Pluss[ki]es and minuss[ki]es

Among the plus[ki]ses of our traditional skiing trip this year, the great company of both extended family and my daughter’s friend,  Julia, some days of superbly warm and sunny weather, skiing black diamonds with my daughter, loads of snow, the reward of the white ridges encasing the valley, my wife’s zen approach to skiing, glimpses of La Meije in good weather, great water, bread and cheese, very few people on the runs, with hardly any short-skier, no queues, a terrific first home-made X’mas dinner (thanks to Jean-Michel et François for their contributions!), rekindling skiing feelings from Park City [after a few days], watching my nephew Paul learning to ski in his analytical way, starting a new book purchased in Provo and unexpectedly mixing fantasy and climbing, playing chess with Paul on evenings and narrowly reaching a stalemate once, a record-time for putting the chains on my car (as opposed to last year!), reading the end of Persi’s book in an Alpine chalet, …

Among the minus[ki]ses, the choice of a terrible rental apartment company and of a mediocre hotel, facing frozen water in one apartment, leading to over-heated apartments the rest of the stay, first days of grey and white weather, straining my thumb in a mound of powdery snow the day before last, loosing any feeling of what’s horizontal and what’s not and falling in a hole as a result [with non-lasting effects!], taking the wrong advice from the instructor during a short course and loosening my ski shoes too much for the first days, watching an appalling movie on the final night about a blogging cashier, my wife’s zen approach to skiing, getting my new book stolen by my son, having to change apartments three times in 8 days,  the wifi at the apartment being incompatible with wordpress,  a not-so-terrific second X’mas dinner at the hotel, wasting 15mn taking my chains off, the final traffic-jam when reaching Paris, …