Prom

I went to the school prom last night. I was really glad that I went because it was a great evening and everyone, including the pupils that I was supporting, had a brilliant time. It was of course also my last prom at my current school which was bittersweet. Word has got round that I'm leaving and some very nice things were said to me. My gorgeous Uganda pupils were all there because they are all 6th years and we had a group photo. They also presented my with a mug with a photo of us all at the source of the Nile and the message "from your Uganda children" as well as my alleged catch phrase "Right yous, 'nuff ae that!" 

I also know a lot of the pupils who have done the D of E Award. At the end of the evening I found myself dancing with George in the centre of a large circle of pupils to a song which I think was by someone called Pitbull, doing some amazing dance moves as the 6th year pupils chanted "Susan! Susan!" I will miss them! 

Social Saturday

The weather has been fairly warm and sunny this past week, which is very welcome and I think has lifted everyone's spirits. I have made my Big Decision (I mentioned this on 25th March but have been thinking about it for a while), which is to move job. It's all official and I have received my offer in writing. I'm very happy with my move, although there will be lots of things that I will miss about where I am now. However I have absolutely no doubts that it is time to make a move. 

Yesterday I went to a coffee morning to raise money for the 2016 Luwero trip. I was very impressed by the efforts made by pupils and staff; the pupils were providing musical entertainment as well as lots of stalls. A couple of my colleagues also turned up and we had a pleasant coffee together. 

I went straight from there into town to meet my school chums for one of our lovely lunches full of news, chat and laughter. All five of us were there and Libby and I were reporting back on the recent school reunion. 

When I got home James was having a wee cup of tea after working in the garden all day. We decided to go to the cinema to see Bastille Day, starring Idris Elba and Richard Madden, who played Robb Stark in Game of Thrones. I do like an action thriller and this one was very good; set in Paris and full of exciting chases and plot twists. Idris Elba has such presence - there was a hilarious scene in an elevator where he intimidated another character just by looking at him  impassively. I think Idris would be a great James Bond. Then we finished off the evening with a nice dinner together in our current favourite restaurant, Bill's, before heading home for a cup of tea with Ally and Cat. 

A very loud concert

James and I went to see Muse at the Hydro this evening. What can I say? It was not to my taste. Too loud and just not very good. On the plus side, James loved it. He said that it was the best live concert that he has seen for a long time and sang along with the various songs, a few of which I recognised. I did quite like the special effects and watching all the people dancing - the girl in front of me coincidentally did a dance move that one of my pupils taught me today. I saved my hearing by fashioning a pair of earplugs out of my torn up concert ticket and some paper hankies.

A tale of a Duck and a Dog

On Friday I went to Glen Tress in the Borders to check-point a Gold Duke of Edinburgh expedition. I met up with my colleagues and the D of E groups at the start point, and some of the pupils found a wee duckling running around in the long grass, separated from its Mummy. After a bit of debate we decided that the best thing to do would be to make ourselves scarce, so that once we were away the duck family would be able to hear each other calling. Hopefully that will have worked.

The pupils all set off in fine fettle and we kept an eye on them from a distance, by walking in to meet them at pre-arranged points. This gave Carolyn, Ross and me the opportunity to have a wee coffee in Inverleithen, which was very pleasant. It was a cold day and to my surprise it even started snowing! One group got to the camping place in excellent time, but the other group were running late and when we checked on them we found out why - a wee dog had started following them and had ended up walking with them for most of the day! They had become very attached to it and were quite sad when we took her away to reunite her with her owners. This was not too hard to do because there was only one house on the route and when I phoned them they were very relieved; they had been out looking for her. She has form for this and has apparently been handed in to Peebles Police station seven times! 

As a result of the delay, we didn't set off home until 9 p.m. and I felt very tired and nauseous during the hour and a half drive home - at one point I felt quite faint and nearly pulled in to the side of the road, but I was ok. I think that I was just tired and hungry. I was very happy to get home at half past ten and James made me a lovely cup of tea.

A good holiday week

It has been a very good holiday week. I feel as if I have made the most of it. I have done everything I want to do, including a good deal of pottering about in the house; sorting and tidying. I have done a bit of shopping, got my hair cut, attended to one or two routine medical matters, and spent a day in the Borders check-pointing a Gold Duke of Edinburgh expedition (of which more in the next post). 

