Hi All (hashers and hashers yet to be alike)
I'm back from France and ready to tell all about my adventures with the West London Hash on their (our?) ski trip.
Before I get to the exciting story of the bowling match, I'm going to bore you with talk about drinking, skiing, drinking, eating, partying, yet even more drinking....
I flew out of BWI on Friday the 14th at 6 PM. Soon after takeoff, the steward came around with the booze. He gave me twice as much wine and scotch whisky as everyone else. I began to wonder -- does British Airways have a database of hashers? A policy saying a drunk hasher is a happy hasher? Inquiring minds want to know...
We arrived at 6:30 AM London time at Gatwick. This place is starting to look familiar -- 3 times in less than 6 months. Immigration was fun. You get strange looks when you list your UK residence as Gatwick Airport. Particularly when you're disheveled as I was. With three hours to kill, I explored Gatwick. Checked out the duty free shopping for the return trip (ooh, good prices on whisky), had breakfast. The big shock at breakfast was finding out they charge more for a bottle of American Budweiser than for a bottle of Sam Adams. Must talk to these folks....
At 9:30 I met up with West London. Spotted Fetherlite right away -- she's a lovely lady with very red hair. Introduced myself all around. One of the great things about hashing is meeting other hashers. It seems no matter where you go, you're meeting friends. Soon we were on our Air 2000 plane headed to Lyon. We were barely in the air when the cabin crew was passing out wine and food. The wine was good, the food edible.
After arriving in Lyon we boarded a charter bus to take us to Tignes (pronounced "teen"). On the way up to Tignes, Slack Nuts was altering a photograph of Knockers for use on his ski pass. The French, it seems, insist that all passes have a picture of the user on it to prevent theft. A few years back Slack Nuts substituted another's picture for his and he's been doing ever since. Important note: Slack Nuts is old enough to be Knockers' father. He has much less hair than Knockers and the hair is white. Other than that and a few other things they could be mistaken for twins -- not!
After arriving in Tignes, we had a wonderful dinner at the Chalet Rosset with wine flowing freely. After dinner I crashed -- I'd been up since Friday morning. That night I met my roommate -- an English poinsettia farmer, hash name Local Knowledge. Really friendly guy.
The next morning we had breakfast and headed out to the slopes. The chalet even provided us with ski guides if we cared to follow them. The guides divided us into two groups. I wound up with the faster group (yippee!). The skiing was fantastic. The weather was sunny. After a hard morning of skiing we descended upon the Hotel L'Arbina for lunch. The beef bourguignonne was exquisite! This is what life is all about -- friends, skiing, good food and drink. After lunch it was up to the top. By 2:00, though, I was exhausted. Too little sleep and too much skiing had taken its toll. I went back to the chalet and got some rest. Later it was out to a local bar for a beer and dinner again at the chalet. I decided to crash early in an attempt to catch up on my sleep.
Monday I headed off to do photography. I haven't got the slides back yet, though. The scenery was fantastic. Also did photography on Wednesday when the light was better. At least two of the shots are going to find their way into my art.
Other high points: dinner on Wednesday was away from the chalet at a place named L'Eterlou. More good food and lots of wine. During dinner we entertained one another with hash songs. I sang the White House Hash Song (for non hashers, see the URL http://www.dchashing.org/whitehouse/index.html. Follow the link "About Us". Be warned -- this song is not PG-13.). People were impressed.
Remember Slack Nuts? The guy who used another's picture on his ski pass? He got arrested for it. Spent the morning in a French jail.
I wasn't the only American on the trip. Marianne, Coolbox's cousin, an Air Force officer currently stationed in Germany, was also on the trip. Snow White is also an American -- but with a very British accent. On Wednesday I did find out that I was in the running for "Annoying Git of the Week" because I was from the U.S. and hadn't annoyed anyone!
Thursday we had a ski hash. Almost 40 of us skiing around Tignes, looking for hash marks in the snow (colored, fortunately), having much fun before finishing at a bar at the top of one of the mountains.
Thursday after dinner was the bowling match. Yes, Tignes has a bowling alley. It was small -- only 10 lanes -- but very different. On the right side of the alley was a bar. On the left side was a mural. The mural had Humphrey Bogart in the middle with the New York skyline on the right and a Harley on the left. The pins were painted to look like Adolf Hitler. And every guy who bowled a perfect game got a free night with the owner's cute daughter. OK, I made the last two things up... I got a perfect "100" in my game!!! Oh, perfect in bowling is 300? What do you know... Anyway, drinking cognac certainly improved my game. My lifetime average must be up to 35 by now!
Friday evening we had a "Fancy Dress" (costume) party with the theme "Friends, Romans, Countrymen." I immediately thought "Toga Party!" and brought a sheet. Marianne also thought "Toga!" and came prepared. So did some people who'd actually picked up some real togas while hashing in Rome. Marianne looked a lot better in her outfit than I did in mine. Course she's a lot better looking to start... Others came as characters from the show "Friends." And a few came as countrymen -- English, American, etc. More food, more drink, a wonderful party.
Saturday it was back to the UK. I spent the night at Local Knowledge's farm. His family and I went out to a local Indian restaurant to celebrate his youngest daughter's birthday.
Sunday it was back to Gatwick. Some duty free shopping (you know you're getting to be an international traveler when you spend more time and money in Gatwick's duty free shopping than in local shopping malls) and then back home.
It was a great time. I hope I can go again next year.
And now for a picture from the trip