Woohoo!!

Woohoo - Sundance saw me snowboarding for the first time today and linked up some toe-turns (facing uphill) and heel-turns (facing downhill) rather nicely - woohoo!! Oh - and I fell on my arse a lot but hey I must of looked cool when I wasn't in my "just resting" position! Totally different to skiing and a cool go-with-the-flow body and toe thing going on. Snowboarding is the nuts!

We're off to the El Cortez Hotel on Freemont Street, Las Vegas tomorrow! Roll on the New Year - woohoo!

I can see my trampoline!

The last fwe days were pretty cool - learnt how to play Cops and Mafia - taught by Dan's Family (Dan, Jeenie, Jeenie-Marie, Danny, ? & Natilia) which quickly made my head ache. It also proved that Dad is completely ruthless and would sell out his own son should the whim take him! Also apparently its obvious when I'm hiding something - I must work on that! Tonight was more chilled - met up with ???? for a good meal with plenty of courses and lots of deserts...which let me to find the treasure trove of them all - the restricted-access-cupboard - behold its Earthen delights! (Pictured here opened for routine inspection!) Tonights discussions revolved around top snowboarding spots as we're going tomorrow, fraternities, uni generally and mormons! haha.

And then this evening - discovery of discoveries! We can see our two old trampolines on Google Earth, as well as our bench and sunbed! How cool!

Reflexology Photoshoot!

So having spent the afternoon busy working, I was treated to a wee bit of reflexology whilst Tris made the most of the moment and turned i into a photoshoot for Mum's new promotional leaflet and website! We may have to paste a smile onto my face for the final version!

Merry Christmas!!

So the White Christmas we were hoping for didn't happen! The sun came out last Tuesday and started rapidly melting the snowgod's hard work - yes they do actually worship a snowgod out here - it is the Powder-Snow-State afterall! Even so we tried to bring in the spirit of things - by trying to impersonate reindeer, wear silly hats our Uncle Gerald so kindly sent us, or even become overly affectionate due to the effects golden lockes have on my brother!

After Christmas dinner we thought we'd take a walk ardoun Provo town centre and oddly enough found two Nativity scenes in a display there which were all from Oaxaca Mexico - exactly where we were for Mexican Independence Day this year! Check out the building with Atchafalaya written on the side - it's one of the two clubs in Provo, right on Center Street. Haven't been in yet but I'm really excited about it...or something like that.

Then, whilst walking back, the most random thing happened - a huge great American Eagle landed right on Mum's head. Now who would of thought that would happen?!

Congratulations & Christmas Eve!

By Christmas Eve finally the four of us were all here and Tris recovered more from his Jet-Lag with every sip of the Champagne. We were celebrating Mum's distinction on her Reflexology course, which she's been working at for less time than you'd think considering the intensity of complaints we've had to endure! ;) Anyways - so it was celebration day - complete with Authentic American Champagne - check out the warning labels! Anyone would have thought they were intensionally trying to spare us the joy of champagne - cork bouncing off walls and destroying ornaments etc! All in all was a great night of playing silly Christmastime games!

Random Utah Stuff

So yeh got here after a scary moment at St Denys when there were no information signs, no ticket office open and just generally absolutely no way of knowing what platform the train was going to stop at! So this was my view from the bridge over the station at 6.45am on that cold morning watching to see which platform exactly Mr Traindriver would chose to make me run to, loaded with suitcase and all!

Otherwise the journey was pretty great - arrived in Utah 23 hours later to find that 8 inches of snow had been dumped in the last 2 hours!! Fantastic! The journey along the freeway to the house resembled a ski-run with cars and lorries alike just picking a random bit of snow between the marker posts to drive along. Good job their roads are so wide! No pic unfortunately - it was very dark and the camera was in the back.

Was lovely to see how revered Dad is at work - he kept getting Christmas gifts in true "neighbourly" American style! Pictured here with two such offerings! In fact some are still arriving. They're mainly food so all in all Tris and me have been making the most of that!

And here we are - very exciting local ales we get in Utah - the state which has almost outlawed drinking! Get this - two bars in a town the size of Gloucester! It certainly reduces the number of options for things to do in the evenings. Check the name's on the beers though - Polygamy Porter - Mormons down to a T - hahaha!

A few days ago we checked out Cabela's - a massive Hunting and Outdoor store which comes complete with mountainsides of stuffed animals and walls hung with animal heads! Hard to believe until you see the scale of it. Infront of the biggest mountainside, which dominated the entire shop, was a sign which I think may have been an American effort at sarcasm, but then they don't actually know what that is do they??!

Check the next installment for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!

Things between then and the USA!

So - quick roundup - houseparty - brilliant and really enjoyed the whole night! Well almost the whole night - some eejit - turned out to be Emma's boyf - who thought in his wisdom it would be a great idea to take a piss on the floor outside my room. I was not impressed (would you be?!) and I think we may have had our first house argument about that one!! We did have a smoke machine a VJ and about 7 DJs I think by then end of the night! Fantastic stuff.

Another unofficial social - Union, Glen Drink Bar Dry, Jesters random houseparty! LEGENDARY STUFF as KF socials always are! I had to put this pic in cos Max looks pure smooth class! And another photo from another moment of genius - the point when it became a great idea to ram someone else's Christmas Present fancy dress costume over Alice's head! Note even this unexpected turn of events does not cause her to lose grip on the precious beer! Still that's what made us happy later and allowed us to cope with being surrounded with pillheads!

And then there was Rachel Stevens Friday! Fantastic night out, even though the first hour or so was Martin, Jo and me queuing in the freezing cold! Quickly warmed up with a few drinks and then a few more. And then Martin ended up wearing one when we pushed infront of one too many people in our desperation to see Rachel Stevens! ;-) Lizzie then set about trying to kill her - which was funny if a wee bit scary for the girl concerned! No good group photos from this one really - just Lizzie, Martin and me - the crew for the night!

Post Grading Party

Twas great to get the Hung Lengers together after grading for a night of family entertainment - Guess Who with Absinth shots! Classic...s 

A Busy Busy Week!

So last night was the Martial Arts Christmas Dinner - arranged very kindly by Rob the Social Predator and myself President Tarzan! A great event even though I didn't eat as much as I liked - was still feeling the effects of whatever caught me in Jesters and put me in bed and wanting to be very sick for two days. Well...apart from for going to Kung Fu and whinging about it anyways!

Back to the social - so we managed through a barrage of emails and constant cajoling and general intimidation tactics to get a turnout of 44 people from 5 clubs - us (Hung Leng Kuen Kung Fu), Shaolin Kung Fu, Okinawan Shorin-Ryu Karate Kai and Kickboxing...not bad eh??!

A great night all in all and well worth the effort...even if none of us felt much like partying after being somewhat glutinous with the Chinese - food not the people.

Amusing moment - when Pete tried to tell me it was impossible to swallow a cube of jelly whole (yes they had cubed the jelly for us just like a kiddies party!). Naturally everyone on the table had to try...turns out he was wrong though sometimes people can choke! This was me pondering my predicament - ooh the alliteration! For the rest of the pics (courtesy of Phil) check out www.soton.ac.uk/~kungfu.