 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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(1) I managed to miss my mouth with a rather large stein of lager and got my fave shirt all beery.
(2) Eurotunnel... a few hours after you 
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Not on a ski trip, but I had a delighful drive home from work (16.7 miles) which took 4.5hrs. I spent at least 2 hours trying to get the last 5 miles to home. At 10:30 I walked in the door distinctly tired after having tried every alternative route available to a car, including several backroads that were completely empty with 6" of snow on them - driving through fresh powder!
People just can't drive in this stuff, the Police were as good as useless in moving traffic, and none of the major roads seemed to have been gritted.
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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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i thought we did bad in taking 12 hours to get from Manchester to within 5 miles of home when we gave up in teh big dump over Berkshire before Xmas
and many people just leaving work at 3 pm because it was snowing took over 12 hours to get home
but then the worst i heard was a colleague who took 4 1/2 hours to go less than a mile !!
we obviously dont get much snow in near Reading normally 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Seen the forecast for the coming week 
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I think we got lucky. Just a 30 minute delay at Eurotunnel on the way out (21st Dec) and no disruption on the roads either in the UK or France; just a 10 minute delay on the return journey (30 Dec) on Eurotunnel and no road disruption. Worst journey of the festive season was to Hemel on the 18th - only made it there because I had winter tyres fitted to the car.
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Came back from Austria (Kreischberg) yesterday. Left the chalet at 8am in the morning - finally arrived home at 10pm last night 
Was due to fly from Salzburg to Southampton, landing at 1.30pm, but due to snow at Salzburg FlyBe had diverted all of its flights to Munich! It wasn't even that snowy there.
So we had to check our bags in, wait around for a coach, then endure a 3 hour journey in heavy traffic (due to worsening snow) to Munich, then check in AGAIN, then sit around and wait for our flight to leave. Think it was an 8 or 9-hour delay in total.
The plane had been sitting on the tarmac waiting for us all day! Also Southampton airport had to stay open just for us.
Think that gets the prize for my worst journey home from a holiday ever.
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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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Best - decided to cross Thursday evening so missed the chaos that was Friday.
Worst - On the way back clutch started to go in Rheims, limped to Calais, clutch gave out completely 5 yards before the check in barrier (4pm) Eventually crossed at 2am got home at 05.30am and no one can look at the car til next wednesday.
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Clapham Junction to Reading on Xmas Eve, was sat next to a woman who must have been close to smoking 100 a day, the smell made my eyes water...
Well I wanted to join in with your chat!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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We had our 5 pm easyjet flight from Manchester to Geneva cancelled on Sunday 20th December. Managed to book a flight from East Midlands to Geneva on the Tuesday morning so missed a day and a half of the holiday.
We were luckier than friends who had flights from Manchester to Munich cancelled on the Sunday and then the replacements flights on the Tuesday from Manchester were also cancelled. They gave up and stayed at home.
I know we are not covered on our insure and go policy for flight cancellations, they provide cover if you are delayed but not if the flight is cancelled.
I am hoping to claim the cost of the new flights and associated costs back from Easyjet. The day after the flights were cancelled it was impossible to contact Easyjet customer services and the website was not much use. They seem to have got their act together now and have a webform to fill in to claim back all the associated costs.
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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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best - family arriving from Manchester to Geneva on 19th December, when the snow was down south, then another lot arriving on 21st from Gatwick, which by then was OK though they had a song and dance getting to Gatwick by rail. And they all went back to the right airports,on the right days, and with only some fairly insignificant delays. New snow tyres brilliant - 4 snowy return trips to Geneva without incident, timed to avoid the worst of the traffic.
Worst? Nothing significant. Having to do 4 return drives to Geneva in 10 days was a bit tedious, though.
We were very lucky.
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Best - zipping along a virtually empty M62 on Jan 1st, up through the Halifax foothills which were snowless, to the final resort access road in Ogden that was thickly covered but passable with naked UK summer tyres...
