Puntaaaaaaa

In Punta Arenas waiting to fly south....

It is windy - very very windy....

There is plenty of very fine wine & great steak....

And it's quietly reassuring to see that graffiti across the globe is oh-so-similar...no translation needed :-)

Ooooooh......

It's 17 yrs old and it has been well and truly pimped....

New cushions....fully patchworked....

                                                                  Woof woof!

Bring on the Tempest....

So things have been hotting up in the sewing loft with all this wind and rain...it's getting dangerously close to stitching something with the C word on it, but maturity prevails for the moment....

The very lovely chairs above are my first commission - woof woof!

The very lovely cushions are dead posh - Harris Tweed no less....so if anyone would like to buy a posh twat, posh arse, or posh git, feel free to get in touch.

Could also be persuaded to make some thing that wasn't quite so offensive :-)

So it's been raining lots....

...in fact it's been raining forever. So - in order to keep entertained, I might just have been trawling junk shops and visiting the auction room...


Productivity rates have just gone up :-)

WMD 5 - Tribute to Father Ted

Coupled with the previous WMD, we now have the Father Ted set....suitable for any respectable home :-)

Whatever next????

WMD - Project 4

                                                         
                                        Victor mature lives on :-)

WMD (wet ming day) - Projects 2 & 3

A little something for the poor taste emporium...Check out those claw feet...not yer average flat pack...

These are a bit more grown up...but will clash beautifully with everything else in the room - perfect!

It has been suggested that I don't give up my day job.......

So what d'ya do on a rainy weekend in Wales???

Pimp up a dining chair of course...

Cortinaaaaargh

So what do you do with a forced mini-break in Cortina???

Walk into town for starters. One of the very fine things about Cortina is the bike path that runs up the valley for about 40km into town...this means you can walk the 10 miles from Fawlty Towers to town without having to deal with traffic - brilliant. And on the way, there are loads of super groovy buildings with great roofs...they have a hint of 'Psycho' about em, but I have to admit, I'd quite happily have a roof like that on my house.

So...the Cortina challenge was 3 fold:
1: Find Internet access (failed)
2: Get a good cup of coffee (failed - in Italy of all places)
3: Find something cheap in town (not on your nelly).

The town is dripping with furs...if they aren't wearing em, they are walking em. I've never seen so many shops with 5000+ euro price tags. There was a very nice petrol blue fur  jacket - reduced to 4000 - oooh hold me back!

And as for the dogs...you've never seen so many lap dogs, particularly the ones that look like they've been smashed head first into a brick wall...which brings me onto the dog launderette...I kid you not!

A real life dog launderette - for those who don't want to get fur balls down their own plugholes...comes with sinks, shampoo and conditioner, doggy nibbles(!), hair dryers (!!)....amazing.

I somhow can't imagine that the fur-wearers will be doing the dog-wash thing...suspect it's the preserve of the serfs.

I never knew things like this existed, but I guess when it comes to dogs, I'm of the eat 'em rather than walk 'em school....






Impressions of Cortina overall weren't too favourable - far too smart for its own good. However....and this is a big however...the galleries where you can buy art were AMAZING...and a reflection of the money about. There were works by Miro, Warhol and Keith Haring for sale...originals too...we're talking LOTS of zero's on the price tags!

Also - some stunning bronzes by someone called Fernando Bottera and another guy who's name began with 'R', but my memory fails me.

And finally...having raved about the art fart, there was an exhibition in town called 'real forgeries' where you got to see forgeries of the mona lisa and other such works....but you have to ask...what the hell's a real forgery - the whole point of a forgery is that it's fake...so does that make a fake forgery the real thing...I'm very confused.

Didn't like Cortina...wouldn't go back, but thought the Dolomites were speccy and worth another visit :-)

1.27 hrs...

...is about the time it took from the medley of phone calls for the nice little recovery man to come and pick me and the yellow peril up. Didn't need to hack off an arm or anything -all very civilised! The only arm action needed was offering various hand signals to irate Italian drivers who were giving me a hard time for taking up road space on a Saturday morning.

