enroute to the top of the mountain, it was my first time back on snowboards after a three year hiatus. it was a self-imposed ban on the snowboard, because of financial reasons, but as soon as i started downhill, i realised that i should have done a food ban, not a snowboard ban. who needs to eat when one can snowboard? granted, the day wasn't without its downs, when coming down a slope, ironically enough, i bit it and flew about a foot off the slope before landing, back of my head first, on the tightly packed snowslopes. yes the brain got its workout for the day as well. thank goodness for the self-containing facility of the skull. as well as those pins that hold your noggun to your neck. i laid there for a few minutes, catching my breath, before i shook off that ass-biting headache and carried on for the rest of the day. highlights were trying to placate a small girl determined to wallow in self-pity. 'they've gone and left me alone!' she sobbed. not two minutes after, the 'guilty' parents returned, shaking their heads and laughing with us. aaaaah the melodramatics of the young at heart. what's a day at the mountain without them?