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.

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.

Ski Instructor Report 26 January 2013

“Any snow forecast?” That is the second most frequently asked question to an instructor.( What do you do in the summer?” is the most frequent.) For the last two weeks we have not heard that question, due to the fact that it has snowed virtually every day for a fortnight. However, on Friday morning the sun shone and the sky was a magnificent shade of blue. The snow was deep cold and powdery. It was a brilliant day for skiing. I took a group of Irish clients up the mountain for the first time. They found the view stunning and the skiing great. We all thoroughly enjoyable lesson. By the way, the snow has returned on Saturday morning. As I write this on a Saturday morning, my memory of Friday night is very fresh in my mind. So if you forgive me for mentioning again the live music. Semipro in El Cau really have since they formed earlier in the sesaon. Velvet Blues seem to have an endless supply of great guest musicians, who jam with them, giving a great depth to their play list. In the Quo, Elvis had the liveliest audience. I would have made it to the Derby but I was hijacked by my Irish group. We ended up in El Moli, where we played Giant Jenga. Whoever knocked down the pile, had to do a pole dance. Thank goodness ot was not me. The victim was a very attractive Irish girl. I enjoyed that. I did not submit a report last week as I was in England; I had a difficult journey back to Arinsal, due to South West Trains cancelling my train to Gatwick and the following one, due to “The threat of bad weather”. Fortunately my wife picked me up at the station and drove me to the airport. We did not experience and bad weather, although it was very cold. Bad marks to S.W.T. and well done to Easyjet for getting me to Barcelona, in time to catch the Novatel bus, with ten minutes to spare. I was dropped off at the hotel in time for dinner. “Elvis” was not so fortunate, his Ryanair plane from Liverpol was late and he missed the bus. He had to catch the slower Directbus and pick up a taxi from the bus station. He got to the Palarine before the bar closed. When I finish this, I shall unpack my kilt for tonight’s belated Burns’ Party. You will receive a full account in next week’s report.

Ski Instructor Report 13 January 2013

The weather was very warm at the start of this week but turned colder towards the end of the week. The clients enjoyed good skiing conditions. Although the snow was getting thin in places until the snow cannons were able to make snow. The forecast for next week is for temperatures down to -15 , with snow forecast for every day. We must wait and see if the forecasters are correct. I had a very jolly après ski this week; firstly , I was in Quo Vadis listening to Mike ( Arinsal’s top entertainer) perform when a girl from my class came in with some friends, she got me up to dance, we boogied, we danced to smoochy tunes and I supported her in Karaoke. Next day in class, she admitted that she and her friends and had been out drinking earlier and was very drunk when she arrived at the Quo. I found this information devastating, I thought that she danced with me as she thought that I was devastatingly handsome and had irresistible charm. NO, she danced with me, because she had on her “Beer goggles” So you see lads, even ladies wear them occassionly I went to hear Mike at the Palarine on Thursday Party Night following their splendid Oriental buffet. He had an amazing supporting act , Josh Cuell, of the Palarine, who performed “Gangster Style/ He was great. So good in fact, the following night he was invited by Elvis to close his act in the Quo Vadis. The show ended with thunderous applause. (Elvis is alive and appears each Friday evening.) As previously reported Friday Night is Music Night in Arinsal, with live music in the Arinsal bar, El Cau, Quo Vadis, Bogart’s bar and the Derby. I find it hard to fit them all in. I arrived at the El Cau just as the band finished their final session. I did not hear them play but it looked as if the joint was jumping. I am returning to England next week for some eye treatment, so I hope that the forecasted snow does not delay my bus trip to Barcelona. I am looking forward to seeing my family and my badminton friends again and to appearing in four performances of Fawlty Towers on the Groundlings Theatre in Portsmouth. I have minor role and my daughter plays one of the main characters, Polly. There may or may not be a report next week.