wagons wagons wagons

To the left members of the big wagon weekend with the Gwr wagon and the Lnwr wagon

wagons wagons wagons

so its the end of the summer
just the last week to go
and we will have got another 7 wagons into back into the train
tomorrow we will get the old lead wagon 256 back on some good wheels
then its just a case of putting the freshly turned wheels that have been welded up by will high and his mate paul
under the other 4 wagons of the these there is a gwr with brake gear attached just a cheeky lil bit to finish on that
we need to bend the brake gear hanger as on one side the brake block doesnt sit fully against the wheel
this one is painted in black with grey uprights and looks very nice
one of the jobs on the welded wheels was to redrill centres in the journal so that the wheels will spin centrally on the wheel lathe this was another of the jobs done over our big wagon weekend over august bank holiday

also done is an lnwr wagon with the sexy brass axle box cover although we are awaiting on a few parts such as brake blocks before we can refit all the brake gear
we are going to let this run untill the next wagon bashing weekend though as it looks fantastic in the black paint with the middle side rail in white

Here is a picture of the lnwr wagon pre white rail with a set of 'ambulance' wheels under it

going through the painting and finishing shop at the moment are another lnwr wagon ( unbraked though ) and an fr wagon shown to the left on the works van

They just came back from shot blasting and they had a basic red oxide primer layer sprayed on on these two we need to paint another coat of black paint on and then change the wheels on the fr one we also need to make a pair of coupling pins for it.
As the old ones were wasted to nothing.

A couple of weekends ago we had a big wagon bashing party with different jobs going on all over the workshops there was wheel welding , hot riveting painting and various finishing jobs


We were riveting in 4 road we had around 50 or 60 rivets to do and we got them all done on the saturday we actually ran out of the rivets we had ordered in specially at the start of the summer. It was hot sweaty loud work but with 4 of us working on it led by Tim Elsby and having the current works apprentices we got into a good rhythm and ended up bashing through the lot quite quickly. We all had our separate jobs with Huw heating up the rivets and carrying them across, Rhys getting a block and bar on the end of the rivet with a head on it to lever it against the air riveter. Tim and myself switching between helping Rhys and doing the riveting over of the heads. We riveted in new corners on 2 different wagons with one wagon needing all four internal corners replaced.
This is a pretty standard repair this summer a new rail spine ( essentially find a knackered piece of rail and cut it to the right length ) with new corner plates to hold the spine in to the left you can see part of the corner piece which we have riveted in.

half century

so this is my 50th blog
seems pretty apt that im back where it started at the world famous festiniog railway

so lets do the apres canada bit quick
got home
2 days later got a job
moved plants , planted plants, watered plants, got a little bit sunburnt for 6 weeks at a local garden centre which was rather good fun
caught up with alll the important people that i hadnt seen in forever
destroyed a certain butler at mah jong

then i jumped in the fiesta and headed on up here
with a couple of brake problems on route

to start with i was just firing a whole bunch as we were short of crews
and i had some great days ( full main valve from ddualt ) and some terrible ( ray ive run out of coal.......... ) in the rain

for the past 5 weeks though ive mainly been fixing the old slate waggons
its a heritage society funded
The first 'fix' we did ( myself and tim ) was to 857 and it needed some spine repairs so we knocked up a couple of fish plates and then had the joy of having to gas axe a hole in the old spine for the new bolts to go in as we lacked a mag drill that fitted in the gap
so a bit of swearing later ( and a bit of die grinding to ummmmm make the holes a little rounder )
we had a nice little fix
although me and a coupling did have a disagreement ( well i just put it on upside down .... doh )

the next day we fixed a couple of faults from the book one of them being some of the brass spacers in one of the couplings on a 3 tonne wagon was absolutely shot to bits luckily tim found a couple of spares in our racking in the hlf shed so after cleaning up the buffer we fitted them and roberts your fathers brother we had got 2 done in a weekend

the next wagon to be fixed was another gwr wagon which needed a similar repair to 857 and me and bruno knocked that one off pretty quickly

