Yasmin’s Recovery Diary 2 – “My Little Holiday”
ISIA student Yasmin’s second blog about her injury and the first steps on the road to recovery.
So, you know how I mentioned in the previous post that I had been slumping around in the lovely chalet my boyfriend stays in for his Level 2 – eating cake, the whole lump of lard scenario – ring any bells? Well that lovely little vacation of mine has now come to end. What has my life come to that I call a 3 day stay away from my permanently cluttered apartment a vacation?! I’ll give you a little insight into my past few days…
After those first days in bed, I discovered that I really enjoy writing and I got carried away in a rambling whirlwind of my scattered thoughts and before I knew it I had written two pages. I think it’s pretty cool I have discovered this little flame as it keeps my mind occupied which is extremely important. It allows me to release my thoughts and emotions in a productive way instead of – well, to be honest – crying dramatically over the phone to my mum or being in a bad mood when my boyfriend comes through the door after a fabulous day in the fresh powder that had fallen over night! Actually I admit I did get a little cranky with him once or twice over the 3 day vacation. It’s so hard not to.
We woke up to fresh snow plastered on the windows, we opened the curtain to find it still snowing in this magnificent wonderland of beauty. One of my favourite things is when the snow has piled itself in little mounds on each branch of the trees and then when it falls a puff of sparkly powder is dispersed like refreshing, feather-light crystals. Well let’s just say I knew in my mind everyone was going to have the most exhilarating day and what’s more I knew they were going to come back and talk about it for hours on end!
The BASI 1/2 students testing out a snow pit
After a day on my own in the chalet, I’m in a humph by 16.30 in the afternoon, marching around (well not marching – sort of angrily limping in an injured-animal-on-the-run type of way) but huffing and puffing and twiddling my thumbs, wondering why no one is back yet and why my boyfriend is not here to give me attention and tell me a funny story that has nothing to do with skiing. Pathetic I know but after 8 hours on my own I’m beginning to get a little sick of my own company and I’d cleared all the food in the kitchen. I’m joking – jeez, I’m not that bad, just a slice or two of cake – admittedly the cake is actually baked for the people who pay to live in the chalet, not the ridiculous invalid on vacation! Still, no harm done in pinching a slice – I think it was coffee and walnut – very tasty!
On a serious note my day was not that bad – okay maybe by 16.30 I’d had enough but I had been writing from 9am until 2pm and it felt like no time had gone by. This was an amazing feeling, I felt productive and that is a feeling I have been seeking so desperately for the past 12 days now (not that I’m counting). I felt a tiny little part of myself come back and I started to think ‘Yaz, you could get into this you know’. It can be the thing that gets me through the next week and, furthermore perhaps my whole recovery. I felt inspired again. Result. Each time I get this feeling I am a step closer to my recovery as I am accepting my current situation and finding a positive and productive way to deal with it. Like I said before, as long as you have a stimulus and something to drive you everything will be okay!
The next day was a Saturday and most of the chalet, including my boyfriend, didn’t ski as they all needed a rest day before exams started on Monday. YIPEE I had company for the day. The day went by so quickly – I laughed a lot. My boyfriend and I came up with a few plans. How about a trip to Iceland? We were thinking we could hire a car and that would be our accommodation as well as transport….ROADTRIP!!! Northern lights, hot springs, stunning scenery, glaciers – sounds idyllic. This is a plan to keep in my mind when rehabilitation gets tough…
After a lovely dinner cooked by the chalet boy and of course crumble for desert – you can’t miss out on desert – I headed back to La Tania that night, back to the reality that the vacation had come to an end. It’s not a hard life – I wake up to snow every morning – I’m just worried this week will drag on a little as I no longer have the company of my boyfriend and the comfort of the chalet and people around me. However, I can write my blog, do some minor exercises for my knee and study French – it’s the other stimulus that keeps me going. I need to pass a French exam as part of my Level 3 qualification, so I have been taking hours of French lessons during the week to keep me going. The French teacher is an amazing person, so positive and motivating and she has also been great company. At times like these you really notice what you like about people and how you connect with them – we both have great ideas that bounce off one another. I am taking my French test on Tuesday, so fingers crossed and I will let you know how it goes!
