Snow and Rock

With Katherine fully rehydrated, the kids both had a proper 3 hour lesson this morning - leaving Mr B and I with enough time to head over into another valley to explore. There's not been much snow here lately - so the pistes are bit hard-packed, which at least means that my having skis a bit longer than the ones I normally hire doesn't matter so much.

Lazy afternoon of chess and reading after ski school, and watching CNN/BBC World to see what's what in Egypt.

The chap who showed us to our apartment came round with a note from the owner of the apartment, which he had obviously put through some on-line translation software then written out for us. He had forgotten to omit the "don't tell them this, but...." section. Amusing. Language is a bit of an issue here - everyone speaks Catalan (of which I only know how to say 'good morning' and 'ham and cheese sandwich please') and most people speak Spanish too (and/or French). However, our apartment chap seems to speak a different Spanish to Mr B, and doesn't seem to speak any French at all. So we muddle through by all saying the words in as many languages (including sign) as we can. I think my and Mr B's charade skills have come in very handy.