Due to our early night I actually felt ok this morning and managed to get up with no more than my usual slowness. We have our breakfast, I make everyone eat porridge for energy and after a quick shower chuck my ski stuff back on. We get in the car and pick up an English girl hitching on the way. She is from Devon and a snowboard instructor and gives Ali a few tips on the way. As we get closer to the mountain the visibility is really poor and the temperature drops to minus 9.5. I think we’ll definitely need our layers today.
We collect our boots and skis and Maisie mounts a mutiny at this point. Despite having some paracetamol her legs are really aching and she starts crying when we try to get her boots on. Ali dashes off excitedly and we stand there wondering what to do. When I hear another mother shouting at her daughter in a temper because her kid is having a paddy as well I make up my mind to be a little more understanding and not point out to our little darling that it has cost us a load of money and I could kill her for not wanting to go to ski school today. We take her over to the instructors and explain that she is finding it hard, luckily they are so friendly and she manages to dry her tears and sniffles off with “Cat” looking miserable.
It is upsetting and by this point Simon and have missed the 1030 lesson. We decide to practice on the beginners slope and after a few runs I’m also feeling a bit disheartened. The weather is really bad, more than freezing cold, with gusty winds blowing snow everywhere and thick thick fog. The slope is really icy and feels completely different to yesterday and I lose my confidence quickly.
We have a coffee and I decide I’m not going onto the mountain today and will stay with the beginners and repeat yesterdays lesson to get a bit braver. This turns out to be the right thing to do and after another two hours I’m feeling a lot better. Simon goes upto the mountain on the chairlift and Maisie is looking happy now with a few other kids. At the end of the afternoon we all meet up and swap stories. Ali is doing great and has managed to get four hourly lessons on a one to one basis today. This is excellent and should have cost us 400 dollars but as Maisie didn’t hand in one of her lesson tickets yesterday he used that and got 2 hours free.Hurray!
I hope the weather is better tomorrow as the visibility was only about 2 metres and the conditions were hard. I feel pleased that we have managed to do what we have and although I was a chicken this morning I don’t care and I’m glad I’m feeling more confident again now. It isn’t really that hard and I think confidence is a major part so I need to work on that. Don’t feel tired today and I think my boots are better with only one pair of socks. One amazing thing today was that mine and Maisie’s hair froze as did Ali’s eyelashes. Wow! It looked awesome. I told Ali he looked beautiful!! All in all a good day and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
Its 8pm now and me and the kids are watching A Bugs Life, Simon has gone to the pub to watch the rugby but we didn’t want to brave the cold!