I asked a few of those questions to another ‘educated’ 15 year old….

See below:

Katmandhu – capital city of?

Is that a real place?

Who was imprisoned on Robben island?

Robin Hood?

Where’s Mount Everest ?

Switzerland?

Which country was Nelson Mandela the leader of?

Jamaica?

I do wonder what they do in school all day.

And I have yet another UTI.

Well it made for very funny reading! It took me a long time to live down the following when I was 18…… T.P. question: ‘To whom would you give a Heimlich manoeuvre?’ Being even dumber than Dumb & Dumber, my boyfriend at the time took pity on me and discreetly whispered the answer, but obviously a little too discreetly as I jumped up in glee at finally being able to give an answer to a question and shouted out ‘Simon Cherkin!!!’ ???

The girl in the grey jacket is Amber, and on camera is Kev.

The thing is ( if you know a bit about skiing ) that ‘ normally ‘ it’s all about sensations – the feel of the skis against the snow, the angle of your body relative to the slope, the distribution of your weight on your skis according to the type of snow and the length of your skis … I have none of that to go on – as in none at all – I can hear the noise the skis are making and I can tell if I’m sliding rather than cutting into the snow ( carving ) only by the direction I have just ended up going in… So the sensory deprivation is unreal.

True to form, I finished on a high. All day today I skied everything in control and with a fair bit of speed thrown in. Courmayeur in Italy has quite a lot of steep and narrow stuff ( the sort of stuff that very recently would have created havoc in my sitski world ) but today nothing fazed me and l linked my turns smoothly and confidently.

The best part was that I actually enjoyed it, as in didn’t mind that much that I had to ski sat down; and can see the prospect of major progression next year, whereupon I should be flying.

JJ declared himself proud of me – and rather than interpret the remark as bullshit/flattery, which is my default reaction, I actually believed him … and felt pretty pleased with myself too.

Sitskiing has to be the most frustrating sport in the whole world. Just when you think you’ve cracked it, everything seems to change and you go back days …falling, spinning around, sliding down backwards and ending up upside down and stuck fast ( and helpless). The technique that worked well yesterday was next to useless today. For hours I was at a loss as to what to try and wishing I’d never bloody started in the first place.

By the end of the day I had recovered a bit of  posture and control,  by doing completely different things to all of the other days.

Tomorrow is the last day. On the other trips the last day has gone well ‘ ish , giving me enough urge to want to come back. I’m hoping that’s going to be the case this time too.

The kids are happy though. Lily bumped into a friend  and they’re now hanging around on the film set of a Hollywood movie that happens to be being shot here.

The closest I got to that as a kid was once appearing on the Welsh local news having been taken for one of Cardiff’s homeless youths.

Which country is Kathmandu the capital city of?
Amber: Wales ?

Who was imprisoned on Robben island? Amber: Robin Hood?

Where’s Mount Everest ?
Amber: France? No, Italy !

Which country was Nelson Mandela the leader of?
Lily: America?
Amber: India?

Which bird has the largest Wingspan?
Lily: The eagle?
Me: no.
Lily: The Vulcan?
Amber: A dragonfly?
Me: no, the albatross.
Lily: Never heard of it.

Which bird is the Fastest runner?
Amber: Flamingo?

Who came to visit Jesus in the manger? Amber: I know this! Mary?
Amber: God?

Amber: The Messiah ?

Why did Moses end up floating down the river?
Dani: Because of King Harold!
Me: no, King Herod darling..

Dani: no, it was definitely Harold..

( and I’ve been told to admit to saying that Copenhagen was in Holland .. )

More changes in the type of snow and more changes to how I get down it, technically.

Today I hardly had to touch with my pole-skis and I’d spin round, at first way  too much and then crash. I got the hang of it though and it went pretty well.

Thanks so much to Kev Young this week. His thighs have been burning a fair bit I think as he’s uncomplainingly pushed me here and there on flat bits and uphills, where I am pretty much stuck.

Cheers Boyo.

Russ

Thank you to Dani, without whom this trip wouldn’t have been possible of course. I can’t do this stuff on my own, not even being able to look after myself, let alone the girls.

So far it’s been like it should- a family together having an awful lot of fun, without discontent. We’re spending so much time together and it demonstrates how close we all should be all of the time.

The snow’s all gone a bit sticky and slushy, as is normal for the end of the season, and April.

The extra grip that the snow now gives me ( as in my pole-skis ) makes turning much faster, tho ‘over-steering ‘  – that’s where you turn too much and end up pointing up the slope, then sliding down backwards and crashing … far more likely too.

Anyway as I have always been aware that talking about technique stuff can be terminally boring for those really not interested ( and have felt my eyes glaze over and wished myself dead in the company of some ….golfers ) I won’t go on about it. The upshot is that it was by far the best day on sitdownskis that I’ve had so far. Hardly any crashes, more turns, more speed and a black run a couple of times ( Kandahar – World Cup Downhill run ). I’m a fair bit slower than Lily ( who has suddenly realised the Dawkins ski gene ) and is looking very good.. and Amber too ( less style but a reckless mentality.

I’ll improve far more in the next four days than they will however, so we’ll see.