Winterlude

Before I start a six-month secondment, I’ve had a break from work for three-and-a-half weeks. I started with four days in Noosa enjoying the beach, restaurants, company of my parents, running, and watching the Olympics. After some time at home in which I saw the play Julia and the Australian Chamber Orchestra concert Rapture and Silence; and did some admin such as getting both girls their own bank accounts; I’m concluding my holiday with five days skiing with the girls and Steve. What a lovely interlude it has been.

This morning, Lara and I had a ride on the alpine slide. It is new and very scenic through the snowgums – a bit like a bobsled that goes up and down the hills. The brakes are very responsive although the small boy in his sled behind me was gaining on me by the end of my ride, which made me nervous, so I sped up more than I would have done otherwise.

Skiing can be such a mindful activity. The girls are proficient and Steve is like a swan on water. I am halting in comparison and very cautious, as was apparent when I watched a video of myself skiing. In my lessons this time I have been focusing on feeling more in control and more comfortable, and also being less cautious. Yesterday I tried a T-bar that I haven’t had the confidence to use very often, and I did it twice. Then I went on a shorter one that I have fallen off previously.

In today’s ski lesson, I worked on keeping both feet parallel when turning right, and on my athletic stance (crouched, not upright). Steve has been patient keeping me company, and the girls have had skiing stretches with us too. ‘You can do it!’ ‘Good job!’ I am not sure if this is said sincerely but I will take it this way. The first day here, there were sprinklings of rain and we skied under a rainbow for the whole day.

Part of the experience is the ski lodge and its regular visitors, and we missed Odèle and Rosemary who we have seen for the past four years, due to coming a bit later in the season. It’s a shame, I was looking forward to seeing them. I would have told Rosemary that I read her children’s book and thought it wonderful. We met a young patroller though, Sal, a couple of times in the kitchen, who then helped Lara with her sore shin when we stopped in to the patrol office on the mountain yesterday. The girls and Steve sometimes have chef-cooked breakfasts and dinners with club members upstairs, but I am content with my usual diet and leftovers in the self-catering kitchen downstairs. We are staying during the Interschools competition this year and happened on a family from Rhea’s school – unusual when most of the members are from Sydney or the Southern Highlands. These incidental chats are nice too.

The mountain has improved its environmental practices at the restaurants on the mountain too – in past years, all the plates and cups were single-use and now they are recyclable. It would be better I think it they were proper crockery that is washed though, and I kept and used a cardboard cup from last year as my drinking cup to adhere to the motto ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’. I still had it flattened in my skiing jacket and got a further 2 days out of it before it had to be abandoned because the hole in its bottom got too big. I ate the smoked salmon, cream cheese and thinly sliced lemon bagels that the girls didn’t eat on the drive up over two lunches on the mountain, and had soup or nachos with the family on the others.

Another part of the experiences we have here is often donuts and a hot chocolate or mocktail/ cocktail after skiing. I had a delicious lychee cocktail on the first afternoon while Lara had a raspberry mocktail, and last night three of us had hot chocolates while Steve enjoyed his beer. We tried to engage the girls in conversation while at the bar but it was hard going against the attractions of their phones.

After dinner, Rhea taught me to play pool in the club’s poolroom. There is also a soccer pinball machine that I’ve battled Lara on unsuccessfully. We have our own devices to watch TV, and we have also brought books. The girls have to put up with our snoring in our bunk room and we experience teenage grooming up close. Mind you, mine is the only suitcase open in the middle of the floor with its clothes spewing out of it.

When I’m skiing, I try to focus on the skills my ski instructors have been teaching me, rather than latching on like a magnet to iron filings to thoughts of my regrets or worries about my new job or the one I’ll return to. Steve seems good at this mindfulness, and I am trying to work towards automating my skiing too, so that it’s a motor skill rather than something I need to concentrate too hard on. Practise makes perfect! Or more proficient.

On our last night here, the girls had dinner with some of the ski club kids. One complained that he had gone on the alpine sled today but had to go slower than usual as there was a girl ahead of him who was going too slow. Lara recognized him as the boy behind me.