Happy 2015!
Welcoming in 2015 with my first blog post! A little cartoon to fill you in on my second skiing experience...
Happy 2015! My first blog post for the new year!
For those of you who follow indieberries on instagram, you may have seen a few snippets of our skiing trip to France over New Years. For everyone else, I thought I'd catch you up with our adventures here! We stayed in Peisey-Vallandry in a gorgeous little chalet organised by Warr's sister J - thanks SO much for organising everything- such a super star!!
If you watched any of the news channels round about New Years time - you may have seen the insane traffic congestion in France. Erm. WE KNOW ALL ABOUT THAT. We were delayed flying out of London which caused us to hit the front end of the massive snow-induced traffic pile ups. The bus transfer which should have ordinarily taken us 2.5 hours took us 14 hours. You guys. FOUR.TEEN. FOURTEEN HOURS IN A MINI BUS. FOURTEEN.
Below a diagram of the hours in transit:
On the bright side - we seemed to have escaped quite lightly since all the flights after ours ended up having to camp out in the airports and school halls overnight. That would have been cozy.
Anywhoo back to the skiing.
For those of you who know me and my previous "skiing endeavours" (Meredith, Angie - talking to you) you will know that I have had a rather "interesting" relationship with the slopes. (READ HERE FOR A REFRESHER). Bottom line: Me plus snow doesn't reallllly mix well.
Warren however, decided it was HIS DUTY to teach me how to ski - so first port of call was the ski hire shop we were decked ourselves out.
(note: donned helmet straight in the ski shop.)
Day one: Husband, The Mom-in-law and I - set off for the slopes!
So there we were on top* of the mountain. (*top being a relative term).
POOF!
Down whizzes Mamma J to the bottom of the mountain like a speed demon.
I know, right.
So anyway - there we were, Warren had taken himself directly below me a few metres down the mountain - Mamma-J-the-speed-demon waiting at the bottom:
Husband: Why didn't you turn?
Self: I did.
Husband: I don't think so.
Day Three I had a lesson with a ski instructor and after that I really felt like I was getting the hang of it! (And by "hang of it" I mean, nursery slopes. With the three year olds.)
On one of the skiing days, Warren had taken some time off the real-human slopes to come join me with the three year olds on the baby slopes. Even though they were baby slopes, they were still midway up the mountain - so every day I had been catching the ski lift back down to safety the bottom.
On this particular evening, Warr and I were having such fun skiiing together. (Him skiing and jumping over moguls backwards, me sliding down the mountain) that we kind of lost track of time and right around 4:30 he said - "hey, let me just go check what time the last chair lift goes down."
Me: OK!!
*goes off. Returns five minutes later
Him: I've got some bad news..
Me: What?
Him: The chair lift is closed.
Me: The what?!
Him: The chair lift is closed.
Me: hahaha! You're so funny.
Him: I'm really serious.
Me: But then how do I get down?
Him: You have to ski.
Me: WHAT. That's not possible.
Him: You're gonna have to - there isn't any other way down.
YOU GUYS.
The shitty thing about skiing is that there REALLY IS NO OTHER WAY DOWN.
So anyway a long story short - I made it inch by inch down the mountain with the help of husband. Right near the end it got super steep and it was starting to get so dark that I told Warren I was ABSOLUTELY TAKING MY SKIS OFF. And so I started inch-worming my way down the mountain on my bum.
Which is obviously exactly the moment when the ski patrol decided to show up.
They took one look at this skiing noob (me) and they called in their back up and I got a lift down the mountain from the ski patrol in their fancy ski-mobile.
Considering that my last skiing effort ended up me being transported in a body bag - I'd say this is pretty much an upgrade.
Next year - I'm aiming for a chopper.
* * * * *
I do have to say a huge public thank you to Warr though - you are so patient with me - even when I know that skiing on the baby slopes is WAY boring for you. Thank you for being so awesome. x
Other snippets from the trip:
The story of James and the Giant Splinter - which was clearly the highlight of little Philly's holiday - as noted by her diary entry:
Warren got smacked by another skiier, he is developing some epic bruises on his leg to show for it - but don't worry - the other guy broke his nose.
A few iPhone snaps -
It was such a fun trip with everyone! Thanks so much for all the good laughs, good company and excellent fire building - (Bennie). Thanks to Mamma J for being my skiing buddy and to Davo for letting me butcher some of his snaps here.
And in spite of the vast amount of red wine consumed (and pear apertifs, ahem Bruce), I didn't perform any unsolicited "yoga shows" - which is not surprising considering I had already out-played myself at Christmas.
* * * *
Speaking of yoga - I start my Yoga Teacher Training tonight - I AM SO FREAKEN EXCITED! (If you would like to follow this journey of mine - you can follow @indieyogalife on instagram)
And last but not least - I have SUCH a great post lined up for next week - for those of you who haven't seen the sneak peek - CLICK HERE!
Happy 2015 everyone!
This year is going to be AWESOME.
xo
