JUST back from a week's ski-ing in Kuhtai in Austria. We took our annual winter holiday early this year to save money and clear the decks for what is going to be a massive year for the BNP.
As you can imagine there were great celebrations on Friday morning when I logged on to the hotel's computer and found out the Bexley result. I had been hoping that we could reduce the Tory majority to around 250/300 votes, so to bring it down to just eight was an incredible performance. We had been discussing the by-election with a Tory Party agent and his wife who were also staying at the hotel. They put on a brave face - "a win is a win" - but looked shellshocked when I showed them the full figures.
I have 288 emails that need a response so I'm hoping to clear those today to leave next week clear for Freedom. Just checking my search engine for news of the BNP in local newspapers and there are 12 pages of results promoting the link to Harriet Harman's pronouncement that Nick Griffin might be a MEP in June. What great publicity for us and another 'own goal' by Labour. I'm hoping that it was my analysis on page 5 of the January issue of Freedom that prompted her outburst.
And talking of own goals, here locally the Tories have selected a former councillor who was reprimanded for viewing porn on his council computer last time he was in office, to contest the forthcoming Belah Ward by-election in Carlisle. His selection either shows the utter contempt the Conservative Party has for voters in the Border city, or the difficulty they are facing in finding suitable candidates to contest local elections here in Cumbria.
More politics tomorrow and back to the holiday to let the memories linger just a little longer. The recession is certainly hitting Austria. The food at the Sporthotel was excellent but that was only due to an imaginative chef. We had offal for three courses, and the local Zander fish on another three occasions. Last year there was plenty of beef and other more expensive cuts of meats on the menu - this year they were no where to be seen.
For us, it was the collapse of the pound that made everything much more expensive than last year. This meant that it was beer and chips for lunch up the mountain and drinks in the room before dinner with vodka smuggled in in our suitcase. Thankfully the weather was so cold that we could make our own ice by leaving ice bags on the balcony.
This resort is a gem, and an undiscovered one at that. Just a 30 minute transfer from Innsbruck, no queues at the ski-lifts and vast empty runs back to the village. The picture shows me taking a break on Thursday afternoon just before a final run down the mountain. In this bar we would stop for Jager tea - a rum and cinnamon based drink - which boosts confidence and gives you the strength to go flying down the mountain just one more time when your knees and back are saying that they have had enough.
Anyway, sadly that's it for another year. If funds permit and the body is still willing we shall be back again in 2010, although we might try another hotel as we have been to the Sporthotel for two years running now and this tends to blur each holiday into one.
No comments:
Post a Comment