Anything to do with sports and sporting events.
Whilst not technically made with electronics, this gadget arrived in the mail for me this week in anticipation of my skiing trip later this March.
The reflection is pretty strong in this one though still provides excellent visibility.
It’s only taken almost five years to finally turn up to Britain’s well known tennis championship, Wimbledon. I applied for the annual lottery – something all residents in the UK can do to buy tickets without lining up, and although I didn’t get any tickets, my sister managed to get some. So off, we went to Wimbledon on a bright sunny, perfectly summery day.
The court grounds were heaving, although perfectly civil. I’m glad we didn’t really have to queue very long to get in, and with allocated tickets for Court 2, didn’t have to line up for a seat for any of the outdoor courts as well.
On our court, the biggest player match was probably Sharipova who literally towered over her opponent and easily won out her match. It was amazing to see the speed of her serves live. Most men seemed to hit at last 120mph-130mph, which Sharipova came close to, averaging 110mph. Compared to many of the other women players who did less than 100mph, she was definitely a force to be reckoned with. Here’s a picture of her victory over her opponent:
The other big news of the day was the visiting of the Queen. Unfortunately we didn’t get to share Court 1 with her, but managed to see her walking around the grounds (accompanied and blocked off my plenty of security guards). I’m glad that I brought my new zoom as I was nowhere near her for the photo below:
Even if you don’t get a ticket to any of the court games, it’s definitely worth going and indulging in the whole atmosphere. It’s fun and with so many people enjoying themselves, you’ll find it hard not to do so yourself.
I managed to get in another day’s skiing last Saturday, this time using the Sunshine Coach to speed me all the way from downtown Calgary to the Sunshine Village ski resort. Spread across three different mountains and served by numerous ski lifts, Sunshine is also one of the more unique ski resorts to host its very own hotel mid way up on the mountain. I found the trip on the Sunshine Coach extremely smooth and worth the effort of needing to leave downtown at 7am on a Saturday morning. We arrived just after 9am and I was up on the slopes well before 10am even after lining up to get my rental gear. Unlike the previous weekend’s skiing, the gear probably wasn’t as nice or as comfortable (to the extent ski boots ever are) since I didn’t have a buddy working on these slopes. By the end of the day, my weary shins groaned loudly with the effort of the day’s skiing. Fortunately Sunshine gets plenty of snow and Saturday was no different with the light powder making it more comfortable to ski on.
Compared to Lake Louise, Sunshine seemed a bit more beginner friendly. They seemed to have more green and blue runs and just in general they were wide and curvy instead of the narrow and sharp ones I remember at Lake Louise. Of course, they had their fair share of moguls as well. Despite having loads of cars in the car park, I can’t say that the lift lines ever became very long and even the slopes didn’t seem to have that many people.
All in all, it was another great day of skiing and nice to see yet a different mountain. I’d highly recommend the Sunshine Coach for those without a car, offering a great package deal involving both the bus and lift ticket combined.
No, I haven’t been meaning to neglect this blog. I just decided that spending the weekend skiing was a better alternative to writing stuff up. Now that the long Easter weekend is over and I’m back in my hotel, I can afford a little time to write up about the weekend.
I can’t really complain about that much, even with legs as sore as I have now, considering I’ve fit in two and a half days of skiing and I’ve only been in Canada for just over a week. With a ski package for Lake Louise conveniently booked via SkiLouise I was fortunate they still had rooms available for this Easter weekend. Despite three major ski areas located relatively close to Calgary (one to three hours away), it’s not as easy as you’d think to get to each of the ski areas from downtown Calgary with most of the transportation direct from the airport. None of the transportation is publicly owned, so I ended up booking transportation from my hotel to get to where I was staying through SunDog Tours.
Of the three major resorts I’m told are near Calgary (Banff, Lake Louise and Sunshine) I’m glad I went to Lake Louise. It helped that my old workmate, Suhail is based out there at the moment, helping me upgrade my stuff to a high performance kit and just helping me out on the slopes and around town. Staying at Lake Louise means that you’re also only about a five minute drive from the base of the mountain, unlike the longer forty minute drive from Banff with your trade off being less of a night life scene (not a big problem when I’ve only got two and half days to ski!). Suhail did give me a glimpse of the crazy antics that staff parties are known for, showing me “Chucktown”, the block of apartments he stays at hosting the hundreds of staff manning the slopes. In one way, it feels very much like an American college with 5 or so rooms to each apartment, in addition to a shared living space and bathrooms. Each building also has a large social common room well equipped with pool tables, football tables, stereos and TVs. Although the accommodation is pretty basic, the social scene more than makes up for it. It seems though that, with the way some people speak of it, becomes a little stifling at the tail end of six months.
