Ski Instructors Report 6 April 2013

My season is finally over. It has been a great season for snow but not such a good one for weather. At least I was not being constantly asked “Any snow forecast?” on glorious sunny days. These were sadly very few this seasons. My last group was a difficult one, with some wanting the group to travel faster and some wanting it to be slower. As I have often said in these reports, if you want a lesson to be 100% at your pace, book a private lesson. Most of the group were very nice and thoroughly enjoyed the week, in spite of having more snowy days and sunny ones. I was fortunate to meet a lot of friends who were clients in previous seasons. I hope that I may see some of this years’ clients back in the future. I keep meeting lots of friends who return to the Hotel Palarine each year. Arinsal does have a large band of loyal clients, who all seem to enjoy returning this friendly little village. I will say goodbye to anyone reading this and I hope to start these weekly reports in December. In the meantime, “Have a Great Summer.”

Ski Instructors Report 30 March 2013

Last week, I said that I would tell you about the Music Festival. Well, I did not hear much music, i.e. sounds from musical instruments played by musicians. I did hear a lot of sounds produce electronically on a computer, then repeated constantly and left on a loop. This seemed very popular with the 800 young persons who attended the festival. Many stood in rows banging their heads in time to whatever rhythm decided by the knob twirler. It was not my scene. The only music I heard was from the Velvet Blues, who were given an extra gig for the festival. Sadly, the people who attend such events cannot be trusted with sharp objects, so I had to drink my beer from a PLASTIC beaker. The organisers considered the week a great success and are looking forward to holding it again next year. If you are this sort of person who enjoys such events, I would suggest that you book early, as this year’s event sold out very quickly. I was watching the BBC News in my room at the Palarine and heard that the Home Secretary is changing the Border Security agency. This has prompted me to tell you about my experience as an economic migrant. Andorra treats migrants very differently from the U.K. When I am offered work, I have to take my employer’s offer and a clean British Police Report to immigration. Then I am sent for a blood test and medical to make sure that I am not bringing unwanted diseases in to the country. If any young person looks upon his ASBO, as a badge of honour, they may well find themselves being unable to work in a bar or as a ski instructor. On second thoughts, if they have an ASBO, they are more likely to snowboarders rather than skiers. If all goes well, when one starts to work, you will be covered by the Andorra Health Service, AFTER a period of time and have made sufficient contributions. The health service will pay 75% of all medical services or 100% if it is an injury at work. There is no such thing as unemployment benefit. It is a case of work or go home. It is possible to live in Andorra without working. You must prove that you have full private medical insurance and show proof of sufficient income to live on and rather controversially, deposit €30,000 with the Government. This will be returned to you on death or departure from Andorra and have incurred no local debts. I think in some ways Britain could learn something about immigration from Andorra There is only one week left before the resort closes. The weather has been very mild and I am starting to think about returning to England. I have enjoyed this season, which has produced more snow than any other that I can remember.

Ski Instructors Report 28 March 2013

Most of my reports appear to be about the weather. I am only going to say that we are enjoying spring weather at last. Once again I had a very cheerful class of beginners. We all had a great time and four of them came down to the Palarine for the excellent Oriental Buffet and dancing to live music in the bar afterwards. I had several dances with two special friends Anne and C####. When I met up with the second young lady she apologised to me, for falling on top of me whilst dancing. I pointed out that I was dancing with Anne at the time she was dancing with Eric when they fell. Her reply was “Who the hell is Eric.” Apparently both ladies enjoyed there evening out. The festival goers have arrived and the bars were very lively. Sadly I have heard of two fights on Friday night, one was dealt with swiftly by the bar staff but the other one involved the Police. I must point out to prospective troublemakers that the Police here will deal with them very robustly. The best they can hope for is to be escorted to the border and deported. On the other hand, the prison here has lovely views of the mountains. The government here respects law and order and does not agree with the British way of placing the human rights of criminals above the safety and security of the honest citizen. I hope that last night was a one off and that the music festival is a great success and is enjoyed by all who are attending. There are only two more weeks of this season to go.