the wagon after the gwr one was a lnwr wagon with an interesting lms axle box ( complete with brass cover phhwwwooooarrrhhh ) this one was a little more complex as it needed an entire new spine and frame stretchers
as the original spine was made of rail we decided to make the new one out of rail
so off me and emma went to go steal an old piece of double head rail
it cut in the band saw nice and easy but that was the end of the easy bit
due to the lip which the floor sits on we had to cut a corresponding bit out of the rail and which took a while due to all the rust and just the thickness of the material
then we made new plates to hold the spine in to the old substructure and we had to make new keep plates to go over these
emma was fantastic with her doing all the welding
we had various cleaners / younger volunteers helping us out on these wagons teaching them the first steps needed to keep the fleet running

in this time those last 2 wagons have gone for shot blasting
weve run a gravity train
got nearly 4 more wagons ready for shot blasting but ive got to go as ive got some wagons to fix

im home

so there we have it
im home
that was anti-climatic
I had a fun last few days in vancouver , I hung out with Claire and of course we paddled in the sea
I also spent time with Saskia and went to a frat party which was pretty terrible
then I ended up staying with gin my cuz for my last couple of days and we had a great time we listened to records drank some beers and went and saw the vancouver white caps footie team and it was a great day out

Then came the rubbish stuff flying home
and i had phoned up the company we had booked my flight with to confirm the baggage allowance and i was under the maximum
but they run flights with thomas cook and thomas cook has a different allowance
so i got screwed over got to the airport and the little asian bloke said ' ahhhh mr rumens that will be one hundred fifffffty dolllah' i was like what why?
he explained
oh well ive got 35 bucks in my pocket and i havent had breakfast yet buddy
ohhhhhhhhhhhhh
well ill go repack
so i repacked and was then the proud owner 2 pairs of underwear
i had to leave a load of underwear teeshirts even a 300 dollar pair of snowboard boots as my others fitted better
i was not a happy bunny
and id even shown up 15 minutes before check in even opened soo much for being on time
the irony is i got bumped up to premium class
cheers thomas cook
so i got home
decided i had too much crap in my room and started to get rid of it
so did that all day till pub time then saw the boys
and since then my feet havent really touched the ground
i got home the monday morning
by weds afternoon i already had a job
im working in the local garden centre doing potting of plants moving plants and just general dogs body work but its full time and they pay me each week so im loving it
and since then ive just been seeing people sorting stuff out and yeh getting on with earning money
as im heading to north wales again in 2 weeks time for all summer
so yeh its good times at the moment
oh yeh its okish to be home well its nice to be fed and have my clothes washed so cheers mum and dad

im in van couvvvee tric!

hey guys

greetings from the mainland

its strange to be off the island

ahh well i'll be back on the uk soon enough

so anyway

the victoria saga dun dun duuuuunnn

read the previous post for the prequel

im stood at the door to my old place in vic and i walk in hollaring

hunnnnnny im hommmme

only to find kyler isnt even home yet

but jer was

sooo we had a few beers

then the boys got home accompanied by jesse the white tooth! and Karin

it was really good to be home again and seeing the guys

we just kinda hit the beers hard and then the whiskey as jer's boss had given him a bottle for his birthday

and played a great game called apples to apples

its a game where you get an adjective card

and multiple noun cards

and play the noun that goes with the adjective

ok so that doesnt sound fun but

when you have words like

furious

and the nouns that people play include

giant squid

pirates

tommy lee

etc

it gets pretty fun

so we played this till i dunno was probably around 2 am

then me and jesse slept on my old mattresses in the middle of the floor

so woke up with a rather sore head

and had to mission it all the way to america ( with a stop on route to print off my flight details )

this was going all to plan until the us homeland security guy took a dislike to me

it went along the lines of youve only got 5 mins till the boat leaves

then you stink of booze

your drunk

my reply sorry im late officer i was drunk last night i havent had time to change and what do i need to fill in

oh some forms you wont do them in time

so i filled them out seriously quick then had my prints and photo taken and i ran and got the boat just as it left

beauty

coming back into canada was easy just the printer died so we had to go across to the vehicle check side

where i bump into some lasses who had been riding during the week and recognised me

so with 10 border guards around me we start having a laugh about how id been having to drag them out of the way when they bailed off the green chair

it was obviously a current office joke as everyone was pulling their legs about it

i then went for dinner with dani , our old couch surfer,

and it was awesome we went and got kd and made deluxe kd ( kraft dinner , its mac and cheese in a box ) with onion and real cheese and red pepper and fake chicken ( dani's a veggie )

and it was delicious!

