A while ago, I went to Snowbombing. A festival, in the mountains of Austria. They put you up in an apartment, give you a lift ticket and organise a bunch of gigs with amazing djs to get your dance on at. And let me tell you, I got my dance on. I LOVE dancing! I’m not an amazing dancer by any means, I have zero co-ordination and my fist pumps don’t quite match the beat but fuck it. I like shaking my tail feather, moving my body zealously from side to side and throwing my arms up in the air. I look like an idiot, but an idiot who has the biggest grin on her face – getting down to some sweet tunes is ridiculously fun.

And oh man, was I ever treated to some amazing sets – Fat Boy Slim at an amazing street party (in the rain, with lazers. I partied in a dinosaur costume and it was ridiculous), Dizzie Rascal + Labrinth in a forrest (Dizzie had fireworks, yo! The set was amazing, he played Bonkers twice in the finale cause he didn’t want his set to end!), Example (rocked out to from the heights of some boys shoulders till security decided that it wasn’t safe enough. After that I rocked out barrier side, and oh Example – I hear he’s a bit of a bastard, but music wise he might be rival Frank for my London guy spot!), and of course the brilliant DJ Yoda. DJ Yoda actually blew my mind – I tried to find a clip of his amazing you-tube awesomeness that he played but apparently you need to see him in person. I was barrier side for SubFocus, and high fived their MC. I saw Norman Jay 1600 feet above sea level, in the Austrian Alps! I rocked out to MistaJam in an igloo. AN IGLOO! It. Was. Amazing.

And oh, oh oh oh the snow! It dumped down on our first day, and the third day, and everyday bar the last we were riding some form of fresh, amazing powder. We were out finding fresh tracks, riding off piste, sometimes it was bluebird, sometimes the skies opened up to give us more pow. And it was AMAZING! Best European snow I’ve been on yet.

Add in the costumes (I was an indian, the white rabit, a fox and a dinosaur), the fun times that comes with convincing ten of your mates that yes, they did want to come party with you in Austria, and you get a brilliantly good time. It. Was. Amazing. One of the more fun festivals I’ve ever been to.

I had a great time, a phenomenal time. I was with an amazing group of people who made things like dressing up and rocking out and drinking copious amounts of jager status quo. There was always someone keen to party with, always someone keen to go see this gig with, or ride with. They were a good crew (and there was only a tinsy bit of heckling that time when I didn’t get back till the sun was well up and I couldn’t get myself into the apartment…) and I was seriously glad we all went.

And, just because my drunken point-and-click photos really don’t show you how amazing it was, here are two photos stolen from the Snowbombing Feed (taken by the brilliant Dany North).

Fat Boy Slim at the Fat Boy Slim Street Party

Dizzie Rascal in the Eristoff Forest. See the guy in the indian headdress in the foreground? That’s our crew. At this point I’m pretty sure I’m dancing in a dinosaur costume up the front somewhere.

It really was as amazing as it looks.

Note: Snowbombing happens every year about April – you can book a few months before hand on their site. Costs vary depending on what your doing. Just the basics with no extra’s you’re looking at something like £500 (includes festival ticket + accommodation). For a week that includes the fest ticket, accommodation, both parties, lift tickets, gear for the week and lessons, and you’re looking at the £1000 mark). Doesn’t include flights or food (or all the fancy alcohol you’ll be drinking. No worries, because Jager is especially cheap in Austria…)

Sauze was lovely. The snow was average, and disappearing by the day but the blue skies and warmth made up for it. I made friends with a group of English Rugby boys on a stag do. I threw tantrums at people who did the equivalent of kicking over my sand castle for a laugh (bastards – they won’t do that again). I learnt to order tequila rounds in Italian. I gave snowboarding lessons to a friend or two and got them making turns. I went dog sledding, and did a night ride (which was fun, and also super scary). I drank lots, and danced lots, snowboarded some and generally had a good time.

This is what it looked like:

If you ever get a chance to hit up Sauze, do it. It’s brilliant.