Worst - none to speak of 
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You know it makes sense.
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My 4 month old was admitted to hospital on Xmas eve and by Xmas Day was being fed through a tube, on a drip, on permanent oxygen and had more tubes attached to him that you can imagine. Spent all Xmas on the Children's ward which was not a pleasant experience. Thankfully he was discharged on 29th December and is doing absolutely fine now but we (me, wife and our other two littl'uns) missed our Xmas entirely. So, a minor delay at an airport, a missed day skiing or a lost bag sounds like heaven to me...I would swap places with you anytime someone invents a time machine!
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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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Mercifully free of bad experiences from our Christmas week. The best experience was the taxi ride from Chambery to Reberty, with our driver, "Jean-Pierri Luni" spending most of the time on the wrong side of the rode overtaking anything doing less than 130kph, including on hairpin bends! Fast, if a little heavy on adrenaline. Jean-Pierre's commitment ensured we were first to the ski-hire shop of the week's new arrivals, just before an entire coach party knocked on the door. We were in and out faster than a fiddler's elbow, and into warm up drinks before it went dark. 
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Poster: A snowHead
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awksquawk, oh what a dreadful experience but good to know he is ok now. It is so hard when a little one is sick.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Butterfly, Thanks! Kind of makes you realise that the little inconvieniences in life are exactly that and not really that much of a chore if you really think about it.
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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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It was not a whole of fun queueing for nearly two hours at passport control in Calais yesterday afternoon, only to miss our boat, and then get charged £10 for the privilege of getting a later one. Thank you Sea France.
It turned into a long late trip home, crawling out of Dover through customs.
Tunnel next time. 
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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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Arrived at Gatwick hotel on Fri 19th Dec, having booked B&B, parking and transfers both ways. Told that they would be closed on Boxing Day, so would have to find our own way back to the hotel! They 'changed their minds'! Due to take off from Gatwick at 11.55 20th. No sign of flight. Eventually got on plane at 2.30pm for the 1.15hr flight to Grenoble. Had lunch. Got off again! Sent to gate again at 6pm. Wrong gate. Told that Grenoble closed at 8pm. Took off at 7ish. Arrived at Grenoble 9pm. There must have been one man unloading the luggage as it took 3hours to get it all off! Eventually arived Serre Che 3am. Had great holiday!
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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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Left the house 4am for our 6.15am flight from Gatwick to Geneva on Fri 19th December. Waited until 8.30am before Easyjet announced they were cancelling all their flights before 11am (while we watched the BA flight to Geneva head off to their gate: the irony of the situation was rather frustrating following BA's threatened strike). We frantically called relatives trying to book another flight but could find nothing under £600 one way which was a no go!
Hour and a half later they let us out of the terminal and my Fiancee and I decided we'd drive since we had access to an Audi A6 Quattro (would not have fancied it in anything with only 2 wheel drive). We met another girl at the airport and offered to take her with us (as we were going via Geneva on the way to Chamonix). M20 closed, but we chanced it anyway. The usual 1 hour journey took over 3. Got on to a train (lucky I know) and arrived in France at 6pm.
Spent 30 mins watching cars slide back down the exit ramp in Calais then spent the next 2 hours going 15-20mph on 2 inch thick sheet ice that was the French motorway (and we think Britain's bad in the snow!!!). UK screen wash froze in the -12C temperatures so had to stop every half hour to manually clear the windscreen. Many terrifying and sleepless hours later we arrived in Geneva having been overtaken by the mental Italian lorries in heavy snow. Slid our way into and back out of Geneva and finally arrived in Chamonix at 5.15am, 24 hours after we 1st left the house. And then onto the slopes for our 9am lesson!
3 days of fantastic skiing, the highlight was being rewarded with over a foot of snow on the Sunday night to give us an epic Powder Morning on the Monday. Just the 12 hours home and worth every minute on those brutally expensive motorways!
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