Kev's Extreme Pow-Wow!

We lost our first Xbox yesterday. We weren't having any of it when PC World tried to fob us off by getting us to send it back to Microsoft ourselves. It's only 8 weeks old! Anyway, we got it exchanged and it's fully installed and working again.

I'm also due to get my steering wheel this week, which apparently is due for a recall too. I haven't even got it yet!!!

Yes it's true - we're going to Cardiff to see the Foos again in November! Sweeeeeet!

After suffering from fatigue for a number of weeks, I was very nervous at the prospect of our summer holiday, originally planned for a week of biking; mainly in Scotland. The way I've been feeling in recent weeks has suggested that I'd only be riding for one day at most, and to do that I'd have to take it very carefully.

Well we embarked on the holiday and headed up to the Lake District in the pouring rain in order to spend a couple of nights at Mum and Dads' static caravan. After a chilled time there, we headed North to Peebles. The weather was great and I was feeling ok (this normally means tired but still standing!) so we jumped on the bikes and set off onto the Glentress red route.

Glentress is one of the 7Stanes mountain biking centres in Southern Scotland where it is possible to ride sometimes gnarly manmade mountain bike specific trails. These are always a great option if you don't want to navigate through the bridlepath wilderness.

As part of my effort to reduce top-end exertion (which seems to exhaust me most), we set my heart rate monitor to beep irritatingly at anything above 140 beats per minute. This led to lots of spinning in low gears up hills, but a healthy enjoyment of any downhill sections. Jennifer patiently rode with me on all of the slow uphills and we flew down the downhills.

Anyway, the riding felt good. Having said that I felt pretty tired so we spent most of Tuesday chilling. That was until it was time to head into Edinburgh to see the Foo Fighters! Dave came on stage and played for a bit, then his guys came out and kicked butt for a solid long set. Really looking forward to the new album later this month.

After spending a couple of nights in Peebles, we sped down to the South West of Scotland to some of the 7Stanes that I hadn't ridden before. The weather was once again beautiful and I was feeling good again so rather than finding our little hotel we rode again at Kirroughtree. This was a beautiful trail with lots of technical rock sections. Riding the red route meant that we didn't get to ride the McMoab rock though unfortunately - that'll have to wait until I'm feeling better.

We stayed in Gatehouse of Fleet and over the next couple of days I felt good, with riding making me feel better even if I woke up tired. Therefore we rode the trails at Mabie and Dalbeattie. Mabie was a great little trail feeling very natural and with some great swoopy fast sections, this despite it being terribly signed if you want some lunch from the cafe (don't stay at the hotel there - that's all I'll say). Dalbeattie was a classic long forest trail with lots of fun and tricky rock bits in equal measure. The highlight for me was the scare inducing slab rock - a huge rock that I spent about 5 minutes shaking at the top of before finally riding it.

After such a great time in Scotland we headed back down to the Lakes for a night, then my parents hosted us back in Chester. Whilst we waited for them to head down there, we spent the afternoon watching Chester hammer Dagenham & Redbridge 4-0. Even Jen enjoyed this, despite being used to the "near-premiership football of Swindon Town".

Whilst staying in Chester we took the opportunity to ride at the newly refurbished Coed-Y-Brenin biking centre in North Wales, followed by the Llandegla trail just down the road. By this point we were both feeling the effects (sore bums and tired legs) of riding for 6 days out of 9 so we headed back home to Swindon to chill out again.

I'm delighted to have survived so much riding with no apparent ill effects. I'm still feeling tired but a certain amount of physical activity taken on a regular basis actually seems to make me feel better. My plan for long term recovery then is to continue to ride at a low intensity level (as dictated by the heartrate monitor) and not do anything when I'm not feeling good.

We're really enjoying the new house now that we're fully moved in. Last weekend we attended our second 24 hour race of the year but neither of us were really on form. Jen was exhausted after a 75 hour week and I was, well, just exhausted. We had a great fun weekend but I really shouldn't have set a lap 10 minutes quicker than Nich and Blair because I've been tired all week. A bit of a setback really. Did spend a great evening there taking photos with the most stunning sunset backdrop though.

