[Blog] That time of year

It's been dreich for a couple of weeks, so it was nice to wake up to a
crystal clear view all the way to Mont Blanc. There was some frost in the
garden, but the thermometer says 7C so we're good to go. The road was
still wet from the rain yesterday.

From my house down to the village is 2km of 10% descent, with several
hairpins. On the first of these the back wheel is definitely wandering
around. After the bend the road is definitely whitish.

Bollocks. I do this without fail once a year. At this point I don't dare
try to turn around, and I suspect that it's easier to break traction
going up than going down. I'm not even sure I dare stop, and anyway
walking back up the hill, or waiting by the bike for a couple of hours
for it to melt, doesn't appeal. On I go, at walking pace.

Just before the village a pickup pulls out behind me, and I'm
endeavouring to wobble to the side of the road to let him past when I see
him fish-tailing around in my mirror, after which he settles down and
goes even slower than me. He must think I'm insane.

So that's it then. The forecast is for rain through to the weekend, so
there should be no repeat of this morning's entertainment, then snow down
to 700m, lots of it, on Monday. I live at 1000m, so this is my last week
on the bike until spring. I'll wash it on Saturday.

Ski season, here we come!

 

Yeah, but thinh of us non-skiers.

About 90% of the travel section in the weekend papers is now only of
use as toilet paper!

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, CT

Nonsense. It's perfectly timed to provide fire-lighting material.

 

Yeah, it was nice and clear this morning. I tried to get some
still shots of MB et al. from Batiment 40 with my new video camera.
It was hard to get decent images as the contrast between the hills and the
sky was too high (this just before 0730 local).

I did notice a couple of people scraping frost from their
windscreens.

I'm home tomorrow night, to see what the English weather has
wrought on my house. All my PCs are still crunching SETI so there
can't have been anything too disastrous. Might have to keep my coat on
for a while after I raise the thermostat from 10 to 18 C, thobut...

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

It's been here nearly seven weeks. I've only been twice, though,
shamefully.

Depending on how cunted I get tomorrow (Thanksgiving) I might go
Saturday.

 

not such a good start here, with still only limited opening. We'll be
in Engelberg this weekend though.

 

I've been...otherwise engaged.

I lost 10lbs since I saw you.

Loveland has had a couple more good dumps in the last week.

 

The power of worry, eh? Or has she been refusing to feed you?

 

I got a bit sick, actually. A touch of colitis. Remarkably painful,
and with the antibiotic and the anti-inflammatory, the prescription
was "don't eat". So I shit out 10lbs!

 

Same. I've got Canada booked for Feb...

 

**** that - I'm waiting for them to open the lifts in my village.

 

Oh yeah. Been in training all day so no email. The second weekend
works well for me - I should be un-lagged enough by Saturday morning.

 

Musta been that Thai I cooked.

As it happens, I was sick an' all that week - got a gum infection (had
no floss with me) so was also on antibiotics and anti-inflammatories
from Wednesday on. Didn't stop me eating, though, except one evening
when it was so painful I just had soup and rice pudding.

 

BT, DT, deeply unpleasant.

 

Hmm. As it seems I still have a job, I can start making plans too.

 

Ha - I don't think so (I really hope not, because there's still some
of the beef in the freezer, and I want to polish that off this
weekend). Blood tests came back indicating that the cause was
bacterial, and no-one else go gut-sick from it. Probably just that I
was susceptible to bacteria that I'd usually defeat, due to the other
stresses at the time.

Doesn't sound like fun. No wonder you were keen to get back home.

 

**** that - I might drive to my local ski area this weekend.

 

It was a _joke_ FFS.

Yeah, me too. I reckon that's why my gum flared up so badly. And
general tiredness, too.

 

<g> Not bad, eh?

Although I probably won't wait. Other options are to go up the road to go
cross country skiing (a couple of minutes in the car), or put the skins
on and go for a wander on any of the local hills, or drive for 45 minutes
or so to somewhere like Chamonix or Flaine or Avoriaz or Megeve.

</smug>

 

Well, it crossed my mind that the fish sauce may have reacted; I'm
allergic to seafood. But the tests came back as a bacterial issue.

I'm better now. And only put one pound of the ten back on at
Thanksgiving Dinner yesterday!