Alpine Star!
Published: 20th January 2007
Author: Words by Billy MacKenzie Photo by rayarcher.com
Billy makes like a von Trapp as he sees in the New Year high in the Austrian Alps.
How many times has someone said 'Happy New Year' to you? It kinda wears off after January 5th. I think there should be a rule about it, no festivities after January 5th. Just call me Scrooge MacKenzie!
Christmas is all good when you're growing up, when you're young and Santa still brings you what you want. But as soon as you're over 19 he starts to concentrate on the little kids again and all us older kids get landed with the crap and dodgy garments that fall off the little elves' worktops!
For instance, I asked for Lego Technic this year - a really cool truck with loads of moving parts. I saw it in Toys R Us and immediately scribbled it down on my Christmas list along with a few other little things and sent it to the North Pole. Christmas Day arrived and I ran into the living room at 5am and started tearing open all my lovely, well wrapped Christmas prezzies - but I didn't find my big truck. Instead Santa had obviously been watching me touring the races, getting lost, getting speeding tickets and realised I needed a sat nav for my camper. Good one Santa! I didn't bloody ask for a sat nav though, did I? I wanted a fricking Lego truck. So I started screaming and shouting and stamping my feet then ran off and cried in my room...
One good thing about Christmas is Christmas dinner! My dad cooks up a storm every time and we are still eating the leftovers a week later. Christmas dinner should be made compulsory once a week - I love the wee kilted sausages! Amazing!
Anyways, after Christmas dinner I was on the road heading to Stansted at 10pm. My girlfriend and her family invited me to go skiing - something that has been planned for years but I can never seem to make so this year I was there! What luxury driving on Chrimbo day, I got to Stansted in four hours and I wasn't even trying to go fast.
I arrived at 2am (which if you are any good at maths I guess you'll have realised by now) but was totally knackered. The flight wasn't until 7am and because I had made it down so early I shacked up on the nearest padded seats - I could sleep on a clothesline I tell thee!
Anyways, Ryanair was obviously still hungover and no-one even turned up for the flight so all Ryanair flights were cancelled! Irish, I tell ya! So we had to hop on another flight to Austria but we made it there in the end. It's the first time I have skied since I was 14 when I wore a luminous orange Timberland jumper on our school ski trip! Chavtastic!
This time I was more prepared and got myself some really cool tartan salopettes and was rocking the slopes! Smith sent me through some sexy goggles too. I picked it up pretty quickly and had a total blast. We stayed out there for New Year and watched a massive fireworks display in the mountains - it was wicked hearing the bang echo right through the Alps. Not what I'm normally used to for New Year but it was a wicked experience.
Now I'm home it's back to training and riding and something I've been excited about for ages now - and that's jumping on that Kawasaki! As soon as I got back from skiing I was on a plane to Japan for a few days testing and we tested hundreds of parts then came home as quick as that! The Japanese are so efficient it's unreal! The bike was being stripped and re-built in 20 minutes, then I was back out on the track! The bike is unbelievable though, I can't wait to start racing it.
I've done loads of interviews recently and it's mostly talking about the bike and team so I'll try keep off that topic as much as possible. By the time you read this I will be in Belgium - it's the start of bike training so I'm going over for two weeks hardcore riding in the sand. It's a really hard two weeks, basically riding every day. It should be good though - we have five of us going over there. My two new Twisted 7 team-mates Bry and Lawson, Johnny Hamilton and spannerman BC! So there should be some good banter going on to keep us sane from all the riding we're about to do!