How hard can it be blogging about my summer vacay when I’ve only been working two days? Still, it already seems so long ago. Such a different, and therefore also distant time in my life.
The souvenir of this summer feels precious to me, so I shall treat it carefully. It’s not as anything incredibly special happened, but it still feels precious. Whatever, I know I’m not making any sense.
It all started off with a rainy, sticky day, and it really seemed like a bad, bad start. Furthermore, on the second day I went for a long hike with the parents, and the Panther hurt a little her knee, so they both went back to their place while I stayed in the mountains on my own (although there were plenty of friends staying in the village, so I wasn’t exactly alone).
Almost every day I took very long and hard hikes, climbing up a lot and training myself, losing weight (yay!), and getting a nice tan.
As I already wrote, my vampires / guardian angels Kissy and Lou came over and we went canyoning. They also helped me getting into the garage where I had my bike (I discovered I did not have the key, and since there is a small space between the garage door and the ceiling, they lifted me until I could slip in and open the door from the inside. I’m not even going to tell how DIRTY I got!!!). By the time they went home, we had had such a great time together, they were already making plans to come back.
By the next night they had made up their mind, and in less than 48 hours Lou ringed me
Lou “Hey DDgirl where are you?”
ME: “Hey Lou, whazzup? I’m at the river, sunbathing”
Lou “Ok we’re coming over, but I can’t see you”
ME “Well I’m kinda hidden under the bridge, if you look right down...”
I was a bit surprised however, since it was not Lou and Kissy: it was Lou and his girlfriend (hot girlfriend, I shall say). Kissy apparently had an argument with his parents and had to stay home. Still I didn’t expect Lou’s chick to come as well: he had made it pretty clear that he’s kind of over their relationship even though she’s nice and cute, and he wanted t be single and have fun with his male friends (which apparently include me… no comment).
Lou’s girl turned out to be cool, and there were two other friends with them. Lou, his chick and I went running (and I have to say all my training really paid off!), played beach volley and made plans for the next days. I had to go back to the Parent’s place for the next day (Saturday), but I would be back on Sunday morning in order to go canyoning all together.
That Friday night I did not have dinner (like most days) and when we met for drinks at the bar Lou immediately ordered a bucket of screw driver. Lou and I drank most of it, and then, ignoring my protests, he bought another one. I had to meet the Sponsor 40km down the valley on the next day at 10AM, but the only bus was leaving at 6AM so I did not want to get too drunk! Lou shut me up promising he would drive me to meet dad, and so we drank and drank…
Just as I started to fell more tired than tipsy (it was 2AM), Lou looked at me, touched my shoulder and said “Let me bring you home, DDgirl”.
It was a bit strange because my place was just 300 metres away, and I really was okay, just tired, but he insisted so he took me home, and the next morning he kept his promise and drove me to my meeting with the Sponsor.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
(bonus) Summer story: my two vampires
6 years ago I was spending New Years Eve here in the mountains with the usual bunch of friends, when my neighbour announced that two other kids from his hometown would be coming over and staying at his place (I was naturally the most concerned since I was in charge of the cooking).
And so I met Kissy and Lou. What I did not know before they came was that Kissy (who is a bunch of years younger than me) was 15 at the time, and had his right arm casted. Somehow I was quickly given the role of keeping an eye on Kissy, and everything went nice and smooth for the evening, and alcohol flushed away lot of things for everyone. By 1am most of the guys were wasted and one guy started arguing with me over nothing. I wanted to duck out, but we were on a balcony and he was standing on my way, when suddenly he said he was going to throw me off the balcony and moved towards me. He was a big guy, and I was totally scared, when little Kissy appeared out of nowhere between the guy and me, and somehow (wrestling and convincing) changed his mind. I was so grateful I was almost speechless!
Later on we went home, and the boys had made Kissy drink too much, so I was almost carrying him and somehow I ended up sharing the couch with him because no one else wanted to take care of him. Eventually he was sick of course, and needed help because of his cast. We went back to sleep and when I woke again around 4am he was nowhere to be found. Only after a few minutes I thought about checking the balcony: outside it was snowing and around minus 15 celsius, and he was passed out there, wearing nothing but his underwear! Kissy was so tiny at the time I lifted him and carried him to the coach, where i piled covers on the two of us and hugged him for a while to warm him. He seemed a little, lost puppy!
After that night, Kissy "adopted" me as a kind of aunt, and we always met in the mountains for partying, until I left for France. We stayed in touch, with him and Lou, but I didn't see Kissy over three years.
A few days ago, Kissy and Lou called me and proposed to come to the mountains and have fun together. I said sure, gimme a call when you're here and wondered off on my favourite footpath. When we met, I had a hard time hiding my shock. My two boys have grown up, and somehow seem to have come out from the Twilight saga.