then we sat and drank beers and put the world to rights before i headed off for my next engagement

it was a beer with brit ( a fellow sport checker ) actually she got my old friday and saturday night shifts poor lass

and it was great we bumped into kabuki colin from last summer and chatted to him for an age

then it was time for a beer in swans

and man id forgotten how busy bars in vic get on a friday night ( yeh i had completely forgot it was friday even now im on mountain time so i have no idea what day it is )

i still had my bag with all my crap in

we eventually found a table

and it was great we just chatted away had a couple of beers and it was such a nice evening

then i headed home

well got home at gone midnight

doors locked

no one in

no spare key

bugger

phone was dead so headed to a call box tried calling kyler and ohh it went to his voicemail damn it

so trekked back to dtown vic

grabbed a beer and decided to stay in the hostel for a night

rocked up at like 130 am

was needing to get up at 4 am so was like hey guys can i crash on the couches

no bueno i had to purchase a bed for the evening

so did and then stayed up chatting to the nice german and dutch girls in my room till about 2 30

then got a nice little nap

then up again and off for the bus

yay

so back up the mountain and i had a great days riding

well a morning boarding then an afternoon planking ( skiing )

i rode every lift and ripped it up

plankings easy me and simon found it a little more social able than boarding as we wernt just racing straight down the hill

saturday night had a fannntasstic sleep

it was awesome to be back in my own rock hard bed with no heat in the room :)

sunday woke up to go riding and it wasnt nice out

was even worse up the hill so did a few runs then called her a day

and that was the end of the season 107 days not bad really

when i got home me and tyler just hung out and drank some beers watched some how i met your mother

was good end to a great season

monday i started packing

tuesday

myself si shay;lee vani and edd went to tofino for the day

and it was gorgeous

tofino is a cool little town right on the west coast of the island and its canadas surfing mecca ( yep i know its not what you imagine in canada )

anyway ill finish tofino off soon

its late and im going to sleep on the sofa bed so gotta set it up

night yawwwwlll

i come from a land down under

ok so im sat at home ( courtenay )
im listening to men at work i come from a land down under
where women glow and men plunder .....

ok back on track so the past few weeks have been crazy
since my birthday weve had spring break here which has equalled non stop 6 day weeks and even a 9 day stint
so im glad the season ends tomorrow just so i can get a real rest and a lie in
its still been snowing regularly with a dump predicted this week so the mtn has decided to open next weekend too
but my work permit has run out so i cant work

ok so the real craziness started on the last tuesday of march
vania my adorable Chilean roommate told me that there was one last CASI level 1 snowboard instructor course being run that weekend.
so i talked to tom the lad running the course and hey presto i was on it
it was running friday through sunday
unfortuantly i work friday saturday and sundays.....
so after a frantic searching of someone to swap shifts with johno the other chair boss on the green agreed to trade his weds and thurs for my fri and sat ( thanks johno i owe you big time for that ) so this was my 9 day stint
then i did the 3 day course and i passed
i must of had good karma that day
on day one we worked on our riding skills in the morning
sorting out our balance and stance on the board and then moving upwards
we then worked on our pivot and steering which was getting out weight onto the front foot in the start of the turn and just adjust it back a little
then it was onto edging control which as it sounds was having the board on a edge
then its pressure control which is all about absorbing bumps and changes of terrain
and finally timing and co ordination which basically is putting everything together and just having a good flow and nice symmetrical

this took all morning and the next 2 days for me as my riding style was horrible after 7 years of no lessons and 99 days riding that way this season
i had my weight too far back and i needed to stop breaking at the waist and keep my body more upright and my head up more

