inside my sparkilicious world
Been so tired almost every other night. Though I may not be the most hardworking of the lot but I did my fair share of snowboarding the last 2 days when the weather got better. Here are some shots to remember the holiday by:
Where will we be going in 2014? I wonder..
7 days of boarding with the peeps in Courchevel 1850 was simply amazing! This has got to be one of our best winter holidays here in the French Alps. The weather was great plus the piste was absolutely wonderful. Wide and gentle slopes that cater to skiers and boarders of all levels.
The best memories of our trip are captured in these shots:
> Gorgeous room that we had at Chalet St. Christophe. Thoughtful friends left the best room for the Man and I.
> Antoine, our in-house chef, fed us really well throughout our stay. Definitely ate way too much!
> Harry Potter movie nights and champagne. Think we cleared out about 40 bottles of bubbly and memorised tons of spells.
> Huge seafood platter at Le Cap Horn that’s meant for 2 but could feed at least 5 pax in our group.
> The peeps in our cheery get-up and all bundled up to hit the slopes. We braved the winds and the crazy -20 degrees temperature while boarding.
> And after all that exercise on the slopes (more for some and a little lesser for me – hehe), we indulge in our favourite Après-ski activity – drinking either Vin Chaud (Hot wine), beer or hot chocolate with Rum.
> We partied so hard on our only night out in town. We practically brought the house down with the loud singing and dancing on top of tables! The Red Bull team was in town and gave us complimentary drinks after seeing our crazy antics. ;p
> And when we are tired of boarding, we can even go shopping on the slopes! Amazing huh? We stopped by at the Moncler boutique to do a little window-shopping and of course, cam-whoring!
> That’s all folks! Amazing time with the gang and am so looking forward to our next trip in 2013! Woo hoo!
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Click here to check out Lady J’s adventures in snowboarding.
Photo updates from our winter wonderland with the peeps:
Our beautiful bedroom at the chalet
Gorgeous view of the Alps
Up on the slopes
Cosy fireplace to warm us up from the cold
Guess who is who? 
Gstaad is home to one of the most exclusive ski resorts in the world and also boasts one of the largest ski areas in the Alps. But, it’s better known for its luxurious hotels and shopping, nightlife, fine dining, excellent service and international stars – nope we didn’t get to see any celebrities while there. We just got back from a weekend getaway in Gstaad where we had a glorious one day of snowboarding in un-groomed powder snow. Wished the weather could be better, (ie: that the sun was shining) but well, we couldn’t control the weather. Instead, we got grey skies plus occasional light snow falling down on us as we meandered through the mountains. But that didn’t prevent me and the Style Princess from stopping on the slopes to cam-whore. I simply love the pic of the Style Princess lying flat-out on the ground. Hehe.
Now what can I say about snowboarding in Gstaad? The mountains are simply gorgeous and beautiful plus wide, we stayed around the Eggli area which was perfect for ‘baby-boarder’ me as I tried again to perfect my wide S and little S-curves. I was going on slow and steady down the slopes while the Style Princess and the Man zoomed passed me. Felt really bad that they had to constantly wait for me so I made them go at their own speed while I did my thing at my own pace for I rather not be pressured to speed down and end up messing my momentum.
While checking out which direction to head, we spied an Igloo bar on the map and decided to stop there for lunch. The Iglu-Dorf turned out to be a pretty cool place but food choices are really limited – only fondue actually. But it was really neat to be sitting inside an igloo and warming up to hot cheesy fondue and mulled wine. Did you know that the Iglu-Dorf is rebuilt every season from 3000 tons of snow at seven locations in the Alps and the Pyrenees? For a totally cool winter experience, you could also opt to stay in one of the Igloo rooms and cosy up in the sleeping bags.
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Click here to check out Lady J’s adventures in snowboarding.
I’ve never been a sporty person. Heck, I never did well in sports nor excelled in it. Physical Education (PE) is a subject that I didn’t really like in school. I was one of the chubby girls then and it has always been a struggle for me to do those pull-ups, sit-ups or run on the track. On the other hand, the Man is quite the opposite from me. He’s the one that always excelled in sports and even have a couple of trophies under his belt.
So when he booked us a trip to Club Med Sahoro some 5 years ago, I was debating what winter-sport I should try out. Should it be skiing or snowboarding? He suggested that I go straight and give snowboarding a shot. He thought it might be a little easier for the not-so-sporty me and since I didn’t really have the hand/leg coordination skills to boast of, trying to manage skis and the poles might be pretty challenging. Well, I bought into the rationale and my love-hate affair with snowboarding began.
