Visas, snow, rain, boards, repeat.

Things that have happened since last post...

1) I got my visa application that I sent back to Australia rejected.

I then had a massive freak out about it... Panicked alot... Maybe got a little wall-punchy. Then did some more looking into things and found out I could apply here in the US. So went through the whole application bullshit again, express posting my passport and documents all around the place.. Finally got my passport back today with a nice shiny UK Visa in it! W00t!! Finally.... So now I get to England and see Charlotte on April 1st as scheduled. Charlotte's been in London a couple of days now and I think has fallen in love with the place. Can't wait to see her... Only nine more sleeps! Am currently going through all my flight info, baggage limits etc and making sure that's all in order before I fly out. Can't wait to start travelling properly and see new stuff.

2) Went on a little 2 day boarding trip to Killington with some of the Aussie boys and a couple of the poms that are here.

Was awesome fun... Such a different type of mountain to Mount Snow; way bigger, way better organised and just more of a feeling that you were in a proper ski resort. Killington is to Mount Snow as a Rolls Royce is to a Datsun.
Had a couple of dramas which may or may not have resulted in a speeding fine and a broken down (read: ran out of fuel) hire van. Was well worth the troubles though as we got some good boarding in. Although I did snap my new snowboard... Which leads to point 3

3) So I snapped my new board.

From this I have come up with two possible causes:
Cause 1- I'm way too awesomely hardcore for any piece of fibreglass/wood/composite and even my presence may cause such devices to explode, seemingly without cause.
Cause 2- I just had some bad luck with boards and hopefully I'm now done with these board-breaking shenanigans.
Cause 1 wins hands down... pfft
I took the board back to the shop today and showed them the damage. Jesse, who runs the shop had a look at it and said "Yeah, they'll warranty that, but you can't not have a board for the rest of the season." So rather than make me wait around for all the warranty paperwork nonsense, he just gave me a new board. It's identical to the snapped one, just not snapped. Obviously. So now I have a nice new board again.

4) Snow/Rain/Snow/Rain etc

It's rained, it's snowed... We've had over a foot of powder, then we've been down to rocks and ice, then a heap more rain, then some more snow. Now the weather's getting really spring-y and the snow's melting so I'd expect there'll be very little left after this weekend. I'm fine with this though as I'll be leaving in just over a week.

5) The 2006/2007 IBNITI

This was the International Biggest Name In Tweed Invitational...
A huge competition which was comprised of 13 events including ski/snowboard racing, lifeguard sprints, a 500m run, pool, darts, pinball, air hockey, a 'wing off', nearest the pin, a drinking competition and some other things I can't remember right now.
This was conducted over a couple of days. I won nearest the pin (Thanks to Morgs for all the golfing practice). I also won pinball.
I think I might be a nerd. (Seriously though, MULTIBALL!!!)
I finished fourth overall (I missed an event. This being the obvious and sole reason I was not the champion. hehe)
Pip won it overall and other (dis)honourable mentions include:
- Tomas, a Slovakian native who ate 49 Chicken wings (I ate 31 and I'm never eating chicken wings again.) in the wing-off and also won the drinking competition. He either can eat alot, or really hates chooks.
- B. Short for Boronislav i think, or something similar, who won the snowboard/ski race... And then told us he was a member of the Czech Republic Alpine Ski Team. Talk about taking candy from babies.
- Jon, the American BMW rep who won the 500m run despite falling face first in the ice-mud-bitumen.
- Can't think of much else.. but was a good way to fill in some time.
I may also have vomited a little after the drinking comp. Ewww..

So from here, the plans are, head to Boston on the 31st of this month, then fly out the following morning. Get to London that evening, meet Charlotte (Awesome!) and then see where we're up to with flat finding etc. Then have to organise a job interview, a NI number, a bank account, a phone/sim card and possibly find a quaint English pub for a few warm pints or something similarly cliched. How the hell do you do the e's with the little accent thingy, like for cafe, cliche... Bah, I dunno...anyways...
Really looking forward to seeing England. Also been looking through the ol' Lonely Planet guide and checking out places to go in Europe... So much on the list so far. Hopefully will get to see most of them.

Also, to keep your appetite for random things satiated feel free to peruse the following:

If this guy is not simultaneously the most ridiculous and most awesome human to ever walk the earth, then I don't know who is. Seriously... Who the hell gets to dress up that much? Actors you say? Yes. Blues-harpists? No! Hell no!
He looks like a pirate barbarian bodybuilder archer bandit that fell into the extras wardrobe for Beyond Thunderdome
Seriously, go to his page, click on the slide show or image gallery or whatever it's called and check this guy out.
He wins my Most Consistently Absurd Facial Hair Award.
And gets inducted into my hall of fame, for what seems to be decades of dedication to retarded moustaches.

