The Finale - 30th Dec 2005

The instructors all ski down one of the slopes carrying torches, after which there is a great big fireworks display. It was our last night and we were frozen - it was too cold to even hunt down the mulled wine which was apparently being distributed. Instead, we went back to our hotel for hot chocolate and card games. We had to be up at 04h00 the next day and after our busy week, a big party was out!!!
My only regret...well Graham had bought a new toy...the camera.... and as a result, we don't have too many pics of him, but seeing that we all look like an Al Queda training camp, we can pretend that he is in more of them.

And finally--Graduation Dec 05

They had this ceremony in one of the bigger hotels and we all got certificates from our instructors. Mine used to make Tarzan noises so we always knew where he was and he wore a fluoresent yellow hair hat on the slopes but he looked quite civilized tonight! Graham's lady worked in a sports shop during the off season and as a ski instructor once the snow started falling.

Some of Graham's class Dec 05

On the left is before Graham got them all lined up from the top of one of the slopes (these things don't come with brakes, so it can be quite a feat sometimes to get people to stop and then stay in one place!!).

View from Hotel of some of the slopes Dec 05

Graham & Timmy psyche up for the Red

Timmy went down and Graham came tumbling after.....

The Warr Zone - Dec 05

We had a Warr or two at Passo Tonale. This was the remainder of our adopted family, Stev, Sandra and their 3 boys, Mikey - our Quiz Maestro, Tim - the Daredevil (who was born without a fear gene) and John - the Champion card player and Chocolate Imp!
Tim and Graham went down a red slope together, well Graham said that Timmy ski'd down whilst he "fell down" it. Whilst they were tackling the tricky icy slopes, Mikey and I went down a long blue where we tried to do some 'baby jumps' - I made him go first because I reckoned that if he wiped out I would have to follow him anyway as I would rather be dead than face his parents. This worked fine until we met up with Graham & Timmy later and they were all ahead of me when I tried out my new 'egg' position (curl over forward and rest your elbows on your knees with poles sticking out back) and shouted at him to try it. Only problem was when he turned around to look I hit him from behind and with my weight advantage, poor guy went flying off the slope into some thick snow (luckily). Gee I felt bad but it must have looked really funny.

Meet our Ski-Buddies - Jo & Nick Dec 05

Meet our adopted family over Xmas..

Jo and Nick - Jo is originally from Grimsby (very famous in our neighbourhood considering it is Rob's home town!). She does translations for a living, French and German to English and back again. She was hoping that, armed with 3 languages, she would be able to communicate with the Italians at the ski resort ...but no such luck (despite being so close to the Austrian border, but considering they had quite a few bitter battles in WW1 and lost large numbers of locals, they probably decided that Italian on its own was just fine. ) . Mind you even if they did understand, I don't think it would have made them any friendlier!! The ski instructors were nice, but the hotel staff would probably do quite well as receptionists in an NHS surgery! I digress. Her other half is Nick, who was our token black - ski run guy.

The Quiz night - The winning team

We took on the rest of the assorted Poms and Pub Quiz specialists...but we had a secret weapon or two...like the Warrs (Steve, Sandra, Mikey, Tim & Johnny); Jo and Nick. We won despite Graham and I getting a Mandela question wrong (the shame.....) and thanks to Mikey who knows about mountains on Mars.

Boxing Day and beyond..

After guzzling our extravagant Christmas dinner of a packet of cheese puffs, a Fanta and an apple yesterday we had to work extra hard to ...err...lose the excess calories. So we summonsed our first blizzard. The experienced guys moaned about the ice on the slopes, but it was all the same to us...bloody cold and we were blind anyway. I saw a lady at the ski lift who had a frozen snot stream sticking out from her top lip like a hip-hop stalactite and this worried me more than getting frostbite on the bits that were sticking out. Graham's instructor took advantage of her newly blinded class and threw them down a red slope. In Italy even the women are macho. I heard that Alitalia pilots fly when even the pigeons are walking....so were we excused early from class...Non..Non...Non...

Xmas 2005

The Mission - Learn to ski and try and enjoy it.
The place - Passo Tonale - bergies between Austria and Italy.
The temperature - Eunuch Brass Monkeys
Prevailing wind - little stabbing icicles
The company - An island of mixed Anglos amongst the chattering classes dressed to kill.