Penultimate bloggage......

You may very well be pleased to hear I made it back from skiing alive and well. The whole adventure was not without incident however and I realised almost immediately that rocking up to a mountain, in Canada, in jeans, with no goggles just some broken fake sunglasses and intending to go skiing is not what you would call sensible....but what about my travels has been! I took to the, all but deserted, slopes (those of you like me who get upset by crowded ski hills, tuesday mornings out of school holidays are a good time to go!) and was pleased to see I could remember the basics and made it down the first few runs without too much incident.

Naturally having made it down two runs without falling over (a blue and a black slope) I decided I am awesome at skiing and nothing would really be too much of a challenge. So logically, 12 minutes into my day of skiing I headed for the double-diamond black run......I have never seen so many trees hurtling towards me at such speed. It is fair to say I lost control within a few meters of the start of the slope, coincidentally the same moment I noticed the sign informing me you were required to wear a helmet to complete such a slope which I may have forgotten to acquire. After about 30 seconds of sheer panic the inevitable happened and I eddie-the-eagle'd-it into a huge pile of snow, we are talking splayed arms and legs and a 100% face plant, it truly was a thing of beauty! I came out smiling and decided that a few more runs down less intense slopes may be required before a round two.

After a couple of hours of such practice and old cocky b******s was back, this time I ventured down the stunt slope. A small piece of advice, if you are going to attempt a jump which is far bigger than your ability can cope with, at least check out the landing first and if not, don't go over it too fast.....and don't attempt a huge 360 on your first go. I feel I can pass on this wisdom as hindsight is a fairly useful tool for life and I can say without a doubt it will go wrong. I made it exactly 270 degrees which, and those of you who know your angles will know, meant my skis could not have been further from parallel to the snow.....after a fairly spectacular sideways summersault I then slid a good 40 yards down the slope on my hip ski-less chuckling at how special I am, the limping back up the 40 yards to collect my ski was less fun however and again I had been firmly put back in my place as a fairly average skier.

By the end of the day however I had, I wouldn't say conquered the double-diamond black run, but adequately made it down to satisfy my need to "get back on the horse", I also landed a 360 which may have been through more luck than judgement but I am going to claim it all the same!

The next morning I said farewell to Montreal and was onwards to the capital, Ottawa. Here I dabbled in a little bit of ice skating on a frozen river which was brilliant fun as I entertained myself for over an hour watching the over-enthusiastic would-be hockey player 8 year olds wipeout again and again....and again, there is just something funny about people falling over! After a silly evening out in which we managed to crash a house party quite successfully and I was onwards to Toronto.

It was here that I had one of the most random rendezvous of my whole trip. A few days before I was made aware that Billy Miles, a friend from uni and his mate were flying into Toronto...on the same day I was getting there....staying in the same hostel...and if that wasn't enough it was his birthday!?!

So after an understandingly silly evening that reminded me all too well that I can no longer handle uni-style drinking anymore, we got on the tourist route and visited Niagara Falls for a day, went up the CN tower, stood on the glass floor and generally wandered the city. By the third consecutive night out however we were broken enough to decide we had deserved a day of sitting in a pub and watching football all day, it wasn't a bad decision!

After I said farewell to the boys who were heading east, I stayed in Toronto and found David, the dude I road tripped across the states with and settled into an equally silly few nights of reunion drinking! We watched the Superbowl visited a few of the lesser known drinking venues and caught a hockey game, which was nothing short of brilliant, a goal is good but the fighting is better!

While Dave was at work I had managed to blag a free weeks gym membership so took it upon myself to learn how to run again as my return home was imminent and I wanted to step back onto a rugby pitch ASAP....preferably without collapsing!

Hope you enjoyed my latest splurge of activities, I recon I can squeeze another cheeky blog out of my travels, so please stay tuned for that!

Luke. X