing they do. It was great to be back at a Cal game and see a victory. The whole time I was at school there the football team sucked. Its only been the last few years that we've finally started winning again. After the game everyone was pretty knackered so we grabbed some food and headed back to the city and passed out.

The rest of the weekend involved a lot of chillin out, heading to Golden Gate park to play disc golf and then hitting a few bars and having a few brews. Jaime had a BBQ on Sunday night which was made especially good by Marco showing up. He was diagnosed with Leukemia at the start of the summer and has been battling it. He's been going through radiotherapy and chemotherapy and getting pretty beat up. The good news is that they have found a marrow donor for him so it all looks good. He ahs to go through a lot of proceedures to get the marrow, more chemo and radiotherapy and again he'll get pretty beat up from it but it certainly looks positive. So it was really good to see him out and have a chat and catch up, even if we pretty much only told stories and jokes about shitting the whole time. So that was my weekend. I'm heading out to see the boys one last time this evening before taking off early tomorrow morning. I did take a bunch of pictures with the new camera so once I get a card reader I'll post some of them.

It's kinda crazy to think this whole journey is coming to an end. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was just heading over to California after finishing my viva. Oh well, now its time to find a job. I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to think about this whole experience and I'll keep the blog as active as I can so till next time, when I blog from England.

Dinner with the family

2007-09-04T16:57:00.000-07:00

So we all got together and had a family dinner out down in Palo Alto. My middle brother picked out the place and I headed down with my parents and met my oldest brother there as well. It was good to see them again and catch up a bit but the best part of the whole situation was that my oldest brother gave me a really good digital SLR camera. We were talking about taking photos and he realised I was still using a film camera and said "Well, I've got an old camera I don't use any more. You can have it if you want it." Its a Canon like my current film camera so my lense will work with it. Plus he gave me a bunch of stuff to go with it. An extra lense, a bunch of memory cards and batteries etc. The only thing I'll need to buy is a battery charger and a compact flash reader. So bottom line is that I've got a nice camera now and should be able to post pictures with much better resolution. The only problem is that its bigger and heavier than my old camera, but hopefully I'll take it out and get a bunch of good photos and post them.

San Francisco

2007-08-23T11:03:00.000-07:00

So I headed into the city to hang out and get away from the boredom at home. I got there Saturday afternoon and the plan was to go play crazy golf. There was a new course near Dustins place and we were going to check it out. It turned out to be a local art project type of thing and was basically shit as an actual crzy golf course. Maybe it was a good piece of art but somehow I doubt it. Anyway, that left us with not much to do. We figured we needed to do something outside and therefore probably in a park. Frisbee golf, that was the answer. We didn't have any frisbees so we headed to Sports Authority. It turns out there is quite a market in frisbee golf and they have different frisbees for different shots, a driver, mid range, putter and even more. We just started out with the midrange disc and each got one and set off for the park with a few cases of beer. The golfing went well. We just picked a tree and went for that having a few brews on the way. It turns out there was a proper tournament going on over the weekend as well so we kept running into people playing in the tuornament on an actual course. They were usually quite nice but some of them seemed to get quite annoyed that we were just hucking our frisbees around playing for trees when there was a proper tournament going on. We tried to stay out of their way and played on. We ended up running out of beer and light after 18 holes so we headed home. A quick freshen up and we went out for a few drinks. It was a good night out. There were a bunch of people out that I hadn't seen for a while so it was good to catch up with them but it wasn't a crazy night or anything. The next day we had to figure out what to do again. A few ideas were thrown around and frisbee golf was on the list again. We left it to Evan to decide and he went for the golfing (he hadn't been the day before). So we knew the tournament went on for the whole weekend and we also saw the drivers and putters in action so we figured we'd go and get some of those because we blatantly needed the distance of the driver to tee off. It urns out there are a bunch of options. There was a distance driver and a fairway driver. There was also the champion edition which cost and extra $5. We figured we needed the full distance driver and got a putter as well for everyone. We now had a reasonable set of discs and couldn't wait to try the driver. Everyone was guessing what it would be like and how easy it would be to throw it for miles. We got to the park and decided to start further down the park to stay away from the tournament (a decision that would lead us to interesting places as you'll find out). First hole, and how did the driver perform? Not that much differently from the mid-range disc. Well, I wouldn't say we had been ripped off. After a while of throwing the different discs, it became apparent that the driver would go further than the mid-range, you just had to throw it very flat and well to get a noticeable benefit. That was pretty much the key. If you were spooning your throws off into the rough the different discs really didn't do anything for you but if you had good form then the discs did behave differently. Anyway, we didn't really care that much. We just kept picking new trees for the next whole and had a beer in our hands so it was fun regardless. So as I mentioned before we were pretty far down the park towards the ocean and generally exploring around, checking out random parts of the park we had never seen before. We came across a big sports field, I think it had three or four football (soccer) pitchs lined up and we were driving down the side off them because thhey were fenced in. After running a hole down the side of the fields we cut through a fence and got into what looked like a storage area for the park. There were big piles of hay bales, gravel piles and stacks of massive logs all in an area that was supposed to be fenced off with a gate but the fence had holes in it everywhere. It looked like a cool place for a hole. I climbed up a gravel pile and was starting to look around when I got the impression there were some people around. After taking a look around I noticed a small group of guys off in the pile of logs. I didn't want to stare but as I flashed my eyes around I noticed that on guy was on his knees and didn't have a shirt on. It all looked a bit dodgy. As they saw us climbing up the gravel pile they sort of shuffled around to hide behind the logs and eventually split up and wandered around a bit. Everyone else climbed up the gravel pile and was saying "This looks like a great place for a hole. Lets go from here to the post over there." But after seeing the boys in in the logs I figured it probably wasn't such a good place for a game and it was probably best to leave the boys alone in the logs so I said "I think we should play on and go somewhere else." At which point Dustin caught my eye and turned around to see the guys in the logs and quickly agreed with me "Yup, were not playing here. Lets move on." I'm not sure exactly what was going on but I'm pretty sure that the logs were a place for gay dudes to show up and get gay with each other. So if you're in the city around 6ish on a Sunday night and fancy a bit of gay sex go check out the logs in Golden Gate Park. We decided to move on and played another few holes until it got dark. Well we kept playing in the dark until Ly lost his driver. Then we went home, grabed some food and played Mario Kart into the morning. So the frisbee golf was pretty good. I've got a set of discs and just need to convince people in England thats its a good laugh now. I figure Hyde park would be good for a round. It also got us out and around Golden Gate Park and introduced us to areas we never knew existed and certainly opened our eyes a bit.

Anyway, its mid week now and guess what? I've been turned in to general slave labour for my dad. He's doing a lot of work around the pool redoing the paving slabs so we rented a big old pnuematic hammer and broke up a bunch of the old slabs on Monday and I think the new paving stones arive today so I'll no doubt be recruited into laying those. I suppose it does help ease the boredom by giving me something to do but it would be nice to feel like I had a choice and to actually have more than five minutes advance warning. Oh well, the weekend is coming up soon so I should be able to escape then.

Bay chillin

2007-08-18T12:50:00.001-07:00

So the conference is over and I presented my paper no problem. I had a good time hanging out with all the boys (and girl) from Leeds. It was fun to show them around a bit and have the BBQ and swim back at my parents house. But now they've all gone and I've got another couple of weeks here. I seem to keep doing this. I roll through the Bay Area and figure I should hang around for a while and hang out with all my friends around here and take plenty of time to do it. However, in practice everyone has to work through the week and can only hang out on weekends. Plus people who only have weekends free tend to have things planed. So what ends up happening is that I become some slave labour for my dad at home and hang out with my friends a little, but certainly not as much as is required to occupy all the time I have. So I'll have to come up with some things to do during the week so I can entertain myself. I think I'll try and get myself off to the mountains, maybe Yosemite or something but then you get into the complication of asking to borrow a car. Anyway, its the weekend now so I've got stuff to do so I'll check out and head into the city.

The story of beard and an early halloween

2007-08-10T20:41:00.001-07:00

So now that the transformation from beardy long hair back to short hair and a clean(ish) shave has been completed I put up a gallery of the whole process. I've also included a picture of my awesome costume from our halloween party, which occured on July 31st for no real reason. I was a spartan and put together the costume in about 5 minutes once I spied the BBQ lid, yup that was my shield. After that it was easy. A broken paddle for a spear, a red towel for a cape and a 12 pack case crafted into a helmet. Check it out.

Echo chillin'

The end has come

2007-08-10T13:27:00.001-07:00

Well, it had to happen sometime, and that time is now. I am writing this blog, not from the ramshackle bunk house of Echo Canyon or from the Breckenridge employee housing, but from home sweet home in California. This can only mean that the end of my adventures has arrived. Now don't get me wrong, it doesn't mean more adventures won't happen in the future, it just means that this episode has played itself out. I still have about a month of time in California before returning to the UK but the first week of that is the conference which will certainly be a wake up call from the previous eight months. In fact, I still have to finish my presentation and powerpoint which I need for Tuesday.

So what has happened since the last gun slinging chapter of this saga. Well, nothing quite as exciting but a few things have passed. Most noteably, the lack of kayaking and evening boating, a trip up to Buena Vista and the arrival of the parents. On the boating front Aaron had a broken nose and wasn't feeling up to going kayaking due to his nose being blocked up and full of crap, and its a big nose to be full of crap at that. So that was understandable. You don't want a nasal enima from rolling when your nose has just been broken and you're trying to get healed. And as for rafting in the evening, taking out booze cruises, well thats been stopped. We had a company meeting to end out the year shortly after the Texas showdown and one of the consequences was that rookies aren't allowed to take out boats in the evening. They're also cutting back on the senior guides taking boats if there is going to be alcohol involved. So we really screwed that one up. Oh well.

Just before this metting, Pickett and I were sent up to BV to help out the Four Corners office. They were a bit overwhelmed with business on a Saturday morning so we were sent up Friday after our morning trips for a ride along in the afternoon then a double slam on Saturday. I was initially unhappy about heading up stream. I didn't really have a tent or anything and the only reason why I would have volunteered before was to go up with Aaron for some kayaking. As it turned out I'm really happy I went up. We got the double slam on Saturday which meant we weren't missing out on any trips and we also got to commercially guide more river. I was a bit curious as to what Browns Canyon looked like as the water went down. It looked about the same but there were a few places that really changed. It's certainly a much more technical section of river than the Bighorn so it was fun to figure it out and see that I could get down just fine. So even though there wasn't any kayaking to be done it was a good diversion anyway, even if I couldn't get Arthur a Four Corners staff hat.

So that brings us to the very end of my season, the arrival of the parents. My parents arrived on the 4th and Arthurs parents arrived on the 6th. It was pretty funny because we were both worried about swimming our moms. Arthur even played man, bear, gun with me to see who had to swim the'r mom. He lost, but he didn't swim his mom. It took my parents on the raft and rail on the 6th and everything went well. There was only one spot at the bottom of sharks tooth where I had any issues and that was just spinning off a rock. After rafting the Bighorn we took the train through the Gorge. It was pretty nice to ride the train. It gave a different perspective of the river and let the parents see the class 4 section of river. So all in all a good time. Arthur was taking his parents down on the 7th and was pretty nervous about his mom. But despite losing the man, bear, gun contest he made it down the river with only a few hicups but more importantly, without knocking his mom out of the boat. Everyone was able to compare notes that evening about their rafting trips because Arthur and I got our parents out to dinner together. Apart from the rafting we did the Pikes Peak Cog Railway. If coming up with stupid jokes and entertaining people on a raft is crappy, the girls doing it on teh train had it even worse. They had a whole bunch of absolutely rubish jokes and stupid crap that had to last about an hour and a half as we rode the train up the mountain. I think I would shoot myself if I had that job. Oh well, we got to the top just in time because after checking out the view the cloud level dropped over the peak just as we were leaving. Perfect timing.

So I'd taken my parents rafting on the Monday, I had one more day of work on Tuesday and we set off on Wednesday. My parents had come out in the camper van and were taking me home. It was a good arrangement because it meant that I didn't have to worry about getting the Greyhound again or flying home and worrying about cost or getting all my crap home. This way I got home for free and all my junk could come with me no problem. The only issue was living in close quarters with the parents for two and a half days of driving across the country. It turned out not to be that bad. I just sat in the back and didn't say much and tried to sleep the whole time. Actually I guess that makes it sound bad, as if I don't get along with my parents. This isn't the case, but when they're on a driving holiday together there always seems to be a bit more tension. My dad generally drives the whole time and gets tired and stressed from it. Then my mom is navigating but I'm not sure my dad trusts her with it or trusts her when she takes a shift driving. So as the day and the trip wears on it just seems like the tension rises and its just not a very fun environment. In any case it went by just fine and now I only have to deal with my dads pestering about "doing something useful" and "not wasting the day" when I sleep in. I'm sure there will be plenty of the same pestering in relation to the conference as well, "did you meet anyone new today?" or "have you got any job leads yet?" and "are you making sure you ask questions and get noticed?". The problem is that as much as I hate hearing all that crap and would like to think its a load of BS, it really isn't and he generally does know what he's talking about. It just grates me to hear it from him constantly. Oh well, we'll see how it all goes. I've just got to get my presentation sorted first.

As a final note, I got a bunch of pictures from rafting, the commercial ones they take for the customers so I'll be putting some of those up. They will document the transitition of the beard from full beard though the different moustaches to a clean shaven face. The final chapter will come soon when I get a hair cut. Anyway, check out the pictures.

Echo commercial pics

Showdown!!!

2007-07-26T11:04:00.000-07:00

Right so I have to start this post by apologising from the for the blatant lack of quality in my recent posts, especially the last post detailing the thunder booze cruise through the gorge and everyone visiting. I really didn't do the whole thing the justice it deserved. Needless to say the thunder cruise was epic even if my account of it was severely lacking. The trouble is that I was pretty worn out and tired by the whole weekend and the lead up to it so I really wasn't that inspied while writing the posts. So once again sorry to all involved and those of you who took the time to read the post. Now having said that, I've had a couple good nights rest, well as good as they get around here, and whats more I have a story that is truely worth detailing in all its glory. So sit back and relax, it might take some time to tell but it's worth it so enjoy.

So I'd been working pretty hard the last couple of days. I had a full day trip on Monday, a double slam on Tuesday and another full day on Wednesday, yesterday. To top it off they were all on oars and I wasn't doing to well with tips. I attribute that to shaving off my moustache but oh well. Yesterday went better but I had a bit of excitement in spikebuck rapid. I parked the oar boat on picnic table rock with a four load up front. This is the rock that everyone wraps boats on and has trouble with. We had to pivot the boat off by loading up the front, while highsiding. It was graceful like ballet, the nutcracker christmas special had nothing on us with moves like this. The boat got vertical on its nose catching water on the upstream tube before she spun around, still vertical on her nose. Mike in the boat behind us thought we were flipping for sure but I had the boat tamed like a purring pussy cat and she settled down nicely so I could row away like a champ. Oh yeah, it was like poetry in motion. But that is not the real story here, it's just a prelude to the main attraction. Mainly it was cool and I wanted to share it with you.

So when I got back to Echo base I jumped in a car and headed downtown to go to an internet cafe so I could write my paper for the conference that I'm going to back in California. It's due on the 30th so its getting a bit critical. I put in a good couple of hours before heading back to Echo. It turned out that the drytop I ordered had arrived and on top of that, the boys were going out on a booze cruise down the bighorn. So I jumped on the trip and took Pickett's pop to paddle and test out the new drytop. We had an oar boat, a paddle boat, the mini-me and me in the kayak. Things were going ok and everyone was having a good time having a few brews and enjoying the river. We made it through the first few rapids and I had a beer in the float between the rapids. Aaron decided he was going to try and ride the front of my kayak so we gave it a shot. We wobbled for a while but inevitably we went over. It took a while for him to get untangled from the boat before I could set up the roll. My first roll was strong but I rolled into Aaron who was right next to the boat so I didn't make it. The next attempt I rolled up into the raft. I tried a good couple more times but I was gettin gpushed under the raft so i ended up having to swim. So my expedition wasn't starting too well. It didn't really matter too much. The swim was easy, it just annoyed me that I swam. I thought I was getting quite good and swimming in flat water isn't really what I want to be doing, regardless of the fact that I was rolling up into a raft.

We carried on down the river and I had decided to not only paddle the pop to make things interesting but also take some more interesting lines in the rapids. So at spikebuck I took the left line up top and though the bottom. I caught a few rocks and some bad water and ending up upside down again. Shit. I got my roll ready and hit it. It got me all the way up but I did the full 360 barrel roll after hitting some stuff right as I got up. So upside down again, but this time I was dragging and bouncing along shore, upside down in water about a foot deep. I wasn't really in a position to roll so I figured I had to pop the deck again. When I reached for it I realised I had made it into deeper water and could probably have tried another roll, but it was too late. I already had my mind set on getting out of the boat. So there I was, swimming again. However, this time it was in a shitty shallow rapid bouncing off all kinds of rocks. What can you do? I swam the boat to shore and sat down truely pissed off with myself. I took a couple of minutes before setting off down river to catch up to everyone else hanging out at harvey's. I chilled out and had another beer, probably not helping my balance and paddling much but I figured I was in for a penny, in for a pound. Also I was curious to see how much it would really affect my paddling. So after feeling shitty for a while and being pissed off for swimming twice I got oevr it all. That was when we realised that Jaclyn had forgot to bring her keys for the shuttle car. They were at the put in with one of the other trucks. Great. Austin and her were in the mini-me so they decided to take off and just cruise the rest of the river and try and hitch hike back to the cars. So they took off and we hung out a little more.

