Tuesday, December 30, 2003
Preparing for Norway!
Kelly and I are emailing from the Noris Green public Library, here in the UK internet access is free, wonderful!
Today Kelly and I decided that we needed to go shopping and get all our food for our 2 week stint in Norway. Last time I was in Norway, I had to spend my last night in a hotel near the airport, as we had an early flight, we arrived at the hotel quite late and the only place to eat was at another hotel up the road, it wasn't the flashest of hotel's but had a nice restaurant, I ordered the cheapest thing I could find on the menu, a hamburger and chips. It cost $50 NZ dollars. Kelly and I are really concerned about running out of money, and we just don't have the money to pay for food in Norway, Norway makes the UK look cheap, and since we have a 3 piece luggage allowance, if we juggle our bags around we can include a box of food.
Food in the UK is quite expensive but if you stick to the ASDA brands (ie the cheapest no name brands) you can get some real good bargains. So here is a list of our supplies for Norway.
(the pound key doesn't work on this computer)
6 Cans of Kidney beans 11p each
8 Cans of creamed rice 15p each
8 cans of peeled tomatoes 20p each
2 cans of evaporated milk 28p each (for teas and coffee)
2 cans of carrots 9p each
12 cans of tuna chunks in spring water 50p each
1 can of sweet corn 15p
Sweet chili sauce 77p
Instant coffee 2.08p
Tabasco sauce 1.20p
2 cans of black olives 98p each ( we can have 3 on each meal!)
7 tiny cans of tomato puree 24p each
honey 1.38p
pickle 88p
1kg brown rice 77p
2kg white rice 1.68p
4 boxes of cup of soups 25p each
2 packets of spaghetti 17p each
3 500g packets of pasta twists 19p each
Tea bags 81p (fruit)
Digestive biscuits x 2 packets 25p each
cookies 27p
2kg porridge 88p
Normal tea bags 148p
We spent about 30 pound, $NZ100 I would hate to think what it would have cost if we got it all in Norway.
We'll need to get some bread and some ham and cheese for lunches, but other than that we should survive. Kelly's 8kg of protein bars that she has lugged around all season will start to be handy.
In Norway, 10 athletes are sharing cottage accommodation, it will be the race HQ for New Zealand, Denmark, South Africa, Netherlands, Finland and Czech Republic. It will be pretty chaotic, especially if we are all cooking separately, but Kelly and I are really running out of money, and you've got to do what you've got to do, it is certainly going to be an adventure!
I hope you all have fantastic New Year celebrations, I will write again from he Lake District.
Today Kelly and I decided that we needed to go shopping and get all our food for our 2 week stint in Norway. Last time I was in Norway, I had to spend my last night in a hotel near the airport, as we had an early flight, we arrived at the hotel quite late and the only place to eat was at another hotel up the road, it wasn't the flashest of hotel's but had a nice restaurant, I ordered the cheapest thing I could find on the menu, a hamburger and chips. It cost $50 NZ dollars. Kelly and I are really concerned about running out of money, and we just don't have the money to pay for food in Norway, Norway makes the UK look cheap, and since we have a 3 piece luggage allowance, if we juggle our bags around we can include a box of food.
Food in the UK is quite expensive but if you stick to the ASDA brands (ie the cheapest no name brands) you can get some real good bargains. So here is a list of our supplies for Norway.
(the pound key doesn't work on this computer)
6 Cans of Kidney beans 11p each
8 Cans of creamed rice 15p each
8 cans of peeled tomatoes 20p each
2 cans of evaporated milk 28p each (for teas and coffee)
2 cans of carrots 9p each
12 cans of tuna chunks in spring water 50p each
1 can of sweet corn 15p
Sweet chili sauce 77p
Instant coffee 2.08p
Tabasco sauce 1.20p
2 cans of black olives 98p each ( we can have 3 on each meal!)
7 tiny cans of tomato puree 24p each
honey 1.38p
pickle 88p
1kg brown rice 77p
2kg white rice 1.68p
4 boxes of cup of soups 25p each
2 packets of spaghetti 17p each
3 500g packets of pasta twists 19p each
Tea bags 81p (fruit)
Digestive biscuits x 2 packets 25p each
cookies 27p
2kg porridge 88p
Normal tea bags 148p
We spent about 30 pound, $NZ100 I would hate to think what it would have cost if we got it all in Norway.
We'll need to get some bread and some ham and cheese for lunches, but other than that we should survive. Kelly's 8kg of protein bars that she has lugged around all season will start to be handy.
