February 2009
Monthly Archive
Saturday, 7th February 2009
Judith 07 Feb 2009 | : Miscellaneous activities, Trying, but failing, to fly
The big news from this morning is that I won the Parapente Girona PG world championship sweepstake! I picked Andi Aeby, so I am four bottles of good wine, a dinner at Can Co and a crate of beer better off. Yippee!
The forecast was very inconclusive. There were weather warnings for strong NW winds and snow; but it could also work out as sunny and light winds, depending on where you were. What was an issue was over-development, but then again… depends on how localised, close together, etc.
We ummmed and aaahed for a bit and decided to wait and see, so Michaela and I went to the tree house/labyrinth at Argelaguer. As we walked in, we met the constructor and it was really interesting talking to him, especially when I said that I had been many years ago. He’s keen to build the maze and tree houses, rather than towers. He assured me that there were seven of them before, rather than just the five that I remembered. Michaela loved it! He’s expanded the labyrinth even in the two weeks since we went and the owner told us about bits that we hadn’t seen before, so Michaela and I went down a steep bank, via three tree houses, to a little bridge to a place I didn’t even think was his land. Amazing what you can miss.
As we were in the maze the sky was just incredible. Cumulus to die for, but it seemed to be picking up. By the time we had climbed the highest tower it was definitely over-developing. However, ever hopeful, we went to Santa Brigida, thinking that it might stay blue there.
When we got to Amer, it was south. It would have been absolutely perfect, had it not been for the cu-nimbs surrounding us. We waited for a while, and the blue hole around us closed in and we admitted defeat when we heard thunder near and then above us.
Michaela and I then went to Olot to procure the prizes for the LMSC awards (our lips are sealed!). Since neither of us are habitual shoppers, it was a real novelty fun experience, enhanced by cake!
Friday, 6th February 2009
We got up early this morning (despite the hang overs) and met up with Debbie in Olot to go skiing. The forecast had been for sunny weather, but it was very cloudy. As we drove towards La Molina, we could see the cloud sitting in the valley and amazingly, a balloon was hovering above it, with no apparent place to land without having to descend through the cloud.
We hit the pistes and the snow was excellent. Interesting views and great fun. We all amused each other with spectacular splats (except Geoff, the stick-in-the-mud). Debbie won the most outrageous splat competition, nearly taking my nose off with a kamikaze ski.
We skied all day and didn’t even break for lunch. We’re all knackered…
Thursday, 5th February 2009
Geoff 05 Feb 2009 | : Trying, but failing, to fly
The forecast was for wind and rain, but it was a nice blue day to start with. The bad weather was coming in from the west, so we had some time to get a flight in. The concern became the wind, after we saw the updated forecast. Sure enough, on our drive out to Amer evidence of very strong winds became more and more obvious, so we turned back and worked instead. It was probably flyable later on when we picked up Michaela from the airport, who is here until Tuesday morning. Tomorrow, skiing, and forecast looks ok for flying at the weekend. And skiing again Monday. That’s the plan….
Wednesday, 4th February 2009
A nice sunny day at last, and we went skiing. Loads of new snow – but also, unusually for mid-week, loads of people. It was possibly a Semana Blanca, which seems to be when school kids get a week to do all sorts of activities, including skiing. In any case, there were a lot of kids out today, along with their parents. So it was very busy, there was also a competition on, and whilst the pistes had been groomed, they got very churned up very quickly. Still, we skied most of the day and had a great time.
The forecast rain for Friday has now moved to tomorrow, which seems likely to be yet another work day. Friday should be OK for skiing. Not that stunning for the weekend though. Our friends just across the border, in France, Udo and Jenny, have been told that this is the worst winter for 20 years. Seems about right….
Tuesday, 3rd February 2009
Geoff 03 Feb 2009 | : Boring stuff
Yesterday I said, of the ski resorts, that “tomorrow, everything should be open”. Well, it might have been if it hadn’t snowed 50cm plus overnight, and it was still snowing there (and raining here) when we woke up this morning. La Molina was more or less totally closed first thing, because all the snow meant none of the pistes were groomed (and actually getting to the resort would be difficult). They gradually opened throughout the day, and the snow stopped. But too late for us to go, so we spent the day finishing off some of the conference admin, and editing a flying podcast Judith recorded last night with Dave Thomson.
We should probably create a new category – “Planning to go skiing, but not getting there”. Last week, it was the high winds and power cuts which closed it. Today, too much snow!
The forecast for tomorrow is much better, so …. everything should be open. We’ll go skiing. Maybe. At least there’s plenty of snow this year.
Unfortunately, after tomorrow, the forecast gets a bit worse again, with rain forecast for Friday.
Monday, 2nd February 2009
Geoff 02 Feb 2009 | : Boring stuff
The rain has stopped, and we did consider going out, but it was very cloudy, so we worked, again! But the weather improving after today, so going skiing tomorrow – lots more snow in the mountains last night, so now 80 – 190cm in the resort, which is not bad! We didn’t go today because a bit more snow was forecast, and the runs would not have been groomed, so some would be closed, but tomorrow, everything should be open.
Sunday, 1st February 2009
Judith 01 Feb 2009 | : Boring stuff
Lazy Sunday Afternoon…
The weather is crap and we are knackered so we did nothing. In bed until 1pm, then we dragged ourselves to the local eatery and had a 4 course lunch, dragged ourselves back home and snoozed on the couch. We’re now going to watch a video. We haven’t had a lazy day like this for years. I could get a taste for it though!