Anyways, I've got some more photos and stuff to upload soon, so drop by again in a little bit.

Also, Sammy left Mount Snow a little while back and it hasn't been the same without him. Sammy has the best collection of caps in the world and is one cool dude. Happy now Sammy? :)

Also...

Just so you all know, I stayed home tonight and updated my blog and missed possibly the biggest event of the season at the Snow Barn nightclub:

Changes in Latitudes: The Nation's Best Jimmy Buffet Cover Band...

For those who are interested, you can find out more about the seminal works of Jimmy Buffet here

I hope you all enjoy my updates, seeing as you've deprived me of so much joy...

hehehe

Some snow-related antics...

Had an awesome day out snowboarding on Thursday.
Started to ride in the park with some of the instructors who were off duty, so learnt a heap as well.
Learnt or learned?? I dunno... Anyways...
Was riding With Pip, Jello and Martin... Learnt to hit some of the big kickers, so was getting some pretty big air which was scary, but awesome fun once I got it (semi) under control.
Also started to hit some bigger boxes so hopefully can work my way up to some decent rail tricks before the season's out.
I took my camera out for one run and got some shots of the guys trying some stuff.
They introduced me to 'The Wally' which basically involves one person lying down and making a ramp with their board, then having someone else use them as a jump, photos of which are below:

Martin about to jump off Jello

Pip jumping off Jello.

Also got heaps more snow today. It was absolutely bucketing down. I was (luckily) stationed inside a lift shack for the day, so found it amusing watching the guests looking cold all covered in snow, just like this guy:

People hate it when you go overboard with the talcum powder...

In other news, we got bored the other day, so dug a hole (insert The Castle jokes here) in the snow near our lift to kill some time... It was about the size of a bathtub and completely harmless...
Some ass called in to the head of Mountain Operations and claimed we were "Screwing about and not doing our job properly." which we most definitely were as we were way overstaffed...
Anyways, in an alarming display of Managerial pedantics we got a call telling us to cease and desist and also to fill the hole back in...
So apparently someone revived Hitler and put him in charge of lift operations. Tomorrow is Aryan Sunday where we all dye our hair blonde and have a crack at some genocide...
I may be lying a little.

Anyways, more snow falling now so hopefully will be getting some good boarding in over the next week.

Finally have everything sent off and organised for England, so just waiting for my visa to be approved and sent back to me... Charlotte and I are maybe a little stressed, but it should all be ok, fingers crossed!
Four weeks till I get to see my Charlotte!! Awesome!!

More updates to come, stay tuned.

RARRRGHHGHGAGAHGHH!!!!!
GIMME ALL YOUR MONEY!!!
Or whatever....

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Charlotte!!
She's awesome and amazing and now she's 22 as well.
I love her stacks and stacks and hope she has an awesome day.
You should all hope the same!

JC

Yes, It's Been A While.

Wow... Long time between posts hey.
Much has transpired since I last updated.
For ease of reading I shall break the post down as follows:

Section 1: Boston
Section 2: Snow
Section 3: Randomness

Section 1: Boston

So some time ago, maybe 2 weeks now I journeyed over to Boston.

THE PLAN: 5 Aussies and a Kiwi all had a couple of days off, so were to leave Mt Snow on Wednesday after work, hire a van in nearby Brattleboro, drive on to Boston, stay a couple of nights, then come back Friday arvo.

THE ACTUALITY: Myself and the three other Aussies borrowed a BMW from the Mountain (as they have some test drive promotion thingy and we've made nice with the organisers) and drove to Brattleboro. Dropped 2 Aussies off at the car hire place and then Myself and Nikki drove the BMW back to Mt Snow. Jamie and Rach were to pick up the van, then meet us back at our place where the others would have gathered so as we could continue on to Boston. Nikki and I get back... waiting..... waiting.... waiting... Phone call.
"Hey, it's Rach... We had an accident."
So it turns out they didn't have enough ID on them or some shit and couldn't hire a van and instead were only afforded a tiny Suzuki shitbox... Whilst driving back, they hit some black ice, lost it and went backwards into a telephone pole.... GOAL!!!!!!! Couldn't help but laugh. Oh yeah, everyone was ok and all that.
So... that was that done with...
We decided to scratch that night and see what we could work out the next day.
Anyways, long story short... Ended up being 4 Aussies taking a BMW to Boston to stay one night...
We got lost going into Boston but managed to find the Cambridge Marriot (Thanks to a favour from Jamie's boss) we were staying at.. 5 stars! Sweet!
Went and bought tickets to a Bruins game... So excited to be getting to see an ice hockey match!
We then went for a walk around town and had a look at the city. Checked out the Holocaust Memorial they have there which is really interesting and quite moving.

