ALMOST HEAVEN

The trip didn’t get off to a terribly auspicious start. First thing to happen was that my sister-in-law, after reassuring the checking desk clerk and the security gate man that she had no liquids in her luggage, was actually found to be carrying several items of liquid! After setting off the scanner, being frisked, having her bags searched, she finally had several items confiscated. Great.

While this was all going on my son-in-law waited patiently in charge of four excited little children. Then a message was announced on the tanoy asking him to go back to the bureau de change (located in the main passenger terminal) where he had left his credit card. Second great!

No problem on the plane, the children and adults behaved impeccably; took off on time, no problem; arrived Geneva, no problem; collected baggage, no problem; caught train on schedule, no problem; arrived at destination station,ah! problem. One item of baggage had been stolen. No only that, it was the item of baggage that contained all the children’s entertainment ie Nintenos, DVDs, Gameboy, etc. etc. In fact it turned out that £1600 worth of entertainment had been stolen! I said this was an obscene amount of money. In hindsight, that was probably not the most helpful thing to say at the time. Third great!

So - four over excited, hyperactive children are now trapped in an apartment with us without their accoutrements. Thankfully the weather is stunningly beautiful (as usual) and they are enjoying the skiing clases so there is respite for them and for us.

The first day was spent enrolling the children in the classes, getting them kitted out and reporting stolen items to the police. Yesterday we settled ourselves in and my son-in-law’s two brothers arrived. Today the three adult boys have taken themselves off skiing and the four little children are at ski school. At 1600 they all arrive back, together with son-in-law’s cousin, who is also coming to visit. Until this time my sister-in-law and I are enjoying the blissful peace.