Moving and Grooving. A warm Christmas in a cold place.

So the world changed again as it does when one thinks it has just got to a place where it will continue in one manner for some time. We are down to 6 days a week working and thus one day off a week to recuperate. My knee started improving and i was on a snowboard soon, even it still looked (and still looks) pretty terrible. And then,a week ago, i was sitting prettily at the kitchen table on my off day when i was told that it was time for me to move out of my house.

The reasons were somewhat sketchy, something about me making too much noise in the morning and there was this great idea where my

landlord wanted to swap me for a girl who had recently moved into a house a few houses across the road. I was unsure about whether this cute arrangement would materialise and after depressing myself into general wonderings of "what is wrong with me?", I decided it was better to simply take matters in the way they were presented and remove myself from my abode as soon as possible. I had met the owner of the other house, Mark, at a Christmas party the week before where we had toiled the streets of Hood River dressed as Christmas folk (i was dressed as a confused Christmas Cat in the hat and he was a Merry Father Christmas).

So the girl was not keen on swapping. She felt that if i could be swapped out easily then it was possible for her to be too. Luckily however, there was another room, full of silly dressup clothes, vacuums and blankets which looked somewhat livable. So i called Mark and was invited to another Christmas party across the Columbia Gorge, filled with incredible food, a 5 year old boy who fell in love with me and a joyous time. So much of a joyous time that i arrived home at 3am and somehow did not hear my alarm go for work in the next 2 hours. I woke at 7.45am (which is when i was supposed to be at work) freaked out and ran out the house in 1 minute, stuck out my thumb proudly and arrived at work at 8.45am. Normally with the bus it takes about an hour and forty five but amazingly the world

was smiling at me and work forgave me and i tiredly went on to live and work my day.

So mark seemed to appreciate my spirit at the party and invited me into his abode with the vacuum cleaners and the silly dressup clothes and I packed my bag and brought my guitar and moved 3 houses across the road. Turns out the girl who i was supposed to swap with is mad and rad (madical and radical) and on the eve of Christmas Eve we declined an invitation to a Nightmare Before Christmas Party and stayed in to make presents and brownies. At 10.30pm that all changed as i found some sequined silver leggings and she pulled out her sequined golden dress and we crossed the Gorge again to dance in silly clothes (top hats included). A bit later we got called up on stage as the "Sparkle Girls" and amazingly and unintentionally we won the best dressed competition, (I didn't know sequins were all about the Nightmare Before Christmas but now i do :) We won a case of beer and awesome t-shirts. The beer is good trading items for other things and the t-shirts are, well awesome t-shirts.

So i am living with some very fun, loud peple, who love to dress up and quite frankly are lovely. It's quite a good thing we all work too much because i cannot imagine how peace would ever ensue in this house. I didn't intend to, but i was taken away from one place and put here for another reason and i am happy. oh so happy.

So Christmas rolled in. More parties and general fun revelry. I arrived home on Christmas Eve (well, Chirstmas day) at a good 3am (again) and found, outside my door, presents! Like the plural with an "s" PRESENTS! amazing. A funfilled package from Ireland, a camera i had ordered YAY and a bottle of wine from my new housemate. I awoke on time this time and arrived at work to receive another present; Honey, Tea and Chocolate (could anyone want anything else?). but the best present of all, was the day itself. I have not seen such a heavenly awesome day on the mountain before that day. The sunrise was something to bring deep, beautiful, somewhat tearful emotion out . The view above the lift i was working stretched far and wide, long white hills of rolling mountain madness, sun shining, blue skies and birds ahead. On my first lap of the day i felt that the happiness inside of me could not possibly expand to greater heights. I was near breaking point, if the happiness had risen, I was sure i was near to explosion.

So we had a "Bad Christmas Sweater" themed work day and obviously i do not travel the world with a Christmas jersey so i found this silly red coat in my bedroom, complete with black netted flared sleeves and silly badges that had "mom" and "love" with a heart and an arrow through it. Fabulous. And i found a Christmas hat, with my green star glasses and a stocking that had motorcycles on it which i put around my neck and begged sweets from people all day (I got some lip balm, a toblerone and some other assorted goods ;). I think i was the most festive on the mountain and i made alot of people happy which in turn made me happy which in turn, i think, made them happy again (ah circles of happiness, how joyful). I shouted Merry Christmas at skiers in many different languages (Mele Kalikimaka (Hawaiian) Gelukkige Kersfees, Buona Natale and Mary Christmas -which for some reason never gets old...)

Later that evening my friend who had given me the tea invited me to his house where we made more tea on his wood stove outside, played guitar and sang songs to each other and spoke about the beauty of the world and the ebb and flow of giving love and receiving love from other people. "Just love people" he was saying and i thought about the angry snowboarder that day who had been rude and made me sad and i tried to start loving him too.

And so, in the 4 years i have had Christmas far from my beloved family, this year has truly been the one where true beauty has reigned in all facets of Christmas. The world is constantly changing, even (and especially) when i'm not looking and again I am thankful to live with beautiful people, to have friends (already) who care about me, to be able to dressup and be ridiculous constantly and to work on a heavenly mountain giving love, and getting love in return.

