Life as a mature age ski bum!

Bonjour from Val D’Isere where life is starting to settle down and the two mature age ski bums are slowly finding their way around this grand ski village!

As for the title, well it really does feel like we are the ‘mature age students’ of the village :) I can’t say that bothers me in the slightest, in fact I’m rather glad my maturity has found us in our own apartment (not crammed in with 7 other smellies), one of the best paying jobs in town and out of most of the English bars, typically inhabited by rich 19 year old English chalet girls on their gap year sporting fluffy impractical everything (boots, gloves, hats, jackets – you name it, it has fluff on it!) and early 20s English or Swedish grommets with their jeans hanging half way down their arse and some trendy hat. I look forward to a time when the real snow falls and we get to see them slipping and sliding all over the place in their ‘apres’gear (not that I’m at all jealous they have daddy’s Pounds to spend on boutique designer wear!!).

As for work, our employers are similarly delighted with our performance. Most days we arrive in a sprightly fashion looking forward to the 3 or 4 hour shift (poor form I know but it will take a while to get those drinking legs going and of course mature age ski bums just can’t work on a hangover!) It must be something to do with the altitude (or our age!?) but after 4 or 5 drinks we both seem to have woken up with shocking headaches!! Only to be fixed by a trip to the local patisserie for chocolate éclairs or other Val D’Isere gateaux specialities :) Konrad in particular has seen a revolving door of young blokes, advised not to come in the next day. Dicks’ Tea Bar (really dodgy meat market in town) must be full of grommets talking about that balding Aussie bloke in La Daille who takes his job entirely too seriously and has thus set the bench mark too high for any of them to gain employment for the season! I mean who would work solidly for a 4 hour shift, not take breaks, and seek conversation from their mates who drop by? (Clearly, only a mature age ski bum who thinks 4 hour shifts are a breeze!?) I will add that both the ski rental and clothes stores where we work are now mainly inhabited by Aussies & Kiwis, who according to our bosses, Phillipe & Simonetta, seem to have the best work ethic. With me being the only one who speaks high school French, serving customers is always entertaining!

Our social life has taken a while to get going. After wondering into a few clubs full of teenagers it became apparent we really did look like a couple of mature age uni students at the uni bar. We have since found our place in a French bar called ‘Bar L'Alexandra’ which is run by a Kiwi guy Phil, who incidentally is married to a French girl and speaks perfect French (as odd as a Kiwi speaking French sounds!?). The place also seems to be inhabited with late 20 somethings, a few of them born and bred in Val. Nice and relaxed, you can hear yourself over the music (can’t believe I just said that) and they don’t sell shooters!

I work with a 21 year old English girl and manage to live vicariously through her nights out. She keeps me informed of all the cool bars, big nights, places to go (or not too) and general shenanigans of the young crowd!

So life is good! We have befriended a few of the French locals, either through work, or going out to bars or to eat and are still looking to find more mature age bums such as ourselves. Our next venture out is likely to the Val D’Isere yoga club for a couple of evening yoga sessions :).

Maybe by the next installment we will be downing Long Island Ice Teas with the best of them – there is some hope these mature age students will eventually assimilate – but then again, perhaps not!

Aurevoir et a Bientot!

Ps Here are some recent pics;

The architecturally award winning building where the Goulaszes will spend the season (yeah I know it’s f*&king ugly but it did really win an award)

Nic in the Village after a dump of snow

Konrad tucking into a Jambon & Beurre Baguette. With the beurre being as thick as a slice of cheese, Monsieur Goulasz is very satisfied with his lunch today :)

The main roundabout in the Village

The mature age “ski man” working hard

On top of the world!! Stunning third day on the mountain

Madame Goulasz having fun putting in a few easy turns

Merde!! I knew I should have paid attention to the sign “Piste Difficule, Bon Skieurs”. Madame not so happy when she hit the long steep icy red run back to the village :(

First Snow Pics

It may be a studio apartment but check out the view from our balcony after the first snow of the season!!!

Sir Konrad inside the studio! Some little luxuries you just can't do without :)

The village by night.

Will post more pics and news soon xxx

Le Beaujolais nouveau est arrivé!

