Skiing - the sometimes not fun sport!

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Hey guys,

So I hear it's been beautiful weather where you are.... jealous ! It's been beautiful weather here too, but kind of on the freeezing cold kind of beautful! IT's actually been dumping snow here for the past 10 days, we went out last night to a party, left the car and then 3 hours later came back to a fresh layer of powder snow on the car and a good half foot of powder on the ground to walk through. Not even a few tasty Vodkas could keep away the freezing cold!!

It been an ineresting few days since my last blog, whilst enjoying the fun of skiing for the first few days, I came to a realsiation that I actually don't like skiing...at all...everything hurt, it was hard to learn and to be totally honest, I was scared going down the hills. To make matters worse EVERYONE else we know or have met here are really good skiers or boarders so they were all hooking up and ging down crazy runs, hooting each other on and having the best time...which they would all tell me when we met up at the end of the day. ..so I would listen to the stories of fun and frivolity wondering when this crazy sport would become fun. I would love to tell you I approached the subject with Wal with clear articulation of my fears, anxieties and an explanation of the sometimes lonliness of trying to learn to ski, but alas it came out in a teary mess, threats to change flights, not ski Chamonix and declarations that I would never ever set foot on a ski slope again. hhhmmmmm...poor Wal! So there was a break day where we cruised around Tahoe, hung out, went to lunch and had a ball off the slopes and somehow I was convinced to come back on the Monday for one more go of the slopes, after all...it was dumping and it would supposedly be fun on the powder...yeah right, whatever! So I reluctantly applied fifteen layers of thermal clothing and we headed back up the slopes. I booked in for a group lesson, said good bye to the boys and made mental notes of where all the bars were in the village. I thought at least if I was going to have to hang around town I may as well see as much of the mountain there was to offer, and considering I had not much intention of staying up the mountain , this would just have to be all of the bars!
So the lesson started off ok, there were a number of people and two instructors , one old and one younger, and we had to get tested on our skills. Somehow I managed to get into the upper class with two Brazillian dudes (one of whom insisted on wearing a red anorak, hood over his face done up and all I could think of was 'who killed Kenny?' ) and the younger intrsuctor, which was lucky because the older instructor was clearly not happy about taking a bunch of learner skiers out on a powder day ( big saying here 'no friends on powder days' meaning you just gotta keep getting the fresh powder tracks and who cares what your friends want to do or even where they are...it's all about te powder...kind of similar to some of you surfer boys back at home huh??!!!) One of the trickiest things about learning to ski in a group lesson is quite often Australian humour is lost on the americans, they don't really get sarcasm and they are very serious but polite in customer service situations so chatting to the instructors and tying to have a laugh has been a little tricky... that was until I got put in the group with the two brazilians and the young instructor Tom. We went off up to the top of the mountain, it was really hard to see, wind was blowing and we ended up going up a run on my suggestion which took us furthr up the mountain in the wind and cold, which meant the Brazilians didn't talk to me for a while, they were'nt happy! But Tom as an instructor was such a change, he's a sweet g rad outta school doing the ski bum thang, he was super chatty and really nice and we got on like a house on fire. Told him I was a bit scared and he was totally cool and all of us made a pact to have a laugh so we started hooting each other down the hills, we hooted the one Brazilian who kept stacking it in the powder and because the conditions were almost perfect on the slopes (arctic conditions and wind made it not so pleasant) the snow was fun and we all had a ball. I felt like I was having fun and was good at skiing!! Poor Wal met me after the lesson, seriously thinking this day was going to be the lst day I was going to ski and I was going to go back to the house and change the flights, but after the lesson I was so pumped all I wanted to do was get back on the mountain...I didn't even want lunch! In the end it ended up Wal and I skiing until the lifts closed with Wolfie waiting for us in the pub - Wal had to drive his car home as he'd had to occupy himself with a number of tasty beverages until we got off the mountian! I was so stoked on skiing after the lesson that Wal offered to pay for a private lesson with Tom (I felt a little like an executive's wife being treated to private golf lessons - but what the hey, it meant Mr. Wallace still gets all his ski time in and I actually get to enjoy skiing!)so the next day I went out in even worse wind and cold but still had a ball, even when the wind blew us up the moutain! I felt EVEN better about skiing than the day before and felt it was heaps of fun. By the end of the lesson I was carving properly and ripping down the hills... so girls take note, it is possible to learn skiing!

It's funny though the way women (and I don't want to offend or generalise but alas I'm going to anyway) approach learning a new sport, especailly as we get older (mental note, must throw kids down mountains and in the surf young so they don't have to start learning things later in life!!) but we women seem to get really scared and timid, whereas men seem to get egged on by the challenge. I was feeling great about my skiing yesterday so Wal decided to take me down an Experts only powder run. hhhmmm. I had agreed to it and thought it looked easy, and it was all going well until I, for no apparent reason had a freak out (it was pretty steep and I forgot that powder is a lot stickier than your average snow) so rather than just sucking it up and heading down, I did what any self respecting girl would do, I froze up, started to shake and then (you can feel it coming can't you?!) I CRIED!... This was only for 30 seconds mind you but felt like a life time. I could feel it all happening and when telling wal who was saying "come on baby you can do it" I was yelling down at him 'I'm so frightened" and then in my head i'm thinking frightened? Who uses the word frightened? to make matters worse my voice took on a satanic kind of growl which must only come from one's deepest and darkest places...it sounded so strange I wondered whether or not my personality had actually split and this was the personality of a 6 year old possessed girl taking over my body. I have to give a big ups to Mr Wallace who, rather than telling me to get over it and get my sorry bottom down the mountain, he started to tell me it was all cool and I was doing really well...and it was at this point that my personality then mircaulously merged into one again and I cracked out a couple of turns and made it down. Phew! Not deterred too much I did one more run before calling it a day after 4 hours and headed to the pub. Had a fabulous drink called a snuggler which is peppermint liquor and hot chocolate so it's like a tasty warm choc mint drink...yyuuuummm...no calories of course and the cream on top has absolutely no fat...didn't actually get any confirmation of this but that was what I was hoping!

Despite gtting the hang of skiing I called a rest day today...my body is aching and I need more sleep...but writing this blog is getting me pumped about more sking tomorrow! Have offered to make the boys a tasty lamb roast for tonight and am watching fabulous day time TV... yay! no chance of an afternoon nap though, Wolfie makes his coffee so strong I have a cup and shake all day! They have an amazing thing here called 'creamer' which is a liquid you put in coffee (whereas we Ozzies would put in milk) they have even have different flavoured creamer... all of which is dairy free (??) and advertised as containing 'natural and artificial flavours"... but I figure 'hey, when in Rome', so I've been having creamer in my coffee and it's tasty ...kind of like a Baileys coffee without the alcohol, but I'm sure it's full of heaps of bad stuff and I'm actually questionning whether or not it's the coffee or the creamer thats keeping me on a high for hours on end.

So I shall leave you now as the body shaking continues, am missing y'all so keep me posted on what's been happening...??!! Off to Vegas for the Weekend - it's Superbowl weekend and we're going to see Cirque du soleil at the Bellagio on Sat night and then watching the game Sunday afternoon...so exited, Vegas baby, Vegas!!! Will keep you posted on that too and hope to have some photos coming your way in the next day or so.

Much love,

G (& Wal)

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