Monday 23 February 2009

Snowboarding

I'm back from a week of snowboarding in the Pyrenees. Myself, Louise, John, Una and Peter went to Andorra last week and we all made it back in one piece, some more bruised than others. We had lovely sunny weather, the snow was good and the slopes were quiet enough for most of the week. Myself and Louise managed to get every run done on the Pal side of the mountain and most of them on the Arinsal side as well.

We tried to get more done in Arinsal on Saturday, but when we got to the other side of the gondola, there was a wind blowing from the bottom of the valley all the way up and taking ice crystals with it. We spent a lot of time trying to board down before giving up and getting back on the lift to go to the warmer side. It was like being sand blasted in the face so we were better off to head back and try to warm up.

So now I'm back in work and drinking coffee to try and keep awake, I need another holiday to recover from this one!

To add to the week, I also proposed to Louise at the top of the mountain, looking into Spain and even though she was shocked, she gave me the right answer! After a few minutes of sitting down and trying to figure out what it all meant, we both headed off down a nice little red, I think we both flew more than skiied though :)

Wednesday 11 February 2009

Bad weather

Our first challenge match of the year had to be cancelled on Sunday. There was a large snowfall on Sunday morning and I got a few phonecalls telling me not to drive from Dublin.
The night before I was down in Limerick playing in the Munster League. We had three matches, we drew the first one against Kamikaze and beat Glaway and Bad Company. Ireland were playing France in the 6 Nations but I only got to see about 15 minutes before I had to go with the rest of the Muppets to set up the pitches.

I went for a run on Monday evening after work to loosen out and it was lovely, cold and dry. I went for a loop through the Park of about 8.5km. Then afterwards I met a gang in town and went to the Bodies exhibition. Then dinner and off to the cinema to see Valkyrie. A good evening all round.

Tuesday 3 February 2009

A new gym

I went for a swim yesterday in Northwood gym in Santry. I joined there last week with Louise, Ronan and Waggers. Only a 25m pool but it wasn't busy at all. I tried out some tumble turns and was starting to get the gist of it by the end. Didn't do much else except for a few hundred metres of fist drill. Wow, it's a weird one, I didn't realise how much I use my hand for balance! Some more of that will either drown me or get my balance better.

On another note, we have snow! The weather has turned cold and we are getting a nice bit of snow and cold wind from the continent. Not as bad as England, but it's nice to look out and see snow falling. It's even nice to cycle through it as long as the flakes don't freeze to your glasses and make you blind :)