This weekend I went to Verbier ☺️. Jessica very kindly had us to stay, as she is living out there for the season, which is rather marvellous and I am just a tiny bit jealous - 6 whole months living in the mountains 🗻 , I am a big fan of mountains 🗻😍. I still can't decide if I had to choose to live either by the sea 🌊 and or in mountains 🗻,which I would choose - I think the sea 🌊 would win, but those mountains 🗻 really are very nice too.After making our way from Geneva airport ✈️ to Le Chable by train 🚂 (by the way you change at Martigny, NOT Lausanne - it's confusing), we got the bubble 🚡 up to Verbier, which really is the best way to arrive anywhere.We met Jessica (wearing an excellent all-in-one ski suit and moon 🌙 boots) accompanied by Oscar 🐶 and India 🐶. Oscar and India have adjusted well to mountain life - they have swapped walks in Battersea Park for romps in the snow with other mountain dwelling Border Terriers and seem to be doing just fine 🐶🐶 ☺️🗻.Verbier is pretty trendy. We had dinner 🍝 with Bear Grylls 👱 and lunch 🍛 with James Blunt 🎹. Ok, not exactly, but we did see Bear enjoying his fondue 🍜 (poor man was probably being ogled by every public school boy 👦, girl 👧 and their swooning mothers 👩💘 that entered the restaurant that evening). Sadly James Blunt was hidden away around the corner, so we didn't actually see him, but he was there, enjoying his rosti 🍛 and rose 🍷, I hope as much as we were.I like skiing 🎿 but I do get the fear 😱. I have been enough times that I shouldn't be too bad, but I'm not so good at not being in control and I dislike ice ❄️ immensely - I think it's the sound 🎶 more than anything. Skis 🎿 sliding across ice ❄️ just sounds like impending doom. I have been known to make it half way down a red run 🔴, get some serious fear 😱, have a big argument with my long suffering mother 🙆 (I can't do it, it's impossible, I will fall over, I will die 😢😰😭), take my skis 🎿 off and walk back up the piste to the safety of a nice blue run 🔵 🙊.I would like to tell you I behaved impeccably this time, no fuss made, and went down some blacks ⚫️⚫️ on the first day. I did take a small tumble 😵 on one of them - however luckily Alistair very kindly rescued me and helped me put my ski back on, etc - and after that I only faltered one more time on a black ⚫️ that was sheet ice ❄️😁.The skiing in Verbier is rather nice - we skied the 4 Vallees on the first day (actually I think we only got to three of them) but it was a fun adventure 🎿🗻. We had Edward and Edric (Or Ed and Ed) with us, who were both on snowboards 🏂🏂 (very cool) but apparently snowboards 🏂 and button lifts / T-bars do not mix very well. There was a point when we thought we may never see Edward 🏂 ever again, the ONLY way back up was a particularly vicious button lift, and I never found out how many attempts it took him to remain attached to the devious button - but thankfully he did eventually appear over the crest of the hill 😃. Jessica and Alistair also got wiped out whilst on a T-bar by a very small child 🙍 whose stopping powers were completely beyond it. Alistair attempted to avert the approaching hazard by grabbing the child by the scruff of the neck (ski jacket), however it was no use and they were resigned to skiing back to the bottom of the lift and start all over again, leaving the tearful 🙍small child with it's apologetic mother 👩.Our second day was white out, and I think I enjoyed that the most - just you and the mountain 🗻😎, with hopefully the person in front you still just in sight . The third day Jessica very kindly showed us round Savoleyres, and mid morning we had a delicious apple tart 🍏 (maybe tart tatin) in Chez Simon.We did also drink 🍷☕️ many very nice things. The hot chocolate ☕️🍫 in La Vache was the best part - 'chocolat chaud avec alcool et chantilly' I like the way they don't tell you what kind of alcohol. Just alcohol. That's fine. And it was DELICIOUS ☕️🍫🍸😍. We also indulged in some apres 🍻 at Farinet - probably one of the strangest bars I have been too. On one side you have ski boot clad seasonaires 👯 drinking many beers 🍻 (spilling much beer on the floor 🍻💧) and listening to a really quite good, extremely loud, live band 🎤🎸 playing Maroon 5. Through the wall and visible you have a really quite swanky cocktail bar 🍸 which smells only slightly of stale beer 🍺, selling pricey cocktails 🍸with silly names. I mean cocktails 🍸almost always have silly names - I tried the Pornstar (for it's contents not it's name, I don't really agree with outrageous drink names) and it was rather delicious.Verbier was fun, thank you very much for having us to stay Jessica and Alistair 😊. It was lovely to be in the mountains 🗻, to have some real fresh air 😷 and to ski 🎿 (I'm sure I'm getting better 😉).Alice xxx 
