Oi Oi you lucky people

Well. I'll be back in london on the 29th and the thought of clubbing has come back into my mind. Since I usually spend most of my day finding new club nights in london I thought it might be good to use Google calendars to publish a ones that I reckon would be a good laugh instead of just bombarding everybody with club info.

BBQ Carnage

For St Paddies day the chalet decided to have a BBQ and watch the 6 nations. Due to my pyromanic tendencies I opted to build the BBQ with Matt.



We nicked a handful of concrete blocks and some logs. We used logs just to get the correct height. We assumed that they woud not burn that quickly. Two were good, the third failed slightly.


Holly came into the living room and said "Is the table meant to be on fire". Now you would think that she would have known the answer to this. We did set fire to the table. Though the convenience of having the BBQ at waist height instead of on the floor made up for this. The BBQ was a near perfect success. Food was tasty and cooked. We had an fair amount of fire, which amused me.

More Zine

Well the last couple of weeks have been hectic. Steph left morzine on monday sadly, but her sendoff was pretty epic. I only slept a couple of times last week (thanks Yousef) and now its slightly catching up on me. I have found that I seem to be able to go harder and harder out here. Its probably due to the fact that I have nothing to worry about and the only thing I really need to get up for is boarding.

From huge nights up the garage to Steph's last DJ night at Cafe Chaud its been and awesome part of the season. I have managed to get fair amount of boarding in as well and have been improving my park riding. There is really little snow so the park seems the best option. We have been hitting the Mont Cherie park in Les Gets. Its a wicked little park with an awesome view of the Mont Blanc area. I was most chuffed with the fact that I learnt to BS Boardslide the flat down box and flat down black rail. It was quite daunting and I knew it would bloody hurt if I got it wrong. I really need to start wearing my helmet again. I think some of it was caught on video.

Its a strange time at the moment, people at starting to leave and the idea of moving away is coming to the forefront of my mind. I think I will find it very strange when I leave as I have made so many amazing friends who I will definately keep in contact with. Some more so. (you know who you are :) ). I have just under 2 weeks left which is really nothing at all. I plan to have my leaving do up at the garage on the tuesday before I leave so I can at least recover on the weds before my flight on the thurs. I am going to struggle massively with all the shit that I have bought in the last 3 months. I have about double what I came out with and I was 20kg over then..... Oh well.

I must say though that whilst I am going to miss this place a great deal. I can't wait to go out with everybody back in london and dance around like a twat at londons finest music emporiums. Bring it on!!!!

Finally

Well it finally dumped. Monday was mixed due to getting stuck in waist deep powder with flat light. I tried traversing round but keep hitting wind lips about head height. The ground and the sky were one and the same. Tuesday on the other hand..... Fucking hell was it the best days boarding I have ever had. Pete, Robin, Tori and myself hit Morzine side to try out some of the spots I found the year before. The powder was insane, I have never boarded faster or deeper/steeper. My new k2 just destroyed the powder. All the spots were mental including dropping off the side of the chamossiere into virgin powder. Slightly risky but all seemed ok apart from robin hitting the only rock on the entire side of the mountain and knocking the rail out.

General levels of stupidity are high. Last night for instance I went to the Ice Hockey with Stephanie. I picked up an airhorn and deafened all in the vicinity including my flat mates. I have a theraband which looks like some dodgy fetish accessory though is intended for stretching. It broke somehow the other week but last night it was reborn as the ultimate whip. Tying a knot in the end allowed huge amounts of pain to be unleashed. Pete tried to get my arm, he succeeded and also got me in the armpit and the back. I now have tennis ball size red welts on my body. These join the small pok marks from the BB gun that was purchased the other day by Bruce and the scar on my hip when I stacked on the box rail.

I have so many dumb videos I want to share but I think i'll wait until I get back to the UK. This week is going to be very heavy. I have been out for the last 5-6 days and am feeling it now. Stephanie goes back to Belgium on weds unfortunately but is going out most nights this week and DJ'ing at Cafe Chaud tonight and I think the Garage on tues. Ummmm liver damage.

Board Matters

I seem to have run my Forum JP Walker into the ground. Its still holding in there just. Though I noticed a large delam on the tail the other day. The topsheet is screwed and the base is heavily shot. I do love it so purchased some araldite and a clamp and promptly glued my hand to my board. Hopefully it will hold. Or at least give it another few months life.



On the positive I have fixed and setup the beast that is my new Zep. I may start calling it my Led Zeppelin due to the weight added by my not so light Burton P1 Carbons.

Croissant Fight

For some drunken reason we had a croissant fight the other night in our room. The croissants had been around a while and had hardened up quite a bit. In hindsight I should have guessed the effects of throwing one into somebodies head. It was more impressive that I imagined. We showered the entire room in buttery pastry goodness. So much so that we are still finding flakes in shoes, clothes, drawers, ears etc.

