Last ski??

A full week end of skiing for some as Garret, Freya and Rosie headed for a blue sky day on Saturday but long queues whereas Sunday was more challenging visibility wise but much less stomping up and down the tow queues. Toby, Freya and Garret flew around showing off n the top slopes and the wall whilst Rosie and I pottered. I learnt how to stand at the front of the T-bar queue and shout for other singles to avoid riding alone. i had some interesting drags up the hill, one boarder who was very pleased to take advantage of having a skier to balance him up...not sure that it was an equal relationship, one very tall guy who wedged the bar firmly under his bottom leaving me to drag along with no support other than my hand firmly gripping the pole, a monosyllabic guy and best of all a Russian man who lives in Scotland now but did reside in Doncaster for sometime and is an expert on the whole Yorkshire accent situation (especially Barnsley). the snow was just right for me gripping the skies and slowing a nervous girl down nicely. Nice wide runs meant you could take your time.  Garret, Toby and Freya skied to the car park...spot them if you can in the long shot! Managed a run out on Friday and Saturday both with Kate up for the weekend from Leeds..there are more hills at Ardcastle than I recall..very quiet though with only one group of Ramblers for Ginny to be scared of and bark at as they viciously walked along the path in a threatening way.

A wee night time trot out

After snow showers this am promising good conditions for the skiing and bright skies at time the weather was chill and crisp and so Liz and I  wrapped up well for her post skiing run which the (now) obvious resuly that we were heavy around the waste with excess jackets by the time we reached the turn round point. A good fresh run to end the week....

Still ambling along

A good if tiring run on Sunday pulled a,long by three men from the jogscotland group, not actually pulled along you understand but encouraged along kindly as they pretended to be tired to match my pace. Still, 1:33 so not too displeased with that. The last section goes on and on with undulating hills that challenge and tire the legs. the dogs faithlessly accompanied whoever was at the front and then went with Matt (training for a marathon) to do an extra bit along the way without even a backwards look. Lucy then sat by his car willing him to take her home with him. Home again to find the deerstalkers packed and ready to go having left a wee present on the step...one deer head complete with eyes ready for Garret to remove them for the High School science teacher.....I get the nicest gifts.

A jogette round Lochgilphead

As far as the dogs are concerned 8.30pm is a very silly time to have a club (Toby) that means a run filled hour for the driver (me) as it means a fruitless couple of hours buffing my knee with their heads in an increasingly desperate effort to remind the hand that feeds that it in fact has not...No food before running is the rule but boy they were ready for it by the time we got back at 10. They are getting to know the highways and byways (along the canal for 1/2 a mile or so)  of the local town and even tolerated a drag along the car park past the car to make the distance up to 4 miles...hmmmm in the words of the teens of Clunarie..."sad". just realised TWO posts in a day...wow I am keen!

A soft spring seems to have arrived in Argyll at last with some warm days and clear cold nights which is very pleasant. I have even managed to start shifting the massive amounts of weeds from the garden into the piggies moths which is a pleasing way to re-cycle. They now come running Povlov style when they hear the squeaky wheel barrow approaching. This brave little primrose is just starting to peek out in my chilly garden, all over Argyll they are evident in warm spots but this is my first very won one and was only visible once the choking taller grass was pulled away. The weekend passed by in a blur of Athletics final in Oban for Freya  and a visit to collect the car from the garage. This cost me more than just the repairs as a trip to the cinema was promised so after giving the cinema all my money and mortgaging the house to buy some popcorn (Bizarrely cheaper to buy two medium drinks and one medium popcorn than two small drinks and a small popcorn which just meant that Freya and I cannot look a piece of popcorn in the face for a very long time...possibly never) we spent a very unchallenging and amusing couple of hours watching "Tangled" with lots of very young children. We sank down in our seats to try to blend in....The horse Maximus made the film and indeed is everything a sidekick should be.Everyone should know a Maximus!

First skiing of the year

A rather late start on Sunday meant afternoon passes only at the Coe which was as usual existing in its own little micro climate of snow. The roads became wintry only a mile or so away from the resort and sliding appeared to be obligatory for the cars attempting to park at the top end of the car park. The visibility faded as the chair lift climbed and was pretty poor as we skied off the chair life, so Scottish skiing normal...great snow if only you could see it! This was just one more challenge to the three musketeers Garret, Toby and Freya,  the rest of us did our best but retired to the cafe after a couple of hours to await news of the others. All was not lost as we managed to watch the ski daters (no really!!) self consciously sip their valentines champagne around a red heart strewn table...great entertainment! The old leg were a bit sluggish yesterday and crawled along a relatively easy 4.5 mile route but I don't think I had skied enough to blame it on that!

Jogscotland leaders refresher course

Time to catch up with some old friends and make some new ones. Toby was doing the js leaders course so it was very nice to have company on the drive to Oban and to be doing something together. My course got off to a rocky start as the fitness instructor booked to do a drills session for the am was off sick but being resourceful folk we went out for a run along the front and out towards Ganovan sands which was lovely and great to chat and network with the other group members. They came from Islay, Campbellsport and Dalmally with all very different groups so the experience amongst us was very varied. The afternoon had a really good session with a nutritional specialising in sport and then a Q/A style discussion between us and the course organiser. Toby had a good day too.
PS Have just noticed that the amount of miles I have mapped in total on the below site is 1,449!! I am impressed.....and I don't always record every run..."Honk" what was that??Ahh the sound of someone somewhere blowing their own trumpet...shame on them.