I'm snow broken!

But in a good way :o) No fear, lovely readers, I've not got any injuries yet, with the exception of the usual shin pounding from my boots and a small but brilliant bruise at the base of my thumb where my boots bit me twice this morning when I was trying to do up the ratchet clasps (damn them!).

I'm having a cheeky couple of hours in the chalet alone and resting my very weary legs at the mo. The holiday is spectacular so far. My confidence has come on in leaps and bounds, and now it's more of a case of my legs (so sore!) needing to catch up with me so I can go faster and stronger.

We had a fresh fall of snow over night covering the smooth, slightly glassy runs of yesterday with a foot of fresh powder. Interesting times for the girl (moi) who's never skied on powder before. This morning was challenging as the fast guys took me out right to the top of the mountains - powder, steep sections and light so flat you couldn't see a damn thing a foot on the ground in front of you (can you say "aaaaargh" as you suddenly drop down a dip you couldn't see when you're mid-turn??).

Like the troopers they are, they hung back with me the whole way, yelled instructions and whooped encouragements without complaint all the way down (and back up further still and down again). There were beautiful sections when we hit the treeline where you could schush down for ages, and there were virtual mogul fields at the top where it had got cut up, but my trusty skis (and legs, let's not forget those babies) got me down with zero falls. Might have been a few near-misses though, and an inadvertant hug with a man who turned towards me at the same time I turned towards him :o).

I lost them a bit in the bottom section as I opted to stick on the blues through the trees and sent them straight down the reds that intersect the blues, and by the time I'd navigated the virtual ice-rink in the woods and then got completely disorientated in the fog just above the village (very strange - a treeless valley and you couldn't see where the snow ended and the sky began - a literal world of white), they'd headed into the chalet for lunch. I staggered in, a broken Sue, as we'd done more in the morning than we did in the entire of yesterday, and dreading having 20 mins to grab lunch and hit my 3 hour afternoon group lesson.

I've been kind of saved though as I arrived at the meeting place to find it empty, and after I'd tracked down a ski instructor teaching nearby and we'd had a very garbled Franglais conversation, I worked out that we should have met at 1, but our chalet hosts had told us 1.30. D'oh!!!

Anyway, I've retired for the afternoon, after skiing back to the chalet, which means that the rest of our group can go play fast and steep in the mountains somewhere. I think my legs have taken enough of a beating for one day :O)

If you hadn't guessed already, we have wi-fi at the chalet, and I have my laptop with me, plus my iPhone, so I can post in with regular updates to keep you jealous ;o)

I'm not worrying too much about food this week, although ironically, my appetite has died the last couple of days. Last night we had a magnificent 3 course meal cooked by our hosts - gorgeous French food - course pate and toast, fresh baguette, tartiflette and garlic sauteed green beans, and topped off by coffee profiteroles with ice-cream centres. And wine. Of course there was wine. I was so full, I didn't really need all of it, but chatting to Ben, one of the other guys, afterwards he said he could have eaten more, so I kind of said I'd feed him my extras on the other nights if he wanted them! We had a game of Scrabble last night in front of the log fire, and I totally got slammed by skiing and the complete lack of sleep on the train the night before and staggered off to bed at 11, and slept solidly til 8.20 this morning.

We got all sorts for breakfast this morning - porridge which was lush - and sausage sandwiches which I really didn't feel like, but luckily were only small. Again - I think tomorrow I might not bother with whatever the speciality is if I feel that way again. Baguette with ham and cheese for lunch, and I've got a Mars bar in my ski pack that I've only taken 2 bites out of. I've picked an apple and a diet coke to snack on this afternoon - much more what I wanted. Mind you - prob don't need to worry about food too much - at the rate the group is dragging me along at, and checking out activity points on Weightwatchers for skiing, I'm earning a fair whack of points every day! Anyway, it's holiday.

Lovely holiday!

Catch you tomorrow. xx