Cliff jumping Cliff falling (is there a difference?)

and so things went on. started work and work and more. I wake up every morning in the cold and dark around 5.30, eat and dress, leave for the bus which leaves at 6.25 and is at least a 20 min walk away. then an hour bus ride and im at work at 7.30am, work until (hopefully) 16.30and then the bus is again at 5pm where i get home at 6.

This would be a really terrible life if i didn't like work. but it turns out that work is really one of the best ways to pass your day here. Someone who works for lift operations is inevitably someone who is mad about skiing or snowboarding, who loves to be outside in the good mountain air enjoying the exquisite mountain views. Most people I work with are, firstly mostly male, and secondly are quite a bit of fun. There are lots of things to do (like shovelling LOTS of snow - you should see my growing guns!) but riding the mountain as much as possible is the main goal of the general crew and that is focused on daily. How much riding around the mountain can we get and still count it as "work". No it's not always frivolous funtimes. Often it's tedious. I will stand "loading chairs" for hours in the cold. To amuse myself i shout random things at the skiers getting onto the lifts, which includes general wooping noises, singing them a song that's in my head at the time, telling them they look silly and saying good morning in all the different languages i know to say it in. Most Americans in this case will give me a confused look and will answer me with a timid "Howdy" where i will reply with my best Southern American "Howdy" they have ever heard, they are then whisked away by the chair lift and I stay, ready to amuse myself with the next crew.

And it rains on this lovely mountain. i didn't believe it when one morning the mountain was packed full of people enjoying

a wondrous snow day and then later apparently we were attacked by the breezes of the Pineapple Express which lead to rain on a high snowy mountain. I thought the Pineapple Express was a stoner movie but apparently it actually is a real term for warmth hitting the Oregon area in the mid of winter from Hawaii. SO there we were on a freezing mountain with lots of snow and then the heavens opened and it poured with rain and we got to wear our blue smurf raincoat suits. Which was fun in the beginning as most of the skiers left and i started singing "It's raining men" to the amusement of the final wet skiing stragglers but it wasn't fun when i realized that powdery snow, once rained on, is horrific to snowboard and i face planted many more times than i desired.

And then i fell off a cliff. Well, no these stories aren't related at all unless you see the link between work and snowboarding with work and snowboarding. A few days ago i was on a ride break (by law we have to take an hour a day to go snowboard... ) and i was feeling very strange riding that lunch break. I got off the main lift (Mount Hood Express) and after a few metres i hit my edge and face planted horribly in the snow. I get really upset when i hit my head on anything, i don't know what it is but the emotions just start running in so I was feeling a bit fragile when i dusted my goggles off and continued for a few metres when WHAM it happened again. I didn't know what was wrong with me but i dusted myself off for the second time, had a firm talking to and continued. "I need some trees" i thought as i veered right into some good looking plant

s to shift through. I didn't know this section of the mountain at all but i figured if there were tracks that other people had made, it would be fine. Having this justification in mind i rounded a corner and then suddenly i was in the air, and i was falling falling falling very fast. There was not a moment when i even could have anticipated this fall before i landed with a crash in some small tress at the bottom and looked up at the cliff i had descended from. It was a good 5 or 6 metres up. No small little jump but a big crash from a cliff that if i had seen it before i fell off it i would imagine certain death with falling from it. In seeing it i started to scream as loudly as i could. I wanted someone to find me and take me away and send me home early and tell me i was ok. After some loud screaming with no one around i realized that actually, actually i was ok. My knee was throbbing in tremendous pain but my brain... well my brain felt alright honestly.

I finally saw a skier go past and screamed at him for help but in my utter ridiculous frenzy i found myself furthermore realizing that really, i was ok and i needed to just go back down and let them no i wanted to go home from work. I gingerly snowboarded down with a very painful knee and rushed into lift operations looking for a sympathetic face. I didn't find it. I was told that i need to be careful on ungroomed runs and that Mount Hood is full of cliffs and creeks and i should be careful but "cliffs are really fun when there's more snow, don't stop jumping cliffs". Not the reaction i expected but a good one nonetheless to keep in mind. Lifties are a crazy breed, they jump off rocks and injure themselves horribly then they show off about it and do it again. Falling off a cliff is not a tragedy but something which gives you some sort of credit.

nevertheless my knee enlarged to double its size with a pretty slice through the middle from some rocks and I've been limping around for a couple of days and after i sort of calmed down, i went back to work and became simply very grateful that i got away with not much to complain about. And i have learnt to respect the mountain a lot more than i have done before. Too often we become blase about what the earth can do, well too often I become blase about these things. I have learnt to respect the Ocean through many sojourns and now i have learnt to respect the mountain.

However, since i got injured the world seemed to align itself as i have spent the last couple of days in the top station of the lift which involves sitting in a warm box, with an incredible mountain view, making sure no one has trouble getting off the lift and fixing the ramp every half hour. Which means i have been sitting somewhat on top of the world, resting my knee, knitting and listening to music while getting paid for it.

