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...

Goings On

I've been very slack in updating but this post should bring things up to now.

Mind you, it's gonna be long and contain numerous photos so I apologise now.

Things here have been pretty good... Still shit all snow, but they're still making a heap so there's a few runs open... Haven't had a chance to go boarding for about a week... It's the busy period and things are hectic...

Had a good Christmas... About 30 friends from the Timber Creek locale at a big Christmas dinner... It was a dress up dinner too, so I donned some sweet tweed, some bowling shoes I purchased for the grandiose sum of $1, a pair of nasty looking slacks and a tie with tiny tennis players on it... Ugly as hell..
Was good fun though and I enjoyed myself until I was awoken by my alarm clock at 6 the next morning ( I had to work).
So somewhere between Secret Santa, turkey, ham and a few quiet drinks I'd ended up passed out, fully dressed, face down on my bed.
Yep, I'm all class...

Been working long days, sitting in the spa, drinking, eating and being generally pretty chilled...
Working with some cool people, so the days go a little quicker. Seeing tiny children have massive skiing accidents also helps my day pass quicker... It's like ten pin bowling on the kiddies slope except with blood...

Anyways enough boredom, here's some visual stimuli:

The view from the top of lift 28 which is on the kids slope and is generally where I spend most of my days. Working. Not hanging around in a creepy old man kind of way. Note the imaginatively named "Clock Tower". All the snow in this shot is man made... Out of paste, toothpicks and aluminum foil. Or water, I'm not sure.

The complex life of a liftie...
Red = Stop
Blue = Start
Black = Reset
Green = Fast
Orange = Slow
I often wonder what happened to the monkeys that used to do this job... hehe- Arctic Monkeys!! They probably went to eat bananas. Or sing songs about looking good on dancefloors.

Me in my lift shack. I am wearing a name tag and have a tassel on my beanie. Cool as hell.
Also tired as shit...

Christmas up close.

Umm what?? Things must get pretty err... interesting.. on school buses over here. Naughty kids. They probably vomit sometimes too.
These are on the MOOvers, which are the free buses and only form of transport around here... They're painted like giant cows as you can see below. You don't get off the bus, you get sucked out it's udder into a giant vat with all the other passengers. And then pasteurised and homogenised.

A MOOver. Weird idea if you ask me. The orange posts you can see are a fence to keep the MOOvers in their herds... No one likes a wild MOOver.

Me busy at the top of the "Magic Carpet" Which is just a conveyor belt that carries kids up the slope. Nothing magic about it... I sometimes throw snow on it and tell them it's Magic Powder Fuel . They believe me. The gullible little bastards.

Sunrise on the Mountain. The only good thing about being up this early.

Me building my first ever snowman. Not all it's cracked up to be. Plus I only had shitty supplies (ie. Some pebbles and dead grass), so he's a bit of a down syndrome snow man... He died soon after this photo was taken. Which was good cos he was pretty unfortunate looking.

Hopefully things should quieten down here soon, so I'll be able to get some shots of us boarding and stuff.

Gotta go get some sleep now as I have to work another big day tomorrow and I'm already tired and sick of little shits on skis... Tomorrow may be the day an unlucky child discovers how hard snow can be when you get thrown off a lift halfway up.

It's new years eve back in Aus, so happy new years all and I'll be in touch again soon, providing my fingers don't fall off due to frostbite.

J

Several Bad Puns Later

OK, So It's been a while since I last posted.. A couple of weeks even...
Been busy with work and stuff...
Shite all snow around here... Icy, raining and the next week is meant to be the busiest of the season... There's probably only about 10% of the mountain open... So there's going to be thousands and thousands of people concentrated on about 18 runs....
The mountain will look like a colony of ants trying to all simultaneously climb a sugar cube.
In multi-coloured one piece ski suits.
Been having fun though, had a few days of good boarding, got to have a few runs through one of the parks, so it's all going quite well.
We're having a dress up christmas which should be fun... Probably about 20 or so of our 'local' crew to be in attendance.

In other news, I went to the local op shop today. I bought a par of pants.
Pants with a 64 inch waist.... It looks like they could be used to insulate a milk tanker...
They're crazy. People can be fat.
I challenge anyone else to honestly say they've bought themselves a pair of green 64 inch waist pants.

Taken heaps of photos, so I'll upload them once our internet is back up ( I'm at the local 'country club' which we get membership too because we live in the same little village)
IN other communication based news, our phone doesn't work which is so retarded- Merry Christmas Jeremy, you're now isolated from the outside world.
Thanks Santa.

Anyways, must be off... Will post more soon. And more often...
Merry Christmas to you all. Or 'Happy Holidays' as they say over here... Wankers. :)

JC

Before I forget..

Photos from the going away party.
Kudos must go the the almighty Gav who whilst not bringing his foosball table, did bring some visual entertainment.
I present for your viewing pleasure, Swan Lake as interpreted by Mr Gavin OBrien and Nathan Carter and presented in the medium of fire:

And the crescendo!Awesome stuff.
Cheers Gav!