Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
Blogging slackness duly noted, but the past 3 weeks have been ca-ray-zee busy. I've had 2 days off in the last 2 weeks; told you it's been busy! Although I've barely had a chance to breathe, I've had so much fun along the way so I'm going to summarize the weeks that have been and fill you in on the events of my silly season so far...
We got off to a rocky start to the Christmas holidays - weather-wise more than anything. One of the first days I started teaching we suffered the most horrendous storm, and not of the snow division, but of the wind, rain and hail type. Teaching outside all day in the elements is hard enough as it is let alone facing slushy snow, gail force winds and PAPOOSE, the lamest most annoying beginner slope you could possibly want to teach or learn on. The roads were flooded, the rain washed all our beautiful snow away and the kids went home miserable and tired (and what parent is willing to tip their kids snowboard instructor when they approach them crying and wailing about how cold and wet they are? Boo hoo). To add insult to injury we went home that evening to find ourselves powerless. Thanks to the storm we suffered a pretty horrendous power cut which left all of Tahoe City in darkness for 7 long hours, so to make the most of the unfortunate situation we headed over to our Aussie mates flat, lit candles, ate junk and talked smack until the lights flickered on again, so it ended up being a pretty cool night. Thankfully since then the snow gods have blessed us with copious amounts of snow with a dash of sunshine and bluebird weather in between :)
I somehow got Christmas day off work (which is unheard of during the busy period) so made myself useful by cooking up a big Christmas dinner for me and 12 of my newest and most loveliest friends. With the help of Cheree, Fizz and Stephen we spent the day preparing and cooking up a Turkey, ham and all the trimmings! I decided to put my baking skills to use by creating some good old, kiwi, mini pavs and an apple and cinnamon crumble/shortcake... D'lish! Needless to say the night was a great success - we achieved a flavoursome, thoroughly cooked, gormet meal big enough to feed a small tribe, wahoo! Who would've thought!? Me!? Cooking a roast turkey... SUCCESSFULLY?!? We also organised a secret Santa amongst all of us. My secret Santa (who was Ash) got me a pair of 'ho ho ho' Christmas-themed socks, a box of Lindt choccies and the coolest foam vortex ball to keep me occupied in the mornings before work haha. I had Cheree as mine and got her a light-up Tropical Aquarium and some American candies...check out the photo's. Quite possibly the best Xmas I've ever had, with lots of laughs, drink, food and good company.
As it stands, today is the start of a new year - 2011. Wow, isn't it ironic that the older you get the faster the time goes.. I swear it was yesterday I was in Canada celebrating the new year. Anyway, I don't really have anything too exciting to report about my New Years Eve or day. I had to work so I knew from the get-go it wouldn't be a big one. After all, how overrated is New Years and how many more opportunities will I have to get maggoty and have the following day to cure the hangover... PLENTY! Weirdly enough, I had always wanted to sleep through the count down and boycott the festivities of new years celebrations. As it happens last night was the night haha. It wasn't as dry as it may sound. We did start off drinking and getting ready for a night out with the Aussies, however we ended up missing the night shuttle to the casinos and after waiting out in the cold for 30mins we gave up and went home. Unashamed to admit, I really couldn't care less and felt stoked this morning when I got up for work hangover-free and well slept for what turned out to be a huge day at work.
The best way to start the new year, as many of us know, is to set resolutions for the 365 days ahead...I haven't really thought too hard about it yet so will get back to you on that one, but what I do know is that I aim to ride as much as I can before the season's out. Ironically I've already broken that resolution.. today is my first day off in forever and I'm telling you now - there aint NO WAY I'm going snowboarding. Today is a feet up-sip on tea-watch mindless TV day! Haha, isn't that how resolutions go? Make 'em and break 'em. Ohwell, Carpe Diem.
Thinking of you all back home with the sun, beach and summer fruits and missing you... only slightly :P
Peace and Aroha x
