Sunday 6 Jan, 2008

It's still snowing which means that it has been snowing for almost an entire day and there is about 15cm of new snow on the ground. Unfortunately is isn't the greatest snow being halfway to sleet so it turned out to be a bit slushy. It seems that in snow, like in so much else, there are subtleties that aren't apparent until one actually experiences them.

While Kirsten and Carl were dropping the kids at school, Caron and I went shopping at Shoppi which is the local supermarket about 50m from our block of flats. It was amazing how many brands we recognise, we just can't understand the labels so thank goodness for the pictures. Overall, I think that food prices are maybe a little more expensive than home but some things are cheaper and some more expensive so it really depends on what you are actually buying. Kisten bought their whole family really nice polar fleeces which were just over half of what they would have paid for the same article in Johannesburg.



After Kirsten and Carl had dropped the kids at ski school we headed out with the intention of going up Mosettes and then skiing the Abricotine but the mossettes lift was closed so we headed over to ski Le Crot instead which was quite nice if a little slushy. By the time we got to the bottom of Le Crot, it was getting really wet and there were patches of water on some of the flat spots near the cable car. After Le Crot we decided to do Bleue de Arare which proved to be quite difficult because we ended up skiing in a near white out which, if you haven't done it a lot, is very disconcerting. You can't see just about anything, you can just make out the edge markers of the run as they whizz by but you definitely can't see the slope nor any moguls so it makes it ultra important to be skiing properly. If you're doing it properly with parallel curves and your weight and your knees correct then it is amazing how you can soak up the unexpected bumps but if you get it just a little bit wrong , it starts to be spectacular. After one run Kirsten and Carl decided to call it a day and went home, I did one more before doing the same.

Found Caron still at home having sensibly not ventured out so we had lunch and then spent the afternoon reading and relaxing but towards the end of the afternoon we all started getting a little bit of cabin fever. Kirsten, Caron and I went for a walk, ostensibly to go shopping but on the way we popped into the information centre and discovered that there was going to be a dog sled race in and around town which would explain all the barrier tape that people have been putting up.

We returned and fetched the kids to take them up to where there was an Indian village with teepees and huskies.



Took some nice photographs of Megan and one of the huskies which was totally white with these pale blue eyes. I think it was love at first sight for Megan and I can see some awkward discussions ahead between Megan and Carl about taking the dog home.



Also took some nice photos of the sisters, I think, dressed up like squaws that were part of the display. I tried to bring her home, for Tony of course, but she pretended to not understand english and I just didn't know how to put 'mail order bride' into french!



At about this time things went pear shaped for Alistair who projectile vomited all over Kirstens hand and beyond so there was this patch on the snow of evidence but before long people were just walking all over it. Kirsten went home with Alistair while we watched the start of the dog race. The sled dogs were all lots smaller than I was expecting but you can see that they really enjoy the run because 4 hours later when they were finishing, they were still game to run.



After supper we, those that weren't sick or nursing sick people, dressed up and went tobogganing as well as watched the end of the dog sled race. Megan is really taking to the art of snow ball fighting, she even carried a stash on her toboggan so she could lob them at Carl as she went past. Of course that invites retaliation and I hit her with two snow balls on the head as she skittled past. I don't think I've ever been that accurate, my ability to throw accurately is normally abysmal. The second snowball was right on the nose and you could see the start of tears before she sucked it in and decided that getting even was a much better plan. The tobogganing was great fun but you have to really watch out because they are really only under marginal control and we saw a number of spills which kept us all amused, especially when they wrapped themselves up in the kiddies rope lift.

We watched the end of the dog race which seems to be a really big thing because it was on national television with live coverage of the end of the race. I think Kirsten and Carl are going to be hard put to get out of buying an entire dog sled team for Megan.

Home for coffee which Carl made which was very nice of him and bed.