Second Snowboarding lesson Monday 25 January

I wake up about 6am and every muscle in my body seems to be aching. Was I in a fight yesterday? Oh no, I was snowboarding!

We plan to get up to the slopes for 10am however Kate decides to put the beef stew into a low oven in the morning so that it is tasty and tender by dinnertime. We get up to the slopes by about 11am instead for a few practice runs. Soph has to change her boots and Sam is nowhere to be seen this morning, so Kate and I practice together. By lesson time I’m starting to get a feel for this and it is starting to feel more natural.

According to Julien I’m on my back foot too much and need to put my weight forward more on my front foot. To help me he holds my hands and rides down with me to help me get my weighting right. I like riding this way! Before long I am linking my turns and I’m starting to feel like I might actually be able to do this. However I then pick up too much speed and go flying towards the netting at the side of the piste and go through it, taking the pole with me. I have to take my board off to get back onto the piste.

Julien also teaches us how to get off a chair lift. That’s fun! A few crashes later we start to get the hang of it. He also teaches us Ollies and Grabs. Not sure why we are doing tricks already but hey-ho (the boys back home are jealous).

Gareth is reading over my shoulder and objects to the phrase hey-ho. He’d rather I peppered my blog with obscenities. Well he can get his own fucking blog for that.

Our beef stew tonight is very rich and tasty and Kate adds mustard to the dumplings which is a great addition. She has made a pot the size of a cauldron but we still manage to finish it all.

Sorry for the lack of snowboarding photos - I'm too scared to take my camera with me yet!