Below is a shot of the dustbin that is our room pre croissant stupidity. As you can see I am living in Byzantine luxury. Even our bin is sponsored by Nitro.



This was the scene in the morning when I woke up. I had actually forgotten what had happened.

New stuff

We all trekked down to Anne Masse the other day as a shop down there was having a liquidation sale.... I got a little carried away...

1. K2 Zeppelin 161


2. Ride Beta Movement bindings for freestyle setup on my Forum JP Walker (My setup is well hectic)

3. Analog jacket (well cheap)

4. Another hat :)

5. A basketball jersey to increase the G look

February My Arse

Well its was like a summer day on weds. So much so that my chalet brought the sofa oustide and spent the entire day drinking and getting high. A very nice time was had by all. Including the brilliant new Kinda Suprise challenge which involves eating said "suprise" in one, opening the yellow thing with your mouth and trying to build the toy.

Nico the perv

Nico being as subtle as ever walking behind some girl all the way back from boarding.

Valley de la Manche

Me and Archy went up to the valley de la Manche the other day (the other day seems to mean any day in the last year at the moment). It was a lovely day though the conditions weren't really good enough to board the valley.




As we came down we dropped of a small cornice, Archies foot came out of his binding to much suprise. Turned out he had snaped the bugger at one of the highest points in Avoriaz. Thanks to a kind pisty we pinched a bit of rope and I granny knotted him to his board and got down the mountain in one piece.

Umm yeah

Well as you can see in the photo Pete has rather large pupils. Its like a whole universe in there. Pretty cool and not induced by anything honest :)

I managed to take this shot last nigt which kindof sums up our race against time back to the chalet from the mountain... Highly amusing if not slightly risky. Anyway since it was thursday there was night boarding on on the Plenney Stadt run. Its floodlight and last night the stars were out in force. Sitting on the balcony of a friends chalet the whole scene was magical.

Valentines Day

Didn't suck so hard this year. A handful of us cooked up a big pasta dish. We managed to get a starter, main and booze for 5 Euros a head. So a pleasent night was spend getting drunk. Also had a nice time going out with Tori, Robin and their friend Matt who is a Kiwi pilot who is staying. A interesting discussion took place regarding airplane urban myths and how to deal with terrorist attacks.

Ring of fire

Drinking games where the order of the day the other night. We had a metric ass load of beer, a few bottles of wine, a bottle of absinthe and a bottle of whisky. We started off with arrogance. Though this finished early due to everybody getting carried away. A mug of wine, absinthe and beer doesn't go down so well. We then moved onto ring of fire and somehow set fire to the table.... All good

Totally Random

Since I have been unable to keep working out what I did on a day to day basis due to Mutzig abuse and other things I'll post random snippets of info however random.

This sums up the kitchen ethos quite well.



Spent two bloody brilliant days on the mountain depsite hurting my knee again. There is quite deep powder in places now and aa handful of us hit some nice powder fields. The highlight being Nico and I bombing down the Snowcross (Avalanche controlled off-piste) It was deep and steep. The area was under Brocheux lift (if thats how you spell it) and was amazing. It would be roughly a double black if pisted. Makes Face look like a green run. All good and Nico nearly pulled a backflip albeit by accident.


Back at the Super Morzine Pete and Matt decided to have a full on wrestling match.... V amusing.



This was me after a day on the slopes..... why did I forget my hat.... The entire of my head froze. Was quite insulating actually


Saw this chalet the other day.... I want... When i'm older I want to build a place like this... I love the overhang on the roof.


This is Lukes new board. Untouched by the snow yet sullied by Robin.

Fabric

How good does this look!!!!!


Sat 31st Mar 07
10:00pm - 7:00am

Room One:
Carl Craig
Craig Richards
Rob Mello

Room Two:
Marco Carola
Jennifer Cardini
Shonky

Room Three:
artist tbc...

Kelseys Birthday

Should only be a few more days of rest now. Bloody hope so as I am getting a little bored. Its kelseys birthday today so everybody plans to go out fairly large. Though Paradis is on the cards and i'm not the greatest fan of cheesy nightclubs. Should be fun though. Was going to go to the drum & bass night but was well to knackered. Just spent a few hours in Rhodos like usual trying to download Heroes and Lost. I am getting so into Heroes. Its bloody awesome.

About to go and find Nico and sample Carson's new burgers up at the Sherpa. They should be well nice. Plan to go for a long walk up to Avoriaz tomorrow and stretch the legs. Check out the board park and generally chill.

Just found out that Trentemoller is playing in london again in April. I am well up for it and hopefully will be able to cope a little better than last time......

