Ski Instructors Report 28th January 2011

IS LIVE MUSIC DEAD?

The bar managers in Arinsal appear to disagree on this. Due to the falling number of guest some bars have done away with live music, whilst others have increased the number of sessions. In past years, the Princesa Parc Hotel had “Ian West” playing in the piano bar, most evenings“Sounds r us” played light pop rock, in Bogart’s bar, with guest appearances at weekends from “Dr Freeman” from Barcelona. The front man “Lenni”, of this pop reggae band, was a master at working the audience, he soon had the guests bopping and dancing to the band’s infectious rhythm. When the hotel was very busy they occasionally had a musician in another bar. This year they only have Ian playing piano in the lounge. On the other hand, The Derby (The Irish bar) now has more sessions by live musicians. They have a very popular Irish singer, “Matt McGinnan” playing during the après ski session. I heard this very talented singer the other night. He had a great voice and was excellent at sensing the mood of the audience and playing suitable music. The “Ragamuffins play on Friday and Sunday evenings. This has proved to be very popular, as Sunday nights are very quiet, because the guests who have just arrived are usually tired after a very early start. Another bar with live music is the Quo Vadis, where “Mike (Elvis) Jones” entertains at après ski and on Friday nights. Scott the popular ski instructor plays guitar when requested. The Palarine often has “Mike” or “Trevor & Eileen” playing in the Bambu bar. El Cau hosts the Decades party mentioned in my last report and frequently has a musician in the lower bar.

This week, I had a lovely class of timid ladies. The all completed the slalom race and used the six seat chair lift, although one lady did need a lot of comforting. Well done ladies it was a pleasure. We have enjoyed great skiing conditions this week, cold, good snow and sunshine. However it started snowing on Friday afternoon and as I write this on Friday night it is still snowing. Let us all hope that it continues.

I return to the U.K. on Monday so there may not be a report next week.

Ski Instructors Report 21st January 2011

I had a fantastic night at the “Decades” party. It was the first one that I had attended this season and it would appear that it is still “a work in progress.” During the performance of “Make your mind up” by Buck’s Fizz one of the men was unable to whip off the girl’s skirt and had to bend over and use both hands before tugging it away. It was possible to recognise those who had attended dance classes when younger. In the chorus line there was a little bit of looking along the line to see what they should be doing next. Well done all of you, I thoroughly enjoyed your efforts. It was great fun. As usual, Liza looked magnificent in her blue and white mini dress and white boots. The lovely Adina moved like a hyperactive snake. She looked so sensual. The Five Pussy Cat Dolls gave a wonderful performance of “Buttons”. (OK I know there should be seven but the stage is quite small) What the girls lacked in quantity they made up with quality. However, I thought the best act was the tribute to X factor’s Wagner. This was performed by Ben the ever cheerful barman from El Cau. He received well deserved, thunderous applause. Sorry pussy cat dolls, he even out performed your great act, although you were all much more pleasing to the eye than Wagner.

Now to the skiing; we have been enjoying spring like weather for most of the week. But on Thursday the temperature dropped and we had some wind and it started snowing in the evening. It was still snowing on Friday. There was not a great depth and the visibility was poor. I decide to take my class down Marrades, the recently widened run down to the Crest Hotel. Snow cannons had been installed two seasons ago, so the snow was good all the way to the bottom, especially with the new snow. The scenery through the woods was very pleasant from the high speed six seat chairlift back to the ski station. I think that they all enjoyed the run, in spite of the last 40 metres of this “blue” run being more purple than blue. Again there were few clients in the resort this week. This of course, makes it great for those who enjoy skiing on fairly clear pistes.

Ps Continuation of Ski Instructor Report for the 15 Jan

After reading last week's report, one of the instructors told me this amusing tale: he was taking a class down Marrades last Friday, when a mouse ran across the piste and stopped. The class halted and watched the mouse just sitting there. Marrades is a narrow path and the mouse was sitting on the side with snow and the other half was rather icy. All the girls chose to ski on the ice rather than go near the mouse. One girl fell and lay there screaming until her instructor helped her to ski away. He said that all this time the mouse just sat there laughing at her??

Corinne said that she sympathised with the girl, as she remembers many years ago, her very young son asking her, "What animal are you most afraid of?" When she replied "A mouse." She said that he pulled a most peculiar face, having expected and answer of Lions, tigers or similar.