Et on est arrivé à Val D’Isère!


Firstly, despite the eloquence of the title (hey, no one else seems to be giving me a rap so I thought I’d do it myself – NB this is supposed to be a blog so you are welcome to leave comments should you like) I’ve got to say that ‘mon Français’ is coming along rather slowly. Everywhere seems to be another French classroom though this student requires constant reminding and repeating – without Nic, we (guess that’d just be me) would be faarked. As for the inspiration for the title; ‘le Beaujolais nouveau est arrive et c’est la fête’, simply translates to ‘we have produced this new batch of goon and we’re celebrating the fact that we can charge an absolute fortune for very ordinary 2006 harvest wine that really shouldn’t have even been bottled!’. In Australia they put this stuff in casks and sell it to bogens; here in France they charge 16 Euros a bottle for it anywhere you go (despite the fact that it costs 2 Euros at the supermarket) and have a party on account of the fact that the unsuspecting tourist is drinking goon and doesn’t know any better – c’est bon! (For the record should anyone of you be thinking of visiting France, the house red, often a ‘Côtes du Rhone’ – which coincidentally is no where near as good as a ‘Goats do Roam’ from Fairview Estate in Stellenbosch (perhaps the subject of another blog?), not that one should go out of their way to complement the South Africans for their wine :o) – is a far better and cheaper option, particularly when you’re trying to stretch that penny a little further in the pursuit of avoiding work for as long as possible.

Anyway, we somehow managed to consolidate our 5 pieces of hand luggage into 2 through customs at Heathrow – must have been those toiletries that we were made to put into the separate see-through bag provided that did it !!– and feeling like the total frauds that we are, we were let into Europe. (Meaning, our official European citizenry was recognized at the boarder and we’re now allowed to stay as long as we like – the only downside to which is that we’ll never acquire any entry and exit stamps to attest to where we’ve been). Just on the topic of luggage, the 5 pieces of hand luggage are in addition to the 3 main bags weighing in at 50kg and if I find myself having to lug the ski bag anywhere again, ever, it will be the death of me!! (I think we’ll resolve to buy a car at the end of the season just so we can transport our sheet out of here!!)

Having managed to cart our full assortment of gear to our Montmarte hostel (I’m so glad I made Nic leave those other 6 pairs of shoes back at home :)) and now energized with my nutella, banana, honey, almond and cream liqueur crepe we figured there’s no time better than a Saturday night to gauge what a town like Paris has to offer. Having been advised by our friend Vincent that there’s no place cooler to go than the Latin quarter and knowing full well that we’d lose our shirts trying to have a few anywhere on the tourist route (this was validated the next day when coffees cost 6 Euros each on the Champs Elysee – pretty good though), we found ourselves in a cool petit bar somewhere off the back of Bld Saint-Germain. Now, what needs to be appreciated firstly when going out drinking in bars in Paris is that you can’t just run in and seat yourself – we tried and we know!! Take it from us, you will be yelled at in a foreign language!! You are correctly greeted at the door and advised politely that there’s a 15 minute wait for a table. Following this period of looking particularly sophisticated and ooh-la-la-ing in the typical Parisian way (this is the done thing, we’re not making this up), you’re introduced to Jean-Michel who advises you that he will be your waiter for the evening, escorted to your third floor table (this is a four floor, swanky arse Parisian bar) seated accordingly and pres
ented with your drinks menu. By about midnight, a few drinks later, you notice the most curious thing about the bar; you can still hear the music, no one’s speaking with raised voices, you’re the only one who’s managed to fall off your chair (at least I managed to make it back on unassisted) and everyone’s still politely seated and elegantly sipping on the same drink that they started the night off on. Oui, C’est le Parisian Bar experience :).

Following our night out on the piss (sort of; one you can’t afford to get drunk; two stumbling down the street in Paris is so not the done thing – I was quite embarrassed for Nic :o), after the required visit to the boulangerie et le chacuterie (bakery and deli) – look, you need to make your own smelly cheese baguettes if you’re going to survive in the big city – we were off for our day of sight seeing. Here’s a best of;

[NB: Notice me in a deeply relaxing headstand in front of the Eiffel Tower – Rachey Rachey eat your heart out.]

