Surprise!

Every Monday evening I trundle home from work, thinking about the four days of skiing and general good times that lie ahead. My working week goes from Saturday to Monday, and after three days talking to people about skiing at work, I'm always pretty excited when Monday evening rolls around the real business of life in Rossland stretches out ahead of me.

I think about things like the snow, the upcoming weather, how great my new skis are, avalanche conditions, whether I'll go touring, what skiing stuff I should be practising, how great my new skis are, whether I need more bagels, whether I should make dinner for the house, and how great my new skis are.

I don't, typically, think about how a friend of mine who is supposed to be back in Canberra is hiding behind the corner of a building waiting to surprise me. Which left me quite unprepared when a friend of mine from Canberra hid behind the corner of a building and surprised me., Well played Tom Watson.

I know it would make for a better story if I freaked out. Everyone who was in on this plan is probably hoping that I shrieked and jumped in surprise, or that Tom and I ran towards each other in glorious slow motion and embraced in a manly but heartfelt way, or that I paniced and stabbed Tom before realising who it was. Sadly, the truth is that I was so surprised that it took me a while to work out that Tom wasn't actually supposed to be there, so I had already got a fairly standard greeting out before the bafflingness of the whole situation clicked. I was slightly troubled that he'd managed to work out where I lived, but I guess it's his job to work stuff like that out, so I shouldn't be too concerned.

Thanks everyone for your letters and thoughts. It's very flattering and slightly unnerving to see the effort that people have gone to to convince me that Canberra isn't an empty, lifeless hovel where hope and good times go to die. Which it probably is, but I've never been especially interested in hope and good times.

Tom and I will spend the next few days skiing and talking about ultimate. Hopefully the Kootenays put on some decent snow for his visit. Right not it's sunny and warm. Yawn.

I'll be thinking about where to go and what to do next over the next couple of weeks, so I'll keep you all posted. Thanks again everyone for your letters.