Advertisement
Published: January 23rd 2009
Edit Blog Post
I bet you have all been breathing a sigh of relief silently thanking God that I haven't written any more chapters to my "War and Peace" travel blog.
Well I decided that despite very little going on here it was time just to update you all. The past few days have been very quiet. Saturday involved a short 90 minute ski session on my own as everyone else apart from Marie-Eve was in bed. We then headed towards Quebec and dropped the group off at the shopping mall whilst Marie-Eve and I did the food shopping and then chilled out in the coffee shop enjoying the peace and quite.....
Sunday was a chilled morning in the chalet and we then went off karting in Quebec. The resounding agreement was that I was an aggressive driver and that I had forced quite a few of them off the track. My argument was that I was taking the racing line and it wasn't my fault that they got in the way......
It has been snowing on and off here since Saturday. This makes the ski conditions fantastic for the first run of the day but once the snow is chopped
up it makes for hard work and a very frustrated Andrea.
Monday was our first day on the slopes with Marie-Eve as our instructor and by the end of the morning we had had our first comedy crash which involved Kate and I. We had come to a flat part of a piste and so Marie-Eve told us all to practice skiing backwards since its a big part of your day when teaching beginners. Anyway I turned round and was facing up the hill and Kate then turned round directly in front of me and started heading downwards towards me at a quick speed I grabbed her round the waist however we soon both ended up tumbling and my left knee took much of the force. Needless to say I ended up with some minor swelling and an immense bruise!!
It took 10 days however Tuesday was the day when I became so frustrated with myself and as a consequence I became really grumpy =;0)
Unfortunately with me the problem is all mental as I can actually ski the terrain we are on however my
head is thinking about it too much and this causes me to
either lose co-ordination or chicken out and throw in more turns than necessary. A lot of the time its my thinking that I can't do it which causes me problems although I always manage to ski whatever terrain we are on I just do it with no finesse.
By the end of Tuesday, on the chair lift up the mountain, there were lots of deep sighs coming from me and poor Marie-Eve our instructor and my room mate was getting the rough end of my grumpiness but luckily she quickly figured out how to deal with me and just laughed and left me to it.
Wednesday was a much better day and we spent the majority of the morning skiing in the glades which forces you to turn otherwise you end up planted in a tree. Also skiing the glades forces me to look in front of me and get the all important "body separation". The glades are fun although I always seem to pick the hardest route and take a number of natural jumps which I always seem to manage to land but with no finesse and some strong gasps from Marie-Eve who is usually on my tail. You will all be pleased to here that so far I have avoided planting myself in a tree although I have had to duck a few overhanging branches and had a couple of close calls!!
Yesterday was another frustrating day for me as I took a tumble on the piste used for the Womens World Cup Downhill and Super G. I fell in good style but eventually got myself and my equipment in one place all under the watchful eye of six ski patrolers who sat on the side and watched (probably having a good chuckle to themselves). I eventually made my way to Marie-Eve who at this point was walking back up the hill as I was hidden round a bend. She did tell me she wasn't too concerned though as she could see the ski patrolers sat on the side and was aware if I was hurt then they would have come to my rescue - at which point she told me I should have just lay in the snow not moving as I may have found a new boyfriend out of one of them!!!!! Once I had got to Marie-Eve and swore a few times I duly came to a stop by her and did the most pathetic fall of all times for no apparent reason which caused her much hilarity and even more swearing from me. That was then me for the day my head as telling me I couldn't do it and so I consequently had another frustrating day on skis.
Today is a "day off" and so it is my intention to go out there and try to conquer my "mental issues". I have been told that one solution may be to sing as I ski as it will then give me something else to concentrate on but anyone who knows me well will know I can't sing!! So I think I will save the other skiers from my caterwauling and I will just stick to listening to my i-pod and sing to myself that way.
Since I am aware lots of this blog is me complaining you don't need to worry I am still loving my time out here and can tell that my skiing has improved loads in the past couple of weeks I just want to be able to do it all now and not have to wait and be patient...... A bit like my expectations of being able to read after my first day at school!!
This weekend I have been abandoned by Marie-Eve as she has gone to Nova Scotia visiting a friend for the weekend. We are being taken into Quebec tomorrow by Guy (the course coordinator) and we are going to watch the Red Bull Crashed Ice event which is described as a combination of hockey, downhill skiing and boardercross. Effectively they have built a course from the top of the city down to the bottom and four skaters have to race each other to get to the bottom first - its fast and its scary!! The rest of the weekend will be over to us and for us to do what we want so I will have a day off from skiing tomorrow and start again on Sunday.
I am planning on looking at buying a new set of skis at some point this weekend as the skis I have were only bought as a temporary measure however they will be kept as a spare pair that I can trash...
Anyway off skiing now and it looks like I have some company in the form of Sam one of the boarders!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.173s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 9; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0705s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Dad
non-member comment
Andera
Your legs have not improved since you left home!! Your spelling is reducing to my level, but your determination is just the same. Love Ded