Weirdest Dessert ever! Sun 31 January

Dad’s first day skiing. I think a lot of people must be visiting for the weekend as the waiting time for the gondola was 25 minutes. We decide to take the nearby chairlift instead. It is bitterly cold but at least the sun is shining and the snow conditions are delightful.

We do a few runs before I venture slightly off piste to find some fresh untracked powder. Dad follows but rather than follow my route down he moves further across the hill and skis down a hill that no one has touched. The reason that no one has skied it before is that it ends in a massive uphill snow drift. Dad disappears for some time and I am calling him but he doesn’t answer. I call to two skiers who can see him and ask if he is OK, they explain in French that he is OK but he has fallen.

I then walk back up the hill and round the corner to see Dad digging himself out of the snowdrift. He has taken his skis off and is now exhausted. Dad announces he needs lunch. He then announces that he’s forgotten his wallet. We eat at a very expensive mountain restaurant where the only thing I can afford for us both is hot dogs!

After lunch we do a few runs to get us back to central Avoriaz to meet Abby before her first ever snowboard lesson. Abby is very excited and super enthusiastic.

Dad and I head home after two more runs as he is very tired and I’ve pulled a muscle in my back.

Abby arrives home after her first lesson and is buzzing. She LOVES snowboarding. She didn’t like button lifts but she perservered. Her excitement is infectious and makes me want to try again.

I make more power bars for taking skiing with us when I get in and then we all go out for dinner.

Abby, Dad and I go to La Chamade for dinner as I reckon Dad will really like the beef dish. We both order Beet Fillet with a Cep Cappucino and Spinach salad, Abby has Moules.

Although we are full we all order dessert too. My dessert ranks top of the list in the strangest sweet concoction I’ve ever had on a plate. I order Iles Flottante which essentially is soft meringue islands floating on a crème anglaise sauce. However this comes with a selection of other accompaniments. I was expecting ice-cream and requested lemon sorbet. However alongside this was:
- candied fennel
- lentils
- candied red cabbage
- curried rice pudding
- a shot of cucumber and spearmint juice
The merinque and sorbet was lovely but the other extras were all a bit too weird, even for me! A photo of the dessert is above.

Dad and Abby arrive - Sat 30 January

I stay at home this morning and catch up on some missed sleep from last night. Dad is a little late arriving and the leaving gang arrive back from a morning playing in the fresh powder. They leave just after lunch as my Dad arrives. We kit him out with skis and then walk into Morzine to get his ski pass.

I take Dad to the wine bar for a glass of vino and to share the tapas platter. The service is not as good as last time and the platter has damp tortilla chips on it which should just not appear on a platter like this.

Dinner tonight is homemade pork chorizo sausagement meatballs tossed with spaghetti carbonara. It gets good reviews from the table but I think the meatballs are too salty and I will tone down the salt next time I make them. I do a vegetarian pepper sauce for Abby who arrives about 9pm.

Snowboard Sledging - Fri 29 January

The Welsh boys want to party tonight as its their last night and they have a 6am transfer tomorrow morning. We all head to Bar Robinsons for apres ski drinks and down a lot of Mützigs before doddering home via the supermarket. It is snowing heavily and the road home is covered in snow. Gareth and I don’t see a road but a ready made luge. We use his snowboard to sledge back down the road and have a real giggle.

Kate has made us a delicious leek and blue cheese tart for dinner with new potatoes and salad. This is followed by lemon sorbet or chocolate ice-cream. We then receive an invite to go round to Sam and Seb’s for a second dessert of profiteroles! This is coupled with more drinks and we roll home quite late.

Rest Day - Thur 28 January

I’m still in a lot of pain and decide that a day of rest is called for. Adam and I head into Morzine and hang out in a café all day. I use the time to apply for volunteering opportunities for April onwards. I had intended to update this blog as well however I don’t get around to it.

Dinner tonight is made by Soph and is a cheese fondue for 10 people – which is quite a feat. Sam, Seb and Saz come over to join us.

