Alive And Kicking (Carefully)

Sorry for not posting much of late.

The week before last I was in Austria, did I mention that? Stayed at the Hotel Immer Essen. Man those Austrians can eat.

Managed to go skiing, not brilliantly, considering my last effort was three years ago and I only did one day then before my recently arthroscoped knee gave out, but reasonably The main issue this year was what we might call a "pulled heart muscle": aka lack of nerve. The confidence was not high. Rather than being eager for the thrill of the slopes, all I could think of was the chance of inflicting hurt on myself. I even drew a graph, not reproduced here because I am on the Netbook with no drawing programs, similar to the supply demand intersecting curves. Age on the x-axis, curve for fun and curve for hurt intersecting at the current skill point. Was told I think too much. Not the first I've been accused of that!

So sitting by entrance to the hotel in my ski-boots waiting for T and Px, with butterflies and anxiety. It was a weird feeling, not pleasant. I'm not normally much of panicky person, but I'm thinking (again!) 'why the fuck would anyone throw themselves 1km down a freaking Austrian mountain, big mother-fuckers they are, all looming and grand and ice-covered'. Also making it tough was that fact that the development at this ski-field is a little bit underdone, with only a t-bar for the main trip up to 1100m. Burning thighs at the end of that, I swear. So rather than dwell on the risk, as two people walked past with wrist in plaster and another hobbling on crutches with his ankle in plaster, I pulled out the Sudoku game on the phone and played that. Great distraction, concentrating on something else. Before I knew it I was up on the slopes having a ball quite a good time.

I did have one relatively serious pringle when I collected a mogul - this guy was standing still in a narrow area and I had no choice but to explode into him. Can't have been that bad a hit because I was the only one to fall over. He and his buddy helped me up and get my skis back on, laughing.

Apart from the t-bar, one of the other limitation to Dientem am Hochkonig is that all the beer and sausage stops are at the bottom of the mountain so you can't rest and generate energy (and nerve) up at the top (and take in the view), you have to get down to get some grub. I guess that's motivational.

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In perpetually buzzing Hong Kong right now for the Rugby 7's, staying at a mates place. Guest friendly. I think I have some old stories from Bruce about this town, I'll have to chase them up. But later. Something to do with Sushi-Adobo take-out, all in the one package.

Time for some Illy coffee at the Excelsior Hotel (just next block) and then off to the stadium...

No butterflies about that.

E@L