MK5 Golf GTI
General => Random Chat => Topic started by: VC on January 09, 2012, 07:41:32 pm
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The white stuff is currently dumping big snow on the euro resorts :party:
Anyone been out there yet? I'm headed for Austria in about 3 weeks time :pomppomp:
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should be good fun
only ever been skiing once, loved every minute of it. sadly not had a chance to go back!!
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I've been to Zell am See, Austria a couple of times skiing. Awesome fun, definitely want to go again in the near future!
Whereabouts in Austria are you heading?
:smiley:
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I prefer stateside normally but my mate suggested we do kitzbuhel, they've been having whiteouts so can't wait to get over there
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I prefer stateside normally but my mate suggested we do kitzbuhel, they've been having whiteouts so can't wait to get over there
Went to Kitzbuhel just after the war (well it feels like it, it was so long ago, maybe 15 yr's ago) very pretty village, resort height not that high, good restaurants, a little tame on the apres-ski from memory, skiing was good for my level then; second week on the slopes.
Beer was cold, the women were warm, slopes covered in snow - what more could you want - ahhhhhhh good times
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Sounds ideal :popcornsoda:
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You lucky man,i aint been on the board for 5 yrs now... :sad:
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Me and three mates are off to Val Thorens for my 25th in 3 weeks, cant wait!
I will be spending most of my birthday at the Folie Douce!! :drinking:
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Just back from Boarding Tahoe.. STILL not snowed but the septics have done an outstanding job on laying down the powder..On the plane home we were talking about hitting Poland in a few weeks...
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Just back from Boarding Tahoe.. STILL not snowed but the septics have done an outstanding job on laying down the powder..On the plane home we were talking about hitting Poland in a few weeks...
last time i did Tahoe is was killer conditions, gunna get back there one day....with a side order of Reno
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Me and three mates are off to Val Thorens for my 25th in 3 weeks, cant wait!
I will be spending most of my birthday at the Folie Douce!! :drinking:
I'm off to Val Thorens on Saturday. Looking forward to it! The snow in Europe is epic. I cant wait to get shredding now!
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Wednesday January 11, 2012 SKY NEWS
Hundreds of British holidaymakers have been trapped in the Austrian alpine village of Ischgl after a freak snowfall.
The resort is shut off after 18ft (5.4m) of snow fell in just a few days - almost as much as during the whole of last season.
Police closed the Tyrolean destination because of fears of avalanche. There have been two since Saturday.
Lifts at the top of the mountain were switched off with Army helicopters reportedly scrambled at one stage to airlift inexperienced skiers to safety.
The nearby popular resorts of St Anton and Lech were also badly hit.
Lisa Tyrell from tour firm Inghams told Sky News: "The road to Ischgl was opened briefly today but it's been closed again.
"Our changeover day is Saturday and we managed to transfer our 2,000 clients in and out of the resort but independent travellers are likely to be having a bit of a problem.
"All the skiing companies obviously anticipate snow problems and are geared up for this this kind of situation but it's been a challenge because there's been so much snow across the whole of Europe."
He added: "It's great for skiers, of course!"
Ankie Kathrein, manager of the Solaria Hotel, told The Times: "There is a bit of panic that you can't get out.
"You are not allowed to leave Ischgl. Police are guarding the exits to the town because of a fear of avalanches. It is very dangerous.
"People are getting hectic and panicked. But perhaps the nightlife is maybe a little bit more up because people think, 'Well, what else can I do?'"
:jumpmove: :jumpmove: :jumpmove: :jumpmove: :jumpmove: :jumpmove: :jumpmove: :jumpmove:
(https://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdaylife.sky.com%2Fimageserve%2F06035X0bUPcy3%2F614x.jpg&hash=89179403d11ba76b7b0e7a858f22ffd1d011c4f0)
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My mate told me about Ischgl snow issues, he arrived there on Saturday and at the Solaria hotel LOL (we all stayed there in jan 2011 was a nice Hotel!),, apparently the nightlife is still amazing (was there this time last year!) and is helping to ease the burden of all that snow!.
he told me yesterday that 9 of them had hired a Piste basher (and driver) for the day so they could have access to safe areas of piste as most lifts had shut :happy2:
IM going there with my best mate on march 17th, we are driving out there (Have snow chains!) so the Ed30 will get a good run through germany (hope some of the Motorways on way down there are still de-restricted :evilgrin:
ON another note to answer original question I was in les Deux Alpes 17th through 24th December and they had 1.5m of snow the week before we got there and another 1.2m whilse I was there (fortunatley only on 3 of the 6 days the rest snowed during the night, it was great!!!!!.