Giant glass towers etched with numbers for each of the 6 million jews that were killed. (Yes the photo is off-axis, my bad)

We then did a little bit of shopping, checked out the CBD, then went to a pub, had some dinner and continued on to the game.

Apparently the Bruins aren't too flash at the moment, but we weren't too concerned.
The game was awesome, Bruins got beaten by South Carolina 5-2 or something, but ice hockey is awesome to watch live.. Got some cool shots of the game too...

The view from our seats.

Action! Action! Action!

There was a massive fight too. 2 guys stood toe to toe trading blows for about 2 minutes straight... The crowds get right into it too, so was pretty fun.
Walked out of the stadium at the end of the game, saw this guy, got it on video, but it's waaaay too big to post on here.
Then went to a nearby bar, had a few drinks and headed back to the motel and got some sleep. Got this photo before I went to bed...

Next day, went out to the Harvard area and had a bit of a look around... Got some breakfast at a stereotypical American diner and made our way back home.
So that was Boston in a day. Well worth it... Plus I bought some cool clothes too.

Part 2: Snow

So around Valentines Day we got a massive dump of snow. Like 3 feet in a couple of days... I've never seen that much snow in my life... It was awesome. Was wicked boarding... So much powder everywhere and everything was completely covered in snow... Couldn't even walk into our house without wading through waist deep snow...
Look at the whiteness:

A house on the way into town

Our pathway...

So the snow brought more guests and the guests brought more work and the work brought more money and the money bought me a deposit on a new snowboard! It's wicked... Got it really cheap... So nice to ride...
As a result, been enjoying my boarding heaps... Can't wait to have a couple of days off again sometime soon so I can get some solid riding in.

Section 3: Randomness
Some other things:
- Ben and Jerry's ice cream is the awesome.
- I went to an all you can eat Polish buffet last night.... So good.
- Our internet connection suddenly became secure... When I say 'our' I mean someone near us. We're now using another 'borrowed' connection which is crappy and a pain in the ass..
- Visa is all done and sent off!! W00t!!!!!!
- I totally made a fool of this pompous old lady yesterday... She had like, 20 people laughing at her. I'm so proud of myself for publicly humiliating an old woman, that may seem bad, but she was a right cow.
- We made a wicked jump in our backyard, so now we can have some fun once we get home from the mountain

Some random photos:

Sunrise again.... This time with a snow-groomer driving through the exposure.

The view from the top of Lift 14.

Anyways, not a great deal on the agenda for the coming weeks... Hopefully just get a fair bit of boarding in. Counting down the days till I fly out to the UK and get to see Charlotte... So excited!
Will update again soon...

That weird person you sometimes see standing out the front of their house...

You go outside because you're bored and there's nothing to do... You're also hungry which is why you have a box of cereal in your hand which you're eating right out of said box. You haven't been shopping in a while so there's not much to eat in your designated cupboard. It's a full moon outside, which mainly is why you went outside; to look at the night being all pretty and shit.
You're staring at the sky, putting a handful of dry cereal in your mouth when a four wheel drive goes past. It's going really slowly because there's a speed-bump out the front of your house. Plus it's a bit icy on the roads. You see little people, possibly kids looking at you through the back window of the car.
You wonder if they're asking their parents what the strange man is doing. Your feet are cold and you remember you don't have any socks on, just shoes because you were only going to be outside for a tiny while to look at the moon and maybe see if there was any good photo opportunities. You also think how absurd this must look and have a little laugh to yourself.... Just as the four wheel drive comes back past the other way, kids staring at you again. Now you're outside in the cold, eating cereal out of a box, wearing shoes with no socks and you're staring at the moon and laughing to yourself.
You wonder what the kids are asking their parents now. You also wonder if the parents are remembering what you look like in case they think they may need to give a description to police when there's a break in in your local area tonight.
You decide to go inside because your feet are cold... And because a patrol car might come past soon.
You also need to put your pants back on...

OK, so the last sentence isn't true, but the rest is...

Same old, same old here... Been working and boarding heaps... Started landing some 360's so pretty chuffed with that. Also tried skiing the other day which was fun. May be heading to Boston next week to see an ice hockey match which should be cool.
Will let you know how it all goes.
JC

Snow

So it's finally snowing with some kind of purpose!
There's a few inches of snow covering everything, so it's finally looking like winter has arrived here. Mind you, the temperatures reflect this with a couple of days last week being -26 degrees and -15 degrees.

Still just killing time... They've dropped our hours back now so we work 3 days and then have 4 days off, which is crazy and makes budgeting even harder. Ah well, it'll work out, I'm sure.

