SKIING

Skiing.... Got into skiing in winter of 1969-70, in Iran of all places. Father taught me. At the time there seemed nothing unusual about being taught by a one-legged man with some odd ideas, and it was some years before I realised I was doing it all wrong. Have skied more or less every season since, and spent a year at university in Grenoble, France, which was a brilliant skiing opportunity. In my mis-spent past I've even edited a couple of skiing magazines. Happily the kids, having been introduced to it at a very early age, are addicts as well. It's exactly the same thrill as riding a motorcycle: expense, speed, banking through corners, that OhMyGawd moment when you cock it up. Favourite resort - hard to say, because the French Alps offer so much amazing skiing, Italy offers more joie de vivre (and better food) than the Alps and the French Pyrenees offer superb value for money. Say, the French Pyrenees if I'm paying and L'Alpe D'Huez if I'm not. We've skied in Bareges a number of times, and you'll find a link here to a website I put up when a bunch of us went down together in 2000/2001. And hot air ballooning? That started with a visit to New Mexico in 1988. Since then we've flown in the huge Albuquerque Balloon Fiestas of 1988 and 1992, as well as the French meets in Metz in 1989, 1991, 1993 and 1995. I was training for my licence, but it's very expensive, and that's been on hold for some years now.

Me in Montgenevre, many years ago.	Wind Castle 2, our team balloon, in Metz in 1991.
Helen looking cool	Anne - can't remember where this was taken!