Daves Random Ramblings

358 days ago I put down the deposit for Keegan and me to head right back to Kaprun.  The excitement had barely subsided and I was missing those bluebird skies and subzero temperatures. Since Sunday I have been preparing the snowboards for their journey.  For those of you that know me and how I prepare a snowboard, its a bit of a "rinse and repeat" method except theres not too much rinsing and more repeating.  Base wax ironed on, base wax scraped off (getting my karate kid on) then zardoz (liquid teflon), then more wax ironed on, then more zardoz ironed in, then more zardoz ironed in (repeat about 5 times).  The wax starts becoming a bit difficult to work with, but I know the board is going to absolutely fly down those slopes.  The only time I've ever used more zardoz was in the great zardoz spillage of 2018 (or was it 2017 Matt?).  Anyway, the finished products are here to see (and you can see the reflection of the curtains on their surfaces too)... ...

Hi all!  Well after what seemingly was / is a large break from blogging, but there is now "the blog that never was" and some of you will know what that means. Here is the next entry in my oh so random collection of thoughts. Its that time of the year again where winter isn't sure when its coming or going, but I would like to think that it is now going as the temperatures are picking up slowly, snow and ice are also vanishing (well, ok, vanished from where I bobble about in). Kaprun Keegan and I are now only 9 days away from heading back to Kaprun.  Seems weird that Kaprun has been a thing on the radar for 352 days so far.  9 days away from views like this that have been my computer background for the lions share of the year... Keegan has done incredibly well saving his pocket money for the trip.  OK in reality he's been banned from spending it so I do wonder how he will be with the money he has accrued over the course of the year. The Prudential RideLon...

hi everyone.  Its been a weird sort of day which started off with some very random dreams.  When I say "started" I do mean this side of midnight so technically it was today.  I dreamt that I was in the office but that a former co-worker was there (the name will be withheld to protect the not so innocent).  I didn't know why he was there but I knew he shouldn't be, except that he was. Anyway, back in the real world and in the office this morning I went to the kitchen to get my regular coffee to kick start the grey matter and in there is a guy from my team that I didn't really get a chance to talk to yesterday.  So we just start the usual "hey, hows it going, how was your holiday?" type stuff and I start telling him about being in Kaprun. But while I'm talking about it, it was actually like I was back there on the glacier with Keegan, white snow, blue skies, just like the picture of the glacier below that I cannot take credit for (it came from www.sk...

...Or as Morpheus said to Neo in the first Matrix film... "Welcome to the real world". Stepped on the scales this morning, yes it was a gain, would have been miraculous if it hadn't have been given the week of holiday eating I'd just done.  Still, a 7.8lb gain isn't bad at all given all the non-Slimming world food I'd been shoveling down my mouth.  I do wonder what it would have been if I'd not been snowboarding also. I left a review for the hotel on TripAdvisor at lunchtime.  I'm one of those sorts of people that doesn't normally leave reviews on anything but they definitely deserved it.  I could actually only find one niggly thing with the hotel and that was that the beds only had one large pillow each.  Much bigger than what we have in the UK, but much flatter.  So I ended up placing a towel under the pillow and then also folding the pillow in half.  Not the biggest issue in the world, I know.  But not wanting to leave my Hotel Tauernhof co...

hi all!  Only me reporting in from you know where.  Yep Kaprun, Austria.  It’s been an absolutely gorgeous albeit freezing day! So the winter soldier and I put on our base layers which I like to think makes me look like some sort of milk tray snowboarding ninja but with Dare2Be emblazoned on them. Out to the glacier and it was positively rammed! The sort of queues you expect to see at a theme park to go onto a ride and we were only trying to get up a mountain! Anyway, inching forwards and muttering to myself that the next person to jostle myself or Keegan or lays their rental sh*t on my f**king board I’m gonna go into ski rage meltdown and shove that bloody pole where archaeologists won’t find it even after they’ve decomposed.  Aaaah that’s better, the  therapeutic blog entry.  So we eventually get up to the Alpine  centre and started queuing for the next gondola to take us up to the top of the glacier.  Then I suggest to Keegan we forget that a...

Hi everyone, well we are finally here! Ok we’ve been here since yesterday but was running on fumes so got to the room, put on the olympics (hoping to catch a fleeting glimpse of my man Jamie Nicholls) and we both just fell asleep. So a low key first day but the hotel we’re staying in has been brilliant thus far (Hotel Tauernhof).  The Saturday night meal was a full on buffet so I really did fill my proverbial boots.  I’ve gravitated towards Kaiser beer (yes I’ve REALLY fallen off the SlimmingWorld wagon) and have started to teach Keegan how to play pool. We’ve organised an away day on Tuesday with Crystal Ski.  So we had to upgrade our lift passes to SUPER lift passes which I think now means I can go on any bloody mountain in Europe for the rest of the week.  Probably not true but I like to think it is. Anyway! So today! Huge event.  I finally went on a mountain for the first time ever!   A good photo of Keegan there right at the base.  O...

Good morning everyone.  Firstly happy Friday to you all! So this time tomorrow Keegan and I will be on our way to Salzburg.  The bags are very nearly all packed.  The snowboards have had their final scrape, brush, and Zardoz.  They are now resting base up on top of Sasha's crate since yesterday evening, they're looking incredibly shiny and ready to go play. Do you ever get that feeling when you're about to leave home that you're forgetting something?  I had it this morning when I was standing by my front door about to close it.  Yes I didn't have my front door key but that's because my parents are staying at mine while Keegan and I are away.  They get their own space and Sasha gets to be at home among familiar surroundings.  So anyway, I knew it wasn't that, because I hadn't forgotten it.  I had my wallet, my car key, my work door pass was in my car.  So I just shut the door and went to work.  I've now just remembered what ...