Ski Instructor Report 2 February 2013

My clients this week enjoyed good weather and great skiing. It was one of those groups that I really enjoy teaching, they worked hard at their skiing and they had a good time in the evenings. Half of the class came to the Burns’ party at the Palarine on Thursday night. (More about that later.) I started by saying that they had good weather, I should have added; until Friday night when it started to snow again. As I write this, I can see that the resort is covered by thick cloud and it is still snowing. I had a great week for partying. It started with my Burns’ party in Bogart’s. I looked splendid in my kilt. (My opinion) It was well attended and a group of instructs joined us for the dancing. I should point out at this stage that they had been celebrating an instructor’s birthday since 5 pm. Their enthusiasm far exceeded their skill or knowledge of Scottish dancing. They made it a very entertaining evening. As well as the British home nations the event was attended by people from; American, Andorra, Chile, France, Germany Portugal Russia and Spain. (I apologise to any nationality that I failed to mention.) There was a small hiccup; the Catalan chef did not realise that HAGGIS has to be cooked. This caused a slight delay whist it was taken back to the kitchen. This gave us time for more dancing. Eventually the haggis was presented and addressed then thoroughly enjoyed by those present. Several people were tasting haggis for the first time; they seemed to be enjoying it until I read out the traditional ingredients, including the bit about it all being boiled in a sheep’s stomach. As our party came to an end, the Velvet Blues Band started to play. They started their session with very upbeat music and soon had a lot of people dancing. As usual, I enjoy myself and hope that others did so as well. We also had a Burns’ Party at the Palarine on Thursday. This is usually in the form of a traditional Burns’ supper but due to several circumstances, it was changed to a very eclectic evening. It started with the ever popular, eat as much as you like, Oriental Buffet. This was followed by music from Mike Jones, who normally does Elvis impressions. We interspersed this with Scottish dancing and some poetry. Josh Cuell performed his now famous, gangnam style, with great applause afterwards. I think that one of the best turns was Mike singing Elvis songs to Scottish music. Half my group attended and said that they had had a great evening. The Irish found it easy to adapt to Scottish dancing. As an example of how popular Arinsal is; I would like to point out that my entire group, except two, had been to Arinsal last year. Last season was a poor one for snow but this is one of the best for years. The group all seemed very happy with the conditions. More snow is forecast for tomorrow, then hopefully good weather for the new arrivals.