Paging Ace - you are now permitted to smile

On Sat, 9 Feb 2008 08:47:18 -0800 (PST), in
,
"TOG@Toil" wrote:

The snow in the Pyrenees is crap, for the second year running, while
it's great in the Alps.

Certainly is. Just got back from a week of sunshine and great snow in
Davos.

Casting around without much hope for a cheap
catered chalet last-minute bargain in the Alps at half-term (next
weekend), I found (to my surprise) that there are more than a few,
discounted to half price.

Like £300 a head, and yes, room for four or more, in Val d'Isere.

Naah, they'd have to pay me more than that to stay in Val. Full of
noisy English types.

Glad you;ve finally seen sense though.

On 16 Feb, 15:43, Ace wrote:
On Sat, 9 Feb 2008 08:47:18 -0800 (PST), in
,

"TOG@Toil" wrote:
The snow in the Pyrenees is crap, for the second year running, while
it's great in the Alps.

Certainly is. Just got back from a week of sunshine and great snow in
Davos.

Casting around without much hope for a cheap
catered chalet last-minute bargain in the Alps at half-term (next
weekend), I found (to my surprise) that there are more than a few,
discounted to half price.

Like £300 a head, and yes, room for four or more, in Val d'Isere.

Naah, they'd have to pay me more than that to stay in Val. Full of
noisy English types.

Glad you;ve finally seen sense though.

It appears, talking to another company, that there was a surprising
number of places unbooked at half term this year. The credit squeeze
having an effect? Our places were marked down from £860/head (with
flights, admittedly, but we already had those booked).

This bulletin comes from Val. The snow's still pretty good (last dump
about 10 days ago) because it's been very cold. Down to minus 19
tonight, apparently (!).

On Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:01:02 -0800 (PST), in
,
"TOG@Toil" wrote:

Casting around without much hope for a cheap
catered chalet last-minute bargain in the Alps at half-term (next
weekend), I found (to my surprise) that there are more than a few,
discounted to half price.

Like £300 a head, and yes, room for four or more, in Val d'Isere.

It appears, talking to another company, that there was a surprising
number of places unbooked at half term this year. The credit squeeze
having an effect? Our places were marked down from £860/head (with
flights, admittedly, but we already had those booked).

It's been very odd. On last week's families holiday in Davos we needed
to increase from two to three leaders (23 punters), whereas this
week's in Grindelwald (which we'd original been down to lead) only had
8 takers. Some other holidays in the next couple of weeks are also
urgently looking for additional leaders due to higher than expected
take-up, so there doesn't seem to be any consistency at all.

This bulletin comes from Val. The snow's still pretty good (last dump
about 10 days ago) because it's been very cold. Down to minus 19
tonight, apparently (!).

Wow. Need more snow though, eh?

Ace wrote:
On Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:01:02 -0800 (PST), in
,
"TOG@Toil" wrote:

Casting around without much hope for a cheap
catered chalet last-minute bargain in the Alps at half-term (next
weekend), I found (to my surprise) that there are more than a few,
discounted to half price.
Like £300 a head, and yes, room for four or more, in Val d'Isere.

It appears, talking to another company, that there was a surprising
number of places unbooked at half term this year. The credit squeeze
having an effect? Our places were marked down from £860/head (with
flights, admittedly, but we already had those booked).

It's been very odd. On last week's families holiday in Davos we needed
to increase from two to three leaders (23 punters), whereas this
week's in Grindelwald (which we'd original been down to lead) only had
8 takers. Some other holidays in the next couple of weeks are also
urgently looking for additional leaders due to higher than expected
take-up, so there doesn't seem to be any consistency at all.

This bulletin comes from Val. The snow's still pretty good (last dump
about 10 days ago) because it's been very cold. Down to minus 19
tonight, apparently (!).

Wow. Need more snow though, eh?

We've just had 3 days in Foux d'Allos, where it was remarkably quiet for
a French school holiday period.

Snow was mainly good as it had also stayed cold despite bright sunshine,
but they definitely need some more.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "TOG@Toil"
saying something like:

(last dump about 10 days ago)

I didn't need to know that.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a

"A scone and tea at half past three
Makes the day a little brighter
Keep your cakes and fancy tarts
And stick them up your ****er."

In message , Grimly
Curmudgeon writes
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "TOG@Toil"
saying something like:

(last dump about 10 days ago)

I didn't need to know that.

It was a very good dump for quality (rated "awesome" by TO staff and I
certainly enjoyed it) but not all that massive for quantity.

They'd certainly be needing some more.

--
Sue ];(

TOG@Toil wrote:
On 16 Feb, 15:43, Ace wrote:
On Sat, 9 Feb 2008 08:47:18 -0800 (PST), in
,

"TOG@Toil" wrote:
The snow in the Pyrenees is crap, for the second year running, while
it's great in the Alps.
Certainly is. Just got back from a week of sunshine and great snow in
Davos.

Casting around without much hope for a cheap
catered chalet last-minute bargain in the Alps at half-term (next
weekend), I found (to my surprise) that there are more than a few,
discounted to half price.
Like £300 a head, and yes, room for four or more, in Val d'Isere.
Naah, they'd have to pay me more than that to stay in Val. Full of
noisy English types.

Glad you;ve finally seen sense though.

