12. (Part 2) The Baths and The Rock Cafe (Ciaran)

ROCKZ! ROCKZ! ROCKZ!

I love rocks and guess what The Baths is full of 'em! They are angels in disguise! You can jump on them, you can climb them e.g Me and mike climbed a big pile of them but then dad called us down! UNLUCKY! I think rocks are the equivalent to bread and butter anyway lets move past rocks.

Woh! Just had a bit of DeJa Vu!

Day 12

Right now after the 'Holy People' took off I decided I'd have a bit of a read. Now if you remember, which you most likley don't! I had no books to read! But fortunately help came! Liam has been reading the Harry Potter series and fortunately brought Harry Potter four (Goblet of fire), Harry Potter 5 (Order of the Phoenix), Harry Potter 6 (Half Blood Prince) and finally Harry Potter 7 (Deathly Hallows). Phew! Anyways I decided to read them too! At first I read No. 7, but after whizzing through it (In three days!) Then I decided to read from no. 4 up, and am currently half way through no. 5.

I was reading for what must've 2 hours! Before 'The Holies' got back and made lunch. They announced that we were going to The Baths after there failed attempts yesterday.

Seeing as it was only a 5 minute walk up the road we walked up. Now The Baths as I heard were lots of rocks. Yeah. Rocks. So I have to admit I wasn't to enthusiastic, but when we arrived I have to say It Was Awesome! There were big rocks leaning on what seemed to be a tennis ball sized rock, there was even a skull shaped rock although mum said this wasn't the one she were talking about.

As we walked on we reached sand. were there was some nice lookin sea! There was a really cool cave which I raced into, then climbing on top with in a matter of seconds. As you can tell I was pretty eager. I then climbed a fairly large rock.

After a lot of photo-taking we carried on to 'the pool' (no not the swimming pool back at the villa!) it was a pretty amazing sight (look at slide-show above) then we carried on trudging through water seeing a jelly-fish on the way.

We stumbled across a breath-taking sight. there was the sea with both big and small rocks dotted around everywhere. we camped on one and I started to jump from rock to rock until I had hopped on every rock and resorted to watch the others snorkel.

THE TIMES

WE HAVE A BREAKING NEW

STORY ANNOUNCING THAT

CLARE HEGARTY SAYS THAT

SHE HAD THE BEST

SNORKELLING IN HER LIFE!

IT'S TRUE WE HAVE EYE

WITNESS ACCOUNTS THAT

CLARE HEGARTY (WIFE OF

MICK HEGARTY) DID IN

FACT COMMENT ON THE

SNORKELLING SAYING

IT WAS THE BEST SHE HAD

DONE IN HER LIFE!

THIS IS THE MOST

EXCITING

THING

THATS

HAPPENED

SINCE JIM

ATE FIRE

AND DIED.

REPORTED BY CIARAN

Wow nice news flash.

Me, mum and dad split off from the others to explore. We found an amazing place where there was a giant rock looming over you that looked exactly like a dinosaurs head. So we found a narrow gap in which we squeezed through and walked on, squeezed through another gap and came back through under the dinosaurs head.

We finally left to go to Devils Bay (just a minutes more walk) and I have to say, it was Little Thatch standards. there was a cool cave which I found, nice sea, rocks and some nice sand! But all was not well in paradise for the noble knight Sir Liam Hegarty was ambushed by several thousand jellyfish so he sliced and he slashed but unfortunately the most biggest and most scariest managed to sting Sir Liam under thy armpit. But brave Liam managed to slay the Evil jellyfish with a thrust straight into its head. But the sting had upset Liam's tummy and the sting was stinging and he was forced to retire to his castle Bigger Splash.

Meanwhile me and Mike were half way through climbing what looked like a giant pile of rocks. But dad said we had to go home. We found liam in the pool and me and mike joined him. Now in the pool we have a foam tube designed to keep you afloat, however we have made a fun game out of it.

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Ciaran's Recipe To A Game

1. Get two contestants to play

2. Get a judge/referee

3. Fill the tube with water

4. On the count of three both blow

5. Whoever gets a mouthful of water looses

Rules and Varieties of Ciaran's Recipe To A Game

1. If there is a false blow the opposing player gets a free blow into the other persons face

2. Instead of counting to three you can come up with rules e.g when you name a prime number or when you name a Steven Speilberg film.

