Travel Updates

There are some funny traditions that we keep, some we don’t really know why and some that are very important to us. Does letting a dark haired person bring a piece of coal and bread into the house really bring good luck? One tradition the Japanese keep for New Year Read more…

People always ask if it is really magical to be in a ski resort over Christmas.  Perhaps as a guest, it may be. Definitely for kids from Singapore or Hong Kong that have never seen snow before. They are so excited to get off the transfer bus and play in Read more…

So, what is it like to be in Japan and how is it different from home? The first thing you notice is how polite everyone is – the bow and say hello, and this continues no matter how many times you see them in the day. The Japanese also like Read more…

So this winter we decided we needed to get back out there as ski and snowboard instructors before we got stuck in a rut on the island and never did it again. We got the heads up for an opportunity to work in Japan for Club Med, had a video Read more…

So this is Janet and I’m about to try to sum up my summer in a few paragraphs. We have actually had a really dry summer (making up for it since September) so there has been lots of sea swimming, kayaking, walking, and cycling on the island. I had a Read more…

We decided that Sun Peaks is a small version of the Isle of Man.  You just keep bumping into people you know and everyone looks out for each other – a great community.  Without organising it, we saw loads of people we knew (past instructors, past adaptive sports colleagues, fellow Read more…

So the end part of the adventure is a week in SunPeaks, where the ski/snowboard instructor dream began 3 years ago, before all this covid schizel stopped play….. We loved our previous 12 weeks in SP and wondered how it would/changed for this visit. We arrived late on Saturday and Read more…

With Rik & Emma (owners of The Wintersports Co) driving themselves to Revy, we found ourselves on a transfer with Cam and Bridget who had both been in Panorama on snow-patrol training. The 3 hours gave us a chance to get to know them better and also enjoy the stunning Read more…

After not a lot of snow fall and some spring temperatures we suddenly received a snow report forecasting some fresh snow (much needed) followed by some cold temperatures.  I guess winter had made a come back. So the day before our exam, while the rest of the kids undertook their Read more…

Four years ago we were talking to a Canadian friend who celebrated his son’s 16th birthday with a heli skiing trip.  I remember thinking that was so amazing but we could never afford to do that.  And yet yesterday that dream came true!  It nearly didn’t for Pete as he Read more…

It’s been a fun week of training with the focus at the beginning of the week on our ski development (read lots of bumps, moguls, using ski edges and a scary odd cliff) but also lots of carving, fast skiing and fast paced short radius turns on the groomers.    The Read more…

Wow, we have had a fun packed week.  Training began on Monday and as there had been some snowfall overnight it was straight into off piste, between the trees and through moguls. The instructors call it “terrain assisted learning” but really it’s so we can all have fun. We were so Read more…

Jet lag and very disturbed sleep aside, our first few days in Pano have been amazing. We have been free to ease back into skiing while everyone else has been taking their Level 1 exams this week. There has been a temperature inversion meaning it has been much clearer and Read more…

Well after enjoying 9 months of no restrictions on The Isle of man – the inevitable sadly happened, Covid Returned……..   Queue a 2 week “circuit breaker”, a few weeks freedom and now Lockdown 3.0 which, it has to be said, is dragging on with no end currently in sight……   UPDATE Read more…

Pete here for his 3rd blog…. Well isn’t 2020 a weird old year ?!!?    Tbh we are so glad we were travelling around the USA and Canada last year in the van rather than this year !!!  That would have been troublesome for sure. Anyway we’ve had to make the Read more…

So our prolonged stay on the Isle of Man has allowed us to catch up with lots of friends, do our hobbies and visit places we, shockingly, had never seen before. One such trip of mine was to a site of many old tholtans (farm houses) at Killbregga above the Read more…

Great news! The Isle of Man has succeeded to have no new cases of Covid 19 for 28 days, therefore social distancing has now been totally removed. What does that mean? Well, I got to hug friends on Monday evening after we’d been out on stand up paddle boards on Read more…

After our two weeks of quarantine we eased into life in lockdown – the only difference being that we could go to the supermarket and deliver groceries for Pete’s parents and vulnerable neighbours. So not too much difference really. However, the first visit to the supermarket was very exciting but Read more…

I’m glad to say that we made it back to the Isle of Man, just one day before they closed the Manx borders to non-residents, two days before Easyjet stopped flying to the island and four days before they also closed the borders to Manx residents -phew! We have made Read more…

What a bizarre end to the season! After struggling for snow for most of the season we had started to enjoy the sunshine and spring temperatures. Teaching beginners was more like teaching water skiing but the social side was good. And then we got snow – lots of it! We Read more…

We have been working now in Bansko for three months during which time we have each had two days off in total. Both of us have lost weight so the regime of at least six hours skiing and snowboarding a day, in addition to an average 15,000 steps, thankfully seems Read more…

No one likes to be poorly and it always seems worse away from home. Unfortunately in a holiday resort once a bug takes hold, it does the rounds pretty quick and just keeps spreading with all the new people arriving each week. So first I had the sick bug and Read more…