Park Pre Knee Fuck Up

Here is a shot of my landing a frontside boardslide in the Avoriaz park the other day. May try some backside ones or maybe lipslides next. Knee is getting better though have torn the ligament. Spend 3 hours in the doctors this morning...... It was painful since I was on certain substances which I seem to always have when queing. What really made it worse is that some bloody kids came in to the already packed waiting room and started to smash toys into the floor. I wanted to shot myself. Its drum & Bass night tonight though i am a little fucked after last nights debauchery. I will let the photos explain the situation.... Put it this way, the strobe light was awesome again and fire juggling proved easier than I thought regardless of the fact that I forgot I was fire juggling about 4 times and nearly burnt myself.





To sum up some of the stupidity.

1. Came home from drinking shed loads up at the garage and at a free dinner to find that Pete and Matt had smoked all the week and branded themselves with hot knives. Petes looks pretty cool.....



2. Kelseys sister turned up yesterday. She seems really nice but made a grand entrance. Having to be freed from the Cavern toilets where she passed out naked. All rather amusing and a sterling way to get introduced.

3. Finding 3 sets of horrific bollocks on my camera from Pete, Matt and Luke. Good work boys..... I hope you don't like your eyebrows.

4. Having a lovely 3 course meal cooked for us with free wine and champagne up at the Alpine Elements chalet to repay the favour by stealing as many things as feasible. (The fagin in people came out.... I did not for the record). The line was drawn at a sofa and a huge Yoke that was hanging from the ceiling.

Snow where to go

Well its just started snowing again and I am a cripple. I have been lovingly called Sir Limpsalot. It is getting better though so thats a good thing. Just need rest.... Last night was quite large. We all got invited around to a Alpine Elements chalet for dinner since they had no guests and lots of food. 8 of us ate for 18. Lots was drunk and topic of conversation even more depraved than a night down the pub with Brammers. Staggering home we decided to head up to the garage for some Mutzigs. I can't remember getting home.

Papy Party

It was agreed that a party was in order. Our chalet was rearranged and lots of beer purchased. There are lots of similar chalets around morzine and everybody knows everybody else university style. Ala The Warriors we had the Highlife crew, the Pascal posse, The Chalet Le Dent Blanc bunch, the Nantugaux massive, the SkiTed contingent and obviously the Papy reprobates. All in all it was a bloody good party with around 50-60 people the place was nicely packed. With a snowboarding DVD on the 70 inch rear projection and Drum & Bass on the hifi all was good. Not exactly following doctors orders to rest, ice and elevate my leg I partied till about 2 or so and got nicely hammered. Leg actually feels a lot better today. I still have moments when I think i'm going to fall over but generally its improving. I'll have to play it by ear I think. It means that where as before I was boarding and drinking I am now just drinking. I am managing to be less productive by the day. Rhodos internet cafe was the only destination today. I failed, spend most of the day catching the sun sitting outside the chalet. Ah the life of a bum......

Sweepstake winner

Whoever had the sweepstake on Lateral Knee Ligament.... You are the winner. Much has happened in the last few day. On thursday I went to the launch party for Cams new company Boardride. It was big, Tyler Chorton (pro rider famed for nolie frontflips) and Dom Harrington were there. Cafe Chaud is a small place so it was rammed to the rafters. Free toffee vodka flowed and general stupidy commenced. I got in the good books with Victoria and Bee by acting as wingman and distracting a girl who was trying to pull the bloke Victoria was after. I chatted to her long enough for Victoria to pull him.... Result.

Friday was a lazy day. Luke and I planned to head up to watch the O'neil quarter pipe final in Avoriaz. We couldn't... sorry I couldn't have fucked it up more. I got all the way to the prodain lift which takes 30 min and realised that I didn't have my lift pass. An hour later and we got back to the Prodain sans camera and phone. We caught the comp which was interesting but not amazing. Got bloody freezing then headed down to an empty carpark. No buses to be seen we managed to hitch hike back to Morzine with a wannabe rallycross french driver.


I broke my boots the other week and couldn't get them tight enough so I went out yesterday and bought some new flashy green Celcius boots. They are the shit... Shame I won't be able to wear them for a while... but i'll get on to that



I met up with the pascal boys as I went down to the bus and spent the morning bombing about on one of the only descent runs around. Pulled some fairly large straight airs and a couple of little backside 180's. After fighting through the crowds on the slopes I headed to the park... Bad idea. I tried the box to start off with. Stuck and faceplanted, no biggy. I have descent arse pads on now, though typically when you protect one area you then fuck another.

Feeling the need for a bit of air I dropped in to hit the smaller kickers. The first one you can't get enough speed so I limply jumped over it. I straight lined it towards the third, all good. I pulled a nice indy and soared. All was good until I realised that I had missed the landing by about 15 feet. I dropped from about 6-8 foot onto the flat on my front foot. I landed it, but then collapsed. Joy. I walked all the way back to the prodain and did nothing for the rest of the day.

