 Poster: A snowHead
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Yes johnnyboy, it was fate! Now take the gauntlet and run with it (first mixed metaphor of 2008 - hurrah!). Sounds like you've found your new local. I shall expect you to return there day in, day out until you pluck up the courage to ask her out for a drink or bit of a ski or whatever. Forget Mr Bean, this blog is turning into something more like Brief Encounter - I'm loving it! And for the benefit of any snowheads who have not yet had the pleasure of meeting johnnyboy, I can confirm that our heroine would be very lucky indeed to be asked out by such an all-round lovely chap. Looking forward to the next instalment.... Happy New Year and love from all at Ashley Down Rd Zoo x
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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johnnyboy, good luck with the chase!
Which resto is it? I'll have to have a look in next time I'm in VT 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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And the pics are where...???
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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johnnyboy, and what happened about the boots? 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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flowa, mmmmm, intriguing.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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This story is beginning to have all the ingredients of my favourite kind of movie---set in a ski resort, with a charming, funny hero--his charming and funny mates and now a cute love interest! Can hardly wait for the next installment!
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As touched as I am by the interest my latest entry has generated, perhaps you guys didn’t actually quite read what I said.
| johnnyboy wrote: |
| Oh, did I happen to mention that she’s extremely cute too? |
| johnnyboy wrote: |
| All this really is an irrelevance to me though, as even when I do happen upon someone that takes my fancy, I very rarely do anything about it; |
| johnnyboy wrote: |
| I really am exceptionally shy when I like someone, |
| johnnyboy wrote: |
| also have the poor habit of usually only falling for women who are, for one reason or another, completely unobtainable (usually because they are absolutely gorgeous, and therefore would have no interest in me whatsoever). |
No way it’s gonna happen people!
I hate to spoil the ending so early in the season, but, before you all get carried away, I can assure you that the hero will not, in any way, shape or form, get the girl, just so you don’t all build your hopes up too much! If there had been even the slightest chance of anything actually happening, there is no way on earth I would have posted as I did, but seeing as it’s an absolute impossibility, I thought it reasonable to share as I did.
I’m sure the odd coffee or beer will be consumed throughout the season at the restaurant Miss Cutie is working at (assuming she doesn‘t change jobs again without fate being there to intervene and let me know a second time, perhaps then even I would start to take a hint!), but I’m equally sure it will always be in a waitress/customer capacity; still, it is nice that my daydreams have garnered so much support from you all.
Yesterday's post was a self contained episode not an ongoing story line for the season!
Early post today as all lifts except the local drag ones are shut due to extremely windy conditions.
silverybird75 As you actually know me, you should know way better than to expect anything to happen, but thanks anyway! It would seem as though fate has had serious second thoughts though; it's blowing a hoolie out there today and all the lifts are shut so there's no chance to visit a piste side restaurant.
thefatcontroller Erm, I thought I had already denied being Jack Reacher, that dirty dawg even hooked up with the daughter of his mentor at one point I seem to remember.
Topsmoke Stop trying to spoil the story, I've kept stum about your little mishap, so far...........
Roger C Fortunately Topsmoke's information is out of date.
flowa Absolutely not, I said she was small and petite!
Julieanne "Charming, funny hero"? Which thread are you reading?
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You know it makes sense.
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johnnyboy, stop fannyin' abaht an' gerrit tupped 
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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johnnyboy, I am on the edge of my seat - go chase that girl!
thefatcontroller, I love Lee Child books.
This thread gets better and better!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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johnnyboy, you need to find out if she will be there when the EOSB descends, we will all help set you right that week
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Forget the skiing - go for the cutie !
Anyone else disappointed when they login and there is no johnnyboy update or am I just sad ?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Smokin Joe wrote: |
| Forget the skiing - go for the cutie ! |
Agreed
| Quote: |
| Anyone else disappointed when they login and there is no johnnyboy update or am I just sad ? |
Yes ..... and yes
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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So, after a skiing less day yesterday (I can’t in all honesty swear the lifts weren’t open briefly first thing, but they were certainly shut by the time I surfaced - the urgency to make first lift somehow isn’t the same as when I’m only away for a week), the wind didn’t let up at all overnight, and the lifts were shut again this morning! Fate had definitely had a rethink about my chances of even seeing Mlle Cutie ever again, a bit like the scene in Serendipity where the gorgeous brunette (in the shape of Kate Beckinsale) is just handing her name and phone number to the bloke fate had led to her meeting twice in the same evening when the wind, combined with the passing lorry, whips the paper out of his hand and away into the universe. A u-turn by fate it would seem, (although said gorgeous brunette did finally end up with that particular bloke called John in that…………), but, either way, the lifts didn’t open till very late in the day here. It’s true the wind did die down a little this afternoon, but, call me cynical, I got the impression that opening a few lifts for about an hour had more to do with avoiding refunding lift passes than anything else.