One of the highlights of the week was the ELO concert on Tuesday. I was lucky to obtain two tickets and James and I were really looking forward to it. Unfortunately (and more importantly than any concert) James' Mum took ill while we were on holiday last week and by the time we got back she had worsened despite antibiotics. It was a pity that we were away because with my experience of my own Mum's illnesses I would have recognised the signs and got her into hospital sooner; however the doctor finally sent her to the RAH in Paisley on Tuesday and James went there to be with her in the evening. *

So I phoned Ally, who was studying in the University Library and asked if he would like to come to the ELO concert. Never one to turn down a concert, Ally joined us at Lebowski's for a pub tea beforehand. Heather and Ewan were also going to the concert so the five of us had tea together before James headed to Paisley and the rest of us walked down to the Hydro.

At that point Heather and Ewan went to their much superior seats very near the front of the auditorium while Ally and I set off to our seats in the back row of Level 2 - which actually gave us a perfectly good view. Before the concert Heather and I texted each other photos from our locations and Ally, with his fine young eyes, could see them looking round and waving. Heather and I, with our slightly less young eyes, couldn't make each other out at all!

Soon the concert started and I thought it was tremendous. ELO played all the old favourites and the audience were singing along. Two songs that I hadn't heard for a long time were Wild West Hero and Telephone Line, I was surprised that I still knew all the words and I have been singing ELO songs all week since. Rockaria, Don't Bring Me Down, Hold on Tight, Mr Blue Sky - they were all really good. Ally said that he enjoyed it too, although he didn't get up to dance like I did. It was a great evening and even submitting myself to the horrors of queueing for the train on the way home did not take the shine off it. 

* Grandma made a speedy recovery I'm glad to say, and is now recuperating back at home.

Spring has arrived

In the week that we have been away, Spring has arrived. The garden is full of daffodils and birdsong. I felt so happy when I woke up this morning with the kitties lying on the bed and then James brought me my breakfast before he went to work. I had a lovely day pottering about and playing with Tom and Ruby. They were brought home from the cattery yesterday afternoon by James and Alasdair and immediately went outside to patrol the the perimeters of the garden. I hate that they have to go to the cattery but it's a good place and most importantly I know that they are safe when we are away.

Ally got up early to go hill-walking with friends to Beinn Narnain and the Cobbler. Davie went into town to meet Chanel, who will be staying with us for a few days. It was really nice to see her and she and Davie are really cute together; she makes him very happy.

Arrivaderci Sestriere

So here we are on the coach, on our way to Turin Airport at the end of a great ski holiday. I got a good sleep last night so I'm feeling quite chipper even though it's 6 a.m. We have been so lucky with the weather and the snow. I felt quite sad as we left the village and now we are heading down the mountain with the snow at the top picking up the very first rays of the sunrise. I'm going to have a little nap, so goodbye Sestriere - it's been grand.

New snow

Our last day of skiing and we woke to a decent layer of new snow, maybe about 15 cm. The clouds lifted during breakfast and we skied off to Sauze d'Oulx in the sunshine. However I found the new snow to be rather sticky in places, I don't think some of the runs had been pisted properly as this was the second last day of the season. I was talking to an Italian man on one of the chairlifts; he had driven up from Milan for the day because of the unexpected snowfall last night. He told me that they didn't get any snow here until February this year so it doesn't have a deep foundation. He also said that two years ago they got so much snow that the season started on November 30th and didn't finish until May 1st. 

We got some good skiing although James had a fall which hurt his ribs - he says that he thinks they are just bruised but he seems to be in quite a lot of pain. We headed back to Sestriere after lunch, leaving the boys to make the most of their last afternoon on the snow. After handing in our skis to the hire shop, James and I had a drink together in a little bar in the sunshine; lovely. We were a bit alarmed later by the very loud live music emanating from the bar directly beneath our hotel room. It's the only time we have heard it this week - probably because it's Saturday evening. However I'm glad to say that it had stopped by the time we arrived back in our room after a convivial evening in the hotel lounge with some pleasant fellow skiers. And now we are getting ready for bed because we have an early pick up tomorrow morning. 

Buona Giornata

Another good day for skiing; still sunny with big white clouds. James and I skied over to Borgata while Ally and Davie skied - well, everywhere! They skied for 56 km with as much descent as if they had skied down Mount Everest! At lunch time they took James away with them while I relaxed with a coffee and then made my way back to the hotel. James appeared back by mid afternoon having left the boys still thundering around the pistes.

