Couldn't have put it myself better, thank you Nevissport. However, given I am still walking with a limp and I am facing an £800 dentist bill I am still at the frightened stage.
Anyway, what happened was a classic example of a tourist on the slopes, ploughing everywhere with my skis awkwardly criss-crossed to prevent me from gaining too much speed.... or so I thought. I had spent a little while on the baby slope and built up a ridiculous amount of confidence, somewhat contributed to by an energy drink called Urge, the rest being the friendly encouragement from my highly accomplished Scandinavian friends who surprisingly, have been skiing since they 6 months old.
Anyway, I decided to have a go at the other training slope and then it happened... no stopping me! I tried stopping, I was too afraid to fall over and then before I knew it I had taken out the fence and landed on the other side of a pathway up to the slopes.
Thankfully, I landed on snow, hard snow, but snow. What did frighten me a little was how close my torso was to a brass valve which connected to a snow blower. 30cm to the left and who knows... rather not think about it.
End result was a smashed jaw, bent teeth, broken ribs and a torn thigh. All on one side of my body too, felt like I had a stroke.
I hope to get back on the slopes in the next couple of weeks, got some lessons booked and I am excited. Still frightened, but not enough to not make me go back.
Still loving Norway, my job and our new life across here, however I have come across some aspects of this country that are a little, well embarrassing in my 8 months:
- They are incapable of queuing. It is not uncommon to see a young, sharp elbowed man mashing his way through a crowd of old grannies with sticks. Slight exaggeration I know, but it is almost true.
- Despite regularly boasting about how rich their country is, you wouldn't know it from looking at their roads. I learnt to drive in Scotland's east coast and I thought those were bad.
- While their driving prowess on snow and ice filled roads is admittedly quite impressive, they are some of the most impatient and downright dangerous drivers I have ever seen when the cold stuff disappears. Most of the drivers in the UK and France I ever came across that ticked me off where either very very young, or very very old. Over here, the ones overtaking on corners in the rain at 100km/h+ are parents with children in the back. Disturbing.
- The immigration system is a joke. It would have been easier for me to move here if I came from the Congo.
- Anita, a Norwegian national was told by the toll authority when we were bringing our furniture in that our customs form was in the wrong language I.e. English. Despite the fact we got it from their website from a link which said, 'Download this form in English'. After she explained this to the chap in of course her native Norwegian, she was told 'Du er i Norge nå' or 'You are in Norway now.' Plain rude.
Anyway, that is it for the negativity. If you wanted more proof of how lovely where I live is, have a nose at the article from a UK paper:
