Clotted blood decorates my nose and mouth. It is beginning to morph into an ugly shade of yellow. The scabs have arrived. My thighs and arms host a pattern of bruises. It will hurt to sit for a while. I look like shite, like I’ve been tossed off a bridge or fought in an unlicensed bare-knuckle fight. Yet for some reason, I do not care. I am utterly content in my dishevelment. I am free.

If you have no fear, I am convinced you can do anything. The world is out there waiting. Only you control the lever that can catapult you into adventure. For it is the very one, that untouched will keep you right where you are, sitting on your couch still in your pyjamas at midday, staring at screens. If you do not discover something about yourself while carving down a mountain in the Alps on a plank of wood then you may pack it in and go back to your couch. But I suggest you try it first.

The alarm crows at eight am everyday;  first lift. Automatically whack snooze. The realisation hits, you are in the Alps. Drag your lazy ass and foggy head up, into the shower and out the double doors, over the balcony. Touchdown in Nirvana.

Surviving on a diet of Pringle laden white bread rolls, helped down with Coke or blue Powerade.  Every night with a theme; unleash the beast, military, pimps and hoes…. Every day has a game, chug a beer on the chairlift, do a run with your pants down. We are like dogs who have been on a chain for far too long and now we have been unleashed. Chaotic, mad brilliance must ensue. The thump, thump of the boombox that is the soundtrack to your week away from reality. Sliding down a mountainside, laughing deliriously. You are invincible.

I rode a chairlift, I went fast, real fast. I felt the tang of adrenaline taint my tongue. I laughed out loud with no one else around, I fell, I got back up, possibly flashing everyone behind me. I drank, I danced, I ‘boarded’ down a slope full to the guts of mulled wine and I met people with some incredible stories to share and ensnare me with. I got a glimpse of how good life can be and I will not be going back to how it was when you forget and fall back into routine. I ran head first into the lifestyle I have been chasing blindly for many years and already it is so better than in my dreams.