We had a pleasant drink in the lounge together. It's quite a novelty for us to be in a hotel for our ski holiday; usually we book an apartment and self-cater in the evenings - apart from our traditional last night fondue / pierre chaude dinner of course! This year has been a real treat; the Hotel du Col is very comfortable and has a great location right beside the ski slopes. It's lovely to have our own en suite bedroom with balcony, and the breakfasts and dinners are good and plentiful - no cooking and no clearing up - fantastic! Now I come to think of it, it's time to get ready for dinner now! 

Bella Italia

I am sitting on the balcony of our hotel room blogging after a fabulous day of skiing. There is not a cloud in the deep blue sky and the mountains are white with snow and look spectacular. 

We went over to Sauze d'Oulx today, using the gondola that goes right across the valley. We set off nice and early to make the most of the better morning snow, but actually it stayed good for most of the day, only becoming slushy after about 3 p.m. The conditions were so good that I broke my newly invented four hour rule and skied for a brilliant six hours (including a short break for lunch). 

The red runs here are much better than the blues because they are wider and seem to be better pisted. There were some really great runs high above Sauze d'Oulx. We went over to Sansicario for lunch at a nice wee mountain restaurant - it was really hot by this time, and I realised that it is the 7th April and that my favourite time of year - Spring and early Summer - lies ahead. I felt really happy. 

After lunch I left the boys and started to head back to Sestriere; once I had crossed the valley I had to take a chairlift to lift me high enough above the village that I could ski straight back to our hotel instead of walking up the road. The chairlift was very slow but I was in no hurry so I just relaxed and enjoyed the sunshine and listened to birds singing in the trees. My last run down to the hotel was indeed very choppy and slushy so I took it easy - when I checked my app Ski Tracks I have skied 31 km with 4442 metres of descent - more than three Ben Nevises! This is of course paltry compared to the boys - James has skied 42 km  and Ally and Davie are still out skiing! 

No fog!

We woke up this morning to find a ski resort outside our window! Yes, the fog has gone! We got up nice and early because we were going to Montgenèvre for the day. This involved crossing the border from Italy into France; border-hopping is always good fun on a ski holiday. I really like Montgenèvre, which is a pleasant village strung along a road, with ski slopes on both sides.  It was great to ski in the warm sunshine and the pistes were wide and well-maintained. It has been my best skiing of the week so far. While Ally and Davie took James up some black runs, I found an amazing long piste with stunning views (well, after the last couple of days any views are stunning!) and it was almost completely deserted! Brilliant! We had lunch in a mountain restaurant called Les Terrasses which looked as if it had been built last week, it was so new and pristine, although attractively built in traditional wooden chalet style. The boys went off to ski the Tetras which is the steepest black run in the Via Lattea and then took James to do some more scary stuff while I lingered over a coffee - I'm thinking that four hours of skiing is about enough for me these days. My face is quite pink from the sun even though I was wearing plenty of sun cream. And now I'm back in Sestriere sitting on the balcony of our hotel room looking at the Alpine view, which is still somewhat of a novelty. 

More fog

James read my blog last night and proclaimed it to be "wildly optimistic" - he clearly feels that I have not adequately depicted the challenging conditions here in Sestriere. I thought that I had already been brutally honest about the lack of visibility but here goes with some more gory details! I decided to find a more direct route over to Borgata this morning, leaving the boys to head up to the black runs at the top of the mountain. So I set off by myself, using the "moving carpet" to get up to the poma tow. Up I went, in fog so thick that I could see nothing more than a foot away. So when I got to the top I could see neither the poma, nor any poles indicating where the piste went. Nothing at all. There were no other skiers at all there - anyone with a brain had stayed in bed - so I just stood there for a few minutes considering my options. It was strangely peaceful. I skied gingerly in the direction that my piste map indicated, and was rewarded by seeing the shadowy outline of the tow emerge from the fog as I approached. The man who was in charge of the tow approached me with arms outspread and gave me a hug, informing me that I am "a beautiful girl!" (He was very old so I guess this was comparative) I was surprised by this unprecedented outpouring of affection from a tow operator, but worse was to come when he moved in to attempt a full on snog. Now, I was a young woman in the 1970s and 1980s, so I have considerable experience of being inappropriately touched or kissed by disgusting old men; however it has been a while! I expertly ducked out of the way, and as I ascended into the fog on the poma tow he shouted after me "I love you!" Words fail me.

