25 - 31 January 2010

It appears that the whole of Europe has been buried under snow these past few months, except for a little patch of green with white stripes of man-made snow which was Maria Alm. Until now! The snow has arrived! The moles, who had been having a field day, scattering molehills all over the still soft ground, have finally burrowed deeper down, and Natrun is now smooth and white.

18 - 24 January 2010

Time for the annual Maria Alm night race again. Caspar enters the improbability drive and for the second year running wins the prize draw for a pair of freestyle skis. He hadn't planned an exit strategy for this particular situation, so he accepted them, in bafflement, and then anguished for 3 days before finally deciding to offer them up for a prize draw in the school. He can, after all, only use one pair of skis at a time, and he consequently won favour with a very sweet and pretty girl who was lucky in the draw. A good trade.

11 - 17 January 2010

Mary celebrated her 7th birthday this week. The five girls in the back of the car on the way to the swimming pool party, paired each child in their class with another, 'Christina loves Martin', 'Julia loves Daniel', and so on, clutching their sides in uncontrollable laughter, until they were paired off themselves, then remonstrating fiercely. Another year older, another year wiser.

4 - 10 January 2010

The debate about whether it should be mandatory for skiers and snowboarders to wear helmets is forever raging. Last season Lower Austria made it compulsory for all under 14's to wear helmets, as Italy does, after the death of a 41-year old woman who had a high-speed collision with a German politician. This law is being tried out until 2012 and is not currently enforced. We started wearing helmets after Simon's GPS showed that we reached speeds of 60 mph when skiing, which was a little bit terrifying to discover. Our ski school informed us this week that all ski teachers must wear helmets when working. The following day a 13 year old girl died from head injuries following a skiing accident in Saalbach. She wasn't wearing a helmet.

28 December - 3 January 2010

Everyone really went to town for Simon's 40th birthday on 31st December. A huge firework display, hundreds of people on the streets popping corks and cheering, a torchlight descent by all the ski teachers, beacons lit on the mountain in the shape of a number, presumably 40, it was very cloudy and not easy to see, and Justine cooked him Cornish pasty for tea!