January 2003
For the first time in our history we did a non-bike winter event. Fed up with the long break between the September and May meetings, we decided that since a lot of us like skiing, we would have a meeting in Tamworth. An afternoon skiing at the Tamworth Snowdome, followed by a curry seemed like the ideal tonic during the deep, dark, cold and wet winter when many of us put our bikes away, either by choice or neccessity.
An intrepid group of 9 finally took to the Snowdome slopes on 18th January - Sarah (making a comeback after a broken knee while skiing last year), Steve, Mike L (making a comeback after a knee injury while motorcrossing), Nicki, Jeanne, Bonny, Chris (Jeanne's brother), Mike H and Liz H.
The slope was very busy, but not unpleasantly busy, and we all managed a good number of ski runs in the allotted hour.
Adrian (a.k.a. BluesBiker) came to watch us and take photos - they're a little dim because of the lighting in the Snowdome, but they demonstrate the ski style. I've done my best to enhance them. Click on the description to view the photo. For those critics of style among you, a lot of us are snowploughing or otherwise looking slightly worried because it was very icy near the bottom and we were all struggling to stop :-) Steve and Liz managed to avoid being in the photographs - Steve was probably going too fast to be caught on film!
After the ski-fest, we repaired to Sarah and Steve's for tea, biscuits and to make fuss of the cats. Then off to the Ivory Tusk Restaurant in Tamworth, joined by Chris Webb (from Biketec) and Helen. The Ivory Tusk did us proud, supplying us with a tremendous curry and great hospitality. How come it is so difficult to remember exactly what curry you ordered just minutes beforehand? We managed to eat the unclaimed peshawari nan breads with no problem and consume quite prodigious quantities of lager at any rate!