I did ski, honest

After I posted yesterday's blog I realised that there wasn't one photo of actual skiing. I did.

See.

I think in these photos, as in self shots with my goggles on, I look really like David.

Megann enjoyed the sunshine. Kind of.

My favourite run, well my favourite name of a run!

Videos also played a part in activities. In this one we're overly excited about skiing under a bridge!

Skiing stories

Well with nothing to do for tomorrow I though I'd come on here and share some skiing stories with y'all. With it being over a month since I got back there's a danger I may have forgotten some of them by now, well that and the knock to the head I suffered. But more about that later.

So Colorado then. Seriously, this is the place I am moving to next. Snow in winter and no mosquitoes in summer. Perfect.

That's a camera case in my hoodie pocket incase you wondered. Which you probably didn't.

It was brilliant to be back when the weather was distinctly warmer than -20F or whatever it was last year. The downside to that was the snow wasn't as cotton-wooly (yes, I have just made that a word). The upside was a sun tan. Fair enough, just on my hands but still.

And it was great to be back with the family again too. And we got to celebrate St. Patrick's day together.

Green waffles. Another piece of evidence to prove my point that St. Patrick's better out of the country.

We skied in a couple of new places too, including Steamboat which I think was my favourite. It's a really fun town. Maybe I liked it because it was a bit like Hicksville, NC. I've already told you about Bunny Ears, which had a certain homey charm, but the main street is way cool. Great little stores, including one we saw advertised every mile of the 50 mile journey. (Seriously, imagine the Glenshane Pass but 50 miles long and only yellow FM Light & Sons ads for entertainment. Oh and the mountains.) But the main street also had statues on it. This of course added to my statue poses album.

Albert Einstein and I reassuring the youngsters.

Benjamin Franklin invented manicures it seems.

Good job Abe remembered his top hat. I forgot mine.

This is the man that invented ski jumping or some such. So impressive, it required going back with my skis the next day. Oh yes I take the hobby of statue poses very seriously.

See. I'm far to serious, Carl looks so happy. No wonder, he's looking onto the mountains.

Better smile Tina but head the wrong way.

Anyhoo, back to the skiing. My fall count was seriously lower than last year. I'd like to put that down to the fact I am better, but actually it was more to do with these reasons:

- the snow wasn't as deep so it didn't eat your skis.

- I fell badly the 2nd day so really wasn't brave.

So my only 2 falls came on the same day. I went through trees which turned out being much more complicated than I thought. I went over roots and fell. But my skis came off at the same time and I landed on the bindings. Pain.

I got myself dusted off and skied on. Then to build up my confidence for trees I went through a really simple trail that turned out to have bumps at the end. I went into the first leaning too far back, totally didn't see them and wasn't ready for them, the second came and compacted the problem. I think was the fourth is one that brought me down. But the third? It was the third one I hit my head on. Bam.

We had been skiing down for lunch anyway and I definitely need the rest. I went out one more time that afternoon but I really wasn't at the match, or indeed on the piste, and totally had the fear.

As it turned out it was the same day that Natasha Richardson fell. So after my fall and hearing that sad news I really wasn't in the mood to be daring. Simple runs and no trees thank you. Next year I think I'll invest in an helmet. Actually I noticed an increase in the number of people wearing helmets. I think people that wear helmets look like they're really good, like they do jumps and what not. Not sure that's really me, but my brains are quite precious to me so I'll happily lead people on and have them think I'm super good too!

So that was skiing 09. Great trip, great friends, great times. Oh and great salad.

Panera obviously got my letters of complaint and put Fuji Apple on again. Oh happy days! There's another reason to move.

Travel service

Should you find yourself in Steamboat Springs, CO, may I recommend this motel.

Or as I like to call it, the Bunny Ears Motel. Quality lodging is right! It's very close to downtown Steamboat and the slopes. Family run (Dave Gorman could have stayed here in America Unchained) and value for money. Oh sure, you can have your Hampton Inn and Suites, or Super 8 Motel but nothing will quite match the Bunny Ears.

But you've got to ask for Suite 400.

It's better than this, honestly, just showing you the room number!

See! It took a whole 8 seconds to run across the room. And as you can see from the photo, there was a double bed, sofa and chair and TV. But wait, there's more...

Two bathrooms! Handily labelled so as you don't mistakenly go in to the wrong one. How embarrassing would that be if you walked into the wrong one and there was your room buddy sitting on the bowl?!

There was a little kitchen too. Microwave, check, sink, check, coffee machine, trash, check, check, fridge freezer, check. Cooker, well you can't have everything.

There was even a big family dining table.

But wait, there's more.

Not one, not two, not even three, there are 6 extra banqueting tables. Enough for all your Bunny Ears friends! And a spare bed!

And of course tables aren't much good without chairs. 35 of them in fact.

And if you want to have after dinner speakers, there was even a flip chart and screen in the closet. Along with another spare bed.

We laughed for about 10 minutes at the hilarity of the room. We couldn't work out why we had such a super sized room. It was made even funnier everytime we went out and saw other people's rooms. Oh sure all the necessities were there,  but they were just smidge smaller. Ok, they were a lot smaller. Not from your average hotel room, but compared to Suite 400, they were tiny.

All told, a great place to stay.

Hillsborough

Twenty years ago the worst stadium disaster in Britain happened. I have two memories associated with it.

My first comes on the day itself. I don't remember watching the game or the terrible aftermath, but I do remember seeing pictures of it, probably on the news that night. My little 8 year old brain couldn't deal with what I saw and it hit home when they showed a boy, maybe a teenager but still a child, lying on the pitch. It looked like he had died. I can't remember if I cried then or afterwards but to try to console me, my parents told me that they had said afterwards the boy was ok, he had survived.

Since then, when I've heard mention of Hillsborough I think about that boy. Deep down I know he was probably one of the 96.

My second memory comes when I was in my Politics class in U6th. Every lesson we'd start by talking about things that were in the news. It was our teacher's way of making sure we were keeping up with current affairs and getting the all important recent examples to litter our essays with.

The class was mostly boys and this part of the lesson usually descended into football chat. But this time was different somehow. Phil, a massive Liverpool fan, said 'ten years on and there's still no justice'.

His words hung in the air and no one knew what to say.

And ten years on from that, I still don't.

Playing to your strengths?

No funny church signs, but I did see this on my travels.

And hands up who doesn't want memories to last?!