It's Ski Season - Bring on the Piste!!!

LOVE SKIING

I spent last week in the 'Three Vallee's' area of France. It's the most amazing ski area, consisting of - Yes you guessed it - Three Valley's;

• 600kms of skiing - I feel like I pretty much covered a massive percentage of this
• 169 ski lifts of various forms
• A maximum ski altitude of 3230m - meaning your pretty much guarranteed snow whatever the weather. 
• 51 Green runs
• 132 Blue runs
• 106 Red Runs
• 32 Black runs
• Skydiving
• ziplines
• Some amazing cafe's and bars
• 2 x small airfields
• 1 x helipad

It's certainly not a restful holiday. Up in time to hit the slopes at around 0930hrs, and just go where the mood takes you. Three Vallee's is great because it's so vast that you really don't come across queues for lifts at all, you can pretty much have an idea on the map as to where you want to go, and just see what happens. 

Luckily we have friends over in the Vallee's, we stayed at one friends apartment, who happens to be one of the 'Chief Instructors' on the slopes, but we met up everyday with my Mum's best friend and her family who are out there quite often. As my Mum and Sister (Bro was on a course and coudn't come out with us), are more your relaxed skiers - Queens of the Blue slope!!!, I was really grateful that the Black Slope brigade were there. 

Every year I improve that bit more, and take on those scarier slopes - and it feels amazing. I first went skiing when I was around 9 years old, and in a million years I wouldn't have thought that I would be having a go at a jump, or whizzing down a black slope, complete with moguls. It's incredible. 

To top it all, it was also 20 degrees, Hot Stuff. So when you finish flattening them slopes, you can strip down to your strappy top and sunbathe. It always looks weird when you are walking away from the slopes with ski kit on, but you;re walking past people in shorts and t-shirt. 

What else to do - Well it would be pure rude to not go to 'La Folie Douce' for their afternoon party. The most amazing setting for a live concert with paragliders who always pay a visit whilst the show is in full fling. And if you have money to burn you can order you're £5000 bottles of champagne, which will be sent across to you in a sky pully to a celebration of fireworks - Amazing afternoon. 

For a relaxing breakfast visit 'Le Panoramic' for the most amazing view, and wonderful setting. A great start to the day. 

There are so many different activities for every age group, with many ski fun parks for Children dotted all around. Off-Piste there are leisure centres, tenpin bowling, ice skating, and if you time it right you can go and watch a hockey match. 

I can't wait to go back already. Although next year I'm going out with family one week and my mates another week.

Oh - Of course there is football. This is the 5 a-side football pitch near our accommodation. Probably one of the best located pitches ever, although Mum said she wasn't going after the ball if we kicked it out!!!!

Suffregettes of Womens Football

The Women who wanted to play football, and were not going to let the Old Gentlemen of the FA stop them - Tough Women, with willpower and an overhelming ambition to succeed.


Great day spent in Manchester last Tuesday. The Football museum hosted an event for 'Women in Football', on of all days 'International Womens Day'. Again Shelley Alexander was the force behind the event, and had chosen an amazing venue yet again;

The football museum is a must for anyone who has an interest or love for football. It is located in the centre of Manchester, a short walk from Victoria Station and The Arndale Centre. I have visited before - Advantage of my Nana and Grandad living about 5 miles away. Anyway - It'sgreat. It has floors of fantastic exhibits, and covers all aspects. From the very begining of the game through to the modern game, and everything in between. From Football Kits, to WAGS designer dresses. Some old fashioned funfair games, to modern day skills booths. They have now introduced a great little cafe, where you can have a latte and wander around the signed shirts.

Well, back to the event. - Fantastic inspirational women;

• Patricia Gregory amazingly campaigned for women to be allowed to play football - after they had been banned by the FA in 1921. She wrote to a local newspaper and was inundated with leters from Women wanting to join her team - which by the way, she didn't have - Answer = Create a team !!!
• Kerry Davis - In the 60's she was one of the most prolific goal scorers 
• Carol Thomas - Previously Englands longest serving captain
• Liz Deighan - Footballer and Coach for England - back in the day!!
• Rachel Brown-Finnis - Recently retired Goalkeeper for England

Did you know that there were around 150 womens teams by 1920. The game was flourishing, and especially during the First World War, when Women were working more and more, they also started to get more and more involved in sport. On Christmas Day 1917 there were 10,000 spectators watched a match between two ladies teams at Preston. By 1920, on Boxing Day, a crowd of 53,000 watched Dick Kerrs Ladies play St Helens Ladies at Goodison Park, and more people were outside, that hadn't managed to get a ticket. 