Ski Instructors Report 9 March 2013

I did not send a report last week as I was in England for an eye appointment. The weather in England could be best described as “gloomy”. It did make me realize how fortunate I am to be able to spend my winters in Andorra. We had some wet weather this week but we also had some lovely days. Some days it rained in the village with snow on the mountain. My group this week was what we call “dry slope/advanced beginners.” Some had just been on a dry slope and some had previously skied, some in Bulgaria and found that they had not improved as much as they would have liked. They all made great progress during the week, except one lovely young lady, who chose to overdo the Pub Crawl and failed to arrive for Tuesday’s lesson. On Monday she was one of the best in the group but on her return to the class on Wednesday, she was amazed at the progress the others had made. She tried very hard to keep pace with the others but was exhausted after two hours and retired from the class. I was very sad at this, as I am happy to travel at the speed of the slowest in the group. (I get paid by the hour not the miles traveled) She was such a nice lad and she did not want to slow down the others. (The second slowest lady in the group pleaded with her to stay.) Alas to no avail. The moral of this story is: do not overdo your après ski to an extent that you miss a day’s skiing. Yes, please enjoy your evenings but remember you can get drunk in Norwich, or any other English town, but you cannot ski the mountains there. The end of the season is in sight, four more weeks, so we have fewer guests. This makes the après ski a little quieter, however my nights out have all been very jolly. Karaoke in the Derby was fun, Elvis entertained the crowd in the Quo Vadis, Mike had a very enjoyable evening in the Palarine on Thursday, Semipro were as raucous as ever in El Cau and the Velvet Blues played brilliantly in Bogart’s albeit to a small audience. Some of the hotels are offering great end of season deals to the independent traveler. So if you fancy an inexpensive end of season jolly, get in touch with the hotels direct.

Ski Instructors Report 25 February 2013

This week has seen the best weather of the season. It has been bright but cold, keeping the snow in great condition. I was thankful for the good weather as I had a children’s group. They all thoroughly enjoyed themselves. What a change good weather makes when you have children; when it is snowing their goggles steam up, their noses run, their gloves become sodden and they have a miserable time. Monday is always a difficult day with children, they cannot put their skis on or side step up the hill. After two days building up their confidence, they then become overconfident and my job for the last two days, is to restrain their enthusiasm and stop them looking for steeper slopes and bigger jumps. After laying down some strict rules and threatened punishments (usually the threat on putting them in a slower class with smaller children) my class were well behaved. If anyone fell, another would always stop and offer help and at break times them sat together and shared their food and drinks. My intermediate adult group thought that the weather was great and all enjoyed the skiing, although some had a restricted time due to the need to look after their younger offspring. I enjoyed this week although I found it tiring have two groups and children are always more stressful than adults. The après ski was as expected, crowded and jolly in the early evenings but very quiet later. This week, I met many old friends who had returned for another visit to Arinsal. One complained that I had stopped sending my weekly reports. This is not true as I send this report to several sites that promote Arinsal (and a copy to my lovely ladies in my badminton club in England, they like to know that I am alive and well and behaving myself.) The webmasters of the various sites are free to do what they like with the report. Some may choose not to post it either because they do not like the content or merely because they forgot. I am returning to the U.K. on Monday, so there will not be a report next week.

