 Poster: A snowHead
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Some months ago, me and Mrs Monium had just got back from another good trip, and thought it would be good to get in a bit of skiing at the end of the season.
After having brought the first snowfall for several weeks to Courchevel in January, and after our visit they didn't get any more for several weeks after, as well as two trips in early December with buckets of snow, it became entirely clear that I was in control of the weather. This meant that we could book any time of the season and we would have snow and a good time, plenty of skiing, lifts open, and lots of fun.
The trip, for me at least, started somewhere off the west coast of Scotland. I was due to be diving for a week with a group of friends, and being April and being Scotland, we were expecting cold, windy conditions, not least because we were diving close to Britain's officially windiest place, the isle of Tiree. Arriving at the dock, it was very clear that there wasn't a breath of wind. It was late, but we were loading up in T-shirts at 10pm. Somehow, probably as a result of discovering that I had the ability to smell rain coming, I seem to have mastered the control of the weather in recent months, and have now graduated from weather predictor to weather controller. Or The Weather Monkey, as I am known in meterological circles.
This meant that an end of season ski trip was a good idea, and I would take care of the weather closer to the time. We booked on, after realising very quickly that this was one of the cheapest options available to us and that the sheer amount of coaching and tuition available at an incredibly reasonable price would be good for us (by us, I mean me, who hasn't done a ski lesson in several years, and has learned by doing rather a lot) and we might meet a few people who weren't proper internet weirdos along the way. Perhaps.
I won't prattle on about the diving, but it was really rather good. Lots of fun, we got everywhere we wanted to go, and while we were there we managed to bag genuinely more scallops than it is possible for 12 human beings to eat in a week. One evening we had so many scallops we considered using them as bait for fishing. Sensible fellows that we are, we started stockpiling them in the freezer on the boat to take home - about 10 minutes from shucked (that's the word for opening and removing the meat from a scallop) to sink to freezer.
I left Oban some time around 11am on the Friday, planning a nice drive past Loch Lomond, Glasgow, and most of England on the way to home, just north of London. We got home some time around 9pm, to unload all the dive gear and then load up on the ski gear that Mrs Monium had been carefully preparing while I was away.
One very short night's sleep before we left for our first EoSB. We left home just after 5am, bleary eyed after about 4 hours sleep, to pick up fatbob somewhere south of London and head to Dover. We arrived in very good time, largely because nobody in their right mind drives anywhere at 6am on a bank holiday weekend, and got onto an earlier ferry than planned, thanks to P&O being lovely.
We hit Calais early, after a cooked breakfast that was, well, very average, but now it was my turn to do some French driving, so we let Mrs Monium and fatbob have a bit of a snooze. For about half an hour. I decided that with us being in France, home of laissez faire and nuclear testing, we should try and do our best to ruin the environment, so put my foot down a bit and unleashed what can only be described as a dementor on the motorway. Not kidding, it was the biggest plume of the blackest smoke I have ever seen come out of a vehicle. Like this, but bigger:
After a horrible moment where I thought the plume might come and get me, and try and suck the very life out of me (oo-er) the car did a very nice job of blowing it backwards all over a toll booth, much to the delight of a guy on a motorbike who used a series of interesting hand gestures to describe the dementor we'd just sent his way.
With just a little bit of concern, I pulled over and we decided to have a bit of a look at things, try some minor tweaking and see what we could do. We cleaned out the air filter, looked at a lot of stuff, and proceeded to make rather a lot more smoke testing things out. Nothing really worked, though Mrs Monium did try and look on the bright side of the air filter cleaning, which made almost no perceptible difference. fatbob just took it all in his stride, like breaking down in another country 650 miles from your destination for a holiday happens every day. I was secretly a bit concerned, but then we have breakdown cover. We'd get there somehow.
We decided to just go for it, we were 50 miles from Calais, what is the worst that could happen to our faithful old Mondeo.