Back to the bag situation (I really can’t stress enough how heavy they are to lug around); the next day we arranged to hire a car to transport out luggage to Lyon for the next leg of our tour – seeing some of the central region of France really was just a secondary consideration :). Let me just stress too that muscling our way across four lanes of traffic around the Arc de Triumphe on the wrong side of the road (that’s right, despite being right) in true Smeg fashion while Nic clutched the panic bar c’etait pas un probleme (or no drama for the uncultured). Here are some pics from the drive through the country;

In true goulash fashion, (that is noting that anywhere is always no more than 20 minutes away) we managed to drop off that heavy arse luggage that I keep talking about and found ourselves racing through the streets of Lyon to deliver the car to the airport quite a way outside of the city. Despite reaching ludicrous speed on occasion (noting too that Nic left a dent in the panic bar – maybe that’s what they charged us for the bastards?) it turned out that we were in fact 28 minutes away!

We spent the next 2 days wining and dining on boeuff, gateaux de foies, mousse du canard, tripe and all sorts of other Lyon delicacies that would make any Vlandis lose their lunch – let me just add that the patisseries here are something else, c’est formidable!! Anyway, we really enjoyed the city of Lyon, it has a fantastic feel about it. Here are some happy snaps to breakup the boredom of this essay;

Onto Annecy and I guess our travels had simply been too effortless up until now – even telling that twit at Budget that we refused to pay him/them an extra 170 bucks for the car (some additional fees they decided to make up and then waive) wasn’t a real drama. We were thus just a touch surprised to hear the cab driver inform us that our hotel was another 15kms away after having been in the taxi for 20 minutes and then deliver us to Faverge with a facetious “voila” – this shonky internet advertising has to stop! (We could have sworn we booked accommodation in Annecy). Incident out of the way, we found a fantastic little hotel on one of the many canals that run through the town and took these following shots. Annecy is this beautiful town set on the cleanest lake in Europe right at the foot of the Alps;

To finish off this epic blog (sorry about the length of it – just got carried away over the 3 broken sessions of writing) let me just say “et on est arrivé à Val D’Isère!”. We are here, we are just about to move into the shoebox on the mountain just out of the centre of Town (in La Daille), I’ve managed to find a job as a “Skiman” for the season (that means I work in a Ski Rental place handing out skis), Nic thinks she’s been offered a job in a ski store ( you really never can tell until you’ve done your first day of slave labour), some lifts are open but we’re waiting for the proper snow to fall and that’s life for the moment.

Aurevoir et a bientot!

African Update

Hello All,

Firstly apologies for the lack of posts over the last month, but Africa isn't very blog friendly :) Emailing is tough enough so forget about updating blogs and loading photos!! I tried once in Vic Falls only to have the computer crash after an hour of penning a beautiful piece together!!

So here I am again, in a trendy internet cafe in Cape Town and hoping this computer might be a bit more blog friendly!

We arrived in Cape Town 3 days ago after a fabulous 4 weeks in Zimbabwe, Botswana & Namibia. There is so much to write about and so little time to do it, so this is a bit of a highlights blog today with more detail to come when Konrad has a chance to gather his thoughts :)) That could take a while at the rate he writes so this is the 'Nic brief version' here today :o)

Top Destinations:

• Victoria Falls - the falls were spectacular and we have a great 4 days there
• Okavango Delta - spent 3 days bush camping, game walking and cruising around in dug out canoes - very cool!
• Etosha National Park - saw loads of game, and a beautiful park. Lots of elephants up close, lions, cheetah, Zebra, Giraffe, Black Rhino, Gemsbock and heaps of fabulous birds.
• Namib Desert - climbed Dune 45 at Dawn and did a great desert walk
• Cape Town - beautiful city

Top Activites:

• Rafting down 23km of grade 5 rapids on the Zambezi River - totally awesome and I'm so glad I did it!
• Sandboarding the dunes in Namibia - even though I stacked it badly and have still got a sore rib as a result!
• Watching Konrad do the Gorge swing in Vic Falls (70 metre free fall and he screamed like a girl which I have on video:)
• Game Walking in the Okavango Delta and witnessing our guide getting charged by an elephant! wow what a rush that was!! I can't actually believe he survived it. Again we have some pics, which Konrad hung around to take. I wasn't so brave and left the scene pretty swiftly. Which could have been a disaster if our guide hadn't scared him off by standing tall and clapping his hands at this 6000 kg beast!!
• Game Driving in Etosha National Park
• Township tours in both Joburg & Swakomund
• Stellenbosch Wine Region - very beautiful!!