then in the afternoon we all rode switch ( so your wrong leg forward ) doing a beginner lesson to remember what it was like
so we went through the basics putting on a board skating around slide slipping etc

by this time all our brains were fried ( there was 7 of us )
out of all of us about 4 of us worked on the hill the other 3 i knew 2 simon and maddie

day 2 started and it was gorgeous outside blue skys and super warm
we finished off the second half of the beginner lesson with learning to turn and linking turns

then it was our turn to teach
si nailed the basics
then elmar rocked the skating part
i had slide slipping
it was going well until tom told the group to just follow the fall line and i hadnt taught them how to control direction yet so i ended up with them all scattered over the bunny hill doh
then we went through the rest of the lesson and ended the day with some blasts down the hawk

day 3
i was completely bricking it as today we were teaching 2 lessons each and riding and being evaluated all day
to start the day we were given a class to teach
for my first one i had a private with a 16 year old lad who wanted to go on to riding park
i had a couple of minor things go wrong but it was a pretty solid lesson

for my second lesson i had the basics for a group of 30 somethings on a stag weekend
and i nailed it
we had a great time as a group the 3 lasses joined in and pretended to be guys and we were all laughing and having a good time

and so i passed despite messing up my last run

anyway i then worked my last 3 days of the season mostly on the green chair with johno and german mel and we had a blast
on my last day mel rocked up with a load of naachos for us all and yeh it was just a super fun time and way to end the season with my buds i worked with for most of it plus any day with johno is always hilarious

so on thursday i headed down to victoria as my work permit ran out
i headed up the mtn and did a couple of runs and was going to get the ski shuttle bus down
but the bus wasnt running on thursday
so at 330 i started hitch hiking
first ride was just down the mountain to the highway and maintenance guy mike gave me a ride down
then i started to walk with the thumb out 10 mins later i got a ride from a guy who had a super sweet dog ( taz ) who was an aussie desert dog and had a light gingery and white coat in splodges
he gave me a ride to cumberland which is only 15 mins down the road but every little helps
my next ride was from one of the liftys em who gave me a ride all the way to qualicum beach
so this put me about 12 k's from parksville
i walked about 3 k and then got picked up again by a nice teacher who drove me all the way to the northen side of nanaimo
i then got another ride through nanaimo
and had to start trekking again
15 mins later a nice old bloke in a pick up picked me up and we drove all the way to duncan
this is when i hit trouble
it was getting dark and it was about 830 or 9 so my hopes of getting a ride wernt too high so i started trekking again
and probably got 5 ks before i got a ride
just before i got the ride i was at the point of just jumping the side barrier and going to sleep as i was hella tired and thaught i would have better luck in the morning
luckily a stella lass picked me up because her brother was hitch hiking in the other direction and she thaught it would give him some good karma also she said i was damn hard to see in the dark and she didnt want to be killing anyone tonight
we had a great time just chatting the entire way to victoria she was studying opera at uni
she was nice enough to drop me right to the door at my old place

