I have been fortunate enough to ski Hakuba in Japan a few years back, which I highly recommend if you have the fortune to visit. But there is something about the Vail ski trails and back bowls that will present a whole new level of skiing for me.

So, I have been back on the treadmill pushing inclines and moving   of fan belt in around 45 mins at my last run. And back to spin class. And weights sessions as well. It’s a good thing for me I actually enjoy training and pushing my body. I would like to get some more sessions in of MMA or Muay Thai, at the very least … yes I’m still looking for somewhere/someone although something tells me nothing will compare with DMMA in Melbourne. Bummer.

Would love some tips and advice for training for skiing please!

Thank you in advance… and my legs and skiing partner/guide/coach/former world cup skier/better half, Mr M, will also thank you!

http://www.vail.com/

At four months old I was brought over to this great country from The Republic of South Korea into the arms of a somewhat controversial coupling (even in 1984) of an Australian mother married to my Chinese father.

Today, we are celebrating this day off with a Cypriot lady married to an Australian man, a Cypriot lady (yes, they are sisters) married to a Scottish man, an Australian couple with an adopted Thai son, me and my Mum and Dad. Our Lebanese neighbours popped by and so did our Irish neighbour and her Lebanese husband.

I like to think of us as doing the United Nations proud.

Yes, there is still racism in this great country of many cultures. Fortunately I’ve not experienced enough to even talk about but I know people who have and I’ve read the stories of people who are. I admire Dr Teo for his courage and wisdom in speaking openly about its existence today. It would be a foolish person to think we had overcome this shameful belief that cultures different to ours deserve to be spat on. And we must acknowledge it exists between all cultures, not just the obvious anglo versus ‘ethnic’ in the Cronulla/Brighton-Le-Sands riots sense.

But I did not start this post with the intention of bringing up racism. Instead, I would like to celebrate the value of having such a diverse society. I count many different ethnicities among my friends, and family.

I like to celebrate our differences and embrace the customs we share.

I wonder how people can be so cruel and make such inaccurate assumptions about that which they know little of. And it saddens me.

So let’s celebrate this great nation and it’s cultural melting pot with a curry pie, minted peas, tzatziki and some lycees.

Right now, it’s all about delivering customer service that surprises the community, in a good way, for all the things customer service should be about: the practice of being helpful.

People use our Facebook page as an additional customer service channel and, while this is not what I would like the primary function of the page in the overall strategy to be, it is how our customers want to use the page. And no matter how hard we try to keep the conversation fun and about our industry and general topics, there will also be questions, comments and complaints.

And so we shall give the community what they want – customer service with an emphasis on the service part. We will answer their questions and respond to complaints as best we can in a timely, useful manner before herding the conversation ‘offline’ to email for our actual customer service team to manage.

Community Managers can not be too proud to serve people … if we were, there would be significantly fewer people ‘talking about this’ methinks…

*This post does not reflect the views of my employer and, if you’re at all social savvy, you could easily find out who it is! All words and thoughts are my own.

Connecting, sharing, adding value and community are things I greatly value and love about social media. However I rarely share much of my personal and private life. This isn’t to say I spit out links to articles and RTs. I have many conversations and keep connections and friendships alive with real feelings and personal interest using social media. However I’m only inclined to share my personal life face-to-face or over the phone.

This blog is the most I share about my personal life but it is all about thiings I would talk about to most people anyway.

Many of my friends can’t understand how I use and value social media so much and yet still remain such a private person. I like to think I’ve found the right mix for me between being social and open and transparent and keeping my private life private.

How personal are you in your social networks?

They have a similar feel and atmosphere – cool and sophisticated but relaxed enough so you can have a loud laugh and one too many drinks (although I’m sure they both do practice responsible service of alcohol) without feeling like the naughtiest girl in the class.

Our table of 7 shared all the dishes – some are designed as share plates, others are mains we shared anyway … we are that kind of family…no-one wants to miss out! We did have to order quite a few dishes to satisfy our healthy appetites although none were a disappointment. Special mentions go to the chicken wings and the roasted lamb dish although these are no longer on the menu as it changes regularly, which I like. Keeps it fresh and exciting!

Gastro Park also changes its menu according to what’s in season. M and I shared a dozen natural oysters (very fresh), scallops with carrot butter – they come seared but we asked for them to be cooked right through which they happily obliged – and the Crispy scaled snapper, smoked potato puree, calamari crackling, ink sauce; washed down with some Grey Goose.

All dishes at both venues were done very well. The warm atmospheres and endearing staff were helpful and attentive but not as though they were also dining with you.

Highly recommend both places but do book – they can get very busy, especially this time of year.

As usual, all the food was devoured before I remembered to take any photos… which is why I’ll never be of the food blogging ilk! Have included some pics below from the websites of these venues.

Enjoy!