Glen Plake's Father Lives On!

1/ & 2/ On tour with "Eric" our "French Semaphore Guide"

Yeeeeee... hah! We are back on the snow again! Although shadows of our former selves we managed to survive most of the day at Les Grand Montets ("LGM").

We had enrolled in the free safety briefing offered with our Chamonix Pass. The briefing involved some introductory information about the RECCO system and the use of personal transceivers. We were then taken by a Chamonix mountain guide for a tour of LGM. But it was also a day of "Kiwi Connections". Firstly, the lady running the course, was none other than Claudia Riegler, the champion NZ Slalom skier and we also met up with Johnny Benson's sister-in-law, Laura.

Graeme and I had always been quite sceptical of the RECCO avalanche victim recovery system. Given the size and weight of the detection equipment (several kilos and about the size of a car battery) we thought that the RECCO System was pretty lame. It seemed to us that by the time the Ski Patrol brought the cumbersome equipment to the location, valuable time would be lost and its only use was for body recovery (and we don't mean alive & kicking!). But today, the Ski Patrol showed us the "latest" system. The detection unit is only 1kg and about 20cm2 in size. In the Chamonix valley all the patrollers carry this new system in their kit. They showed us how it operated and we were well impressed.

After a short practice with our transceivers we were assigned Eric, the french mountain guide who took us for a quick educational tour of LGM off-piste. We suspect that Eric, was rather keen on the semaphore code or he was a calisthenic instructor in a former life!! Before commencing our run down the mountain he made us perform all manner of complicated arm waving exercises. Ostensibly it was to help us warm up. But I am suspicious! I think he actually had a bet with his fellow guides that he could get a bunch of people to perform the "YMCA dance" at the top of with telecabine! Tragically I wasn't quick enough to capture it on film, but it certainly stopped the passing skiers for a moment or two.

We ended up liking Eric immensely. He had a good command of the english language and a cheeky sense of humour! He interspersed our ski down with useful snippets of information about the Chamonix valley and the current snow conditions.

After lunch, Graeme wisely found a warm spot in the cafe to chill while Laura and I went for a long run from the top of LGM. Laura was a great guide and found some lovely soft pockets of snow. We had a good swap of Scottish/NZ news and we look forward to meeting her husband - JB's brother, Pete.

3/ Laura - JB's sister-in-law

So what's the reference to Glen Plake? And who is Glen Plake? For those who don't know, quickly take a look at this link http://www.glenplake.net/ to get some background.

This morning we rode the cable car with an old bloke who was sporting a "Mohawk" haircut. Now, it's not everyday that you see a man in his 60's with a Mohawk. Graeme was just impressed that the man still had enough of his own hair and it was located in the middle of his head to make such a haircut possible!! I was determined to get a photo. Truthfully, I wanted to go up and talk to him and find out his story, but a certain party pooper wouldn't let me! Can you imagine? ...How anyone would think I was going to cause an embarrassment - Moi??? I just wanted to know if he was related to Glen Plake (the famous extreme skier) or if he was just a fan? Fair question I thought? Unfortunately "GP's Dad" proved remarkably difficult to secretly photograph. My attempts to crawl under the cafe tables and hide behind the pillars proved spectacularly unsuccessful. Finally, after many attempts I was able to catch him coming down from the cable car. Unfortunately it's not the close up that I wanted, but look carefully and you'll see a man who is not afraid to try new things....at any age. Rock on "GP's Dad!"

4/ The elusive - "GP's Dad"

SOMEONE left the camera behind!!

1/ The "Out-Takes" - My Rudolf: you've got a lovely red nose!

2/ One more wafer thin pastry Mr Creosote?

There are no live photos for today's blog because SOMEONE forgot to bring the camera!!

You know, forty-eight square metres is a very small space in which to spend nearly 10 days cooped up with SOMEONE!! But I guess everyone has SOMEONE living with them. They are the person who leaves the cap off the toothpaste, endlessly surfs the TV channels and forgets to put out the rubbish. Graeme reckons that SOMEONE never replaces the last toilet roll, doesn't listen properly and consequently asks really dumb questions.

