Emily and I tucked into a substantial breakfast then I rushed around like a headless chicken getting all our winter gear ready for our morning outing. The Evergreen minibus picked us up at nine and took us to their base next to the slopes at Happo ski resort. We checked the children in for daycare, and met up with Jo, Olly and Isy, who were also hanging out with us for the morning (Cooper was staying back at their chalet with one of their friends so that Jo could also get in a spot of skiing).
In the daycare, Tim and Isy didn't make any fuss but Emily immediately turned into a bawling limpet and had to be peeled off me, so I could dash off to join my ski lesson, making me feel really guilty. Jo and Bettina went skiing with Olly; Steve had stayed back at Double Black to try to get some rest as he was still feeling ill.
There were only three of us in the novice class, taken by Canadian instructor Chantelle. We rode in the minibus over to Sakka area and collected our lift passes then stepped into our skis and set off down a very gentle incline so that Chantelle could gauge our ability. At the chairlift, she surprised us by telling us to leave our poles behind. We felt very nervous without them, though we soon realised that we didn't actually need them, and in fact when we picked them back up for the last run they seemed an encumbrance. The top of the green run looked awfully steep to me, but the softness of the snow helped me overcome my fear as I could feel my skis biting and not skidding too much. Also, I felt that even if I did fall it wasn't going to hurt much. Somehow we made it down, with our teacher assessing us as we went. I got on very well with Neet, who is a Danish woman married to a second generation Italian Brit and living in China. She and I were of a similar ability and waited patiently as the third pupil got down to the bottom, with a lot of help from Chantelle.
In all, we made the trip down the run about five times, improving steadily, until Neet and I were pretty much making parallel turns. The other lady wasn't faring so well, and it seemed to us that we spent a lot of time waiting for her, and that she was effectively getting a private lesson as she needed so much help. But the main thing was that I was really enjoying it, and with a suitable gradient this time I found that my legs didn't ache much at all as I didn't need to hold a snowplough position so often or so long. It was a glorious morning with strong sunshine helping to soften the runs. Regrettably I had forgotten to take my camera to capture the wonderful views.
All too soon it was time to finish and head back to Evergreen. Emily got upset when I turned up but soon cheered up. We all had some lunch in the veggie cafe next door, but none of the kids ate very well. I called the hotel and they soon came to pick us up. Nick had arrived while we were out and had gone off to get his gear and start his afternoon skiing session. I took Emily up to the room for her nap and barely managed to keep my eyes open while she slumbered. Afterwards, Tim and Emily played happily in the kids room and were easily entertained by the selection of DVDs I'd taken. Tim was very taken with Peppa Pig and was soon snorting frequently. Nick showed up at 4.30 and we all played until teatime. We had arranged to have dinner with the Lutz family, and the hotel kindly went over and collected them in the minibus. It ended up being a meal in shifts, as the children quickly tired of eating and wanted to play upstairs.
At 9pm it was high time our visitors set off to their accommodation, and the rest of us all retired for the night. The hotel was playing host to 30 US navy people for dinner, who now took over the lounge and restaurant. Amazingly, though they stayed until the small hours we hardly heard a peep. Nick and Emily went out like a light, but I lay awake for hours as I had rather gratuitously eaten a rich dessert too close to bedtime.
No comments:
Post a Comment