Andorran Skiing

Patrick Sport, Travel, UK Life

My latest skiing adventure was only the third time I’ve gone skiing and it just seems to get better and better. I’m a little bit worried though that this time we were so spoilt that it might make skiing back home less enjoyable. Overall the trip was fantastic and made even more fun since we went in a nicely sized group of eight. You can check out Stickfly’s review and Gerrod’s discussion to find out some different views.

There are many reasons I think we were spoilt on this particular holiday. The hotel we stayed in, the Sports Village Hotel was extremely nice – the rooms were big, the bathrooms very nice and the whole place was in a perfect location with the ski lift gondola two floors directly below our hotel. As a result it was extremely easy getting up the mountain in the morning. Better yet, at the end of the day you can ski right down the mountain (as fast as you want) and ski directly underneath the Gondola a few more floors down, keeping your commute time down even more. Attached to the hotel was a three storied sports wellness centre full of saunas, pools, spas, heat beds all of different heats. It was a must for every single member of our party at some time during the week and well worth the €30 for the three hours to drain the aches and pains of the week.

On top of that, despite the “worst season Andorra has ever seen” we managed to get two days of fresh snow, giving us a few days skiing on some lovely powder snow. Admittedly a number of the other days were painfully windy and slightly icy, but I think we were lucky with the snow that we did get.

I was happy that on my first day I managed to survive a red run since on my second time skiing, it took a couple of days to get my ski legs back on. By the end of the week, other than the fact I was extremely physically exhausted, we even had a small go at a few jumps and tried learning how to spin around skiing backwards and failing dismally at turning around facing forward again.
Amazingly despite the adventurous nature of some of our party members, no one came away with any major injuries with the most a bruised inflamed rib, and maybe a few sore shoulders, arms or legs.

Andorra is a great blast for people skiing though I can’t recommend it for a cultural trip since it seems to cater mainly for English tourists given the number of pubs and perfect resemblance of a high street, and for the Spanish and French locals with all menus pretty much in their native languages.

Thanks to Ben for organising it all and everyone else (Michelle, Gerrod, Kristy, John, Kirsten and Matt) for the fabulous company and great skiing/boarding.

Oz vs Denmark

Patrick Sport, UK Life

Last night I went along to see the Australia vs Denmark football (aka soccer) match held out at White City. It was a very disappointing game for all the Antipodeans given that Denmark scored within the first 10 minutes and managed three by the end of the first half. We managed to score one in the second half but it was apparent we were unlikely to win. Other than being supremely cold in the stadium on the plastic chairs, it was a fun night and nice to get out and support some sport.

Australia vs Denmark

Final score: Australia 1 – Denmark 3

Housemates on Ice

Patrick Sport, UK Life

Last night, my housemates and I went ice skating at one of the few indoor ice skating rinks in London just down the road. I hadn’t done this for years (and before that, not even that often) so I was a bit hesitant at going but still thought it would be fun to do. We all arrived just to see the end of the pretty good figure skating practice but thankful we didn’t have to watch ourselves before we embarassed ourselves on the ice.

Skating is not too cheap (£9) and you end up putting on what looked like cheap rollerblade boots, and certainly felt like painfully tight ski boots yet still did the job (a word of advice – definitely trade in your boots if you aren’t happy with the edging – my first ones felt like someone had greased them up big time!). The ice skating rink in Bayswater is apparently a lot larger than what it used to be, until a bar and a ten pin bowling alley was put in. The rink itself is by no means small, comfortably fitting the fifty people, although some were more dangerous than others. White domes pulsating with multi colored lights cover the ceiling and give the place a little bit more of the disco feel, and when paired with cheesy 80s and early 90s music seemed pretty appropriate.

Amazingly all of us managed to go through the night without falling over and yet still managed to push through the boot pain and enjoy the night.

The Week In Review

Patrick Food, Restaurants, Sport

This week has been a bit of a blur, and I’ve been building up quite a number of drafts but haven’t got around to posting things. I apologise for the brevity of it, but here’s at least a summary of what significant happenings have gone on recently:

  • Another Wagamama Visit – Back in March, the FOBORG gang got together to have a get together over dinner. Another few months later (has it really been three already?) on Monday we met at Wagamama’s for our next dinner. My last visit there wasn’t super-impressive but this time was much better because we had a better waiter, with the night topped off by a large dessert at Freestylers! Great seeing you (Stacey, Jason, Paul, Michelle, Karl and Caroline) all again!
  • Friday Dinner – Had Shannon, Karen, Michael and Marie over for dinner to give Suhail some more company after his big back operation. Three courser as usual including Roast Pumpkin Soup with Garlic Croutons, followed with Bourbon Chicken, a Saffron and Champagne Seafood Medley and a Butter Bean Salad finished with an excessively rich Sticky Date Pudding (inspired by the dessert other FOBORG member’s had on Monday!).
  • Aikido Grading – The rest of the week when I wasn’t preparing for the dinner was spent on training for my 6th Kyu grading that was held today. It was a really big one, starting at 1pm and finishing at 4pm, with legs starting to cramp after sitting in seiza for too long. My actual grading went quite well and I will find out the result of it this Tuesday.

I Hate Cars

Patrick Sport

I like to think that I ride my bike rather responsibly, but today was such a pain when a car pulled out in front of a red light and I went down. Thankfully it wasn’t as bad as my incident back in January but it is still (literally) such a pain. I managed to get away with only a few cuts and bruises and the bike actually got away pretty well this time (just cosmetic damage). This year has been pretty bad for riding… I might have to give it up :-Z

Quicksilver/Roxy Pro

Patrick Sport

Stephanie Gilmore

This weekend I managed to make it down to the see some of the surfing action at the Quicksilver and Roxy Pro. Once again, the beautiful beaches of Snapper Rocks at Coolangatta played host and would have drawn a crowd of (my guess) at least a thousand or more throughout the day.

QuickSilver/Roxy Pro @ Snapper Rocks
I managed to catch the final showdown for the Roxy Pro, which was won out by local 17 year old wildcard surfer, Stephanie Gilmore over Hawaiian Megan Abubo. The competition continues til next weekend, so there will be plenty more action to come. My highlight of the day (after all the awesome surfing) was when I found myself standing right next to the former World Champ, Sofia Mulanovich whilst I was taking pictures of the newly crowned one. Oh, and did I mention I saw the huge surfboard that everyone rode to set a new world record?

The Bike Is Back

Patrick Sport

Kua's KonaWell it’s been a month almost exactly since the big accident, and I finally got my bike back today but not with the frame that I had been expecting. Apparently the yellow Kona that was suggested by the store proved too troublesome to put together with the handlebars of my old Vivace. After trying eight headsets, from a variety of states, stores and countries, they decided that they would have to give me the 2004 model fram instead of the older (I think almost 2001) one. The bike now has a pearly white exterior, and I can now get back on the road and ride! Have a bit of closer look at the bike here and here. I can’t say that I have been too impressed with the customer service (or lack of) I’ve been given over the last month, and I’m still stunned at how my bike has been in the shop for much longer than my car has ever been in. I’m going for a ride…