But today we left SOMEONE behind (they were looking after the camera, of course!) and ventured out for a very tame ski on our little hill. With such cold temperatures, the snow is still in good condition after a top up overnight on Tuesday. It was also a relief to escape the temperature inversion and head into the sun!! I can't honestly say that we distinguished ourselves. We have both lost much of our fitness and it may take us a some time to bounce back. But it's a start and we're glad of it!!

Our only other activity today, was to torture our poor instructor Liz with our atrocious and laborious French. However, while typing up this diary for the day, I was able to catch a rare sight on film and provide at least one photo from today. The sighting is very special... one more scarce even than a Mono-Skier in NZ. Graeme in the kitchen.....preparing food.

Let me explain. Graeme does not "do food". He will help hunt and gather food (although he prefers to spend time in the wine aisle). He will eat most things and has an adventurous palate. He will also do the dishes and stack the diswasher. But he does not get involved in the preparatory work!! So I was amazed when he showed a willingness to help me "vitamise" the pumpkin soup I had made using the pressure cooker I had just found in the back of the cupboard. I suspect his keeness came from the ability to use some "equipment" for the job. Boy's do tend to love equipment don't they? Well the power of the "blender" took Graeme by surprise. According to Graeme, the blender causes a "turbo gravitational pull" towards the bottom of the pan! "Powerful little sucker ain't it?" he yelled over the loud buzzing. The mind boggles... but please note the "Ninja action stance" of Graeme while he blends the soup! Priceless!

3/ Careful of that "Turbo Gravitational Pull" Graeme!!

To the Sun - Portes du Soleil

1/An "interesting" ski resort - Avoriaz

It's cold outside today! Sitting under an inversion layer in Araches and Les Carroz it's a dreary morning. Given that we are not yet up to skiing we thought we'd take a reconnoitre to some of the neighbouring ski areas. So after Graeme had his locks trimmed by "Phillipe" this morning [ now's there's a story to be told! - "mai pas maintenant" ] - we headed off to the Portes du Soleil ski area.

This ski area, whose name means "The Gates of the Sun" is immense. 209 lifts with 650km of ski trails crossing back and forth between France and Switzerland! Quite mind blowing. But apparantly over the last few years they have suffered from lack of snow due to the relatively low altitude of many of the areas.

The main 3 ski areas on the French side of the Alps are Les Gets (only about 30 minutes drive from Araches), Morzine and the highest Avoriaz (at 1800m). Heading in search of the sun we decided that Avoriaz might be worth a look.

All I can say is that the architecture is quite interesting. The Lonely Planet guide book describes it as looking like a "Smurf Town". The huge concrete tower blocks have been disguised with wooden cladding set at different angles. Graeme liked it. I'm still ambivalent. I think I still prefer the traditional Swiss/Haute Savoy chalet architecture. But certainly Avoriaz is much better looking than our own high ski resort of Flaine (aka concrete jungle). I suspect that both resorts were built around the same period ...but Avoriaz won the design prize and Flaine finished well down the list!!

3/ The "Sleigh Rank"

4/ These sleds really canter along!

One of the great things that Avoriaz has done is ban motor vehicles from the village. To get around you have to walk, ski or take one of the many horse drawn carriages. The village square also has a quaint merry-go-round for the kids.

To escape the cold we snuck into one of the cafes where I enjoyed the best chocolate chaud (hot chocolate) to date. Generally, the ol' hot chocolate has been a bit of a hit and miss affair. The worst was a weak brown cup of dishwater that I was served at the top of Les Grand Montets and the best was today's in Avoriaz. I think it was actually pure melted chocolate. Delicious!! It must have been good, as Graeme kept wanting a taste. Thank goodness it was a big cup!!

We are back at french school tomorrow afternoon. Wish us luck!

