Strutting around London: The kids' ski trip to France & the great bake off !!

The week after we went to Chester in February the kids went on a school skiing trip to France. We briefly referred to the trip in this blog http://struttingaroundlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/snow.html .The ski trip coincided with the first snowfall of the winter. The kids left school at 3:30 am and by the end of that day we had several inches of snow in London. Had the snow been earlier they most likely would not have been able to fly out.

The forecast temperatures of 20 - 25 below zero at the slopes at Alp d'Huez did not eventuate but it was still in the mid to high teens BELOW zero for most of their time. Needless to say they had a great time and are now dedicated ski converts. We have already booked their places for the next trip in 2013 and this time Mark will go with them reprising his late youth when he would drive 5-6 hours from Sydney to the Australian Alps on a Friday afternoon after teaching to ski all weekend and drive back on Sunday night to be ready to teach the next day. He actually still has his ski jacket from the 80s !!!!

The pictures below were taken by the kids.

On the way to the Alps having left at 3 am.
Does he look tired ?

The view from their hotel.

On the ski lift.

Sure does

Minus 18 ???? Surely not ! It doesn't feel cold at all.

The kids came back, complete with ski tan lines, to slush in London but were still able to have a good time.

At our local park.

A week or so later their was another snowfall and this proved useful when we hosted a cooking competition between the kids and Bernard, a colleague of Sally's, and his partner Simon. They made a mint chocolate cake while Aisha and William did a chocolate mousse style creation. With a full fridge we found it was easier to cool things down outside in the snow.