Not much more happened for about 7 hours. We stopped for lunch I think, but the rest of it is a bit of a blur. A very black, smoky blur. We nursed the car all the way to Val Thorens at about 70mph, but finally we were in the mountains.
Now one thing to bear in mind is that keeping a car running on a nice flat motorway through France is a different challenge to nursing it up a fairly steep road with increasingly thin air, and as a result the belching of dementors continued up the mountain roads. Luckily no chance of ice or snow on the roads, though one car following us did swerve to avoid a truly massive lump of crud we chucked out of the exhaust. You could see them almost consider snow chains to get through the vast amount of black dusty crap we were leaving behind us.
We arrived to be greeted by the bus leaving from the previous week's bash, and various parents waving their kids off (with almost visible relief at the week ahead of relaxing and enjoying themselves) and then were handed keys for our room and lift passes. This was very organised. Far more organised than I was expecting - everyone knew which room we were in, what time we had to meet up, and what we were doing. Admin and Talltone have clearly done this before, and it shows. They have also clearly put a lot of work into making sure that everyone is looked after, is staying in an apartment with some other nice people, and there seemed to be very few silly questions as a result.
Day one on the slopes. We were all glad to just forget about the car, just get our gear on and go skiing. We have been on a couple of trips this season already, so felt up to just getting out there and skiing a bit.
We had a group lesson as a warm-up, that seemed to go reasonably well and got us into the swing of things. Not too tiring, and we got to work on a few simple things that helped us to get down the mountain a bit more comfortably.
We finished the group lesson and got on a lift to a relatively high part of the resort, expecting the best conditions up there, and it felt good underfoot, if a bit icy. Then Mrs Monium spots another lift, and suggests we go up there "because it looks like there's a red coming off the top, which will be fun" - there wasn't a red coming off the top, we had taken a lift to the top of the glacier piste, only option is a black run which at this altitude and this time of the morning was icy, covered in moguls, and lots of people were sort of peering over the edge of it.
10 minutes later and we were down the first 6 feet of the run. Everybody, it seems, has side slipped the top bit, so it is nice and steep, then you hit the first row of bumps. This run, perhaps, was a mistake for the first independent run of the holiday.
A few more minutes and both me and Mrs Monium were at the bottom of it, where she made a number of entertaining excuses about how there was definitely another run on the map, it didn't look like a black from the bottom, etc etc. Luckily it wasn't long before we were into our stride and found lots of fun runs to cruise down.
We came home and had a nice relaxing snooze, which was very definitely required, and then decided it was scallop o'clock in Val Thorens. Following an offer of scallops for all, it became clear that we only actually had about 20-odd scallops, and we ended up with a trade offer of scallop starter for one of the other apartments and they'd sort the main course and dessert. This worked out very nicely, and the food was great. Getting locked out on a balcony in the dark while everyone else went off to party wasn't quite so great, but eventually we were rescued from the balcony before we had to investigate rope techniques and using the skis on the balcony as a ladder.
This routine continued each day, with a mix of lessons, free skiing either on our own or with a small group of others we'd met up with, for the first few days. Followed by a snooze. And then some dinner. We'd opted for a mix of self catering and going out for dinner, which worked well and kept the costs down to a reasonable level for food.
And then we got a taste of off-piste. Now this is something that we've both dabbled in a bit, but never really got much further than a few feet off the piste or through some trees between pistes. As part of the options, the Intro to Off Piste included skills for skiing less predictable snow, as well as going a bit further off piste, and playing on some fairly easy but fun sections of unpisted snow. From there, it suddenly became a fun game of finding pistes with unpisted snow to either side or between them, usually within a few feet of the marker poles, but it was a new and fun thing that we had a bit more confidence to play with.
This continued into Thursday when we revisted a lot of the places we'd been before, finding new routes around these easy sections, and enjoying a nice bit of lunch and delaying the main afternoon snooze until later and later each day to stay out on the slopes.
