Tuesday 1 Jan, 2008

Another year rolls by, I don't know whether to be happy or sad that they go by so quickly.

The morning started at about 06:00 which is still pitch black here with some inconsiderate moron who can't tell the time setting off a whole lot of crackers.

We had breakfast and then Caron and I headed out and down Proclou and up the Sarusseaux chair lift. I ran Q'mont while Caron went down Tetras and we met at the crepperie for a hot chocolate. We must have been the first customers of the day and we sat on the balcony in the clear morning air and looked out over Morzine and sipped out chocolate. Quite fantastic.

I left Caron to her own devices and went off to meet Jean-Paul for our lesson and was standing in the queue and bumped into Kirsten and Heidi who just happened to be standing in front of me.

Taking lessons is one of those dilemmas where what they tell you, you can read in a book but what they show you, you definitely can't. Especially the little bits of off piste that they show you, Jean Paul showed us a great area near Lindaret which was great for some relatively easy off piste mogulling. Very benign and loads of space which always makes things much easier.

Kirsten distinguished herself on one of the chair lifts when Jean Paul asked me :
Par les voux francaise?
To which I answered :
Non!
Jean Paul then looked at kirsten who answered :
Un petit pour.
Which translates to “a little pea” which had Jean Paul chuckling away although we didn't see the humour until much later.

Now I just have to try and put into practice what we were taught which is not as easy as it sounds.

The lesson finished at 13:30 and Kirsten, Caron and Carl went off with the kiddies toboganning while I spent some time trying to practice, careful this afternoon to get back well before the sun went down. The sun here is weird, it never really rises properly, it just sort of skirts the horizon between 08:00 and 16:00.

Had macaroni cheese for supper and were in bed by 09:00. I'm getting so much sleep that by the end of the holiday I should have a lot in reserve. Carl is coping much better with his shoulder and the possiblity that his holiday may have ended than I would have.