So we’ve been thinking about boring matters like travel insurance lately and we need to decide whether we are including what the industry term “hazardous or extreme sports” or even just “Winter sports”.  My first thought is yes, let’s include everything, just in case.  But “everything” is expensive and we don’t want to pay a lot for something we don’t need.

As Nick pointed out, it’ll be heading towards Winter by the time we get to Canada so maybe there is the potential for some Winter sports.  He and I have never been skiing; there have been opportunities but so far it’s something neither of us have ever done. I like the idea of skiing.

No, okay, I like the idea of après-ski.  In all honesty, the idea of actually skiing scares me half to death.  So far, touch wood, I have never broken a bone or been hospitalised for anything serious, and miraculously, neither have any of the boys.  With three sons I think that’s pretty good going – after all, they are incapable of sitting still; if something moves, they chase it and if it doesn’t move, they climb it.

I once ran an antenatal course attended by a professional stunt man; everyone in the group, with the exception of his own partner, was thoroughly impressed.  I got the feeling his partner hoped that the imminent arrival of their first born would lead to a swift career change to something a bit more conventional and a bit less likely to result in permanent injury, but I digress. Anyway, said stuntman shared with us the theory of relaxing your muscles when you fall to avoid hurting yourself – that if you brace yourself when you fall you increase the risk of broken bones.  Apparently it is better to try to turn the fall into a roll so that the momentum and force of the fall move you forwards rather than downwards.  I understand the theory and I’m sure it’s sound, I’m just not convinced about my own ability to execute it on a snowy mountain.  When I imagine myself skiing I’m there in all the gear but I’m never actually moving.  In the event of a fall, I don’t see myself gracefully tumbling like a gymnast, what I see looks more like a scene from the Dambusters as I bounce towards the inevitable explosion.

It did occur to me that one way that guarantees me a relaxed body is a couple of glasses of sauvignon blanc, I’ve had a fair bit of practice executing the perfect fall and roll under those circumstances but I can’t see the call to the insurance company going well:

Me: “Unfortunately I seem to have broken my legs during a skiing accident”
Insurance clerk: “Ok Mrs Jones, tell me what happened”
Me: “Well I took all reasonable precautions to ensure I was properly relaxed but it seems half a bottle of Chablis wasn’t enough”
Insurance clerk: “I see.  May I direct you to clause 6.2 of your policy excluding liability for reckless behaviour and stupidity.”

hmmm.

I’m sure my fears are irrational and I really don’t want to pass them on to the boys so I ought to try and overcome them for their sake.  I wonder if I could join a lesson for children under 5 as it surely wouldn’t be reasonable to expect Alex to go alone?  Maybe that’s the answer.