What are my inspirations to blog? I suppose another question that would closely follow that one would be, how do I keep the motivation to blog for over six years? (Coming into my seventh year as of 2009) well the answer is quite simple. It is clear that music, television and events make up the bulk of entries. However another big inspiration is my dearest friend Pav. He lives his life through my blog but also provides insightful comments, quotes and photographs that deserve to be included. He is also my biggest critic. If I were to give my blog posts titles (which I do very occasionally), then this entry would be called, “Revenge Of The Ski Pole”. After my post from earlier this month, Pav was determined to get me looking forward to the holiday but also coming back having enjoyed myself. So last week we arranged to head over to the dry ski slope in Bracknell. The only ‘non-gym’ days for us both are Tuesday. (Otherwise I have Friday free but Pav has Thursday free and goes to the gym on Fridays). Plus we could not do this Friday as it is opening of Raw Filth at Plug an Play. (More on the build up to that shortly). Originally I was going to drive directly over to Bracknell after work on Tuesday but opted for the train to Reading option. It made sense to go to the ski slope in one car and then drive back to Reading and catch the train back to Newbury. My feelings towards my second ski holiday have changed. I am now slightly looking forward to the adventure. Why the sudden change in heart? Well, on Tuesday night I had a choice. The options were the usual night in with all my US imports (television programmes, not goods of a questionable description or source) or head over to Pav and Em’s, get some food and then head off to Bracknell Dry Ski Slope. Pav was willing to switch back from the dark side (not the end of the Star Wars puns, just the beginning) onto skis and give me a few pointers. I was not looking forward to the prospect of putting on skis again. Pav had calculated exactly from the last day Terry was on the piste which was 16:34 GMT on Friday 11th January 2008. It had been 319 days or 10 months and 14 days. Was I ready? Not quite but the purpose of the trip was to boost my confidence and prepare me for what the mountains of the French Alps will bring. I left work at 5pm sharp, heading home and quickly changed. My ski bits were already in my gym bag, so after shutting down my PC, grabbing a banana, I headed out the door to the train station. Yes, the original plan had been for me to drive and meet the guys at the ski slope, but I decided it would be better to catch the train from Reading and drive down in one car. It did make sense. I caught the 17:54 train from Newbury heading to Paddington. It felt strange catching a train with so many commuters heading home, when my day had finished a while ago and I was actually off duty and on a social trip. While on the train, the Arab Revenue Protection Officer from First Great Western had a bit of an argument with a college kid, wearing silver Nike jogging bottoms and giving bucket loads of attitude. He had been unable to buy a ticket at the station, so our Middle Eastern friend had to get out a box of tricks to issue the young man with a ticket. The irony was he paid his fair but jumped off the train at Thatcham, seconds before the ticket was issued from the machine and disappeared into the night. Now there is a thankless moment in a thankless job if there ever was one. The train got mobbed at Theale station but thankfully Reading was the next stop. I got off the train with what seemed like everybody else and heading straight for the exit. I had to get some bearings before heading through town to Pav and Em’s house. I got there around, 18:40. Hollyoaks was on in the lounge. Em was busy playing some snow boarding game on the newly occurred PSP. After a nice dinner of lasagne, we got ready to head over firstly to Kev’s. Not before I had a chance to visit the basement lair and see for myself the improvements made since my last visit (back in mid September). I was loving the lounge chair and felt quite at home. Bring on Tuesday Night TV Fests (starting Q1 2009). We headed over to Kev’s first, to wish Deun and him well on their recent engagement. (Flashed up, as this kind of news always does on Facebook.) After a brief chat and sketched wedding plans, we headed off onto the A329(M) to Bracknell. As we approached the slope, you go past the Copper Beach Hotel. It has been designed to look like a ski resort hotel and would not be a miss somewhere in Austria. A very strange setting for such a building. We parked up and then headed upstairs to the slope. We had to sign in and confirm we were both competent skiers. Well, I just answered “Yes” to the question that I had skied before. I had. Was I up to level four standard, probably not. We got changed into our gear and then grabbed our ski boots and skis. We were about to hit the slopes. As predicted by Pav earlier in the day via MSN Live Mail, Em got a hot chocolate and began to take a spot to watch behind the main barrier. We headed to the baby slope. There was a snow board lesson going on already. We went up the button lift to come down halfway on the main slope. This was perhaps a bad decision on my part, I should have stuck with the beginners slope until my confidence was up. I felt my legs go to jelly as I managed to get off the button lift and onto the main slope. It took me a while (perhaps an age for Pav who was waiting for me) to get into my stride. It must have taken nearly twenty minutes to come down the slope. I kept stopping at the edge and putting off my turns. Eventually I got going and Pav was surprised that I just wanted to ski straight down towards the end. It was at this moment, I began to recall the exhilarating moments from my ski holiday, some good eleven months before. The rush of coming down at high speed and being only thirty percent in control was back! Em signaled that we should go on the baby slope, now it was clear. There was a group ski lesson going on for beginners with about five people. There were about two other ‘free-riders’ so to speak using the main slope. Going on the beginners slope was just what I needed. I followed Pav at at first it was a stage my stage, stop-start process of getting down the slope. Eventually by the forth run, I was going down in a single motion. On the next attempt, Pav got me to lead and he was following me like a KGB assassin would follow James Bond. Towards the end of the slope, I gave up on turns and just skied down. I was getting there, I felt so much better and in the cold night in Bracknell, I looked forward to the sunshine days in Tignes. A couple of runs later and Pav thought I should move back onto the main slope, so we did. First time to the middle section again and I skied down very well. The final run of the night, we went almost to the top (but not quite) and came down again. This time, my tutor was trying to show me how to get into parallel turns. The lesson did not last that long, towards the middle section, I once again gave up on turns and turned on the gas! I flew down the bottom and almost back up to the top, a meter away from Em before coming to a stop and then start to flow backwards. Although I did stop myself, get myself onto the green walkway and then with the help of Em get my skis off. A very successful and product evening. If in ninety minutes my confidence can be regained, imagine what can be achieved in two hundred and seventy minutes. Over recent months I have become a big fan of Twitter. It is a great platform for me to try and condense my blog posts into 140 characters or less. As most regular readers will know, my blog can go on a bit, so giving quick updates while out in the field so to speak is excellent. I follow only a handful of people, three in fact. Rory Cellan-Jones (from BBC News fame and odd economic journalist), Diamond Geezer, the world famous London based daily blogger and then finally Jon Masters, a friend of Mighty Mouse. All famous to a certain degree in their own right. I noticed a reply on ruskin147’s twitter to Stephen Fry and was surprised to find the big man on Twitter. I went ahead to follow him, having scanned his recent tweets and found a few witty comical remarks. (Just read the bio description!) So you can imagine my surprise on Tuesday morning at 7:24am (when I jump onto the PC first thing to queue up some ‘files’ on uTorrent) to have an e-mail to alert me that, “Stephen Fry is now following you on Twitter”. While it is a bit, tit for tat and I know my tweets will get lost in the ocean of other users that Stephen followers but it nice to have a celebrity following me. Particularly after seeing them give such a great entertaining journey across America over the past few Sunday evenings.

I watched episode five, “Power Hungry” of Fringe on Monday night (as I did not have anything else to watch). In the opening few minutes it featured the REO Speedwagon hit, “Can’t Fight This Feeling”. It got me into a 1980s power ballad vibe. Before I start singing, I better get back to all the shows that I missed last night. Starting with a bit of time with my favourite cyborg, Cameron! Bring it on!