Word of warning tho, Les Deux Alpes is not that Snowboarder friendly most of the blue run (and strangley) a few of the red runs have UPHILL sections!!!, annoying!. ONce you done it once you know where they are and you can get your speed up to get past them, I was on one of these blue runs with a large flat section that I managed my top speed of 53.3mph using the GPS app "Les 2 Alpes" on iphone :evilgrin:
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Quick update my mate tells me that the lifts are open again in Ischgl, they ended up using the Piste Basher for visiting some Off Piste areas, apparently they got talking to some wealthy Russian guy and he invited them to go with him and his wife as they were only 2 of them going, so they ended up filling the extra 6 seats, they offered him some money towards it and he would not have any of it, god knows how much that cost him lol
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:signLOL:
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I'm looking to book somewhere cheap, half board really, around 11th Feb or 7th April due to the other half being a teacher...
anyone know of somewhere cheap?
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Andorra is usually pretty cheap, avoid pas de la cassa and aim for soldeu (not sure on the spellings)
the slopes that join cassa are utter rubbish and your lift pass is extortionate money to extend to cross the mountains whereas soldeu has nicer longer runs and better nightlife :happy2:
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You wont find cheap for 11th feb, not unless your very lucky im afraid as everyone is trying to go those dates (french have holidays then too so sharpen your elbows for the lift queues!)), we were looking for same date in Feb due to my mates wife being a teacher, 7th April would likely be a cheaper option for you but snow getting pretty slushy by then, crispy in mornings and slushy in afternoons
Italy tends to be cheaper than france, I saw a deal yesterday for 17th March £299 4 Star half board nice looking hotel in centre of town in Sauze D'oulx Italy.
try teletext online for cheap deals they tend to be pretty well priced.
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Quick look on teletex shows cheapest available for that week would be around £680+ per person, austria or Italy, France start at around £700+
April yo should get soemthing for around £500 pp
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nice one on the heads up
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Prices don't seem bad at the begining of April...
Snow wise though for April would Italy, France or Bulgaria be best?
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Think chamonix just hadq good load of snow
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Lots os areas in Alps had loads of snow, I was in les Deux alpes week before Xmas and they had loads of snow too, Ischgl had 5.4m (18ft) in last few days, getting in an out will be tricky and its a VERY expensive place altho worth it as Apres is the best I have seen in 15 years!.
Italy not had as much, France and Austria seem to had most of it.
Would not recommend Bulgaria unless you like your food cold or lukewarm at best and skiing is not exactly challenging, good for families on a budget but otherwise give it a miss.
Ischgl Austria is FANTASTIC but Expensive.
Alpe D'Huez France is large ski area (Good Off piste!) and good nightlife and reasonably priced
Les Deux Alpes France good ski area but not very snowboarder friendly due to flat areas, reasonably priced (we went in december 4* Full Board (Including free bar from 4pm through to 10pm!) inc lift pass for £675.
Montgenevre France is great skiing but limited nightlife (and you can do 3 countries in 1 day there also!)
3 valleys France (Meribel, Courcheval, Les Menuires, Val Thorens, La tania etc) massive ski areas, meribel/courcheval expensive, la tania and Les menuires limited nightlife and much cheaper!
Val D'Isere/Tignes France, good skiing and expensive
Vars cheap but expect long uphill walkes to hotels
Sauze D'Oulx Italy, good skiing and relatively cheap.
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Well after a txt off my mate ive just booked to go to Bansko in Bulgaria on the 28th Jan :party: :party: Ain't stepped foot on a snowboard in 2 years so it should be fun. Not sure what to expect from Bansko though and Im not really a fan of Bulgaria due to previous experiences whilst there on hol's a few years ago. But it was cheap enough so I thought why not :popcornsoda:. Paid just over £500 for 4* Hotel half board with lift passes and board rental.