In Norway, 10 athletes are sharing cottage accommodation, it will be the race HQ for New Zealand, Denmark, South Africa, Netherlands, Finland and Czech Republic. It will be pretty chaotic, especially if we are all cooking separately, but Kelly and I are really running out of money, and you've got to do what you've got to do, it is certainly going to be an adventure!
I hope you all have fantastic New Year celebrations, I will write again from he Lake District.
Monday, December 29, 2003
We are in Liverpool.
We arrived in Liverpool yesterday, my cousin Liam drove us from Coventry. I didn't finish telling you all about what we got up to in Coventry, like I said, we had a great feast for Christmas dinner, and watched a couple of videos.
On boxing day, Kelly and I went for a walk into town and and signed up at the library to use the internet, when we left we head back the way we had come into town, but somehow we got lost and ended up in all the wrong places, some of the under passes we went through were sooo dodgey, the kind of places your told never to go at night (at least that's how they felt to two lost kiwis). Eventually we got directions back into town and retraced our steps and finally made it back to my aunts our 15 minute walk home took over an hour. On the 27th Kel, Mattie, Rosie, Liam, Emily, Elanor (cousins) and my aunt and uncle Fel and Jimmy went to see the Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King. What a fantastic movie, I loved it. It has been a bit of a tradition to go and see the lord of the rings on boxing day, this is the 3rd year in a row that I have had Christmas with my family in England and gone to see the lord of the rings with them. Seeing the scenery on the film always makes me a bit home sick, I would love to have a kiwi Christmas, with a barbecue, sunshine, beaches, cold beer and snoopies Christmas!? For some reason I really miss hearing that song on the radio, they play it heaps over Christmas in NZ.
Today Kelly and my cousin Mattie and I caught a bus into town, just to have a look around, some of the buildings stunning here in Liverpool, we have been for a walk down to the docks, and down Bold St with thousands and thousands of shoppers clogging up the road. It can be quite overwhelming with so many people around you.
The best thing about Liverpool are the accents, I love them.
On Wednesday Kelly and I are going up to the Lake District, to visit Marks parents Dave and Di (My boyfriend Mark and I met while I was working in the Lake district 3 years ago, he now lives in NZ). Dave and Di just returned from a 3 week holiday in NZ, it will be nice to see Ambleside again, I worked there for 7 months while I was on my Big OE before I started skeleton racing.
Well must go, I hope you all have a wonderful new years eve.
(Some of you will be pleased that I have gone through and spell checked my last few entries, it was quite entertaining.)
On boxing day, Kelly and I went for a walk into town and and signed up at the library to use the internet, when we left we head back the way we had come into town, but somehow we got lost and ended up in all the wrong places, some of the under passes we went through were sooo dodgey, the kind of places your told never to go at night (at least that's how they felt to two lost kiwis). Eventually we got directions back into town and retraced our steps and finally made it back to my aunts our 15 minute walk home took over an hour. On the 27th Kel, Mattie, Rosie, Liam, Emily, Elanor (cousins) and my aunt and uncle Fel and Jimmy went to see the Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King. What a fantastic movie, I loved it. It has been a bit of a tradition to go and see the lord of the rings on boxing day, this is the 3rd year in a row that I have had Christmas with my family in England and gone to see the lord of the rings with them. Seeing the scenery on the film always makes me a bit home sick, I would love to have a kiwi Christmas, with a barbecue, sunshine, beaches, cold beer and snoopies Christmas!? For some reason I really miss hearing that song on the radio, they play it heaps over Christmas in NZ.
Today Kelly and my cousin Mattie and I caught a bus into town, just to have a look around, some of the buildings stunning here in Liverpool, we have been for a walk down to the docks, and down Bold St with thousands and thousands of shoppers clogging up the road. It can be quite overwhelming with so many people around you.
The best thing about Liverpool are the accents, I love them.
On Wednesday Kelly and I are going up to the Lake District, to visit Marks parents Dave and Di (My boyfriend Mark and I met while I was working in the Lake district 3 years ago, he now lives in NZ). Dave and Di just returned from a 3 week holiday in NZ, it will be nice to see Ambleside again, I worked there for 7 months while I was on my Big OE before I started skeleton racing.
Well must go, I hope you all have a wonderful new years eve.
(Some of you will be pleased that I have gone through and spell checked my last few entries, it was quite entertaining.)