Lou (who is 23 but looks a bit more mature) has turned to this 1.90mt blond guy, with a perfect body and light blue eyes I have sofar only seen in cats.
Kissy (who is now 21) is over 1.80mt, he has exactly the same hair cut and colour as Edward Cullen. He is well trained too, but most of all, he is a charmer. Where was my puppy? Hell, I was speechless.
My two vampires immediately turned out to be helpful: somehow I dud not have the key to open my garage, so the two of them liftem me until I could slip through the small space between the door and the ceiling, get inside and open from the inside: I never would have managed to do it on my own!
And then the fun began: we spent a couple of days hiking, laying in sun, rafting and canyoning. And of course partying with the other friends at night!
Soon everybody else started c
Referring to Lou and Kissy as to my guardian angels, which is so true! First of all because, over the years, I had trained Kissy to behave with me (opening doors for me, helpin my was on steps and things like that: apparently this is also helping him in cahrming teenagers).
But there is more: we'd go canyoning and the boys would help me through the highest cliffs to jump (Kissy hugs me (he does that all the time) and then jump off to show me it was easy, while Lou would stay with me until I built enough bravado to go. This way I have managed to jump off 12 and even 14mt, when I usually don't jump over 10). They would insist walking me home at night. Whatever, they are the nicest guys and I adore my guardiana angels/vampires!!
Ps: I have typed this on my blackberry, so - did not proof read... Sorry!
And so I met Kissy and Lou. What I did not know before they came was that Kissy (who is a bunch of years younger than me) was 15 at the time, and had his right arm casted. Somehow I was quickly given the role of keeping an eye on Kissy, and everything went nice and smooth for the evening, and alcohol flushed away lot of things for everyone. By 1am most of the guys were wasted and one guy started arguing with me over nothing. I wanted to duck out, but we were on a balcony and he was standing on my way, when suddenly he said he was going to throw me off the balcony and moved towards me. He was a big guy, and I was totally scared, when little Kissy appeared out of nowhere between the guy and me, and somehow (wrestling and convincing) changed his mind. I was so grateful I was almost speechless!
Later on we went home, and the boys had made Kissy drink too much, so I was almost carrying him and somehow I ended up sharing the couch with him because no one else wanted to take care of him. Eventually he was sick of course, and needed help because of his cast. We went back to sleep and when I woke again around 4am he was nowhere to be found. Only after a few minutes I thought about checking the balcony: outside it was snowing and around minus 15 celsius, and he was passed out there, wearing nothing but his underwear! Kissy was so tiny at the time I lifted him and carried him to the coach, where i piled covers on the two of us and hugged him for a while to warm him. He seemed a little, lost puppy!
After that night, Kissy "adopted" me as a kind of aunt, and we always met in the mountains for partying, until I left for France. We stayed in touch, with him and Lou, but I didn't see Kissy over three years.
A few days ago, Kissy and Lou called me and proposed to come to the mountains and have fun together. I said sure, gimme a call when you're here and wondered off on my favourite footpath. When we met, I had a hard time hiding my shock. My two boys have grown up, and somehow seem to have come out from the Twilight saga.
Lou (who is 23 but looks a bit more mature) has turned to this 1.90mt blond guy, with a perfect body and light blue eyes I have sofar only seen in cats.
Kissy (who is now 21) is over 1.80mt, he has exactly the same hair cut and colour as Edward Cullen. He is well trained too, but most of all, he is a charmer. Where was my puppy? Hell, I was speechless.
My two vampires immediately turned out to be helpful: somehow I dud not have the key to open my garage, so the two of them liftem me until I could slip through the small space between the door and the ceiling, get inside and open from the inside: I never would have managed to do it on my own!
And then the fun began: we spent a couple of days hiking, laying in sun, rafting and canyoning. And of course partying with the other friends at night!
Soon everybody else started c
Referring to Lou and Kissy as to my guardian angels, which is so true! First of all because, over the years, I had trained Kissy to behave with me (opening doors for me, helpin my was on steps and things like that: apparently this is also helping him in cahrming teenagers).
But there is more: we'd go canyoning and the boys would help me through the highest cliffs to jump (Kissy hugs me (he does that all the time) and then jump off to show me it was easy, while Lou would stay with me until I built enough bravado to go. This way I have managed to jump off 12 and even 14mt, when I usually don't jump over 10). They would insist walking me home at night. Whatever, they are the nicest guys and I adore my guardiana angels/vampires!!
Ps: I have typed this on my blackberry, so - did not proof read... Sorry!
Friday, August 07, 2009
summer time
Dear readers,
It's time for DDgirl to take her summer break!
