Judith's blog

Geoff writes: the forecast for today had been gradually deteriorating. This morning, it was giving cloudy all day, variable amounts of precipitation, and possible thunderstorms. We had been planning to go to Port del Comte to ski, but decided not to bother, since the view would be lousy, and it was a long drive on very small – and probably not often ploughed – roads. So we decided to go to the museum first, see what the weather actually did, then maybe  go to Masella, which is on our way home anyway, if it was not as bad as forecast.

La Seu d’Urgell is an interesting place and we thought the museum would cover a lot of the history of the town. It is very close to Andorra. When we were parking up last night, we’d started chatting to someone else feeding the meter, and asked her if the car would be OK parked overnight on the street. She said it would be fine – no-one bothers with car crime here, it doesn’t make enough money – the big money is in smuggling from Andorra (mostly tobacco).

So we went to the museum. We were the only people there, and the attendants were really pleased to see us, and one of them, an old guy, decided to give us a personal tour, detailing every exhibit. Unfortunately, the museum was a church museum rather than a general museum, so we got in depth information about dozens of Christian relics, crosses, saints, churches, paintings… not our idea of a good time. The other problem was that he took a shine to Judith, and in the guise of showing her around managed to do a bit of surreptitious groping. And the traditional Spanish kiss on each cheek, turned into real clinch with her. And all this in front of the Virgin Mary!

We escaped as fast as possible, and went to Masella. All around there were snow showers, but Masella was clear (but cloudy). We skied for a while, then went for coffee. On our first run after that I wiped out quite badly. Both of us hate skiing without sun, because it becomes so difficult to read the snow. I wasn’t going particularly fast, but took a bad fall and hit my head really hard. I am certain that had I not been wearing a helmet, I would have done some serious damage. As it is, I’ve just got a slight headache.

So an interesting day, mostly for the wrong reasons.

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We were going to hit the slopes early today, but conference work and LMSC stuff delayed us a bit. This is turning into a real working holiday. I have piles of follow-up work verifying the conference submissions of American and Candian delegates so that they can maintain their certification to practice. Rather than chilling out, I have been working several hours each evening and am slipping further and further behind.

After a hearty Andorran breakfast, we drove up to Arinsal and got our free ski passes. The weather was gorgeous – sunny and cool. We skied most of the day, and crossed to Pal in the afternoon. We went out to the furthest point that we could ski to and then headed back via most of the open runs. It seemed deserted though. In comparison to the two other times we have been there, it was empty. I suppose people don’t have the available cash to spend on holidays at the moment.

We’re spending the night in La Seu d’Urgell and then heading to ski at Port del Comte tomorrow. Forecast looks rubbish…

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Geoff writes: today we drove into France to ski at Formigueres. We’ve been there once before, and it seemed ok. This time though, the snow was thin, and most of the time on the pistes we spent skiing fairly slowly to dodge all the stones. The two chair lifts are also very slow, and don’t go up very steeply, so you spend a long time sitting in them, for a relatively short vertical descent. We did have an educational time though, when we spent the 14 minutes on one lift with seven year old twins, trying to muddle through chatting in our non-existent French and their school English. With pointing we collectively managed to name the colours, ski equipment, and surroundings in both French and English. They were in fits of laughter at the English word ‘goggles’.

Judith did manage to fall and has a few bruises now and a sore arm. For once, she wasn’t skiing at 80km/h down the piste; she was walking across the cafe terrace to buy the coffee and slipped on the wet decking. Fortunately, the French army were there to help her up, since I didn’t hear her pathetic whimpering.

After coffee, we found a piste which wasn’t covered in stones, and was a nice red run, so we did that a few times, then finished, heading off to a hotel in Andorra.

The weather was better than we expected – sunny a lot of the day, and quite warm, when we had been expecting snow. Tomorrow should be good in Arinsal.
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Geoff writes: after I opened the hundred or so Valentine’s Day cards I received from all my ex’s (and zip from Judith), we set off on our skiing trip – four days away using up some of the free passes for other resorts which we get with our season ticket. Being the first day of our holiday, it was, of course, raining at home. Normally, we never go skiing on a bad forecast, but we’ve got hotels booked, and it was easier to go than to cancel them, and the forecast wasn’t too bad for later on in the week.

When we arrived at La Molina it was snowing lightly, but visibility wasn’t too bad. I was trying out my newly serviced skis. Whenever they are serviced, they end up worse, and I spend ages taking them back to be redone, and it seemed like that was the case this time too. They just wouldn’t turn as well as before. Judith had a go, didn’t like them at first, but then decided they were ok – as, eventually, did I. It was probably just a combination of skiing in fresh, ungroomed snow, and not being used to them. But it got better, and we were skiing in powder at the end, on the edges of the pistes. But I think maybe I need some new ones soon.

For a while, the snow stopped, but then towards the end of the day, the cloud came in, so we finally stopped skiing, just before the ski lifts closed. In the end, a good day.

At the hotel, we had (and have) loads of work to do in terms of follow up from the conference. Followed by one of the best, and cheapest, menus we have had for a while. Four courses, plus wine, for 11 euros. Incredible value (especially since the restaurant usually only offered it at lunch time, but gave it us because we were about to go elsewhere).

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Geoff writes: we finally closed the conference at 8.30am this morning. A great four days – something over 2,000 posts in the 16 sessions. Brilliant feedback as usual, and everyone saying how much they look forward to next year. People increasingly prefer this type of  conference to the face to face workshops they attend – the level of interaction is a lot greater, the level of debate is a lot higher (this is NOT Twitter!), more people get actively involved, they’re cheaper, and, of course, they can attend from home.

In the afternoon, we were hoping to go flying, but as expected the weather is getting worse now. So whilst it was still sunny, it was much too windy to fly, so we went to the beach, having a look at a place we’ve never been to before, Platja d’Aro, and the town nearby, Castell d’Aro. They were OK, but like most resorts, they use the winter to do repairs, so it had a sort of unfinished look. In summer, I guess it will be extremely busy. And it has some high rises on the front, which we really hate. There are nicer places, but good to get out of the  house.

See photos of today.

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Geoff writes: the final full day of the conference. Nice flying day of course, though not quite as good as expected, we heard afterwards.  In the evening, we went out for our traditional end of conference meal at the restuarant up the road. We splashed out at 13.50 euros each.
 
 
 

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Geoff writes: another day of the conference, so working all day. Also, another day of cloud and fog at the coast, but sunny inland.

We are free again from Sunday, but the weather turns distinctly worse then.
 
 
 
 

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