Musings of a tropical creature!

Winter is here and so is skiing which is a sport of recreation for the natives of temperate zones. Thankfully this year I am witnessing snowfall once in every two days and the temperature is below freezing point on almost every day (not sure if I am thankful for the latter though).

Sometimes just after the snowfall, the temperature warms up a little bit and then rain pours on this snowfall. After this rainfall, the temperature ‘decides’ to goes below freezing point and then freezes this rain water. This creates a life threatening situation for people and animals alike to walk on the ground at that point (imagine walking on a huge piece of ice!! Scary thought isn't it?).

But native people here (and even their pets) are at ease while walking on these icy ground surfaces. People here even try and slide on these icy grounds sportively which really freak me out. But for tropical mortals such as me, these icy ground surfaces are threatening as this was not the environment we grew up. I always have to take baby steps on such surfaces and it is really irritating to be a slow walker.

Kiran has introduced me to Biathlon (on television!) and this sport is very interesting. Now, the Biathlon season is in full swing and every evening, we both watch it glued to the television. The winter sports are so amazing I tell you, and I never thought I would watch them with so much interest.

Today morning (temperature outside was below freezing point as usual and minus sunshine!!) we were happily sitting inside our flat with the heater on. We had finished our breakfast and were watching Australian open *live* on EuroSports channel (a match between Djokovic and Wawrinka). I was sitting on the rolling chair just next to our living room window (the room heater was just next to my chair J) and I happened to turn my head to glance outside the window for some reason. I could not believe what I was seeing.

I saw a family with skiing equipments with them and then they started to ski on whatever snowfall was left on the ground. (It was really shallow)

I mean who on earth would want to go out with all the layers on their body (over coat, sweaters to survive the chill) and then ski on a lazy Sunday morning?

And then I realized that people here are very much adjusted to go out in such weather conditions and they seem to enjoy it. I mean, I >can< call them ‘exotic creatures’ :-)

Well, the same cannot be said to us; we are tropical creatures, aren't we?

And we love to sit inside whenever the weather outside is unbearable and extreme (be it scorching hot or freezing cold!). 

…And people here call us ‘exotic’ J

Fair enough, ain't it?

Please find attached the pictures of the family who were skiing out side today morning J