Well I gotta say I'm not a big fan of such a long break right in the middle of the season, but at least this time I had a fair bit on and there wasn't too much time to get board.

I had my buddy Tezza from Aus come over and grace us with his presence for a couple of weeks, so that was pretty cool.

He hadn't seen snow before, so that was our first mission. This idea sounds pretty easy to accomplish in Switzerland but we decided to hike up. So we each grabbed a small back pack with a change of clothes and some essentials jumped in the car and shot up to Melchseefrutt, a valley away from the Titlis glacier, dumped the car and set off on our little journey. We were a little steady away because we didn't have the earliest of nights the day before. We managed to hike about 6hrs that day arriving at our place to stay at about 8pm, grabbed a quick bight to eat and then hit the sac.

The next day we caught the cable car up to the glacier so Tez can finally get to touch some snow. When we arrived we discovered that you could continue on foot right up to the summit through the snow, about an hours hike. Tez didn't seem to have the excitement nor the motivation I was expecting from someone who hadn't seen snow before. It wasn't until we were about 200mtrs from the summit and he literally began to melt down. He was like "Na, that's it, I've seen enough!!!!!!!!!" as he began to crouch down on all fours! I couldn't believe he wanted to turn back, we were nearly there! But what I didn't realise was that he was extremely afraid of heights! Oops!

I guess it's pretty intimidating when you're above 3000 metres it really feels like you're on top of the world. Also the fact that everybody else climbing up had hiking stocks spiked boots, the full deal. We were fully equipped for the beach with our shorts, shirts and our change of clothes in the back packs. So that wasn't too confidence inspiring! I finally convinced him it was safe and we should continue to the top! Ah... we made it! But the real drama was yet to unfold. Young Tez has an allergic reaction to garlic and the evening before we ate at this restaurant and the food was typically covered in it. So we then hat to set the new decent record and get him to the nearest loo without too many sudden movements. Luckily we made it without too many embarrassing moments! As far as I know! We then had to hike another 5 or 6 hours back to where the car was parked, and then drive back to Isabelle's house. We were all pretty spent by this time.

The next day a caught a plane across to Berlin and meet with Chris Vermeulen and had over to Oschersleben by car for a two day test. We were both pretty buggered he only just got back from the US and me from my little mountaineering expedition. We had quite a lot to get through in these two days and we weren't in the best form for it. I had new forks and a shock and we also had to test some new Pirelli tyres for next year. Which hopefully I won't have to worry about if I get my 400 CC upgrade!!! I won't bother you guys with the details from the test but it was a success and we were able to iron out some of the grey areas from our settings and race programme. After the test I flew back to Switzerland to meet up with Tez and Isabelle.

On the weekend we went visited Isabelle's brother Beat at the fire department, and have a little tour. These boys have got it pretty dialled in, 24 hours on 48 hours off etc. etc. There's a home theatre, indoor rock climbing, a huge salt water aquarium and more gadgets and toys you can poke a stick at. The place is like a huge play ground, except of course when the alarm sounds, which happened only five minutes after we arrived. So we just entertained ourselves for about an hour until hi returned. Just before we were leaving Beat asked me if I wanted to hop on the fire truck ladder and be extended up into the sky about 30 odd meters in less than 10 seconds. But I had to decline from this offer, you know I ccc couldn't imagine explaining to the team how I fell of a fire truck, basically I'm just a pussy!

On the Tuesday we were off to England for the next race in Brands Hatch. We flew into Heathrow, caught a cap over to Biggin Hill and than we were out for an Indian. This was the first Indian I've ever had and not stuffed myself silly. I guess because of my race on the weekend. The food was awesome of course! The next morning we were off to the track, park up, wash the bus and prepare everything for the weekend. The weekend went really well, it wasn't perfect the whole way through but the final results were exactly what we were aiming for. It was all by the narrowest of margins, I got pole by less than a tenths and won the race by the same. So I guess I'm a bit of a tin ass after all.

C ya

Karl