When we used to lived in Japan, we would go on weekend snowboarding trips. I didn’t really enjoy it for I fell hard on my knees and bum. My knees would be badly bruised and I would ache all over. I was always the last person in the group and felt bad that the entire group had to wait for me while I slowly tumbled my way down. I made really slow progress and sometimes wonder why in the world am I doing this, torturing myself for a sport that I never really liked in the first place.
It was only after my 5th trip that I started to get the hang of the moves and that’s when I slowly fell in love with the sport. It’s been a good 5 years since our journey started, it wasn’t and still isn’t easy for me. There are days when I fall so badly that I wonder why in the world am I doing this? Then I pick myself up from the snow, start to struggle ahead. I’m still the last person in the group (told you I’m not very good at sports) but I guess the adrenaline rush of controlling the board and gliding on the snow overwhelms me. Plus, now we live in the epicenter of the French Alps, it would be a total waste to not indulge in this winter sport before we pack our bags and return to our sunny shores.
I’ve decided to start a new category called ‘adventures in snowboarding‘ under Lady J in Geneva. I’ll be listing all our adventures in snowboarding plus doing a little rating of the places that we’ve been to this Winter season. The ratings are strictly based on how me as a ‘baby-boarder’ and the Man as a ‘advanced boarder’ enjoyed boarding in the various mountains.
I usually do a couple of blue/green/red runs. The Man does mostly red/black runs. So rating is purely personal and how we both feel boarding on the slopes in these mountains.
So check out Lady J’s adventures in snow-boarding if you wish to find out which mountains to check out if you’re heading to Europe for some snowboarding. I’m slowly building the list and will be reviewing Gstaad, Courchevel and hopefully Chamonix (again) plus Megeve soon. 
[Photo credit: B-Sin from the BEST family]
Last weekend, we decided to stay in Geneva. But instead of just staying at home and twiddling our thumbs, we find our weekends in Geneva during Winter are a lot more colourful thanks to the beautiful snow-capped mountains and ski resorts that we are surrounded by. Like what my friend L over at the Swiss Watch Blog says, we truly ‘live in the epicenter of the best skiing in the world’ and we plan to take full advantage of this indulging in our fave snow sports before heading back to our sunny shores.
So we rounded up some of our friends and headed to La Clusaz in the French Alps for some skiing and snowboarding. Instead of driving 4 separate cars, we decided to car-pool and go in 2 cars. We took A&A and with 2 sets of snowboarding and 2 sets of ski gear, we set off to La Clusaz. Some 45 minutes later, we arrived at the slopes. Yes, it’s that near.
We took a quick group pic [shots thanks to A from Switzerland Hughes] before we set off to do different things. I was still trying to practice my little ‘S-curves’ on the slopes so decided to take it slow and easy. Fall count this time round from the chair-lifts: 2! I hate getting off those chair-lifts. I used to fall all the time while getting off and nearly had a close encounter with one of them hitting my head. Thankfully the operator stopped the chair-lifts in time. Phew… I guess I just have to try to get over my fear.
I think I had a couple of good runs for the slopes were wide and gentle which was great for me. Then we took a nice lunch break at Chalet des Praz. The burger there is TDF! It was really good!!! Yummy and juicy.. also doesn’t hurt that the presentation of the burger looked pretty stylish for a restaurant located in the middle of the mountains. I didn’t really care for a beer or a glass of wine, instead the hot chocolat with rum piqued my interest. So I had that instead.. it was smooth, chocolatey and definitely packed with a dose of alcoholic punch!
After lunch, we did another 2 more runs, this time round, I just took my time to head down. The Man did 4 runs (including 2 black runs) while I did 2. He sure is one lean mean snowboarding maniac!
All in all, a very good day except for the grey weather with intermittent snow-fall. If you are wondering which slopes to hit for beginner or intermediate boarders/ skiers, I’ll say check out La Clusaz and Samoëns. And if you know of any beginner-friendly slopes in the French Alps that we should check out during our stay here, please let me know as well. Will definitely like to check that out.
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Click here to check out Lady J’s adventures in snowboarding.
Looking forward to an entire week of snowboarding and skiing with our friends from Singapore come early Feb. We rented a chalet so that it could fit 10 crazy people under one roof and I just checked out accommodation. It’s looked superb!!
Chalet St Christophe
Can’t wait for the peeps to come!
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