J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by AllyG

Hi,
I don't actually know the answer to any of those questions, but I know how I would go about finding the answer.

I'd start with picking my resort - e.g. Val Thorens, where I've just been on holiday. Then I'd go on the tourist board website, e.g. valthorens.com, and e-mail the lift people, setam, to ask them the price of the seasonal pass. I don't know how reliable the information is but skiinfo.com says the seasonal lift pass for Val Thorens costs 707 Euros.

Then, again from the website, I'd e-mail the estate agents in Val Thorens, e.g. Val Thorens Immobilier, the one we've just used, to see if they could provide you with accommodation for those months, and find out how much they'd charge. We let out holiday accommodation here in the U.K. and sometimes we do long lets, and I'd guess that at that time of year you could probably get it for 60% of the usual price, but I'm only guessing. It would depend on their usual occupancy rates etc.

I suppose you could also advertise in the press here for accommodation, hoping that a British person here would be glad to have a long let and save all the hassle involved in weekly lets.

And if you were wanting to work as well, I'd go on another website, e.g. natives.co.uk for people living and working in Val Thorens, to see what advice they had.

I have no idea if you'd have to get a special visa to stay 3 months, but you could easily find out from the passport people, once you'd decided which country you wanted to go to.

I hope this is of some help,

Ally

Rose,
Well, it sounds like it worked out O.K. for both of you, in the end. I can see why you have some regrets though, thinking of what could have been.

Neither of my daughters were especially good at swimming, but they did improve in the squad, and it was good exercise for them, and it was very cheap.

Ally

Rose,
But would you really want him playing competitive tennis at that level? It must be very stressful. Teaching tennis sounds much more rewarding, and is more of a long term job.

My daughters used to be in the local swimming squad, and some of the parents were very pushy, and they used to drive their kids from one gala to another, and eat tea and supper in the car, and spend all weekend sitting at the side of a pool somewhere watching them and timing them with stopwatches and yelling at them.

In other words, in order to succeed at the top level you have to make a lot of sacrifices (plus presumably as you said have some money, or find some sponsors).

Ally

It's O.K. mine were green, and permanently stained with cow muck, not at all fashionable.

Ally

Well, you must have done something right Rose, or he wouldn't have turned out so well.

And, to return to the original subject, how could anyone eat that much and then ski afterwards? I mean, I would find it impossible to move.

Ally

Rose,
I think the problem was, the other mothers didn't see what was going on, because they were off ski-ing in their own lessons, and if the kids complained I suppose they just thought they were whingeing about nothing.

The last day at one point nearly all the children had had enough, and they went on strike and refused to ski, and sat in the snow making a snowman. The instructor complained to me about it, and I said I thought she ought to give them some time off, and let them play. And do you know, afterwards my daughter said that making that snowman was the most fun thing she did all holiday.

The mother of the 7 year old boy who was deaf in one ear, complained to her rep about it, but I don't think there was another available lesson and/or teacher.

Ally

Pablo,
I was warm and dry so I suppose the kit was O.K.

I spoke to the instructor to find out what her problem was, and it turned out she had a major grudge against British pcople, and as far as I could see she was taking it out on the kids.

She was very well qualified, at a Bulgarian university, and had previously had a well paid job at a bank in England, and had an English boyfriend, but she wasn't allowed to stay in the U.K. because her visa ran out, and they weren't allowed to get married because they had to live together first, and she was very angry about it (this was about 6 years ago). And I suppose the only job available to her was being a ski instructor, which in Bulgaria at the time was very badly paid.

She thought our kids were soft, and spoiled, compared with the Bulgarian kids, and she deliberately made things very hard for them. I was cross with her, because one of the kids, a 7 year old boy, was crying, and gave up ski-ing, and I found out from his mother that he'd been born premature and had had a really tough time and I think was deaf in one ear with a special hearing aid.

I did complain to the TO rep and she said that woman would never be teaching ski-ing to kids again. I wanted my daughter to have fun, and enjoy ski-ing, so that we could go on ski-ing holidays together in the future. As it was, because I was there to help, and pick her up (as well as all the other kids), she did ski again and is now a very good skier, miles better than me. At one point, I actually had to walk up the side of a very icy slope and rescue the poor kids because they were all stuck, and half of them were crying, and I got them all out safely through the trees and back down to the instructor.

Perhaps in a way it was fortunate that I did break my shoulder or I never would have known what was going on, and I would have just wondered why my daughter didn't want to ski any more.

Ally

Ian, what's supposed to be wrong with that C&A top? It looks fine to me.

Pablo, it's very kind of you to say there was nothing wrong with my black salopettes, but you never actually saw them. I remember my instructor trying to pull the elastic inner bit over my ski boots, and it wouldn't reach, because they were meant for an 11 year old, and it was a tiny bit embarassing.

I was wearing wellies in Borovets because it was after I'd broken my shoulder on the dry ski slope, and I wasn't ski-ing. So, I followed my 9 year old daughter's beginners class around the slopes (which I know you're not supposed to do) because she had a horrid instructor who refused to help the children up when they fell, even when they were only 7 years old and crying, and I was a bit like their lifeboat - even though I only had one useful arm. On that long blue run that's probably a road, I had to pick up a kid on every bend, in my wellies, with one arm in a sling.

The rest of the Bulgarian ski instructors were great - one very kindly said 'very good walking', as he skied past me.

Ally