After a bit we floated off to finish the river. It was getting quite dark by now. It was the first time I had paddled the rievr in a kayak in the dark so it was another thing that I was curious about to see how well I got on. I was a bit wobbly on all the easy flat water but I made it through the rapids just fine. It was kind of wierd. It was like I was paddling on my own even though I would wait around to make sure one of the rafts was near me as I went through the rapids, just for safety. But I pretty much knew they weren't going to do much for me if I swam or got into trouble. Not like other kayakers would do for me. I mean I knew if I got into serious trouble they would be there for me but I felt alone being the only one in a kayak. That combined with the dark made for a really surreal experience. I've paddled a river on my own only once before and I remember being quite worried about it even though it was the washburn and I was leaving one group and trying to catch up to another group. But last night was different. I guess I do know the water really well but still I was surprised at how comfortable I was with the feeling of paddling on my own. Anyway, we cruised down the river without much further drama. The only real drama had been the paddle boat, who were getting bitchy with eachother for not paddling when who ever was guiding needed it. Instead everyone was drinking beer, but they got over it.

The real excitement started when the paddling stopped. So like I said, we didn't have the keys to the shuttle car. That meant we had a lot of drunk people hanging around trying to organise everything. That's when Austin had the idea that while Jaclyn was hitch hiking to get her car we could deflate all the boats and roll them up and put them in the back of his truck. Aaron thought this was the stupidest idea ever and wasn't quiet about voicing his opinion about it. In fact he basically said that it was the stupidest idea he had ever heard and that Austin was an idiot. Okay, but he didn't stop there. He started calling him out for being a pussy, for being a bitch and that he would ass rape his sister when she came to visit. Basically saying everything he could to try and wind up Austin and he was doing a good job. There were some attempts to try and calm Aaron down but in the end no one thought either of them would actually do anything about it. So after about tem ot fifteen miuntes of abuse Austin was gettin greally wound up and ended up shoving Aaron to the ground. This didn't really do much to cool down the situation and Aaron got up and back in his face. At this point Chris came down from carrying a boat up to the road and took a different approach to everyone else who was just watching the show and got in the middle of them and tried to break it up. This ended up with Chris tackling Austin to the ground and Aaron trying to get in on top and dry hump them, or somethign like that. At this point I figured Aaron wasn't helping calm things down so I grabbed him by his life jacket and dragged him off them and threw him inthe river. This worked to cool things down for a least 30 seconds, maybe even more. I couldn't really tell, I wasn't timing the ordeal. In this time Austin went back up to the road to get away from Aaron. I thought we might have sorted things out with that. I had Aaron sitting on the boat and we almost had him chilled out. But no. As I said it lasted a good 30 seconds or more.

At this point Aaron started yelling more shit. I was keeping him down by the boats but the consensus was that it would be really cool if Aaron would kick Austins ass. I thought that this was probably not a good idea since Aaron was pretty hammered by now and would probably come off worse in any conflict but the boys said they would handle it so whatever. They went up the hill to the road and I chilled out down by the boats with a few of the guys who couldn't give a shit what happened at this point. Well things escalated a little bit and after hearing a bunch of comotion up by the road we went up to find that Austin had punched Aaron in the nose and broke it. Cale and Chris were playing doctor and were debating how to rebrake it to set it straight. So that was pretty entertaining. They actually did a really good job and his nose is pretty much straight. At this point we had some cars back with keys so Arthur, Jaclyn and myself took off to pick up the rest of the cars. In the time it took to run the shuttle Aaron decided to get Austin back and gave him a good elbow to the face and then everyone immediately tackled Austin to prevent him fighting back. So that's the scene we found when we got back after running the shuttle. Arthur took off pretty quickly with a car full of people, including Aaron. Jaclyn and Austin got into words and she took off in a big huff. Then Austin jammed out pretty quickly, I just had to make sure the mini-me was strapped down well enough along with the kayak and my gear. That left the rest of us to load Aarons van with both boats and then we took off. We packed the van full. He lives out of it so he built a bed in the back and had storage under it. Chris went under the bed, about ten people were on the bed and five more were up front riding shotgun. It was a cosy ride. I put on our summer theme song, Wagon Wheel and we had everyone singing along and for a second we could all forget the drama that had just occured and just shout out the song and enjoy the crazy ride. But that would all change once we got back to Echo base.

We pull in and start sorting out all the gear and the boats. We pretty much get everything sorted and I pull Aarons car up to its usual spot were it transforms from being a normal van during the day into high class, luxury house by night, right by the bunk house. I thought things would start to settle down. At this point I think Aaron had got what he deserved. He was winding up Austin, wouldn't let him go, got punched and broke his nose. They had straightened it out just fine and everythign was alright. They had both sucker punched each other and we were back home were, hopefully, everyone could go their separate ways and chill out or go to bed for it all to be water under the bridge in the morning but no, this is when it really got interesting. So I walk over to Aaron who is getting some medical attention from McIver on the bunk house porch. Right then Travis rolls up and says "Hey Aaron, Austins got a gun and wants to shot you. You should get out of here." Sweet, I love the good ole US of A. Everyone has guns, isn't it great. You can always be assued of your right to carry firearms for self defense. So we figure its probably a good idea to get out of sight. Right as we were walking towards the road, away from the bunk house, I see Austin down at the other end of the bunk house. A quick change of direction and we head over to the Whitewater bar next door by going the back way through the fence. The bar was closed so we didn't have to worry too much about other people. We did run into a few of the guys who kayak oevr there. We chattedd for a while and told them a bit of what was going on. Then Victor came over and everyone decided if someone with a gun was running around wanting to shoot Aaron we'd probably be best to move a bit further away. You know not near the inocent guys who were just hanging out that we chanced upon. So we moved away to the otherside of the bar and chilled out on some tables and just waited to see what happened. Victor was doing us the job of keeping us updated as to what was going on next door the whole time.

So what it turned out happened was that Austin was walking around with a gun in his belt talking about how shit was going to go down and don't get in his way or else you'll get it too. Sargent Cale USMC, trusted by everyone, friend of all and ever the peace maker, went up to him and tried to convince him to give up the gun. Austin reached for it and was about to give it over but changed his mind. Cale didn't. he went for the gun and after a bit of hand wrestling got it away from Austin. It turned out it was a pretty cheap gun with no safety and a round chambered, ready to go. Pretty lucky that it wasn't fired in the exchange. Oh and as a side note, the guns serial number came up as reported stolen in Missouri. So Austin no longer had his gun on him and someone called Andy, the big boss of Echo. He turned up and called the cops to sort things out. Before the cops show up we see Austin drive his truck away. Then two cops cars roll up. The whole time I was chilling out with Aaron next door. Eventually McIver rolls up and says the cops want to talk to Aaron so we head over next door. Andy is there with the cops and they talk to Aaron, get his statement and take a few pictures of his busted up nose. Austin is nowhere to be found. It urns out he drove off back Texas, oh yeah so I forgot to mention he was from Texas, go figure. So with almost everything sorted out for the night everyone is hanging around talking about it all. I manage to round up all my gear, which I had put in Austins truck to get back to Echo, everything including my new drytop but missing my helmet. Shit, but it does give me an excuse to get a new one which I have kinda wanted the whole summer. Anyway, everything is pretty much sorted out. It's decided that Aaron should go into town and stay in a motel, just in case Austin decided to come back. So Victor drives us into town and we get a room for the night. Bonus, I get to sleep in a bed, watch TV and have a shower and that was pretty much that.

So a pretty exciting day. Sargent Cale was the hero. He could set Aarons nose and disarm Austin, a regular Walker Texas Ranger bad ass. But it just goes to show that having guns around (which isn't allowed on Echo property in the first place) is really just a stupid idea. You get yahoo cowboys who think they need guns for self protection in case the boogy man comes to rob there trailer and all that happens is that a silly punch up turns into a full situation with guns and the police showing up. If Austin didn't have a gun there would have been a bunch of shit talking, a few punches and a bit of a scuffle and that would be that. We would all have gone to sleep after a bunch of drama and woken up this morning and it would all have been water under the bridge or at worst Aaron and Austin would just not talk to each other and avoid each other. Instead we have captain texas, the yahoo cowboy, who goes back to his trailer and pulls out a gun to try and make himself feel big and powerful trying to take the law into his own hands and what happens? He gets disarmed and loses his gun and flees back to Texas. He's lost his rafting job and is now probably wanted by the cops for a possible fellony offence of threatening to kill someone. So this gun which he intended for self protection has just backfired and put him into a potential fellony offence. I imagine this is probably the case for a lot of cases where people own guns for self protection. They get used in situations that aren't self defence just because they are available and around. This supports all my theories on why gun ownership is bad. I guess I'm not against gun ownership in theory, but in practice it just seems to escalate situations and get people into more trouble than they were in. Although I would love for people to be able to own guns responsibly I just don't know how its possible. Maybe if we just gave Texas back to Mexico a lot of these problems would be solved.

More visitors

2007-07-24T20:10:00.000-07:00

So I took a couple of days off last week to go up to Denver with Aaron to try and get some peace and quiet to write my conference paper. I got a good chunk of it done but still have to finish it and then polish it, which will take a bit of work. Anyway, when I got back to Echo I had some friends come in to town. Ly and Jeff rolled into town late Friday night and then the Breck girls, Alissa, Kirsten and Karen showed up Saturday afternoon. I had some trips during the day but we had a booze cruise through the Gorge lined up. We got two boats plus another one from RGR and a couple of guys in a mini-me as well as a hand full of kayakers. We got a bit of a late start trying to let the weather blow through but then we decided to get going regardless of the weather because it was getting a bit late and it looked like it might hang around for a bit. We cruised up to the put in with thunder and lightning all around and jumpeed in the boats and set off. It was awesome. We had a thunder cruise. The lightning was striking the gorge rim all around us as we cruised through. The rain was pounding down and hammering everything. We eddied out above sunshine and soaked up the ambiance. It was truely epic. The thunder cruise. After a good safety break we jumped back in the boats to get through the hard rapids before taking another break at corner pocket. More extensive safety checks were made (involving plenty of beer) were carried out. By this time it was getting a bit dark so we set off to finish the cruise. We finished off and got to the take out only to have Arthur realise that he forgot his car keys so a bit of shuttle shuffling happened, with a few food stops, before we made it back up to Echo. At this point pretty much everyone was feeling pretty done for so we all turned in.

Sunday the girls had to leave but the guys were staying around for another night and another cruise. I had to work again so they chilled out all day and when I got back we started sorting out a bighorn cruise. The plan was to take a 10ft raft and surf everything we could find. We had a good run down the river and I let Ly and Jeff try and guide a little, which they actually didn't suck at. Well except for Ly who did well at guiding but managed to fall out of the boat numerous times because he ... well he just fell out. Anyway, we got down to double dip and couldn't manage to get the boat in the hole so we gave up and went down to satans suckhole to try surfing that. We got in just fine and as we paddled hard into it the nose caught and we got whipped sideways and dumptrucked. We all got thrown out. I grabbed the stern line and pulled the boat out as I was flushed and Jeff got out fine as well but Ly was recirculated a good few times which made thigns fun for him. Anyway, we got regrouped and back in the boat and finished off the run. After taking care of the raft and everything we headed to town for some fried chicken but KFC was closed so we had to settle for Safeway. Once again by this point I was pretty much done so after checking out the bar for a few minutes I crashed out. The guys left in the morning and I was bcak to work.

It was good seeing everone from Breck again, especially Alissa who it looked like was going to be too busy to make it out to visit. We also had one of the most epic trips ever with the thunder cruise, which is probably the best gorge cruise I've had all summer. We did have a few pictures so check them out.

Echo Canyon Rafting

Gorge photos

2007-07-17T22:21:00.000-07:00

So I managed to get the photos of us paddling through the gorge at sunshine falls. Its a sequence of four photos taken at the last drop of sunshine falls. Check them out.

Echo Canyon Rafting

Mini-me rafting

2007-07-15T20:26:00.000-07:00

So a bunch of people have been trying to get into kayaking so Aaron and I have been doing a bit of teaching and some roll sessions. But going down the bighorn section in a kayak isn't as fun as it used to be. We know the river so well and its not too difficult anymore. So we changed it up and took out the mini-me. We put in a Harvey's, did a bit of a roll session and then set off down the river in the mini-me. It's basically an 8ft raft that you R2, one person on each side. It was a blast. The first was above bootlegers just set us off into giggles and it didn't stop for the reat of the river. We surfed every feature in the river and just got thrown around. We played in double dip for a good 15-20 minutes, and the only reason we left is becuase the guys kayaking were getting bored. But we endoed the boat and flipped it a whole bunch, and giggling the whole time. After double dip we surfed satans, magic wave and everything else. The mini-me made running the bighorn fun again. Our next mission is to take it down the gorge so keep posted.

Class IV kayaking

2007-07-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

So I got ruined by the gorge the last time I was in there and I needed to get back in there and tackle it again. So a couple of days ago me and Aaron got back in the kayaks and had another run through, but this time we were going to scout the rapids. I was feeling pretty nervous about it all. I knew I could get through everything fine, especially after scouting the rapids but its like when you're a kid and you have to fetch a ball in the neighbors yard with a dog. If you go in there the first time and the dog bites you, you're going to be a bit wary if you have to go in a second time. So there we were, getting back in the gorge. We eddied out above sunshine and scouted it. It had changed quite a bit. The water level had dropped a lot and although the features weren't as big, the line was a lot more techincal. It worried me a bit more than last time. Well no time to hang around so we got back in our boats and set off. No problems. We both hit our lines and got through just fine. The commercial photographers even took our pictures so when I get my hands on them I'll post them for you. So sunshine falls was out of the way and we moved on through grateful dead and towards sledgehammer. This was where I swam and snapped the padedle last time. Again we got out and scouted the rapid. We got a good line picked out and got back in the boats. This time things went a whole lot better. I got my line and cleaned the whole section. Scouting did help a lot, and I saw all the crap I swam through last time. We continued down like that for a while. We pretty much ran it read and run after that except for scouting the other class IV rapids, wall slammer and boat eater. But again we had no problems and ran the rest of the river well. It felt really good to have run the whole thing clean and to have scouted and checked out the major rapids. The only disapointing aspect was that the water level was about half what it had been. I would really like a chance to take it on again when the water is back up but that won't happen until next year when I probably won't be here.

We hit another class IV section today as well. A bunch of us were low down on the standby list so we decided to take the day off and head up to Buena Vista and run the numbers. Aaron and I were in kayaks and Cale, Drew, Craig and Austin took a 10 foot adrenaline raft. We drove up, set up the shuttle at the BV play park and cruised to the put in. We all got ready and set off. Aaron ran lead and was just running the river read and run style but he had kayaked it before so he did have an idea of the lines. I followed him and the raft came last. We went through numbers 1 to 4 no problem just read and run with the raft bouncing off a pile of rocks but at number 5 we decided to get out and scout it. It's got the biggest move on it with a 6 or 7 foot drop so we had a look. After scouting it we jumped back in the boats and hit it. Everyone styled it pretty well and we did just fine. we carried on with the read and run to railroad bridge were we took a little break. After that came the number 7 which is also the miracle mile, a continuous section of class 3 or 4ish river. After this point it was getting a bit nicer and easier, class 2-3 stuff and a good float down to BV. By the end of it I was pretty tired because it was a long section of river to do but it was an awesome day. That coupled with the success on the gorge earlier really boosted my confidence in a kayak.

Moon tower party

2007-07-15T19:54:00.000-07:00

So the other night we took some trucks and four-wheeled them up behind base to the top of the ridge where they have some radio towers, the moon towers. We had a good little party up there with a few brews and checked out the sunset. Everything was going just fine until the very end. We drove back down to base but to miss driving on the main road one of the trucks decided to try and find the back way into the camp area, which does exist. The problem was that the lead truck was going pretty fast and it was night time. He ended up hitting a massive boulder with his front right tyre and bouncing the truck over the boulder and beaching it. There were three people in the cab who got bounced around pretty well but also three people riding in the bed of the truck. Two of them got lauunched out of the truck about twenty feet while the third some how managed to stay in. Fortunately, a bashed up hip for one and a possibly broken hand for the other were the only reall injuries sustained. So the rim was bent with a flat tyre and the step bar was also bent where it was resting on the boulder. We went into full recovery mode and got the rescue party out. A high-lift jack got the truck up, we switched out the tyre for the spare and managed to drive the truck off the rock. Pretty good for a bunch of people who had been partying all night. After a more detailed inspection, the truck actually survived without too much wrong. Just a new rim and control arm was all that was really needed, about $200 bucks of work. Check out the pictures and see if you think that boulder would have caused more damage.

Echo chillin'

My first visitors

2007-07-15T19:40:00.000-07:00

So I had my first visitors from Cal come out last weekend. Jaime, Russel, Sam and James came out for a couple days over the 4th of July weekend and we hit up the river. The first night we hit the Bighorn Sheep Canyon with a little booze cruise. We put in above three rocks and went down to old parkdale, the half day run. We loaded up the boat with beer and whiskey and went for our float. After making sure they could paddle, which was pretty pathetic at first I pretty much gave them a break and deadsticked most of the river so they could concentrate on the important stuff, drinking. We had a good run down and a good few beers. Jaime had the Jim Beam kicking and I certainly indulged. We eddies out at double dip and once we set off agian I hardly remember guiding the river. We had people riding the bull and taking pictures. I think I kicked them out of the boat inthe last rapid and made them swim but I really can't remember. We managed to make it back to base in good shape and supposedly I even made it to the bar for about 5 minutes before heading to bed.

The next day I guided a morning trip before trying to hook up a gorge trip for the boys. I was having a difficult time getting a gorge guide to go. Everyone said maybe and wouldn't commit. Finaly I talked to Dolan and he hooked me up with Taylor who wasn't a gorge guide yet but is working towards it this year. So we were all set. We had a guide so got the boat loaded, ran a shuttle car into town and got on the river. We were a bit later than usual but in good time. We had some supplies again in the form of beer and whiskey once again but I was certainly going to pace myself a bit. We had an awesome trip and Taylor styled all the lines. We chilled out in corner pocket for a while before ending up the cruise. Right at the end in town I was sitting on the back of the boat with a beer, not really locked in and we hit the smallest little ripple in the river but it was enough. I had the most slow motion fall ever. I just slowly, slowly, slowly fell out of the boat, head over heels, but I saved the beer. I swam back to the boat got in and we were pretty much at the take out. A quick Wendy's stop in town and we headed back to base and had a beer in the bar before hitting the sack. The boys had to leave in the morning so that was the end of their visit and a good time was had by all. So for all of you who haven't got out here, get going. They did send me some pictures but I haven't downloaded them yet but when I do I'll post them.

