We had passed the halfway point.

The gang were now on the home straight. The winning post was in sight.

Unfortunately one member of our group fell at an early fence and had already departed the scene.

C’est la vie.

It was day five on the slopes. My guide for the day was The Car Restorer. We were joined by The Magnet and The Brummie.

I had skied with The Car Restorer before. He’s a top performer on the planks. And My Good Self always seems to learn something new on ski days with The Car Restorer.

Indeed it was only this time last year when I decided to embrace the whole phenomenon of tree hugging for the first time whilst skiing with The Car Restorer.

My Good Self is very much in favour of trees on ski slopes as they provide much needed definition. However I am not convinced I made the right decision when I opted to experience an extremely close encounter with quite the sizeable tree on this particular day.

Thankfully the tree was not injured.

Yesterday had proceeded along quite nicely with just a few minor hiccups here and there, until it came to the point where I decided it was time to learn something new again.

In my questionable wisdom, I chose to test the strength of my right shoulder.

One moment I was skiing along quite nicely. The next my skis were gone from under me and my right shoulder and I were having quite the loud conversation with one another.

My Good Self was in a spot of bother.

Cometh the hour, cometh The Guinness Pensioner.

A bit of deep heat, some ibuprofen tablets and before long I was in slightly better shape than before.

What doesn’t kill you, just hurts.