The wind has picked up again this evening, so I’m not sure what tomorrow holds on the weather front, but hopefully I’ll manage to get out there tomorrow, skiing apart but also to help me find something to post about. It’s not just that the skiing provides the content (and certainly not because there is no chance of seeing a certain waitress without access to the slopes) for these posts, but because I find myself composing while I’m skiing. Well, not composing really, but getting a feel for where a day’s post will go. It’s almost how I used to be when I was working; I might be struggling with 3 or 4 bits of admin or problems or whatever, but take me out of that environment say by driving for 10 minutes, and often the solutions would come to me. I always took it as the subconscious continuing to process problems while I was having to concentrate on something entirely different, but one way or another, my muse (brunette or otherwise!) has sort of been lacking for the last two days.
The story of my first day’s skiing is definitely worth telling, but I feel it deserves far more than just the bit part that it would receive at the moment, and thankfully my friends who shared it with me have promised not to spill the beans here until I decide to tell it in all its glorious detail; suffice to say at this point that it’s amazing I ever skied again! I’ve got to save some of the good stuff for later in the season when you’re all getting bored.
Perhaps this is a good point to say thanks for all the nice comments I’ve had since I’ve started this thread; it has come about mostly from chatting to people at the PSB. So many people expressed interest in what I was planning to do, and urged me to make regular reports that I thought it only fair to try to let you know what I was up to, but this thread has since taken on a life of its own and I can’t believe the number of views it has had.
So, a quiet day for me here really; I popped up to the Frog for a pint and a word with the guys who own it (a bit of quiet diplomacy on behalf of a fellow  as opposed to slightly more rambunctious approach adopted by some others here in their efforts to help!). I bought a week’s internet connection yesterday; I can just about get connected (though it is somewhat weak and prone to disco-ing) to the local “internet-ici” site from my bedroom (rather than having to actually go there), and although the weekly rate is, on the surface, extortionate, it’s still cheaper than a couple of afternoon’s drinking in a pub with otherwise free access. It’s probably better for the liver and the waistline too! This, apart from the lift closures, explains why I have been online a lot more over the last couple of days.
Anyway, nothing particularly exciting to say, so I’ll bid you all au revoir.
Ttfn
johnnyboy
dbiggins, No way on earth I'd let you lot know who the poor girl is.
Smokin Joe, Agenterre, Thanks, but still yes to the last bit! 
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johnnyboy, hope the weather improves for the weekend, have a good one, as I have no internet at home I am looking forward to Monday's installment of the great adventure in VT.
Cheers
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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johnnyboy, good to hear from you again. Keep up the blog, great reading when looking out on a miserable UK day.
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Johnnyboy, dear fellow, have you no faith in cupid and his little arrows. Surely there must be some eye candy to keep one amused at the local until the clouds clear and Mlle Cutie can be gazed upon once more...
Great blog and story so far, like many others, I have been following with interest and I look forward to your next exploits, hope you get back to business on the slopes soon, after all that surely is the aim of the trip. Have good weekend..
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I can only add my voice to the choir and praise you for your excellent (and humourous) account of life in Val T. I'll be joining you (for one solitary week more's the pity) a mere week from now. So freakin' excited! My backpack and new mitts finally arrived yesterday from Austria (DHL managed to send them to Ireland which caused a major delay and a fair degree of worry for me) but my 2008 outfit is now complete with mitts rated to -25°C and a low-profile pack with vertical board carry.
Hope you catch you for a beer during the week if you have the time, but either way keep up the updates - it's sweet torture for those of us in the UK. Snowed a bit on Thursday, probably about 2-3cm in SW London where I am if it had settled, which it did not. Watching it come down from my office window I was plotting driving to a park with a slope and getting some practice in, but I soon realised I was losing the plot a bit
Hope the weather improves for you... been watching the report for the last few days and seems to bit slightly breezy up there of late.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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After the high winds of Thursday and Friday, it was a relief to wake on Saturday and not hear the wind howling away in the resort; what was more, the sky was blue in parts and the sun it was ashining. Unfortunately as the morning wore on the blue that had been visible disappeared as a bank of cloud rolled in, and although it wasn’t low enough to affect visibility at all, it did mean the light was very flat.