Fight Night

2007-07-15T19:26:00.000-07:00

So I haven't updated my blog for a while but I'll put up a few posts to catch up.

So July 4th was a good day. We had a company party which involved a keg and then the main event, Fight Night. This had been talked up for a long time. What happens is everyone drinks a bunch of beer and them we set up the boats in an octagon and have boxing matches. I put up a bunch of pictures so check them out. There are a bunch of better ones that other people took but I still have to get them.

After the fighting was all done the party moved to the campfire. The fire started small but it just kept getting bigger. People were throwing in everything they could find. first it was all the wood around the fire, then it was all the logs we used as benches, and then the senior guides raided the bunkhouse of all the couches, chairs and mattresses. Thats when the fire got really big. We stayed up till the early hours drinking whiskey and arguing about the rookie verses senior guide hiearchy and who should burn what. Anyway, it was all good fun but I don't think the mannagement were too happy about the size of the fire when they saw the evidence in the morning.

Echo chillin'

Swimming Sledgehammer

2007-06-30T16:10:00.000-07:00

So the other day after work we decided to hit a Gorge run in the kayaks. Aaron and I loaded up our stuff and joined three rafts doing a booze cruise and four other kayaks for the run. We'd been talking about getting into the Gorge and I was quite happy running the Bighorn section of river so it was time to step it up. We put in and floated down to the Gorge. I was feeling ok and then took a combat roll in El Segundo, basically a little class 3 rapid, if that. It wasn't the confidence booster I needed. The roll was good but I wasn't happy going over that easily. It was just a section of boily water that caught me out. Anyway, I carried on and was doing better. One of the big rapids is called Sunshine and I'd managed to scout it before when I was watching the raft race so I was happy with that. There is a nice easy sneak line that I took on river right which made things pretty mellow. So far so good. Next up in the river was a class 3 section called Grateful Dead which went by well, just nice easy read and run. Then we came on Sledgehammer. I'd run the Gorge in a raft twice and knew that Sledgehammer was big. It was probably the place where I wanted to scout the line and check out where all the big holes were. But these guys were trucking on and so we didn't have time to stop and check it out. They said just stay left, left, left. That was the easy line. Okay, thats fine. Then they all droped right of a big domer. I was pretty sure I should go left at this point but I didn't want to be the only one to go that way and get screwed so I followed them right. I got round the domer and all the current bounced off a wall on river right. I certainly didn't want to hit the wall so I paddled away from it. As I turned my head to see where I was going all I saw was a massive hole right in front of me, sledgehammer hole. It's pretty much one of a couple of holes that you really don't want to go into and I was headed straight for it. There wasn't much I could do so I just pointed the boat straight at it and started paddling with the idea of trying to punch it and paddle through it. It almost worked. I hit the hole and just as I was climbing out of it I got spun sideways and flipped. So there I was, upsidedown in sledge hole. It surfed me for a few seconds and then I managed to reach down to the fast current and get flushed. I set up my roll and gave it a try. It was a half roll, I just rushed it a little bit and didn't quite reach all the way to teh surface with my paddle. So I got my head out and got some air, then I was back over, upsidedown. I was setting up my second roll when I went over bird drop and into bird hole. Tom who was kayaking next to me said he saw my head hit bird rock, I didn't feel it but its very possible. At this point my setup for the second roll was ruined as I was surfing Bird drop hole upsidedown. Again I managed to get flushed. Right about this time the paddle got wrenched out of my hand and I decided to pull to deck and swim. I got out of the boat and saw Aaron right next to me. The only thing he had told me was don't let go of the paddle, it was his brothers and I was borrowing it. The first thign I said as he paddled by was "I dropped the paddle" I don't think he was very impressed. Anyway, he paddled into an eddy on river left and I followed, but not before going through another hole, Envelope. So I made it to the eddy. It turned out that Ben managed to chase my boat down and get it into an eddy but the paddle was nowhere to be seen. Aaron and Willie both saw the paddle as they were chasing my carnage but it vanished before they could grab it. It turns out Tom managed to grab it, or more precisely, part of it. When it got wrenched out of my hand what happened was that the paddle snapped. So I didn't feel so bad about letting go after all.

So there I was with boat and half a paddle, not the best position to be in with a bunch more class 4 rapids coming up. The two rafts from Echo where ahead of us and had no idea what happened but the other raft was still around so that was my ticket home. We got them to eddy out and I strapped my kayak to the back of teh raft and continued on down the river. We caught up with the rest of the crew at corner pocket where they were all eddied out having a few beers and a safety meeting. We chilled out there for a while before continuing down the river. The guys I was hitching a ride with were fucked. We were in an oar boat and the guide on the oars has been on the river for years and he was just of his tits. Everyone else was also ruined. They were sitting in the kayak on the back of the boat drinking beer and smoking. It was quite epic. I wasn't drinking because I was running in a kayak for the first time in the Gorge but now that I was in a raft beer sounded really good. The only problem was that they were running out and I was already hitching a ride so I held back and enjoyed watching the show. By the time we were coming through town it was pretty much dark and we had a few thing to contend with that spiced up the ride but we made it safe and sound. We derigged the boat and chilled out until the shuttle came down. Aaron picked me up and we hit Wendys and went over all the war stories. With the other guys.

So the trip was over but I owed Aaron a paddle. It turns out one of the senior guides had found a nice paddle so I saw an opportunity to get a good paddle cheap and pay back Aaron. The price is going to be $100 and a case of beer but I'm going to try and haggle a bit to bring the price down but it could turn into a $100 swim. The final chapter to the story happened last night when I had to shoot the boot. When you swim the penalty is drinking a beer out of your river bootie, all good fun but Aaron did have to remind everyone in the bar, bastard. Oh well. The positive side of the story is that we ran the Bighorn again a few days later and I went striaght into the bottom hole of Kamakazie, which is a pretty good sized hole and quite munchy. It flipped me and held me a bit before I flushed. I hit my roll well so I'm ready again with my confidence back. I'll have to get back in the Gorge soon and get redemption, too bad the water is dropping now so it won't be the same but I still have to get myself through there in good style and fine form.

Official certified guide

2007-06-24T19:04:00.000-07:00

So I got my check out run this morning. I screwed up a couple of things but generally had a good run and passed. I'm now ready and certified to run trips. It only took a couple of hours for my first trip. I got an afternoon trip after helping out setup and serve the lunch. So two trips, the second one a paid trip and how much in tips? Nothing. I wasn't too hopeful for tips from the morning run but I was looking for something from the afternoon trip, but no. Oh well. I gave them a good trip but I suppose I need to work on talking BS to them and keeping them entertained, that should give me a bit better chance of making some money. Anyway, the real deal with this is that I can now take people down on private trips. Fun runs and booze cruises in the evening. So if anyone wants to come rafting I can hook it up nicely now. Just come on by. So hopefully I see some people come on out and if you can just get here everything apart from beer and food will be pretty much free.

The cactus saga continues

2007-06-23T14:21:00.001-07:00

So I thought I was getting over the whole infected foot, cactus incident but no. A couple of days ago the ball of my foot started getting tender again after doing a bunch of swift water crossing training. That evening I saw that there was another puss pocket under the ball of my foot. So yesterday I took the morning off and went after it. I could just see the end of the cactus spine so I started picking at it a bit. This combined with some hot water epsom salt baths softened my foot up enough to the point where I could just squeeze it out like a zit. I also got another spine out of my big toe so double bonus. I also went after a few other little spines. I was pretty happy about this because initially I wasn't sure how easy it would be to dig the spines out and I didn't want to get another doctor bill for a couple hundred dollars. So yesterday I went out and recreated some pictures of where I found my flip flop and took a few more showing the types of cacti I was walking through and their density. So check out the gallery.

Anyway, the foot is feeling better again and hopefully this is the last time I have to deal with it. People are checking out and I certainly don't want to hang around waiting any more than I have to. People are starting to get paid and if you haven't checked out yet its a big waiting game screwing around picking up random training trips. They also expect you to help out and work even though you're not on the pay roll or even promised a job. So it kinda sucks for now but hopefully I'll be checked out in the next few days and then I won't have to worry about it any more.

Echo chillin'

End of training

2007-06-21T16:01:00.000-07:00

So we had the last day of training today. But a bunch has happened since my last post. We went up to the Four Corners office in Buena Vista for a week of training on the upper sections of the Arkansas river. The volume is quite a bit lower and the lines are a lot more technical. More rock dodging and paddle comands to get round them. The river was fun up there and much better for kayaking and they have a really nice campsite by the river in a grove of cottonwood trees. Its got a much smaller atmosphere and a bit more hippie, outdoorsy compared to the more frat like Echo Canyon office. I decided to stay down at the Echo office. Mainly because the majority of our training class will be own here, we get more trips (and therefore more money) and if I do want to head up to Four Corners I can always do a quick switch for a few days to get up there. I do feel a bit quilty about not being up there though because there are some really good people up there and they do have a more outdoorsy mindset, but its also a bit too hippie for my liking. Anyway, I'll be downstream at the Echo Office, if they hire me which they should do but they haven't made any promises until we check out.

While we were up at Four Corners there was the FIBArk festival which is a big boating festival with all the kayak and raft events and music at night. I made it down for a couple of nights which was really cool. I saw some good bands and checked out a few of the contests. However, I did miss the hooligan race. Basically, people build their own rafts out of anything and just run the play section of river through town trying to get maximum carnage. Arthur got some video and pictures so I'll have to get them off him and post them for you. It looked pretty cool. But I missed it and the reason was my foot. It hadn't been getting any better and was starting to get pretty badly infected so I decided to go to the hospital. Since it was the weekend I had to go to the ER and it took for ever. I waited around 3 hours to get maybe 10-15 minutes of care which constituted of the doctor looking at it and giving me antibiotics. I had to return the next day and got maybe 20-30 minutes fo care as the doctor pulled out a few cactus spines from the tender areas of my foot. Can you guess the cost of this? $865. Thats right. A big antibiotic shot, a prescription, a few local anesthetic shots and some spine pulling with a total of 30-40 minutes of care cost $865. Its rediculous. I have travel insurance but I have to pay the costs up front then get reimbursed. So I'll be out of a lot of money for a while. Thats the lsat time I go hiking around in some cactus bushes.

Anyway, the foot is getting better now and training is over so hopefully I'll start to make some money soon. Oh, ifg anyone wants to come out here and get some rafting in come on by and we'll hook you up. We can get you down the river pretty much for free if we set it up right.

Injuries and illness

2007-06-08T20:09:00.001-07:00

Well while I've been screwing around having a great old time running through cactus bushes like an idiot more serious aliments have struck at a couple of my good friends in the last week which have put everything in a bit of perspective. A good friend back in California has been diagnosed with luekemia while another good friend back in England has broken her back. I don't know all the specific details in either case but I'm staying as positive as possible and dreaming of the best possible recovery for both. It's made me think a little of the stupid things I've put myself through, my cactus hiking story most recently. There really is no reason to put myself in a situation where I'm needlessly and recklessly injuring myself. I'm hobbling around for a bit now and why? Because I got drunk and was stupid. I'd like to think it won't happen again but I'm sure it will, and that just makes me feel stupid. On the other hand its also made me realise that having this year off and doing the ski season and raft season is one of the best things I could ever do. Taking advantage of the time I do have and doing the most with it while I can because you never know how long you'll be able to exploit these opportunities. I suppose one could argue that snowboarding and rafting are dangerous and maybe I'm increasing the risk of injury but I like to think that I try and minimise those risks through proper training and experience and being fully informed of the situations I get involved in. In any case I could never live in a bubble, I have to go out and enjoy life and I hope that everyone else does the same and enjoys their lives to the fullest and grows old happy with all they have done and experiened. I guess times like these make you think and reflect about your own life and your friends. In any case my thoughts are with both of you Kirsty and Marco. I hope the next time I see each of you, you are both happy and healthy.

hands and feet

2007-06-08T19:35:00.000-07:00

Well I've been training out here for almost 3 weeks now. We've had a day or so off the whole time and my body is getting ruined. My hands and feet are just getting chewed up. To add to this I destroyed my feet even more the other night. So they had the down river raft race through the Gorge and there was a good night to be had at the bar afterwards. Well first off we went to see the race. The trouble is that its through a gorge, which is difficult to access. However, there is a railroad that goes up the side of the river the whole way and at one point you can hike down to it. Unfortunately, its all private property and they don't like people trespassing. Before the race we were warned that the park rangers would be going down and giving out tickets but they threaten that every year so we figured we'd be ok. Not the case. As the boaters came through we got word that the rangers were on their way so it was a quick escape up some rugged scree hills filled with cacti, in flip flops. Not too big of a deal. I'd had a few beers but managed to avoid all the bad stuff and escaped with only a few cuts and avoided the rangers. But thats not the worst of it. After spending quite some time in the bar I decided to wander around out behind the bat and our camp. I got a bit lost and then it happened. I lost a flip flop, my left one. I could see it so I got down on my knees to try and feel for it. All I could feel was cactus spines, all around me and big ones at that. After 5 minutes of searching I gave up and decided to walk back without my left flip flop. This was about the worst decision I have made in a long time. It was about 200 yards back to camp and I didn't go on a staright line. I was stepping on every cactus in the whole area. When I returned the next day to find my flip flop it was daylight and I was wearing shoes and I still could prevent myslef from walking on cacti. I'm surprised I even have a foot left. I was wandering around for quite a while. It got so bad that I'd put my foot down, step on something and just fall over it hurt so much. It was about this point that I decided to sack up and just make it home. I started walking and didn't stop till I got home. I crawled into my sleeping bag and went to sleep and waited for the morning. When I woke up I had a look at my feet. There were still inch long cactus spines stickiing out of my feet. I pulled out all the ones I could see and get to and then had to go rafting. Two trips down the river for training went ok because you don't put much pressure on your feet but I still wasn't feeling too good. I went out and found my lost flip flop at lunch. It was in the middle of three big prickly pear cacti with massive spines. Then it was time for surgery. Jeff got out his first aid kit and went to own on my feet with a scaple and tweezers pulling out all the cactus spines. It was not fun. Anyway, with the spines out of my feet today went a lot better. They are still very tender and feel bruised but much better. I took a few pictures of my hands and feet so check them out. The pictures don't really do them justice but you might get an idea of what abuse I've put myself through.

Echo chillin'

Beer:30

2007-06-02T17:46:00.000-07:00

Okay so this is a completely pointless post apart from the fact that I found some super cheap beer called Beer:30. Its awesome check it out.

Echo chillin'

still training

2007-06-02T16:10:00.000-07:00

So I'm still training at Echo and will be for a while. We're in oar boats just sessioning the same section of river over and over so I'm getting to know it pretty well. We did take a side trip at the start of the week. We went on a 3 day overnighter trip on the upper colorado. The water was pretty flat and there were only a couple of rapids but it was an awesome trip. We had six boats including three 16ft gear boats loaded up. Paddling a gear boat through rapids and catching eddies with something that big and heavy is pretty challenging and you certainly have to be on top of your game. But having those big gear boats meant that we weere cruising in style. We had about 28 people so when we hit the beach we got some massive tarps up and cooked some gourmet meals. Much better than the minimalist camping I'm used to, but a bit more work. So that was amazing but I didn't bring along my camera so unfortunately I don't have any pictures but I'll try and get some from the people who did bring a camera. We also get a chance to go upstream and train at our four corners office up in Buena Vista. So that will be good for a change of scenery. I think that will be next week some time for a week or so. Then its back down here to finish the training, get checked out and start getting paid, which I really need. I'll try and get better at taking more pictures to make this a bit less dry and more interesting. Well I think its beer:30 again so I'll check in again in a few.

First week of training

2007-05-26T16:14:00.000-07:00

So I've been here at Echo for a week of training now. We have 22 people in our training class, only two of which are female. So any ideas of leaving the 8-to-1 ratio at Breck are pretty much done. Its a male dominated world in the rafting business. Anyway I'm not here for women, I'm here for the river. We've been down the gorge once and the rest of the time has been training on the Big Horn section in class 3 rapids. I'm starting to get the hang of moving around a raft with the oars but it just takes a lot of effort if you don't have everything planed well in advance. I got in a kayak yesterday and did a pretty good section of the river. The difference was amazing. I could get that kayak where I wanted with a few quick paddle strokes. I did pretty well and didn't even take a roll although I had to put in a few desparate high braces in one of the big wave trains. So I'm really happy with that because not having my own boat or car I was a bit afraid that I wasn't going to get on the river too much. As it turns out the company owner has a couple fo boats that he doesn't mind people borrowing so that solves one problem for now and as far as rides, there are a couple other guys who kayak and so I figure I'll be able to get on the river a good few times. Theres also a good climbing area nearby as well and a few guys who want to go. Its Shelf Road which is one of the best sport climbing areas in Colorado so we want to go check that out soon. I am surprised by how few of the guides climb and kayak. They all just seem to be into rafting, which makes it quite interesting because as a kayaker, when you first learn you're thrown in the river all the time and you end up swimming most rapids you get into. In rafting you can pretty much get away with all kinds of stuff with out going in the river so everybody is a bit fearful of swimming. I suppose there's no point in swimming rapids and bouncing offf rocks if you don't have to but it is pretty amusing. Anyway, we've got this afternoon off as well as tomorrow since the company is so busy from the holiday weekend then we're off to do a three day overnighter on the Colorado river next week. So it's more fun and games with the oar boats and then I think we start up on paddle boats. Thats when it gets really exciting and we start flipping them and doing all those sorts of senarios. Well I think I've said enough for now and the bar is open so I'll sign off and let you know how things are going in a few days.