I'll be back on August 25, hopefully with plenty of updates:
- how will the Lyskamm project go?
- will my relationship with KS last throught the hot month of August?
- will I meet Green Eyes while climbin some random mountain?
C u in two weeks to know!
It's time for DDgirl to take her summer break!
I'll be back on August 25, hopefully with plenty of updates:
- how will the Lyskamm project go?
- will my relationship with KS last throught the hot month of August?
- will I meet Green Eyes while climbin some random mountain?
C u in two weeks to know!
Thursday, August 06, 2009
The Lyskamm project
Since the first time I climbed on of Monte Rosa peaks, I’ve been wanting to climb the Lyskamm
(this pic is not very impressive, but I think it's classy!)
This peak has been kind of calling me for the past 7 years or so. For those who don’t know a thing about mountain hiking, climbing and so on, it’s a tough one. It’s difficult, and it’s slightly dangerous. Difficult, because you have to climb up on a path which is never larger than 60cm (2 feet) and often smaller, and on both sides there is a fall of over half a mile. Dangerous, because sometimes the snow form a kind of frame suspended in the void, so if you miscalculate the path, well, you fall.
Whatever, this peak has been HAUNTING my dreams people. Now I’ve finally convinced the Sponsor, and we’re going to give it a try in 10 days or so. His only condition was that, for once, we hire a guide, in order to avoid the risk of walking on snow-frames (we both feel we still lack experience in this field).
And, should I manage to do it, I’ll be a better person.
Well I know this sounds stupid, but somehow I will, because my self confidence will improve SIGNIFICANTLY.
and if you wanna see more, just type Lyskamm on google images and take a look…
PS yeah, I know, my feet are still so and so from the last time, but you know what? I DON’T GIVE A DAMN!!! (Girls just wanna have fun man…)
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Frostbites
After getting back from the North East job, I had planned to climb one of Monte Rosa peaks with the Sponsor who had charged me to guide two of his colleagues.
We left on Saturday morning, and within an hour I started having serious issues about the women capacity to do the climb the next day. They were slow, not trained enough, overweight and prone to complain a lot. I tried to cheer them up by telling them stories about the mountain, took some weight off their backpacks, but I wasn’t optimistic about the next day. I realised quickly that the Sponsor only agreed to have the two of them with us because he owed them (they had recently performed some successful surgery someone in the family or something like that).
Mind you, it’s not like I didn’t like them or I was hostile or anything: it’s just that high mountain is a tough place. Whatever.
Struggling through the wind, we got to the first refuge, and although we should have climbed 30 more minutes to the second one, I knew already that the ladies were so afraid of the wind that they would have had serious trouble going on. So I got it and explained the situation to the keeper, a cute guy with impressive green eyes. He told me they were almost full but he knew me by name and would manage to find some place for us. I was a bit stunned that he knew me, but thanked him and added that if there was little place I could leave the ladies here and climb up and get them in the morning, just to let me know, but he told me he would find a solution.
So we stayed, and Green Eyes really pampered us even though he WAS busy (they were over the full capacity of the refuge). I made friends with a waitress which may or may not be Green Eyes sister (same eyes, same hair, same smile…), tried to give a hand where I thought I could help and so on. In the meanwhile the ladies and the Sponsor (who had brought along another man as well) kept saying GE was interested in me..
GE ended finding us a pretty room! And I’m sure that he put someone else on the floor in order to make room for us, but hey, I didn’t complain. During the evening, GE’s sister (assuming they are indeed siblings) asked me if I was training to be a guide! I was totally proud of this, but of course it isn’t so and I had to say no..
I got up at 4.30 and it took me almost half an hour to persuade the ladies that, if they wanted to do the climb, we were already late! We had breakfast, GE wished me luck for the day, I flashed him my best smile and out we were. During the night, however, I had a bad surprise: my period was early! And my period is the only thing that gives me problems in high altitude, ouch!
The day was pretty cold, the ladies were slow, and I was freezing. By the time we reached 4,000 mt altitude, I knew we wouldn’t make it, but I was hoping to climb a smaller peak in order to give them at least some satisfaction! 50 meters below the peak, however, I started hearing a weird noise. Since I know a bit about mountain sickness, I paid attention: one of the ladies made a strange noise when breathing. This could only mean she was going to have pulmonary oedema. I already knew the weather was too bad for helicopters, so we could only try to climb down as fast as we could and hope. It was bad, because my hands and feet were freezing, but I knew we couldn’t stop. I went real fast, trying to move my hands as much as possible and praying that my feet would carry me long enough. I almost run, slowing down only to pass crevasses, and we went down to 3700 mt so fast that the lady was fine. I explained her my concerns (I did not want her to panic before), and she said I was probably right and thanked me.