At various points, and I have no idea which days it was, it snowed. Rather a lot really, especially for April. One day we were skiing through a whole lot of cloud, with snow falling all around us, and a couple of evenings we went to bed with snow still coming down. Anyone who considers disputing my claim of being The Weather Monkey (TM) BSc is clearly wrong - wherever I go, the weather of my choosing is sure to follow. And anyone who wants to follow me around on ski trips to enjoy the blessing that I have for bringing snow to otherwise barren resorts is very welcome.
And following another bunch of snow coming down, we found a few Snowheads on Friday looking for a bit of fun off piste, and out of nowhere came fatbob, with what can only be described as two snowboards strapped to his feet.
I have no idea how those got into the car on the way, because I can't imagine how they fitted into that dinky ski bag he had with him. He became our leader.
Off we went to have a good old fashioned pootle down some interesting routes that we'd seen before. After a few runs down, including new lines we'd not previously considered, we headed off to find what our leader described as "a powder field" that he knew about. Oooooooooooooh.
I will have to keep the location of the secret powder field secret, but it was good. We had to climb over a bit of a wall, but then we were skiing a big fun powdery section of offpisteyness that was smooth, relaxed, and rather sensibly I had strapped on my now puny-looking "powder skis" which by comparison to the twin snowboards were skinny little planks. But they were good for me.
We then had a bit of lunch, and decided to go and have a look at the Orelles section just over the ridge in the next valley. The skiing was fun for quite a long way, but soon descended into slush at which point Mrs Monium did a really good demonstration of why you need a helmet for skiing, by punting her head rather hard into the ground. She didn't complain much, so we carried on down and then came home for a very well earned rest and a bit of packing at the apartments before heading to the bar for a drink.
The drive home was remarkably uneventful, other than a very dodgy Satnav taking us through the middle of Paris, and a suitably massive thunderstorm, lightning and pouring rain somewhere in northern France, presumably as payback from the perfect sunshine and snow I'd arranged over the last couple of weeks, and rather a lot of sleeping in the back.
So, overall impressions, the EoSB is full of internet weirdos. That is to be expected, the forum is full of internet weirdos, and in real life many of you are more normal, but still proper internet weirdos. That's ok though, because we are clearly internet weirdos as well.
For anyone that hasn't been on a Snowheads bash before, it's just like any other ski trip really, but with people that you sort of know a bit before you go, and all of whom are very friendly and inclusive. They like to have fun, they aren't, by any stretch of the imagination, all massively brilliant skiiers who will make anyone feel like a complete rank amateur (this is kind of what I was expecting) and instead have everything from almost beginners that had only done a few lessons in snowdomes in the UK, through to offpiste experts, telemarkers, instructors, the only thing I didn't see all week were any snowblades. The apartments are structured so that you can pretty much get as involved as you want, if you want to hide in your room and catch up on sleep you can, if you want to get outrageously drunk and sing Bohemian Rhapsody you can, and everything in between.
All in all, we managed to catch up on a lot of sleep, which we needed, and have a good time, learned some stuff, got more out of it than we otherwise would on the same pistes in the same conditions, and met a few new people that we liked. So thanks for a fun trip, and roll on the next one.
Please feel free to share your experience of the week, correct the days that I have inevitably got mixed up, and explain how exactly it is possible that fatbob can carve on a ski that is wider than my head.
Photos to follow at some point, though we don't actually have very many, partly because we were focusing on keeping our body core strong, putting torches on our knees, holding poles half way down, leaning forwards, leaning backwards, skiing on one ski, skiing blind (seriously) and getting drunk a little bit.
Mr Monium.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Ah yes, I to have butchered the top of that black 
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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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Monium, great report. Really sorry I didn't meet you both. 
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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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Hurtle, you missed out. Big Time.