Echo Canyon

2007-05-20T13:39:00.000-07:00

So I've made the move down to Canon City, well almost. I'm a few miles out of town which I thought was going to be a crap not having a car but its actually a much nicer living environment and plenty of people go into town that catching lifts is no problem. The only problem could be that its a really small community. There's about 3 raft shops, a couple camp grounds and a bar so it might be quite difficult to escape and get away if I want to chillout but oh well. I was going to get a tent and live out of a tent the whole summer but they have a bunk house/barn thing so I'm saving a couple bucks on buying the tent and living in there. It's pretty primitive and infested with mice. When I first got there I spent about three hours cleaning out the room, sweeping out mouse shit and getting the place decent enough to live in. But its not too bad and we get thunderstorms most afternoons and even if the roof leaks a bit its still maybe better than a tent. Most people live out of trailers, campers or RVs but I don't want to throw any money at something like that.I'm already spending enough getting set up here. Anyway, I haven't been on the river yet but we start our training tomorrow and I think they'll be throwing us in constantly. Everyone's been talking about how hard its going to be and how its going to kick our asses but we'll see how it goes tomorrow. I've posted a couple of pictures of the bunk house so you can check out my new home.

Echo Canyon

R&R at the Snow Palace

2007-05-18T09:34:00.000-07:00

So after the road trip I was in serious need of a break. I returned to Breck and was crashing at the "Snow Palace", Chris, Kristin, Kirsten and Jeff's house they had for the season. They have a lease until the end of May and Chris and Kirsten had already gone home so there were some space beds and not much going on. Just what I needed. Kristen was also gone, she was in Hawaii so it was only Jeff and me, and left for a few days as well. I basically did absolutely nothing. It was difficult to even leave the house some days but I'd force myself to go for a run or walk into town just to get some activity during the days. Some of you may think that this would be a waste of time or completely boring, but no. It was exactly what I needed after the season and the road trip. I was feeling beat up and abused. My body was not happy with me so this was just the break I needed. I watched a bunch of movies and read Seabuiscit, which Arthur had found for me in Telluride and just recovered.

Soon enough Kristin came back from Hawaii with her friend Kristen, and Jeff returned a day or so later. So my peace and quiet was gone and I had some company again. Which was nice considering it was a bit creepy to be in a big house all on my own but it meant staying up a bit later and having a few beers. It was strange, the first night I had a beer again it really didn't taste that nice and it didn't really make me feel that good. Usually having a beer smooths things over and generally makes me feel better, but not this time. Anyway, we had a few nights of entertainment. We got the bow and arrow set out again and failed at trying to make the sucker arrows stick to the window and then they had a bit of fun going mad with the hair spray on mine and Kristins hair. during the day we'd go into town or go on a hike. The hike we did was a bit challenging. It's still really early in the season and the trail was covered in snow. It meant you had to walk right on the path where the snow was compacted. One step to the side and you'd sink in to your thigh. I went in a couple of times but Kristin was having a tough time and scraping up her legs falling through the snow.

Arthur returned on Wednessday. We went into Denver to get a few bits and bobs and hang out before picking him up at the airport. Our final night in Breck we went to the Killers concert at Red Rocks. I didn't have a ticket but everyone else did but we figured we could scalp one easily. It urned out alright. As we picked up the other guys tickets at the will call window there was a couple who had an extra ticket that we picked up. So mission accomplished, I had my ticket. It was going to be an awesome show in a venue that people rave about. We got settled in and saw the opening acts and then the Killers came on. They opened up with a couple songs then it appeared that they were sorting something out, maybe taking a quick break. Why they would need to take a break so soon I don't know. But soon enough it became apparent. Some one came on stage and said that Brandon Flowers was having trouble with his throat and voice. Then sure enough, 20 minutes later they cancelled the show. So two songs and goodnight. It pretty much sucked. Apart from the show being cancelled I thought Red Rocks was a cool venue. You got a view over Denver and were surrounded by the amazing rock formations. So visually it was amzaing but I wasn't too impressed with it as a concert venue. The sound wasn't very good because the winds were swirling around and changing the voilume and quality of the sound. Maybe if you were closer to the stage or if it was a still summer evening it would work I don't know. It's definitely worth going for a show to experince it but I wasn't blown away by the place.

Well, that sums up my rest and relaxation back in Breck. I'm about to pack my stuff and head down to Canon City today to begin raft guiding. I'll have the weekend to get situated and then the training starts on Monday. Hopefully I'll be able to treat my body a bit better this timme round but it might be difficult. I'll let you know.

R&R at the Snow Palace

Road Tripping, back to Breck

2007-05-09T21:37:00.000-07:00

So we got up late and got out of town. I was feeling pretty rough and not doing too well. I almost needed to pull over a couple of times to release my stomach but I managed to get through it somehow. We were headed to the Grand Canyon and then Telluride to stay the night with Alissa. The first stop was the Hoover Dam. The traffic leading up to it was horrible. We probably wasted at least an hour just waiting there. We stopped and took a few pictures. Checked out the construction on the new bridge they're putting in over the whole thing, which will hopefully get rid of the traffic jam, and kept on cruising down the road. It was more of the same desert driving we were getting quite used to by now. At one of the gas stops Arthur got a bit bored and picked up a plastic bow and arrow set with a sucker end. We were trying to get it to stick to the car and only after a pile of attempts did the stupid thing actually stick but I filmed a few of the attempts for you to check out.

That entertainment didn't last much longer than it took to finally stick an arrow to the car so we loaded up and kept cruising. This was when I started to feel properly rough. It wasn't a pleasant drive but I hung in there and we kept on cruising. We must have hit a time warp because we were cruising at anywhere between 60 and 80 mph but it seemed like every hour we'd only knock off 20 miles. We were getting quite unhappy about the prospect since we hadn't even hit the Grand Canyon yet and we still had to make it all the way out to Telluride. It turns out the timing was quite good in the end, at least for the Grand Canyon since we hit it right around sunset and got some really good pictures. It was a bit rubbish though because Arthur had run out of batteries on his camera and right when we were taking some really good photos of our sillouttes on the rim of the canyon my battery ran out. Oh well, at least we got a few good pictures and also a couple of videos. The first one maybe not be too funny for you guys but when I was taking it I started out with quite a bit of sky and Arthur says "Less sky, more canyon" before I realised what I was doing. Like I said, in our delirious state it was quite funny but maybe not for you. Anyway, check them out.

With the sun gone down there was no point in hanging around so we hit the road again and headed back to Colorado. We made the only major navigational error of the whole trip when we somehow missed a turn off to stay on 160 to go passed four corners. Instead we headed down into New Mexico and added a half hour onto our drive. Buts whats a half hour in a days drive? It was looking like we where going to arrive in Telluride around 3:00am. Which had us concerned for a while because Alissa told us the road was closed between 10:00pm and 5:00am due to construction. Fortunately it was the road headed north out of Telluride and we were coming in from the south so we were safe. The final section of the drive was pretty crazy. We were working on not much sleep and hangovers, the road got a bit snowy in patches and to top it all off there were elk roaming on the road around every corner. We managed to make it through and got into Telluride at 3:00am and had to wake up Alissa to let us in. It was our second 15 hour day and we wanted some sleep. We were greeted by her roommate and boyfriend? in a completely dark living room where they had craked open a bunch of glow sticks and sprayed them everywhere, oh and she was completely naked. It looked like quite a good little party but we were thinking more along the lines of finally getting some sleep so we hit the sack pronto to try and recover.

We woke up late again, it seems like we've had a noon to 5:00am schedule on this trip, and met Alissa for lunch in town. It was good to see her again and hang out but after a quick tour fo the town she had to go back to work and we had to get to Breck. Arthur was catching a flight from Denver the next day and he still needed to sort out a bunch of things. So we hit the road for the final leg of our road trip. The scenery was really nice on the drive back but we were quite happy to be on the final leg. The trip had really taken it out of us. We finally got onto I-70 and back onto familiar territory. We passed Vail, which had lost its snow and managed to roll into Breck by about 6:00. It was noce to be back home finally and know that I didn't have to get back into the car for another 15 hour day. I went to bed leaving Arthur to sort out all his stuff. The next morning I drove Arthur to the airport and dropped him off. And so ended our two weeks of living out of a car together.

It's now time for me to recover before we head down to Canon City to start raft guiding. I've dug myself into quite a deep hole and I'm not sure how easy it will be to get out. Hopefully with some good food, good rest and not doing shit I'll manage to claw my way back just in time to runi myself again when the raft season starts up. As much fun as all this is, I think I'm getting a bit too old for it. Not the snowboarding, travelling, rafting and all that, but the college party atmosphere. I think that after the summer ends and I've closed the book on the rafting I'll be good and ready to settle down to just relaxing into a normal lifestyle.

Road tripping

Road tripping, Las Vegas

2007-05-09T20:40:00.000-07:00

So we got up at 7:00am and said goodbye to Boeing and hit the road again. Vegas baby, Vegas. We got out of the LA basin and hit the desert. After a good few hours we hit the Nevada stateline, and what was there? You guessed it, a bunch of casinos right on the border to get people as soon as they crossed into Nevada. We didn't bother with them and kept cruising to see the real deal. We hit Vegas around noon on Thursday and went straight to the MGM sports book. Arthur had some ponies to bet on and it was only a few minutes before the races started up. I chilled it in the sports book for a bit and watched some of the races but also cruised around the casino and checked out the poker tables and the lion enclosure they had. There were a couple of lion cubs and they also had some males and females they brought out separately. Arthur had done quite well with his ponies, which was quite good. He had a daily withdrawal limit on his ATM card and as a result he was a bit worried that he wouldn't have enough money to properly enjoy his time in Vegas. But he was saved, a few of his ponies came in and gave him a nice bank roll to see him through our time in Vegas. After playing the ponies for a few hours all his friends arrived in town. A couple of Arthurs friends were getting married in Vegas, which was pretty much the whole reason for the road trip. We met up with Steven and his mother and got some dinner at the Wolfgang Puck restaurant at the Venetian before the rest of the group went to see the Blue Man Group show. While they were watching the show Arthur and I indilgedin some poker at the Mirage. I didn't do as well as I wanted but thats life. By the time we got through our fun money the show had ended and we met up with everyone else. the wedding was on Saturday but it was time for the Bachelor party. We rounded up everyone and headed for a bar, the first we came across that fit the bill was Shadow in Ceasers. It was quite fitting since they have silloutted dancers behind the bar which fit the evening. After a few shockingly expensive drinks there we headed for the Pussy Cat Dolls Club just round the corner and caught another drink and a bit of the show they put on. At this point we were doing quite well and we hit up Spearmint Rhinos. Some drinks and dances later and with quite a few less dollars in our pockets from the night we ended up leaving. There might have been some gambling in there before and/or after but we ended up calling it a night around 6:30 in the morning. Arthur and I didn't ahve a place to stay yet so Steven was nice enough to offer some floor space in his room.

We woke up nice and late. Arthur had to go and tend to some ponies a bit earlier so we met him downstairs in the sports book. We hung out there for a bit and then made one of the better decisions of the trip. We headed over to the Imperial Palace and got ourselves a room. Arthur got cleaned up and headed out to a dinner for the wedding. I decided to stay in a take a nap so that I didn't die. We met up after the dinner and found a spot with some cheap drinks, $2 High Lifes at O'Sheas and stuck around there with everyone for a while. Arthur was providing plenty of entertainment playing roulette but I think his bank could have done with out it. We had been there for a good few hours and people had been drifting off so Arthur and I decided to change it up a bit and head back to the Mirage for some more late night poker. Once again I didn't do so well which was pretty frustrating since I imagined I would have done better after being somewhat successful playing back in LA. At least I had managed to build up some money for a while where as in Vegas it just seemed like I was constantly just slowly hemorrhaging money. I could probably have played better (you always can) but talking to Ali and other people afterwards they were sayign that the 3-6 limit I was playing is pretty hard. The pots never get that big and the house takes its percentage out. Anyway, we hit the sack again in the early hours.

Saturday was a big day in Vegas. It was Cinco de Mayo, the de la Hoya vs. Mayweather fight, the Kentucky Derby, Arthurs friends Tony and Christina were getting married and Ali was playing in a $20,000 buy in, winner take all tournament. We started the day like all the other days in Vegas, at the sports book. Arthur played a few ponies and before long it was time to get ready for the wedding. We stopped by the Wynn so Arthur could play the Kentucky Derby, which was pretty good with the whole sports book packed out watching the race. The favorite won and we set off on our mission. Arthur wanted to rent the Dumb and Dumber tuxedos for the wedding so we jumped in a cab and headed for the costume shop. A few minutes later, mission successful, he had the baby blue tux and we got back to the Imperial Palace to change. Time was running short and we legged it down the strip to get to the wedding which was at the Wynn. We got there just in time. It was the first actual wedding I have been to. The only other time I've been to a wedding it was just the reception afterwards for Will and Dani. A few of my friends from university and Detroit have got married but I've been a poor student in England so I've never made it back to the US for them and as far as high school friends, Adam is the only one and he got married in Japan which is even further away. After the ceremony and plenty of pictures with Arthur in his rental tux (which they forgot to give him the pants for) we jumped in a monster limo and headed over to the Ruth Chris Steak House for dinner. It was excellent food and the drinks kept coming, which was a bonus. After the dinner people were going back to their rooms to get changed and ready for a night out. I took this opportunity to grab a cab with Arthur, Steven and Brian down to the South Point Casino to see Ali play in the poker tournament. We got there later than I thought we should be they had only just started palying. We got to be on the set and watch them film. Unfortunately, after 20 something hands another player went all in on Ali, who had pocket 4's with a 4 on the flop. Ali had to go for it with the set of 4's, but it turns out the other guy had a set of 10's so Ali made an early exit. It sucked but he was going over it outside with his friend Devon (another pro poker player) and they figured that it was the only thing he could have done. With that done and getting the news that Mayweather took the fight by decision, we headed back to the strip to meet up with everyone else. They were partying in Tangerine, but Arthur and I didn't have dress shoes so we had to take off. It really pissed me off because I really wanted to get just one night in at a club in Vegas but being a ski bum and raft guide doesn't require dress shoes so I didn't bring any. We took off and were debating what to do when Arthur got a call from Steven saying he had a spare pare of shoes. Good news. We headed back to the Imperial Palace and got Arthurs dress shoes then jammed back to Treasure Island to get the shoes from Steven. Mission accomplished and we just had to get in the club. We talked to the bouncer and he let us passed the line since we had talked to him before about the shoes. We were in, although a little late. I procceded to get quite hammered and since we were standing near the VIP area I was bullshitting with the bouncer on the entrance about working in Vegas and all that. The night wore on, my wallet wore down and before long it was time to call it a night. It urns out Arthur had found the roulette tables again and gone up a pile of money before losing it again. Oh well, it seemed to be the way it went for us in Vegas.

Road tripping

Raod tripping, LA

2007-05-09T20:05:00.000-07:00

So we had to fix the brakes before we set off. A quick trip to Pepboys got us some new brake pads and we set about changing them. As usual with these affairs, the first side took about 30 minutes because we had to figure it all out, including sanding down the new pads since they were too fat. After getting the system down we did the other side in about 5 minutes. Anyway, we got it done and with a bit of a late start we were headed down to LA by about 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon. We cruised over the Altamont pass and saw the wind farm before hitting the long, flat and straight central valley. More flat and straight, just what we were used to. Anyway we hit the Grapevine a bit after sunset and worked our way into LA. Our first stop was casa de McCain. We got some directions wrong due to a missunderstanding about which freeway we were coming in on but shortly after we found him. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and a six pack and headed back to his place for some downtown street drinking. For those who don't know (most of you), McCain lives in a commercial district downtown in some space that he and McD converted into a living space. It was pretty cool but Arthur and I felt a bit sketchy living his car with our lives in it outside. So we shot the shit drinking a few beers outside his place with some colorfull conversation which hit topics like who is allowed to be naked on nude beaches and the finer points of visiting TJ. McCain had to be up early the next day so Arthur and I said goodbye and moved on to Ali's place. It was quite the contrast. A converted commercial space compared to an apartment in a gated complex with a 60" flat screen TV. Needless to say, I think Arthur was much more comfortable leaving his car parked outside. We shot the shit with Ali for a while before crashing the couch.

We got up late and didn't really have too many plans. Ali didn't have much to do so we jumped in the drop top M3 and rolled out for some breakfast at Toast. Well it was more like lunch or even a late lunch and by the time we were done we just decided to cruise around LA and show Arthur the sites. We cruised Sunset, Melrose and whatever else there is down there. We saw the Chinese Theatre and the place they have the Oscars, the Melrose Place apartments and all that kind of stuff. Ali had to stop by his agency so we all rolled up. Supposedly Pauly Shore was in the building somewhere but we didn't really care too much. After Ali sorted out his stuff and we were about to go Pauly Shore walks in and talks to a few people and then walks out. Since we were about to leave Arthur was right by the door and had to pretty much move out the way to let him get out. So we did see him, but as we were leaving Arthur says "We should have gone and seen Pauly Shore". Ali and I couldn't believe it, he'd walked right by and Arthur didn't even realise, I guess he really is washed up. Anyway, we cruised around a bit more then headed back to Ali's place. We put on some warmer clothes and switched rides to the M5 and headed out to Ali's girlfriend's brother's new house to get some chinese food and watch the Warriors game. The Warriors lost but we set up a little poker game afterwards playing 0.25 0.50 no-limit. It was a good laugh, I was doing alright, except playing like an idiot on the first hand and giving up almost half my money. After that I clawed it back. It bagan to get late and people were leaving and with no obvious end to the game in sight we decided to play a final five hands. I was up a few bucks and played two of the five hands. I gave up all my money. I just got beat palying hands that I should have played so I couldn't be too disappointed. Oh well, we set off home but it kind of started a little bug in me to play a bit of poker.