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Anyways mum and dad announced that we had to go out for dinner. So we went to The Rock cafe "Italian with a little Caribbean" we were seated at a table near a fountiany, waterfally thing-a-magig. So we ate, We drank and we ordered desert. Me mum and mike got terramisou and the others got chocolate mousse (I think thats how ya spell it). Now the terramisou was lovely and in chocolate writing was the words Hard Rock cafe.

So finally I decided to go bed although for some reason it took me five hours to get to sleep!

!??!?!!???!?!?!!!??!???!?!???!!!??!?!?!?!???!

4. Little Thatch (Ciaran)

ANTZ! ANTZ! ANTZ! I hate ants and guess what the villa is full of 'em! They are the devil in disguise. They crawl on you, they crawl on your food e.g both of our cereal box's and my sandwich which mike took a bite out of! YUK! Liam like to say ants are my equivalent to Indiana Jones and Snakes well any way lets move past ants.

Now before I tell you a about day 4, I feel obliged to tell you my part of the holiday up to now. Wake up at 4. Feel grumpy. Airport. WAY TOO LONG FLIGHT. Heat. Wait for hours. Plane. Laugh at dad. Moan at dad. Swim. DAY 2. Swim. Swim. Go out. Swim. Swim. Swim.DAY 3. Swim. Swim. Beach. Swim in sea. Get pushed under the sea by wave. Swim. Swim. Get pushed under the sea by wave. Swim. Home.

Day 4

Today was probably one of those days you will remember for the rest of your life! It started of with me waking up at 6 O'Clock in the morning. I started to read my book (which I just started) seeing as no-one else would get up for another 4 hours. I read for maybe and hour until I realized that this book was a sequel to another book which I hadn't read. So with no more books and 3 hours to kill I resorted to one thing ' THE POOL' So I swam. And swam. And swam. Until eventually LIFE! Mum woke up.

Later I found out that we were going to Jon's Island to snorkel, So we quickly bought some snorkeling gear and met up with Jon. Who took us on one hell of a boat ride to his island!



When we arrived Jon told us were to go and that he'd meet us there, so we headed of across this beautiful beach. Now when I say beautiful I mean a beach that looked like it was from a film or a dream. The palm trees were swaying in the wind. There were hammocks HAMMOCKS! There was crystal white sand. It was Perfect.

Jon met us at this house on the beach itself with drinks. He told us were to go snorkeling and that if we wanted to we could go Kayaking. Which if you have read the Blog that michael did 'Two weeks Seven states' you would know we've done it before. So of into the sea we parade with snorkels on and eager minds! The minute I plunge my head into that water I know I'm gonna have a good time. There were fish, more fish and coral. It was amazing! We swam onwards and see tons of fish but what blew me back was when we were swimming through what I could swear was Tens of Thousands of tiny fish no bigger than my thumb. I could of stared at it for ages until Jon came with Pizza!

We ate the pizza with in minutes, me and liam after food went out to enjoy the beach. he lay in the hammock and me left swimming in the nice warm sea. After maybe 45 minutes we split up into blue team and green team (Blu= the mikes Gre= me, mum and the rest). the Blue team were going Kayaking and the Green snorkeling. Half way through my snorkeling I joined the Blue team in there Kayaking. The transition was dodgy but somehow I lived. Mike complained of leg cramp so we went back to the land. Dad and Mike were then planning to go Snorkeling but I said otherwise. So Dad had to go out again in the kayak with me. A minute later I knew exactly why mike was talking about leg cramps.

Mum saw us and asked if she could go kayaking so me and mum then set out (again) on the kayack (again) into the sea (again). To be honest mum was kinda lazy. Half the time I was doing all the work!

Me and Blackbeard docked at what landfolk call Arrrrgh beach! We abandoned ship and swam to Ye ol' diving platform where miiiike was before.

Now before I do turn into a pirate I'll start to talk english. Now the diving platform was all slimy and green and had lots of holes in it, I'm surprised it isn't at the bottom of the sea which was only a couple of feet away and because the water was so clear you could see the bottom. In england you couldn't see one inch down! So I jumped in a couple of times and the set off for land.