Top 3 tips when on a game walk (as instructed by our unarmed guide, 'Sea Company')

• If you get charged by buffalo - climb tree!
• If you see lions - stand in pack
• If you get charged by elephant - ziggy zag into bush (which he didn't do when he actually got charged??)

Biggest Challenges:

• Having a bad reaction to the Malaria tablets (only me of course)
• Sweltering in the heat in Botswana & Namibia
• Digging sand out of my ears for 10 days after the sandboarding in Namibia!
• Still hurting from the stack on the dunes
• Travelling with a bunch of poms :))
• Waking at 5:30am on most mornings whilst camping!!
• Drinking instant coffee!!! AfricaCafe to be precise!

All in all though the trip was fabulous. The 3 weeks on the truck was excellent and we only had 12 of us on a 24 seat truck so loads of room. Everyone was really nice as well which is always good.

Anyway, that's it for us. We have been cruising around Cape Town and leave for Paris in 3 days so will write more from Europe.

xxxxx

This is us at Victoria Falls

Nic and Oscar cruising around in a Mokoro in the Okavango Delta

This is the elephant charging

Sunset from the Mokoro (at the Hippo Pool where panic set in when we saw a hippo approaching rather quickly!)

Elephants drinking up close in Etosha National Park

Patting Cheetahs in Namibia

Eating sand in Swakopmund!

On top of Dune 45 at 6am, Soussusvlei in Namibia

Wine tasting in Stellenbosch

Enjoying the view in Cape Town

Week 2 Update

Howzit All,

Greetings from sunny Joburg - which despite its obvious (usually electrified) limitations is a most hospitable and lovely place.

Following on from what was a frantic preparation, with a last minute specific focus on one fantastic piece of hardware that crapped itself as soon as we first tried to put it to use on the flight over here from Perth (guess Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have a while to go before sorting out software compatibility issues) our first week on tour consisted of the sort of smeggy indulgances that we're always being accused of. Lots of wine and cheese and Nic's already complaining that her clothes are gettting smaller.

Suffice it to say, as we are connoisseurs of both wine and wine regions, Margaret River is thus far our favorite wine region. 12 wineries, lots of wine tasting and my conscience forever feeding me glasses of water and it now seems like a distant blur.

Perth too we were hugely impressed with. While almost a country town its non pretentiousness, stunning waterway and beaches made a lasting impression on us.

The picture above is us having a few pints last Thursday at the Litte Creatures Brewery in Fremantle.

On to Joburg, Nic's two best friends from Standard 5 and their re spective husbands and families alike have been very welcoming and protective of us - sensing our sometimes obvious sense unease. I've learned in the last couple of days that carrying your own beer to the counter and packing your own shopping bag are just not the done thing!! (Of course all daily chores are also taken care of by Lady Ann, Agnes, Ian and others :)).

We're off to Sun City tomorrow - which I'm led to believe is a mini Vagas 3 hours from Johannesburg - and we'll be touring Soweto on Wednesday.

After that, the Safari that we've arranged is forever being received with jealousness from the locals who keep telling us we're about to go to some of the most abundant game parks in the region.

We're both really looking forward to the next part of the tour.

'Til then. Cheers, Nic and Konrad

Getting Ready to Leave - September 2006

Farewell party details:

When: Saturday September 30th
Time: 7:30pm till late
Where: Upstairs – Hotel Clarendon, 156 Devonshire St Surry Hills. For more details:

http://www.yourbars.com.au/guide/hotel_clarendon/

We fly out on Sunday October 8th:

Itinerary Summary:

First stop Perth & Margaret River
Fly Perth to Joburg - Oct 13th
Commence Safari Vic Falls - October 22nd
Fly Joburg to Paris - November 17th