About one week after we got back from our big USA trip, Andrew booked in a quick weekend holiday to Canberra and Perisher to help with the post holiday blues.
We just got back last night on my first (and Andrew's second) business class flight, what luxury! It's going to be hard to go back to coach after that experience. The only thing I regret is mentioning the gluten free meal; the normal menu looked fantastic and mostly gluten free anyway. Luckily Andrew was smart and kind enough to ask for an extra dessert and we shared everything, I'm so glad I didn't miss out on the vanilla raspberry creme, yum! We didn't get a chance to ask "which sparkling varieties" they had (as per Michael's advice), since our drink on arrival was a sparkling pear juice which I honestly though was way better than champagne.
We arrived on Thursday night and slept at Michael and Iva's place before getting a very early start to drive to Perisher on Friday morning. I still can't believe that random bit of plastic wasn't the plug to the blow up mattress! We stopped at Cooma for a McDonald's breakfast on the way. Andrew and Claire got sausage McMuffins, while I got potatoes two ways (hash browns and chips) as a side for my main meal of salt. McDonald's coffee isn't bad at all!
The drive was very snowy, with the roads stopped for chains starting from the distillery which is apparently unheard of. Luckily Andrew thought to upgrade to a 4WD, which meant we didn't need to get on our hands and knees in the snow to apply the chains like a lot of the poor suckers on the way.
We got our gear, and caught the skii tube to an amazing day of skiing. It was bloody cold, and the wind was terrible, especially when it was snowing that really small hard snow that pelted painfully into any bit of exposed skin. Lunch at Smiggens Holes was exactly what we needed.
We stayed in Jindabyne at a cute little cottage and had bits and pieces from Woolworths for dinner, while watching the first AFL game ever to have snow.
The next day was another amazing day of skiing. We got some cool blue runs under our belts before having an awesome lunch at Blue Cow terminal. My favourite run was Zalis, mostly because remembering back to when I first did it really showed the difference in confidence! I almost cried the first time, and this time I giggled the whole way down.
We skied until 4, then returned our gear and headed back to Canberra to check in to the Best Western and head to XO for dinner with Michael and Iva.
The food at XO was incredible, but the service was a little bit strange; each dish (all share plates) came out one by one with about 30mins in between them. We thought we'd be there until breakfast! The manager apologised with dessert on the house, which was the highlight of the already impressive meal. The Sichuan dessert was the most memorable, but the milo icecream was a close second.
The next day we met Iva and Michael for breakfast at Coffee House, drinks at Capitol Brewery, and then watching the footy with Iva's cool friend Liz at their place until our flight.
Look at the state of my lips on Sunday morning! I could barely move my face it was so painful. I was worried that people would think that "skiing at perisher" was code for "getting my lips done", they were sooo inflated! They've gone down now, but what's remained is much worse; a painful, shriveled, peeling mess that looks more like a dried apricot. Thank god for paw paw ointment, and 24 degree Perth weather.