Lake Louise claims to be one of the biggest single ski resort areas, and offers plenty for everyone although most of the trails appear much more suited for the more advanced skiers. One of the areas, aptly named the Ultimate Steeps (see above picture) show a series of double-black only trails with a single blue trail the only other alternative down that side of the mountain. Another big contrast was the huge number of trees on the slopes that I’ve seen. Apparently Lake Louise are much more lenient than other litigation-conscious North American ski resorts with many people heading off the trail to weave in and out of the trees.
I am thankful that the snow was much better than I was fearing (i.e. at least it was there) although for the first two days, it tended to be a little bit icier in the morning. Only just before the last day did the mountain get some fresh snowfall and with it, the lush softness only deep powder brings. As a result, after the first two days, I ended up extremely exhausted with that shin-splitting, leg straining tiredness you only seem to get with those unforgiving ski boots. All of it, of course, completely worth it.
Have you ever had that pain from returning to the gym after having a big break from a regular workout? I’m feeling it right now.
It’s taken me a long time to get a proper gym workout. Indian bureaucracy meant I only received a membership pass for the gym in Bangalore just before I left for Pune (five weeks!). The “closest” gym in Pune wasn’t that close and very expensive for a month (no surprises there since it is a Gold’s Gym). I also would not have had any time during training to fit it in.
Today I’m very sore from yesterday’s workout, but at least it’s a healthy type of soreness that I’m sure I’ll experience again when I return to the UK.
My latest skiing adventure was only the third time I’ve gone skiing and it just seems to get better and better. I’m a little bit worried though that this time we were so spoilt that it might make skiing back home less enjoyable. Overall the trip was fantastic and made even more fun since we went in a nicely sized group of eight. You can check out Stickfly’s review and Gerrod’s discussion to find out some different views.
There are many reasons I think we were spoilt on this particular holiday. The hotel we stayed in, the Sports Village Hotel was extremely nice – the rooms were big, the bathrooms very nice and the whole place was in a perfect location with the ski lift gondola two floors directly below our hotel. As a result it was extremely easy getting up the mountain in the morning. Better yet, at the end of the day you can ski right down the mountain (as fast as you want) and ski directly underneath the Gondola a few more floors down, keeping your commute time down even more. Attached to the hotel was a three storied sports wellness centre full of saunas, pools, spas, heat beds all of different heats. It was a must for every single member of our party at some time during the week and well worth the €30 for the three hours to drain the aches and pains of the week.
On top of that, despite the “worst season Andorra has ever seen” we managed to get two days of fresh snow, giving us a few days skiing on some lovely powder snow. Admittedly a number of the other days were painfully windy and slightly icy, but I think we were lucky with the snow that we did get.
I was happy that on my first day I managed to survive a red run since on my second time skiing, it took a couple of days to get my ski legs back on. By the end of the week, other than the fact I was extremely physically exhausted, we even had a small go at a few jumps and tried learning how to spin around skiing backwards and failing dismally at turning around facing forward again.
Amazingly despite the adventurous nature of some of our party members, no one came away with any major injuries with the most a bruised inflamed rib, and maybe a few sore shoulders, arms or legs.
Andorra is a great blast for people skiing though I can’t recommend it for a cultural trip since it seems to cater mainly for English tourists given the number of pubs and perfect resemblance of a high street, and for the Spanish and French locals with all menus pretty much in their native languages.
Thanks to Ben for organising it all and everyone else (Michelle, Gerrod, Kristy, John, Kirsten and Matt) for the fabulous company and great skiing/boarding.
Last night I went along to see the Australia vs Denmark football (aka soccer) match held out at White City. It was a very disappointing game for all the Antipodeans given that Denmark scored within the first 10 minutes and managed three by the end of the first half. We managed to score one in the second half but it was apparent we were unlikely to win. Other than being supremely cold in the stadium on the plastic chairs, it was a fun night and nice to get out and support some sport.
Final score: Australia 1 – Denmark 3
Last night, my housemates and I went ice skating at one of the few indoor ice skating rinks in London just down the road. I hadn’t done this for years (and before that, not even that often) so I was a bit hesitant at going but still thought it would be fun to do. We all arrived just to see the end of the pretty good figure skating practice but thankful we didn’t have to watch ourselves before we embarassed ourselves on the ice.
Skating is not too cheap (£9) and you end up putting on what looked like cheap rollerblade boots, and certainly felt like painfully tight ski boots yet still did the job (a word of advice – definitely trade in your boots if you aren’t happy with the edging – my first ones felt like someone had greased them up big time!). The ice skating rink in Bayswater is apparently a lot larger than what it used to be, until a bar and a ten pin bowling alley was put in. The rink itself is by no means small, comfortably fitting the fifty people, although some were more dangerous than others. White domes pulsating with multi colored lights cover the ceiling and give the place a little bit more of the disco feel, and when paired with cheesy 80s and early 90s music seemed pretty appropriate.
Amazingly all of us managed to go through the night without falling over and yet still managed to push through the boot pain and enjoy the night.