This weekend has been the first since we moved in where we've had absolutely nothing planned. It's been a joy of not doing anything in particular. That's not to say we didn't do anything...

We've done some DIY. That is to say that we put the number on the front of the house and put the bathroom cabinet up. However, we're still having difficulty finding out where you'd get light shades to fit our Osram Duluxtronic (sounds like a paint doesn't it?) energy saving light fittings. They're very bright and cool and all that but that's not really helping the decorating!

We watched movies with plentiful supplies of microwave popcorn. First up was Harry Potter's Gob of Fire. I've not read the books but have been enjoying the films instead (am I the only one that hasn't found time to sit and read the books?). Then we had a pizza, then we fired up Meet the Fockers ("What's that Jack? Petulium petulium") with... some more popcorn! In fact we had loads of the little popcorn seeds left unpopped. What do you do with those? Do you chuck them in a bowl and fire them up for another 30 seconds or something?

Finally we've been playing a lot of Pac Man on the Xbox 360. What a joy that has been. Jen has been reliving her childhood (it appears that much of it was spent controlling the little yellow fellow). I've become addicted too. This isn't a good sign. The Xbox though has been a revelation now that we've got it hooked up to Media Center on the PC in the study. We've been rewinding and recording live TV to our hearts' content here and the media center remote is the cherry on top - it even works the telly. At some point I might spend some time playing the 'proper' games like Gears of War but only if I can wrestle Jen off the controller... something I'm going to attempt right now!

Yes it's been a while, and there has been good reason for it. The last couple of weeks have been spent packing the house ready for us to move into our new abode just South of Swindon. We're pretty much packed and are looking forward to assistance during Friday's move from our parents.

Anyway, the fact that we've got the house packed is a bit of a miracle given that we've both been working and have had busy weekends for the last few weeks. A couple of weeks ago we headed up to Chapel En Le Frith to celebrate Lou's 30th birthday with a bunch of friends. We went biking in the Peaks in the afternoon, scaling the infamouse Jacob's Ladder climb before enjoying an endless rocky descent back to the party (not before riding through a lake - see vid below). The party then included a significant amount of blind champagne tasting, the highlight of which being when Neil mistook the Asti for the Bollinger Grand Annee!

This weekend just gone Jen and I took part in our favourite 24hour race, Mountain Mayhem. We also managed to rope in Nich and Liz, who both loved the event despite the significantly bad weather conditions. The best thing about the weekend was that one of our pals, Catherine Chappell finished a stunning 5th in the female solo category after riding none stop for the 24hours! She's our hero.

Finally, once the house is up and running we're hoping to launch our wedding website (yes I'm a geek and this sort of thing is obligatory these days) soon afterwards. More soon!

Hi there! Well I've been home for 2 weeks now and we're just about to head to Spain for a week of mountain biking before I return to the office at Nationwide. I came home a bit earlier than anticipated for a number of reasons... mainly because I was completely exhausted. Therefore I wanted a bit of rest and thought that being at home would allow that. Instead I've been run ragged by the various things that we've been up to since my return. All of these are exciting so it's only fair that I fill you in...

Firstly, when Jennifer visited me in Canada in February and we went down to Vancouver for the night, I actually proposed and am delighted to say that she accepted. It was then lovely to spend the next few days engaged together before she had to return home. Missing her and being excited about being engaged was certainly another incentive to come home. We've both been brimming with excitement the whole time that I've been back and now that I'm at home and have been able to tell lots of buddies, it's finally ok for me to mention it here!

As a result of getting engaged, Jennifer has already found us a wedding venue and we went to see it the first Saturday that I was back and booked it. Therefore we're getting married on 19th July 2008.

The second bit of great news is that we've just reserved ourselves a sexy new house just South of Swindon. This has the advantages of being bigger, in a nicer area, nearer work (for me) and most importantly, nearer to the Ridgeway for mountain biking. We've been sorting out all the paperwork yesterday and today and it looks like it should all go through just fine. Click on the picture below to see more...