Now that we were all dry and ready to go home we were offered a lift to the top of the island to the owners house. Now if you've read the Killington 2008/9 you know when I like somthing I can go on for EVER about it. The house was one of those things. Now I cant't explain but picture's probally can.

After looking at the Dream House which by the way Mel Gibbson, Heath Richards and Johnny Depp had all stayed in! We got on the boat home.

We had dinner Pusser's before making our way home where I had a nice swim in the pool and then I decided that it was time to go to be- ZZZzzzzZZzzZZZzzzz...-d.

Killington 2008/9 - Day 5

Day 5 – 5th day alone
by guest writer Sydney the catish cato

"Miaow Mioaaw Miioooaw mioaaw mioooawww mioaw mioaw mioaww."
Tranlations
("I am cato. I like to eat. I miss the big ones. I am cato.")
"Miaow Miaoww Miaoooww miaow miaow mioaw mioaw mioaw oaw mioaw mioaw miiooaaww."
Translations
("The big ones have not been here for several darks now but a friendly female big one has fed me.")
By Sydney aka Cato.

Day 5 – New Years Eve

Guest Writer for the second time Ciaran Hegarty

We get up at 7:30 which disgraces me seeing as I asked dad to wake us up at 6:45 so we can get out for 8:00 when the lifts open. Now normally I could eat my breakfast and get dressed to be out for 8:00 in just over half an hour but I live with Liam so the extra half an hour would be for Liam. So I have my breakfast and then I start to get dressed but then I cant find any of my clothes so by time we’re out it’s about 8:20. So we do snowshed again for 15,000,000 time but still you can’t get bored of good old snowshed. When we reach the bottom we do it again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. Then liam got bored and decided to turn in. So he went in leaving only me, mike, dad and mum and so we challenge the mountain RAMSHEAD!

Now to be taken over By CCCCCClare HHegarty! Clap clap clap.

Skiing lunches all have a number of similarities. Some of the surroundings are nicer than others i.e. they are less busy or have amazing views but the food and ambience are all pretty much the same. The prize for the least pleasant by a mile though has to go to Ramshead. Firstly, it is the centre for the children’s lessons, so is full of instructors with little teams of would-be skiers. These children are quite cute on skis but off skis, they just take up a lot a valuable space. Secondly, there are no windows so nothing to remind you that you are in the middle of the mountains in beautiful Vermont. But overwhelmingly, there is the smell which is beyond description and should never be present in an eating establishment. If I haven’t convinced you that you should never eat there, I have more. The best thing about skiing is that it is wonderful exercise, which takes place in beautiful surroundings, which the whole family can enjoy. The worst thing about it is the amount of faffing that you have to do to get to that point. Skiing down a hill is sublime, walking uphill in skis is tricky and storing skis & poles for a whole family and then walking about inside in boots and the 5 layers of clothing necessary to keep the cold out outside is exhausting and definitely brings out the worst in people. For our particular lunch, I sat with a super aggressive American woman behind who berated her husband to anyone who would listen for half an hour. His crime was that he had skied off with the car keys and a screaming baby needed to be taken home. For some reason, the phone calls that he received from his wife didn’t seem to be bring him back to the lodge any quicker! In front of me was a teenage autistic boy who rocked himself to oblivion throughout – his response to his environment never made more sense to me !

Escape from Ramshead lodge and the smell and back to the beautiful mountain. Ciaran and I completed one last run from the top of Ramshead and then joined Liam back in the hotel.

For New Year, we hadn’t been quick enough to get the Hibachi table that we wanted at Sushi Yoshi but we were able to get in there for regular Chinese Food. We were seated at our table in time for 7pm, which was midnight in the UK. So we ate our meal whilst talking to family in the UK to wish them a Happy New Year and texting friends.

Our fortune cookies took on the extra significance of New Year’s resolutions and are recorded here:

Mick – In great attempts it is glorious even to fail
Clare – Good sense is the master of human life.
Mike – Act well your part there the honour lies.
Liam – Aim at the stars, but keep your feet on the ground.
Ciars – A truly great person never puts away the simplicity of a child.

Happy New Year and best wishes for 2009 to all our readers!