In a way I find this more frustrating than when I the cloud is so low I can’t see more than 20 or 30 yards; at least then I accept that if I’m skiing, then I know I can’t see anything. However, when you can see into the distance it is easy to believe that you can clearly see what is around you, but this is a false sense of security as soon as you actually try to ski. The lack of any depth perception once on snow in very flat light is, for me, very unsettling, and at times on Saturday I found the light to be very bad; I nearly went flying (literally) at one point, on an easy blue, when I hit a big dip without picking it out, and I decided at that point to head home as there wasn’t too much enjoyment to be had in those conditions.
I may need to invest in some better goggles; Agenterre has found some that are particularly effective in flat light, so I may need to consider trying some out. I have no problems at all in bright sunlight, even without sunglasses or goggles; I was really spoilt on my first two holidays by really great weather and lovely blue skies, and I happily skied with no eye protection at all. I realise now that this is really not recommended, and do wear sunglasses or goggles all the time now unless I am really having a hard time with definition on the slope in poor light, although I’m not sure my vision is better without the goggles in such conditions, I think perhaps it’s more a confidence thing. Anyway, the long and the short of it is that my first experiences on snow were in fabulous, bright sunny weather when there is clear definition on the slopes, and my confidence tends to get knocked somewhat when I struggle to pick out contours on the slopes I’m skiing.
To make matters somewhat worse on Saturday, the high winds that had been battering the valley for two days had picked some slopes clear of snow; I’ve commented earlier that there seemed lots of snow in the resort even though no fresh had fallen, well, some of it had certainly been blown in off the pistes. Unfortunately this meant icy patches on runs where I’d not encountered them before, including Tete Ronde, which was all the more disconcerting as they were difficult to pick out in the flat light. Fortunately a light dusting of snow started to fall on Saturday afternoon, and this continued through the night so that, when Sunday dawned, we’d had a good few inches of snow to freshen up the slopes. The light was also better than the day before, although it was far from perfect (still overcast more or less all day), but the snow was generally a joy to be on and no icy patches were in evidence on any of the runs I did.
After skiing yesterday it was time for yet another laundry visit; Sunday afternoon woud be the perfect time I thought, anyone having arrived Saturday certainly wouldn’t be needing them already, but I guess lots of other seasonaires had the same thought as all the machines were busy. Having popped down two or three times before finally finding a free machine, I ran into Damion, the guy who sold me my skis, having a crafty fag outside the ski shop. We had a bit of a chat, and the conversation got round to servicing my skies, which I figure is well overdue. I realise that he probably isn’t in Spyderjon’s league, but he was more than happy to show me the ropes on edging and waxing when the shop is quiet, so, all things being well, I’ll pop down for a lesson one evening this week.
On the subject of quiet, the slopes and the resort in general are a little quieter this week after the peak weeks of Christmas and New Year, and also I suppose the apartments here felt very busy the two weeks before that as they were full, mainly with Uni students (first Oxford/Cambridge, then the rest). Obviously Saturday, being changeover day, things were pretty quiet on the pistes, but it was noticeable yesterday as well that certain lifts were quiet compared to the last few weeks. That’s not to say that I have had any particular problems with big queues at all, the one exception being when making my way back from Meribel with Martyn and flowa over Christmas and the Mont de la Chambre chair in Les Menuires was shut forcing everyone down to use the Bruyeres gondola back up. Generally the lift system in and around Val Thorens has coped very well with traffic, the Funitel Peclat being one of the few places where it can be a bit of a scrimage to get on, but most of the chairs have such high capacity that genuine bottlenecks have so far been few and far between.
Anyway, I was going to get this written and posted first thing today, after an early night last night, but I slept straight through for 8 an half hours and thought you’d all have to wait till later. However, a quick peak out of the window confirmed it’s very cloudy out there again today, so I thought I’d wait a bit to see if conditions, and in particular the light, improves, so I’ve written this in the meantime.
Ttfn
johnnyboy
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You know it makes sense.
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Hey. johnnyboy, one other bit of advice for skiing in bad viz and bad light, is to head for the tree line. It gives you some contrast and a vertical reference, which helps with your balance, it also reduces the motion sickness. See you rafting soon!
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Cutie update required !!!!
