Day 3 of skiing lessons this morning. Calvin's Level 1 group did lots of drills - sliding forwards and backwards, turns and balancing, and changing directions. The conditions up the top were perfect this morning - powdery soft white snow on nice big runs. Kate, Jeroen and Rianne were in the beginners group with their teacher, Rudolph. Kate found it difficult to keep up with the class as Rudolph moved on very quickly from skill to skill without really giving t...

Title: Calvin went with the Big Shots today! Itsn´t it impossible to be Australian and to be good at skiing? Like it´s impossible to be short and Dutch or American and not proud of the red white and blue. Apparently Calvin isn´t Australian because he was selected to be part of the big shots today. From beginners class he leveled up in instant to level 1 and that was the last time we saw Calvin that January morning. From the top of the ski lift we s...

After a much needed rest, Calvin, Kate, Jeroen and Rianne woke up excited for the day! Today we were going skiing! From our chalet, we could see the snow capped peaks of the mountains surrounding us and the sunlight coming out. But first, we needed to sort out where to get our ski passes, lessons and equipment (probably a good start). After breakfast, we walked to the tourist centre near our chalet to find out some information. The lady said we had to go to t...

Kate and Calvin went to France today. After a quick breakfast and finalising the packing, Joy and David drove us to Bournemouth train station to catch the 8:47 am to Southampton Airport where we were to catch our Flybe aeroplane to Lyon. It was a smooth check in to the flight at the airport and we were quite under our baggage limit which was a relief as we thought our bags would be overweight! We had about 35 minutes to spare so we had brunch at the Costa ca...

We woke up in a very comfortable bed in a very lovely house to a very crisp morning. It was frosty outside - even the puddles had a layer of ice on top. Uncle David (Joy's husband) had actually arrived at midnight last night and it was great to see him - especially as he had such a busy schedule! He had lit a fire place to warm the house up which Calvin used to warm up his feet. Joy, Kate and Calvin went for a walk around Bournemouth over to West Bournemouth thro...