Friday 20 January 2012

Ghosts, Injuries, Illness and pow.

Dear Blog
I’m sorry that I’ve not had time to write.  Unfortunately, I’ve been working more or less non-stop since the last time I wrote and when I finally do have a week off to myself (such as this week), a load of blokes that I used to work with have come here for a lads weekend, so I’ve had to show them around and get drunk every night.

The really curious thing about these ghosts from my past is that at some point in the last few days, more or less all of them have asked me about how difficult it is to live out here and aren’t I brave for making the big leap into the unknown and leaving the rat race behind.


Frankly, judging by the reports that I am hearing on how crap life is in the commercial property finance sector, I’m glad I did make the big leap.  There seems to be a crushing pressure on most of these guys that wasn’t there the last time I saw them and I guess life in the UK is as tough as reported.  Still, it’s nice to see them all again and it’s been nice to ski socially and to be able to ski at a fairly leisurely pace, especially as I seem to have been injured and/or ill for the last month.

What a lot of people don’t see when they sign up for ski lessons is that half the time, the person behind the goggles is dosed up on Nurofen or skiing around with one working leg or fighting off the latest seasonnaire cold that is going around. 
For the last few days, I’ve been trying to demo good skiing technique with a lower back that is more or less locked solid and sending shooting pains down my thigh.  Last week, I was fighting off what according to Wikipedia was Measles but my Mum said I probably had it as a kid so apparently it was just a rash then Mum…
Before I was ill and injured, I had a chance to ski for a day with my new best powder day buddy Nico (interviewed previously by me for MDS).  He’s pushing me to do bigger, better, faster things on powder days and I’m surprising myself with what I can do.  I draw the line a cliff drops and stuff as I have work to do but it’s nice to go out and be shown the best secret spots.  This does mean that I’ve had to equip myself with all the avalanche kit because I don’t feel safe venturing to some of the places we are going without.
I think Nico likes me being there too as I can just about keep up and I’m happy to film him for his sponsors.  I attach a clip of some of the January conditions in the Portes du Soleil.

It’s dumping down again here tonight, with a good 20cms already fallen today and big snow predicted overnight and into the weekend. 
Time to rest up and dust down the fat skis.
 -x-