We woke up late again, and caught the Man U. European championship semi final ( we had seen the Chelsea Liverpool semi yesterday). After the game we headed out to grab some lunch. We followed Ali this time because he had to take care of some stuff before he flew out to Vegas in the evening for some work and to play in a tournament. After lunch we said goodbye and headed down to Venice beach. We walked around a bit and grabbed a beer. There were the usual assortment of street performers and interesting people. There was a guy who kept on cruising by on his longboard and he would hoist up his dog and hold him on his arm as he cruised by. Arthur got some video which I'll try and post. The guy said he had a myspace site called "Flyin' Lion" or something but I haven't been able to find it. We had seen Venice beach so we headed back and met up with Boeing. I had stayed with Ali and Boeing a few times crashing on their couch but I always missed Boeing because he actually kept normal hours. Anyway we met up and got some food at the local famers market food court and hung out a bit before calling it a night. Boeing had to be up early the next day and we were heading to Vegas so it was looking like we might actually make it to our next destination when it was still light for the first time this trip.

Road tripping

Road tripping, SF

2007-04-29T22:36:00.000-07:00

So we had hit up South Tahoe in fine style and we were on our way down to the Bay Area. We had to take a little detour to Emerald Bay just to get some nice mountain views of Lake Tahoe for Arthur, but after that we were off to the lowlands. We kept on going down 50 and as we passed through Sacramento we stopped in to visit Belle for a quick gas stop and bite to eat. It was good to see her again, even if it was just for a few minutes. We finally got down to my parents house around 6:00 pm and stoped by to say hello and drop off my winter gear. After a few minutes we set off for the city. We headed to Dustins place and parked the car before hailing a cab to meet him at a happy hour spot, but not before seeing the critical mass ride jam the streets around us. It was very different finally being in a city after 4 months living in Breck, then driving across the nothingness of the desert. The atmosphere was completely foreign. After just seeing happy hour as a way for ski bums to drink dirt cheap for the whole winter in dive bars we were surrounded by a bunch of city workers in nice clothes ordering fancy food and wine trying to look like they were successful and all that crap. They weren't taking about the stuipid gaper who fell in the lift line, the sick run they hit or how fucked they got last night. They were taking business and politics and culture. I couldn't say that I laughed at them being so pretentious because I do enjoy some intelligent conversation, but I must say that it did all sound like a load of crap being spewed by pretentious idiots trying to look and sound important. I guess it was just so different to what I was used to at Breck. Anyway, the evening got appropriately stupider as we drank more and moved to a less pretentious bar and I started to try and convince everyone that I was a South African diamond smuggler. I thought my accent was pretty good and it ws a load of fun. After a while that was less entertaining and we got tired so we headed home.

Saturday wsa going to be sports day with all the boys from Berkeley and the house. We headed on up to Golden Gate Park and rolled out a key and BBQ. Some slosh ball was played and I caught up with a load of people from the house who I hadn't seen for a long time. It was pretty nice to be able to hang out outside in the sun in just shorts and a t-shirt after being bundled up all winter. Arthur was sidelined unfortunately because he'd caught a nerve in his neck or something similar and was limited to not moving too much. We chilled out for the whole afternoon until the shadows started getting long and threatened to turn the day cold. We headed home and then off to another BBQ at one of Dustins work friends houses. It we pretty good and two BBQs in a day is never a bad thing. They alos had guitar hero 2 so we had a bit of fun playing with that. But soon enough the tiredness set in and we headed home. We were supposed to go out and meet up with people in the misson district but by the time we were heading home it was a bit late so we cancelled going out and rented Borat instead. We had a movie night and then crashed out.

We woke up a bit later than I would have wanted but oh well, we've got no real time limits. After getting up and getting some breakfast we did a driving city tour so Arthur could see the sights. The beach, Golden Gate Bridge, Pier 39, Fishermans Warfe, Alcatraz, Lombard St and then it was time to head back to the parent house and try and sort out a few things. It turns out that there was an accident on Saturday night and a tanker truck ran into an overpass support and caught fire. The fire weakened the support and the overpass collapsed. And yes, you guessed it, that was the freeway we needed to take. So we had to dive through the surface streets of Berkeley and Oakland. They were jam packed and I almost lost it with frustration trying to get through it all. After what seemed like years, we finally made it back to the freeway and got home just in time for dinner. We were a bi tlate home though and we could have done with getting to the autoparts store because Arthurs brakes were starting to make some unhealthy noises. So we're going to have to take care of the brakes and a few other things before we can head of down to LA on Monday.

Road tripping

Road tripping, Tahoe

2007-04-29T22:23:00.000-07:00

So we had got to Tahoe, and gone out the first night we were there getting to bed when the sun was rising. We slept the next day and got up late. We didn't get up to much but got lunch and chilled out a bit. We hit Carson City so Arthur could buy a digital camera and generally didn't get up to much. Arthur picked up a racing form so he was happy as a clam. Surprisingly, I didn't feel too bad after the long trip and late night, but we attributed it to going from 10,000ft in Breck to 6,000ft at Tahoe. Anyway, if the day was easy, the night was looking bad. There was a beruit beer pong tournament at Sam's Place (a local bar) and the boys had won it last week so we were all entering. Arthur and I got seeded in the first game and started off a bit slowly. The other team was ok but they got lucky with a double cup sink and we never recovered despite closing to two cups at the end. Oh well, I wasn't too disappointed because I figured it would save me drinking so much. The other guys did well and ended up in the finals against each other, for the second week in a row and Ted and Bo won it again. After the games were done we went off the casino where Ted worked to go to a party in the club there. We partied it up some more, and it being a casino, the gambling came again, except this time I joined in, and lost. Oh well, it was a good night and we ended it with the sunrise again.

Thursday broke, and we had just gone to bed. Once we woke up the call was made to hit the all you can eat chinese buffet. I certainly didn't get my monies worth due to feeling a bit rougher than I would have liked. We spent the rest of the day chilling out and I went to the casino with Arthur to bet on some ponies. We lounged away the day there before heading back home. It was a pretty chilled day and the night came by with no party to go to so we chilled out in front of Ted's newly replaced LCD bigscreen. We certainly needed a break so it was very welcome. In any case we were heading down to SF the next day to hit happy hour and go out so a night off was always good.

Road tripping

Road tripping, day 1

2007-04-29T22:02:00.000-07:00

So we got out of Breck and started our road trip. We had a few chores to take care of befoer leaving, like turing in our keys and paying the internet bill but we finally left late morning on Tuesday the 24th. We got onto I-70 in a snow storm and headed west. Vail pass was covered in snow but very quickly after that it turned to rain. Beaver Creek was completely green and the golf course was out. By the time we got any further it was only raining. We kept cruising through Colorado, passing through some really cool canyons and slowly leaving the rain behind. As we crossed into Utah, everything was turning nice a dry and the temperature was picking up nicely for a couple of guys who had been stuck in the snow all winter. We passed through some good rock formations as we drove by the national parks in Utah but soon enough everything was becoming flat, straight and empty, something we would be getting used to. We were running low on gas and weren't sure if we'd hit the next services so we decided to head off the freeway to the nearest town. We had to go 12 miles before we hit the first gas station, and there was nothing there. A small nothing town in the middle of nowhere, it just made you think what the fuck were these people doing here and how could they every stand it? Anyway, we would come across places a lot worse than that through out the trip because we had decided to go by highway 50, which is the loneliest road in America, instead of I-80.

We mananged to get through Utah and into Nevada. First thing we saw? (apart from flat, straight and empty) Yup, a shitty little motel with some slots. People could get their fix as soon as the crossed the border, but they must have driven a long way to get there becuase there wasn't anything around. It was the same every place we got to. A little motel, gas station, post office and a casino and that was a town in Nevada. We kept on trucking and night fell. I was behind the wheel and a massive rabbit decided to dive for the headlights and I hit the beast at about 60. It caught us by surprise but there were plenty more rabbits going for the car after that. Luckily we were ready and didn't hit anymore but they were coming for us. We finally made it out of the desert and started coming up on the Sierras and then Lake Tahoe.

After almost 16 hours on the road we made it to South Lake Tahoe but we weren't getting any rest yet. Arthurs friends we were staying with worked evenings and nights and the day was just starting for them. We got in a 12:30 am and went straight out to the bar. A few drinks and a few hours later we had to stop by a casino and show Arthur what was on tap. And when you're in a casino and drunk someone is inevitably going to gamble. Well to be fair Arthur was pretty set on it from the get go so we hit the roulette table for a bit of early morning gaming. After a bit of fun we headed home and went to bed watching the sun come up. If this was the way the whole trip was going to go it was going to be trouble.

Road tripping

Final runs

2007-04-23T18:02:00.000-07:00

So we had our employee ski day today, which gave the final runs of the year. Colorado, T-Bar and Imperial were open from 9-12 followed by a BBQ until 2. We hit the mountain and took some gentle cruisers before heading to the top of Peak 8 for a final run from the very top to the bottom. So that ends the ski season. Now its time to pack up, hit a road trip and head down to the rafting. I'll keep you posted so check back. I took a few pictures of my last day on the hill so check them out.

Pictures from the slopes

End of the season

2007-04-22T18:20:00.000-07:00

So we just had the last day of the season, my last day of work and its all over. We have the employee ski day tomorrow and then Arthur and I are going to hit our road trip out of this town. But we sent out the season with a bang. We had a massive night in the old Salt Creek on Thursday, well I had a massive night, I'm not sure about anyone else. I certainly felt it in the morning, in fact I couldn't go into work and to be fair I'm still not quite feeling right and my credit card is also feeling the pain. Oh well, you only live once. Alissa left on Saturday to do her final move down to Telluride and I think everyone else leaves within the week so soon this town is going to be completely different. To be fair I'm ready for the season to end. It's been really good but I'll be quite happy to take a break. This town has a way of running you into the ground. Its a place where you can't escape from going out, where sleep is always something you need and never something you have. Maybe I'm just a sucker for peer pressure but either way this town has taken it out of me and I'm looking forward to the break. The only daunting thought is that raft guiding is probably only going to be worse. Oh well, here we go.

Oh and I put a couple extra pictures in the galleries so check them out.

New lifts

2007-04-15T15:27:00.000-07:00

With the season winding down and people leaving early we hnow have one massive rota at work which means we are starting work a bunch of different lift. So today I was a T-Bar and I took a few pictures so check them out.the crappy thing is that as people leave there becomes less incentive for you to stay longer because you now have to cover all the people who have gone. They are closing down a few of the lifts for the last week of the season but it looks like I've only got a couple of days left to ski or ride. The other thing that sucks is that there are a bunch of end of season events going on that I'm completely missing because I'm working, especially at the weekends. Oh well, at least the sun has returned so hopefully it will be sunshine and warm days for the last week.

The office

Ski patrol party

2007-04-11T15:05:00.000-07:00

So we've had some late season snow. A good foot or more in the last day and more before that. So I got out on the mountain today and headed up to T-Bar and then Imperial when it opened, getting up high where the powder was the deepest and best. We hit Imperial a few times and the whole time there was a massive line going up in to the warming hut between 6-Chair and Imperial. After a few runs we decided to go over and have a look. It turned out that all teh ski patrol people from the whole area were over in Breck having a party. We just tagged along and got some free food and beer which was pretty good. But they also had a bunch of events. The best of which was a sled race. They had two patrollers running the sled, one at the front and one on the rope at the back. They had to bomb down to a third guy where they had to eat a doughnut and then whistle. At this point they picked up the third guy in the sled and raced down to the bottom of the run. With all the powder there was snow flying everywhere so unless you were in the front you couldn't see shit and once they loaded the sled and kept bombing down there were gates to go through on this black diamond gully run so people were flying everywhere with tons of carnage. I just wish I'd taken some pictures because it was some good entertainment.

Mentos 1

2007-04-09T16:31:00.000-07:00

So John rolled back through Breck last night. It was a quick stop since we was just driving through to LA. Why might you ask? Because he was delivering a promo vehicle, but not just any promo vehicle, it was Mentos 1. Of course we had to pimp it around Breck and take a bunch of classic Mentos photos with some Mentos. Check out the album, and don't be too jealous.

Mentos 1

Rafting is on

2007-04-07T20:13:00.000-07:00

So the ski season is running down and it time to sort out my summer. I applied for a bunch of rafting jobs in Colorado and after looking around and the interview etc I've got myself hooked up with Echo Canyon River Expeditions. I'm on the raft guide training course which doesn't guarantee employment but as long as I do alright I should get a job with them. So if you want to get some boarding or skiing in you've got two weeks left, the last day of the season is April 22nd. After that I think I'm hitting a road trip over to Tahoe, SF, LA and Vegas before getting back to Colorado and starting all the training for raft guiding on May 15th. So if you've missed the ski season (pretty much all of you) start booking your trip out here for some rafting. Check out the company website here http://www.raftecho.com/

Gaper day

2007-04-02T16:40:00.000-07:00

April 1st is not only April fools day but its gaper day on the slopes. Basically all the locals dress up as gapers, wear snowblades and ski and act like idiots, oh and they also get hammered before, during and after. There's a lot of one-piece suits, neon makes and big showing and jeans tucked into boots all go well. Since loads of gapers come from Texas there's also a lot of cowboy hats, camo, and Texas shirts as well as all the hooting, hollering and yeah ha-ing that the Texans all seem to do whenever they get on lifts or pretty much do anything. Unfortunately I had to work but I was over at Rocky which is right next to Colorado where everyone was skiing. They were just doing laps and going through Freeway park. People were hitting the big kickers pulling massive 720's in neon. It was pretty funny watching people falling over and acting like idiots in the Colorado maze but it was pretty shity for the guys working there. It looked completely excesive and like it was over the top acting but the funny thing was that at work today I saw everything that they were doing in line. People fell over, got hit by chairs coming out late and did it all. The only difference was that on gaper day, nobody caused the lift to stop and ski patrol said that even though everyone was hammered and skiing like idiots, they had the fewest collisions on the slopes on gaper day. All I know is that if I ever get a chance to hit gaper day in the future I'[m going to be there in a neon one-piece with sweetness drinking some beers and having fun. Next year. Anyway, check out some photos here.

Gaper Day

Homage to John

2007-03-23T17:58:00.000-07:00

So John has moved on to pastures new and decided that Breck really wasn't that much fun and he'd much rather go back home and move out to MInneapolis and get a real job. What a sucker. So if anyone wants to come visit I now have a free bed as well as the couch. Anyway he moved out almost a week ago and I figured it was about time to put up a few pictures and a video so we can all remember him. We had a rather big night out a few weeks ago where John got particularly hammered. I think the crux of the alcohol consumption came at Salt Creek when John ordered a round of Jager bombs for everyone but realised he didn't have any money. So Arthur was called in to throw down the cash, but seeing as he was paying for them all Arthur decided that it really shouldn't be a round for everyone, it should really just be a couple of rounds for him and John. So they took them to the head and throw them down their necks. The rest is history, We needed to carry John to the bus, the driver almost didn't let him on because he thought he would throw up all over the bus, but no need to worry, John just passed out in Arthurs lap, nice and cozy boys. WHen we got back to our place a camera was found and a few pictures were taken, but initially we had the camera set on video while we were trying to take pictures so we have a gem of a video then a few pictures. But the morning was a different story. John had teh last laugh when we woke up at 5:00am still drunk as can be and started running around the apartment playing the hippo song, calling Mike who was in the room next door and telling him his chilli sucked and also abusing Arthur on the phone. John also decided he would have a popsicle during this whole ordeal. But the fun really came at 6:00 when he realised he had to go to work. Anyway, here's the video and pictures.

Nights out in Breck

Arthurs chicken dinner

2007-03-23T17:48:00.000-07:00

So for all of you who don't know, Arthur is a man who likes his chicken. He's all about the chicken and he's been going on about cooking a big old chicken dinner for just about the whole season. So with John leaving soon he finally got round to it. We got off the hill around 4:00 and headed home, went back out to the market to get everything and were back and ready to start cooking the two birds we'd picked up by about 5:00ish. After waiting for what seemed like days the chicken was finally getting to be cooked around midnight. During this process quite a few beers where consumed and the crowd was getting restless. It didn't help that he put about 3 gallons of water in the gravy or that the birds were basted in 12 sticks of pure butter, but to give the man credit, it did taste pretty good. Check out the pictures and videos.

Chicken dinner

Arthurs chicken dinner 1, The bacon

Arthurs chicken dinner 2, The heart attack

Arthurs chicken dinner 3, Swimming lessons

Gaper boarding with sweetness

2007-03-15T18:06:00.000-07:00

So my roommate John is leaving after this weekend so we decided to go out and have a good day on the slopes. I broke out sweetness and we rolled in gaper shirts. To top things off we stopped by the liquor store and picked up some beers. The result, a great day on the slopes. We cruised the slopes and had a couple of runs through the small parks. I forgot how difficult it is to ride sweetness. After a couple of runs it was ok but the stance is really close together which makes riding pretty difficult just due to trying to maintain your balance. Anyway, we had a good day out and took a couple of pictures. Check them out.

Pictures from the slopes

IAVSD Conference in Berkeley

2007-03-13T19:18:00.000-07:00

I Just got an email from the IAVSD conference thats in Berkeley that my abstract was accepted. So I'll be back in the bay area for August 13th and I'll probably stay and hang out there until I fly back to England. Hopefully it will be a way of convincing potential employeers that I'm staying current with research, not just pissing around having fun in Colorado. The only problem is that I have to write the paper now, hopefully my brain still works.

Mountain madness

2007-03-13T16:46:00.000-07:00

So its getting crazy on the mountain. Springbreak gapers have arrived in full force and the mountain is full of Texans falling everywhere. Its almost getting to the point where its not even worth going boarding its so busy. And some of these guys are falling pretty hard. I was working on Rocky Mountain Chair today, which is at the base of Peak 8 and just across from ski patrol, and they were busy. About every 20-30 minutes they would bring in another victim. The worst was early in the day around 10:00 when we saw a patroler bring down a sled while two other patrolers were riding alongside it kneeling down giving CPR and another was stabilising the tobogan from the rear. It didn't look good at all and it turned out that it was an 18 year old guy from North Carolina who skied into a tree under our lift on Dukes and he ended up dying. Its the second guy who has died this year at Breck. Another guy died in pretty much the same way and around the same place just a week or so before I got out here. It makes you think a bit about the stupid stuff you do on the slopes and you realise its pretty easy to get into some serious trouble.