Monium (in both your aspects), thank you for giving the week a huge dollop of (much needed) randomness. Please, please, please come again. Love, Jessica x p.s. regards to Gilbert
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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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Hurtle, I didn't think I'd met the Moniums either until I ended up sitting with them in the Caribou on Friday lunchtime, and I realised I'd bumped into them several times.
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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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| TallTone wrote: |
Hurtle, you missed out. Big Time.
Monium (in both your aspects), thank you for giving the week a huge dollop of (much needed) randomness. Please, please, please come again. Love, Jessica x p.s. regards to Gilbert |
Jessica, you should probably explain this slightly random "in joke" - Tone is talking about my travelling companion, Gilbert Tuna. He weighs something like 40kg, but have no fear, he's on Facebook now:
http://www.facebook.com/people/Gilbert-Tuna/100001822938385
N.B. Gilbert Tuna is not the same as Gilbert The Tuna, one is a travelling companion, the other is Easyjet hand luggage.
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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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Hurtle, Are you trying to offend the rest of us? (And I didn't get lunch 'til Thursday (thanks to Plan B).)
I had the good fortune to join the Moniums on lessons (actually I think Mrs Monium's first comment to me was a Jack and Jill joke, which set us up for the rest of the week).
Absolutely concur with the summary above. I was rather nervous about my first bash (I vaguely knew a few people, but spending a week with you/them was an unknown quantity). The generosity of the Snowheads is amazing. I spent a lot of random time with a lot of random people. Skiied a fair bit (not as much as some) and had plenty of opportunities to do more, but without pressure to do anything I didn't want/feel ready to do.
Seeing the progress of others was also inspiring. Particularly the beginners and near beginners Crazy Climber is a case in point.
The social side was pretty good too. I'm usually a bit reserved on the apres ski front, but again there is a real cameraderie and no pressure (unless I'm being a bit dense). I was a bit of a wanderer (as ok2compute pointed out), but I usually found somewhere I could settle (and catch 40 winks).
Moniums both, hope to see you at HH soon.
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You know it makes sense.
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Hells Bells, good point, but what about my ambition to become a ski god(dess) in the short time before I reach my dotage? I won't achieve that by sitting around eating flip-flops.
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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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JustJill,
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Are you trying to offend the rest of us?
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Sorry 
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Hurtle wrote: |
| Hells Bells, good point, but what about my ambition to become a ski god(dess) in the short time before I reach my dotage? I won't achieve that by sitting around eating flip-flops. |
Good grief, we didn't eat there  .
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I picked the communal travelling option, as I thought it might give me an opportunity to meet a lot of people. Turned out I was right...
Chronological summary (flawed):
Saturday (incoming) - met Atomic_Mick at Luton and tried to figure out which of the other Snowheads were on the same flight.
Greeted by Scarpa at Geneva with "Are you a Snowhead?"
Met Crazy Climber (rather tired) and half his to be room mates Snakeskin Si and WellySki0009, as wel as several other fellow travellers.
Chatted (briefly) to anarchicsaltire on his way home from the SFaB
Fell asleep on the coach behind You Raang and next to one of the Richards (never did figure out which one). Introduced myself to a few more people ot the McDonald's break.
Found out I was sharing with Admin, TallTone and El Hen and thought I might have to behave myself. (Until I saw Admin in his dressing gown on Sunday morning).
Sunday through Friday - a bit of a blur - many lessons and much room wandering.
Introducing myself to anyone and everyone. The Washing Up Fairy materialised on a few occasions. Masque cooked fabulous meals (and Wigan introduced me to the delights of halloumi curry - which was also fabulous).
Instructor Tom talked me though a bit of a tumble (extrodinarily well).
I spent half my time feeling like I was making progress and the other half realsing just how much I have to learn.
Saturday (return) - Fell asleep next to Masque, avoided sunburn at Geneva, travelled home with ok2compute and RoughPaper who had adopted me as their travel Mum (grrrrrrr....). Found out a bit more gossip.
Sunday - 5 (I repeat five) loads of washing!!!
