New Beginnings

If you grew up in an upper middle class family in The Netherlands, chances are you grew up going to Austria or some other European skiing area every year. Over the years you've perfected your skills and can easily go down a difficult slope. For me skiing was something I did when I was seven years old and ever since dreamt about going again but not being able to because, let's face it, skiing is a luxurious and expensive sport. So when my dad and my stepmom decided to take me and my boyfriend on a ski trip, before our big move to Australia, I was pleasantly surprised. And even though it had been over a decade ago since the last time we went skiing, I had the (silly) idea that I could naturally just ski without much practice. Of course you see where I'm going with this: I had great difficulty on the first day of our skiing trip. I was over-ambitious and decided to go with my father (who is quite a good skier by the way) to the top of the mountain and ski down off of it. Both my stepmother and I got stuck on slopes that were just too difficult and had to be picked up by a ski-mobile (which was kind of cool though). After a couple more days of falling and sliding my dad and I decided to go to the very top of the mountain and we actually managed to make it down on the last day. It took us about two hours and it was a little too hard for me but I managed and was really happy I did.

Yes, I doodled this on a frozen car window.

Now we've arrived in Australia and the skiing trip feels like it was a month ago even though it has only been about a week since we got back from Austria. We emptied out the house and put everything on the street for garbage pick-up. Packed and re-packed our cases and eventually made it through 20 hours of sitting in an airplane to get here. I'm quite jet-lagged which makes me concerned about my memory because the other day I read that being jet-lagged can cause permanent long term memory loss. But I guess that's ok since I'll just make up for it by drinking two espressos a day.

Now I'm spending quality time with my little friend Hamish who just loves to be scratched on his belly. We finally finished watching Silver Linings Playbook which we've been meaning to watch for a while. Although I felt a little guilty watching it because I promised my dad we'd watch it during our ski trip, which didn't happen. Sorry dad... It was a good movie though it's definitely worth the watch even though it starts out a bit chaotic and unclear.

Since it has been less than two days here I can't comment on a lot more but I'll keep you updated.

xx
Saskia