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Published: December 12th 2008
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There’s a critical time that defines the transition from summer to winter or vice versa. It doesn’t have much to do with the temperature, or length of the day, or whether Christmas is coming soon… But it’s the time that flicks the switch in my mind from enjoying one season to looking forward to the next. It’s the Toys, digging out touch shoes, waxing & edging a snowboard, putting the pieces of a smashed model plane back together, or taking the cover off a boat and unrolling the sails.. all mean that pretty soon it’s going to be time to do something different and fun. Of course, at the same time the old stuff just gets thrown back where it came from - after all there’s always the chance that the weather’ll come right one last time and there’ll be a chance to have another go.
Back home, sailing always caught me out.. come spring I’d have a bag of crusty, salty ropes that smelt suspiciously like cat piss in the corner of the garage. Untangling them it was a pain in the ass - especially as I just wanted to get back on the water - but it was
End of fieldwork season
Snow in the Saastal means I get my weekends back. also rewarding, figuring out the mess, how things were threaded together, and retracing the lines until (sometimes) I could just pull two ends and it all came free.
The last couple of months have pretty quickly passed from summer, through autumn, and into winter.. and it’s been a tangled time to be honest. Some things have been desperately difficult to figure out, but I’ve come across some cool threads, and the whole time there’s been anticipation of things changing and moving forward to keep it interesting and exciting.
Right now I’m on a train back to Zurich after visiting Nick (my AWOL flatmate) at his winter residence while he ski instructs in
Saas Fee to earn some cash. Today was sunny, with no people round (pre-season), and with 2 days fresh snow, it’s a powder day! I rode yesterday, but it was snowing and couldn’t see shit through frozen foggy goggles. Still, we found some nice trails, and had the chance to get stuck on the flat in waist-deep powder - not bad for the first day of the season. Today will be much better, but I’m heading back to work to finish preparing for a conference in San
Back in Switzerland
Nick's got a job ski instructing, Marlene and I visited his spare beds last weekend to make the most of his err.. hospitaliy? Francisco next week. It could be a late night, I told my boss I’d work on it all weekend and it’d be ready for him to check tomorrow morning. Meh, it was worth it!
So while my summer hiking/fieldwork stuff hasn’t been put away properly, it hasn’t been cold enough to ski until now. People here pretty much just put their heads down and work at this time of year and wait for it to snow. Or, If you’re like me, and spent all your ‘free’ summer time fieldworking, it’s time to take some short holidays and cross things off the ‘to see’ list. It all started with an end of season party at a hostel in the mountains in
Sent, included a lot of hanging out around Zurich enjoying the autumn colours, and in the last 3 weeks has seen
this low-budget high-flyer borrowing a house in Berlin with Asia, and crashing on a couch in London to watch the All Blacks deal out the last of a series of lessons with some good Uni friends.
As I mentioned, on Sunday I head to San Francisco to present some of my work, but mostly schmooze, at a
conference with 15,000 geology geeks from all over the world. I’m flying back through London on Xmas day (partly to avoid the whole awkward Xmas in a strange place with no friends or family thing), and then will catch up with Asia in Poland for New years! Phew! And that’s why my room’s a mess and my summer hiking stuff is strewn all over the place. Still, miss you guys, and I miss looking forward to a good summer N.Years party, so make the most of it!!
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