Well, just been to the hospital, 3 x-rays later and a wallet 200 Euro's lighter I have damaged my Lateral Collateral Ligament. I am now not sure what the hell to do. I have to see the doctor on thursday then go for physio.

Oddly I have just spoken to my brother who has exactly the same issue (footballer hacked him). We are a joke. I feel i am a parody of myself sometimes. I blame it on the snow. If we actually had some I would have been up the mountain not dicking around in the icy park. C'est la vie

Contact

Just a quickie. I have joined Facebook now www.facebook.com I have also setup Skype. My username is jamesdmorgan. If anybody has a skype account can you let me know.

Also I am trying to not use my phone to much since I had 140 texts in 2 weeks and I worry that I am personally funding the carphone warehouse. Not that I don't like receiving texts mind.

Garage Rocks

Spent a quiet day milling around the house and town. Went down to the back of the cinema and watched Pete Jib a telegraph pole, I need to pluck up the courage to hit it myself. I planned not to go out since I was quite tired but after a call from Cam I found myself walking up to the Garage. There was a live band and it was rammed. Met up with Cam and Jools and a handful of others. 3 Pint of mutzig and a weird spirit of JD & coke & Kalua. Twas bloody horrible. Cam was the person that originally broke me when it comes to spirits. The first sip made me pull an Esther Ranson face, the second I thought was ok, the third and I nearly threw up in my mouth. So I stuck to good ole Mutzig to wash away the taste. Quite hammered I staggered home and chatted to a random girl all the way home. For some reason she liked my drunken banter and actually walked past her chalet whilst talking to me. Was meant to boarding with Cam early the next day. I woke and felt like cack. I managed to hit the hill about lunchtime. Rubbish really. I am meant to be going to the Garage again tonight. Tuesdays are usually pretty good. So fingers crossed.

Avoriaz was mixed again, Tried to land backside 180's over the offpiste kickers. I failed pretty much. It was literally well bum. We moved onto the park and I plucked up the courage to hit the box rail again after slamming on my elbow on the first day. After a couple of shitty 50-50's I slide out a small boardslide. I have finally got it and pulled 3 more nice boardslides (jumping 90 degrees onto the box and sliding it out). Pretty chuffed I headed down the Prodains with about 30 kids in a bloody ski train. Could I get round the little gits. Could I fuck. It was icy and quite knackering, but felt pretty good. Its bad taste night tonight at the Cavern. After mine and Petes near ban I thought it would be amusing going as a huge spliff. I think i'll pass and go straight to Le Garage.....

Sunday 28th - Achey as all bloody hell

Well I woke up late. Felt like shit and had to contend with Nico coughing like a seal. Poor bastard was up all night with the Papy cough. My body aches like all hell. My neck has started playing up again. This worries me a bit since it was good for a while, its stiff due to getting whiplash from smacking my head but I keep getting shooting pains on the top vertebrate. I had this mildly before but now its quite pronounced despite not actually putting my neck out. All a little rubbish. Not much has been achieved today really. My board looks like a small war has been fought on the base. I don't see it surviving the season at this rate. Edward Scissor hands would have kept the base smoother I think. Though I haven't damaged the rails it has more plastic in it than Jordan.

Sat 27th - Icy Yeti

Nico & I fancied a change of scene from Avoriaz so we decided to head up to Morzine and Les Gets. The high peaks of Chamossiere & Pointe De Nyon were our first hits. The conditions weren't the greatest. Small amount of powder off the top of Nyon so we cut straight across the piste and dropped into the off-piste. Chamossiere was so so, a little rocky though still enjoyable. Last year we dropped into a shute off the back of the Ranfoilly lift. A small 5 min hike leads to a wicked powder run. We hiked it again just to check out the quality of the snow. A little unsure we dropped in anyway.




The snow looked descent enough to get a nice run. I dropped in an instantly hit a tree. Smooth. Though the rest of the run was deep untracked powder and I punched a nice line through till back onto the piste. Les Gets was next on the list despite the runs being closed. We went down them anyway. Les Gets board park was less than complete. A few boxes were dotted around though due to my previous stack at the Avoriaz park I wasn't in the mood. Getting back to Les Gets was harder than we thought. We ended getting stuck in a muddy field but trudged down and bumped into a Yeti at the badly named "Peak" bar at the bottom of Les Gets.



The run back to Morzine was one of the worst I have ever done. Angled icy pistes are not my idea of fun. I hit a little jump and landed fine but due to having little edge I slipped spun over and smashed my head on the ice. It bloody hurt and really pissed me off. I then slipped onto my knees. Its weird but I felt like I had regressed to a beginner level. We then hit a super section of powder into La Stade back into Plenney in Morzine.