Getting rather excited now :party: :party:
Ben
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Well after a txt off my mate ive just booked to go to Bansko in Bulgaria on the 28th Jan :party: :party: Ain't stepped foot on a snowboard in 2 years so it should be fun. Not sure what to expect from Bansko though and Im not really a fan of Bulgaria due to previous experiences whilst there on hol's a few years ago. But it was cheap enough so I thought why not :popcornsoda:. Paid just over £500 for 4* Hotel half board with lift passes and board rental.
Getting rather excited now :party: :party:
Ben
I went to Bansko 2 years ago and I enjoyed it, it was only my 2nd time skiing so I was just glad to be out there having a go. By the end of the week we had done most of the runs. The nightlife was ok too, nice big bar at the bottom of the gondola which was good, couple of nice restaurants as well
I don't know if I'd go back due to it being a bit smaller but for value for money it was fantastic
Enjoy :happy2:
Matt
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If your not a regular intermediate or advanced skier Bulgaria will be fine, its only when your inter/advanced I would not recommend it as piste is limited at best
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Well it is the holiday season (for me anyway), so after my trip to Les Deux alpes week before xmas, myself and my mate decided we wanted to go to Ischgl again and drive there, well after costing it all out (Fuel, tunnel, self catering apt, food etc) we were looking at approx £445 each to do it for week 17th to 24th March, well after a few convos between us we decided to look at flying instead and just booked today to go to Sestriere (part of the Milky Way ski area in Italy) and we got 3*HB hotel, flights, tranfers etc for £349 each, so its booked and paid for, only we are going 11th to 18th March instead!!, roll on the snow clouds if you please!.
If there had been 4 us going in the car it wold have worked out at only £250 each but as 2 could not commit we thought sod it, fly!
I dont do summer holidays so try to go snowboarding at least twice per year (3 if i can manage it with work!).
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Well it is the holiday season (for me anyway), so after my trip to Les Deux alpes week before xmas, myself and my mate decided we wanted to go to Ischgl again and drive there, well after costing it all out (Fuel, tunnel, self catering apt, food etc) we were looking at approx £445 each to do it for week 17th to 24th March, well after a few convos between us we decided to look at flying instead and just booked today to go to Sestriere (part of the Milky Way ski area in Italy) and we got 3*HB hotel, flights, tranfers etc for £349 each, so its booked and paid for, only we are going 11th to 18th March instead!!, roll on the snow clouds if you please!.
If there had been 4 us going in the car it wold have worked out at only £250 each but as 2 could not commit we thought sod it, fly!
I dont do summer holidays so try to go snowboarding at least twice per year (3 if i can manage it with work!).
That sounds great, who did you book it with if you don't mind me asking?!
I'm looking at going but were wanting to go cheap this year, it's the lift passes that are the expensive part
Cheers,
Matt
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Hi Matt, we got the deal off Teletext through an Abta agent, its actually a Thomas Cook / Neilson holiday tho :happy2: basically they "Broker" out late deals to agencioes to fill the flights and rooms so we got a holiday with a brochure price of £659 (on thomas cook website at £375 currently) for £349 each, was happy with that, cheapest we could find HB in france was £392 or £380 in Austria (my choice!, better apres! :drinking:)
Lift passes for Milky way are around £167 This covers Sestriere, Sauze D'oulx, Sansicario, Cesana, Claviere and Montgenevre (In france, been there apres limited but great mountains!), thats approx 400km of piste in total (who cares about Piste tho im a snowboarder i rarely touch pistes! :evilgrin:)
Sestriere is also a high altitude resort (at 2035m) so snow should be ok going late in season.
Good luck with the search, there are deals to be had if you look every day!
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Anyone ever been to Garmish? What about Sun Peaks in Canada?
And VC, which are you?
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went to tignes early season for the board test, went to avoriaz a few weeks ago and off to sestriere in a couple of weeks then st anton late season. Been a good season for snow so far. Much better than last year
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I am a snowboarder too, never ski'd, had 1 lesson of each 15 years back and chose snowboarding, you will have to let me know what Sestriere is like! as im going 10th March!
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After Tahoe last month,heading up to Nevis range next Friday.... Fort william nights... :drinking:
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I'm off to Val Thorens tomorrow. Snow is looking amazing! :laugh: :happy2:
Just got to load up the car and pray the roofbox will go on and its a 4.30am start for us to catch the shuttle in the morning!