The new home is nearing completion so fingers crossed we should get to move in in the next couple of months or so.

Right... got to go and check the bikes now and then we're off on hols for a much needed break from all this "resting" ;-)

I know this is what you've been waiting for... it's the stats for the end of the year... I'm not going to bother graphing them but I'll run through each statistic and give a bit of a commentary instead.

• Banana Bread slices eaten... 24. I was eating banana bread consistently through the start of the season but then switched to cookies... of which I probably had more than one a day on average. Disappointed by this total but if I'd tallied the cookies then it might have been better.
• Burgers eaten... 35. This works out to be one every three days. I started out the season averaging one every two days but then I discovered that rice and noodle bowls were actually a healthier and more fulfilling thing to eat whilst on the mountain. This meant that I started limiting burgers to occasional apres forays to the Brewhouse or the GLC. Note that there was one day when I had a burger for lunch and a burger for dinner... I think this was during my level 3 course in fact.
• Jacuzzis taken... 8. Although I had a hot tub in my apartment block, I could rarely be bothered to venture to it in favour of the bath. There was more motivation (and room) when Jennifer came to visit, thus the spikes of activity at Christmas and Presidents week. My final Jacuzzi of the season came when I went for one with George, Lian, Marko and Yovona. Unfortunately George fell, concussed himself and broke his wrist. There should be a health warning on the door of those things!
• Calls to Jennifer... 157. That's about 3 calls every two days. It's not hard to see why, when you miss someone that much, that you call them. Much respect to Jennifer who lost countless hours of sleep to stay up at ridiculous times to talk to me. Thanks honey!
• Jaegermester shots... 1. Perhaps it's because I'm going to be 30 this year but I managed to minimise the number of shots I had this year to 3. Two of them were to be blamed on George and Lian but the other one was a proper shot of Jaegermeister taken in the Crystal Hut with Jennifer there as my witness (and she joined in on the shots too!).
• Wipeouts... 17. This was going to be 16 until yesterday when I had a good powdery face plant trying to jump off a small cliff! Generally this is one fall every 5 days of skiing so that's not a bad statistic. I'm actually surprised I fell over this many times but then by the middle of the season I was starting to jump off some silly and more challenging things so I guess it was inevitable that I'd fall every so often.
• Skiers instructed... 86. This is a very low number but then I wasn't teaching for the money so my emphasis was on skiing. I think I taught about 25 lessons during the season. This actually averages out to one every 3 days on snow. I guess that means that I got lots of time for practice, training and fun.
• Powder days... 34. This year was the best snow year on record for about 30 years in Whistler. Certainly up to February the snowfall was breaking all the records and the established pros were saying it was the best they'd ever seen.
• Days skied... 90 (67 on Whistler, 23 on Blackcomb). I guess the number of days spent on Whistler is higher because I worked mainly on Whistler. Courses and training were often done on Blackcomb. Also Blackcomb is often the mountain of choice when planning epic powder days. In total I had 18 days off during the season. So to ski 90 days is pretty good; considering the magnitude of some of the skiing days. Long gone are the days where Rach and I could ski to the max all day every day for a fortnight or longer. Nowadays the skiing is more intense, and the body takes longer to recover.

It's been fun keeping track of all this stuff and I'd find it interesting to compare if I ever did another season... Thanks for humouring my geekiness!

The end of my much anticipated season as a ski instructor came yesterday and as a result, I'm back home in my comfy lounge writing this, whilst I wait for Jennifer (now the household breadwinner ;-)) to get home from work!

I couldn't be more happy to be home and in the comfort of my home, my friends and my family. As fantastic as the season was (I'll get to that in a minute), my body was telling me that it couldn't cope with any more skiing this year so I knew it was time to come home!

Yesterday's journey was a very efficient one, until I landed at Heathrow (ahead of schedule) at which point it took an hour to park the plane and then an hour and a half to get the luggage off! Fortunately Jennifer was there waiting for me and I got a long expected hug and kiss on arrival.