Luke and I planned a quiet beer with Cam and Carson. We failed. In Buddha bar we had a sweet little sofa area. The guys were playing a brutally simple drinking game. Hold a piece of paper in one hand. The other person guesses. If wrong you drink. If you win you get to hide the paper. Cam and Carson had already polished off two Giraffes of beer. We joined in and started playing Spoof. 6 Giraffes later and a little bit of teaming up and we were all fairly pissed. Luke got a sneaky depth charge. I got the drip tray (I only found out a the next day) and Carson lost about 4 times in a row due to everybody else cheating. We left to get cheese toasties back at Cams. We got halve way and got distracted my Pete and Bruce and headed back to the Cavern. Carson is probably the least subtle person I have ever been with. I was chatting to a girl who happened to be a lesbian. I had no intention of pulling her, though Carson felt the need to constantly inform me and the girl in a voice similar to Homer whispering, "She is a Lesbian, You can't shag her. Honestly mate she likes girls." Toasties happened about 3am and were bloody brilliant.

Friday 26th - Jib Night

The day was spent chilling due to being a little knackered from the last two days boarding. The evening will be known as the Log Sessions. Pete found a ledge in town and was determined to nail a tailslide down it. Pete, Matt, Luke and myself headed down with boards cameras and shovels. Built a little kicker and sessioned it. Despite lack of light it was quite successful. Apart from luke trying to miss me and slam his back on the ledge (sorry, I had to get in close to let the flash work). The last shot was highly amusing since Luke's hat completely covered his eyes.





After hitting the ledge we moved to outside the Buddha and jibbed the logs oustide. Despite the interest from lookers on, one even asked if we were MTV (of course we said yes) nobody hurt themselves. Probably a first, or just down to the fact that I was filming.

Thursday 25th - Carried Away

Today Luke, Nico, Jim and Myself went up to check out the powder. We aimed to ride the Chatel area since I knew a few spots and Nico had a couple up his sleeve. We rode pretty hard in the morning. We rode the same powder field we did the day before and pissed about on and off-piste.

We trekked across the right-hand side of linga, The left peak was out due to lack of snow (this was the infamous Avalanche spot from last year). The off-piste here was spot on, deep not heavily tracked and asking to be ridden.



After a superb run down the right hand side of Linga we decided to stop for a bite to eat at a restaurant perched high on the side. All was good till we planned to leave. Screw walking down I thought. I clipped in and decided to nail it off the side. All would have been good had it not been for the cliff and rocks. I hit the first drop fine, caught rocks and fell backwards down the second jut of rocks. I knew things weren't great when time slowed down. I thought to myself, this is really going to hurt. Luckily it didn't, though if my board could talk it would have been totally pissed with me. All in all 6 core shots and a small hole in my hand.

This freaked me out a bit so I took the rest of the day slowly. I get a little carried away sometimes. I am riding down slopes steeper than anything I have ever ridden. My powder riding is going from strength to strength.

In the Evening I hit the Buddha bar to meet up with my Uncle who was over for the week and his crazy drinking mates. The have apparently gained a record for the largest shot order in Buddha bar history. 200 Euros in one round. I managed to get a couple of drinks so was quite happy and lubricated for the Ridge bars Aussie Night. There weren't many Aussies, but was mildly amusing. Then onto the garage (my fav place). Tonight they were playing minimal and electro house. Would have been blinding if there were more people there. Julie was there so chatted to her for ages. A girl boarder who loves techno...... Im in heaven. She said she would like to catch up again so I will def pursue that. For some reason we went onto Paradis. I hate shitty clubs that think they are good. Wank. So drank a 6 Euro bud and dreamt of the Bass floor at fabric.

Wednesday 24th - Pow Pow Pow

Due to the amount of snow that dumped on my birthday we got up really early and hit the mountain. The snow was probably the best I have seen in ages. We dropped into a powder field off the back of one of the Chatel lifts. Beautiful deep powder. Got some nice turns in and dropped back onto the piste.

About 20 of us were bombing about. I stuck with Cam and Carson and hit loads of sweet off-piste. Much dicking about ensued with me being rugby tackled by Carson. We finished off the day going down Prodains run to Cams chalet. Apart from being contantly cut up by bastard skiers, it was a good run. My legs burning and feeling well happy I collapsed into a chair with a cup of tea.

Tuesday 23rd - My Birthday

Haven't really done anything today despite it being my birthday. Have had lots of nice texts from friends and family. Still feel fairly crappy but am kindof getting used to it to be honest.

I am currently sitting in a quiet french patisserie nicking the Wifi from the cafe next door. Just had a nice nice Millefeuille and a jasmine tea. Though I think the woman is going to get pissed off with me as i'm only really here to use the internet and I only have a 50 Euro note... oh well.