Going with three mates and have the bonus of being on the slopes on Wednesday for my 25th birthday! :jumpmove:
Incase you can't tell I'm super excited!
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I am a snowboarder too, never ski'd, had 1 lesson of each 15 years back and chose snowboarding, you will have to let me know what Sestriere is like! as im going 10th March!
Sure thing... not sure what its gonna be like tbh. Looks a bit of a smaller resort.
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I am a snowboarder too, never ski'd, had 1 lesson of each 15 years back and chose snowboarding, you will have to let me know what Sestriere is like! as im going 10th March!
Sure thing... not sure what its gonna be like tbh. Looks a bit of a smaller resort.
Yes, I can imagine the Apres is nothing like Ischgl but i dont think anywhere is like Ischgl :evilgrin:, as long as it has a few decent apres bars im not fussed, ski area is good tho as been to both Montgenevre and sauze d'oulx before both in same ski area!, Sauze I cant really remember it (apart from Coaches dropping u off in massive car park and you walked to hotel as its a pedestrianised area), think I blocked it out as went with ex GF and she was an absolute nightmare and ruined the holiday :fighting: she got the shove 2 months later and never been on a ski holiday with a GF since (lesson learned!!)
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I am a snowboarder too, never ski'd, had 1 lesson of each 15 years back and chose snowboarding, you will have to let me know what Sestriere is like! as im going 10th March!
Sure thing... not sure what its gonna be like tbh. Looks a bit of a smaller resort.
think I blocked it out as went with ex GF and she was an absolute nightmare and ruined the holiday :fighting: she got the shove 2 months later and never been on a ski holiday with a GF since (lesson learned!!)
Funny you say that, last time I went skiing I went with a girlfriend and 10 of her family. We split up on the second night which made it a bit awkward :signLOL:
Matt
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haha the trip i went on last month was with an ex (we booked when we were together) and it was rubbish... completely ruined the week
i think the thing we can learn from this is that boarding is a guys only sport!!! :)
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Damn those of you who are going skiing. Couldn't afford it this year, with buying a house. :sad1:
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I am a snowboarder too, never ski'd, had 1 lesson of each 15 years back and chose snowboarding, you will have to let me know what Sestriere is like! as im going 10th March!
Sure thing... not sure what its gonna be like tbh. Looks a bit of a smaller resort.
think I blocked it out as went with ex GF and she was an absolute nightmare and ruined the holiday :fighting: she got the shove 2 months later and never been on a ski holiday with a GF since (lesson learned!!)
Funny you say that, last time I went skiing I went with a girlfriend and 10 of her family. We split up on the second night which made it a bit awkward :signLOL:
Matt
It would have been even funnier had you brought a bird back to the room :signLOL: :signLOL: :signLOL:
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haha the trip i went on last month was with an ex (we booked when we were together) and it was rubbish... completely ruined the week
i think the thing we can learn from this is that boarding is a guys only sport!!! :)
Boarding is a lads trip agreed :drinking: but finding women when your there is half the fun :evilgrin: especcially if you can add to your international tally :drinking:
Last 3 trips with the lads I found myself spending some quality time with a Dutch Girl (Les Deux 2011) a german girl (Ischgl 2011) and a Brazilian girl (Ischgl 2010) :love:
At richwig, hey mate having a house is all good (Good time to buy as long as it was 1st house!), a few years settling in and you will be back on the slopes, my issue is fitting in woth my parents extended holidays (we have a family business and myself or my parents can only be on holiday seperately), makes it tough when your parents take 1st april to 15th July and 1st september to 15th November, altho that does leave pretty much the entire ski season to me :happy2:, which is fine as most of my mates who I used to go Scuba diving with are now married and cant go and my mates who snowboard theres still a few of us left who are either single or can do what they want :happy2:
Next year hoping to go 3 times, New years eve week (wherever is cheapest in france/italy or Austria), then late Feb USA or Canada and then a drive out to alps trip in late march, thats the plan anyhoo!!
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Damn those of you who are going skiing. Couldn't afford it this year, with buying a house. :sad1:
Hey mate... If the snow arrives I'll give you a lift to the Stocksbridge Alps!.