Full moon boarding at Loveland Pass

2007-03-05T16:58:00.000-08:00

The full moon was on March 4th and we headed out to Loveland pass to hit a few runs under the moonlight. We jumped in the car and rolled out, with a quick stop in Frisco to meet Jeff's friend, Drew and grab a quick bit in Wendys. We also had a few beers for the ride up the pass just to liven things up a bit. Once we hit the pass we saw a whole bunch of people all riding under undwer the moonlight and having a bit of a party. We hit the back side of the pass first, heading down towards A-Basin. We hiked in a little and got up to a little shack. This was our drop in. We strapped in and took a run. It was pretty sketchy. The snow was heavy, crusty powder and the tracks were pretty icy. The light was pretty good but at the same time it only gave you the general lie of the land, the details of the bumps and tracks were a bit harder to make out. So it took a bit of jedi boarding to run out the flats and carry some speed. The first run was pretty sweet, with a few fresh powder turns. I also almost stacked it trying to carry some speed across a flat. It was pretty tracked and the tracks were iced up. So running through them I was catching edges all the time and I just had to float it and follow my board.

After the first run we had to wait for a passing car so we could hitch hike back up to our cars. This took a while. We finally decided to start walking after half an hour. Another half hour later a car finally came by, it was supposed to be a lot quicker than that. Oh well. Anyway, we made it back up to the cars by sending Jeff and Drew up to the cars and they came back with the truck. Then John, Arthur, Mike and I jumped into the bed like a bunch of sardines in a tin for a riide back up to the top of the pass. From then on we decided that we shoul drun a shuttle and send one person down to pick us up on each run. We also decided to drop down the front of the pass towards I-70, which was seeing a lot more traffic. We took a few runs down the front. The snow wasn't quite as good because there had been a lot more people running it, but we still found some good lines. After hitting the front a few times it was getting late and we decided to jam home. We got in by 3:00am which gave me 3 hours sleep before I had to wake up for work in the morning, sweet.

So whats the verdict? Full moon boarding was cool and I definitely loved it, even if I only got 3 hours sleep before work today. The riding wasn't that good, but I guess we could have hit better snow conditions but thats not the point. It was sweet because just strapping in under a full moon is an experience that is truely unique and something I'll remember forever.

Check out the photos.

Full moon boarding at Loveland Pass

Visitors

2007-03-03T16:21:00.000-08:00

So this last week I've had some visitors, Jules and his family all came out for a week in Breck and they picked just about the best week we've had this season. It snowed the whole week and we had some amazing powder drop on the mountain, which we took advantage of. I also managed to swithc some shifts around so I had Monday to Friday off to go boarding with them. We hit a couple fo epic days at Breck on Monday and Tuesday and got some sick powder runs under 6 Chair, down Y Chutes and over on Mustang. Then on Wednesday we cruised over to Vail and got some nice powder runs in Blue Sky Basin and hit a few cliff drops. Then the weather turned a bit colder and stormy for Thursday and Friday but we still went out and hit the slopes for a few good runs. Despite all this great boarding (or maybe to due it) we didn't take too many pictures but you can check out one in my picasa album.

I had an amazing week of boarding and it was definitely cool having people out here to visit. I definitely have to thank Jules' parents for coming out to Breck and bringing the whole family, and taking me out for dinner. So for everyone else thinking of coming out, DO IT.

Pictures from the slopes

big night ... and more to come

2007-02-24T16:05:00.000-08:00

Last night we cruised over to Vail to check out a Grateful Dead cover band, but hold on, lets start at the beginning. So I had an average day at work, apart from the lift got shut down early for some maintanence issue. So I got off work early and headed home for a quick shower before heading out to Jakes, where they have a free keg for employees on Fridays. So after having a few brews with the crew Chris comes round and says he's hheading off to Vail to see this Grateful Dead cover band. So we round up a posse and head out. It was me, Chris, John, Brian and Alissa. We grab a few road sodas and hit Wendys in Frisco on the way. It was starting to snow so there was the possibility that the Vail pass might get closed and we'd get stuck out there but oh well, we were going to the show and not much else mattered at this point. We get to the show in plenty of time and play some pool and foosball while we wait. The band comes on and were good, too bad they charged $20 on the door, but I guess its Vail and everything is that much more expensive over there. At some point towards the end of the night Brian is doing quite well with some girls. Anyway, at the end of the night we're all piling back into the car and Brian says "Man, I should have stayed with thise chicks"
And John says "Why don't you stay?" and that was the last we saw of Brian as he headed out to find the girls again. So we cruise back to Breck and Chris is doing a sterling job of staying awake and getting us all back safely in the storm conditions. We finally get back at 3:00am and hit the sack after a rather big night.
Then at 6:00am the alarm goes off. Fuck. Both me and John have to head to work. It wasn't the best day at the office. John was sick and saw his pizza a second time. I did a little better but was constantly falling asleep and waking up not having a clue what was going on or where I was. But it all over now and I think I'll take a napo because Jules and his family are coming into town tonight for the week and I can foresee a lot more late nights and drinking.

A-Basin and Keystone

2007-02-21T18:12:00.000-08:00

I went over to A-Basin with Mike the other day. Its was alright but really tracked out and they didn't have enough snow to open the East Wall. Its pretty small so by 1:00 we decided that we had enough. The verdict was that it would be an amazing place if the snow conditions were right. We decided to hit Keystone for a few runs on our way home and managed to find some powder in the trees. Check out a couple pictures here.

Pictures from the slopes

I've also added a few pictures to my "office" album from Rocky Mountain chair.

The office

another day at the office

2007-02-18T16:42:00.000-08:00

So this weekend is Presidents Day weekend and its about the busiest we get out here. I was working E-Chair and I reckon we shifted roughly 6000 people up the mountain, and we're only a double chair. Inevitably there are plenty of muppets out on the hill, fucking gapers. The highlight of my day was seeing a kid getting completely taken out by a chair. This is how it happened. These two boarders were riding the lift together. The guy nearest me and on the outside of the chair got off pretty early and pushed off the chair. The other guy got left standing at the top of the rammp and the chair passed him. Then as he skated down the ramp the chair swung round the bullwheel and just cracked him straight in the head (check illustration).

He dropped like a sack of shit. I thought for sure that he was knocked out cold and there would be a pool of blood growing. I'd have to call ski patrol, the lift would be shut down for hours while they brought up a body bag. As it turned out he got up and after sitting around for a minute or two he took off and boarded down the hill. I was amazed. I wonder if he got a concussion or anything because he was fully taken out and the chair tagged him straight in the head, and those things weigh a lot and have a lot of momentum behind them. I just wish I somehow caught it on film because you just can't believe how hard he was clocked without seeing it yourself.

Apart from that the day had its usual pile of idiots not getting on the lift properly and being knocked about or having two groups of people come out not realising that a chair hadn't passed in the 1 second they were waiting. I also took a few more pictures and added them to my gallery of picture from the "office" so check them out.

The office

Another cabin

2007-02-16T17:19:00.000-08:00

We found another cabin yesterday. I knew there was a cabin somewhere in the windows but hadn't really gone looking for it. Yesterday I was out riding with Arthur and his roommate Drew. We were cruising through the windows just getting some sweet powder runs through the trees. Drew and I stopped at on one of the runs and were waiting for Arthur when Drew stopped the cabin just 10 meters away through the trees right next to where we stopped. I hadn't even noticed it on the previous run. As you can see from the pictures its pretty well camouflaged. So I've now found three cabins. There a supposedly a bunch more but I'm not sure if there are many more that are in good condition and nice.

Cabin hunt

Epic, just epic

2007-02-16T15:49:00.000-08:00

So we've finally had some snow falling in the last couple of days, and its been dumping on the mountain. Today was my day off so we decided to hit Vail for some truely insane riding. We got up for the 7:36 bus into town and were just waiting for the Vail bus watching the snow falling in big fluffy flakes. When the bus finally came the driver jumped out and announced that he wasn't going to Vail, the roads were too bad. So that scuppered our plans to hit an insane day at Vail in the back bowls and Blue Sky Basin. No problem, we'd just hit Breck and session the sweet spots we knew.

So we got the gondola up to Peak 8 and grabbed some breakfast before hitting the slopes. We were planning on hitting E-Chair since it has some sick terrain and opens before the higher mountain lifts. When we got up Colorado to head over to E-Chair we called them and they weren't open so we decided to hang around Super Connect hoping it would open soon. The first runs we took were in the trees under the lift and the snow was deep, fluffy and just sick. Hitting deep fluffy snow pillows between the trees getting face shots on every turn and just cruising hard, what more can I say.

After hitting Super Connect a few times we cruised over to Peak 10 and hit Falcon and that was a lift ride. They were running the lift slow and stopping it quite frequently because the wind was picking up and swinging the chairs. We got stopped a few towers from the top and the chair was just flying around with some massive wind gusts ripping through. Anyway, we cruised fresh powder down through the Burn, which is a sick open tree run. After sessioning that a few times getting fresh trakcs we headed over to Mustang and got more fresh tracks and hit this natural kicker for a few runs. By then our legs were burning from riding so much powder so we took a late break for lunch. After lunch we hit Mustang again but the landing on the kicker was getting bombed out so we hit the Burn again and headed down to Mercury so we could get a run down under E-Chair. More fresh tracks, deep powder, pillows and face shots. By this time we were pretty knackered so we headed up Super Connect and jammed down 4 O'clock and back home.

It was pretty much the best day riding I've ever had and the top of the mountain wasn't even open because of high winds. E, 6, T-bar and Imperial were all closed so theres some sick snow up there still waiting for fresh tracks. Too bad I've got to work the next two days. Oh well, it's supposed to snow again on Monday, my next day off. Game on.

Oh I did have my camera out but I only took a picture waiting for the bus and then one before we had breakfast. I was too busy enjoying the powder to stop and take pictures. But here they are anyway.

Pictures from the Breck slopes

more pictures from the office

2007-02-14T16:29:00.000-08:00

So I've posted a few more pictures from my office on E-Chair. Check them out here and see if your office has views as nice as these.

The office

Photo update

2007-02-12T17:31:00.000-08:00

I've decided to organise my photos a bit differently. Instead of just adding more and more galleries with a couple pictures in each one I'm just going to have a few general albums and keep adding more photos as I take them. So some of the album links in the previous posts may be a bit screwed up but from now on it should be a bit more organised.

So the latest pictures from today are in the newly named "PIctures from the Breck slopes". I did a bit of hiking with Mike and we found some pretty good powder (it's finally been snowing) and then I hit the small park at the end of the day with John. Check out the pictures here.

Pictures from the Breck slopes

Night boarding Keystone

2007-02-09T20:56:00.000-08:00

So after the Guttermouth show last night I got up pretty late and felt pretty shitty. I didn't bother getting on the mountain which was a bit crap but oh well, its good to have a day off every now and then. But all was not lost. Mike and Jim were up for night boarding over at Keystone. We cruised over with John and hit up a few runs under the lights. It was the first time I'd tried night boarding and it was pretty cool. The first run was a bit wierd but once I got used to the light it was pretty sweet. Checkout a couple of pics.

Night boarding

Guttermouth show

2007-02-09T12:20:00.000-08:00

Guttermouth came through town last night and I headed out to the show. It was a really good gig. A nice small venue where you could get right up to the front of the crowd and right up with the band. The crap thing that happened was that I bought a t-shirt at the start of the show and had it tucked in my belt. Some time during the show it must have got ripped out because at the end of the night it was nowhere to be seen. I managed to talk the guy selling shirts into giving me a second one for cheap so it wasn't all bad but it still pissed me off. So the lesson from that is buy anything at the end of the show. Oh, that and my chest hurts, I think someone must have punched me when I was in the pit. Anyway, here are some pictures.

Guttermouth

Cabin hunt

2007-02-08T19:28:00.000-08:00

There are a bunch of cabins hidden in the woods all around Breck. Some are left over from the times of the miners and other have been built by locals. So today the snow wasn't too good and we went looking for a few of them. We found the two bigger better and more know cabins, CJs and Leos. Leos is a two story cabin built a few years ago and has a pile of old snowboards and skate decks for the seats. Cjs is an old miners cabin that is a bit more traditional but still has a few snowboards on the wall. There are a bunch of other cabins hidden around the place so I'll post more pictures as I find them But for now check out the pictures here.

Cabin hunt

The office

2007-02-06T16:26:00.000-08:00

So I took my camera in to work today and took a few pictures. I was working at Snowflake (aka the mighty 'flake, best lift on the mountain) which is one of the lowest lifts and it was nice and hot in the sun. Check out the pictures here:

The office

Update

2007-02-05T15:26:00.000-08:00

It was my day off today so I hit up the mountain again. I actually brought out my camera and even took some pictures. So here's an album with a few random pictures that I took over the last week or so.

Breck update (Jan 5)

We cruised up to the summit and went all the way over to Art's Bowl and the The End where we actually found a little powder stash. After cruising a few more runs we got split up and I sessioned the little park a few times just to get myself a bit more comfortable in the air. The new board, boots and bindings are getting worked in a bit and I'm starting to really like them. Hopefully I'll get in the park with a couple people soon so I can post some pictures and videos. As far as other pictures, a couple other people have been bringing their cameras out to the bars so once I steal thier pictures I'll be able to post a whole pile from nights out.

another day at the office

2007-02-03T14:54:00.000-08:00

So today was pretty good. The weather is still storming with the winds howling. I got to work and was all set to go on time. I walked out to the lift we had to take up to get to the lift I was working but they weren't running it yet due to the wind. So we sat around the lift house waiting for lift to get running. After a half hour to an hour they finally got the lift going so we headed up. It was a cold and windy ride but we made it. Then boarding down to our lift I got lost. A big gust of wind rolled through and it was a complete whiteout, I couldn't see anything and I over shot the trail I was supposed to take. No problem though, I just cut through a different trail and made it over to E chair, the lift I was working. With all the stormy weather we had to move a few tons of snow to get the lift ready to run. So we spent an hour or two shovelling snow and the whole time people would ski by and ask "Hey is this lift open?" and we'd just look at eachother and think, "does it look like its open? there's a ton of snow in the way and the chairs aren't moving." After we got all the snow work done we sat around and waited for the lift mechanic to start it up, which he finally did when he thought the wind had died down a little. So we sent up the line check and a couple of ski patrol guys. At this point a big group of people were lining up to get on the lift. We said that it should open soon but we couldn't guarantee anything. After running the lift for about an hour the mechanic decided we wouldn't open it. Then we went back into the lift hut and lay down for a nice nap and waited for a call to either start it up again or go home. After an hours sleep we got the call. Go home, the lift won't be opening. So a nice run home and that was my day. A few hours of shoveling snow followed by a nap and home early. Pretty sweet. Oh and did I mention I went to see the Wailers last night as well. Its pretty good out here.

cold, windy and surreal

2007-02-02T17:24:00.000-08:00

So I had the day off today and I needed to test out my new boots. I got up a bit late (finally got some sleep) and headed out to the mountain. The first clue I missed was teh howling winds outside my window, but for what ever reason it didn't register. Then when I got off the bus the gondola was stopped. It occured to me then that the wind was guite strong and the conditions were pretty shitty. Oh well, I had new boots to try so I jumped on the bus and headed up to the hill. Once I got there, I saw that a bunch of lifts were closed due to high wind. It wsn't looking good. Basically the whole of Peak 8 was closed except a double chair that would get you over to Peak 9. Peak 7 was still open and running but the lifts that accessed it were closed. So I jumped the lift over to Peak 9 and took a few runs there and getting over there I had one of my best runs ever. The wind was howling, the snow was blowing, I could barely see my snowboard because of the blowing snow. I was on a crappy easy run connecting me over to Peak 9 with 4 snow cats ahead of me. I had my tunes going and the whole thing was a detached surreal experience because basically all my senses were numbed. I couldn't see the snow, I couldn't hear the board, I couldn't feel the snow because I was on my new boots that are a lot stiffer than my old ones. And with all that, I was cruising the run weaving in and out of the snow cats grooming the run in a world without sensation. It was just amazing.

Beaver Creek

2007-02-01T18:57:00.000-08:00

So we had a good few inches of snow on Tuesday night, but I was working on Wednesday and didn't get to enjoy it properly (although I did have first tracks boarding down to my lift and a ride break). It continued snowing a bit and today I went out to Beaver Creek with Arthur (another liftie who started at the same time as me). I remembered to bring my camera and although I didn't get it out too much, the one time I was going to have a good picture of Arthur coming down a double black, steep and deep tree run it was too cold for the battery to work at all. So instead of posting pictures of the fresh snow we had over in Beaver you'll just have to imagine it.

Apart from not being able to take any pictures, Beaver was alright. They had a couple of double black, extreme glade runs through the trees which would be amazing if you hit them after a storm before they got too moguled. They were ok for us but we got there a bit too late. Apart from those runs there not much there that you couldn't find on Breck or Vail, and considering its and extra few minutes down the road from Vail I don't think I'll be going back any time soon. The village was pretty amazing though. If Vail is a pre-fab, Disney Swiss mountain village look-a-like, then Beaver is one notch more artificial because all the buildings match completely. Its definitely a place for the more discerning clientel. They have heated sidewalks and escalators to take you up to the slopes. So if you're about 50+ and want a perfect ski experience then check it out, otherwise don't bother, although it can be a good place to avoid the crowds.