right thats half the story more to come tomorrow

the thursday after

so the thursday after wednesday night fiasco
we had an amazing powder day
it was truely mindblowingly incredible
fresh snow
blue skys
my best bud
oh yeh i had to get my ski pass un 'red flagged' i had forgotten to take some rental gear back oops silly me
but after it was alll hunky dorey
and yeh me and dear mr butler shredded all morning
and fair play to the boy he rode the back side of the boomerang on snow blades
yep double black diamond powder days
on snow blades
we needed to stop at about 11.30 for a little break as both of our legs were burning and we both enjoyed a well earned ham sandwhich which i must say was rather tasty so big thanks to young mr b for providing the catering expertise
we did laps with various people and i think i did some of the best riding ive ever done.
i hit this sweet turn just it was right underneath the lift line
and due to the amount of snow weve had it has a section above my line roped off
this is there to stop people getting nailed in the head by others riding the lift up
and guess what
a skiier nearly took my head off
but it was ok i shouted sorry man and he was all dont worry buddy yeeooooooowww nice line
i got all excited then
and made mr b take a pic but as he has forgotten his cable for his phone we cannot let the public see yet
so the pic will be in a post to follow
by mid afternoon the weather had turned a bit and wasnt so nice so we finished around 3 ish and went and had a coffee in the cafe
it was nice various people came and went
although chelsea was there all the time as she had buggered her knee up again ( the poor lass literally hurts herself every other day on the hill )
but we spent the day exploring the glades and getting stuck
i really am getting more and more like me father
it'll be ok we'll go this way
oh bugger thats a bit tricky ahh well ill bash on through next thing i know that little drop is a drop into a tree well with a big ol wind lip out of it and i get half way up and bugger im stuck
oi buts dont follow me down here
he just stops in time
that happened quite a few times
the backside of the boom was going off again but i found some trees tighter than expected so it was a case of turn into one which smacked my front edge
this kind of pushed me backwards
smash
that was the back edge of the board into a tree
im glad i wear my helmet as those tree branches have been getting mighty close
it now has a plaster on it mr bump stylee.
Friday i had to work
luckily i had been over looked on the schedule so ended up at the boomerang
me and fabian the crazy french man ( he is a fantastic skier and a helicopter pilot ) went to the lift first thing and did set up
we were sceptical about opening as the winds were gusting around 50 mph at the top and it was snowing rather hard
we did our setup and just waited for a descision about 3 hours later the word came through we wernt opening. we had to tell around 20 or so members of the public with probably 5 being iriate and f'ing and blinding at us
we just calmly explained that we were sorry its the mountains choice not ours and it didnt matter that youve been on more rickety lifts in worse winds and snow but this is mount washington and this is what we do in the conditions . ( one guy was so iriate that when we bumped into him later he continued to rant at us , not cool )
we were instructed to head back to the lift hut so we did
just in a more round about way
seeing as the 8 lifties that were working that day just happened to all take the same route back and the route included 8 black clad boarders ( oh well 7 and a skiier ) ripping repeatedly through the glades all weaving in and out of each other in fresh sweet fast champagne powder.
so after the first run we ditched our bags on the hawk and procceeded to whoop and yeoooow our way through the glades again ( repeat this 5 times or so ) and youve got us all bursting out

( well minus caitlin and ed seeing as caitlin had followed a line with 3 rollers on it and she jumped big on the first, on the second things were starting to get loose, then the third just threw her as she pretty much landed from the second one onto the top of the third , this was truely hilarious for the rest of us , ed had ended up in a similar situation)

onto sunset with a snowschool instructor there and me and al being all thats how liftys rolllll
then we ripped down for another ride

the general idea was that we would all ( al myself fab caitlin ed connie shauna and aussie ) head to aussies for pre beer pong tournement beer pong , you know to get our eye in ,
so we jumped on the 1 15 bus down and thank god we did as after we got down they closed the road up the mountain as it was snowing so hard
so all the other busses were delayed till about 9 o clock

so this runied our plan so myself and butler chilled at home having a few beers with tyler and then the girls came home and we had a couple more and put on the new jackass 3d movie and pretty much chilled all evening watching it and drinking more beers
was such a nice evening
house full of laughter

saturday was the afterdark invitational big air comp
and it was amazing
snowing and the riders were going huge
one of the new lifties timmy was part of it and he pulled a 1080 back flip off thisss hugggggeee jump
we went pretty wild
the night ended up with butler and cheeko (who has somehow become our 3rd amigo ) tackling me into a tree well and us wrestling in there till i ended up using the 2 of them to push myself up and out of it ( to avoid snowy hands )
then sunday was my birthday so thankyou for all the cards and greetings
i had a good day at work a couple of complaints about the new guys but i talked to them and they understand what they had done wrong so hopefully we should all be hunky dorey now
and i had a really good ride with butler
we only had time for one run but it was so nice and cruisey
we hit some trees
some powder a groomed run and yeh was nice
i was doing little 180s off the sides and stuff and laughing lots and lots with the boy
then in the evening we just went a had a few beers at avolanche with team france a few lifties and it was nice and relaxed evening kinda perfect
so im sat here on monday morning
skyping a couple of people
so chow
x