Tonight should be interesting. I hopefully wont have to buy many drinks, and its a P party at the Cavern for seasonaires. So fancy dress that begins with a P. Being the well prepared person that I am I have brought across a flight suit and plan to go Top Gun tonight. Should be a laugh and its quite a comfortable costume and looks the bomb.

For the record it has started snowing....... finally its 14.55 and about bloody time!

Tonight was bizzare. It all went a little sideways. The evening started off with a surprise birthday cake and candles, I got a lovely card from the guys in the house which really cheered me up. Strangely the cake was a huge MilleFueille... All good. I assumed that most people would be going to the P party at the cavern, it turned out to be just me an Pete and only me in fancy dress. Though the pilot costume doesn't take any effort really. We rocked up to the cavern expecting to see lots of others in crazy fancy dress. We were the first pretty much, but got free drinks for fancy dress and for it being my birthday. After a fair few shooters and strange depth charges (my stamina for spirits seems to be improving) a walking pool table turned up with a lifesize mobile phone, a panda, and a shed load of walking presents.





We were going to go the garage since its usually going off, but it was shut due to massive amounts of snow. During a brief break from the cavern we stumbled apon a fairly large snowball fight with a french chalet. The chalet was loosing the battle with about 20 people unleeching a torrent of snowballs (and a police cone). At this stage it was all rather amusing. It wasn't so later on.

Bumped into Cam who was taking part in a 3 legged race, we chilled and chatted to god knows how many people most I won't recognise again sadly. The night continued in a drunken way until we decided to leave (we might have been asked I can't remember exactly). The snowball fight had grown in size and seemed to be civil with a mild smatterering of chaos. It then turned to pure chaos. One of the french guys thought was needed was to launch a heavy wooden garden chair from the first floor. He was obviously bored with the usual snowball fight convention. The chair unfortunately the chair struck pete square on the head. Blood poured from his head and the scene was generally a bloody mess. A lynch mob was quickly formed whilst I tried to walk Pete home. The end result was that Pete now has 7 staples in his head. His seems fine about this and more pissed that he got blood over everything in the vicinity including his white board jacket.

Monday 22nd - Mum's Birthday

Got up fairly late again. No real need to bust a gut at the moment due to conditions. The guys headed up, though my arm still hurts so I thought i'd leave it for today. Its Drum & Bass tonight at the Garage so i'm hoping that there will be a good turn out.

Its weird, my head is all over the place at the moment. Part of me thinks, why am I doing this. The only reason really in coming over was to Snowboard a lot. So far this hasn't happened and because Chalet papy breeds Colds and Virus better than a 2nd World War germ lab, I really don't feel in the mood to go out that much. The other part of me thinks I don't have to do anything other than go out and Snowboard, quit your bloody moaning.

I think if I hadn't been having such a bloody good time in London before I came away I may feel differently. The people here are lovely, friendly and well meaning, though they don't really know me. I guess this is one of the problems with joining a group that has already gone through the bonding stage. Maybe its because I am getting older, but I feel that I have such a great group of friends in the UK and a part of me thinks do I really need to go through the old University style mass meeting of people. I have been there and done that.

I received a birthday card from Jayne, Matt and Suz yesterday. It really cheered me up, especially with the reference to my hat obsession. For the record I have not bought a hat in over a month....

Also happy birthday mum....

Minor Injury 2, Maor Injury 0

Doctor reckons I have buggered the tendon in my arm (his words). May take up to 2 weeks, though he reckons I can board if I am sensible. He really knows me well.......

Went out to Cayote bar and shot some pool with Pete and Kelsey. Played pretty well for me. Even double the black in to win one of the games. Its a shame i'm shit when I play at work.

My Uncle then rang me up to say he was standing at Buddha bar and where was I. Buddha bar is above Cayote, so i popped up and said hi. We then carried on to the garage, which was kicking. Spent a good couple of hours meeting people and jumping around like a twat.

Walking home came across a group of people slap fighting. They were lousy so I recommended the reverse hand slap. One guy then jokingly slapped me. Game on.....

I blocked all his moves and was happily playing around. I saw my opportunity, spun round and smacked him in the face with the back of my hand followed by a short slap with my right. Victorious and slightly wary that I might have started a proper fight I bowed out.

Walked up the road with Pete and dodged some wankery english youths shouting football chants... Bunch of wankers. Who lived up to my estimation by smashing the window of one of the shops. We then wandered home and discussed the state of the world.

Oh yeah met and cool girl called Julie who wished me happy birthday unexpectedly and another girl called Bee who is sound. Said she was on a boy detox for a month and was a couple of weeks in. I said I would catch up with here in 20 days.... man i'm smooth......