Note: We did it with Neilson and thanks to some pretty sweet connections got a nice discount. Without discounts, you’re probably looking at a week with half board, flights, transfers and lift tickets for about £550 per person. Super easy, super amazing. Our rep Mark made everything so easy. There was loads of Neilson apre ski related stuff, a pub crawl on the first night, a ride to France day, the night ride etc etc. If you get the chance, do it.

We were in Italy, and the snow was distinctly average. So we took a half day, took the Gondola over to Sestriere, and spent an hour with the dogs learning to sled. Number 96 on The List.

It was ridiculous, and it was hard. There was lots more running than I thought there’d be. And steering the sled? So much more difficult than it looks. There’s a lot of balancing on one ski, and yanking the sled to where you want it to go, hoping that as the dogs pull forward your sled goes where you want it. Otherwise it all goes wrong and you’ll end up on your face. True story.

But other than that, I really enjoyed it. The dogs worked hard, and were lovely – all the ones we got were quite affectionate and happy to be petted and hang out. Once we got going, and I figured out how to best to stand on the sled it was pretty brilliant. It felt pretty amazing to be out there, having the dogs pull you along.

Honestly, it was great day, and this was definitely one of the more fun things on The List that I’ve done so far. I had a huge grin on my face the whole afternoon after – loads of fun! If you get the opportunity to give it a go, do it.

Note: We did it with Luca from Centro sleddog Sestriere. €60 per person per hour, organised through our Neilson rep. Super easy, super amazing. If you’re in Sestriere, they are to the right of the Gondola as you come out. Look for the teepee.

It was a little pub in South West England. A tiny pub, one of those ones with no bar. Instead there’s a room with one wall is covered in handles. You hand someone a glass, and they refill it with the beverage of your choice. Its the kind of pub that you walk through a farmers field to get to, and everyone is wearing plaid shirts + puffer vests. A nice little country pub.

The best part about this little country pub? It has a skittle alley out the back. This long, cold concrete room, with broken window panes + an old green strip of carpet down the middle. It’s got these old yellow lights, and has sorts of random things in there; broken chairs, and old rusted trophy’s. And it’s got skittles.

When you’re boozed, skittles is great fun. Making up the rules, drinking wine, dancing. The skittles are made of wood, and are quite heavy. The balls are even heavier. It’s basically a more fun version of bowling. And oh, did we have fun. I don’t quite remember how much wine we had, or how we made it home (through a few fields, I’m sure), but I do remember that I won. I do remember that I had a great time, and there was lots of laughing, and bragging, and ridiculousness.

Sometimes I think that the most interesting things about places are those things you can’t see, and wouldn’t expect. Having a skittle alley definitely makes this tiny little pub one of my favourites. You’d never know it was there, apparently not that many people play it. It’s a fun little quirk.

What fun quirky things are you guys rocking at the moment?

While I was in Dahab, in Egypt, I booked a Bedouin trip into the local mountains. There was a BBQ (BEST mountain food I’d ever eaten, hands down), and we climbed the peaks and watched the stars. And we rode in on Camels.

Now, let me tell you that every rumor that you have heard about camels being grumpy is true. They are like grumpy, horrible old men that smell bad and want to be somewhere else. Anywhere else.

They don’t like being patted. They don’t like carrying people. They don’t like being told where to go, and definitely don’t like being told that they have to stop eating that garbage to walk up a hill with me on it’s back. Otherwise they were perfectly darling. Except that it was uncomfortable. Not like riding a horse at all. Their gait was strange, and watching them unfold as they stood up made them seem like Mother Nature’s transformers.

Still, I did. Consider 118 Done!

So, it’s coming to the end of 2011 and I thought that as blogging + I are on the outs at the moment (I’m just not feeling it, you know?) that I’d do one last post for the year and square everything away.

Egypt
I went. And it was delightful. There was windsurfing, and kitesurfing and paddleboarding and snorkeling. I got a tan, and spent an awful lot of time being warm. I ate an awful lot of Egyptian Food, and drank well too much Egyptian Vodka. I spent a lot of time with my cousin Morfee, and he’s brilliant to hang with. I (surprisingly) miss him now that he’s not around so much. We hung out with the Neilson crew, I spent a lot of time sunning myself in front of a bar that sat on a lagoon. I fed a ridiculous amount of stray kittens, and napped and I rode a camel.

