It's lovely being surrounded by deep snow at home. I've just been snowball fighting with the kids and now resemble a snowman. I'm probably just as cold as one, but one benefit (and danger) of spinal cord injury is that I have absolutely no sensation of temperature below my armpits. So I feel fine, though I may well not be.
Yet I wish I was in Colorado. I want to learn how to ski so that I can take the children. I want a break. I've not had a holiday since July 2006 - my accident - unless you call fourteen months of hospital stay a holiday. I want to go somewhere I've never been before. I want to get fit and feel completely shattered every day for two weeks. I want to be free of my wheelchair. I had a wonderful experience of this when I went sailing on a day trip from hospital: no wheelchair, alone in a trimaran, racing across Portsmouth Harbour. I felt so liberated. And apparently skiing gives the same feeling.
Back-Up say "Back-Up ski courses are not holidays. They are intensive courses designed to promote individual learning and independence through activity. We hope that the course will be an enjoyable and positive learning experience." And they have fantastic objectives:
- to integrate through participation
- to offer the opportunity to regain motivation, inspiration and independence
- to encourage people to discover their abilities
- to encourage personal discovery and rediscovery
- to promote an open minded approach
- to offer a challenge to people who thought their days of an active outdoors lifestyle were over
- to overcome fears leading to personal development
- to develop skills which are transferable back to everyday life
- to have fun.
To be honest, I want to have fun and learn to ski when paralysed. At the risk of sounding arrogant, I'm fortunate enough to already feel integrated, motivated and aware of my abilities. I know I can do masses in a wheelchair. I know I can do more if I'm taught how. I'm not afraid of much (probably not such a great thing for my personal safety. Though I wouldn't like to learn to ski by myself). I don't need to be given challenges: I take them. No, I want to have fun and learn a new skill. I was planning to ski hard all day. The programme is: start at 9.30, ski till 1pm, have an hour for lunch - during which I'd be laying my head on a table to sleep - then ski from 2 to 4.30pm. Then sleep. Four days of this alone with a dedicated instructor, one day off (which would have been today, and I was going to go dog sledging), then another four days of skiing. Extraordinary.
Well, I'm just going to have to wait. Back-Up only go to Winter Park once a year and for £100 more than Sweden, I'd rather go to the States. I 'll be doing my full-time PGCE course in February 2010. I think I may just have to go outside for a while...
