Friday 4 Jan, 2008

Everyone woke up really late, I was the first up and I only woke up at 07:30 so everything ran really late. Darrel wanted to do yet another marathon but it wasn't to be for me so he left for the day on his own. I think that he is really savouring his last real day of holiday because tomorrow is a travelling day and travelling with three kids doesn't sound like much fun to me.

After getting children off to ski school which has to be just about the best invention as far as parents are concerned, Carl and I ventured out for the first time since he put his shoulder out. We ran Coombe a Floret and Prolays several times without incident and Carl coped quite well. It's not like we were motoring down but we weren't exactly going slowly either. I think Carl really enjoyed Coombe a Floret even though the end of it is a bit icy and nasty. I think that maybe I should be starting to speed up a bit instead of being so cautious.

We all met Jean Paul on the plateau and we were off with him leading and showing us little things that make the difference. In particular keeping one's body straight and more or less upright and bending one's knees forcing them into the front of one's boots. I did my boots up really tightly today and it definitely felt a bit better. We were on the ski lift and Jean Paul was speaking to a friend of his and wished him “bon chance” which apparently means “Good luck on getting laid” which started Carl off laughing which extracted a guilty look from Jean Paul. "I see you understand a little french!" he said after the call was finished.

A couple of hours of this and we were all tired so we retired for the afternoon. Caron arrived back from her mornings ski just before us so she was quite tired as well. It sounds like Caron is ready to take the next step which will be great.

During the afternoon, apart from Darrell taking Alex skiing and the Van der Riets going off for a little while, it was famdamily afternoon. Heidi and my parents were very worried about the lift from Avoriaz to Geneva because I hadn't received the confirmation SMS. I phoned three times during the afternoon and each time go the same reply that they were still working on the schedule until finally at about 18:00 we received an SMS confirming the pick up time.

At about 16:30 the children went down to the ski school to get medals which turned out to be quite nice and surprisingly, only about half the children received medals. I really would have thought that all the children would have received but the instructors obviously really do watch the children's skiing and only dish out medals to those that crack the grade.

Supper was a combined affair with the whole family eating pizza's and the children watching “Happy Feet” for the I don't know how many time. Darrell seemed very grumpy and only arrived when supper was just about finished and kept pretty much to himself.

By 21:00 I was ready for bed, my eyelids closing involuntarily.

Tomorrow should be a really good day because it is change over day so the slopes should be relatively empty.