The season has been long and hard physically... much tougher than I anticipated. I arrived in early December feeling relatively well after just about getting over a nasty 2 month virus. I then had a week of free skiing before starting work at the ski school. At this point I started to meet the people that would become my buddies throughout the season. People like Dan, Claire, May, Beata, Paddy, Andy, Daniel, Melissa, Kurt, Rob, Duncan, Simon (the list goes on... a lot!).

Christmas and New Year was hectic with lessons but also with Jennifer's first visit of the season. This was an awesome time though and I managed to spend as much time (if not more) with her than actually teaching ski lessons.

After Christmas, the lesson demand slowed down so I slashed the number of days I was scheduled to teach and got into the training. My main focus of training was the level 3 prep days in anticipation of doing the CSIA Level 3 course and possibly exam. Through this process I made more friends in George, Lian, Mike, Marko and Yovona. Leading into February, we all (apart from Yovona) took our Level 3 course and our skiing really progressed noticeably. Mike's skiing in particular was spectacular and out of all of us, he was the only person to pass his level 3 in the next exams in March. I decided that I wouldn't take my level 3 exams until I had resolved my boot alignment issues and ultimately ran out of exams to take before coming home. Not taking the exams is about the only thing that feels like unfinished business this season but I guess it just gives me a reason to go back.

After Darren visited and made strides with his skiing, then came Presidents week; the holiday week that is the busiest for the ski school saw me manage to blag the week off. When every single ski instructor was put to work, I was skiing with Jennifer who was on her second visit to Whistler. We also managed to hit Vancouver during the week, where we went to see Tenacious D and generally treated ourselves to a high class evening by staying in the 5 star Sutton Place Hotel.

Unfortunately, I'd got ill during Darren's visit and so wasn't so active during Presidents week. I felt a bit better by the time Jennifer left (typical!) and then enjoyed probably my two favourite days on snow this season. Firstly there was level 3 prep with Guy, when the usual trainees told the trainers that we didn't want instruction... we just wanted to ski. So we skied powder through all sorts of terrain on one of the best powder days of the season. The second memorable day was "Epic Tuesday" which saw a bunch of us rip around Whistler mountain skiing great powder and jumping any cliff we could find.

Since "Epic Tuesday" there have been a few great days of skiing but I think it will be a long time until I enjoy a day as good as that on snow again. Unfortunately I've been getting more and more tired as the last few weeks have progressed and I've been skiing and teaching less and less as a result. Finally the decision to come home was made and then the end of season partying began.

My departure was marked on Monday by post-work drinks in the Cinammon Bear. I was stunned and delighted by the number of people that showed up to say goodbye to me. This made me realise what a large and great group of friends I made this season. After the drinks, a bunch of us went to the Keg for a farewell dinner. It was great to enjoy a quiet meal with some of my favourite people from the instructor community.

Then yesterday, before heading home, I got out on the slopes for one final time to ski some fresh powder on Blackcomb with Dan and a bunch of others. After lunch I headed off and the guys all gave me big hugs to see me off and I was pretty choked by the whole thing. There's no doubt in my mind that I'll meet these people again, and in a number of cases I know that I've made long term friends.

I popped into the ski school hut to say bye to Daphne and Melissa. Daphne has been my saviour this year by giving me so much time off to spend with Jennifer. She highlighted this in front of Wade, my supervisor, but he himself gave me a great send-off and was openly keen about getting me back to work in the ski school again.

Jen and I have discussed it and one day, when the opportunity and the money is there for us to do it, we'll go back for a season... but I'm definitely not going over there without her again.

It's here... the one you've been waiting for... it's the Robot! Take a look...

This is the Robot video that's going to win Dan and I a heli skiing trip (ok I'll have to donate my half of the trip but I'll still be a winner!).

Now that I've had my last day of work here, I'm finally enjoying a series of couch days. I actually skied a bit yesterday morning but my knee was hurting so I ended up then resting (as I have done today) until it was time to head up the mountain after last lift for the ski instructors' "Beat the clock" party.

