- Untitled
- The season begins
- Jan 2010
- Feb 2010
- March 2010
- April 2010
- May 2010
- Ski Pictures 2010
- June 2010
- July 2010
- August 2010
- September 2010
- October 2010
- Late October
- November
- December 2010
- January 2011
- February
- The European Youth Olympic Festival
- March 2011
- The season ends
- May and June 2011
- End of June
- July
- August in Yorkshire
- September 2011
- 28 October 2011
- November/December 2011
- Season 2012
- February 2012
- March and April
- June
- 'Summer' 2012
It’s not how many times you fall
‘Let’s not get hung up about finishing’ The new coach tells the girls firmly. ‘It’s all about going for it and knowing you have skied your best.’ This is a new one on me, and possibly signals our move into a different league. It’s fortunate he feels like this as Issy ‘came out’ twice and Honi skied a stylish first run marred only by the fact that she omitted to go through the finish gate.
The girls are philosophical and looking forward to the next few days of racing. They are psyched up to give their all, possibly crash, or overshoot a gate, but come down feeling fulfilled and not a bit put out that after five weeks or training, in four different overseas destination, at considerable cost and inconvenience to their parents they don’t even get a finishing time.
It’s the crashing bit that really freaks me. Those three letters DNF (Did Not Finish) or ABN (Abandoned) – I haven’t yet worked out if there is a difference - can mean anything from ‘decided it wasn’t going well so left the course’, to ‘came a cropper’ big time. Back in 2007 at his first BARSC championships Sam skied into a dip and failed to come out in three consecutive races. It might have taken 30 seconds for him to appear at the side of the course but it felt like three hours. Then comes the relief that he is in one piece only to be soon replaced by the dismay (that I will feel no longer....) that he DNFd.
Not finishing, so I have learned, is often synonymous with developing a new turn of speed, which the skier then needs to learn to control. Strength and fitness are a key part of this. So I began day two of the Anglo Scottish Races, determined to be bigger than the three dreaded letters (either three).
It’s not how many times you fall......it’s how often you get up again’ is the motto of world number one Lyndsey Vonn. Not idea,l though, to fall before reaching the start gate.
‘Well I thought I might ‘get air’ (that means take off) so I took it slowly (that means double the speed of any normal skier rather than three times) then I saw that there was a mogul slope where I needed to land so I sort of stopped but didn’t and landed hard then rolled down and I think my stick got me in my eye’. Something certainly did as it was blue at the top, bleeding underneath and practically shut in the middle. ‘My coach said ‘It’s going to hurt so suck it up,’ Honi told me proudly as she arrived at the bottom of the GS course the now black eye streaming. She did and got a good result but one day on the bruising had begun to take its toll and nothing was quite right after that.
A couple of DNFs later she was still getting up. After a cocktail of pain killers, ice packs and heat pads she was functioning. Sam in the meantime completed four stellar runs and hit the podium, twice, that’s how it goes.
The Big Yellow Storage Issue
‘Hello, is that the Big Yellow Storage Company? Great, my name is Lorraine Clissold and I am calling on behalf of my son. We are on our way to you to pick up some of his belongings but the weather’s not great in the North of England and we had a bit of a problem getting the car out ,in fact we thought we wouldn’t make it at all but then we used snow chains, so anyway we are not sure if we will make it before you close at 2 p.m. It’s a four hour drive at the best of times. No, sorry you can’t talk to Christian at the moment because he is driving and if we stop we will be even later.
‘Password? sure I’ll ask him. Are you sure he gave one? Is it xxxxxxx? No? What about yyyyyy? Really? He says that those are the only two passwords he ever uses. Wait a minute he says he has it written down somewhere. Oh no! I am sorry it seems that he forgot to pack his file. Wait a moment I’ll make a couple of calls and get back to you.’
‘Hi Honi can you do me favour? I know that you have already done the mucking out and that the yard is a frozen mud bath, and your heel and shoulder still hurt from timbling down that mogul slope. Just pop up to Christian’s room and see if you can find a purple folder on his desk? Or possibly a blue one. Okay, a green one sounds about right. Open it up and see if you can find anything from the Big Yellow Storage Company. Got it? Amazing, now see if Christian has written a password anywhere on it. Nothing in Christian’s writing? Well perhaps they gave him a password. Not obvious? Okay could you just read the whole thing to me? What do you mean you can’t? Oh I see, I didn’t realise it was a book. See if there is anything else from the Big Yellow Storage Company? A piece of paper perhaps? A receipt – you are a star (and I underestimated your vocabulary) Still no password? A number - that’ll do. Thanks have a great time at Ellie’s house.’
‘Hi, Lorraine Clissold here, is that Matthew? We spoke earlier. I’ve got a receipt number, xxxx, does that help? His address? Sure it’s St Martin’s House.... It’s not? Well it was when we left. Oh he says is it Jesus College? Not that either? Oh, he’s just remembered that it is Low Wathcote Barn, that’s where we used to live and it’s still on his driving licence which he gave you for identification. Date of birth? I think he might be able to manage that.’
