In a cabin in a wood.....some more

The cabin in the wood

Snowshoeing

 

The ski jumps

Gulp!

Double gulp!

The bobsled track from the top of the ski jump tower

On the speed skating oval



Getting a taste for lycra!



BABY IN A BAG!

In a cabin in a wood.....

Our trip to Lake Placid was fabulous - not as cold as everyone predicted and no overgrown crocodiles picking off tourist at random, somewhat disappointingly. We visited some of the more impressive Olympic facilities (if you haven't been up to the top of a ski jump tower, put it on your bucket list) and even sampled a couple of them. Finn and Jodi skated on the outdoor Olympic speed skating track, in nigh on blizzard conditions, and Jodi and I did a bit of 'sliding' as it is known on the circuit. The first clip is of Jodi on his 'skeleton' luge - listen carefully to the announcer. Jodi asked them to call out Finn's Dad instead of his name to delight a certain small boy watching up in the lounge, but the silly deaf old biddy called out Sinbad instead! Luckily Mummy had the foresight to keep filming, mainly because Jodi was virtually the last to slide and we picked out his red coat as he was preparing to lie down on his glorified skateboard. The bobsled pictured may or may not have me in it but as you can hear, a large contingent of French people had showed up by then and Jodi was hard pushed to hear himself think let alone decipher the announcer's mumblings!  Click on the link below.

Jodi's Skeleton and Sarah's Bobsled videos

There are of course many pictures, so keep watching this space.

A strange case of deja vu.

Another Tate prepares to beat the Americans at their own game........... and this time, he has a very long stick.

               

 



Could this be the future?



One of the twins puts out.....

Proudly announcing the flowering of :

8714 Dtps. Achy Breaky heart 'Mendenhall' x Dtps. City Girl 'Madonna' 

Apologies for the amateurish photography, seems these wildlife types know a fair bit about what they are doing or at least have cameras that do.

Neither of these are true about me.

Don't try this at home......

Just thought I'd share a couple of local pass times with you.

See the hut on the snow? That is actually a tent on the ICE. Yup! At about this time of the year the lake freezes and various super hard core fishermen satisfy their angling addiction thus: they cut a hole in the ice, erect said tent over the top and hey presto fishing in the winter. It is rumoured that they make themselves nice and comfortable with cushions, heaters, and yes, Chris, I'm sure, coffee pots! In fact the tents have a moulded plastic base, with chairs attached, joined onto the frame so that it all pops up quite easily. And of course when it's all folded down, the plastic base doubles up as a sled.

our question is:  how do they choose the bloke to go out there first to test the ice? Makes you wander how many incredibly gullible people there are in the village: "Go on, mate, it'll be fine, I'll shout you a beer if..ahem, when you get back....."

Here's another doozy of an event that we will gladly let you borrow the car for if you ever fancy going!

The Snow Mobile Association Uphill Racing Championship

It is as it looks - drag racing up a black slope on a ski-doo. In the dark. Anyone can enter, all you need is an automatic cut-off switch on a lanyard and a snow mobile and you're away. Winner goes through to the next round. And if any of the audience are still in the process of freezing to death (as opposed to having already achieved ice block status) I'm sure they'll be very pleased on your behalf, and then they'll go back into the bar to defrost.

2011 already.....

I'm back. A short holiday from the blogosphere, as is traditional at this time of the year (!) does even the most fervent blogger the world of good. And for those extremely lazy bloggers amongst us it is a jolly good excuse to do nothing. And for those of us who don't normally need an excuse....well, let's just say it's a marvel that I write anything at all.

So, Christmas, a quick update. We all had a fabulous time - there was ski-ing, sledging, skating, snowballs, sub-zero temperatures - basically, we had it all. And as you can probably tell, a very White holiday season. So White in fact, that our visitors couldn't come, then they did, then they nearly couldn't get home again. Quite terrifying for all of us at various times!

New Year's Eve, my special bah humbug moment (enforced jolliment - won't do it), was spent practising for future years: I watched TV and Jodi snoozed on the couch while we waited for our resident party animals to phone to say they needed collecting from the local hostelry. I'm afraid to say that the prospect of a ball falling in Times Square did not hold the appeal of the Sydney fireworks, even when accompanied by the dulcet tones of Jodi's snoring, and I retired at 10.30. Luckily the partying Tates managed not to upset any locals and our porch was mercifully devoid of poo the next morning!

We had a brief thaw in the New Year and the grass appeared for an all-too-short day and a half. Since then, however, Mother Nature has been making up for lost time and we have had more snow than you can shake an icicle at. And it has been cold. So very cold. 3 degrees the other morning. Not too bad? Well, remember this is Fahrenheit we're talking. That's a super freezing -17 degrees C. MINUS SEVENTEEN AT NINE'O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING.

(Quick comparison for you though:  Jodi is in North Dakota as we speak and was on the receiving end of a Public Weather Warning this morning along the lines of:  don't go out with any flesh exposed as frost bite WILL set in. Wind chill expected to reach -40 degrees. Guess I should consider myself lucky.)

We built Finn a bobsled track in the back garden, and the wee chap was actually game enough to try it out. We can release the second trial run to the public - that's the one after Jodi built a snow pile at the bottom to stop Finn disappearing under the trees into next door's garden! I will do my utmost to attach said video here...

Meg is on the move: commando crawling with purpose now and really covering some space. The knee is starting to come up and the arm strength is definitely there so it won't be long now before she gets her wings and really starts causing trouble! Again, have some video.........

And so life continues into 2011:  hockey practice, gymnastics class, swimming lessons, Volunteer Fire Brigade, driving tests, triathlon training - I'll let you guess who is doing what!.

Dickens, in pictures.

 

Mr.Charles Dickens

   

Ebenezer Scrooge


 

Take heed, Mathews children!





A quick run through the story...



..outside the old Masonic building.

 Some

'period characters"



The ghost of Christmas present - and a policeman.



Queen Victoria, Jacob Marley and another ghost



Carols in the bandstand.



Guess who showed up, giving children candy?



A very chilly piper and drummer



Bah! Humbug!