skiing trip, minus the skiing

Working at Beverly Hills High does come with certain perks and one of them was last week - the annual ski trip to Ramundberget. This year, due to circumstances beyond our control, the school combined the student ski trip with teacher conference days... what this meant was that instead of the teachers that chose to go on the trip being able to cruise around on skis for 3 days (working hard for our money!), all teachers were expected to go and then sit in a conference room from 9am to lunchtime - with a couple of hours of skiing afterwards if we wanted to. Obviously I was off the slopes - but managed to find a gym to work of the energy accumulated whilst sitting through meetings, and then hobbled over to after-ski. With 200 students on the slopes it was one of the largest groups the school had taken for quite a while, combined with the great snow this lead to almost hourly updates of the latest student to hurt a knee/arm/back. We were quite a group of wounded after 3 days.
It also, once again, gave the minority a chance to really piss the teachers off by flaunting all rules and generally acting like spoilt brats. It would seem that a few of them were on the trip for the after-ski not the skiing. Yes, the over 18s are allowed to drink (and the under 18s try very hard to!), but there is a difference between having a couple of beers and waving your Gold Card around ordering champagne. Anyway... it's building team spirit... so they say. There was a disco one night and an open-mike night as well (which did give some of the students a chance to show some amazing musical abilities... and some to show a distinct lack of said abilities).
The 8 hours on the bus each way gave me a chance to catch up on B grade chick flicks that I regularly miss out on now that I don't have my little sis to keep me up do date. The Mean Girls DVD was unfortunately scratched, but we managed to fit in 50 First Dates and A Cinderella Story!

Back in Stockholm... I went to the physio on Friday and now have some exercises to try to stop the rapid wasting of my right leg - amazing how fast it disappears. I am walking on it almost properly, although need crutches as I can't bend it fully in the knee brace I have, and have been able to go to the gym and do some upper body exercises. Which has been great to work off the frustration of not being able to ride or swim. Thankfully (luckily!) I have the "taxi note" from my doctor all the way until the Easter hols, so I get to avoid the train for another 2 weeks - thanks for the comment Scotty! And then after the holidays my travel involves planes more than trains...
... first it is off to Sofia, Bulgaria for a MEP conference. Model European Parliament - students play politicians for a week, representing their country, debating issues that face the EU. Ours is one of 5 schools in Sweden that comprise the delegation - and I'm the chaperon! Having now seen the final program it looks as though the students will be doing more work than I will - the way all teaching/learning should be. 9 days in Bulgaria is followed by 4 hours at Arlanda airport and then back onto another plane...
... and the lovely, long flight back to Melbourne. I have somehow managed to swing time off work (combined with public holidays and project days that I'm not involved in) to get 10 days in Melbourne. The reason for timing is Brooke and Jared's wedding... the booking of the ticket did take a bit of time at the travel agent: can't leave before 3pm on Sunday (arriving back from Bulgaria), have to be in Melbourne by Tuesday for the buck's night (which the 4 groomsmen are trying to organise from Texas, Sydney, Bairnsdale and me in Stockholm - nothing like local knowledge!). So we managed to find a flight and I am very excited. Although I am beginning to realise that I'm not going to have enough time to do all the things I would like to do... particularly anything that involves driving a car - as I will still have the knee brace on. Will probably have a general get-together, so stay posted for that! Unfortunately my trip to Melbourne is not coinciding with the World Swimming Champs which are on at the moment - hope all you Swedes that are down there now are enjoying it, you're not missing much here. But my trip will let me catch the end of the comedy festival - so a few laughs hopefully (not for the littlies!).

Time to get on with the exciting Sunday evening stuff - everything that I've been putting off since Saturday morning... take care out there...

rich.

