Just returned from the excellent end-of-month milonga at Palac Adria, with Bona Fide playing live. Nothing unusual there, but as I left, some guy shouted "Bravo!" at me.
Actually, he shouted it a few times.
Not bad, eh??
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Monday, February 05, 2007
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaah!
Yesterday I came back from a great 4-day trip to Rinerhorn, Switzerland, with a bunch of Channels guys from Cisco. It was great. Lots of skiers there, and more than enough non-skiers, like me, to enjoy the toboggan run, and, on Friday, a loooooong hike up the valley. And down again. The toboggan run was the highlight though—great fun with clear blue skies and soft, comfy snow, and just as much fun at night, and covered in cloud on an abundance of bumpy ice. Only more painful.
You can see a video of the sledge run taken by people who know what they're doing here. For me, the most fun bits were on my fourth and fifth tries. On the fourth I managed to come off the sledge at the top of a straight run, and watch my sledge sail away from me, launching at the next corner and taking out the big yellow sign for the corner. It was a beautiful sight, appreciated just as much by my colleagues (Kasia, Shilpa and Agnesa, Agi for short). Luckily I only had to clamber over 30 metres of snow, between 30 and 50 degrees gradient, before finding my sledge upside-down by a stream. You can see the sign I took out, and carefully replaced, after the 4:20 mark on the video. You can't really see the steep drop on the other side.
After that, we went straight back up to do it again. This time I managed to stay firmly on the sledge, mostly. If you look at the video, after 5:50, you'll see a sharp right-turn, followed by a steep drop and a sharp left. When I rounded that corner on the fifth go, I saw Agi lying ahead, sledge next to her. The track was icy, I couldn't stop, but I managed to steer right, hitting her sledge. And, of course, falling off a couple of metres away. We lay there a couple of seconds, laughing our asses off, then Kasia rounded the corner, fast and unable to stop. At this point, Agi was lying horizontally across the run, completely unable to get out of the way in time. So I grabbed her and heaved her to the side, out of the way. Kasia managed to stop by crashing into the next corner, after which the two of them, pretty amazed, said I'd saved her life. Well, maybe I saved her from a couple of cracked ribs and some nasty bruises, but hey—I don't mind being called a hero...
Of course, we also had some great dinners, made fools of ourselves in a club in Davos, and went on a horse-drawn sleigh ride (bloody cold). All in all it was great.
Oh, and I celebrated my birthday there too, with a couple of birthday cakes to share out after dinner on the 2nd. I think the wine must have been pretty good; it seems a bit hazy.
You can see a video of the sledge run taken by people who know what they're doing here. For me, the most fun bits were on my fourth and fifth tries. On the fourth I managed to come off the sledge at the top of a straight run, and watch my sledge sail away from me, launching at the next corner and taking out the big yellow sign for the corner. It was a beautiful sight, appreciated just as much by my colleagues (Kasia, Shilpa and Agnesa, Agi for short). Luckily I only had to clamber over 30 metres of snow, between 30 and 50 degrees gradient, before finding my sledge upside-down by a stream. You can see the sign I took out, and carefully replaced, after the 4:20 mark on the video. You can't really see the steep drop on the other side.
After that, we went straight back up to do it again. This time I managed to stay firmly on the sledge, mostly. If you look at the video, after 5:50, you'll see a sharp right-turn, followed by a steep drop and a sharp left. When I rounded that corner on the fifth go, I saw Agi lying ahead, sledge next to her. The track was icy, I couldn't stop, but I managed to steer right, hitting her sledge. And, of course, falling off a couple of metres away. We lay there a couple of seconds, laughing our asses off, then Kasia rounded the corner, fast and unable to stop. At this point, Agi was lying horizontally across the run, completely unable to get out of the way in time. So I grabbed her and heaved her to the side, out of the way. Kasia managed to stop by crashing into the next corner, after which the two of them, pretty amazed, said I'd saved her life. Well, maybe I saved her from a couple of cracked ribs and some nasty bruises, but hey—I don't mind being called a hero...
Of course, we also had some great dinners, made fools of ourselves in a club in Davos, and went on a horse-drawn sleigh ride (bloody cold). All in all it was great.
Oh, and I celebrated my birthday there too, with a couple of birthday cakes to share out after dinner on the 2nd. I think the wine must have been pretty good; it seems a bit hazy.
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