Remembering Vera Oxley

In Memory of Vera Oxley: 1904 - 2009

Not much to report in today's blog. It's freezing outside and snowing gently. We are tucked up in our wam little nest ever so slowly improving our health. Much of the morning was spent on the phone catching up with the Oxley clan. Graeme's Nana (Vera Oxley) passed away last weekend and the service was today (yesterday) in Australia. At 105 she had led an amazing life and all her family were immensely proud of her. Vera Oxley was one of Australia's first female pharmacists - she was registered in 1925!! I was honoured to have met her.

Catching her on film was pretty difficult as she was immensely camera shy. Hence we are sorry that we don't have a photo to go with this diary entry. But the photo from today's walk is quite apropo in many ways. Nana loved to walk. In fact she was still taking a daily stroll without a stick or frame until 103 if can remember correctly!!

But I thought I would include an extract of her Eulogy . It was put together with snippets of memories from all family members and read by Graeme's younger brother, Cameron.

"Nana enjoyed remarkably good health for 104 of her almost 105 years, which can no doubt be attributed to a life time habit of walking and an active mind. She was certainly no advertisement for her profession. She avoided medicine all her life and was in her 90's when she had her first antibiotics which lead to one of the speediest recoveries known to modern medicine. Her good health survived her brief flirtation with alcohol at the age of 100 when she bought herself a bottle of Baileys Irish Cream. I warned her at the time that it would take years off her life but she didn't seem concerned. Turned out to be just a phase she was going through (about 85 years later than most people) and she soon grew out of it.

She was resolutely forward looking and it was hard to get her to talk about the past. I wish I had tried harder because her life spanned such a remarkable period in human history and life in her early years must have been scarcely recognisable from today's view point. I once asked Nana what she regarded as the single biggest development in her lifetime. Thinking that she might pick the introduction of electric light, air travel, the car, computers, space travel or the internet, I waited while she thought for a moment and then said in her classic understatement: "I rather liked the refrigerator". She then explained that the refrigerator meant that she didn't have to go shopping everyday and therefore it truly gave her more time. As we know she was pragmatic.
Graeme, Amanda and I have always loved and admired Nana who in another era could have been anything she wanted to be – but I am not sure she would have wanted anything other than the hand she was dealt. A hand she played beautifully. With intelligence, good humour, a little guile and cunning, integrity, warmth and love. I am glad Nana is at peace now but we will all miss her and are grateful for the generous time we had with her."

Skiing Holidays for the Aged!!

1/ The Medicine Cabinet

I guess the photo says everything! This is what our holiday is reduced to at the moment. There are actually more pills, potions and an inhaler somewhere but I couldn't quite lay my hand on them for the photo. Oh we are heartily sick of ourselves we can tell you!! Graeme has gone back to the doctor for some "warm fuzzy handholding" from the attractive young "Dr Sophie" as he calls her. As I'm a little yellow vegetable myself at the moment he obviously hasn't been getting enough sympathy at home. I'm not sure whether he got much handholding but he did come home with some new cough mixture. I wonder if she said "Vous etes un veritable malade imaginaire. Partez en vacances et amusez-vous!" (I got this line from the Lonely Planet guide book if any of you think that I'm actually getting the hang of french!!).

2/ Graeme's favourite store

So to cheer us up - particularly poor ol' Graeme, we drove down the valley to Sallanches to visit his favourite store. Au Vieux Campeur is a Little Bourke Street/ R&R Sports outdoor shop on steroids! Absolutely everything one would ever need for skiing, hiking, climbing,and camping. And a fantastic map and book room with every imagineable guide book for hiking in the alps and travelling the world. They also have, according to Graeme the BEST catalogue of gear EVER - he's already grabbed a copy and uses it for light bed-time reading! For those of us in the digital age, check out http://www.auvieuxcampeur.fr/catalogues/hiver/

Graeme wanted to take some photos inside the store. But I was nervous! A while back we had taken some photos for a friend of a camera store in Australia and we ended up being chased out of the shopping centre!! I did not wish to provoke another international incident, especially since the security guards looked particularly burly and not that well travelled. They'd probably never heard of NZ! I was concerned that our magic line "Pardon moi! Je vien de la Nouvelle Zelande" may not work and trying to explain why we were taking photos would be next to impossible given our limited French. However Graeme is determined. He vows that the next time he goes to Au Viex Campeur he'll duck behind a display cabinet and secretly snap off some photos with our mobile phone! How Inspector Clouseau!!