In other news I've picked up a new pair of boots, Burton Rulers. So now I'm all set with kit and tomorrow is another day off to hit the slopes. And in the evening theres the ski tour half pipe contest so I'll check that out and see some sick skiing and massive air out of the pipe. I do miss the skier cross which runs on Saturday because I work again but the course they built looks pretty deadly.

its dumping fresh

2007-01-31T17:01:00.000-08:00

Well we've finally got some snow. It's dropped about a foot over night and today and hopefully it continues on through tonight because I've got two days off coming up. It's time for some freshie pow pow. I'll try and take a few pics and post them.

Gapers

2007-01-27T21:13:00.000-08:00

Alright, so I was finishing work with Nathan, a guy from Wales on our team, and we were just leaving the lift shack about to put our boards on and head home when this guy sitting in the middle of the run with one ski yells out "Are you guys leaving?"
"Yes, the lifts closed"
"Oh, can you help me out?"
"Sure, where do you need to go?" Assuming that the guy just needed directions to get down the mountain.
"I lost my ski just up there, can you help me look for it?"
"Err, ok, where did you lose it? Where do you think it is?"
"I feel just up in those trees and the ski came down this way." Pointing a little bit up the hill.
Ok , so we can help out this guy for a minute or two. So we hike over and start going up the hill where he was pointing. "Where did you fall again?"
"Oh, it was a bit further up, higher and to the left of where you are." At this point I look back and the guy is just lying in the snow looking up at us. I figured that he'd come up and help out and point out where he had fallen and where he thought his ski went, but no, he just lay in the snow and waited for us to find his ski. So at this point I said "Hey, can you come up here and show me where you fell and where the ski went?" So he gets up and takes a few steps.
"I fell just up there, a bit higher than you are."
I was now a hunderd yards (meters) up the slope from him in the trees. "So how did you get down there from where you fell?"
"I fell, stumbled and crawled on one ski."
"And you didn't follow your ski or see where it went?"
"It went off somewhere down there." Really helpful stuff.
Now we've got to get down to another lift before it closes so we can get home so we give up trying to find this gapers ski. Then this guy says "I can't ski home with just one ski, I'll need soome help." So we call up the ski patrol to pick him up but we have to wait around till they come. Ten minutes later the ski patrol roll up with a snow mobile and take this guy away and we cruise down to the lift we're supposed to get. They've already called last lift so we get the only bonus from the whole experience, a ride on a snow mobile home. That was pretty fun but this fucking gaper pissed me off. He just expected us to romp around the whole slope and find is ski for him as he sat in the snow like a beached whale. Fucking gapers.

Gaper definition for those who don't know

Johnny B

2007-01-26T19:41:00.000-08:00

So there's a liftie thats on my team whos been working out here in Breck bumping lifts for 22 years and 2 years before that in a little palce in Canada. Basically he's a legend on the mountain. Here he is in the middle of this picture between my room mate John and Kristen.

Like I said he's a legend and here's a little video of him describing a couple fat people trying to get on the lift when we were working together. Enjoy.

New ride

2007-01-26T19:35:00.000-08:00

So I finally got round to picking up a new ride. Here it is, a Rome Agent 158 with Burton Cartel bindings. I got an afternoon of riding on her today. I got to sort out my stance but she rides like a dream. All I need now are some new boots.

Mountain pics

2007-01-26T08:42:00.000-08:00

So I finally took my camera out on the mountain and took a few photos. But you only get a few because the battery is so crap that it dies after couple of photos, especially in the cold. Anyway, enjoy.

First Breck pics

Space available

2007-01-26T08:27:00.000-08:00

One couch, not sure how comfortable but located in Breck, going on a first come first served basis

wired

2007-01-24T18:04:00.000-08:00

We finally got the internet hooked up in our place out here so hopefully I'll be able to post thigns a bit more frequently now. I've got a few stories that I'll put up soon and hopefully start taking some photos and videos of all the action out here. So keep checking back.

Vail today

2007-01-22T21:48:00.000-08:00

So I'm almost all setup. The last piece in the puzzle is the internet connection, which should come through tomorrow. So then I'll be able to update everything and stay in touch a bit better.

Apart from that I took the shuttle over to Vail today and rode the whole mountain, or as much as I could. It's quite big with tons of terrain. The back bowls are really pretty good but there wasn't really enough snow to cover the moguls. So pretty much everywhere I went there were bumps and with a bit of fresh on them. But even so its still pretty sweet and it seems to get a bit more snow than we do so its generally better.

I'll get a bit better update later in the, week once I have the internet connection hooked up. There a re a couple of good stories from the last week that I want to pass on, so stay tuned.

Finally settled

2007-01-18T09:44:00.000-08:00

So I've finally got a home. After a week of staying in hostels and couch surfing a space opened up in employee housing. It's a massive relief as you could probably tell from my previous posts. Right now I've got to go hit the mountain but when I get set up with the internet at my place I'll post a few more things. But for now Casa Dr Nick is open for couch surfing so if anyone wants to come out just let me know and I'll book teh couch for you.

Boarding

2007-01-14T18:30:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been out a couple days on the mountain and I've got tomorrow off so that will be another day on the slopes. The mountain is pretty good there's a lot of good terrain and a nice variety of slopes. We do need some more snow but we had a bit last night and we're getting a bit more tonight so hopefully tomorrow will be good. Cruising through the parks is quite good for watching. There are quite a few pro boarders out here so you do get to see some pretty amazing tricks. Shawn White is supposed to have a house out here and he's been seen out on the mountain a few times since I've been here.

Actually, on the lines of my previous post, I think I'll just stop here because I can't really think well enough to write anything very interesting or entertaining. I'll try and take some pictures tomorrow and show you what it looks like out here.

Not so easy living

2007-01-14T18:02:00.000-08:00

So I've been out here for a week now, I've started up my job as a liftie but I still haven't found a place to live ... and its starting to wear me down. As you all heard (if you bothered reading my previous posts) my journey out here was pretty rough. I got about 3-4 hours of bad sleep each night for 3 nights in a row. Then when I got here I've been staying in a hostel in a dorm room so the sleep hasn't been that good either. Being kept awake by people snoring and getting up in the middle of the night. Then I've had to start work at 7:00am the last 2 days, so getting up at 6:00am. I've just not really been eating that well, not getting good rest and either boarding or working all day. So basically I'm running my batteries down. I just need to find a place to live and settle down. Then I can start buying good food and cooking it, sleeping well and just get unpacked a bit so I can sort my self out. Hopefully something comes up soon. I'm going to try and get into employee housing tomorrow but I'm not too excited about it. It probably means living with a bunch of 18 year old who just want to party all the time. It would be just like Bodington Hall again. Oh well, I can't really be too picky. My reservation runs out in a couple of days so I might be crashing couches after that. So its all a bit crap on that front but bottom line is that I'm out here for the season and I'll sort something out, it just might not be that easy, nice or convenient.

First day on the slopes

2007-01-11T18:29:00.000-08:00

So I've had three days of training (Mon-Wed) with a day actually working the lifts. But today was a day off and I finally hit the mountain. I cruised the whole place with a guy who also just started as a liftie. We hit up the whole place and tried to get a few runs on every lift. The snow was pretty hard and icy and the wind picked up towards the end of the day. So the conditions aren't the best and we could really do with some snow but there's supposed to a storm coming in this weekend so maybe we'll be alright. Anyway, I'm boarding tomorrow and then I've got to work over the weekend, but tonight its Ullerfest and the town is going to party so we'll see whats happening.

A couple more pictures

2007-01-07T20:24:00.000-08:00

I've just added pictures from my trip out to Breck in my California photo album, nothing too interesting just a couple of pictures. Here's the updated link again.

California, and out to Breck

... and when the dog is sick?

2007-01-07T19:42:00.000-08:00

... So we headed out to get some breakfast. It looked like the roads weren't going to open anytime soon and if I couldn't get hold of the Greyhound station on the phone to check the road conditions and I didn't want to keep having to return to the station just to be told that buses weren't running. On the way we decided to look into flights and with a little help from my friends I managed to get a flight out to Denver that afternoon. So it was a quick move away from the dregs at the dogtrack and up scale to the airport. This is when it paid off making sure I had my bags with me at all times and also making the decision to catch up with friends and not just plow on ahead to Vegas. All of a sudden things were looking a lot better and life was much more pleasant. Apart from the fact that I missed my flight because there was a massive line at checkin, it was all good. I was going to fly on stand by an hour or so later and get out to Denver that night, Saturday (I had started travelling Thursday evening and was originally supposed to get into Breckenridge Saturday midday-ish). The only problem now was that I had called up my hostel and said I was delayed and moved my reservation. So I no longer had a place to stay Saturday night. Oh well, at least my big bags were checked in so I didn't have to deal with them any more and I was hanging out at LAX and not the Greyhound station.

I got out to Denver by 8:30pm, but my big backpack wasn't on my flight. It was waiting out in Salt Lake City since I missed my original flight and it went on a different plane to me, which was starnge since my board bag had made it out with me. Anyway, it was going to be delivered out to Denver in the morning. This worked since I didn't have a place to stay for the night so I may as well crash in the airport, wait for my bag to arrive in the morning, then head out to Breck. The airport was pretty quiet. I chilled in a bar. I'm not sure if the bar tender was just stupid or it was his first day on the job or what because he was useless. Anyway, I started getting tired and decided to look for a place to bed down. It was the typical airport with all the seats having arm rests so you couldn't stretch out and sleep on them. So another night of shitty no sleep, the third in a row, bedding down on the floor of the airport. After waking up I decided to have a proper walk around the airport, and guess what I found? Couches without arm rests, the perfect kind for crashing on. That pissed me off, oh well what can you do.

So my bag arrived from Salt Lake City fine and I finally had all my stuff and I just had to get out to Breck. I had two choices, either bus into Denver to the Greyhound station then bus up to Frisco (my original destination) and then another bus out to Breck ... or an airport shuttle that would take me straight there. The plus side of the mulitbus route was that it would be cheap and I might be able to try and get some sort of refund for my unused Greyhound tickets at the Denver station, but the obvious draw back that I'd be riding the dog again. The airport shuttle would be quick and easy but cost more money. The choice was simple, I had learned the first time, fuck the dogs, hit the shuttle. So I pulled out the plastic and charged it up and hopped on the shuttle out to Breck. I was in town by noon, checked into my hostel and ready to rock and roll.

I've just had a quick wander around town and checked it out. I've got my first day of work tomorrow (mainly orientation and paper work type stuff I think). The only problem on the horizon now is my accomodation. I still need to find a more permanent place to stay. Its worse than just not having a permanent place to stay, my hostel is fully booked next Saturday, and that doesn't include me, the fun and games continue.

So what did I learn? Greyhound sucks, well actually I don't think I'm completely put off riding the dog. I think its fine if you want to save money and know what you're getting into. I just ran into problems with the weather, so maybe its only for fare weather trips. Apart from the delays, I was expecting the actual experience on the bus and in the station to be much worse than it was, it really wasn't that bad. Also, always keep your bags with you and try not to let them get out of your eyesight. And finally, always take the time to catch up with friends and keep in touch. Goods friends are something for which you can never find a substitute.

Riding the dog...

2007-01-07T19:00:00.000-08:00

... or being riden by the dog.

Ok, so I finally made it to Breck, but it didn't all go to plan ... suprise, suprise.

So my parents dropped me off at the Oakland Greyhound station on Thursday night at 10:00pm for the bus down to LA. That part went fine. I sorted out my oversize baggage with the bagggage handler, Thaddeus. He was really cool. An old black guy who was into music and was telling me about all the concerts he had been to. People like Jimi Hendrix and all sorts like that. All of a sudden all my preconceptions of Greyhound being shitty were put aside and I figured I could actually have a decent trip. It's amazing how much good people can brighten your mood. So I was scheduled for the 11:30pm bus but there was onre leaving at 10:30pm and Thaddeus got my stuff on that, thinking that was the bus I was scheduled for. I didn't want my stuff to go without me so I was keeping an eye on it and saw what happened. Since my stuff was already on the bus and there was still space ln it I hopped on the earlier bus and got down to LA at 5:30am after a night of crap sleep. That was the first and one of best lessons from this trip, keep an eye on your stuff and always keep it with you.

So I was in LA and waiting at the Greyhound station. My bus left at 11:00am so I had a few hours to kill. No one I knew in LA was free to meet up so I was on my own. And thats when things started going wrong. There was a bunch of bad weather in Utah and Colorado, high winds, blizzards and the such. So the buses couldn't run beyond Las Vegas and since tons of people trying to get out through the mountains were already clogging up the Las Vegas station they werren't letting anyone on the Vegas buses unless that was their final destination. So I was stuck in LA, indefinitely because they had no idea when the roads would open and didn't really have a clue about anything overall. So I was stuck in the LA bus station, soaking up the atmosphere.

I was getting used to the station life and was settling in, but it wasn't nice. I hadd just got into that travelling routine and mindset so I was just going with the flow. I had made sure I got my bags off the bus and were with me. The good thing was that at least I knew where they were and they weren't being sent off around the country without me but it also meant I had a maasive board bag and massive backpack to keep an eye at all times. This meant leaving the bus station was out of the question because I wasn't going to lug them around more than 10m let alone around downtown LA. Even things like taking a piss or getting food had to be carefully considered. But all went well on the bag safety front and I survived the day. Only one person tried to scam me, a guy who tried to get $7 out of me to help him make up the last bit of money to get a ticket out to a family funeral or some story like that. Its the kind of story I've heard in bus stops all over the world when I've been travelling. I'm pretty sure he was scaming me but it really pissed me off because he tried to guilt me into giving him the money by using the racism card. Then there was also the white guy who, apart from having painted his face black with what looked like shoe polish, looked generally sketchy and tried to start something by asking me "Do you have a problem?" So there was some local colour in the station, but thats to be expected when you ride the dog, and I survived, character building and all that.

So I knew I was being delayed and called Ali to see what he was up to in the evening and see if I could crash at his place while waiting for the roads to clear. He was finishing work around 6:00pm so he was going to come by the Greyhound station and pick me up. But just before this the shift had changed at Greyhound and the new people working were going to let me on the 6:00pm bus to Vegas. I thought that I should push it and basically get as close to Denver as possible then as soon as the roads opened I could be on the first bus out. So it was quite a delema, should I get on the bus and get out to Vegas, crash out there and party it up a bit or chill in LA, catch up with a few friends and potentially miss a weather window on the roads. I went with option 2 so I could catch up with friends, which turned out to be far superior on many fronts.

So Ali came to pick me up and I was going to crash at his place for the night. A bunch of other people were going round to Estevans house in Long Beach so we rolled out to that in the M5, oh what a nice machine, and I caught up with a good bunch of people in LA that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. We played some wii and fooseball before calling it a night and heading home to crash out. In the morning I kept trying to get hold of the Greyhound station to see if buses were running out to Colorado but they didn't seem to believe in answering phones and I never managed to get through to anyone. I knew there was a 10:00am bus so the only thing to do was load up and cruise out to the bus station again and actually ask them. The roads were still closed so we deicided to take off and get some breakfast and figure out what to do ...

California dreaming

2007-01-04T15:18:00.000-08:00

So I've been back in California for about 4 weeks, and its been interesting. I always have loved the Bay Area and would love to live here. I always had a fond longing to return. I imagined being back here with all my friends and being able to enjoy the amazing outdoors that are on your doorstep here. The mountains for snowboarding, climbing, backpacking and camping. You have the ocean for surfing and sailing. Great rivers for paddling. The good weather which means you can do everything year round. Just about anything and everything you want. But as the years went by I realised more and more that this was all just a dream. First off, most of my friends have moved away from the bay and altough I still have good friends here it will never be how I remember it with everyone just hanging out. Second, although I could convince my friends here to do outdoor stuff, its not as big in their lives as it is for me, so although there are tons of natural resources I'd have to make more friends to properly use them. And the third point of practicality is that I would find it quite difficult to get a job here. The is no car stuff here and I don't have any contacts. It might take a year or more to get a good job I want. So for all these reasons I fully realised that although I had a strong emotional attachment for the Bay Area I always knew that my future (at least for the next few years after I finish having fun) is in England.

What I didn't realise was the strength of my attachment to California. In the last few weeks I've really loved being here and could see how cool it would be to live in SF and have a bit of a city life during the week and escaping to the mountains on the weekends. Chillin with the boys in the city, going to the Cal football games. It would be a nice life. And it really surprised me how much I could get over my objective mind (which is telling me to go back to England) and paint this wonderful canvas of life out here. Almost to the point of actually starting to think of the logistics involved in being out here. It's amazing to see how easily I could conjure up an argument to stay.

But regardless of all this I'm leaving again. I have a job out in Breck and I'm getting on the Greyhound tonight for a 30 hour epic bus ride, yup, I'm "riding the dog" out there. I'll let you know how the trip goes with my next post. Highlights to include a 3 hours transfer in downtown LA and a 1 hour stop in Las Vegas.

Vegas baby, VEGAS!

Tahoe, first snow

2007-01-03T19:36:00.000-08:00

So I went up to Tahoe for the day to get some boarding with my dad. We went up with Ed Lane, a friend's dad so I was chillin the slopes with the cotton tops. We hit Sugar Bowl and had a pretty good day. It was certainly a nice first day of the season for me. Now I'll hit Breck with some snow under the board and be flying from the start. Anyway, I put up a few pictures from my few days back home. I guess it made me realise two things putting together this album. First, I need to take my camera out more often and take more pictures, and second, I should have got out and done more. Oh well, enjoy, cause tomorrow the epic properly begins, Breck Baby! (after 30 hours on a bus, if it doesn't get stuck in the snow).

California, and out to Breck

Happy new year

2007-01-01T10:53:00.000-08:00

Well I hope everyone had a good new year. After having a few nice new years in the last couple of years I went back to having a bit more random and interesting times. It turns out that most of my friends aren't in town for new years so I ended up going party hopping with a couple of friends. It bascially meant that we cruised around to a bunch of different parties where I didn't know anyone. I soon found the most entertaining game to play was the classic "talk shit and see what you can make people believe" I just so happen to have a bit of an advantage because I can now switch between an english and californian accent pretty easily. So if I went with the english accent anyone would believe anything I said because they were so impressed I was english. The classic was that I was an actor and my next role had me playing an english spy so I was staying in character and I had an agent named Chad and the later it got the more intricate and complex the story became. Anyway, it certainly povided plenty entertainment. I recommend you try it some time.