Sunday 21st - Jim's Birthday

Woke up at 12.30. Feel like crap despite sleeping for 18 or so hours

Watched most of the house butcher Pete's hair which was amusing. Going down to the English doctors later to have my arm looked at and hopefully have more than one word conversations.

I am having really doubts out here at the moment. Im burning money like the KLF and am ill all hell. Got some bloody ear infection which is going round and deaf as a post. There is no snow and I can't sleep. I have a deep down urge to jack the whole bloody thing in. I know its irrational but I'm just not feeling it at the moment. I would rather be relaxing down in devon. Instead of getting progressively more ill on a bloody 18-30's. Shit spain gets more snow than here and its cheaper..... Im getting old. I hit 29 on tuesday and I'm really not feeling it..... bah

Its Jim's birthday tonight, I may go for one, but I ain't going large. Anyway I can't hear people when I out... Its a bloody joke

Well..... had a few Mutzigs in robinsons bar and then headed up to the garage. Was quite a good night though...

Sat 20th - The Land Of Eternal Sleep

Got up early to hit the mountain hard. I hit it a little to hard.

Mistake 1 - FS Boardslide on tree, caught and edge, hit said tree and ripped my jacket
Mistake 2 - FS 180, caught and edge and fucked my arm, hurts more today than it did yesterday, going to doctors (again)

Went to french doctors (a mistake) who couldn't speak english, I managed to get some tetrazapam to hopefully allow me to sleep despite the constant party in my room. It worked, Went to bed about 7-8, woke up at 12.30pm

Friday 19th - Fear & Loathing

hmm, well I don't know how to start this post really. I don't plan on going into details due to the nature of the stupidy that ensued. All I'll say is that the strobe shower was a genius idea and that there are certain times when is advisable not to go out in public. Some of the highlights were

• The window failing in on Pete.


• Nico tagging Pete's back with a foot and a halve long grafitti piece.


• Hours of hysterical laugher


• Strobe shower


• Contact juggling (probably the best I have ever been)

The evening was spend listening to music and trying to sleep. I can see this as an ongoing theme.

Thursday 18th - Bloody Rain

Got up late today due to torrential rain... boo. Though we are all hoping it will turn into snow. Bought some more gloves since my last pair ripped on first day. Lousy Burton manufacturing. Stole wireless at pascal (above the internet cafe) and generally bummed around. Found out that there is a D&B night over in the garage on monday. At midnight I will be 29 as well and to cap it off its meant to dump on tues night.

Went out to Cafe Chaux and met up with Cameron and his mates. They were all friends with the DJ, who was spinning house and dare I say it "funky house". There was a live bongo player and saxophonist. Pretty descent really. Got a little pissed and for some unknown reason went to Opera (A shit club round the corner). Whilst a couple of the guys blagged it in. I failed and had to hand over 14 friggin euros. I promptly danced like a twat for the rest of the night. The DJ was probably the worst I have ever seen. I counted 10 or more clashing beat mixes. I would have been better if he had just stopped the record and played the next.

Wednesday 17th

Went up the mountain with Pete this morning, well I say morning, the mornings don't really exist at the moment here. When all the good snow arrives (hopefully on my birthday) we will all be getting up a descent time.

I decided to warm my legs up on a quick run down to linderes. Snow was great at the top, shocking at the bottom. This made me give in and hit the board park. Not hitting rails at the moment due to a) being crap, b) it being early in the season and c) I had just waxed my board into a lightning fast snow destroyer which I would knacker on rails. I hit the green kickers a bit, not very well, but the landing was wank. Whilst Neil and Pete were happy nailing fs boardslides and lipslides on the rails, I chose to try the larger blue kickers. These were the biggest in the "baby" park. Hit the first nice and straight, kicked up and indy grabbed it. Landed nicely on the down landing and hit the second. All good. The best of the day as on subsequent hits I was winding windows. Landed on my arse a bit but nothing serious.

Decided to do another run and went down the prolays. Busy but good ish snow. Nailed it straight through the crowds and managed to keep a tail press going for about 50 metres or so and over small moguls. This run has loads of little kickers dotted around and natural jibs. Pulled a fs boardslide along a tree stump which was pleasing. The beginning I reckon. Chuffed I thought it best to head home. Nothing was done apart from waxing Petes board and a little fire juggling. I think I will be doing a lot, need to also contact Juggle a lot as well. Its the right place to get good. Especially when the weather is shit.

Tuesday 16th - Garage Night

Spent a quiet day chilling around town. Picked up and couple of things and got lost. Had to traverse through peoples gardens and down dodgy stairs. Went with Nico to the tourist office to sort out hotel for his folks. The lady initially spoke little english, though Nico wasn't sure if it was english or french, so the conversation went... err yeah, yeah, yeah, what?? yeah, whatever, err what. This went on then the women started speaking perfect english.... bloody french. Later I went with the guys from my chalet,Mark and the SkiTED guys to Buddha bar then onto the garage.