So i am grateful that i am alive, i am grateful i can knit and i am grateful that i am warm and getting paid to do all this and more

Life i love you

Cape Town to Hood River (via Abu Dhabi, New York, New Haven, Texas, Portland & Mount Hood Meadows)

Beautiful Hood River. Mountains and rivers. The Oregon border, watching Washington bustle accross the Columbia Gorge. Loud cars, sewing shops, 2nd hand stores and friendly people.

Getting here took some time. 12 hours to the Middle East, 11 Hours in the Middle East (with Arab men who love to stare and stare and stare) 10 hours to New York. 1 hour train ride to Manhatten and 1 and a half hour to Connecticut where i was picked up and brought to food and a bed. Finally.

A few days later, after a cancelled flight and early rising i found myself on another plane flight to Portland, via Texas. So 2 hours to Texas. 5 hours in the Texas airport and another 4 hours to Portland, the capital of Oregon and one and a half hours to Hood River. I breathed a sigh of relief to finally be, well at least near to, my final destination.

Portland greeted me with rain. Rain that simply streams and streams and streams at you and never thinks to stop. I had a little sign saying HOOD RIVER which was meant to procur me a lift to my final destinination thus cutting out spending any unnecessary and probably expensive time in Portland. After standing with my snowboard, guitar and huge rucksack in the cold rain with my thumb and my sign out for about an hour and a half, I disheartedly walked back inside the airport and sat in a dejected worried stupor for some time.

I was making all sorts of plans, thinking that maybe sleeping in yet another airport couldn't be too bad considering i had done it for a while now. But, finally after some firm Mary team talk i found airport information services and the lady kindly gave me the information for hostels and told me about the bus ride that could take me straight to Hood River the following afternoon. This led me into the city of Portland, a train and a bus ride later to a hostel and warmth and a bed. After dumping my stuff I walked down the road in search of food and a fellow hostel man wearing a fake fox on his head bought me dinner at a chinese restaurant. (It was terrible food, some sort of weird seaweed soup that was supposed to be good for you but i had to summon courage before every bite. The hunger inspired me, i gobbled it down).

The following day I found the book store which one guy at the hostel had called the "biggest book store in the world". "The world?" i had asked, "oh", he replied, "well maybe just America". I smiled and replied, "same thing right?" while a German caught my eye and we began to laugh. The American didn't notice, i think he agreed it was the same.

So the promised bus that would take me to Hood River didn't come. I waited, yet again, in the rain with my huge rucksack, snowboard and guitar for no bus. After some frantic phonecalls, i discovered it only ran on thursdays. This was monday. I sadly made my way back to the hostel to figure out some new way of getting out of this silly rainy rainy rainy forever rainy city.
But people are kind and one is never lost for too long if they simply refuse to be. After more silly phonecalls i discovered that i could get a lift through a ride share facebook group (Yay facebook!) to Mount Hood Meadows (the mountain i was working at) and hopefully hitch the extra 45minutes or so to Hood River. After this i was somewhat happier and my hostelling roomate happened to be a woman in her 50s who was going to Jackson Hole (awesome Ski resort) for the winter. She wanted to ski, work a temporary job, meet new people, live in a new place and basically adventure for a while. But she was 50 and had not done this before and she was frigthened (maybe a bit too frightened) about the future but she was doing it, she was living, trying to find something new and inspiring instead of just giving into the daily routine her life could be at this point. She bought us a floor picnic dinner to relax my worries; olives, feta, hummus, bread, crackers and a bottle of wine (which found us later giggling on the floor watching excerpts of Absolutely Fabulous on YouTube).

I awoke at 5am to take a bus and another bus to a car which promised to take me at least to the mountain where i would work at. So i met up with a bunch of excited snowboarders who were SO excited to spend the day on the mountain. The talk in the car was so infectious i was so bummed that i wouldn't spend the day flying around the mountain with them. "Why can't you?" they asked. "if you work there maybe they will give you your pass early."

I was absolutely sure that this plan would not work but as usual i know that you have more chance of receiving things you want when you ask for them. So i approached the conceirge who made a phone call to my soon-to-be boss and in 5 minutes i had been given my free ski day pass. I was elated, i asked the ski technicians to attach my bindings to my board (which they did for free and fixed it partially because he liked my South African accent) and soon i found myself on my snowboard again, after two years of its sole purpose being my pinano keyboard stand (a noble purpose yes, but not really performing its full potential).

In the afternoon the man who had given me a lift to the mountain saw his ex girlfriend, who yes, just happened to live in Hood River and who happened to want to leave at 3pm and yes, she happened to want to give me a lift there. Life :)

I had arranged a place to couchsurf in Hood River so I arrived at my new home (not knowing then that this would actually become my real home) and was meeted and greeted and chatted to. Showed to a huge room with a comforatble bed and found my way to sleep, accross the world, warm and safe.