The FA didn't like that - In December 1921 the FA made a statement - 'The game of football is quite unsuitable for Females, and ought not to be encouraged'. The Old Chaps at the FA had been outraged by the popularity of the Womens game. The Womens game effectively stopped there and then. 

All these women are so passionate about the game, and they had to really stand up for their rights to play the game they loved.They didn't give up, and they worked and worked to progress the game and are still working tirelessley. And they were on the receiving end of many horrible comments or suggestions. We make think that we have a battle now, but goodness they battled so much to make things easier for us. 

The presentations were great, amd the discussions interesting. The women all looked amazing, and makes me feel positive for hopefully ageing well !!!!

Women in Football - Mentoring

Well, I've spoken about my affiliation with the 'Women in Football' before. It's a fantastic organisation, and an absolute must for any female's wishing to enter the world of football - on any level.

We were hosted by 'The Premier League', in their wonderful office just off 'Marble Arch'. The street a plush line of Georgian white washed buildings, with a couple of 5 star hotels thrown in for good measure. After smiling nicely at the camera on the front door, we entered a very modern building with iconic images and memorabilia on the wall. After signing in we were taken to a lobby area downstairs to await our meeting. A very nice greeting of aperitifs allowed us to to meet and greet others attending and have a chat before the event started.

We were then ushered into the presentation suite where Shelley opened the event and introduced the speakers. This evening was all about mentors / mentoring. Women in Football are so progressive in their thinking, and as an organisation are prepared to 'give it go', give things a chance and go outside the box. They introduced a trial mentoring scheme last year - for fifteen personnel from different areas within football;

The Mentee's were at various stages within their chosen career, ranging from top coaches, to management within a premiership club. The Mentors however were all from outside football, and in top tier companies such as Deloitte. Initially I thought wow, how is that going to work - however, listening to the ladies that were on the trial, and the people who providing the mentoring, it absolutely worked. The mentors had no pre-concieved idea's about either football, or women in football. The mentors had nothing to do with football, so treated the women as though a business in their own right;

• How were they going to progress
• What were their skills
• What made them different
• What was currently holding them back

All the women found the scheme a success, some had progressed within their area, others had changed their outlook, their styles their confidence. one had realised that she was in the wrong area and had changed her job role completely. Everyone of them was so happy with their involvement, and in fact every Mentor had also benefited immensely and was looking forward to mentoring again. 

I am going to apply for the scheme this year. The possibility of a top company executive, with so much expertise and knowledge allowing me to meet with them on a 'one to one' basis, to advise me and help me progress - No Brainer!!!! 

I want to be successful, but know that I need to have advise to help me through the mine-field of progression. I am a total advocate of 'Women in FOOTBALL', and would advise others to have a look at the organisation.

Back to Normal Jogging

Well, after injuring myself Christmas week, it's finally back to normal!

I've taken 6 weeks off refereeing and playing, but during that time I needed to really think about my body, my injury and my positivity. It's easy to let something be an excuse to not do anything, to take a pain killer, take the sickness from work, and not progress. It was about having goals, planning my next stage, and keeping my attitude on point.

The first week was very sore, and I was still wandering around on my crutches. It was also Christmas week, which also put a stop on my planned partying - Although I still managed the evening events, but couldn't go to town. I guess that at least kept my nutrition  in a better state, and allowed me to get in my beauty sleep.

I only stayed on crutches for a week - For a start it's hideous on the hands. I tended to really lean into the crutch, which caused blisters. So the crutches were relegated to 'Under the Stairs'. That second week I started going to the swimming pool, not for a swim but to do rehabilitation exercises; The swimming pool is a great place to start after an injury - the weightlessness really eases the soreness of movement, and the freedom you have in the pool allows you to do stretches and exercises that are proving somewhat difficult on dry land.

The other Gem in those first couple of weeks was 'Pilates'. I've never been a fan of Pilates, Yoga, body balance etc - they always seemed such slow classes; in my mind I would be thinking 'Blimey, I could have run 8 miles by now, whilst tapping my hands annoyingly'. Well, although not my first choice still, the classes are a god-send and absolutely allow you to really stretch those muscles, and build up your core.

About three weeks ago I started getting out and about running. I started with a 2 mile jog for a few days, and built it up to doing an 8 mile run in the week before doing my first game. I'm doing a month of running the line before going back in the middle in March. I've also only played twenty minutes of a proper game, but again, I should be back to playing the full 90 by March

Where there's a will, there's a way!!!