A little trouble on the piste.

One of the things about travelling is that sooner or later one does something really dumb just because one can't read the signs or the descriptions on packaging.  So when we arrived we went and did our first shop and everyone was complaining that the coffee and the tea just weren't tasting like they ought to; the culprit was tracked down to the sugar which turned out not be sugar at all.  We had mistakenly bought something like a lemon sherbert that looks and tastes vaguely like sugar but not quite so it was back to the shops to track down real sugar - sucre as we now know it.  We also purchased some mustard which wasn't; it turned out to be horseradish.  And lastly we bought some orange juice which inexplicably has carrot in it.  The orange juice, unlike the 'sugar', tastes quite good so it turns out to be one of those pleasant surprises that just happens during a trip.  The day started with a delicious breakfast of toast with last nights left over Gorgonzola sauce over it.  Mouth wateringly good fare.

The days skiing was quite eventful, apparently there are italian public holidays on at the moment so there are crowds of italians up for the weekend and there was one point this morning where there was such a crush to get into the cable car that I was considering stopping skiing for the day.  Fortunately it only happened the one time but it meant that the slopes were really busy.

We all went up to the top of the blue run which we had all recommended to Caron the previous evening and we all merrily left her to navigate her own way down.  My very first run of the day about 100m from the end of the run I was just about to turn and a kid skied over the back of my skis so I couldn't turn and skied right off the piste and took what must have looked like a spectacular fall because it was head of heels on the frozen grass next to the piste.  I hit my head really hard and was very thankful for the helmet.  A bit dazed I got back on my feet and remonstrated with the kid and his mother who just looked at me blankly.  How annoying! 

By this time Kirsten and Carl had already caught the gondola back up so I followed and spent a couple of extra minutes regaining my senses.  Skiing down the run to catch up to K&C I caught up with Caron who was not a happy camper at all - too steep given the number of people on the slope that came whizzing past her.  Needless to say that I was in deep trouble and sticking around doesn't actually help her - it just presents a target for her frustrations so on I went ready for my medicine later on.

 At about 11:00 we stopped for some hot chocolate and cafe in a restaurant half way up the slope.  It was completely full outside and we could only get a table inside.  Pretty nice none the less.

On the last run before lunch Alistair fell really hard onto his backside and incurred a typical snowboarders injury - seriously bruised or broken coccyx.  We don't know which yet but walking back to the apartment was clearly agony so we dosed him up with anti inflammatories and pain killers and we'll assess tomorrow just how bad it is.

We spent an hour or so after lunch relaxing and reading before joining the Keysers on a different blue slope which was really fun.  The slope wasn't as steep as the morning's one and had a few moguls but it wasn't a flat piste which made it really nice to ski on and as the number of people on it decreased it got to be more and more fun.

The evening meal was a vegetable stew created by Caron and then we spent the rest of the evening playing a game called Mafia - rather appropriate given that we're in Italy.  I don't know if it was the game or the alcohol but there were screams of laughter and at one point Carl was reduced to helpless mirth where he just couldn't stop and ended doubled up to try to give his stomach a rest.