Ski Instructors Report 15th January 2011

We had some snow on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, which made the slopes look a lot more attractive. Après ski was lively but not as hectic as the previous week. Mike Jones, aka Elvis, was very active appearing at several locations. The Derby has a new band starting this weekend which I must try to see. There is not much more to report this week other than to say that it was another enjoyable week for me.

On Thursday, whilst waiting for my lift from Corinne, I saw a Landover with a trailer on which was a dead wild boar. This had me thinking, what other wild life visitors could see in Arinsal. Like most other ski resorts, there is so much human activity that all but the most human friendly creatures are rarely seen. I have seen red fox on my first trip of the day on the chair lift some years ago. I also W saw three deer in a field close to the road, whilst walking to La Massana. I have no idea of the species. Corinne often reports seeing Cabriole, whilst walking her dog in the morning. These are smaller than an Izzard and graze lower down the mountain. I spoke to her only yesterday, after she and a friend had visited the Palarine for the excellent Friday night Indian buffet. When I told her what my report was going to be about, she told me that she had seen three Cabriole from her kitchen window, whilst making her early morning cup of tea that morning. She lives in La Massana which is the next big village down the valley from here.

The skiing in Pal is mainly below the tree line which means there is much more cover for wild life. We often see small birds, usually coal tits there. In Arinsal, we frequently see small flocks of Rock Bunting. My bird book says that they are shy of humans but perhaps, the leftovers from the restaurant terraces are too tempting for the birds. There are occasion sightings of Eagles or Griffin Vultures high above the Alta Capa. This is usually at a distance so I am never sure what bird I am seeing, this could be due to my poor eyesight. As a rule I guess that if it is a solitary bird, it may be an Eagle but if there are several, it is almost certain that they are Vultures. This season two people have told me that they have seen an otter in the river in Arinsal. No one has reported this previously. You may be aware that the French and Spanish governments have released brown bear in the Pyrenees. I have not heard of a sighting in Andorra yet.

I apologise if this report is of no interest to you, as I know that most of you come to Arinsal for the skiing and excellent Après ski. There are times when I find it difficult to write something original about those two very important subjects so I thought that this would be slightly different.

Ski Instructor Report 8th January

The New Year’s Eve Party in the Palarine was a great success. Everyone made a huge effort. I think the best costume was definitely, Steve and Karen, who came as the characters from Avatar. Karen admitted that her hair alone took over an hour. I would have awarded a prize to the French maid, for the costume that used the least material. I had a couple of Bulgarians in my group who were staying in the Palarine, who wanted to take an active part but had not brought a costume. They made a good attempt with what they found in the local shops. The French maid was inspirational to them. They realised that all they had to do was bring their best underwear and a couple of paper doilies then you are a French Maid. I liked the costume. Someone suggested that my Angel costume was most inappropriate for the wearer. Stuart (BBA) always tries hard but never really succeeds. In the past he came as Freddy Mercury but people thought that he was Sergeant Pepper. Then he dressed as Clint Eastwood but people thought that he was the tall one in Brokeback Mountain. This year he was Robin Hood, again we got it wrong, we thought he was a pixie.

It really was a great party, with lots of dancing and one of the biggest Sweet Caroline, ever. In fact, at one point I thought that people would be trampled underfoot like those terrible tragedies that happen at the Hajj in Saudi. I think that we had seven different nationalities in the Sweet Caroline circle. The party finished late and I was glad that I was day off on Saturday. I was down in time for a late breakfast. Well done and many thanks to all the staff at the Palarine for a great night/morning.

Now something about the skiing; my group this week was very well balanced. No one was particularly fast and no one was exceptionally slow. In fact, they seemed to take it in turns to be very good or very bad, in direct proportion to the amount of alcohol that had been consumed the previous evening. The phrase “Skiing Holiday” consists of two words and I believe that it is important to enjoy not only the skiing but also the holiday. However overindulgence during the “Holiday” can serious spoil the enjoyment of the “Skiing”. You do not ski well with a hangover. (I should know). My class were all good intermediates, so I took them to the top of the Pic Negre and skied them down to the Crest Hotel in the village. A vertical drop of about 1,000 metres and with a length of approximately 7 kilometres. This run did produce a lot of tired legs. So remember to start your pre-skiing exercise programme well in advance of your holiday.

This week, I was frequently asked “Any snow due?” We have plenty of snow on the piste, due to the many snow cannons that Arinsal has. But to be honest, there is not much off the piste and this makes the resort look unattractive. Many people want to ski and also enjoy our marvellous scenery, so it would be nice if we had a fresh fall soon