Panacea
Way back in July 2002 - I was working as a ski-tech in the Australian ski resort of Thredbo. Fitting skis and boots in the morning, skiing at lunch time and then collecting skis and boots in the afternoon. Hard work, but there was great snow and sunny weather...

Anyways, one particularly fine day it seemed a good idea to ski at lunch in nothing but combat trousers and a t-shirt. Bearing in mind that the Australian sun is a cruel beast at the best of times. 1000m above sea level and the snow reflecting everything the sun could throw back up again, was to be an interesting experience.

Back at work after an hour of zipping about the mountain, I started to get a bit dizzy. Then a lot dizzy. Then really nauseous. Then a bit hallucinating.
I managed to zig zag over to Bob the boss and dribble something about 'sick...dizzy...home'.

Bob was great. The only man who could get away with a silver foil puffa jacket, orange ski pants and mirrored goggles. Actually, I'm not sure he got away with it, but he wore the combination with no shame and talked about the weather a lot to distract from his shinyness.

Luckily, one of my flatmates Saskia worked in the ticket office and they finished at 2pm, so I met up with her and we went to hitchhike back to Jindabyne, the local town where all the workers lived.

A nice coach driver let us get on board and he drove us the 30km back down the mountain to Jindabyne. Very nice drive, wombats, kangaroos and wild horses to gawp at.
For me though, getting on the coach is the last memory I have of the trip.

The next thing I know, is that I'm in bed and it's after 9pm. Saskia is bringing me a cup of tea that I apparently just asked for.
Five minutes later and I'm feeling tons better, the nausea has gone, I'm not seeing things and I'm not talking like a tramp on his third bottle of Absinthe.

Apparently, I turned into a delirious wreck for 6 hours and Saskia was deliberating whether to call for an ambulance or not when I lucidly requested a cup of tea.
Clearly my subconcious knew what was required.

So I have to thank Saskia, for getting me home and making me the best cup of tea I've ever had.

I think the lesson here is:

Don't go skiing in the Australian sun without a load of sunscreen, a hat and a flask of tea.

Or you'll get really bad sunstroke.
( scoshi pretending to diet since, Tue 7 Oct 2008, 16:03, Reply)