Saturday, December 27, 2003
Merry Christmas every one
I just signed as a member at the Coventry Library, it means that I can have free email access. The trip from Innsbruck up to Prague was very stressful, we drove into, through and out the other side of a nasty blizzard, Czech drivers all have a death wish, not only did we see 9 road accidents on the Czech roads we nearly hit 5 teenagers and a dog who decided to step out in front of us while we were going about 100kmph on a snowy highway, with summer tires on, down hill,right on dusk... I am amazed that the wheels did not lock up as Kelly slammed on the anchors, if they had we would have hit them. The drive north took 7 and a half hours, we took a 2 minute pee stop and a quick re-fuel, and made it to the airport 10 minutes after our last check in time, we then began explaining why one of the wheels was damaged, and how they nearly killed us by sending us out with summer tires. There is no way we are going to pay for the repair fees. When we checked in, it became apparent that our ticket was not valid because we were booked on a CSK flight, and CSK is not part of the Star Alliance which means our Star Alliance around the world ticket should have never has that flight printed on it. AAAAHHHHHH, we thought there was an issue with our 3 piece baggage limit, but it was even worse our tickets were not valid. Thankfully Lufthansa who is part of the star alliance put us for no charge onto one of their flights and did not question our 3 piece baggage limit. The flight was due to leave in 30 minutes so we hurried off to gate. At the gate, the funniest thing happened. Kelly has the amazing ability to attract the attention of drunk old men who don't speak English, this 30 stone 6 foot 4 drunk Russian came up to us and started speaking in Russian, we both said in sign that we only speak English, so he reach over and Kelly a much unwanted drunken bone squashing hug and said 'Russian'. AAAHHHH poor Kelly, we were in the queue for the security check and couldn't move away, this whale like Russian stood behind Kelly making dodgy comments to his Russian friend and kept bumping Kelly in the back with his huge belly. YUCK. We were soon on the plane bound for Frankfurt, and then onto Manchester, where my aunt Maggie collected us, we were supposed to head for Coventry but ended up on the wrong motorway and found our selves half way to Liverpool, we decided to drop our sleds off in Liverpool before heading back to Coventry. As we were unloading the car in Liverpool ( about midnight) Kelly went to put her runners (blades) on the foot path but was quickly told not to in case the young lad walking up the street took the opportunity to run off with them, you should have seen the look of horror on keels face as she snatched her runners back off the foot path. Welcome to Liverpool Kelly, it isn't that bad. WE arrived in Coventry about 3.30am, a world away from the snowy Christmas market in Innsbruck and the track in the cute village of Igls.
Christmas has been a great feast with my aunts, uncles, older cousins, little cousins, cousins kids and my grandma, Cec. We had a traditional Christmas dinner, and drank lots of wine and baileys, then watched the Pirates of the Caribbean........
I must go as the library is closing I will finish the story later.....
Christmas has been a great feast with my aunts, uncles, older cousins, little cousins, cousins kids and my grandma, Cec. We had a traditional Christmas dinner, and drank lots of wine and baileys, then watched the Pirates of the Caribbean........
I must go as the library is closing I will finish the story later.....
Monday, December 22, 2003
sliding in the snow in Insbruck
Innsbruck is beautiful right now, it is snowing and the christmas market is open, just stunning, we slid this morning in lots of slow slow snow, but it was a real good run, will be back there tonight at 6 pm, then kel and i leave tomorrow and drive to Prague and fly onto Manchester, looks like christmas will be at mz aunts in Coventry and not Liverpool.
Sunday, December 21, 2003
Ah, it looks like that computer did work after all!
I have 10 minutes to tell you all about what we have been upto, the last computer that i tried blogging from crashed everz time i posted my blog, but by the looks of it it worked. after i last made an entry, i headed to hospital to see if I coud get my chin stitched, since the wound has opened up and was big and gaping. However I was told that was too late and would have to live with it, it has since healed, i should have a nice little scar. The sliding I did was good in Konigsee, but it was expensive, and I still have to qualifz for the world champs to be able to get there wich mans not running out of money before then. Please for give all the spelling mistakes, the kez board is all crayz over here in germanz and i am paying per minute. In Konigsee we stazing in a verz nice holidaz home which we shared withthe dutch team, unfortunatelz it was more expensive that we had expected. Yesterdaz we (ben, kel and I) headed to insbruck where the Igls track is, but befoe we could leave we had to change the bent tyre that kel and i had squashed on the way down from prague, I was packing in mz room when i heard a larged bang, and then heard ben zelling, he had managed to put the Jack through the floor of the rental car, it was verz funn, then when he got the jack in the right spot, he cranked it up and got half of the bolt out when the jack slipped and the car cam crashing down with the wheel hanging half waz off. verz funnz, although i think ben had nearlz had enough. Then a while later ben lets out a damsel in distress call "Girls, help!" the car was missing the bent tyre sitting on the concrete with the axel and the wheel break thingy that is inside under the wheel was on the ground with the jack bent and stuck under it all. Ahhhhh, ben was readz to throw his toys, but we manged to get the jack back and with the help of the kitchen chopping board we steadied the jack got the car up and the tyre on, and on the road to insbruck. We had sent our sleds ahead withte italians, an interesting storie, but no time to tell it.....later. we slid thismorning in igls, such a nice easy track, took 3 runs, 3 fun runs, we slide again tomorrow then head to the uk, must go. will write again soon
Thursday, December 18, 2003
Konigssee
Well finally I have found a computer with a key board.