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Poster: A snowHead
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Good luck finding a tree in Valtho.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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johnnyboy, no reply to our e-mail boxing day????? r u 2 busy to reply to us these days???? 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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ckralc, too busy with the ladies ..................
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Oh my
Oh my, oh my, oh my.
I’ve tried not to leave too long a gap between posts, but, I must admit, I’ve yet to compose a post at 2am after a night out, so please bear with me; as so much has happened I feel you are due a post, and if it waits till the morning, well it may lose a little something.
Monday dawned (well, it probably did, but I can’t absolutely swear to it) cloudy, and it got progressively worse! Visibility was never good, but it worsened through the day, and I think it is the first day that I felt physically able to ski that I didn’t bother. By 1pm I couldn’t see the gondola station opposite, and things got worse from then on. I had a quiet afternoon, before wandering up to the local onsite bar for a quick pint about sixish, where I was greeted by a “John?” from bloke sat at the bar. It turned out to be a chap from my hockey club, having a beer with another guy from the club while a third member was back in their apartment cooking along with the sister of one of these blokes. I had a quick beer with these two before they were summoned back for their tea; what a small world.
So onto today. Scorchio it certainly was (ie bright clear skis and glorious sunshine), but what was ahead I never could have foreseen. I have been a little worried over the last few days about feeling unnecessarily tired whilst skiing, but I think the key point is that now I am usually skiing a run from top to bottom without any stops at all. This may sound daft, but , realistically speaking, when in lessons or skiing “socially” you often stop once, twice or even more on a run, but if you do happen to ski solo, you probably stop on far fewer occasions. Perhaps not quite as much of a reason to feel too unfit.
I covered a fair bit of ground within the VT valley today, generally feeling good and very thankful for the excellent visibility. I skied a few runs that I have previously struggled with far better than on earlier attempts, and as the afternoon wore on I felt I was due a break and a coffee; no prizes for guessing which particular piste-side restaurant I stopped at! It was getting on a bit, but said establishment was still open, so I ordered a coffee, and eventually a bite to eat too. I was sat at the bar, and the barman was sociable enough, probably recognising me from a few recent visits, and, sure enough, Mlle Cutie eventually appeared. We chatted for a while before she had to attend to some of her other customers, before she reappeared at the bar I was sat at. In a general 3 way conversation including me, Mlle Cutie and the barman, it was agreed that my French should improve through the season, but only, I argued, if people stopped using English; thus I needed to practise my French. The problem was that at his point I didn’t know if I was pulling Mlle Cutie or the barman!
Before this situation could further develop, I decided to call it quits (I’m sure the barman is entirely heterosexual, but I’m just trying to deflect attention away from my ineptitude about making a move on said waitress). So, having bid assorted members of staff “Au revoir”, I made my way outside only to find, or, more literally, not find my skis; they were gone!
I went back inside and explained the situation to the first member of staff I came across; he wandered back outside with me, I explained which skis I had left, and, despite a good look around, said skis were nowhere to be seen. As it was late on in the day, there weren’t too many skis left outside the restaurant, and as we walked back inside a group passed us; once they had taken their skis there was only one air left outside. A quick check revealed that no customers (bar me) remained, so it seemed likely that someone had mistakenly taken my skis and left theirs, which, on closer examination, appeared to be hire skis from a chain of stores in the resort.
Anyway, it’s quite late here now, so I promise I will finish this as soon as I can, skiing conditions permitting of course. I’ll just leave it that I was stranded, ski less, at Mlle Cutie’s restaurant, and that will be that!
Ttfn
johnnyboy
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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johnnyboy, You £%&*_(*" !£"$%&)
Anyhow, sorry about the skis. Always try and split them.
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johnnyboy, same thing happened (with out cute girl or gay barman though ) with my board on the last trip but first thing in the morning and it was returned back to the rack an hour or so latder, so check the cafe/hire shop again becasue I think your skis may well turn up
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johnnyboy, I feel like a "Points of View" letter writer: Please, please, oh please may we have another episode of "johnnyboy and the Cliff Hanger".
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Many years ago I was in the habit of taking my shoes off in bars (don't ask). On a holiday in Portugal, one night I came to leave and found my shoes missing; 20 minutes of searching later it became apparent that a certain barmaid had hidden them in order to waylay me (not so much of the 'way' either as it iturned out, if you get my drift) so I'm wondering... Did Mlle Cutie pop outside for a few minutes at any point?
Makes me feel all romantic, I hope johnnyboy gets up soon to tell us the rest... 
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FAQ
Good luck 