Killington 2008/9 - Day 3

First day skiing
by guest writer Ciaran Hegarty (aka the greatest)

We get up at 6:30 Mike and me straight up, however Liam takes a bit more persuading. We have our breakfast of American cereal but for some pop tarts, which I can’t understand how, someone could eat or even hold! We head out to get our skis which is pretty boring so I’m not gonna talk about it.

We start with snowshed a great slope for beginners but still fun for hardcore skiers. This is just perfect for us because although we’re not hardcore skiers we are familiar with skiing so we go down snowshed still getting back our skiing legs as mum calls them. Mike races down getting his ski legs back straight away, but all the rest of us are still a bit nervous and so we take our time.

By the time me, mum, dad, and Liam reach the bottom of snowshed we all decided to do it again so we did except this time on the lift up I start to complain about the way I can’t parallel ski but Mike, Mum and dad can. So on the way down Mike slowly teaches me tricks of how to parallel ski, and not to boast (well maybe just a little) in 3 to 5 minutes I’m parallel skiing. So going down concentrating on paralleling I take about 10 to 16 hours on getting down to the bottom.
Seeing as we’re all at the bottom of snowshed by the greatest waffle house in the world we buy waffles. Now I could go on forever explaining about the waffles (which was the main reason I wrote this blog) so I think you’d prefer if I skipped this bit. After our heavenly terrifically sweet waffles that are so………- 6 months later – I could eat a hundred of and which have just the right amount of……….- 8 months later – that just are made to perfection, oh sorry did I drag on sorry what I meant to say was after we had our amazing waffles we decided to do a trail called the great eastern. So to get there we take the snowshed express quad up and take a track called the highlander which takes us straight to the K1 gondola that leads us to Killington peak so we take what we know as the great eastern which we do every year when we notice none of the signs say were going down great eastern. So we stop at the next map and see that they’ve changed the great eastern and just about screwed everything up! So in our disgrace we decided to go to our favourite restaurant called Noel’s so we take the trail that leads us there.

Unfortunately the so called “snow” on this trail was icy and a word me and mike invented it’s called snice, as in snow and ice and also as in it’s nice which it really isn’t nice but still. The snice gave me a problem it made my skis cross which meant I wasn’t controlling the skis. By the time we reached Noel’s I was tired and grumpy so we went in and ate. At Noel’s they have paper over the table and they give you some crayons and well these are some that I drew:

After we had our delicious lunch we decided to find the quickest way home and the way to do that meant that we’d have to take a lift up then take a trail to the bottom of bear mountain, (see map) then take juggernaut down to skyeship and take the gondola up, and then after that we had to take the northbrook quad up to snowshed and then ski down and bam right next to the hotel. Now you don’t need to look at the map to see that’s a long way home, but unfortunately the only other way home was to take blue runs which no one was up for. Seeing as Liam was really tired and really grumpy (if Liam’s reading I meant to say a bit and to the readers WINK WINK) we took the green way only to find that at the bottom of Bear Mountain that the juggernaut was closed. This made Liam a tiny – cough cough, a lot more, cough cough- bit more grumpy but luckily there was another route we go a lift that leads us to the top of Skye peak and then we take down “the great eastern” to the Northbrook crossover and then from there we carry on with the original plan. On the lift up me and mum had a talk with a woman who said a mountain ambassador told her that because on Saturday and Sunday it rained Monday would be I-C-Y and unfortunately our first day skiing was Monday. So we started the “the great eastern” only to find that it was steep and I-C-Y (don’t add comments asking why does he say I-C-Y instead of icy please just don’t) so this made Liam a little bit more o heck I’m not gonna lie it made him as grumpy as a cat who had just been eaten by a giant ice cream cone that is friends with a giant bucket of peas with 3 eyes 2 mouths and 1 pig nose and a donkey for a tail! After 99 years 99 months 99 fortnights 99 weeks 99 days 99 hours 99 minutes 99 seconds and 99 milliseconds of Liam stopping then skiing for a minute then stopping for 10 then skiing for 1 then… we reached the bottom of the Northbrook crossover.

So you’d think Liam would be pleased that he only had to go up one more lift, down one more slope, across one more bridge and walk through one more door to get to the hotel but no instead he has to sit down. So mum me and mike go up the lift and do snowshed a couple of times and then that’s the end of my story about skiing that day.

My final conclusion of that day is skiing is great, Liam is silly, waffles are great and blue whales should wear hats.