Bits and Bobs

Howdy all.

I'be been meaning to sit down at the blog for a little while now and put fingers to the keyboard. I'll give y'all a quick wrap up on the last few weeks or so.

I had a hankering to go to the States and had planned to go on a photo-holiday in June to Montana. I subscribe to (U.S.) Popular Photography magazine amongst others and they, in conjunction with Nikon and some pro-shooters have these two week photo 'safari's' to capture great images and learn compositional technique and digital skills. Man I was SO looking forward to it - the Teton mountains, open spaces, old western towns, cowboys etc.,etc. it was gonna be awesome, but it was sold out in weeks. So I'm hoping that they'll run a second course due to popular demand and will go on that. If that doesn't come through, then there's another one in one of the Carolina's (can't remember if it was north or south and I don't have the mag handy to check), but that looked cool too.

I have to check my passports (U.K. & Aust - I have dual citizenship) to see if I need that new biometric data chip thing in the back, so a phone call to the Embassies in Geneva will be on the cards.

The snow/ski season is alas now just about done except at higher altitudes. I've been going most weekends and went to my favourite x-country place (Samoens - 1,700m) last Sunday. It was quite warm and the snow is just starting to get a wee bit soft. There's another week of mild weather this week but we may get a late final snowfall (I hope!). The lady up there knows me now and just hands me my skis, poles and boots without barely missing a beat.

If it stays warm then it's the 'tween-season' period where you can't ski anymore but it's still too wet to hike, so as the Easter break is coming up soon with a four day break I'll be heading south to Provence to the sun and exploring the Roman villages, Aix-en-Provence and the insides of one or two bars with the locals. The last time I was down there I got chatting to a local at the gas station who couldn't place my 'French' accent with the region indicated on my license plate and when I told him where I was from it turned out he used to be in the Army and had been to Sydney years ago on exercises. Small world.

The building of the apartment(s) is plodding along nicely and since most of the tedious contract paperwork is done they rarely bother me these days except to ask for the next instalment cheque ha,ha!

Work is work. Way too much for everyone to do and not enough people to handle it all. Still, my darn lottery numbers refuse to get picked so yours truly will most likely be among the ranks of the working Joes for a wee while longer!

Later all...