The garage is a small bar situated in the foothills above morzine. It can either me dead with a handful of locals drinking Mutzig or totally rammed with people jumping off the walls. Tonight it was the later. Got a few Mutzigs in and was buzzing. Its such a social place, every minute you are bumping into people, most I have no idea the names. I have also had the now commonplace "Do I know you from somewhere, you look familiar". Now I get this all the time. It has been decided that I must have the most average face going. I don't look like anybody famous, just other peoples friends. After the garage we trudged home and nicked some heavier than they looked breezeblocks from a building site to build our bbq. The idea is just that at Tue moment. Maybe one day it will come into being.

Monday 15th

Actually got up the mountain today with Nico. Just cruised and dicked about with little kickers on the side of the piste, pulled a couple of little straight indy grabs. Explored Chatel after a bit to eat and meeting up with Mark. Scary thing he is staying with friends who run a chalet. Tom and Ed of skited also know the girls from my chalet. Its a small world. Chatel had a couple of nice runs and a couple of horrific brown rocky runs. Didn't bail though so not fussed. We then went down to the Avoriaz park. Hit the rail, pretty badly actually. 2nd hit I totally screwed up and face planted off the rail. I really shouldn't do rails on my first day. So took the skin off my elbow, no biggy. Pulled some nice grabs of the kickers and pulled what was for me a sizable mute over a 7 foot hip. Was pretty chuffed. Was riding with about 8 guys. Neil was amusing pulling rodeos of the larger kickers and trying them over the hip. Not quite successful. Spent the remaninder of the night waxing boards and fire juggling. Spent the evening till about 2am chilling listening to minimal... was good.

Sunday 14th

Chilled most of the day, went round to Cams house for a sunday roast. Well nice dinner with a load of new people. Went out to Dixies again, started drinking and sat on the floor since it was packed. All was good until the barmen reached across to pick up glasses and knocked a pint into my lap. Don't remember getting home but did lose my coat in the process. Vaguely remember turning the room into a rave with my glow balls, strobe lights and globalls. Was amusing.



This is my room. In the words of an estate agent it is compact and has character. It will do.....

Taxi

Being woken by the taxi was a bit of a shock and it took me about 5 min to register where I was, what I was doing and that I was still drunk. Matt and I went out for a quiet beer in Borough before I had to be up and off to Gatwick at 6am the next day. We stumbled upon a rammed tapas bar on Borough High St, Food was awesome, proper afair unlike the joke that is La Tasca. After more food than was sensible we carried on to another bar and so on till I woke like I had surfaced from being under water.

The morning started badly, it worse, then a smidgen better, then total shit. I felt like somebody had crept up in my sleep and filled my head with treacle. Gatwick express was out so we pilled in a coach and headed off. Now you read the papers and see the bad reports of Easy Jet, I thought it can't be that bad, it was. After being chared £65 quid for excess baggage. Oh you can have a extra bag sir, which you have paid for. But it can't weigh anything. Still hungover and mildly pissed off I duly walked off to the wrong gate. At Geneva my bag of clothes and random crap failed to turn up. The queue for lost luggage was like people waiting to pay the ferryman. It moved but at a glacial speed. I had a transfer to meet, a nearly dead phone, no phone numbers and a bloody huge boardbag to lug about. After giving up and walking through customs I found that the only way to get my bag back was to queue. Nothing could be done later. Bizarrely I found that I could walk through a door back into arrivals. I walked through customes 3 or 4 times that morning... and they stop you talking liquids onto the plane. Bloody ridiculous.

Anyway, I met up with a girl that was staying in my Chalet and some lads that were staying in Pascal or "The Crack House", Everybody was a little nervous anyway but talk of doss houses and catching typhoid in the kitchen didn't help the mood.

Due to lack of bags and general surreaness of the situation I decided to cheer myself up with heavy retail therapy. I went into slopestyle (wicked board shop round the corner), explained the situation and prompty rinsed my credit card.

As it turns out everybody is chilled and friendly. My room is a bijou to say the least. The window can't be shut to to the demolition of the bunk bed (my bed) but it functions, just.

Had a surreal night to kick things off. Went down to Dixies and had a couple of beers. Then out of the blue Cam, a mate from school comes over and kindof freaks out when he spots me. He is doing a season, lives round the corner and knows my lot. The night continued and finalised with a ritual head dunking in a freezing water trough. I came up pretty quick as soon as I felt my eyes rupture due to the cold water. Everybody else only put their faces in. I naively stuck my head in down to my neck. You live and learn.