Epic drive as usual, with some differences.

Well, that was interesting. By which I mean, the journey to Val D'isere took AGES... Longer than usual.

I should contextualise.

Nic and I like to drive to ski hols. This has a few advantages - including being able to claim a discount (usually and on this occasion) against the flights, no baggage limit, stop when you want, self-determination and the joy of driving through a good chunk of France.

We did mightily well - 0130 start, on the channel tunnel by 0325, Nic and I alternating 3 hour shifts with sleep in the back seat, good progress made.

Then we hit Moutier: the D-games were on in Tignes this week, and they kicked out yesterday. Net result: bourg St Maurice was a gridlocked nexus of doom. Moutier to bourg was basically solid in both directions (!) - not pretty. We ended up with a further 2 hours onto our journey.

A little frazzled, we turned up about 3 hours after our cohorts who took flights into Lyon did (it should have been about an hour tops): we're still chirpy though, I've done the edges on everybody's skis and boards, and brushed the wax Jim put on the other night.

All in all, a great day, with adversity (and good humour throughout it) - the kind of day which has a parallel with the kind of Hollywood movies which have an "emotional bell curve" designed by the producers and implemented by the scriptwriters - high/low/high/excellent close.