Not only are the lights up around town (both Hull and Manchester) and the Christmas Market is in full swing in Manchester.......but now it is also snowing!
I realise that reading back through some of the past blogs it does seem that I am a little bit like a kiddie on Christmas Eve (Boy wanty pressie! Where Santy Clause? Want pressies now!) but it's not so much Christmas itself (although I do love Christmas) but rather the whole season of winter.
Walking to the station in the morning there is nothing quite like seeing your breath in the air and that almost painful first few breaths, almost burning the lungs.....and I love snow. I think it is a further regression to childhood.
When we were a lot younger.....I think I was about 6.....my parents bought us a set of cross country skis. They did not want us throwing ourselves down a hill on skis at a young age...that was the plan! Instead we would go to Beverley Westwood when there was snow to slog round with planks of wood on our feet, to drag ourselves up any slight incline to experience the thrill of a little gravity driven acceleration. This was the birth of a lifelong love of skiing......so I am even more excited about the snow.
So with the cold, lights, decorations and snow......bring on Christmas.
I looooovvvvveee winter. I am not a heat person at all, and I think the best days are those cold, crisp ones when there is snow on the ground but the sky is blue... probably why I want to move to Canada!
ReplyDeleteI do not, however, love skiing. I have been skiing once and it was a disastrous experience from which I am yet to recover.
First off, the surly teen who fitted my boots gave me the wrong size, despite me saying they were a bit tight. She said ski boots were meant to be tight and they were the size I'd asked for. She also looked at me scornfully when I said I was a beginner and asked where I got the poles from. I was too scared to ask again.
By the time we reached the ski slope (half an hour away by coach) my feet were throbbing, so I removed socks and put boots back on in hope they would now magically fit. They didn't.
The beginner ski instructor was sick, so we got the one used to experienced skiers. I told her I had no co-ordination and would fall over a lot. She didn't believe me. She asked where my poles were and looked at me like I was an idiot when I said I didn't have any.
The lesson started. Everyone else quickly grasped how to ski in a straight line. I didn't. I crashed. Into the ski instructor. She didn't like me after that. She sent me to practice with the other people who couldn't stand up without help. They could ski better than me.
By now my feet were in agony. I took off ski boots and stood barefoot in snow. My feet went numb, but didn't hurt anymore so that was okay with me. I put my socks on when they started to go blue and left, halfway through the lesson, in tears to get the bus home. I decided that it wasn't worth going to the rest of the three day course, even though I'd lose my money.
I had to pass the advanced slopes to get back to the bus stop. People kept giving me funny looks when they reasised I was walking across the snow in my socks, holding skis in one hand, boots in the other, and no poles.
Did I mention this was my honeymoon?
Gemma - Ouch, although it did make me smile slightly (just a little bit and I promise it was only the mental picture of you storming across the nursery slopes with skis and boots in hand - honest :) )
ReplyDeleteSounds something like my sister's first proper ski holiday when we went for a week and the instructor wanted to check out our ability, leading to a fractured clavicle on the first day!
Got to say it sounds like a honeymoon from heaven for me though.
P.S. Hope that you are feeling better
You'd have loved the dog-sledding then! I've always wanted to do it and it was awesome. Once we live out there we're planning on doing a skidoo trek out into the mountains, and I've promised Hubby that I'll try skiing again, and I'll learn to snowboard.
ReplyDeleteThe community I want to live in, just to the south of Calgary, maintains cross country ski tracks in winter, puts a ski rink onto the lake ice, has a toboggan hill and a hockey rink. In summer it is running tracks, fishing, kayaks and a water play park. Oh and beach volleyball. See why we want to live there??
What....all those attractions and activities in a community that cares about its members and the environment it lives in....not at all :)
ReplyDeleteApparently snowboarding is a lot easier to get into.....not tried it myself, but we taught a friend to do red runs (slowly admittedly) after 3 days. My Sister loves boarding, and spent a whole ski season over there a few years ago, just wish I had taken a few years out to do things like that!