Tuesday Ten

The next ten days hold..

1. Happy Wednesday! I'll be at work, of course, and then watching Ali's kids for an hour in the evening. I need to finish inputting all the info for the ski trip and pass it on.

2. Thursday. Last teaching day. I have to spend the first hour trying to convince my rug-on-valium tutor group that they really should start revising for their exams now and giving them practical tips on doing so; then in the evening I'm running a key stage 3 disco, which I'm slightly gutted about because I have to miss knitting group and, let's face it, it won't be fun, watching 11-14 year olds gyrating around in not enough clothes.

3. Friday. TD day! Not a proper day at all. We're moderating coursework, joy. This means I have to at some point MARK some coursework between now and then....looks like that's what I'll be doing at the disco, then. In the evening I will start packing, or at least making lists of what to pack.

4. Saturday. SO. EXCITING! Morning is knitting group at GK, and then I have an appointment at the salon and will spend the afternoon catching up on this week's TV and putting the finishing touches to my packing, until the evening when it is time to GO SKIING!

5. Sunday. This will be a bit of a nothing day, since we get off the ferry at 2am and arrive in resort at 2pm - well, so the ski company reckons but I predict we'll reach the hotel around 5.30pm, once everybody's been kitted out with boots and skis. There'll be a brief stop for some muddy coffee and stale rolls at a French service station, and then another couple of refuelling stops in the hazy sunshine of late morning, by which point, in spite of my eye mask and toothbrush and clean knickers, I will be feeling decidedly strange. Early night Sunday. So pleased I managed to swing a private room again - third year running.

6-10. SKIING! Four hours of piste a day, and hopefully the weather will be lush and I'll be skiing in my lovely new unpadded jacket and trousers, and for once I won't be steaming hot and pouring sweat and falling over just to get a snow coating and cool myself down. I got an amazing pink t-shirt made of that special wicking fabric for a bargainous £2.50 on Saturday (it was in the till wrong but the chap in Millets was, I think, so grateful somebody had gone in and asked for his advice that he didn't make a fuss) and then a similar, slightly dearer one from M&S, and some new sunnies, and some factor 40 spray on sun block, so I am all set.

Shoop, shoop shoop! And then a YARRRGGHHHHH as I barrel roll for 100 feet and watch my skis disappearing down the slopes in front of me, and have to shuffle down on my bum to get them.

And possibly the best part is that Benny the Bison has some skis. Some custom made (by some bloke Mr Z works with), red acrylic skis, and a little bobble hat (requisitioned from an Innocent Smoothie bottle) which matches. I fear, by getting him skis, I have crossed the line from slightly-eccentric-with-her-stuffed-toy to downright-irritatingingly-twee-and-lame, but they look so good I just can't help myself.

(Slightly cheating on the Tuesday 10 here, and there won't be one next week either unless by some amazing coincidence the hotel has wireless, which it doesn't advertise on its website, but oh well. It's the last week of term, I'm lucky to be this coherent).