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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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JustJill, some seriously suspect experiences there, of which seeing admin in a dressing gown is possibly the most alarming. 
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ok2compute and RoughPaper
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Didn't meet them either. Or at least I don't think I did - the business of learning two names per person taxes my brain cells...
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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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Hurtle, 
They were the young men with the diabalo juggling set (if that helps).
There are a shocking number of people who I either didn't meet, or can't put a name to the face.
We did propose a directory of real name; forum name; photo without skiwear; photo with skiwear, but I don't think it's going anywhere...
And then half your appartment go and change their names halfway throgh the week!!!
(Just as well JessicaRabbit didn't stick....)
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Monium, I was the woman in black (or various tints of dark brown now that my sallies & jacket has faded so much).
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JustJill,
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They were the young men with the diabalo juggling set (if that helps).
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ah, it does. Didn't they call Hells Bells 'mum' as well? I guess she must have been their hotel mum as opposed to their travel mum. God knows what they would have called me.
Beware the business of not recognizing people in non-skiwear. I had an extremely embarrassing encounter at Lords last summer: it involved saying brightly to someone, 'ah, you must the fiancee [x] told me about' - when it was in fact a snowHead whom I'd met several times, and who had replaced the said fiancee in x's affections. Oh dear.
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Hurtle, oops!
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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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JustJill, And just what was poking out of Admin's dressing gown that scared you so?
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Scarpa, get over yourself...
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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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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Scarpa, in a nice way... obv!
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| Hells Bells wrote: |
| Hurtle, JustJill, RachelQ was 'Mum' too. |
Thsnk You!
I've spent years avoiding the whol 'Mum' thaang.
If I wanted kids I'd've had 'em by now.
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You know it makes sense.
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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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Think I may come on this next year!!! 
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Poster: A snowHead
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Mrs Monium here. As Mr Monium was snoozing through various parts of the EoSB and / or simply not paying attention, I thought I should probably fill in some of the gaps... 
| Monium wrote: |
I decided that with us being in France, home of laissez faire and nuclear testing, we should try and do our best to ruin the environment, so put my foot down a bit and unleashed what can only be described as a dementor on the motorway. Not kidding, it was the biggest plume of the blackest smoke I have ever seen come out of a vehicle.
...
Not much more happened for about 7 hours. We stopped for lunch I think, but the rest of it is a bit of a blur. A very black, smoky blur. |
Entertainingly at a fuel stop, just as we'd filled up and were about to pile back in the car to carry on our very smoky way, a middle-aged French lady approached us saying "j'ai un probleme avec l'huile!". Mr Monium and I went over to investigate, with fatbob. French lady proceeded to explain there was a sound in the car and she was sure it was the oil. Which we duly checked and was fine... Mr Monium and fatbob at this stage got bored and left me to go through the demonstration of this 'sound', which turned out to be the door indicator showing that the boot wasn't closed. Which it actually was. French lady then tells me she'd taken the car to a garagiste with the same problem, and he'd told her it was an electric problem. I agreed it probably was. We then went to the boot, checked it was fine. I asked her if it was driving ok, which it was. I told her there was nothing wrong with her car, she was much relieved and effusive in her thanks.
I am still very confused why she decided to accost some random English people with an obviously poorly car, ask their advice on what was wrong with hers, and apparently unquestioningly accept my not very technical explanation...
We did, and I was much relieved that we had, having just coaxed a ridiculously smoky car up the mountain, by all accounts causing complete havoc in my wake... Dinner was not going to be cooked by either of us, so we went exploring and found a restaurant in VT, which I think was called Le Village (it's just opposite the Spar and to the left). It was perfectly decent Savoyard fare, and welcomed after a long day. I just about managed to stay awake during dinner, and we then went home and collapsed. I think I managed to say a few civil words to our flatmates before we did, but if I wasn't coherent, I do apologise...
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Day one on the slopes.
...
