Part 34a: Allez, lets go!

To start off with, 'Allez, Lets go!' is something Benoit says a lot mainly to the kids, when he is in charge or wants to get some people moving and I heard it a lot today and I think it sounds cool... Anyway...

Ski Weekend. I could write an incredibly long and detailed account of this weekend just gone but seriously, it would go on for ever. The weekend was awesome and the minute details unfortunately, have to be omitted. Apologies.

Friday Night:
Well, I should start a little bit before this... Carole spent the whole day basically packing and getting ready and asked me to make some sort of dessert cake for everyone to eat on the Saturday night. I decided to make Lamingtons because they are Australian, like me! So everyone can have a taste of Australia in the midst of their fancy cheeses and wines. I made the actual cake on Friday and also got the kids their dinner which they ate before we left. In the end we left at about 7.30 for the two hour drive to 'La Villar d'Arene'. A small town in the Provence-Alps-Cote region and an excellent base for any ski holiday. Benoits family owns a massive house (ex-hotel) there and so we had an excellent place to stay. We were the first to arrive and I was amazed at the amount of snow and ice but I managed to make it to the house from the carpark with out falling over, phew! Eventually the other families all came along, one by one until that night, there were three different families. We had dinner, then I got frustrated at my lakc of ability to understand French in large group situations thus, went to bed.

Saturday:
I woke up Saturday morning to a knocking on my door and a random 'Monsieur? Oh pardon' and then the person leaving. It was breakfast time, but I was still asleep haha. I woke up straight after and jumped into the shower. I then had breakfast and met the fourth and final family to arrive. I would love to share their names with you, but even after a weekend, I have no idea what they were. I'm useless like that.

After breakfast I snuck into the kitchen while hoping no one would notice and started making the icing for the lamingtons. It didnt take long for the scent of melting chocolate to prick peoples interest and within about 5 minutes half the group had come in to ask what I was doing and why I was doing it... It was okay though, it made it fun, talking while cooking. I was amazed when my lamingtons were done because they worked. I made them, they looked like lamingtons and they smelt like lamingtons. I was succesful (again, phew!) I was worried about the taste though. I hadnt tried it yet and had to wait until that night like everyone else.

After finishing my lamingtons I realised a large portion of the people who were at the house, were not. They had gone to their massive fancy ridiculously difficult ski place. Carole, Letissa (I've mentioned numerous times, I just learnt her name, I went on the bikeride with her and Carole that time), Her son Teophan (spelling-ignore), Maxu (6 years old) and his father (I dont know his name) Tim and I went to another mountain. The weather was unbeatable. It was sunny, cloudless and just stunning which made everything just seem unrealistic. The views were just so spectacular that it really felt like it was a backdrop for a movie set.

The skiing itself was pretty amazing too. I love skiing, I am getting much better now too. I can do red (the second hardest level) with relative ease. I did try black (which is apparently very rare for a 5th time skiier) but it was hard and I fell over a lot haha. Poor Tim, however, was even worse off than me, he practically rolled the entire way down, it was quite funny to watch actually and it was good he had the right spirit and laughed the whooooole way. Well, most of the way. The only bad thing about skiing here though was the skilift which came at you really fast when you were getting on and it bruised my leg because there was a metal bit that stuck out in the middle and wacked me. It hurts now still. Oh well, so worth it.

Back at the house, I read magazines and entertained myself while everyone rushed around for showers and dinner etc. Just before dinner the adults and I had a few social wines and chatted. Well, they chatted, I tried my best to follow the conversation, getting a word in was inpossible because there were a few convos at once and everytime I oculd think of something to input the conversation changed completely. I dislike large group conversations. Its just impossible. Anyway, then we had tea which was something that the town created. Its something beginning with 'f' and its like a pie with heaps of random vegetables and stuff in the middle, I was too scared to ask because it tasted good and I didnt want to ruin it. After, we had my lamingtons which were, if I can say so myself, not bad at all. I liked them and by the end of the weekend it was completely gone AND people said they liked them... so they couldnt have been that bad. Oh! Also, a guy from Paris who is a friend of the Carole and Benoit arrived during tea. I think his name was Mark and he was sharing my room. He snores. A lot. Everyone went to bed at around 11.30ish because they were all up and atom for another ski day and so I stayed up a bit after playing on my iPod. Big mistake because when I finally wanted to go to sleep all I could hear was snoring. Sigh. I eventually fell asleep but kept waking up throughout the night. Oh well, he was a nice bloke though and talked to me a little bit so it really wasnt all that bad haha.

Sunday:
I didnt ski today, I had to stay home and look after all the kids because they didnt want/werent capable (like me) to go on the advanced ski thing. I also had the help of *shit, I really should know his name* (Letissa's husband) between 8-12 then Benoit 12-4 so I didnt really have to do much. I spent the morning just sitting around and doing n'importe quoi until I decided to do a little tour of the town. I asked the kids if they wanted to come but of course they didnt except Maxu so it was just us two touring around for about 45 minutes checking out the tiny town.

Thee town is very typical french, all the houses are very close together and the church is massively oversized. It was also really weird because they snow like drowned the town. You could see the roofs of sheds and things just stcking out of the snow and fountains just completely frozen. It was just like... I dont know. It was cool. Maxu was good company we chatted a bit about skiing and animals for a while, he doesnt like dogs and there a random dogs running all around the town so at one point I had to carry him because he was scared of them... Silly dogs.

After I went back to doing nothing until Benoit made lunch which was cabonara. That went down nicely then more bumming around when we decided we'd all go play in the snow. The group of us walked out to a big snow patch thing. There, I had a snow fight with Salome and Fanny whilst Tim, Teophan, Maxu and the dogs who followed for some reason played catch. Benoit just sat back and watched. The snowfight was fun, Fanny hurt her leg yesterday skiing and was unable to move very well so she was an easy target hehe. We played in the snow for a while until we had to go back because the rest were about to return.

We then had snacks and stuff to keep us going through till tea and then we started packing up and everything. At one point I went up to the kids' section to help them with their sleeping bags, get into their jamies before leaving etc. but me, being the great-parenting figure I am, accidently turned it into a massive fully fledged pillow fight/wrestling match all of them against me. It was great fun! There was all up 8 kids tackling me from 5-12 years old. I still pwned.

Eventually, we did tidy up and the first two families said their au revoirs (actually, the first family I think said their au revoirs well before the pillow fight, because I dont recall their kids being there...?) anyway, yes we said goodbye and then did some more tidying up. Then we played uno (well Fanny, Basiten, Salome and Salomes older sister *DEATH TO NAMES*) until dinner which was some rice dish thing which was nice and a mix of other stuff.

finally dinner was done, we all took part in the tidying up etc. and we were ready to go. We chucked everything into the car and then commenced the drive home. Two hours later we got there OH AND WE SAW A FOX - not all that exciting, but I was excited at the time. Why? Dunno haha. Back here the kids went to bed as it was 10.30 and Carole, Benoit and I did the unpacking. Then I came and typed this.

I totally cannot be bothered posting photos. So I have named this 34a and then tomorrow I'll do part b and that will comprise of the photos.

Till then, have a nice day :D

p.s. I also got a bit sunburnt on my face... yes.