Tuesday, July 29, 2003

The night I got home from the snows, I wrote a list of memories down so I never forget the whole experience. I realised then that I wasn't going to be able to effectively recount the whole trip in enough detail. So here starts the summary of SNOWIES 2k3!!...

PARTICIPANTS: Me, Mel, Minh, Hana, Olivia, Lily, Lowell, Dave, Bjorn, Joe, Phil
TIME OF DEPARTURE: 25-Jul-2003 2030
MODE OF TRANSPORT: Budget 12-seater van
TOTAL COST: Upwards of $500 (incl. transport, food, accomodation, lift passes, ski gear)

I hurried out of work Thursday afternoon to get to Minh's house before 1900. We waited for Hana and Liv before heading over to my house so I could do some last minute packing. The boys, Mel and Lily came around 2030 and the journey began.

There were 3 driving shifts: Dave took us to Queanbeyan, Lowell took another 200-something k's and Joe took us to our final destination. The van ride was good. It was a van full of excited skiing beginners (+Mel), telling jokes and singing songs to compensate for the lack of good radio. The tape deck wasn't working so we couldn't hook up a CD player *doh*

Our final destination was Mitre 10 Garden Centre in Jindabyne. We arrived in Jindabyne in the wee hours of the morning so we needed a place to park and attempt to get some shut-eye. Didn't happen for most of us so we were up looking for breakfast around 06-something.

After breakfast, we headed to REBEL to get out ski gear and get out lift passes. We bought some snow chains from our favourite 24-hour convenience store, BP, and headed up the mountain.

When we got to Perisher, it started to snow. I was pretty excited because I hadn't ever skiied in falling snow before so I thought it'd be a good experience... yeah right! The snow particles were so small and so close to icy that going against the wind would mean getting hit in the face by the pelting snow. We went skiing at Blue Cow, which was meant to have the best runs. I didn't have the best experience that day. So much falling down and painful snow! Bjorn and I managed to fall off a lift and we were forced to drag ourselves back onto the beginner's run from an intermediate run! By lunch time, I was tired, sunburnt (yes sunburnt) and my hair was icy as heeeeell! I had lost all motivation by that time so we went home soon after - well, we tried to go home anyway.

On our way out of the crowded and traffic-filled carpark, we discovered that - duh! - the van was rear wheel drive and having snow chains on the front wheels wasn't doing anything for us. So the boys figured moving the chains to the rear wheels would fix our problem.......... in a perfect world.

Unfortunate for us, Budget gave us unidentical rear wheels so one of the snow chains didn't fit on one of the wheels. The boys resolved to switch the bigger wheel with the spare wheel on the van. 2 and a half freezing hours later, we all got back into the car - frozen toes and all - and headed home. It was a nightmare and the thought of another day of skiing was very much "not enticing". We were lucky the ranger came to help us - he was our angel!

After we picked up the house keys, we headed home and the girls started cooking while the boys lined up for a very well deserved hot shower - timed and all! Dinner followed 11*5minutes later and we pretty much dropped straight after due to our lack of night before sleep and the tiring first day at Blue Cow.

*exhale* That was Day One. Stay tuned for Day Two...

TANGENT
What do you do when you realise one of your friends has a serious dislike toward you? Given history, it's kind of understandable... but don't you think you move on? I thought moving on would be SWEET. I just don't think it's a two-way thing anymore. Just makes things harder - you've got to step lightly around them and you know what? Why should you have to do that around a friend? I thought friendship was supposed to survive the low points. I'm pretty confused. Any advice?

Bye!

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