Nick + Snowboard = Quite An Amazing Scene

Over the past few weeks I have been pondering whether board riding sports (or activities as it were) are really for me. I have, in the past, been "into" wakeboarding, snowboarding, and surfing. All of these have one thing in common: balance and coordination. I have felt comfortable for some time now that I am not a great athlete and never will be but I figured that I could manage these fun outdoor activities quite well. Looking back at my record I may have been wrong.

Surfing: don't know if I ever stood up for more than 5 seconds. Wakeboarding: broke my eardrum. And now snowboarding. I have done it several even multiple times in the past with varied results. An experience in Breckenridge left me with a little less brains in that I fell down with concussion like force. In Queenstown Jo nearly lost a leg with my out of control steering of the board. And now in Morzine I don't know what the hell happened. I think that I was pretty bad but I made it down the hill most times in one piece. I took some kids out, was on my ass a lot, and don't know what happened the rest of the time. Still a great time. Fug taught me a lot, Dr Taylor kicked my ass down the hill, and Jo twirled circles around me. Actually, by the end of the week I was quite good and was going full bore down through the powder. I'm loving it. As witnessed by the above picture I needed ski poles when I broke Dr Taylor's bindings the last day. Either that or I stole them from Jo so she would be stranded.

A Little New Year's Wine

Yeah, well I suppose that this was nearly a month ago but don't worry I remember it like it were yesterday. The thing I love about New Year's is that I usually don't remember them so this was a first for some time. Last year Grassy and I spent New Year's in the lovely Sidebar in downtown Atlanta and had all you can drink liquor which is never a good scene if you are trying to "get your money's worth." This year was slightly different but great all the same.

So if memory serves New Year's eve was a Sunday. This would typically be no good were in Georgia because on Sundays there are no alcohol sales. This clearly impedes any good celebration. This year even being in the land of champagne we nearly weren't able to get any either. Luckily we made it to Shoppi about 10 minutes before it closed. We were late because on the walk down a fireworks show happened to start so of course we had to sit at road side to take in the spectacle. Quite nice I tell you, the only one better was in Hakone in Japan for their summer festival. Anyway, Jo and I had decided to cook our own delicious meal for the evening and after some discussion decided on crayfish pasta, salad, bread, wine. Quite typical and let me tell you the preparation was second to none. Luckily in the amount of time it took the checkout lady to yell at us to hurry up in French (I assume) I had made it to the wine section and picked up a couple bottles of bubbly.

Jo's mum had told us that it is a French tradition that at midnight everyone goes into the streets and hugs and celebrates together. We had decided to go to this sweet French discotheque to party the night away however, we never made it. We started watching this guy who controls minds and tells them to give him their wallets, guesses how much money they are carrying, etc., etc. Well we got into watching tv on the computer and drinking our (real) champagne and we realized it was nearly midnight. Went outside and yelled and whistled and couldn't find anyone to hug but ourselves. Luckily up the street a guy who worked in the kitchen at the Concorde was outside smoking. Jo ran to give him a hug and she was pleased. Never made it to the club but it was beautiful because it had begun snowing and was beautiful outside. Chock another one up -- '07 here I come.