Then Mrs Monium spots another lift, and suggests we go up there "because it looks like there's a red coming off the top, which will be fun" - there wasn't a red coming off the top, we had taken a lift to the top of the glacier piste, only option is a black run which at this altitude and this time of the morning was icy, covered in moguls, and lots of people were sort of peering over the edge of it.
10 minutes later and we were down the first 6 feet of the run. Everybody, it seems, has side slipped the top bit, so it is nice and steep, then you hit the first row of bumps. This run, perhaps, was a mistake for the first independent run of the holiday.
A few more minutes and both me and Mrs Monium were at the bottom of it, where she made a number of entertaining excuses about how there was definitely another run on the map, it didn't look like a black from the bottom, etc etc. Luckily it wasn't long before we were into our stride and found lots of fun runs to cruise down. |
Ah, yes. The Glacier run. Oops. I swear there was a red shown on the piste map when I'd looked when we were on the Peclet. Apparently that wasn't actually the case. Still, it made the rest of the afternoon's runs look far less daunting!
I'd decided the scallops had to be cooked on the Sunday as they weren't going to keep beyond then really, so duly went to the bar to gather more scallop eaters. After admin looking rather reluctant not to have any, El hel took me upstairs to introduce me to Masque and a several-course multi-apartment dinner was born.
One thing I hadn't remembered (or experienced before as I've not previously self-catered) is the effects of altitude on cooking times. Find your normal cooking time, then double it, and add a bit for luck 
Still, all that notwithstanding, we had a lovely evening with the folks in Apt 20, lovely cooking from Masque including the most custardy Bourbon I've ever had, and Gilbert was born
I really enjoyed the lessons - I'd experienced Snowheads lessons at Hemel on a couple of occasions and always thought they were cracking value, and so we'd signed up for group lessons and the intro to off-piste at the EoSB. Following quite a lot of feeling like a tit on skis, what with hopping, squelching, skiing with my back bottom sticking out, my hands and poles behind my knees and all kinds of other drills which I'm sure are designed purely for the instructors' entertainment, I started feeling things clicking into place a bit, and had some hurty muscles to prove that I was doing something different to normal.
Thanks very much to Pete and Dave for the lessons, and for TallTone's daily reminders that we were due on the mountain 
At some stage during the week I left Mr Monium downstairs being tired and watching snooker, and I ventured upstairs in search of a taste of halloumi curry (which I'd missed, though I did get ice cream ). This innocent endeavour ended up with me rolling into bed at about 2am, having been quaffing various alcoholic things and slightly more concerningly having been dragged into what seems to have been an utterly made up game of JulesB's which involved lying on the floor with one of the Chuckle Sisters, each of us blindfolded, and trying to hit each other with rolled up newspapers whilst speaking in really awful Irish accents Sadly I think Scarpa may have captured some of this for the purposes of future embarrassment
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| And then we got a taste of off-piste. |
Yes, that was FUN! As Mr Monium said, it's not really something we've done other than him 'leading' me into some powder between pistes, then promptly laughing quite a bit when I fell over and scrabbled around waist-deep trying to find my ski / stand up... 
Having followed Pete on some terrain that I would never normally have considered, and tried and almost got the hang of compression turns for at least one turn in 10, the fuss about off-piste definitely hit home.
I also realised that my previous excuse that my skis (K2 Burnin Luvs) weren't really off-piste skis and that was why I always sank didn't actually hold true. Damn. Apparently compression turns and other such things could help me not end up waist deep and sunk...
Our lessons finished on Weds and Thursday dumped snow at various points, leaving some stuff to play in, and making Friday a fantastic powdery end to the week. Many thanks to fatbob and Ronald for going and finding lovely powdery bowls whilst Mr Monium and I were holed up having lunch, and for leading us to it afterwards
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| I will have to keep the location of the secret powder field secret, but it was good. We had to climb over a bit of a wall, |
We didn't actually have to climb over a wall. The rest of us, particularly me and Wigan found the nice little part that you could ski gently over. Mr Monium though had skied past that, and ended up sat on a 3 foot high wall at the edge of the piste, legs and skis akimbo, trying to win some sort of award for the least graceful skiing manoeuvre .
