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Sick powder and other spiffy things

Today I went skiing on some awesome blue runs with Simon, a little English guy from Oxford that I've met here. Things went well until I decided I was tired of standing, and would instead sit down on my skis. It was an excellent stack but in the process I sprained my right thumb. This annoys me because it means I might not be able to take notes when I go to the Robert McKee STORY seminar next week.

I fly to Los Angeles on Tuesday. I've changed my accommodation so that I'm now staying at a location less prone to gang land shootings. I'm staying at the Travel Lodge next to LAX. I'm going to see if I can reenact scenes from Heat while I'm there. I also found out that a Swiss guy I met at the hostel is also going to be in LA at the same time so were going to meet up. I figure we can party at the Viper Room and then take a photo of the corner where River Phoenix died. Los Angeles has a lot of history.

First Blood (not quite)

I've been a bit slack with my blog updates lately but the last few days have had some interesting anecdotes.

I didn't do any skiing over the weekend because I was a bit tired and conditions weren't so good. Last night we had some new snow cover and today was awesome. I've been trying to get some photos up but that's proving to be difficult.

I've met an English guy named Simon who I am going to go down to Las Vegas with for 4 days after the ski season is over. We're thinking of staying in the Luxor which is that giant black pyramid you see in all the photos.

Saturday night was pretty interesting. We had a party at the hostel and then went out to Snowshoe Sam's. I'm not sure why we went there because it's usually pretty crap, but I think the guys were just following the Swedish girls.

The pub was packed and there was a bit of a line in the foyer. During this time a 5 foot 6 Canadian guy with a paper Burger King crown was trying to push through the line in front of me. He started to give me cheek when I wouldn't let him through (because he was a wanker). He did however end up pushing through and he got in front our group.

When I got into the bar I noticed the Burger King hanging out by the bar as I passed by. I figured he probably needed to be dethroned, so I tossed his hat off towards the bar and kept walking. A few seconds later my jacket was yanked and I was pulled around to find Burger King looking up at me with his fist charged. I haven't been in a fight since I was 10 so being unfamiliar with bar fighting I didn't think me act of defiance would result in any retaliation. Also the guy was 5 foot 6.

Luckily fisty cuffs were avoided when I raised my fist in his direction and said "Come on mate" in my best bogan accent. Wisely, the dwarf rethought his decision and backed down.

On the other hand, tonight I played pool against a guy from California who I'm pretty sure owned gun.

Spring Break Fin

The wanky English dude who runs this place got me to help him set up a wireless access point for him. I hoped it might get some privileges like free internet access, but instead I keep being blamed anytime something goes wrong with the computers. Next time I'm telling him my going rate is $60 an hour.

On the upside I got to watch LOST last night, however I think it didn't win me any friends with a guy named Kieran who repeatedly complained loudly to change the channel. But to be fair he didn't like Robocop either so he's probably a douche bag.

Recent stats confirm that there are exactly 3 people reading my blog. Apparently my readership is demanding video blogs, which is something I hope to rectify in the near future.

Spring Break has come to a close for the Canadian students. Some of those girls are as dumb as Americans. Especially the blonde ones.

It's called ice and it gets a little slick...

"How can I make my skis go slower?" has been written up as the quote of the day on the hostel blackboard. This has earned me the nickname Nookie, which stands for New Rookie. They already had one guy they called Rookie, he was the guy I bought my season pass from.

My intention for this blog was to write a post per day but the last couple of days haven't been terribly exciting.

A highlight occurred when I was at the pub with a couple of kiwi girls and as pair of middle aged Canadian dudes struck up a conversation. At some point we started talking about the Canadian Prairies which are in the central part of Canada. To this I exclaimed "Just like Little House on the Prairie!"

This caused one of the guys to declare me a "jackass" and walk away while the other guy pressed his luck with the Kiwi birds. That made my day.

Spring Break comes to town

A group of 50 girls from Victoria University checked into the hostel last night. That's Victoria as in Victoria Island, but most people call it Vancouver Island. They're on the Canadian equivalent of Spring Break except they call it Reading Week. Apparently not a lot of reading is done in that time.

So the place is no longer dominated by Australian's but sometimes it's like I haven't left home. They stream TripleJ and play it over the stereo in the kitchen.

The weather is really good at the moment. It was 9C today which is pretty warm for a ski field. I don't know how long the ski season will last if this weather keeps up.

I'm finding it hard to get used to my new skis because they're a bit longer (and therefore faster) than I'm used to. I went to the ski repair store today and asked them if there is a way to make my skiers slower and they just laughed at me.