Finally got power, now no internet!
We had a great day boarding with Steele and Julie. The sky was blue and it was warm when we were in the sun. There had been quite a bit of snow which, strangely, made the going pretty tough. The pistes hadn’t been ‘bashed’ flat by the 10 ton machines so as the powder gets carved up it gets bumpy. At least the landing’s quite soft if you fall but it’s hard on the knees!
We covered pretty much all of our favourite pistes in Avoriaz – most of them just once before moving on to another area, so it was a pretty hectic afternoon. By the time we were on Crot which runs down to the car park we weren’t parked in we realised that 3 chairs, one gondola and 5 pistes was a bit too much of a trek to get right back over to Morzine so we went straight down and got the bus back! Happily exhausted we stopped at Bar Robinson for one of their famed lagers. A nice cold beer, it tasted pretty innocent, but I realised soon after when it had gone straight to my head that it was, indeed, an unusually strong beer and I was no use for the rest of the evening.
The following day we found ourselves all heading up at the same time again so we tagged along with Steele and Julie and spent some time in Trashers mini snow park doing boxes, rail and jumps in a relaxed environment (unlike the other parks where you have a big audience).
After the weekend more snow was forecast so we planned to stay off the mountain and get some work done. Disastrously, the internet we’ve been using, from the sports centre, isn’t working. There were problems with it last week that Simon managed to get around with some web-trickery, but now there’s no signal at all. It seems ironic that now we’re sorted for power with the new generator our internet has gone!!
We’ve, unfortunately, also got some van problems. When we drove to Pringy last Friday there seemed to be a vibration in the steering wheel that was new. To add to that the handbrake lever is moving far too freely at the bottom. Once the rear wheels started squeaking we knew there was an issue that needed seeing to. We checked the wheel nuts and looked for anything stuck in a tyre that could have caused the vibration. I called a friend in the UK who owns a garage to get some ideas from him, before approaching a French garage.
I had spoken to the man in the garage in town previously about the generator and he seemed very helpful and patient with my poor French (which not all French people are!) so we returned there. I had my words all ready and did ok, but was helped by the arrival of an English girl who spoke very good French. We’re booked in – but not until next Wednesday so we’re not going far in the meantime.
Yesterday we had another great day (afternoon!) on the mountain. There had been fresh snow, but the pistes were still flat enough in places to be able to go. The weather was great again, which means good visibility. We spent most time on the pistes but also tried an off piste snowcross area – once I was happy there were plenty of other people there including a ski instructor! The powder was deep, but we could traverse really fast, knowing that if you fall it’s just lying down in soft snow! It was exhausting though and we got the bus back again.
March 15th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
your certainly having some bad luck I hope thing get so much better .I will be thinking o you as always.