Snowy Bliss

 

Morning all,

For the first time in my life, I was going on a winter holiday to ski in Meribel, France with a group of friends. Excited was an understatement, only problem was I had to wait 6 months until we were due to leave!
As a non-skier, I admit I was a little hesitant to go, I'd only hold up the others as they've been doing it for years but I was reassured by my friends that others were going that had no skiing experience too. With this in mind, I organised a ski lesson at a snowdome in Birmingham for me and two others, bit costly but definitely worth it, one-to-one lesson really helped.
For the first hour, we were practising balancing on the skis, crouching, small jumps,... just to get a feel of the skis. This I handled perfectly well; we were only a third up the slope and had cushions at the bottom in case we flailed out of control. Then came the second hour. We moved to where all the other skiers were and went half way up the slope - for a person who is scared of speed/not being in control, this took a fair bit of courage on my part. We practised slowing down and gentle turns but this did not come naturally to me. As soon as I made one little mistake, my confidence was shot. My legs became weak and I had to hold hands with the instructor each time I attempted to ski the slope. Despite my little set-back, this didn't change my mind about the holiday.
Fast forward a few weeks, my boyfriend, his flatmate and I ventured to a new trampoline park in Cardiff, we had a few days off work so thought we'd take advantage of the kids being at school. So there we were happily bouncing around - again I'm not that flexible/adventurous so not fancy somersaults or anything like that - when I heard a massive bone crunching click in my knee, instant pain shot through my body. Eventually coming to a halt, I called it a day and limped off to collect my belongings. Getting back home, I thought it was just a sprain so avoided walking on it around the house. The next few days, the pain was worse, literally could not put my foot down so it was bum-shuffles everywhere! Two weeks pass and I could just about put my foot on the floor but it was still painful, I decided to visit the hospital for an X-ray. Thankfully, no broken bones but severe damage to my ligaments, the doctor said I should have been on crutches with my knee in a splint from day 1 but with the care I took avoiding weight on it, actually helped! Handing over the crutches, the doctor said I should not attempt any skiing - not what you want to hear two weeks before your departure!
Our friends reassured me there was plenty to do instead so I wasn't too disheartened - plus another friend had also damaged her knee and wasn't allowed to ski so I wasn't alone.



The gang.

Being wheat, gluten, dairy, egg, wine, garlic, beef, lamb,...(too many to list!) free, I was curious as to how our chalet hosts would cope when it came to meal times but as soon as we arrived, they sat down with and ran through the menu to double check it was all okay. One or two tweaks to the menu and my mind was at ease. Now I never knew that it was tradition for the chalet hosts to bake a cake for the guests each day and knowing how infuriating it is to make a decent cake with all my food intolerances, I expected them not to bother (I wouldn't have!). Upon my return on the first day after meeting the boys for lunch, there was a large cake waiting on the table and beside it, a small ramekin with a note saying "gluten and dairy free cake :)" (I didn't question about the egg - in very small doses I can manage the consequences of eating something I shouldn't); this gesture made my day!

  

   Few days later, the group was slowly falling one by one with an illness our chalet hosts brought into the house - not ideal for the skiers of the group. It came to Wednesday afternoon and we were all planning to see this band, Bring Your Sisters, at one of the local bars but after a long day skiing/illness, a few people decided to stay in the chalet and meet the rest of us for our dinner reservation at 9:30pm. Arriving at the bar, we secure a place near the stage and start getting the drinks in (après ski at its best). Two hours later, the bar is heaving, people are crowd-surfing/getting naked and drinks are flowing. Being diabetic, I'm usually responsible when it comes to drinking but that day was not my best. I hadn't eaten much all day and forgot to get the diet version of the drinks so many jägerbombs later, I had drunk full fat coke/tonic/lemonade causing my blood sugar levels to rise dramatically. Getting carried away with all the fun, I hadn't checked my sugar levels nor corrected them by taking insulin. The time for our dinner reservation came round very quickly, by this point I was quite intoxicated but still able to function as a normal human being. My boyfriend was one who stayed in the chalet so when he arrived it came as a shock that he'd be lumbered with drunk Ellie. We all sat down and ordered our food when that wave of nausea overcame me, rushing to the ladies' (after wrongly entering the kitchen first) I witnessed something similar to The Exorcist....lovely.
After a good 15 minutes, my friends questioned my whereabouts and came to look for me...there I was, trousers down, head in the sink and feeling crap. Not a very responsible Ellie. My friends acted quickly and scanned my blood sensor, injected with me with insulin and took me home. I am so proud of them, even though it was a horrible situation, they really came through for me and did everything they could think of, I remember it all so clearly.
Next morning, I'm feeling right as rain! Full of regret for ruining the meal but otherwise fine, my bloods were back to normal and no hangover - definitely learnt my lesson! Safe to say I avoided alcohol for the rest of the trip.
After the drunken shenanigans, everyone got back to skiing - illness permitting. Saturday was our last full day and we had booked a 'Snakegliss' down the mountain (really just a train of toboggans) which was lead by an instructor for safety (safety my arse! Our instructor drove us off the mountain side into some trees!). This was the closest I got to skiing and it was hilarious; the people at the back of the train were constantly battling being thrown off with the tail swinging side to side, definitely got some good GoPro footage.
Sunday morning came and it was time to go home; we reluctantly gathered our gear and set off for the airport. I'm sure we infected the whole plain with our germs, every other minute there was a coughing fit. So did my idea of a skiing holiday go to plan, no, but it was still an awesome holiday and one I won't forget.






Love love xxx