Skiing in Austria

Wow, what fun we had! We skied for 4 days in awesome conditions - the sun shone, the slopes were emptyish and there was plenty of fresh snow. We were in Gerlos, in the Zillertal Arena in Austria... it took us just 2 hours to drive there from Munich.
I hadnt skied since 1994... thats almost 17 years ago. Even though I skied quite a bit during that gap year I took, I realised once Benedikt started teaching me again how badly I must have skied back then! Clearly I had no style or skill.... as everyone always says you never forget how to ski, its like riding a bike etc etc... well, riding a mtb doesnt exactly come naturally to me so I wasnt surprised when I was like a total beginner again on the slopes. Benedikt was super patient though and kept giving me tips and advice and training sessions the entire 4 days. I tried to do what he told me, but didnt quite master things. I basically established a controlled sliding method to get me down the steeper slopes... So snow plough turn to the left and slide down 10m.... Snow plough turn to the right and slide down 10m... etc etc!
Check out this video Benedikt took on the second day:


So Benedikt is an AMAZING skier. I fell in love with him all over again! He's just so super cool and slick on the slopes. The best by far! Everyone else looked like a joke. So I had the best partner and teacher. He would carry my skis for me whenever we had to walk anywhere, and would load them into the gondola for me. He bought me my boots when it was time to don them at the hotel. And he would even clean the snow off my boots so I could click into my skis. When it came to the actual skiing, he would tell me where to go and would either wait for me to get down, or wait half way for me. He would take 10 seconds to swish swish down the slope and I'd take 10 minutes to weave my way down doing my wide turns. I loved seeing him glide past me. Except when he showered me with snow.
Here's a video of him, playing the fool of course. (he's the 3rd skier to come down)


So we'd ski all day from 9am to 4pm, then come back to the hotel , share a bottle of wine while I expressed and Benedikt watched nonsense on TV... then went to the lovely indoor pool and sauna area where we chilled for an hour or so. Everyone kept their costumes on thank goodness... I've seen how Europeans like to walk around in the nick at these places! Then we'd go for some apres ski and dinner. We went to a different restaurant each night and ate lovely food and drank even lovelier gluwein.

One night we went sledging... to a nearby 7km floodlit course. We took a cable car up, sledged half way down, stopped for dinner and some gluwein, then continued along the course. The sledging was pretty calm at first, then it got a bit hairy. Benedikt was steering from the back while I just screamed and giggled all the way down. We crashed at every corner! This vid shows me going down the last few metres... it was really steep with a really sharp corner at the bottom...

Nic's first (of many) camping trip

So its been a busy couple of weeks. I dont know how I'm going to fit work in in January!
I've started going to a new baby group, which is much better than our little one... there are always at least 15 mums with babies of all ages. Is basically a fat social for all the mums. Although we do we sit in a circle and fun sing songs with actions for the last half an hour...which the kids love, Nicolas included.

We went to a couple of great Christmas craft fairs where I could have bought everything! You get really cool things here I must say - like all the Kikoi stuff and some cool glassware and the lovely indian clothes & scarves which I love and we bought a unique zig zag wooden chair thing. Benedikt tells me these Nairobi markets are krap compared to the German Weihnachtsmarkt... so imagine how mad I am going to go there!

Then we went to a really big and fancy Caledonian Ball last week... there was about 350 people all dolled up, many of whom were in full Scottish kilts and Highlander outfits. The ball was full of tradition which would have made my half scottish father proud - I missed my Pops! We sat at a table where there were no Scots unfortunately so we didnt really know what was going on half the time. And there was loads of confusing Scottish dancing... Benedikt and I tried our hand at one of the safe ones where you don't swap partners & still we didn't get it right. It was a fun evening though. Our 4th ball in the last year and a half!

The next day we had a mtb race - one that I won eaily last year. This time round I came last! I dont know if I'm ever going to get strong on the bike again - maybe when Nic moves out the house when he is 18.

We just came back from a mini camping trip - just one night at Lake Naivasha in our fancy new tent. The tent was awesome and nicolas was even awesomer. He had his best nights sleep yet - he slept for 9 hours on the trot. Clearly he likes the outdoor lifestyle. And he also wasnt disturbed by the hippos, giraffes, loud parties, nor horse and Mahindi's antics in the night. We were very happy
campers. We met up with friends in the evening and had dinner at the camp site restaurant. We'd decided it was easier not to take our own food. Next time we will though - it makes it much more authentic. We also realised how much camping equipment we still need. Pole pole we shall get it all together. Its such a cool thing to do as a family.

So we are off to Germany this week. 2 weeks of COLD WEATHER. We have lots of warm things to wrap Nicolas in and I am borrowing lots of things from Benedikts mum as I obviously dont have a lot. Kenya is always so warm its going to be a shock to my system. I havent had a cold christmas for like forever - maybe 15 years? And Benedikt and I are going skiing for 3 days in Austria - I cant wait. Although it will be hard to leave Nic for that time. But he will be spoilt by his Omi and Opa so we know he will be in excellent hands.

So bye for now....more blogging in the new year... if I have time!