The idea of beat the clock is that all the drinks are initially 50 cents and during the course of the evening the price rises to about 3 dollars. This obviously encourages silly amounts of drinking early on in the evening and in my photos you'll see a lot of drunken antics whilst it was still daylight (about 6.30pm over here now daylight saving time has finished).

Anyway, even though the beer was rough and the queues were massive, we had a great evening and it was a lovely way to catch up with the full base pod posse for one last time before I head home on Tuesday. I'm gonna miss the rest of the team when I leave, but I'm still very excited about getting home on Wednesday!

Right now I'm off for a quiet meal with George and Lian and Marko and Yovona at the Brewhouse. Nice!

Today's skiing reminded me why I love the sport even though my left foot was hurting throughout (bad alignment and contorted footbed) and I was feeling tired before I'd even started! After a number of horrible weather days, yesterday was much better and the sunshine broke out in the afternoon at the same time as Harmony lift opened to access a week's worth of alpine powder snow. You see whilst the village and mid mountain had been getting rain all week, the alpine lifts had been shut as a result of a daily deluge of new snow. Unfortunately I was only able to manage a half day on the slopes yesterday so I set myself up for a big day today...

It started with morning session and in bright sunshine, skiing with Natalie as our instructor for the first time this season (one of the two Interski representatives from Whistler... the other being her husband Russ!), we proceeded to ski fresh powder lines from the Roundhouse down to Garbo, then all the way down Dave Murray to Big Red. Quite a way to start the day! Dave and I then skied another run on Emerald rather than skiing down to the bottom and changing into civies!

Next up it was training and although everyones' favourite trainer, Guy was training, he was still recovering from the knee injury sustained during the technical champs so was taking a low intensity teaching session only. This meant that Dave and I jumped into Benoit's group with the intention of ripping up fresh powder for the day. Our expectations were met by a day spent charging through the VD trees, Whistler Bowl, West Bowl, Glacier Cirque and T-Bar bowl. Most of the day involved either deep powder, steeps, trees or all three! Bearing in mind that I was on my lovely narrow carving Nordicas (yes I'm now skiing more often than not on my new Nordicas rather than my Salomons!), the powder was a challenge but fortunately it was one that I was able to deal with and to enjoy.

Benoit kept the day fun by keeping his directions brief and to the point, whilst keeping skiing to a maximum. I had a super day and although I'm pretty achy as a write this, I think it was all worth it! I needed a day like today to remind myself how much I love skiing. It's great to be going through my last week out here and still loving my skiing, but I have no regrets about coming home next week. I feel like sleeping for a week... but I know I won't be allowed!

Yesterday I told Wade about me coming home early and got a really nice reaction. He was sorry to see me leave and said that despite it being my first season, I'd performed like a veteran and had got great feedback from my clients. That was all great to hear. As most people know, I thrive on getting pats on the back so I'm feeling quite happy about myself now!

Because it was probably the worst conditions of the season yesterday, I grabbed my tasteful Whistler Blackcomb rain jacket and ran round entertaining everyone yesterday morning in line-up whilst avoiding any chance of getting a lesson. I was determined not to teach at all but was asked to come back in the afternoon. After being incredibly lucky and handing over my potential afternoon students to Rory, I went and joined George and Lian in the GLC.

We were there from 2 until about 6 when we then headed over to Marko and Jovona's for dinner. After dinner we went for a hot tub but George slipped getting out of the tub and fell over on his arm and banged his head pretty hard. Moments later he passed out for about 30 seconds but when his colour returned, he was behaving pretty normally again. Unfortunately it seems that he sustained a light concussion and also has broken a bone in his wrist. Therefore he won't be on top form for a few days. It's amazing the number of injuries that occur in Whistler that aren't related to skiing! Hope he gets well soon.

Only 9 days to go and I can't wait!!!

