Monday 31 Dec, 2007

Caron woke up feeling sick, it seems like the same virus as Megan had yesterday so hopefully it only lasts a day because Megan is feeling much better today.

While Kisten and Carl sent the kids off to school I went and ran Bleue de Arare a couple of times and really enjoyed it, particularly the second time when I knew more or less what to expect. I am going to have to have some lessons to learn how to control myself on the steeper sections, I think I may not be leaning far enough down hill so the downhill ski isn't biting into the snow enough and I am sliding rather than cutting uphill to bleed off speed.

When Kirsten, Carl and Darrel joined me we ran Bleue De Arare again followed by Bleue De Lac which took us over into another valley where we ran Fornet twice and then Chavanette twice.


Kirsten and Carl - Pre Fall

We were all a little tired so we agreed to run Chavanette a last time before stopping at the Crepperie to have something to eat before heading home. I was skiing next to Carl on the flat about 100m before we were due to stop when something went very wrong and I just saw ski's going left and right. I stopped and could see that all was not well by the way that Carl was lying and sure enough, he had dislocated his shoulder. When I got back to him I helped put it back which was surprisingly easy but it was a horrible reminder of how easily an accident can happen. Carl has a bit of a history with this shoulder because he has dislocated it about a dozen times previously so maybe an operation is in order in the future. The problem at the moment is that we're all in this wonderful skiing place and you can't, according to the doctor, ski with a dislocated shoulder . That would be the sensible option but also the most heartbreaking one especially considering the costs involved in getting to Avoriaz.

Carl went to the doctor and they did some xrays on it which showed up the previous injuries and the recommendation was that he rest the shoulder and NO SKIING. Carl wasn't a very happy camper but has coped quite well with the disappointment thus far. I would have been far grumpier and depressed.

We took the children skiing in the afternoon which didn't work out that well. The queues for the Serussaix and the Proclou lifts were something to be seen to be believed, it must have taken about 30 minutes to get to the front of the queue with loads of pushing and shoving. I couldn't take the queues and buggered off to where the queues where less, much less.



There was a fireworks display at 19:00 which we watched from Heidi and Darrel's flat which is on the eighth floor and has the most fantastic view over Avoriaz and onwards to the valleys below. The fireworks display was good but nothing fantastic. Darrel said that it wasn't even a patch in comparison to the one on Christmas eve.

We all had dinner together in Heidi and Darrell's flat, roast chicken and potatoes, fish fingers for me. Very nice meal but by about 20:30 we all realised that most of us weren't going to make it to midnight to see the new year in but the children were very excited about it so when no children were around the clock was doctored so that midnight was actually at 21:00. A much more reasonable time at which to celebrate the new year in.

We all retired but new year was to have the last laugh. At the correct time there was a two hour long explosion of fireworks which kept everyone who had south facing rooms awake until 02:00 in the morning so everyone was a little sleep deprived the next morning.