Sunday, 13 January 2008

This entry isn't about skiing*

No, it's about my application to the casting directors of "Slightly Fast, A Bit Furious - Montriond Drift". It turns out its really quite tricky driving on snow. The front wheels are no problem given the presence of our exorbitantly expensive snow tyres (Continental Snow and they are awesome!). However the back tyres must be made of plasticine or something because round the hairpin bends here they are all over the place.

If i were playing Excite Truck for the Wii, i would have got a 2-star drift coming back down to the chalet yesterday! (Hard right and Turbo!) If i weren't actually paying for the car, i suspect i'd be having a lot more fun with it, but the prospect of putting the car in a cunningly positioned ditch where the hard shoulder would normally be renders any enjoyment null and void.

Had a very pleasant late afternoon and evening in Geneva yesterday. Our old Canon S50 finally packed up while out on our Swiss tour the other day so we headed into "town" to get a new compact camera. And, in classic tourist style, promptly got ripped off to the tune of CHF60 (about £30). As a side-note, if you want anything electronic in France/Switzerland head down to fnac (pronounced: ff-nack) which is basically the European equivalent of Curry's - except you don't feel dirty after leaving the store.

Anyway, Geneva is a beautiful city and a stroll along the promenade next to Lac Leman in the friscalating dusklight was the perfect end to our day.

Here's a sample of what our spiffy new Canon Ixus 75 can do:


That's the as-yet-not-rented VioSport helmet camera on my goggle-strap. Yes, i look the biz.

And today we met up with Simon and Phil. Phillie: do not look at this photo, it may be green-tinged-skin inducing (see you in March!).



*Ok, so i lied, there is a little bit about skiing. Mum and Dad, you may want to look away now. i'm still feeling slightly woozy after taking on a tight canyon in Chatel and landing, after a fall of about 1.5m head first (didn't bother putting my arms out obviously - that's what your head's for). Stiff neck and shoulders and i can still hear the nauseating grinding crunch of several vertebrae compacting in my neck. Anyone still think a helmet is a bad idea? On the plus side, i now know that the pressure setting on my bindings is right as a cleanly popped out of both skis (which had embedded in a hidden gully).

Anyway, it brought home the fact that skiing is actually fairly dangerous and i do want to be skiing for the rest of the season. Therefore, i'm officially taking it a little easier. Do you believe me?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

what did your dad tell you about being careful...

Anonymous said...

what's my username? password?

TPO said...

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-us&vid=97e1dd20-0ff5-4637-a6cf-17bbcee08fd5 Hey Ian, who filmed you?

Anonymous said...

Hmmm note to self - next time I think that's probably what your arms are for!!!!! At least you have a hard head.