It appears, talking to another company, that there was a surprising
number of places unbooked at half term this year. The credit squeeze
having an effect? Our places were marked down from £860/head (with
flights, admittedly, but we already had those booked).

Meribel Valley was a lot quieter than I expected, being UK and French
half-term. Never having been before, I had no real idea what to expect
but, since they have markers to indicate 15 minute waiting times on the
lifts, I expect it could get much busier. I don't recall waiting more
than 4 or 5 minutes even at the busiest moments.

It was my first Alps experience and I think it sees the end of me trying
to ski on the cheap

On Sun, 24 Feb 2008 09:12:49 +0000, Higgins
wrote:

Meribel Valley was a lot quieter than I expected, being UK and French
half-term. Never having been before, I had no real idea what to expect
but, since they have markers to indicate 15 minute waiting times on the
lifts, I expect it could get much busier. I don't recall waiting more
than 4 or 5 minutes even at the busiest moments.

It was my first Alps experience and I think it sees the end of me trying
to ski on the cheap

I'll be in the next valley in two weeks' time; Le Praz. Hopefully the
snow will have refreshed a bit by then.

--
-Pip

Ace wrote:

Naah, they'd have to pay me more than that to stay in Val. Full of
noisy English types.

Glad you've finally seen sense though.

Back now. And definitely some splendid skiing. I have a sunburned
hooter. It was amazing how well the snow has stood up to a fortnight of
heavy use and no fresh falls - it's been damned cold, which is why.

Yes, I'd love to ski the big resorts again. As you know, though, family
finances don't always run to it. I'm looking at the invoice for this
last week right now. Brochure price for the four of us: £3840. Amount
actually paid: £1224. Plus flights, admittedly, but they were well under
£200 for the four of us. Oh and a hire car[1], to which the same
applies.

What this last week has made me do is re-think next year. I'm going to
book flights early, as ever, and then sit on my hands and play the
waiting game, going right down to the wire if necessary.

I might also join the SCGB, having chatted to one of their Val reps in
our chalet (Peter someone-or-other: knows you, or knows of you,
apparently). However, apart from having someone to ski with, I see
little practical beenfit in the much-touted benefits they offer.

What amused me, five days before we left and the day after we'd
cancelled St Lary and grabbed Val, was the large article in the Sunday
Times about how the peak half-term week was looming and no, you wouldn't
be able to find a spare bed anywhere, never mind a cut-price cheapie.
The writer recommended checking Iglu's website (which was/is way out of
date).

In other words, that hack hadn't even bothered using Google just to
check if there were any late availability offers. That's as sloppy as it
gets. But then, the quality of ski journalism in Britain is lamentable,
so it's no surprise.

As we left all our (old, geriatric, even) kit in the Pyrenees, I bought
myself brand new skis and boots. My, these new-fangled Nordicas are
different from the old pair of rear-entry Salomon SX61s I've been using
for the last 21 years.... And the Atomic carving skis are a revelation,
as well.

[1] Old model Laguna. Christ, what a crock of ****. Lovely turbodiesel
engine, as you'd expect from the French, and a lovely ride quality
(ditto).

But controls that were damn near impossible to find. Switches on the
dash obscured by the stalks on the steering column, which were in turn
obscured by the spokes of the wheel.

That appalling key-card ignition system they use, again with an obscured
start/stop button.

An electric automatic handbrake that was concealed in the dash. I had to
dig out the owner's manual to find it, and the manual devoted *three
****ing pages* to it. It's a handbrake, forchrissakes. How complicated
does it need to be?

Lousy boot space.

A really low roofline so I kept banging my head getting in and out.

Uber-tall gearing that made for a good motorway cruise (and very
economical, too: I averaged 51mpg overall, heavily laden, cruising at
indicated 130kph) but which fell apart in town or on the mountain
climbs.

In short, a lovely motorway cruiser but utterly crap at anything else.
Grim interior quality, too.


--
BMW K1100LT Ducati 750SS Honda CB400F & SL125
GAGARPHOF#30 GHPOTHUF#1 BOTAFOT#60 ANORAK#06 YTC#3
BOF#30 WUSS#5 The bells, the bells.....
chateau dot murray at idnet dot com

The Older Gentleman wrote:

[1] Old model Laguna. Christ, what a crock of ****. Lovely turbodiesel
engine, as you'd expect from the French, and a lovely ride quality
(ditto).

But controls that were damn near impossible to find. Switches on the
dash obscured by the stalks on the steering column, which were in turn
obscured by the spokes of the wheel.

That appalling key-card ignition system they use, again with an
obscured start/stop button.

An electric automatic handbrake that was concealed in the dash. I had
to dig out the owner's manual to find it, and the manual devoted
*three ****ing pages* to it. It's a handbrake, forchrissakes. How
complicated does it need to be?

Lousy boot space.

A really low roofline so I kept banging my head getting in and out.

Uber-tall gearing that made for a good motorway cruise (and very
economical, too: I averaged 51mpg overall, heavily laden, cruising at
indicated 130kph) but which fell apart in town or on the mountain
climbs.

In short, a lovely motorway cruiser but utterly crap at anything else.
Grim interior quality, too.

I can't understand why people with families to transport don't simply go out
and buy diesel Multiplas.