16 - 22 February 2009

A week of excess. Snow - since most of Justine's charges barely measure a metre, and on Tuesday 70cm of snow fell in the space of a ski lesson, attempts at skiing were heroic (Libby's attempts pictured here). Travel time - Berkshire to Maria Alm by minibus in 24 hours, a experience our recent visitors, the Ainger and Rogers families, would not like to repeat. Visitors - 13 in one week, 9 of them residing in the house (including our own extensive range of ski equipment, that amounted to 56 skis in our garage). Food - a modest shopping list, requested of Nicola, translated into 8 boxes of cereal, 24 bottles of beer, 12 bottles of wine, a few kilos of chocolate and cheese, a year's supply of custard powder, 240 tea bags and a whole side of honey roast ham. And fun, which you can never have an excess of, in abundance.

9 - 15 February 2008

If you turn right at the top of the T-bar on Natrun, you can ski through the Tierpark (animal park), slaloming around deer, fox, wild boar and lynx, (remarkably life-like models, apart from the fact that they all have targets on the side of them, for archery practice). Until recently, they had been left in waiting at the side of the piste until the snow was deep enough to firmly position them in. Some imaginative, free thinking, young types, (word has it they were snow-boarders), carefully arranged them in poses that contravened all laws of nature and, frankly, made this area of the ski piste entirely unsuitable for family skiing. Action was immediately taken to disentangle this orgiastic muddle, and order and respectablility were quickly restored. (photo withheld.)