As a kid we had a Ford Cortina (Saluki Bronze -SOE 308H - remember it well).It was very unreliable and broke down all the time. In fact...the only time it didn't break down was when it did a trip to Austria, which was nothing short of amazing.

It therefore seems a curious twist of fate that after 15yrs of owning 205's, the first time I should experience a breakdown is in Cortina in Italy...the heart of the Dolomites, and the most expensive place known to mankind.

After lots of fast chat, hand waving and pointing, the nice breakdown man reckoned the issue was with the pomp-uh, and the gist of his chat was...it's bygered and it's easy to fix, but we don't have the parts and it's a saturday, so I hope you've got somewhere to stay cause you aint goin anywhere till monday at the earliest :-(

And that is how I came to have a few days in Cortina.

So -  some top tips for European Breakdown:

1: Have Breakdown Cover (tick);
2: Breakdown where there is a view and it's in the sun (tick);
3: Breakdown where there is full mobile reception (tick);
4: Have the mobile fully charged (tick - a miracle!);
5: Don't even begin to feel smug that you will be put up in some swanky hotel in Cortina - fat chance love!
6: Don't breakdown in a French car in Italy -  the parts are wallet death.
7: When you get separated from your car at the garage, remember to take out your waterproofs (doh).

Oooooooo - a little pocket of heaven.

 A little jaunt up the Col du Font Froide with Jim. We did suffer a bit, having to do a reasonably lengthy ski carry up through the woods to start....maybe this was why we were the only people on the hill?

 A day out with Mark and Jim up the Col de la Grande Clausis (this involved a carry of about 100m - heaven). Once again, a quiet day on the hill with only one other person sighted. Fantastic views with some rather scrumptious spring-like snow on the way down.

 Jim above the Col de Vars. A particularly busy day on the hill, with at least 6 other folk around...and a rather interesting ski off :-)

Hmmm - there's a lot to be said for getting away from the more crowded hotspots!

Touring Daahn Saaf

Aaah -  the little yellow peril made it all the way across to Seyne- les- Alpes, which to be honest is the arse end of nowhere.

However...after 4 days of wandering up some fine peaks, and even getting a spot of cragging in, I have to admit that this is a little pocket of heaven that I shall have to visit again.

Interenet connection is a bit slow, hence only one photo for now...but team Saga of myself, Mark B and Jim S had a particularly fine day out today, managing to crawl up to Ste Anne in said yellow peril, then hoofing up to the Col de la Grande Clausis. Some rather fine snow on the way down...woof woof!

Pretty Pics

  Had a little jaunt up Mont Colmet in Italy today - hardly saw a soul all day and had some excellent snow on the way down - magic!

Have now had 4 days of mainly skinning up hills in gorgeous spring sunshine. Not complaining or anything, but have to admit that I might be feeling a bit like this little fella on the left :-)         

Upload pixie isn't playing ball this eve...so that's all the pics you're going to get for now!



Alpine Update

The little yellow 205 has made it down to Chamonix - yeehaaaa.

Afraid there are no pics yet, but progress is as follows:

Skinned up the Col d'Argentierre (altitude training - might just have puked a few times..)

Took part in the Lenk Night Race - the debut performance of the gimp suit (no puking but not for lack of trying). The gimp suit did well, although not too sure about it's contents. Leanne however put in a stirling effort and came 3rd - ninja!

Mellow skin up to the Col des Autannes in oh-so-perfect weather. It had to be mellow cause me old legs were done in...

A little bit of ice climbing action at the Cremerie followed by a particularly fine vin chaud.

And..the Vallee Blanche this morning followed by a couple of great runs off the top of the Grand Montets...wheeeeeee!

Extreme Chainsawing...

So for those of you who responded to my previous posting and have supported the British Women's Ski Mountaineering Team, may I say a HUGE thankyou, and provide this little gem of a pic as a starter...

I'm not sure the suit would count as suitable PPE, but it seemed to do the job and more importantly, co-ordinated quite nicely with the chainsaw.

For those of you having a bit of a chuckle at my expense, feel free to add to the cause and help us on our way.

Muchos gracias amigos!