snowballll

snowball
snowball snowball snowball
thats pretty much been cheeko butler and myselfs past hour
weve just had an epic 7 block snowball fight
including a mini mission into a hostel where we may or may not have attacked certain amigos of ours with certain snowballs
the fact that this was cheekos hostel was beside the point he still wanted to mission it home
this included mutliple skirmishes against each other
at one point we called a truce
that cheeko decided to break with a shot at butler
i think the best moment was i was being chased by the two of them and then i skirted round a building ( avoiding the fresh snow ) and snuck up on them
well i thaught i had then a certain hobbit cheeko then snuck up on me being sneeky and pounded me while i attempted to nail buts in the face
my best shot must have been when i absolutely nailed cheeko in the face from about 30 metres back
also this was over into a parking lot while i was on the street so an added point for difficulty haha
so to cheekos reading this over my shoulder and agrees whole heartedly while eating my cookies and drinking my vodka
but its ok as its dan's sprite as a mixer
and in his defence we did consume his rum and coke while him and myself reigned supreme at table football at the cona
we beat team butler and flaveian ( one of the new french lifties ) last night 2 games to 1 with the final game being an epic comeback from 7-3 down to a mighty 10-7 win
and again tonight we destroyed them
butler isnt particularly happy as he's pretty competitive and he has been comprehensively beat in the past 2 one on one games
anywho
were off to watch the end of bill and teds bogus adventures
we're wild stallions !

fluid??

so that is the question do we go to fluid tonight or not
it is margaritta night as vania quite happily pointed out
now i have one Daniel Charles Butler with me
and its awesome
first time weve hung out just me and him since ummmm last february and that ummmm adventurous trip to plymouth
so he arrived in country on the 22nd
and dearest chelsea kinda forgot we were going to drive to nanamio ( where you get the ferry to vancouver from ) together and so i had to take the public transit and impliment plan B
so it started with a 30 minute trek
then a 2 hour greyhound ride in gorgeous sunshine
then another 30 minute trek
then a ferry ride to horseshoe bay
and we were late so i missed my bus so i implimented plan B version 2.0
so had to get the next one
which was absolutely packed no one else could fit in ( this was due to it being a vancouver vs montreal hockey game that night which the habs won the sods )
we then proceeded to travel from west van to downtown
hitting a car on route so everyone fell over in the bus
yep then into the middle of vancouver to take the sky train ( like a tube ) to vancouver airport
at this stage i was 40 minutes late and ready for butler to rip on me for always being late
and low and behold the little sod wasnt even there ( haha i win )
so we end up staying at my cousin gins for the night on tuesday. we also hung out with my buddy saskia and had beers and nachos while watching the game
then on weds we did the opposite trip
but the road from parksville to qualicum beach was supppper snowy and took like twice as long so we didnt arrive back till later than planned
we just crashed weds night
then thursday i had an epic day working at the boomerang then back to home to grab a butler then head out to troys birthday shindig
this included a 30 minute freezing walk while consuming a few bevvies
it was good fun we all had a few jars butler met the gang and then we missioned home as i had work the next day and dan wanted to go ride
so d b had a great day riding as it was blue skys and i had a hangover
and a hella busy green chair but i worked with cheeko and maxime ( 1 3rd of the french invasion ) and cheeko was his normal bubbly self we were sword fighting ( with ski poles ) and then a guy had a tiger hat on and i had to come out with a classic monty python quote
( from the meaning of life )
a tiger in canada
and then cheeko proceeded to shout get back get back while jabbing his ski pole at him the guy just laughed
anywhos we are going to the bar
so peace

damn Cheeko

so as the title says

damn Cheeko

him and myself decided on the bus ride home today ( i must mention after a couple of beers ) that it would be a good idea to hit up the local all you can eat fish and chips place tonight

seeing as it was only 10 dollars each

so we did and between us demolished 14 pieces of fish ( ive got to say im a little disgusted by the amount we ate ) and chips

and now im definatly in a food coma

i feel super sluggish and sleepy

darn boy

so its been a while and weve had epic powder now

yay

last weekend so the weekend of the 11th 12th ish of feb it just started bucketing snow ( courtesy of El Nina ) and it didnt stop for pretty much a week so weve had all the powder hounds out here every day

