Whilst on holiday I kept a small diary of the days events so that the minority who will be interested could read it. This is a long post, so if you're in the majority and don't really care here is a summary. The French held up our departure, it dumped a foot of snow on the second day, we snowboarded and are much better than last year, we got sunburnt, an English woman on skis crashed into me, we came home. For the detail, read on!

Friday
Drove down to Dover with plenty of time, but arrived to be told there was a 1 hour delay due to the lazy French striking over something and blockading the port. Turned out when Rob arrived at Dover it was a 4 or 5 hour delay at best, so we made the risky move of leaving the queue, and drove back to the ticket office at Dover. In the end we got on a Norfolk Line ferry to Dunkirk, which was slower, but the ferry was very nicely done out. On arrival in France we drove for 6.5 hours to get to Dijon and our hotel for the night.

Saturday
Got up and drove the rest of the way to the chalet. A brilliant sunny day, we got stuck in a rare French traffic jam! As we arrived in the Alps the snow was very thin on the ground, and we were a little worried! We did the shopping, got unpacked, and after dinner went for a walk up the river. After a while (and a few falling in deep snow to your waist moments) we found a pub (completely French speaking, local pub), had a few 33cls, and wandered back by the moonlight.

Sunday
Got up around 9.30, and headed out at 11. Got some info from a mate we had in one of the shops in Morzine that Avoriaz had the best of the snow, so headed up there. Weather started out sunny but started to rain! The actual snow though was great, not too packed, ideal really. We had 3 runs down a great blue, actually linking turns on our first day! Dawn was doing really well too, but Kevin struggled to get back into it. Fiona's lessons were definitely paying off the most though, she made it look effortless on her skis. Eventually we gave in to the rain!

Monday
Woke up to heavy rain, which luckily started to turn to snow! We stayed in waiting for it to clear, but it never did, so we ventured into town for a bit, went for a walk down the river, and had a right good snowball fight! With all the snow the slopes are going to be great tomorrow!

Tuesday
Got up early, a foot of snow has fallen! Got to the piste for 9, and didn't come off until 4.15. It was a great day of turning on good blue runs. However in our rush to get to the slopes we forgot the suncream, so we've ended up looking like pandas.

Wednesday
Got up late, but still did 4 runs, conditions OK. One blue run was great, another icy in bits, but overall good. Went to the ice hockey in the evening, Morzine vs. Roanne. I thought Roanne would win based on their warm up, but how wrong I was, they lost 11-4! Still, it was a good game.

Thursday
We tried out the Super Morzine ski area, the conditions were really packed and we didn't like them at all, so we went back to our usual lift area. Had a good few runs, and had lunch at La Pomme de Pin (which I found out is "The Pinecone" in French) it was very good, especially the apple and caramel crepe! Had a run in with a chair lift, which left its mark, along with an English skier! Before I explain this little story, piste rules dictate that people below you have right of way - end of. However this skier, coming down from above me, said excuse me, then promptly turned into me and we crashed (low speed as I'd slowed down on hearing the excuse me.) She then tried to blame me, pretty much expecting that her excuse me would make me magically get out of her way! As she didn't laugh it off like any normal person would, I thought sod this, got up, told her she turned into me, and rode off. By the way, what she should have done is stopped, waited for me to go a bit further down the mountain, and then done her turn. And novice or not, stopping is lesson one, so she could easily have done that. Grrr. In the evening we went out for dinner to the pub we found on the Saturday. I shared a cheese Fondue with Kevin, and Fiona and Martin had Fondue charcuterie, bits of beef you dip into hot oil to cook. It was absolutely delicious! Dawn had a meat platter, full of lovely meats, and the rest were unadventurous and had steaks, they missed out.

Friday
Brilliant sunshine, we headed out to Super Morzine to try it out again, and head over to the Avoriaz side. The sunshine made it really hot in all our gear, and the runs were all flat and a pain to get about on. Plus by lunch the conditions were getting all slushy and sticky. Not much fun at all, so at lunch we called it a day for boarding, and headed into town for a wander and shop. Can't believe how hot it was!

Saturday
Last day on the slopes, so we were up and out early. Conditions were much better today, not sunny, and actually around lunch it rained heavily. This was a God send, as everyone went home thinking it wouldn't stop. An hour later we headed back onto the quiet pistes in the dry, what a wonderful end to the holiday!

Sunday
As our last day before we traveled home we went into town again, and I bought myself a piste basher - well, a model of one! (I hope to have pictures of it in my fake snow I got from Dawn at Xmas soon!) Its wicked! Oh, and we packed.

Monday
Got up, packed the cars and set off by 9, a minor miracle! Traveled all the way up to St Omer, found our hotel and went off for a meal in the local town. Found a nice creperie, and got to watch some of "Je suis une celebrity, sortiez moi de la!" The French Ant and Dec are older, and the tasks seemed easier.

Tuesday
Up and to the ferry port in plenty of time, no delays hurray! Get to England and crawl around the M25. We know we are back in the UK! The holiday is over :o(

Well there you go, that's the diary, if you are still reading this then well done, you are clearly a committed reader of my blog, and I salute you, however as you can see there were no jokes to reward you with. Sorry.