Sunday-Mundane-day
Rereading my post yesterday regarding ski-ing on wet slopes and the need to go to A+E, I think my joking may have caused some jinxing to take place! Now, before anyone gets alarmed, I didn't have an accident on the slopes yesterday, and nobody ended up in A+E, but my goodness, if I had my way, one of my classmates would have gone!
Two young-ish American-ish girls joined our class. One of them was incredibly chatty and outgoing, in a sort of clumsy geek-ish way. She was holding up the ski lifts and was laughing and proclaiming that 'Oh it's been like NINE years since I've skied *giggle giggle*'. It was the sort of typical American personality that us Irish shy away from. We all stood there in silence and shuffled up as our turn on the lifts came along. Not smiling. Not talking. Just getting down to business. (Keep in mind this is my Saturday-very-serious-taking-notes-class)
So it soon became apparent that this American girl was indeed a bit rusty, struggling to maintain a snow plough (the way you slow down or stop), which is really a basic skill. We were then instructed to ski down and do jumps which would increase our speed. Being first, I skied down and then went back on the lifts to return to the top. As I was going up, I saw the American-ish girl coming down. Now to me, she didn't appear to be going all that fast, but seeing the instructor shouting 'Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!' I realised she was perhaps going a bit too fast. Then the ski instructor skied after her. At the the end of the slopes is a waist high fence with a crash cushion on it, basically to smack into if needs be. So 'smack' into that cushion she did, but then, in an instant (but it felt like slow motion) she did a (pretty impressive) somersault over the fence, one pole going flying off, and then disappeared altogether. I shouted 'WHOAAAHH!!' and then collapsed into a laughing fit. The instructor had jumped off her skies and ran down to the site of the accident and spectator (who coincidently was my old English teacher) dashed in as well. I couldn't believe it. This was the closest I had ever come to 'You've been framed' in real life.
Composing myself as my stop on the lift got nearer, I knew my Saturday-very-serious-taking-notes class would not be impressed if I was laughing at this poor American-ish girl's misfortune. So arriving at the top, I said 'Oh My goodness, did you guys see that?!' Some replied 'No, I missed it. What happened??' And the minute I opened my mouth to tell the tale, the corners of my lips curled up, and the next thing I knew I was in yet another fit of the giggles, apologising with 'I know I shouldn't laugh...' Luckily we had a woman from Galway in the class today who shared my [perfectly normal] sense of humour, so I wasn't alone. Not to say two wrongs make a right or anything.
The American-ish girl was fine and returned up the slopes, albeit demoted to the lowest slope, but fair play to her! I asked had she been hurt and was she ok. She said 'Oh yeah, I'm fine, I just landed on my butt, and the shrubs broke my fall'. I glanced down at the shrubs behind the fence and noticed the ruler straight line of bushes had a considerable dip in them from where this girl had landed. Once again, the laughter returned. Oh dear....
Anyway, that was my ski lesson. I went home, slept, and then went out to a place where I go a fair bit but still get questioned for id. Mind you, EILEEN was given the Spanish inquisition, being asked her age, date of birth and her star sign. EILEEN, you should really act less immature, then you wouldn't get treated so! Got home about 1.30am, lift courtesy of HELEN slept again.
I'll probably go shopping for ski-stuff today. Don't want to waste the day! Pah....