Yesterday I enjoyed the best adult ski school pay day party that has occurred during the season here. It started with us nipping out to see the level 3 presentation for those who took the exams this week. This included Mike who I've been training with for most of the season. I was delighted when they announced that he passed his level 3 at the first time of asking and scored pretty highly all round. I'd like to think that if Mike can pass it so easily then so might I at some later stage.

The party then moved over the road to the bar where the pay day party videos were shown. This included the robot video that Dan and I made about a month ago. This received an excellent response and therefore we think we've got a reasonable chance of winning the heli skiing trip. After the videos we had a few more beers and then headed for Markos where we drank some wine and he cooked us a lovely spaghetti bolognaise.

Afterwards we headed for Tommy Africa's nightclub where we all continued to boogie until well after 2am! Needless to say, the rest of base pod were disappointed that it had taken me so long to put in a proper clubbing effort but were impressed by my awesome dance moves! Unfortunately the late night meant that I wasn't really in a fit state to get to morning training today!

Today I taught a lesson in the wettest snow that you could imagine. I finished the lesson competely soaked and was a bit fed up. This is the latest in a series of days where my enthusiasm for skiing out here has taken a clobbering. Combine this with missing Jennifer back at home and getting excited about going mountain biking and you'll understand why I've decided to head home a little earlier than expected. Therefore a week on Tuesday I'll be heading back to the UK with no regrets about what has been an awesome ski season.

I feel like the season has reached a natural conclusion for me as I won't get a chance to take the level 3 exam before I leave so I have no real target to aim for. As great as friends like George, Lian, Claire and Dan have been in the last couple of weeks at cheering me up, I think it's clear that I'd be happier at home at this point. I'm really excited about coming home but will be doing my best to enjoy all of the skiing that I have left here. This should include one or two more level 3 training sessions, a couple of days of free skiing and a few more days of teaching.

The countdown starts here (Jennifer!)!!!

Dan's just posted his Epic Tuesday Slideshow on YouTube. Take a gander and look out for yours truly by clicking here

With exactly four weeks to go until I come home, I've been thinking about things that I like and that I don't like about Whistler and working here in the ski school...

Things I love about Whistler and the ski school:

• Free training... My skiing has improved radically over the course of the season as a result of high quality training on a regular basis
• The terrain... Whistler and Blackcomb have an endless amount of terrain, the majority of which I've barely touched in 4 years of holidays and a season spent skiing here.
• The base pod core... Making friends with the guys here has been awesome. There has always been someone great to ski and train with. Plus teaching and socialising with these guys around has been a lot of fun.
• I'm working outside all day every day which has got to be good for your health.
• Without even lying I get to tell people that I'm a ski instructor... and I do this on a regular basis
• Having access to Skype... it's a lifeline to home
• The fact that the best instructors here are the humble ones... you'd never know they're the best skiers on the mountain
• I haven't touched a programming language for 4 months!
• The commute to work is a 10 minute walk through the village overlooked by the mountains
• I'm paid to ski every day before the punters do... On a powder day, the instructors will have stolen all the best lines on the lower lifts before the public even get a look in!

Things I hate about Whistler and the ski school:

• Jennifer's not here!
• The weather forecasts... They constantly predict 35-40cm of fresh snow but invariably the forecast is wrong. Yes we get 35-40cm days but not with the frequency that the whistlerblackcombpropaganda.com website would have you believe!
• Rain and wet snow... Sometimes it just rains and it's just as miserable as winter at home.
• The infuriation of being such a perfectionist that I'm rarely happy with my own skiing... sometimes you just have to go and rip it without worrying about ski technique!
• Instructors that take their training tooooo seriously
• Being ranked lower than the older instructors who haven't taken a ski instructor course in the modern era and refuse to teach group lessons or beginner lessons.
• Waking up tired and achy every day... It makes me realise that I'm not 21 anymore!
• The obsession of some instructors about getting tips... it's just not good guest service to expect a tip!
• Being left standing outside for an hour when you offer to help out other pods in need
• Noisy Canadians and Americans hitting the 7-11 shop late at night... Honestly, why do you have to scream your heads off you idiots!