Snowboarding

Today we woke up at 3.45am. We realised there was a power cut so we got ready by torch light. Dan couldn’t have his tea so he wasn’t happy. We said bye to Damelza and went outside to wait for the taxi we’d ordered last night. At 4.05am there was no sign of the taxi so I rung up again and they said one had been and gone. I was not impressed but they said they’d send a proirity one straight away. As we were waiting Dan got frightened by a possum that ran over the wire above our heads. It was like a massive rat! Just as I was about to give up on the taxi and wake Damelza up, it turned up. At the same time the power came back on which set an alarm off over the road, which woke Damelza up anyway!
We got to Federation square by 4.20am and looked around for our mini bus. We couldn’t see it anywhere so we waited on the corner. Just as I was about to ring the driver, Anthony, he rung me and told us where he was waiting. We ran around the corner but the driver told us not to rush as we were still wainting for another couple. We got on the bus and spoke to an older lady called Sylvia. She was from Perth and was just going to see the snow as she’d never seen it before. While we were waiting for the other couple we saw a man running for another bus and then he got off and was running again. He came over to Anthony and explained he thought he’d lost his wallet and phone. He found them tucked in his bag but by then his bus had gone. So Anthony offered him a lift to try and catch his bus up. Meanwhile, the other couple turned up, Daniel and Lucy, as they had been waiting on the wrong bus! So we were all ready to leave, with our extra passenger Paul.
The journey was awful. It was so bumpy. By the time we stopped for a coffee break at Yea I was already feeling quite travel sick and tired. We had another 2 hours to get to the mountain, which included windy windy roads. I had to concentrate on breathing deeply so I didn’t throw up. Thankful we got there pretty quickly so I knew I’d be ok. We parked up and got the free shuttle bus from the village to the slops. It was freezing cold and very wet. We went and got our jackets, pants, boots and board. Dan found $20 in his trousers pocket  Our legs already felt uncomfortable as the boots had to be really tight. I put my pink hat and gloves on that Damelza lent me and we were ready to go.
We’d just missed the 9am lesson so we had a go on our own. Anthony helped us with the basics but really we were just left to work it out for ourselves. Dan worked it out pretty quickly but I had no idea. I could do it but wasn’t in control. It was very busy so they easiest way to not crash into anyone was to just fall backwards to a stop. I was enjoying it when I was up but it was hard work to keep getting up and fallling down! We decided we were doing ok so wanted to go up a bit further which meant going on the lift. We worked out how to get on. I had a go at keeping my board on one foot like you’re supposed to, but it was very heavy and strange. Dan carried his on. We managed to get off ok without falling down. We made our way down the slope, in a combination of falling and boarding. I couldn’t control myself and I ended up going under a fence on one side and then falling off the edge into some trees on the other side. Dan just laughed at me!!! He was providing me with just as much entertainment though as he kept falling forward and face planting. I wasn’t enjoying myself and was regretting trying snowboarding rather than just doing skiing which I could do. We went back up on the ski lift and waited for our lesson.
My head was hurting so I had something to eat and drink. We met up with Daniel and Lucy from our coach. Lucy was English but living with Daniel over here for a while. Daniel had worked on a cruise ship in the Med so I was talking to him about Malta. We asked them if they’d snowboarded before and Daniel had never seen snow before either! We were put into a group with them, a young couple from Western Australia and 2 Italian brothers. Our Instructor, Sarah, broke it down bit by bit. We tried going down on our heel edge and stopping. We managed that pretty easily so tried moving side to side on our heel edge. We were all doing really so we progressed down the slope. Within about 15 minutes Dan and I could control ourselves. Shame not everyone in our group was just as good. Lucy was struggling but was getting there, but one Italian guy had us in stitches as he had no idea and wasn’t listening. He kept going flying down the slope super fast and couldn’t stop until he fell over and flipped a couple of times. Then he kept sliding into his brother and he’d had enough of it so they ended up rolling about play fighting! It was funny to watch and we just kept out of their way as one time he grabbed onto me when he was out of control and I thought he’d pull me over but I managed to get him off in time.
Dan fell off the lift during the lesson and they had to stop it momentarily but he was ok. I think he was just embarrassed about it! Our instructor said we were progressing really well so on our next run down she taught us toe edge. This felt really unnatural as you face up the slope and go down backwards. It also hurt our calves as you had to be on your toes. We picked that up well and Sarah said if we did a lesson again we could skip beginners 2 and go straight to intermediate. We were feeling really proud of ourselves and how well we’d done. I was pleased I had tried snowboarding now I could control myself and hoped I looked as good as Dan did when he went down.
Towards the end of the lesson my headache started to get really bad. I felt really sick. I thought it was because the snow was very bright so I put my sun glasses on. I should’ve put them on earlier but it had been hailing/raining so I wouldn’t have been able to see anyway. I thought we’d better eat lunch so we went and ordered the food. We had bacon and egg roll with chips but when it arrived I took one look at it and knew I couldn’t eat it. I knew then I was ill as I never turn down bacon normally! Dan ate mine as well and drank his rum to warm him up. By then I was in so much pain with my head. I’d left my pain killers in my bag on the bus. I was sick and it made me feel better.
We did 2 more runs down, one from where we’d been practising and the other from a bit higher up. Dan took a video of me but it’s hard to pick me out as it was very crowded. I took a video of Dan on the higher slope which was better as it wasn’t so crowded. I got half way down and just wanted to lay down and stay there. I told Dan to go down on his own but he wouldn’t leave me. It was hailing really hard, massive snowflakes, that kept going down our necks. I crawled along to a bit of a shelter so I could get my energy up to get down to the bottom. Dan encouraged me to get down to the bottom so I mustered up everything I could for one last attempt. I was fine when I was boarding but when I fell down it really hurt my head. Luckily we weren’t falling over anywhere near as much as we did to begin with.
Dan had had enough because his knees were hurting (or he told me that so I didn’t feel guilty for spoiling his day). We took our equipment back to the hire shop and rang Anthony up to check he’d be back at the bus. We waited for the shuttle bus and I was sick again. We got back to our mini bus and I laid down across the back seat. Anthony gave me his blanket and pillow and I slept. I could hear everyone coming back and I think we left around 4pm. I slept as much as possible because I couldn’t do anything else. Luckily I’d stopped feeling sick but my head was still pounding. Dan was being very good and looking after me. The drive home was better than driving there and we got home pretty quickly. Anthony dropped everyone off and we were last. He dropped us opposite the Jam factory which was a one minute walk from Damelza’s.
I laid in bed for a while and Dan went on the internet. Damelza came home from the gym and I told her about our day. I took some more painkillers and managed to get up. Dan heated up some left over dinner for me and now I’m feeling a lot better. I am gutted my migraine spoiled our day but we still had a great day and enjoyed snowboarding. I think tomorrow we are both going to ache as I can feel it now in my calves and bum cheeks!! I fact I think everything is going to ache, a lot.

Photos and videos will be added tomorrow. We couldn't take as many photos as we wanted because it was so much effort to take our gloves on and off.