I got super lucky with my days off and scored tuesday, which just happened to be the day the boomerang finally was open ( the black double diamond runs ) , and even more luckily i was out riding with benny, chelsea, sam , em and maria just as the boom opened so we were in the first probably 20 people to get back there, it being benny and mine's first taste of the back side of the boom on 3 days worth of untouched powder

and it was incredible probably the best snowboarding ive ever had

riding in a crew with everyone getting fresh tracks and just exploring while ripping down super fast ahhh it was soo good

i only did a few runs then headed over to the front side as every man and his dog headed onto the back side and the front side was nearly as epic the glades arent as tight as on the backside so its a bit easier and it was just super fun , quick rides down and then a short 3 minute ride back up.

The next day i was working the boom with em who challenged me to a table football rematch ( at the meet and great i kind of completely destroyed her at least 5 times )

so after another great day where i got fresh tracks again ( it was equally as good as the frontside the day before ) we had a solid hour of playing hacky sack after me and big steve finished our beers ( we had decided to climb onto the lift hut for a better view and we found one so we sat up there ) see picture , shauna joined in as did grady and a couple of others after this picture was taken

so me and em went to the cona and played it was super fun then we remembered she had her hola hoops in her car so she decided to teach me how to

i kind of got it...

but im still pretty bad

i then worked thursday through sunday on the green chair and it was probably the busiest ive ever seen it

even busier than christmas week

but i managed to keep calm and not kill anyone

i even enjoyed it most of the time

except for the instance when i had to grab a young lady from falling out of the chair and shove her back in ( at head height ) and while doing this her board swung round in a perfect arc and cracked right into my ribs

i went down pretty much like a sack o spuds

not so fun

but today was on the boom and had a real good time i was working with one of the new french lads so was trying to speak some french and darn im rusty im going to make a good effort to speak some french each day to polish off the old grey matter

and then again after work someone busted out the hacky sack

and streuth me and grady were on it as was man tracker

was some freaky zone we were in when man tracker flicked it up to me and it went over my head so i turned and bicycled kicked it and grady some how managed to keep it in play for us to go around the world again

man tracker managed the same move later on

but the amazing one was cheeko

who joined in on his crutches .... ( he fractured his ankle hitting a tree stump )

and managed to kick it with his good foot, while his crutch dug in spinning him off balance, kind of fell and then managed to kick it with his bad foot for man tracker to keep the sack up

was incredible

and on the subject of injuries

ive managed to stay pretty free ( touch wood ) but a few of the boys have gone down hard this past week cheeko with his ankle rutter did his knee cap ( surgery jobby as the cap moved but the leg didnt ) and flo who has broken his humerous cleany

ive just tweaked my knee so im back to wearing the brace

anyway

peace

hallo

righto

im sat in the kitchen of my new place

well room in a new place

its a nice little place ( emphasis on little)

im sat drinking a lemsip with honey and a little fireball ( local whiskey )

as im still trying to shake this cold which has been festering since pretty much christmas

but luckily i have the next couple of days off so i can look after myself a little

so last time i was in victoria

im back in courtenay now

on the corner of 11th and fitzgerald

its good to be out of the hostel its my first night in the new house and im enjoying the just quiet

also im looking forward to a good kip with no peruvians snoring or drunken aussies stumbling through the dorm with their ipods blaring

im still really enjoying my time here snowboarding most days

got my knee crocked again yesterday just as i was getting it back to where it was before it got crocked first time round

this time i was helping up a youngster and said youngster flailed around with their snowboard on getting what i must admit was a fantastic arc on it straight into my knee

oh ho hum was the exact phrase used

so staying off it will help

the snow here is pretty icey at the moment

we had 5 cms a couple of nights ago but we could really use a good dump

im getting rather excited as a certain mr butler junior is coming out in a few weeks to help celebrate my 21st