We also did a day trip out to Cairo, where we so the pyramids, learned to say “la shukran” to all the people trying to sell me stuff. We even (though not advised by any embassy that I could find) went to Tahrir Square. It was the one place we went to where we were the only tourists. We saw a tiny part of a revolution, and it was pretty amazing. Tense, but amazing.

Whitewater Rafting
I did it. On London’s Olympic Course months and months ago now, with The Third + Fourth Quarters, with J, and with a Bunny. We got wet. We capsized. We paddled our little hearts out. There was a lot of water in the face, a lot of trying to sync our paddling with the person in front and not get caught up with the paddle of the person behind us. It was a lot of mad grinning and bumping into other rafts and I generally had an absolutely brilliant time. Apparently the park opens back up again in January, so if you are London based and get the opportunity, you should go!

Culture++; and other fun things I did
I have seen a bunch of shows in the last little while. Les Miserables, which I enjoyed quite a lot. The Phantom of the Opera, which I enjoyed less. The Phantom was quite creepy and very insecure. Sibling
graduated from university, I’m super proud of her! I’m also well annoyed that I couldn’t be there, and the other side of the world seems too far away. There was a usability conference, Liz + Rob came and stayed (and we visited Byron Burger, honestly, best mac+cheese I’d had in a long time!), there has been a bunch of design work (windsurfing brand redesigns, bio oil conversion site, b+b’s, a possible forrrst for photos) so yes, been busy.

The Dating Files of 2011
I had loads of posts for this. Loads of little moments I wanted to remember, and things I wanted to better understand. But I managed to discard the draft in which I’d stored all these moments. Fail. In the interest of keeping it short + sweet there were two Jimmy’s that I haven’t mentioned yet. One I spent a good six months trying not to fall for before his visa ran out (and was mostly successful) and the other, well, let’s just say that sleeping with that super cute Windsurfing Instructor in Egypt was probably not the cleverest idea I’ve ever had.

Anyway, as it’s the end of 2011 I’m retiring this series. Also, I’m avoiding boys and gettin into anything anyway, so it would be a pretty boring series going into 2012.

The List
I have done a bunch of things (#112 – See 10 invaders pieces in person, #118 Ride a camel) and crossed off parts of a few other ones. I’m glad that I still have The List, and that I’m still crossing things off. I feel like these deserve their own posts, and so will have them.

The Blog
While I’ll still blog about The List, I’m not really feeling blogging in general. So while I’ll still be around, and still comment and read all your blogs, I probably won’t update here is much. Maybe when inspiration strikes, but not much more. Call it a new phase?

Hope your holidays are brilliant, Merry Christmas!

elly x

I’m in Egypt, in Dahab. As I type this, I’m set up in a bar by a lagoon. I’m in a bikini, still slightly wet, having just come off the water and out of a windsurfing lesson. I’ve been here a week, and oh oh oh, it’s been glorious! It’s been warm, deliciously deliciously warm. I’m tanned, and quite happy with my lot at the moment.

The people are brilliant, from the Neilson crew (who, very conveniently, my travelling buddy Morfee is part of, thanks to his seasons in Greece), the other guests, the Datchet crew, the guy behind the bar – Naggy, who flirts outrageously with all the girls here.

It is a gorgeous place to be. This afternoon I’ma go back on the water and hopefully learn how to beachstart. There’s a dregs party with the Datchet crew, and then the Neilson BBQ. There will be Camel riding out into the desert with a Bendouin BBQ. There is a bunch of kitesurfing to be had, cocktails to be drunk, and partying to be danced.

I’d planned to write a bunch of posts so you wouldn’t notice my absence, but while I’m here? Writing is the last thing I want to do. Sooo, I will let you know when I’m back in a week or two.

Till then, this is the view I’ve got. Hope your view is just as pretty x