Apart from that, I'm just about finished with my corrections, maybe today or tomorrow I'll have it all sorted. I'm going up to Tahoe on Wednesday for a day boarding with my dad and a friends dad then Thursday night I start my 30 hour epic to Colorado.

Embeded YouTube video test

2006-12-29T11:31:00.000-08:00

Ok I've just set up a YouTube account so I can post videos to this blog so I'm just testing it with the infamous backflip attempt video.

If only I'd just tucked my legs up and got through the whole rotation ...

Anyway, it looks like it works so I'm all set to post pictures and video as well as bore you all with these posts. I might start uploading old pictures to my picasa site if I get bored. So there might be pictures from randoms things I've done in the last few years showing up.

Formatting fun

2006-12-26T13:18:00.001-08:00

Right so I've got to sort out some corrections on my thesis and send a corrected version back to my internal examiner so he can approve it before I finally submit my fully bound thesis to the university and officially get signed off for my degree. The corrections have been ok, I pretty much sorted them out in a few days, all the content ones that is. However, some of my graphs had yellow plots on them which are hard to see (I know, it was fine on the computer and I only realised how bad the problem was when I printed it out, its just that I have quite a few different plots on the same graph so was running out of colours). So I've got to replot a few of the graphs with a different colour and put them back into the thesis. The trouble is the formatting. I did all my work on my PC in uni and I wrote everything on it as well. My laptop which I have is a Mac, I really like it except the .emf graphs have a minor formatting error. The y-axis label has the word written vertiaclly along the axis but the letters are horizontal. So bottom line is it looks crap and you can't read it without staring at it for an hour. So I was going to use my dad's PC laptop do to the corrections, sorted. Or not. His laptop also has the same formatting error. I'm guessing its due to old software on his machine. But regardless, its not working. So bottom line is I have to not only redo the few graphs that needed to be replaced anyway, but I have to redo every graph in my thesis. I haven't counted them but there must be a hundred or more. Basically a lot. I suppose the only bonus is that I'll be able to .pdf my thesis so it will be more difficult to screw up printing it (I have a .pdf writter on my Mac but not on any PCs) plus it probably should have been written on my Mac from the beginning.

I suppose I could have done a few things differently to avoid this problem. I could have written my thesis on my Mac from day 1. I didn't because bringing the files back to a PC didn't work all the time so I stuck with the PC version because the Mac could always read it (except this formatting error with .emf files that I only realised later on). I could have stayed in England an extra week and got it sorted but I didn't know how many corrections I'd have and it would have doubled the price of my flight. If my examiners were sorted out earlier my viva might have been earlier, but that was out of my control. I could have submitted my thesis earlier, but that was difficult to do once it became obvious that I was going to get it done within a month or so of my deadline at the end of September and theere would have been no guarantee the viva would have been earlier. Or I could have stayed in Leeds until it was all finished and then thought about having some fun later. But I needed to book flights when they were cheap and bottom line was that I wanted to be home for Christmas. So I guess this is the price I'm paying for having christams at home for the first time since 1999.

... and another one

2006-12-23T10:07:00.000-08:00

We had another earthquake this morning. Check it out here. A 3.5 in pretty much the exact same place as the one last night. Also the same place as the one a couple of days ago. Thats been three in a few days which is quite rare, but better than having all that energy released in one big quake. That or maybe its the end of the world starting ...

Earthquake!!!

2006-12-22T22:55:00.000-08:00

Well we had another earthquake just now. You can check out the details from this specific earthquake here: USGS site Another 3.7 pretty good.

If you want to check out a real time map with updates on earthquakes you can check it here: Real-time Earthquake Maps.

All part of the fun and games of living in California.

Embeded Picasa photo album test

2006-12-21T15:07:00.000-08:00

This is just a test to see if I can post the albums I've created in Picasa in my blogs. So this should be the old school boarding album.

Old School Snowboarding

So it looks like it works. It just creates a link to the album with the cover shot. Right so I'll be posting my pictures like this from now on. Enjoy.

Web album

2006-12-21T12:33:00.000-08:00

Ok, I've been trying to sort a few things out. Basically how to post media in the most efficient way possible. So I've set up a picasa web album to post my photos. They can be found here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/nick.c4524

As of now I've just posted a few pictures of my old school snowboarding with sweetness in the neon ski suit. I'll post more photos as I make them or trawl through my old photos and find things are are worth putting up.

California

2006-12-21T09:46:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I've been home for a few days now (actually a week). I've basically just been chillin, doing my corrections and not getting up to much. Quite dull I know but it's nice to have a break and relax. It's been typical California as well. We haven't had any rain (except just now its spitting) and we had an earthquake. Yup, good old Cali, earthquake central. It hit in the evening when I was watching TV with the folks. It was a 3.7 that hit south of Berkeley (so not too far away) and it had quite a long duration, not just a jolt. It's quite funny to think of how casually we took it. We just sort of looked up from the TV

"Was that an earthquake?"
"Yeah, I think it's still going."
"Yes, probably a two or a three."
"Thats about right."

And then back to the TV. It reminded me of the scene in LA Story when they're out having lunch in Beverly Hills and the earthquake hits them. Anyway, its good to know nothing has changed too much

Ticket? Roof? Job? Check, check and check!

2006-12-17T16:52:00.000-08:00

Right, so here I am, chillin in California, kicking it with the cotton tops. Life is alright (apart for the corrections and little bit of work I have to do). But the whole point of this exercise is to take some time off work and go for a season out in Colorado. So what do I need? I need a ticket to get out to Colorado, a place to stay and a job to support me. So whats the score? It's all sorted.

I called up Breckenridge resort today and finally got in touch with the Lift Operations Supervisor who I've been chasing for the last few weeks. 30 minutes and a phone interview later and I've got a job as a lift operator at Breckenridge. Result! I'll be hearding punters on and off lifts for 10 hours a day, 4 days a week and getting paid for the whole season and I'm working for the resort so get all the benefits associated with it. Lift pass, discount, the works. Get in!

So I got the job, but I need to get out there. A quick trip online and into cyberspace, give up some crucial information and I've booked my arse onto a Greyhound bus heading out to Colorado ... via LA. Go figure. I thought thats kinda the wrong direction but no, its about the best way to do. I'll even get a trip through Las Vegas, too bad I won't have time to hit the casinos (it'll probably save me money though). So I've sentanced myself to 30 hours on a bus filled with all the most colourful Americans you can imagine. Not sure I'm too happy about it, but it'll get me to Breck and thats what counts.

So now I'm in Breck, got the job but I need a roof to sleep under. Well I haven't exactly sorted that one yet but I do have a bed in a hostel booked for my first few nights. Not quite ideal but we're working on it. Once I get out there I'm sure I'll be able to find a place no problem. I'll just have to pound the streets and hit the phone until some sucker lets me live with them.

So assuming I get these corrections sorted in the next week or two, I'm ready roll out and cruise some fresh Colorado pow!

Bags, we don't need no stinking bags

2006-12-16T19:55:00.000-08:00

So my bags were missing. As I checked in at Gatwick airport they weighed my board bag, 30kg. I had to pay the excess baggage fee, but I was expecting this so apart from the fact that my flight left in 30mins and I still had to negotiate the security check it wasn't too big a deal. So I had to go round to the ticket desk and pay for the bag before taking it over to the oversize baggage check in. My other bag was 20kg but due to the fact that it was a large backpack with straps hanging off it they still made me take it to oversize baggage check. So I rushed over to the ticket counter, paid the extra £25 and struggled over to the oversize baggae check.

There was a pile of about 10-15 bags there already and two guys sorta louging on them like they were on a tea break. I dumped my bags and told them that they were for the Charlotte flight in 30 minutes.

"Yeah, no problem"

"They will make the Charlotte flight, right?" as I was shoving them into place in a hurry

"Yeah, of course they will, don't worry about"

At this point they sort of turned away and looked like they were about to step outside for a smoke break. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed with their concern for my bags getting on the flighht. Oh well, there were plenty of people behind me trying to catch the same flight and I still had to get on the plane. As it was the flight waited for everyone, an extra hour, so surely the bags had made it on.

Fast forward to Charlotte, carousel A (for apple), baggage from the US Airways Flight 1495 from London Gatwick will be on carousel A, is spinning around without anymore bags on it. The baggage supervisors have just stacked up all the remaining bags for people to claim in a corner and announced that all the luggage from the plane has been unloaded. Great, my fears that the marx brothers oversize baggage handlers weren't up to the task are confirmed. Oh well, no time to contemplate it now, I've got a connection that leaves in 5 minutes.

Fast forward once again but this time to SF. "Yeah I just had a look out there and there's no boogie board bags, you may as well submit that claim and we'll deliver your bags to you when they arrive, probably tomorrow morning." Okay, it wasn't a boggie board bag, you have no clue where my bags are and they probably won't show up tomorrow morning because they'll be at least a day late since there is only one flight from Gatwick each day. My confidence in US Airways is not gaining, but what can you do.

So I call them up Friday morning. This gives them the chance to get the same set of flights I took and arrive in SF Thursday evening and they can deliever them to me in the afternoon. I call up the number for lost baggage claim. Is it a heartless machine that gives me number options? "Press 1 if your bags are lost, Press 2 if want to waste more time listening to a machine, Press 3 if you want to because you're never going to actually talk to someone in person so may as well press a button ...". No its not, I get to talk to Alex, and heartless machine with a name that uses voice recognition so I don't have number options, I just say my options. Unfortunately, Alex has to explain what options I might have which takes twice as long and pisses me off twice as much. My lost baggage claim number was TZTVVP, try that on for size Alex, Mr. Voice Recognition, "Tee, zee (American), Tee, vee, vee, pee". Yup he didn't get it. And at the end of it all what was his answer?

"The location of your bags is unknown at this time."

Great, not something like "Your bags accidently went to Timbuktu, we are currently working to get them to your destination in San Francisco." No, just a plain old, we have no fucking clue.

Well, trust mums to come to the rescue. "Lets go to the shop and buy you some socks and underware, if we start replacing your clothes, your bags are bound to show up right afterwards." So off down to the local shop, buy a few essentials and get back home. Not more than 30 minutes after I get home the phone rings, "US Airways delivery service, we have two bags for you that will be delivered today between 3:30 and 5:00". Result. Bags found, no thanks to Alex, and problems sorted. They even delivered them early, at 3:00.

So everything is all sorted now. My bags have arrived, I don't have to ask my examiners to re-read my thesis and provide their corrections again and I still have all my stuff, including sweetness. And guess what, I even got the bonus of writing this expectionaly long post on my blog. I wonder how many of you have actually read this whole thing. I think that will be the topic for my next post: posting really long posts that are quite good stories but written by an engineer who could make even the most entertaining story long and boring (note to self, tell everyone the lumberjack joke).

Home at last

2006-12-16T19:42:00.000-08:00

So I finally made it home, although with out my bags which could cause some major difficulties. Anyway, you just keep going. There's not much point in dwelling on the negatives.

So I finally had a chance to slow down and reflect on life. I came to realise that I'd not really made life easy for myself in the last week or two and that I could have done it all a lot better, or maybe I should say easier. I should have quit the pub a week earlier, I should have done my powerpoint the previous weekend, I should have had less to drink on the weekend, I should have scheduled my flight so I didn't have to leave the day after my viva ... should've, would've, could've. As much as I regret feeling so rubbish in the run up to leaving and that in the last day or two I really didn't feel at all excited to be going home and off to snowboard for a season, I think it might have been the best way to do it. If I had an extra week I think there might have been a bit of a come down, an anti-climax. It might have been nice and relaxing but I would have just been dicking around (or more likely still working away like an idiot trying to sort the corrections in time, which again would have made things a lot easier). I don't know, in the end I think it was quite good to go out in a mad rush. It meant that I didn't have time to worry about anything or second guess anything, I just had to do it all and live with it. And in the end I did pass my viva as well as I could hope to and everything did get sorted out. I might have got a few more grey hairs in the process but oh well, life is meant to be lived, its no fun if you just go through it on cruise control.

Leaving Las Leeds, Part Six

2006-12-14T21:16:00.001-08:00

So we were over a hour late taking off which meant that Bubba and Bobbo should have got my bags on the plane, but it didn't look good for making my connection in Charlotte. There was a bit of in-flight entertainment from a fellow passenger. He was in uni and studied some pretty hard applied maths type of thing but was a complete space cadet. He just threw his stuff everywhere, his carry-on bag was a shopping bag that was completely ripped up and then he got into anxiety attacks all the time becuase he couldn't find anything. I didn't think he was really planning too well to prevent his anxiety attacks by having his stuff strewn about the cabin but hey he's not me and for his sake I hope he's some sort of genius because otherwise it just a bit pointless.

Anyway, we got in to Charlotte an hour late which gave me 50 miuntes to get to my next flight. But to make things easier this was my first port of entry into the USA so I have to collect my bags and clear customs with them before re-checking them and getting on the flight to SF. Great. So I got off the plane and through the passport check point in fine time. All that I had to do was pick up my bags get through the customs. So I waited around the carousel ...
A bunch of bags were coming out but not mine ...
Maybe they would bring them through the side door since they were oversized ...
Or maybe not ...
Did I foget to pack my ski googles ...
And then it happened. The lady said all the bags had been unloaded off the plane. but mine weren't there. Nor were a couple of backpacks that a couple other guys were waiting for. Either way it released me to try and catch my connection. I had five minutes. Off I went again, following signs for connecting flights. And then I ended up outside the security check point again. Genius. The guys who designed the airport decided that if you were connecting flights that the security at the first airport was obviusly inadequate (it was probably in some foriegn country that didn't know about security) so they didn't direct you straight along to the gates, they sent you outside the security zone. So three minutes to go, strip off, rubber gloves, bend over, tear apart your bag (carry-on that is) and all the rest of it. I was going to miss my flight. I got through security and checked the departure screen. I was in luck, my flight was delayed an hour. The San Francisco fog had saved me and I was still in business.

Then it dawned on me, as I sat down to wait for the flight to board. My bags hand not made it. They were proabably still stacked up in Gatwick somewhere. What was in those bags? Well a pile of clothes, I need new clothes any way. My snowboarding stuff, ditto its all old and crap and I'm replacing it all this year anyway. Sweetness, oh no, not sweetness. My old school board might be gone. That is an irreplaceable item. You just can't buy another one. Then something else occured to me. I had another irreplaceable item. In my viva my examiners had given me their copies of my thesis which contained all their notes and corrections I needed to do. I wanted to have them in my carry-on but 600 A4 pages of thesis is just a bit too much to carry around so in the bag it went. Now if that has disappeared, well I'm sure I can sort it all out but lets just not think about it. I got on my flight and started the final leg of my journey contemplating my lost bags and what it meant.

So one more flight, how hard could it be. It started off well. The flight was only half full. There was even enough space to escape the howling baby I was seated next to and move to an emergency exit aisle with endless leg room. Bonus. But the fun was short lived. After being initially quiet, the baby decided to start howling. Not the ideal sound track after 16 hours of travelling. But my iPod still had some battery life which helped with that problem. But then it happened. I hardly even noticed it but surely enough a lady just vomited all over the aisle and toilet right in front of me. I wasn't hit by any shrappnel so survived without any collateral damage but the place was a mess. The flight attendents decided to cover it all in newspaper and leave it. Lovely. A fresh pile of vomit stinking up the plane just to settle my stomach. It got to the point where I was jsut tasting the stale saliva in my mouth that you always get before being sick. I couldn't wait to get off the plane but there were a good few hours flight time left. It was a real test of nerve and the howling baby wasn't helping but somehow I got through it all. I got off that plane in a hurry and was so happy to be home and see my parents waiting for me.

A quick trip to the baggage office to make my claim for the bags which never showed up and I was home at last.

Leaving Las Leeds, Part Five

2006-12-14T20:33:00.000-08:00

So up and out early again, But this time to tackle rush hour on the underground with my massive bags. Before I even got to the tube station I was already fed up of travelling. It wasn't a good sign with another 20+ hours ahead of me. I got through the underground all right but it wasn't fun. I was sweating like a pig hauling around what felt like a body bag. But I made it to Gatwick so it was only a quick train ride until I could check my bags and have some one else man handle them around. I didn't bother getting the Gatwick express since its about three times the regular price but after sitting on the slow train watching the minutes go by I was thinking that maybe it would have been worth it.

I actually got to Gatwick two hours before my flight. I was very tired and still feeling rough. The line at the check-in desk wrapped around the terminal about three times and I thought there was no way I was getting on the flight. But it turned out that everyone inthe line was for the same flight so we were all in the same boat (or plane if you want to be up to date and topical). They somehow managed to get me through with a half hour to spare but since I had an over weight bag I needed to pay for it and get both my bags over to the oversize baggage check-in. Another delay. I managed to pay the excess and run over to the security check, which was another line that snaked around the terminal. It was going to be much more than the 30 minutes I had. I managed to be a bit checky and move up the line quite well but the real winner came when an airline rep was escorting a late passenger through the line. I managed to tag on the back of him and get through to the metal detectors in no time. So after I'd stripped my self of all metal, took my shoes off (bent over backwards) I was zipping through the machine only for the inevitable "Would you step this way, we just have to look through your bag." Lovely, just what I needed. Another five minutes of a lady unpacking my whole bag and wipping everything down to test for a bomb. So they realised I wasn't a terrorist and let me go. I sprinted off down to the gate, and yes, it was the furthest on away. They plane was still there, I'd made my flight, and with five minutes to spare. My bags, well lets say the baggage handlers at the oversize check-in didn't look like they were going to set any records so I wasn't sure about them.

It turns out that all my efforts to jump through the security line and get on the plane were completely unneccesary. We waited on the ground for another hour while everyone else got on board. Well at least my bags should make it right.