dad always told me i would be lucky to survive till 16 so 21 really is a milestone for myself

its been pretty much all work for the past couple of weeks other than the few days off when ive just snowboarded really

i find that if i spend a day where i dont up to the mountain i get fidgity and wonder what the snow is like and how the visability is

i think im turning into what is known as a powder fiend

all the liftys seem to be a little down due to the lack of powder at the moment

same syndrome as surfers when the seas flat

weve had a good couple of nights out as a group

one for doms 19th (legal drinking age here)

and another was a nice little shindig at faffo's to celebrate getting paid so we had a few drinks at her place even the bosses showed up it was a nice chilled evening

we had a mount washingtons got talent event the other night

where the liftys very own mr p rudder came a creditable second before getting kicked out of the bar for ummmm de robing

truely hilarious

ive started hitting the features in the snowpark

one of the english instructors , jay, is also a park instructor so he took me and a couple of others through the park to just show us the basics

so we hit the medium stuff straight off

and now im trying the small stuff and cant seem to do it

just over jump it or in the case of the box it just kicks my arse everytime

im super glad im wearing my helmet its saved me a few times now definatly my most sensible purchase in 2010

weve endured temps as low as minus 15 in the past couple of weeks its been freezing luckily my new favourite hoodie is quilted so it keeps me resonably warm

anyway time for bed

cheerio chaps

oh this is a picture of my christmas eve 2010

before i lost not my camera

but somehow just the battery

blaah

happy new year

happy new year guys
so its 9 am im sat in vic drinking a cuppa at my old place
i got here 12 hours ago as both my knees are a little knackered at the moment so coming down here for a couple of days will stop me riding and give them some down time
also my good friend em is heading back to aus on the 20th and i wouldnt be able to get down here between now and then to say ta rah
i had a strange christmas and new year
it was the first one away from home and as all the guys were working all the time ( its the busiest time of year for the mountain ) it didnt really feel like christmas
me and the guys partied most of the time to make up for this so a few hungover days at work lead me to taking a couple of weeks off of the partying
give the organs a little time to relax

so we had that fantastic snow all the way up till the holiday break and then suddenly it was bright sunshine for literally the entire christmas and new year period perfect conditions
all the groomed runs were super fast and i was so glad that ive taken to wearing a helmet after a few ass over tit bails
one of them was literally 3 full rotations
the neck did feel a little compressed after that but after a good nights sleep it was fine
at the time i did think that man if i was a gymnast that would have been a perfect ten score

so i ended up working about 12 or 13 out of 14 days which just left me dead but it was all good fun as everyone was as busy so we just got on with it
although as i got the green chair boss position ive spent most of my time either picking kids up at one end or throwing them on the chair at the other
needs a lot of patience and im learning to just roll with it

i did get angry at one pair though
but after i had vented everything else was finne
although the buzzer in the top lift hut is right at ear level and on new years day the buzzer was soo piercing and i did wince every time it went off
said buzzer has now been covered with a sock just to take the edge off

some of the sunrises and sunsets ive seen from the top of lifts have just been beautiful views of the mountains and sea with scenery that looks like someones photo shopped it
the best is the backside of the boomerang
a lift that goes up and over a peak
you can see all the way across to mainland bc
and the rockies
and just breath taking

i officially love tree runs now
having spent the past couple of weeks on groomed runs as soon as we got some fresh snow just 25 cm or so it was straight into the gladed areas
i had the day off along with cody and english edd
so we went
shralpin ( riding )
we started off trying out the frontside of the boomerang ( the double black diamond only lift ) and the glades there still needed more snow so we went lower to the riptide glades ( single black diamond ) and just awesome boarding in there
we were playing follow my line
everyone trying to take an even more squirrelly line each run
as well we were playing lets see how fast we can do this
so a hella lot of fun was had
my favourite line was probably the one were we dropped down the steepest part of the glades through the tightest trees ( generally about 2ft gaps if not less ) and then out of nowhere there was a good 5 to 6 ft drop
didnt realise
hit it fast got some air and managed to keep it was awesome feeling
anyway
peace guys
happy new year