By this time, my hands were hurting badly and I took 5 minutes to warm them a bit. I was still concerned by my feet, but at least they did not hurt, so I thought it was better to get to the refuge and take my hiking boots of to heat them. And so we did.
But when we got there I knew my feet were not right, I heated them but had very little sensibility, and they hurt badly at the same time. At least I did not see much of GE. Later in the day we climbed the rest of our way down, and it was tough on my feet. In addiction, I also crossed paths with B. and his wife, but by the time I was so in pain I couldn’t care less. GE sister, by the way, asked if she could join us so she didn’t have to go the whole way on her own, so we chatted a little and agreed to go for drinks during my vacations.
When we finally got down I was in such pain I could barely talk. Both of my toes had experienced severe frostbites, and the other light frostbites.
It took me almost a week to walk again, and I still cannot wear anything but sneakers or flip flops….. but I still think of Green Eyes!
We left on Saturday morning, and within an hour I started having serious issues about the women capacity to do the climb the next day. They were slow, not trained enough, overweight and prone to complain a lot. I tried to cheer them up by telling them stories about the mountain, took some weight off their backpacks, but I wasn’t optimistic about the next day. I realised quickly that the Sponsor only agreed to have the two of them with us because he owed them (they had recently performed some successful surgery someone in the family or something like that).
Mind you, it’s not like I didn’t like them or I was hostile or anything: it’s just that high mountain is a tough place. Whatever.
Struggling through the wind, we got to the first refuge, and although we should have climbed 30 more minutes to the second one, I knew already that the ladies were so afraid of the wind that they would have had serious trouble going on. So I got it and explained the situation to the keeper, a cute guy with impressive green eyes. He told me they were almost full but he knew me by name and would manage to find some place for us. I was a bit stunned that he knew me, but thanked him and added that if there was little place I could leave the ladies here and climb up and get them in the morning, just to let me know, but he told me he would find a solution.
So we stayed, and Green Eyes really pampered us even though he WAS busy (they were over the full capacity of the refuge). I made friends with a waitress which may or may not be Green Eyes sister (same eyes, same hair, same smile…), tried to give a hand where I thought I could help and so on. In the meanwhile the ladies and the Sponsor (who had brought along another man as well) kept saying GE was interested in me..
GE ended finding us a pretty room! And I’m sure that he put someone else on the floor in order to make room for us, but hey, I didn’t complain. During the evening, GE’s sister (assuming they are indeed siblings) asked me if I was training to be a guide! I was totally proud of this, but of course it isn’t so and I had to say no..
I got up at 4.30 and it took me almost half an hour to persuade the ladies that, if they wanted to do the climb, we were already late! We had breakfast, GE wished me luck for the day, I flashed him my best smile and out we were. During the night, however, I had a bad surprise: my period was early! And my period is the only thing that gives me problems in high altitude, ouch!
The day was pretty cold, the ladies were slow, and I was freezing. By the time we reached 4,000 mt altitude, I knew we wouldn’t make it, but I was hoping to climb a smaller peak in order to give them at least some satisfaction! 50 meters below the peak, however, I started hearing a weird noise. Since I know a bit about mountain sickness, I paid attention: one of the ladies made a strange noise when breathing. This could only mean she was going to have pulmonary oedema. I already knew the weather was too bad for helicopters, so we could only try to climb down as fast as we could and hope. It was bad, because my hands and feet were freezing, but I knew we couldn’t stop. I went real fast, trying to move my hands as much as possible and praying that my feet would carry me long enough. I almost run, slowing down only to pass crevasses, and we went down to 3700 mt so fast that the lady was fine. I explained her my concerns (I did not want her to panic before), and she said I was probably right and thanked me.
By this time, my hands were hurting badly and I took 5 minutes to warm them a bit. I was still concerned by my feet, but at least they did not hurt, so I thought it was better to get to the refuge and take my hiking boots of to heat them. And so we did.
But when we got there I knew my feet were not right, I heated them but had very little sensibility, and they hurt badly at the same time. At least I did not see much of GE. Later in the day we climbed the rest of our way down, and it was tough on my feet. In addiction, I also crossed paths with B. and his wife, but by the time I was so in pain I couldn’t care less. GE sister, by the way, asked if she could join us so she didn’t have to go the whole way on her own, so we chatted a little and agreed to go for drinks during my vacations.
When we finally got down I was in such pain I could barely talk. Both of my toes had experienced severe frostbites, and the other light frostbites.
It took me almost a week to walk again, and I still cannot wear anything but sneakers or flip flops….. but I still think of Green Eyes!
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