‘So we can get out of hour’s access? Amazing. Yes five pounds is fine. Actually I’ll pay the extra for ongoing access as he needs to get into it again in a week when he gets back from his hockey tour, and I am not going through this again. Entry code? Thanks, I’ve saved it on my phone. Have a great week-end’.
‘Hi Matthew, I am sorry this is Lorraine Clissold one last time. Christian can’t remember the number of his unit. I don’t suppose I could trouble you? He thinks it is on the third floor. Oh XX first floor, that sounds about right. So glad I caught you before you left.’
And so lucky to have intelligent, well organised children.
‘
Yorkshire
‘Let’s try moving the mud’ suggests Honi optimistically.
I peer out of the Skoda window into the teeming rain. ‘Which particular bit of mud? Are you referring to the lump in front of us, the bank behind, or the veritable sea of mud on our left?’
We had been on our way to target shooting. Not able to face the snow chains sans Christian I had just paid the man who came to fix the gas leak to sprinkle grit on the drive (versatile chap), but then it started to rain, just enough rain to wash away the grit but not enough to melt the ice which we encountered half way up the drive. And then again, as we slid back down, until we met the mud and stopped, that is.
Not one of my better ideas, trading in a Diahatsu Terrios for a Skoda Fabia in November. There is probably some moral there about short term gain. It was very short term. Wondering if this was a good time to give Honi her first driving lesson I revved the engine for a spell, while she, vainly tried to push, bruised heel and all. Then we plodded back to the house to phone through our apologies, lit a fire and watched TV. It was rather an enjoyable evening.
And out
Just occasionally, our collective incompetence really gets to me. There was a moment, in Newcastle airport, watching everyone else board our flight, while stuck on the wrong side on a door which only opened from the other side, I nearly lost it. Late already, because the three girls (I am acquiring them through the season) went shopping and left me with massive sets of ‘hand’ luggage, I had rushed them towards the gates without checking the gate number. Relieved that the latest of my charges was on the ball I followed her instructions and dashed to Gate Two, only slightly suspicious that no one else was marching in the same direction. When we arrived at the gate to find it locked and deserted, I questioned her source of information to find that her ticket said ‘Boarding Group Two’, then looked out the window to see our fellow passengers (one of whom I happened to know) boarding from a point at some distance.
After lot of banging and shouting, we struggled, red faced onto the plane, only to find that two other passengers had not made it at all. The girls gave me that ‘what were you making such a fuss about look,’ but I just said another prayer of thanks that I did not have to explain that one away.
‘Let’s not get hung up about finishing’ The new coach tells the girls firmly. ‘It’s all about going for it and knowing you have skied your best.’ This is a new one on me, and possibly signals our move into a different league. It’s fortunate he feels like this as Issy ‘came out’ twice and Honi skied a stylish first run marred only by the fact that she omitted to go through the finish gate.
The girls are philosophical and looking forward to the next few days of racing. They are psyched up to give their all, possibly crash, or overshoot a gate, but come down feeling fulfilled and not a bit put out that after five weeks or training, in four different overseas destination, at considerable cost and inconvenience to their parents they don’t even get a finishing time.
It’s the crashing bit that really freaks me. Those three letters DNF (Did Not Finish) or ABN (Abandoned) – I haven’t yet worked out if there is a difference - can mean anything from ‘decided it wasn’t going well so left the course’, to ‘came a cropper’ big time. Back in 2007 at his first BARSC championships Sam skied into a dip and failed to come out in three consecutive races. It might have taken 30 seconds for him to appear at the side of the course but it felt like three hours. Then comes the relief that he is in one piece only to be soon replaced by the dismay (that I will feel no longer....) that he DNFd.
Not finishing, so I have learned, is often synonymous with developing a new turn of speed, which the skier then needs to learn to control. Strength and fitness are a key part of this. So I began day two of the Anglo Scottish Races, determined to be bigger than the three dreaded letters (either three).
It’s not how many times you fall......it’s how often you get up again’ is the motto of world number one Lyndsey Vonn. Not idea,l though, to fall before reaching the start gate.
‘Well I thought I might ‘get air’ (that means take off) so I took it slowly (that means double the speed of any normal skier rather than three times) then I saw that there was a mogul slope where I needed to land so I sort of stopped but didn’t and landed hard then rolled down and I think my stick got me in my eye’. Something certainly did as it was blue at the top, bleeding underneath and practically shut in the middle. ‘My coach said ‘It’s going to hurt so suck it up,’ Honi told me proudly as she arrived at the bottom of the GS course the now black eye streaming. She did and got a good result but one day on the bruising had begun to take its toll and nothing was quite right after that.