and arrived with all our luggage, but when Kellys runners came around the
conveyer belt they were hanging out ouf their tube with no runner guards
on! She is sooo lucky that they did not get all scratch up or fall out
compleatly. So we arrived in Prague at about 1pm, and got our rental car,
a very small Skoda, and started driving south, the further south we got
the more it started to snow, it took 7 hours to get 400km down to
Konigssee, and our car has summer tyres even after we especially requested
winter ones. as we arrived in Konigssee we droped down a steep hill and
lost control of the car on the ice, thankfully there was a big stone wall
on the bend in the road that stoped us falling over the edge, we dented
the the wheel rim and lost a hub cap then crawled the last 10 km to our
holiday home that we are sharing withthe Dutch team, we arrived at about
midnight. We slid at 11 am the next day Kel was tired so decided to
watch, it was snowing heavily which I was happy about, I didnät mind my
first run being a slow one, Konigssee has a 360 degrees kriesel corner
like Calgary, but in this one you have to steer up real hard to avoid
flipping on the exit, this is my 3rd time here, last year I flipped and
ended up in hospital with a very bad concussion, so on day one of training
i was a little nervous. I came out of the corner and flipped but rolled
back over pretty quickly, i didnät hit my head, but i got a small cut on
my chin, so the american medic super glued it up and put 3 butterfly
stitches on it, all was good, untill the butterfly stitches came undone
last night, and we notice that the glue has not worked and i have a hole i
could stick mz little finger into on mz chin. Very nice, I will try to
find a doctor at the track to put stitches in it today at the track.
Yesterday I took 2 runs and got out safely, so did Kel, she was here last
year for the Junior Worlds and flipped nearly every run, so she is pleased
at getting 2 safe decents yesterday. Lots of people are flipping this
week. We have 2 more days of training, then we are onto Igls for a few
days, then on the 23rd we fly into the UK for christmas.
and arrived with all our luggage, but when Kellys runners came around the
conveyer belt they were hanging out ouf their tube with no runner guards
on! She is sooo lucky that they did not get all scratch up or fall out
compleatly. So we arrived in Prague at about 1pm, and got our rental car,
a very small Skoda, and started driving south, the further south we got
the more it started to snow, it took 7 hours to get 400km down to
Konigssee, and our car has summer tyres even after we especially requested
winter ones. as we arrived in Konigssee we droped down a steep hill and
lost control of the car on the ice, thankfully there was a big stone wall
on the bend in the road that stoped us falling over the edge, we dented
the the wheel rim and lost a hub cap then crawled the last 10 km to our
holiday home that we are sharing withthe Dutch team, we arrived at about
midnight. We slid at 11 am the next day Kel was tired so decided to
watch, it was snowing heavily which I was happy about, I didnät mind my
first run being a slow one, Konigssee has a 360 degrees kriesel corner
like Calgary, but in this one you have to steer up real hard to avoid
flipping on the exit, this is my 3rd time here, last year I flipped and
ended up in hospital with a very bad concussion, so on day one of training
i was a little nervous. I came out of the corner and flipped but rolled
back over pretty quickly, i didnät hit my head, but i got a small cut on
my chin, so the american medic super glued it up and put 3 butterfly
stitches on it, all was good, untill the butterfly stitches came undone
last night, and we notice that the glue has not worked and i have a hole i
could stick mz little finger into on mz chin. Very nice, I will try to
find a doctor at the track to put stitches in it today at the track.
Yesterday I took 2 runs and got out safely, so did Kel, she was here last
year for the Junior Worlds and flipped nearly every run, so she is pleased
at getting 2 safe decents yesterday. Lots of people are flipping this
week. We have 2 more days of training, then we are onto Igls for a few
days, then on the 23rd we fly into the UK for christmas.
Germany
Well finally I have found a computer with a key board.
