David and I spent a superb week in the French Alps where I learnt to ski. He’d been skiing in his twenties, but I’d never thought it would be something I might enjoy. How wrong could I be? There was so much to like about the experience starting with the joy of being surrounded by snow-covered mountains when the sun shone and the sky was blue. The setting was very uplifting and the weather remained consistently good throughout the week. We stayed half board in a hotel with a view of Mont Blanc and enjoyed excellent buffet meals in the restaurant.
In preparation for skiing, I had completed training to strengthen my legs and was quite confident when I approached the nursery slopes. The taster session provided guidance which I put into practice for stopping and turning. A conveyor belt called a magic carpet took me back to the top of the slope and after several goes I felt prepared for ski lessons. David and I shared an instructor who took us onto a green slope (for beginners) where we learnt to take wide curves and control the movement of the skis. A big priority was to return home injury free, so we weren’t terribly adventurous but I certainly found it exhilarating to get from the top of the slope to the bottom with a little speed.
I am nearly at the end of writing my latest manuscript. Conversation Classes is the story of a diverse group of people who stay at a remote hotel in northern Italy where native English speaking volunteers are matched with business people to improve their oral language skills. Although the Conversation Classes emersion programme has a high success rate at building the participants’ use of spoken English, many of the attendees have very different reasons for enrolling on the course. These are revealed through the chapters of the novel with some intriguing and hilarious results. The story is based on the experience of being a volunteer on one of these courses in Spain (you can read about it here) although I’ve set the novel in a fictional location and the characters and situations are imagined.
While creative writing remains a priority for me, I’ve spread my interests to include singing, learning to read music, running and pilates. These activities cross fertilise to improve my stories while being good for the body and mind. My exercise programme currently includes some ski fit activities. After years of saying I’d never want to ski because I don’t like falling over or being cold, I’ve changed my mind. Something about completing the Caminho Português from Porto to Santiago de Compostela in appalling weather (you can read about it here) has improved my resolve in tacking new physical challenges. In January we’ll be heading to the French Alps for my first experience of skiing.
the writer is a lonely hunter 