Saturday Night Fever Part II

Yuuki, courtesy of Thea Bracewell


After just surviving the first round in the summer at the cabin, we all thought at the time that it might be fun to return in the middle of winter. I pictured being snug and warm around a blazing fire, toasting the odd marshmallow and sharing some good food, booze and conversation with friends... That was the plan anyway.



Before



After

We went back to the cabin on the 4th of February when there was still plenty of snow around. There were only 6 ALT's brave enough for the challenge and we were joined by the intrepid Johnny (who's beard makes him look like he'd fit into any 19th century polar exploration photographs) and Yuki, one of our Japanese chums.



Johnny and Thea



Polly, Matt and Johnny, courtesy of Thea Bracewell


We all met up at Matt's and made a convoy to get up to the cabin. I'm not sure if I mentioned this in my last blurb about the cabin but it's situated way up in the mountains. It's very remote and a good drive from nearest civilisation, well the nearest place on Sado. I was surprised that we all made it up the mountain ok, the snow was getting deep, though I think the studless snow tires make a big difference. Next we had to unpack all of our goodies and start getting things ready for the evening. The owner of the cabin had kindly opened the place up and started a fire though at this point we realised that we'd left a couple of crucial ingrediants so I accompanied Matt back to the nearest shop. During this time the owner gave his very captive audience a redition of something on his violin, which by all accounts was mince and almost embarrassing enough to laugh. So Matt and I didn't miss much. Upon our arrival, things were shaping up for the night. The food and booze was almost ready to be tackled and the fires were blazing away. The heating of the cabin came in the form of a stove wood burner type thing and a Japanese traditional open fire (that you can sit around) which was burning smokeless fuel. All of our bedding, which was a large amount due to the weather, was setup to save us having a krypton factor type task when inebriated.



Matt, round house 1



Thea, round house 2


The night unfolded and we all tucked into various grub including a tasty chilli concoction that Johnny had prepared. Beer and wine was steadily flowing and we started to play a fun game called 'Scruples' or something, around the open fire. Not long into the night, Thea was the first person to say that she wasn't feeling great. I thought that she might have eaten too much chocolate or 'candy' (Caroline's folks had sent over a ton of Percy Pigs) as she's partial to the odd sweetie. Then we all started to realise that we weren't feeling hunky dory. We hadn't drank that much booze yet but we all felt nausious and had a sore head. Caroline was even lying down next to the fire... The penny dropped. There wasn't much ventilation in the room we were in and we were burning smokeless fuel like Billy O. We concluded that we were feeling the early stages of carbon monoxide posioning! Yahoo! Everyone, decided the best idea was to go outside to try to clear our heads and let the fire burn out. This helped a bit but we were all still feeling rotten. That was the baw burst for the night really, but we continued to talk and drink mostly water around the wood burning stove (which had a chimney:) until we all sloped of to kip.



Yuuki and Caroline


An experience that made us think and which we'll not forget (unless our brians (new name for my brain) have permanent damage).
It's 2 and 2 for the cabin, the bases are loaded so the next visit has to be a home run.


We so crazy, we went to the beach



Lora at the beach



Exit beach