I enjoyed my skiing on the runs at Borgata but, as the morning progressed, the crisply pisted runs deteriorated quite quickly and became cut up and soft. James is not at all happy with the snow this week but I honestly don't think it's that bad - the slopes are well covered and at least they're not icy - I have definitely skied on much worse. As I was going up one of the chairlifts I saw the endearing sight of my three skiing boys passing underneath me and we called out to each other, meeting shortly thereafter for a coffee. The fog continued to envelop the resort for the rest of the day. It's so strange to ski down from pole to pole, watching like a hawk to make sure that you don't miss one and go off the piste, presumably to be lost forever. Late in the afternoon the fog lifted to the extent that we could see from the hotel across to the nursery slopes. This was such a remarkable sight that all the hotel guests in the lounge crowded over to the window to have a look! Fingers crossed that we get better views tomorrow.

On the pista

We were all delighted to strap on our boots and skis and get onto the snow this morning. We were less delighted that Sestriere was enveloped by a thick fog, through which the sun bravely attempted to shine from time to time. Only British skiers were prepared to brave the almost zero visibility, which had the positive effect that the slopes were very quiet. Needless to say the Andersons were among these stalwart but foolish skiers. The fog made everything seem surreal; the trees looked fuzzy in the strange, soft light. We were rewarded by occasional beautiful views when the fog lifted, and we also got to know the resort a bit, particularly in the Borgata area, where there were lots of easy reds and blues to help us to get our "ski legs" back. It was lovely to be back in the Alps; the reps claim that the fog will lift by Wednesday. In the mean time it has started to snow this afternoon, which pleases me although there is already a goodly amount of snow to last us for the week. 

Salve Sestriere

It was a rather sociable week in the lead up to our holiday. I enjoyed (in chronological order) our weekend in Applecross, from which we returned on Monday evening, then a lovely evening out with Jackie, Caroline and Alex. There followed a Book Club evening at Elaine's, a trip to the Citz to see RSC's A Midsummer Night's Dream with Jamie and Caroline, and on Friday evening we went to Rasoi for a delicious curry with Heather and Ewan. It was all great fun, but what with work being busy it was also a bit hectic! 

So Saturday was a sensibly quiet day of errands and packing, which meant we were well prepared for our journey today.

We also took Tom and Ruby to the cattery on Saturday - but first we had to catch them! They knew fine what we were up to and kept hiding. After finally being put into the cat carrier they somehow managed to burst out, shoulder to shoulder, and dashed upstairs! James caught Tom and Alasdair had to retrieve Ruby from under our bed. It was hilarious although we did feel bad about taking them away from their beloved home and garden. They miaowed loudly all the way to the cattery and Tom also panted which I presume was a sign of stress, poor wee thing. 

Anyway, here we are in Sestriere in Italy! The hotel is lovely and is right beside the slopes so we can ski to and from the door. The good news is that there is still plenty of snow even though it is the last week of the season. The bad news is that it was very foggy today and the forecast is grey and snowy for the next few days. We picked up our skis at about 3 pm and explored the town a bit. It's not the prettiest village, with 70s architecture comprising lots of concrete, but there are plenty of nice wee restaurants and shops if we feel the need - I do like a wander around a continental supermarket! 

Despite dozing on the plane and on the bus journey I'm still tired, so I'm about to get ready for an early night (it's an hour later here, so it's nearly 10 p.m.) so that I will be refreshed and ready for skiing tomorrow morning. 

04.30

Yes it's very early and James is driving us to the airport for our 06.30 flight to Italy. James, Ally, Davie and I are off skiing for a week to Sestriere, which is a new ski destination for us. It's good to be on our way. I also appear to have had the most sleep out of the four of us last night, which makes me feel rather smug. I had a warm bath in order to make sure that I felt nice and sleepy, then slept from 11 until 4 - five glorious hours. The others were not so lucky; Ally and Davie were later to bed because they were still packing and charging up their many electronic devices, and James was woken by our neighbours' alarm going off at 2.30 a.m. and did not get back to sleep properly. I am wearing my glasses instead of contact lenses because I am planning to get even more sleep on the plane.