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Just back from Sestriere and I've got to say I loved the place. I didnt have very high expectations before going to be honest but I'm definitely going back.
We were plagued with some of the hottest skiing conditions I've ever experienced!! got up to 24 degrees on Thursday in town and hit about 13 on mid slopes so the snow was obviously very slushy and they couldnt use the snow cannons all week but they still did a good job of grooming and keeping the slopes open.
We stayed in the old olympic village which was brilliantly situated at the bottom of the gondolla to saulze and the chairlift to take you up to the sestriere slopes and you could ski back to the door from the sestriere slopes. We were in half board apartments which were close the the main building and although they were basic (had a bit of a hostel feel to the beds and rooms) it was cleaned every day with new towels and it was everything you need from a snow holiday. Food was excellent and they have an in house pizza place which makes excellent fresh pizza.
There is also tons of off piste and although I didnt get to sample any first hand due to the lack of powder... or indeed any snow of any kind... Its all easily accessible and I cant wait to go back next year.
Here is a quick vid of my first attempt at skiing. Seeing as the conditions werent great I didnt feel bad missing a few days boarding and actually picked it up pretty quick and really enjoyed it..
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Just back from Denver. Loved it.
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Just back from Sestriere and I've got to say I loved the place. I didnt have very high expectations before going to be honest but I'm definitely going back.
We were plagued with some of the hottest skiing conditions I've ever experienced!! got up to 24 degrees on Thursday in town and hit about 13 on mid slopes so the snow was obviously very slushy and they couldnt use the snow cannons all week but they still did a good job of grooming and keeping the slopes open.
We stayed in the old olympic village which was brilliantly situated at the bottom of the gondolla to saulze and the chairlift to take you up to the sestriere slopes and you could ski back to the door from the sestriere slopes. We were in half board apartments which were close the the main building and although they were basic (had a bit of a hostel feel to the beds and rooms) it was cleaned every day with new towels and it was everything you need from a snow holiday. Food was excellent and they have an in house pizza place which makes excellent fresh pizza.
There is also tons of off piste and although I didnt get to sample any first hand due to the lack of powder... or indeed any snow of any kind... Its all easily accessible and I cant wait to go back next year.
Here is a quick vid of my first attempt at skiing. Seeing as the conditions werent great I didnt feel bad missing a few days boarding and actually picked it up pretty quick and really enjoyed it..
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Good to know sestriere was great as im flying out there sunday 11th :drinking:
My best mates sisters friend (tenuous link) just came back from sestriere 2 weeks ago and said it was great, she said the apres was good too and the slopes were great, she did mention the lack of offpiste snow and the higher temps, this week its gone colder again and a small amount of snow is predicted for this week (nothing to get excited about were talking 5cm lol) but it all helps.
Judging by your vid you picked up skiing quickly enough, nice one!
Just bought myself a helmet cam today so hoping to be able to get some vids of me and my mate, cant wait!!
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Well just got back on sunday night from sestriere and can say I enjoyed the place altho nightlife was "Limited" compared to what im used to anyway, had a great time and met some great people in the hotel, it was a proper mixed bag of socialising, several couples, several groups of lads (2 were proper funny, like peter kay and paddy mcguiness) :signLOL:) and even a pair of lesbians :signLOL:.
We did the quiz (came 3rd :sad1:), did the away day to Montgenevre (been before and great place for snowboarding) and even did some Husky dog sledding which was good fun altho very tiring as the 4 dogs were unable to pull my 6'3" frame uphill so had to push at some points (at one point when we came to a slight incline I could swear that all 4 dogs turned round and looked at me as it to say "Get off and Push you fat fooker!" :grin:).
Weather was VERY warm, snowboarding in a T shirt most days lol, we got in 6.5 days of boarding (due to an early flight out) and only the last day was cloudy otherwise blue skies all week!, cracking face and arm tan :P
Also at lunch on the mountain one day (3rd day) I was looking at this chap 2 tables over and thinking he looks familiar!, pointed him out to my mate who said thats "Sir Steve Redgrave" (5 time Olympic rowing Champion) so we had a chat with him and got our pic take with him, top bloke, saw him again 2 days later at same resty and as he went past smiled and said "hello lads!", chuffed!