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| at which point Mrs Monium did a really good demonstration of why you need a helmet for skiing, by punting her head rather hard into the ground. |
Ah, that. And there was I hoping that that wouldn't get mentioned... Having skied my little legs off all morning and after lunch, the slush proved too much and I caught something on a really rather flat but very slushy section of the blue into Orelle, and scrubbed off most of the speed I'd been carrying by using my head
That was quite enough skiing for the week, we decided. I promptly failed to do anything about packing by going for a quick afternoon nap and not waking up til nearly 9pm... thankfully noone was yet in the bar, and we got there in time for me to buy some raffle tickets and win some shin pad thingies (whose name utterly escapes me at the moment) and to hear the Paellahead family utterly massacre some 80s cheesey classics. I don't think Paellahead Jnr was winning any points with the French barmaid by proclaiming "That's my dad!" as Nick rocked out to Bohemian Rhapsody... 
I had a very good week, thanks to all who were involved in the organisation (yes Jessica and admin that means you) and to all who we skied with / fell upon / shared food and booze with and generally contributed to a really good fun week.
Random happening of the week for me had to be walking back into my apartment to find Jacob there in his underwear trying (and utterly failing) to master the diabolo, whilst being coached by James who was wearing a romper suit, and then being taught some very interesting Dutch phrases which Jacob had been learning...
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| Photos to follow at some point, |
Errrr.... no, they won't. We didn't manage to take any. On all of the sunny days we were too busy skiing with our poles behind our knees or hopping along blind, and then it got all cloudy and powdery. Sorry folks - will try and do better on the next EoSB
Mrs Monium.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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other than a very dodgy Satnav taking us through the middle of Paris
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tut tut, Monium. I had you down as the sort of chap who could read a map.
What turned out to be wrong with your car?
Glad you had a good 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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And I'd forgotten the most genuinely entertaining fall of the week - unknown skiiers and snowboarders gathering into a bit of a crowded pack on a fairly narrow flatter section, skiier tries to undertake a boarder, boarder falls onto back bottom, literally onto the front of the guys skis. He promptly ejects from skis, goes straight over the top, boarder astounded at what has happened, we were about 20 feet behind and I struggled to stay upright with all the laughing.
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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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| pam w wrote: |
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other than a very dodgy Satnav taking us through the middle of Paris
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tut tut, Monium. I had you down as the sort of chap who could read a map.
What turned out to be wrong with your car?
Glad you had a good week. |
After spending all day this Monday stripping and cleaning the intake manifold and EGR valve (potential cause of smoking) it is entirely unchanged, and one phone call to a knowledgeable engineer I use when I am either too lazy or a job requires a significant amount of skill, and he identified exactly the same thing the internet had lead me to after the EGR valve, a leak between the turbo and the EGR valve - basically the system loses pressure, the engine management knows it is not putting out enough power, assumes it is underfuelled so pumps more fuel in. That causes incomplete combustion, hence the black smoke, and kills the fuel economy.
It's driving ok at the moment, but is booked in for him to find the leak, probably a split hose, loose jubilee clip or similar. Or a knackered intercooler, all cheap fixes.
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holidayloverxx,
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Gutted I missed the karaoke
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Me too.
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| Hurtle wrote: |
holidayloverxx,
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Gutted I missed the karaoke
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Me too. |
Perhaps you should be thankful..... I never sing when sober..... appaently I was far from sober - thanks roomies!
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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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| Monium wrote: |
| probably a split hose, loose jubilee clip or similar. |
Told you my duct tape would work if we could find the problem
Thanks to the Moniums for the entertaining journey including the Parisian "cocking idiot" drivers.
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FAQ