Ooo - A little bit of leg!

Hmmm -  the gimp suit arrived today...so this will give you a little taster. It's shiny and it's lycra, and it's not going to leave a whole heap to the imagination.

For an explanation - go onto Facebook and look for the British Women's Ski Mountaineering Team - that should make things a bit clearer.

For those of you who know myself and Di, then this might be the opportunity to help us out a little bit. It has proved to be a whole heap more costly than we expected, so if any of you lovely souls would like to contribute we would REALLY appreciate it.

In return for any contribution, we agree to go for public humiliation and post a pic of our very souls in our one-piece lycra numbers (not just a bit of leg) as a way of saying thanks.

Any contributions can be made via a cheque to "British Women's Ski Mountaineering Team" - and sent to either Di (address at digilbert.co.uk) or myself. Alternately ping us an email or gis a bell and we can give you bank details to do it over the internet. Any left over monies will go to charity.

Hate to grovel and all that, but for those of you who know us, it's got to be worth at least a tenner to see us all lycra'd up ;-)

Any questions - just ping me a missive  at catrin64@hotmail.com

Mainly skinning for me....

I

This weekend I got to play out with Vicky, Helen and Dee. Had a very fine Saturday schlepping up on to the tops to be rewarded with mighty fine views.

It has to be said - them there Northern Corries are plastered at the mo...


There are no photo's of Sunday, cause it was a suffer-fest! Ended up on a Corbett over near the Lecht...no visibility and blowing like bygerry. The question "why are we here" did cross my mind on more than one occasion. Character building I suppose, although I would feel that I have enough character to be getting on with without having to endure that sort of nonsense...

 Rant over. Had a great day today. Took meself up the hill and did some of the interval training malarky -  so more of the sucking wind and trying not to barf. Ended up a lesser shade of beetrooot as evidenced in the pic, but luckily twas pea soup so no-one could see me - phew.

And then...met up with Di, Derek and Heather - and a bag or two of jelly snakes - to ski into Sneachda for a late ascent of Aladdins Mirror Direct...Heather and
Derek did a stirling effort on it while Di and I offered moral support and looked after Millie...the best behaved dog in the world.

Came out in the dark with the most amazing moon...aaaah, brilliant!

Sunny Lurchers

Into Lurchers again today...

A very fine day...if not a little chilly...well a lot chilly in fact...wore everything and I still wasn't warm enough....

The good news is I still have all my fingers and toes...

Loads of ice and blue sky - all very alpine really :-)

Brrrrrrrr

Up in the Cairngorms with Vicky....

It wasn't the best view....and by eck was it cold....

Great chips at the Ptarmigan though :-)

Another Grand Day Out

Great day on Lurchers....

Some sun, some wind; a whole heap of ice...and good stuff too;

And an unbelievably gorgeous sky on the walk out (thanks Di for the photo).

And did I mention the reindeer? Fully free range - bet they taste GREAT!!!

Learning to Breathe

We might be smiling in the picture, but a few minutes earlier were trying a) not to barf  and b) breathe!

Experimented with the whole going-uphill-fast-on-skis thing. It involves copious amounts of sweating, not enough oxygen, lungs that seem remarkably inefficient after 30 secs....and a heap of other things that I won't go into now.

Deep joy!

Where has all the snow gone?

What a great gate... although I suspect it's designed more for dogs and kids rather than grown ups...

In a bid to avoid the crowds, Di and I headed up to the Northwest...

In a bid to avoid the crowds, we unwittingly avoided the snow and ice - there was none - doh!

Back in Blighty

After a week eating mainly baguettes, tomatoes, olives, pate, comte and necking copious amounts of vino from the Languedoc, I am now back across the pond.

Made it up to Grantown last night to experience a proper Scottish new year...fab street party with great music and fireworks - well worth the drive :-)

Needless to say, it was a bit of a late start today...in fact it was well into the afternoon before Di and I headed out...

Headtorches, moral fibre, and lots of warm clothes were the order of the day (or late-afternoon)....as well as good edges on the old ski's to cope with the bullet 'ard icy stuff.

Grand day out though!