hop-a-long

Walking (hobbling?!) around on crutches is an interesting experience... for a rookie so to say. Like this morning as I take the train one stop to go to the pool to coach: outside all the underground stations in the mornings there are people handing out the free newspapers that seem to explain the rapid depletion of the Amazonian rainforests (that and the 20 articles I copied for 140 students on Thursday... hmmm...). They stand there because commuters are incapable of doing anything for themselves that early in the morning - i.e. reaching to take a paper from a box is far too taxing - or maybe these producers of intellectually, incisive news coverage are scared you'll take the other mob's effort which is nowhere near up to standard but is in very nice colours and has an even smaller easier to hold/read on train format. Anyway, so these people stand at the top of the steps (almost in your way) and hold out these papers at you... and they continue to hold it out to me... as I walk towards them... on crutches... what am I going to do - hold it in my mouth?! They don't even smile when they see/realise the situation - maybe they just don't get it?
So I can't hold things as I'm walking with crutches, which makes trying to serve myself lunch at the school dining hall a daily task of finding a friendly colleague or student to help out. Shopping for food also presents the same difficulties... at least I know this is for a limited time only (like all great offers). In fact I can take more and more weight on my leg every day so I might be off the crutches in a week or two, but the knee/leg brace is on for a while yet.

Thanks for the comments... at least I know you've read it! Realised though that maybe I need to fill in a few details for old friends that aren't quite sure where I am - I'm in Stockholm, Sweden. (There is probably one in Texas too, so I put Sweden just to avoid the confusion... that's not Switzerland either. Did you know that in Austria you can buy T-shirts with the slogan "Austria - we have no kangaroos!"?? speaking of confusing countries with each other). I work at Beverley Hills High (you should all remember Brandon and the gang from 90210) and try to teach the little neo-liberals that just because the former Prime Minister of Sweden was a member of the Social Democrats it does not mean he is the devil incarnate. Quite strange in some ways to be in the country often regarded as having had the best social welfare system in the world and to have landed at a school located in a suburb as far from that as possible, but it does lead to some interesting times! And is not without it perks at certain times... although this week's "perks" were 12 hour days... there really aren't fairies in the world are there? - 'cos if there were they would have done my work for me while I was at home/hospital nursing my knee, instead they just leave it there for me to catch up with now. But have now caught up with most of it and can relax a bit. The only good thing about combining the late nights at work and being a temporary invalid is the service provided by the afore mentioned Swedish welfare system: I can take a taxi to and from work, and the state insurance agency will pay for it all! So no waiting for trains in the dark. It is a great system! The doctor fills out the form saying that due to my decrease mobility I cannot go to work (it would take me 30 min to walk from the station to school at the pace I go at the moment (instead of 10) - and that is only at one end). However the doc then fills in the part of the form that says that I could work if I had transport to/from my workplace - wonderful! School is happy (no substitute needed), saves the system money overall and, most importantly, helps keep me sane (less crazy anyway) by not making me sit at home.

Time for me to hop-a-long,
rich.

Welcome to my world?

well, now, here goes... as for the title, no this is not my world - I do get out outside and breathe fresh air on occasions. Well, as often as possible. However in pursuit of this activity last week I managed to make it much more difficult for myself this week - I'll explain. Last week I was in the Austrian Alps (thanks Jacqui and Ralf, and family, a great week despite the accident!), Filzmoos to be exact (near Salzburg - go 2014!), skiing... which was fine until lunchtime on Wednesday, then a mass of deep snow jumped out at me and swallowed my right ski. This caused me to elegantly face-plant into the white stuff (the Alps stuff, not the London snuff), unfotunately my upper and lower right leg failed to communicate in real time and my knee was the link that broke. I now get to hobble around on crutches for a few weeks, and have a knee brace on for 6-8 weeks. I've torn the medial ligament, damaged the posterior cruciate ligament and also the meniscus. It was relatively (considering the damage!) stable and the doc thought that it should heal itself as long as it is braced to stop sideways movement of the knee - which I am very happy about, as sideways movement in my right knee provokes scream, shout followed by a few minutes of deep breathing whilst sitting still waiting for the pain to dissapate. My first question for the doc after the MRI scan on Wednesday was can I travel in April! Great to see my priorities are all in the right place. More about travel plans later, but she said, "yes", but with the knee brace.

A result of this is I have time to start on of these things, a blog, and possibly even time to update it. I've thought about it before but always doubted my ability to stick to it... we'll see... time will tell.

Of course the skiing accident has resulted in numerous questions and comments. Top of the list being "What have you done?" followed often by "Guess you've had that question a lot." Also it has been pointed out that maybe Aussies shouldn't associate with snow, and that I should stick to non-frozen water! I'm sure I won't learn.

bye for now,
rich.