A couple of DNFs later she was still getting up. After a cocktail of pain killers, ice packs and heat pads she was functioning. Sam in the meantime completed four stellar runs and hit the podium, twice, that’s how it goes.
The Big Yellow Storage Issue
‘Hello, is that the Big Yellow Storage Company? Great, my name is Lorraine Clissold and I am calling on behalf of my son. We are on our way to you to pick up some of his belongings but the weather’s not great in the North of England and we had a bit of a problem getting the car out ,in fact we thought we wouldn’t make it at all but then we used snow chains, so anyway we are not sure if we will make it before you close at 2 p.m. It’s a four hour drive at the best of times. No, sorry you can’t talk to Christian at the moment because he is driving and if we stop we will be even later.
‘Password? sure I’ll ask him. Are you sure he gave one? Is it xxxxxxx? No? What about yyyyyy? Really? He says that those are the only two passwords he ever uses. Wait a minute he says he has it written down somewhere. Oh no! I am sorry it seems that he forgot to pack his file. Wait a moment I’ll make a couple of calls and get back to you.’
‘Hi Honi can you do me favour? I know that you have already done the mucking out and that the yard is a frozen mud bath, and your heel and shoulder still hurt from timbling down that mogul slope. Just pop up to Christian’s room and see if you can find a purple folder on his desk? Or possibly a blue one. Okay, a green one sounds about right. Open it up and see if you can find anything from the Big Yellow Storage Company. Got it? Amazing, now see if Christian has written a password anywhere on it. Nothing in Christian’s writing? Well perhaps they gave him a password. Not obvious? Okay could you just read the whole thing to me? What do you mean you can’t? Oh I see, I didn’t realise it was a book. See if there is anything else from the Big Yellow Storage Company? A piece of paper perhaps? A receipt – you are a star (and I underestimated your vocabulary) Still no password? A number - that’ll do. Thanks have a great time at Ellie’s house.’
‘Hi, Lorraine Clissold here, is that Matthew? We spoke earlier. I’ve got a receipt number, xxxx, does that help? His address? Sure it’s St Martin’s House.... It’s not? Well it was when we left. Oh he says is it Jesus College? Not that either? Oh, he’s just remembered that it is Low Wathcote Barn, that’s where we used to live and it’s still on his driving licence which he gave you for identification. Date of birth? I think he might be able to manage that.’
‘So we can get out of hour’s access? Amazing. Yes five pounds is fine. Actually I’ll pay the extra for ongoing access as he needs to get into it again in a week when he gets back from his hockey tour, and I am not going through this again. Entry code? Thanks, I’ve saved it on my phone. Have a great week-end’.
‘Hi Matthew, I am sorry this is Lorraine Clissold one last time. Christian can’t remember the number of his unit. I don’t suppose I could trouble you? He thinks it is on the third floor. Oh XX first floor, that sounds about right. So glad I caught you before you left.’
And so lucky to have intelligent, well organised children.
‘
Yorkshire
‘Let’s try moving the mud’ suggests Honi optimistically.
I peer out of the Skoda window into the teeming rain. ‘Which particular bit of mud? Are you referring to the lump in front of us, the bank behind, or the veritable sea of mud on our left?’
We had been on our way to target shooting. Not able to face the snow chains sans Christian I had just paid the man who came to fix the gas leak to sprinkle grit on the drive (versatile chap), but then it started to rain, just enough rain to wash away the grit but not enough to melt the ice which we encountered half way up the drive. And then again, as we slid back down, until we met the mud and stopped, that is.
Not one of my better ideas, trading in a Diahatsu Terrios for a Skoda Fabia in November. There is probably some moral there about short term gain. It was very short term. Wondering if this was a good time to give Honi her first driving lesson I revved the engine for a spell, while she, vainly tried to push, bruised heel and all. Then we plodded back to the house to phone through our apologies, lit a fire and watched TV. It was rather an enjoyable evening.
And out
Just occasionally, our collective incompetence really gets to me. There was a moment, in Newcastle airport, watching everyone else board our flight, while stuck on the wrong side on a door which only opened from the other side, I nearly lost it. Late already, because the three girls (I am acquiring them through the season) went shopping and left me with massive sets of ‘hand’ luggage, I had rushed them towards the gates without checking the gate number. Relieved that the latest of my charges was on the ball I followed her instructions and dashed to Gate Two, only slightly suspicious that no one else was marching in the same direction. When we arrived at the gate to find it locked and deserted, I questioned her source of information to find that her ticket said ‘Boarding Group Two’, then looked out the window to see our fellow passengers (one of whom I happened to know) boarding from a point at some distance.
After lot of banging and shouting, we struggled, red faced onto the plane, only to find that two other passengers had not made it at all. The girls gave me that ‘what were you making such a fuss about look,’ but I just said another prayer of thanks that I did not have to explain that one away.