Ski Instructors Report 17 February 2013

Last Sunday, I had a glorious morning of powder skiing under a cold clear blue sky. I was accompanied by my friends Corinne and Special K. We were really enjoying ourselves until Corinne and I had to go to work at lunchtime. After we finished our lessons, it had become overcast and then, we had even more snow. It was Special K’s first day so she finished skiing soon after we did. She is one of many repeat guests that we get in Arinsal. She has been coming here for several years and always books ski school, as she enjoys the social side of being in a class. Over the years most of the English instructors have had her, at sometime or other, in their class. She feels that Arinsal is like a second home as she is now familiar with a lot of the long term workers. This endorses what I often say, that Arinsal is a really friendly little village. I had two groups this week and I am sorry to say for the first three days we had poor skiing conditions due to it snowing on and off for most of the time. However, we had brilliant weather and snow conditions for their last three days. I think that my intermediate group and my beginners really enjoyed their week. Some were talking about returning next season. Après ski was quiet this week, as it was half term in some parts of the U.K. Therefore we had a lot of families, who had early nights. In my beginners’ class were several Welsh school teachers, who did not have any children with them, so they were able to party. Next week is the main half term week and as I have often mentioned before - avoid this week unless you really have to come then. The hotels are expensive, the slopes and lifts are crowded, and the bars and restaurants are crowded early evening then deserted later. There are very few young people in the village, so they are unable to meet other young people and do whatever young people do when they meet other young people. I am always glad when half term week is over, then we can get back to being a ski resort. Sadly half term means that we are past half way through the season and it reminds us that the end is nigh.

Ski Instructor Report 8 February 2013

Snow, snow and even more snow. That is what we have had this week. I had a class of advanced beginners/dry slopers. On the Monday morning, they did a little assessment before we split them into two groups. (I always tell them that there will be a FAST group and a VERY FAST group.) This week I had the first group, who in fact were very slow. This may have been due to the poor visibility and the fact that they were skiing on new snow. Later that day the snow stopped and it brighten up and Tuesday was very nice and the whole group made great improvements. We all enjoyed our day. We had more snow on the Wednesday but the group had advance so much that they handled it with easy, many of them making parallel turns. Everyone was looking forward to another great day on Thursday. But it continued to snow heavily overnight and the resort was unable to open on Thursday or Friday, due the vast amount of snow. The nearby resort of Pal was able to open some lifts and a some of the guests went there for the day on the bus. I have been having a hectic après ski this week. I was having a quiet drink in the Quo Vadis bar, when Graham from the Palarine arrived with two extremely attractive blonde girls,in their twenties. He explained that they were staying in the Palarine and wanted to visit the village but were worried about getting back. He gave them a lift up to Arinsal and explained that I safely make the journey back every evening. They were soon surrounded by off duty local workers. After a few drinks there, we moved onto the Derby, where we listened to the live music. Random guys were coming up to us and buying the ladies wine. I mention earlier that we had snow over the weekend, so I one of the barmen, who was not drinking, if he could give up a lift to the Palarine. He very willingly did so. Graham was still working in the bar when we returned, so he offered us a night cap. The girls thought that a Baileys would be nice and help them sleep. I went to work as usual for 9’clock and I later discovered that they had a late start, having enjoyed the full English at the Palarine. They went up the mountain but one of the ladies felt unwell due to, as she said altitude sickness. She also told me that she did not remember getting a lift home, nor having a nightcap in the Palarine. It would appear that altitude sickness also causes amnesia. Perhaps the medical world should investigate this further. The following night they went with others on the Pub Crawl. I was in a bar, when the ladies arrived with those on the pub crawl. I discovered that the one with altitude sickness had decided to drink only non-alcoholic drinks, as she thought that his may help her condition. The other lady was enjoying her evening having beaten two men in beer drinking race. They were on the third pub of the crawl. She seemed very happy and enjoying her evening out but sadly fell asleep on the bar table. Again the bar staff were magnificent; Kevin from Quo gave the keys of his Jeep to the camera man to take us home. Stuart and I carried her through the nearby kitchen door to the jeep at the side entrance, so as not to embarrass the lady. She awoke as we arrived at the Palarine and wanted a nightcap, but before she had finished it she felt asleep again. I helped her friend to carry her to the lift and they successfully made it to their room. We all met up at midday, after my class and we thoroughly enjoyed our ski together. They were both extremely good skiers and I was able to ski at almost my usual pace. They enjoyed the rest of the week in a less hectic manner, especially the live music party at the Palarine on Thursday. They want to return here next season.