After a light omelette for lunch at a local bistro in Sallanches we spent some time wandering around the streets of the town. We have been to Sallanches many times but we are always driving through on the way to Chamonix or it's been dark. We had not appreciated the town's quite spectacular setting. It looks directly at Mont Blanc in the west and is surrounded to the north and south by steep sided mountain ranges. It is far enough back from Mont Blance to really get an appreciation of the size of Western Europe's highest peak. At Chamonix you are too close and the valley is too steeply sided to really to get the mountain into perspective.

Wandering around the shopping district, there appeared to be a serious oversupply of magasin chaussure (shoe shops), we counted 8 within a few blocks. [I know where to go to buy those new fashion boots at the end of winter!!]. The second and third most populous stores were lingerie and pharmacies. Well of course... if you wander around Sallanches in the middle of winter wearing only boots and lingerie, the inevitable consequence will surely be influenza!!

But the other store that caught our eye was the local hunting shop. What first attracted us was the incredible collection of knives. Actually come to think of it, almost every store we've seen so far in our little district [except perhaps the lingerie and pharmacy] sell knives. Why? We don't know? Surely there's been a massive decline in their sales now that you can no longer take such weaponry on commercial flights. So that leaves the domestic & European tourist. And what do they do with them? And how many knives to do you need? Seems to me that my fears about the burly security guards at Au Vieux Campeur may have been well founded.

But lastly we came upon the "piece de resistance" - a real life modern blow dart gun. What the?????

3/ The Knives!!

4/ The Blow Dart Gun

Poorly in Paradise!

1/ We're vertical. Flattering light disguises the yellow and grey faces respectively!!

We're vertical and walking for the first time in 2 days! This afternoon, we took a short drive up the hill towards Flaine and discovered the small cross country skiing area. In the summer its a golf course. Looking at the terrain, we're thinking it would be incredibly challenging! The course sits on a high plateau bordered by cliffs on three sides. Standard golf attire must include a harness and a length of rope to abseil for ball recovery. Perhaps its the mountaineers' golf course...2 sports in one? I wouldn't put anything past those frenchies!!

That's it for me today. The couch beckons! I have to summon the strength to make something resembling dinner. Fingers crossed, we will see a major improvement in the health tomorrow!

2/ A orderly arrangement: serious skiers to the left, walkers, snow shoers, dogs, assorted motley relatives to the right. If only the road system was that civilised!!

3/ I'm shattered!! My parents in their 80's could have walked further!!

NYE - TG for French Natural History TV!!

"TG for French Natural History TV"

Thank goodness that French TV is at least half decent. They have lots of fantastic Natural History type programs showing during the afternoon and early evening. It would be truly magnificent if we could also understand the language!

For the last couple of days, both of us have been taking turns lying in bed or on the couch! The VIRUS has got us in its evil grip. Graeme has an elephant sitting on his chest and I have snakes squirming in my tummy. Oh....we make a fine pair of crocks!

"Graeme (aka couch potato) - I really am not a happy chappy!!"

New Years Eve? I'm sure it was fun but to be honest we'd spent the whole day in bed and it just passed us by in a feverish blur. Our only highlight was that in the evening, a little knock on our door brought us "room service"! Hubert, Marie and Diane had brought us a care package of home made fois gras, salmon, savouries (that the kids had made) and.....2 bowls of chicken soup.

We had been invited to their NYE feast and we were so disappointed not to have been able to attend. I had been practising my french questions really hard for the last couple of days! And we'd also saved a special bottle of red wine from Bergerac. Alas, it was all to waste, as we were no good for anything! We thanked our "guardian angels" profusely and made a reasonable attempt at eating their treats. We did well, although we could not face the champagne! ( A true indication of our conditions - Have you ever known the Oxley's to turn down a champagne!!)

"Hubert, Marie & Diane - our NYE feast "