Week 17 - Drink-u-late
Week Ending 2/4/6

It carried on snowing into the start of this week, then the sun came out and it was glorious! Lots of powder, hot sun, perfect conditions! I’m putting suncream on everyday but I’m starting to get goggle marks because the sun is so intense.

Phil didn’t put any suncream on one day and came back a quite intense rouge, with white rings around his eyes and two sharp white lines over his ears where he’d had sunglasses on. He got the piss taken out of him pretty much all week.

I’m starting to get into a pretty good routine at the moment. I wake up about 10ish, cash up from the night before if need be, grab some brekkie, head out on the mountain if the weather’s good for an hour or so before lunch. Then head out boarding again either all afternoon or just for a couple of hours if I’m working the early. If the sun is out, set out the tables and chairs and, if possible join everyone outside with a beer (while working) then grab a couple of beers after work. I’m very happy with this lifestyle at the moment!

The weather determines if that routine changes a lot. Boarding in flat light isn’t that much fun as you can’t see the lumps, bumps, holes, jumps, on, or off-piste. The weather itself has been really changeable all week. It’s swung from bright blue skies, to heavy snow showers dumping huge fat flakes of snow down around us. Then one night I took the rubbish out after work and it was actually raining on me. Big wet raindrops of rain, not even slightly snow like.

The next day it was still quite cloudy, but thankfully the rain had turned to snow in the early hours, so the snow was pretty good. I looked up at the sky (as I do) as I was about to get on the funival just after lunch and I noticed the sun had had a bite taken out of it. There was a partial eclipse happening and between the cloud and my goggles, I could see it perfectly.

The next day I was on the early at work. It was a good shift to be on because the sun was shining and I got to sit outside with everyone having a beer. I decided to have an early night then get up for first lifts at 8.45 the following day. I got bought another couple of beers by sun-happy guests, then at 8 when I finished, had a social couple in the staff room with a few of the guys. Somewhere along the line, drinking a couple of beers turned in to drinking games and a couple of beers turned into a lot of beers.

We made up a drinking game to play alongside the board game ‘Articulate.’ Basically, how ever many points the opposing team got, you have to drink in fingers of beer. At one point I drunk 12 fingers. That’s pretty much two bottles of beer in one go. We called it ‘Drink-u-late.’ We sat there pondering what it’ll be like to readjust to normal society. To play a board or card game and not have to down a week’s worth of alcohol before even leaving the building…

That night we hit the usual nightspots and did the usual things. Then foolishly we went to Dicks Tea Bar. It’s the only ‘club’ that’s open till late in Val and it’s Shiite and expensive, but we went anyway. I’m proud to say that it’s only my third time there this season. The usually stuff happened in there, Henry nearly got into a fight, Liam (Head Chef) got his coat nicked from literally under his feet and we all paid about €20 for two drinks. Most people left, but Liam and I made a night of it and stayed till it closed at 4am. We wandered home after a pizza saying how we’d spent two weeks wages just in Dick’s, then grabbed a couple of final beers when we got in about 5am. Needless to say I didn’t get up for first lifts the next day, but that turned out to be OK, because it was snowing again. Big, fat, wonderful snowflakes. The weather really is pretty crazy at the moment. Snow one day, sun the next, and you know what? I couldn’t wish for anything more!