Also been putting up with some f-ing lazy people, whose names i won't mention. They seem to think we have a kitchen fairy that cleans up all their shit. Well the kitchen fairy is well pissed off and I'm ready to start cleaning saucepans with scalps. Whoa, rage!!!
Ahem....

Might try and do something productive with my time off in the next week or so and go for a bit of a look around the area. Would love to head up to Montreal at some stage, but we'll see how the budget goes. At least if I can get out and about I can provide you with more interesting updates rather than this drivel. And also avoid the cabin fever which I'm developing, as made apparent by my 'Kitchen Fairy' rant .

Also, this week's must buy: Crunk hits 3 - 18 Certified Crunk Hits!! Hip Hop y'all!

This is on TV. Who the hell certifies crunk?? The National Crunk Institute ? The Crunkstitue? Actually, what the hell is crunk?? Is their a head Crunksman?? Stupid Americans and their stupid genres.
I'm out for now.
JC

Getting Colder

Last couple of days have been really cold...
Not sure exactly how cold, but cold enough to make your ears feel like you could break them off and chill a cup of coffee with them.
I'm also lucky enough to have recruited myself a nice cold, so had the day off work today. Was meant to leave this afternoon to go to Killington, a nearby mountain for a couple of days but can't be bothered and would rather get over this cold... Whinge whinge whinge...
I hope the cold weather hangs around for a bit longer though as it'll hopefully bring more snow and thus more work... Only been working 3 and a half days a week for the last couple of weeks which sucks... So budget has been very tight. Can't wait to be earning real money again. I haven't worked for this little money since I was about 16....
In other news, started getting my UK visa organised, ( So you won't have to stress Charlotte :P)
Here's a couple of photos from the last week or so:

No one I know, but above one of the lifts I work on there's a big kicker, so it's a good spot to get some 'action shots'.

Some wood. Black and white wood.

Hopefully should be able to give you guys some more exciting news/photos in the coming days...

Some random pics

Here's a few random shots that I've had on my camera...
Nothing special, just some stuff that looks ok...

"Hiking" - An update.

What do you do when you're working/living in a ski resort and you have a day off? You participate in your winter sport of choice.
What do you do at Mount Snow when you have a day off?? You don't snowboard, because it's 15 degrees celsius and the recent rain has washed away all the snow.

So we went for a hike to Hamilton Falls, just off Route 100 near the sleepy little hamlet of Jamaica. (For real)

When I say hike, I mean drive for 40 minutes, then walk for 10....
Awesome waterfall though... Took heaps of photos... A selection of which are below:

This is me on a rock. You can't tell from this angle, but this outcrop is about 20 metres above the ground. Luckily I'm too tough to care. You can also see that I'm wearing shorts. Stupid weather for the middle of winter in a supposedly 'alpine region'.

The 'Legends of the Fall'. No, that's gay. It's just us... Clockwise, from back left: Pip, Dave, Jay-Cee, Lee, Bissell, myself and Ash.


Bissell standing at the bottom of the waterfall, this is only the bottom third of it or so...


Me sitting on the rock from the first photo. I'm all about the safety. Note the debris on my right shoe.... That's a result of a prank which involved me being told the only way across the river was to walk through it. Upon doing this, I was informed that there was a bridge 10 metres round the corner, which everyone subsequently crossed. Funny stuff. Pip's a bastard...

Well a few of the guys from our house have gone on a trip to Sunday River, apparently there's more snow there. I'm just hanging out at home, hoping that the weather will stay decent till Thursday at least so I can go riding on my days off... Hopefully should be able to get some good shots of us riding too which will be good...

Will keep you posted.

J

Oh Dear...

Finally had some decent days off... The last three days have been the best riding. Had so much fun. It's been a little slushy and wet, but been learning a lot and trying heaps of new stuff...
Getting some nice air over some nice big rollers and landing some little 180's here and there... So it's been fun..
But then...
Yesterday there was a little ridge in the top laminate on my board. Seemed like nothing major, then today while riding, I noticed the ridge had become more of a crease... Then it became a crack and now the nose of my board tends to flop around a bit. So it's broken. I'm so shattered. The board is so so nice to ride and I love it. Now after 7 days riding it's decided to die.
Have to get in touch with T-Fresh to see what the go is with manufacturers warranty but I'm guessing I'll need to post it back home and supply a receipt from the place of purchase (which may be hard as I'm not sure Tommy has a cash register in his loungeroom.)
So I'm pretty upset, but at least I've had a heap of fun on it so far. Hopefully I can work something out. Also if anyone has Tommy's email could you forward it to me pretty please.
It's meant to pour rain here for the next three days and tomorrow is meant to be 18 degrees celsius... So needless to say there'll be no snow at all by Monday...

Might have to buy a mountain bike instead...