Back to skis for my birthday - Wed 27 January

My chest is still really sore and I decide that a day on skis will be easier than boarding as I can’t face falling over again. Unfortunately the fear of falling means my skiing is less than brilliant and by mid afternoon I’ve had another fall (on artificial snow that is like ball bearings on ice) and am in a lot of pain again. I head back early for a long soak in the bath.

Adam has booked a restaurant for us all to go to for my birthday. Our first choice didn’t have any room til 9.30pm so we head to another place that has been recommended. The food is tasty and the service friendly. Adam gives me a classic Morzine memento as a birthday present (photo to follow as I lost my camera earlier – just found it).

Six of us head to Les Rhodos for drinks after dinner to see if we can ‘beat the barman’ which happens every Wednesday. If you can roll two dice higher than the barman your round is free. I wait a very long time to be served and Soph exclaims that I’m not ‘young enough or pretty enough to be served’. I’m surrounded by pretty young boys and what she meant was that the girls behind the bar were favouring the boys, but it came out all wrong! We just miss out on a free round too.

Gareth does a great Elvis impersonation with my black hat worn as a wig. I’ll upload the video if Sam sends it to me.

Third Snowboarding lesson - Tue 26 January

We book another snowboarding lesson as Julien says that three is the magic number. We don’t get up to the mountain in time to do many practice runs which is a shame and on my first run, I fall onto my coccyx. Not only is it very painful, it make me very wary of falling again, it hurts when I’m doing up my bindings and means I am riding rather stiffly afterwards.

In our lesson we start to learn a new way of turning - first on the back side and then front side. I fall while on my front side as I catch an edge and fall flat onto my chest. The fall really winds me and I sit in silence for about 5 minutes. Julien helps me up and I think I am ok, although shocked, but as I do my next couple of turns I get a piercing pain in my chest. I sit down and feel awful – I’m worried I may have broken a rib. Julien helps me down the next slope and I decide to head back down in the gondola, cutting short my lesson.

Soph and I go to see the doctor (Soph as chief translator) however we discover that the doctor’s waiting room has no system and an absentee receptionist who only ever appears to answer the phone and then disappears again. After a long time standing waiting I decide that my agony is not overwhelming and we head home. Even it if was a broken rib the doctors can’t do anything anyway.

Soph swaps her board for skis as she’s had enough pain for one holiday and as she can already ski she decides its time to have fun. We spend the afternoon watching films and drinking red wine.

We all head to Sam and Seb’s apartment for dinner as they are only staying four chalets up the road from us. They cook enough chilli to feed nine hungry people with enough for seconds! And then we all play Cranium which is not the best board game ever invented.

Second Snowboarding lesson Monday 25 January

I wake up about 6am and every muscle in my body seems to be aching. Was I in a fight yesterday? Oh no, I was snowboarding!

We plan to get up to the slopes for 10am however Kate decides to put the beef stew into a low oven in the morning so that it is tasty and tender by dinnertime. We get up to the slopes by about 11am instead for a few practice runs. Soph has to change her boots and Sam is nowhere to be seen this morning, so Kate and I practice together. By lesson time I’m starting to get a feel for this and it is starting to feel more natural.

According to Julien I’m on my back foot too much and need to put my weight forward more on my front foot. To help me he holds my hands and rides down with me to help me get my weighting right. I like riding this way! Before long I am linking my turns and I’m starting to feel like I might actually be able to do this. However I then pick up too much speed and go flying towards the netting at the side of the piste and go through it, taking the pole with me. I have to take my board off to get back onto the piste.

Julien also teaches us how to get off a chair lift. That’s fun! A few crashes later we start to get the hang of it. He also teaches us Ollies and Grabs. Not sure why we are doing tricks already but hey-ho (the boys back home are jealous).

Gareth is reading over my shoulder and objects to the phrase hey-ho. He’d rather I peppered my blog with obscenities. Well he can get his own fucking blog for that.

Our beef stew tonight is very rich and tasty and Kate adds mustard to the dumplings which is a great addition. She has made a pot the size of a cauldron but we still manage to finish it all.

Sorry for the lack of snowboarding photos - I'm too scared to take my camera with me yet!