October 2009

We actually manage a week off work, not during winter. Duncan has accumulated considerable over time this year. So we decided to go to the UK for 6 days. We flew from Geneva to Bristol because we thought it would save us time, wrong, Michelle took so long to get though immigration that Duncan has already collected the luggage and had been waiting for a quarter of an hour. This meant we going the back of the queue at the car hire place. We called Duncan's Mum to explain the delay, and then called again to explain the time on the GPS was still Swiss time not UK time. So we were not as late arriving as we though we would be. The Sunday was a grey foggy day, so we spent the time reminiscing, looking a old photos from Duncan's childhood. It was a lovely day. We ended the Day with Kirstie and Logan coming over for dinner. It was the first time Michelle has seen Logan, Duncan saw him when he was about 9 month old. The weather improved to we did get to go to the coast, for some fantastic views. We also managed to catch up with Mandy between regular business trips all through Europe and the UK. Then we spent a lovely day catching up with Meg at Salton House, and a fantastic walk through the gardens and along the estuary before continuing on to Duncan's Dads for the last couple of days. We missed seeing Jake the newest family member, he arrived at 7.20 am on the morning we flew back. We had to check in a 7am so visiting was not possible.

May 2009

The 2nd and 3rd of May and it is finally the end of a really long but great ski season. After the excitement of last weekend St. Anton is now a ghost town. A lot of the lifts are closed, no more Gampen, Kappal and Rendl. Just Galzig is open. We skied in the rain on the Saturday before giving up and partying the rest of the day away in St Christoph, We met up with Üli (Schwab), he was in a better state than we were. We have quite a bit of trouble skiing back to St. Anton where we were to have dinner with Toni and Rosi, Duncan fell asleep after his shower and almost missed dinner. The Sunday was a real surprise, there was about 10cm of fresh snow on the Piste. We had the place to ourselves, we skied until after lunch then had to pack up the apartment for the end of season, then drive home feeling tired but satisfied.

March 2009

Week 11 and what a great week of skiing, probably for the best snow of the season. It snowed a lot at the beginning of the week, big fluffy flakes too. We also had enough sun to ski Maienwasen and Maienplatt in bottomless powder with great visibility if you could keep your head above the plumes of snow. We didn't ski with Alois, we just did our own thing. Which meant we could also go partying in Piccadilly with Kim and Sonja. We even got Bill up on the dance floor. Towards the end of the week the snow had settled, and was becoming very heavy in the afternoons. Week 12 saw us looking at an apartment to buy, the prices are scandalous. We definitely won't be paying what they are asking for. We are certainly making the most of the weekends. We haven't missed a single one since the opening (which Michelle missed because of exams). We skied with a Friend of Adrian's for a day, we wore him out. Week 14 was the start of the Firn

September 2009

September is fitness month with hikes, very long bicycle rides and the first skiing for the coming season. It started with the SHG hike, a very interesting day , it was a hike with various stops on route to explain the food pyramid and nutrition. After walking for a couple of hours we all blew it at Karin's because she had put on the most amazing dessert buffet. The 13th was the slow up though the Emmental, we hire flyers again, this certainly helps against those hills. We kept on bumping into people we know, so although we went on our own, it was definitely not lonely. Duncan wanted to test the battery capacity on the 40km route, so we didn't change batteries half way round this time, he also used the electric assistance the whole day, unfortunately just before the last hill up to Sumiswald his battery gave out. Michelle went on the flyers again 3 days later on the Heart Route from Willisau to Hasle Ruegsau, a total of 70km. She was pretty tired come the end of the day in spite of the electrical assistance. The weather was good on both days luckily. The weekend after saw us giving in to our wish to start skiing again, it has been 4 and a half months since we last skied. So we packed the car and headed of to Saas Fee for the weekend. We were not the only crazy people on the mountain, as usual, most of the ski area was reserved for racers. This is our main complaint about summer skiing in Saas Fee, not only do they have a majority of the Pistes closed for them, they are incapable of queuing in a reasonable manner for the lift back up again. They push in at the front, refused to go up with anyone else and a generally arrogant beyond words. We did meet a nice couple from Lausanne though, he was from Western Australia and she was from England, we skied a couple of runs with them. Saas Fee had been in the newspapers this week because of a huge ice avalanche. It was really visible from the village, it was amazing just how blue with broken edge of the glacier was.