What a difference a day makes...

As you may have noticed from yesterday’s pictures, visibility was poor, it was cold, and the relatively early night that we had after our quiz was very welcome indeed.  This morning, despite not being promised, the sun was shining, the wind had dropped, and the day was as near perfect as we could ever have hoped for.

Didn’t get off to a great start for Salman, however – he managed to fall out of bed when Mr. Whitaker called him for breakfast this morning.  Our morning briefing from Mr. Whitaker included a reminder, after yesterday’s shenanigans with inappropriate clothing, for everyone to wear at least four layers.  As Aboudi had been one of the culprits, Mr. Suter turned to him, with one hand spread and five fingers displayed, “How many layers for you Aboudi?”  to which the response came, “Seven.”

After four days on the slopes, things are starting to come together for our skiers and boarders, and the confidence they are exhibiting is tremendous.  After yesterday’s poor weather, it was understandable that there was some reluctance by some to go back out, foremost among them Myrna, who distinctly wanted to stay at home in bed.  Nurse Eileen, who was in her vicinity on the slopes, however, reported that Myrna had the biggest smile as she flew down the slopes, and even elected to stay for an extra hour at the end of the day.

In fact, after our lessons ended this afternoon, only 15 of our children came down off the slopes, with the majority electing to stay for an extra hour.  At the top of the ski pull in the beginners’ bowl, there are signs not to congregate, and so Nurse Eileen was somewhat surprised when arriving up at the top to find all the skiers and boarders busy organising themselves in their own downhill race!  Such bravado!

We have had a couple of casualties today: Martina never made it to the slopes this morning as she was sick (although she did get off her sickbed and appear on the slopes this afternoon) and Jacob managed to ski into a tree!  The tree is fine; Jacob is somewhat bruised and sore but will live to ski another day.  The resort liaison happily reported that Jacob is the fourth skier this week to pick a fight with a tree and come off worse!

This evening we enjoyed a short walk towards the village for an evening of ice skating; somewhat surprisingly, many of our students didn’t seem to equate the ice rink with cold, not quite managing to make the connection between frozen water and sub zero temperatures, and thus cold!  A little word with Science teachers across the school when we get back, methinks!

And so now, tucked up in bed, we’re looking forward to our fifth day of skiing tomorrow as you all enjoy the end of your Saudi weekend.  Not sure what the weather is due to do (although there was seemingly a promise of -13⁰C temperatures on top of the mountain tonight, including wind chill!  Bet it’s warmer than that in Saudi…

.