Hello!

So I've not posted in a while - and that's naughty! Should be more proactive with the blog. But the interim time between now and the last post has been packed full. So lots to report.

I've secured a place to live in Les Houches for the foreseeable future living in an old farmhouse with my mate Andy. It's really mint - old wooden chalet style high up on the mountain away from everyone and everywhere with a high-speed internet connection and surrounded by snow. Just ideal and I'm really looking forward to living there.

I've bought some transport. Another mate, Leighton, who used to work as a chef at Le Delice (the restaurant co-owned by one of my old school friends) is leaving the mountains to work on the barges and is selling his old Renault Express van for a few hundred euros. Snapped it up - needs the headlights changing over to continental ones but a swift search on eBay has yielded some positive results.

I've managed to do some really good stints of work knuckling down and working like a demon for days on the trot. This is really good news as it means I know that I can ignore the mountains when there's important stuff to do. It's a personal thing I know, but it feels good to know that distractions can be ignored and when there's work to do, there's no shirking away from it.

I rode for the Chamonix team in the Boss des Bosses mogul competition (bosses in french means bumps, not bosses!). It's a competition held each year between a load of resorts (Courchevel, Zermatt, Chamonix, Val d'Isere, Meribel, Verbier) and there's mostly skiers but also a couple of boarders in the teams. I got draughted in at the last minute and didn't do too badly. Chamonix came second to Zermatt in the final, and my record stood at a mildly respectable won one, lost two. I was pleased to contribute and did a few nice tricks off the kicker at the end.


The Boss des Bosses course.

So all in all it's been pretty nifty. Work's going well, going to get a dream place on the mountain which will by my own space (albeit sharing with a mate!), got transport and starting to officially feel like a resident of Chamonix.


Giant moguls on the Boss des Bosses course.

Front page of google baby!

Oh yeah, come to Daddy!

We've made it to the front page of google.com when searching for Chamonix (google search)! This is awesome news as it means we're going to get a bundle more hits to the site (chamonix-valley.com) and make our advertising system we're implementing and selling that much more valuable to customers.

Feel the love!

Knee update

Well I kind of didn't give *all* the information yesterday when I posted. I felt something give in my knee when I fell over and it wasn't good. Just a little pop, but I've done ligaments before and I knew it wasn't a major tear or anything manic. I shipped myself off to l'hôpital this morning to get it all checked out and make sure I wasn't doing anything daft and get some professional advice.

Cost a few quid but worth it to get the good news. I just pulled my one of the ligaments in my knee out of place (they popped it back in and it and things felt better straight away) and pulled it a wee bit. Only out for a week too - basically they said when it stops hurting I can ride again. Painkillers and rest is the cure. Awesome!

It's the first time I've been to hospital this season and I hope it's going to be the last. There's an incredible sense of irony that it was just bad luck to get this one - after all the jumping off cat tracks, rocks bands, cliffs, fast riding, tricks and spills I hurt myself getting off a chairlift at 2mph! Aah well - live and learn =)

Worky worky!

So not done a lot of riding recently - just lots of work. I've really got into the habit of going on the slopes for a couple of hours in the morning then coming into the office and working until early evening.

Everything's coming together nicely - money's starting to poke its nose into the business with contracts and whatnot, the site's coming together and there's a decent blend of work and play.

Friends are appearing next week and there's a change in the clientele of the chalet meaning the group dynamic will shift a bit which is good. Change is fun! Plus the boys are staying at the chalet which will be awesome.

I managed to swing up to Brevent/Flegere this morning for a quick ride before work and finished up early to head home. I was getting off the chairlift near the Altitude 2000 restaurant and slipped on the ice and twisted my knee, immediately feeling a spark of pain inside the inner part of my knee. One of those really annoying slow speed spills where you just fall awkwardly. It's already stiffened up and it's a bit sore but nothing's broken or seriously wrong and so I'll leave it be for the next few days and let it settle. There's lots of work to do and to be honest the snow's not really great so I'm not bothered.

It's not a bad idea to take the next week off and let all the small niggles heal up until the lads appear next Saturday as well, so all in all a pretty good time to have a small injury.

Ill and working

So I've had a cold for the past few days - nothing really traumatic but just enough to really take away energy and feel the need to get well. Thankfully I feel way better today and have been in the office for quite a while now. I've done lots of really good work and sorted out a whole bunch of stuff. I really feel happy with the output and earlier even wriggled out to teach a snowboarding lesson which was cool - nice to get a few extra bucks!

It looks like the main Chamonix Valley advertising project is nearing completion and we can start marketing businesses to advertise with us. Awesome stuff and some really good income for the company. Also earlier we found that we've been getting more hits to the site than we previously thought, in fact chamonix-valley.com is really taking a good portion of the market we are targetting, and that portion is increasing. Marvellous stuff!

We'll get the software finished this weekend and with only a small amount of luck and a good bit of work, we'll be rocking and rolling.

I found out this week that a couple of mates are coming out in a week and a half's time as well. This is great - enabling us to finish this software before any "distractions" appear, then having fun with said distractions!