Ski Trip to Les Gets, France - March 2008

We had an absolutely awesome time in Let Gets with good friends, the Byrne family. The weather was good, it snowed! The kids had a blast, with ski school, toboganning, or just rolling around in the snow. Lots of funny stories and loads of photos... scroll down if you're up for it.

Day One:

Flying to Geneva. It is early in the morning and the girls are eating vegemite rolls at Doha airport. We're excited! Neither Isabelle or Matilda have seen snow before, and don't know quite what to expect. I promised them fun.




We stayed at Hotel Eden, went for a walk in Parc Barton and along Lake Geneva, ate yummy pizza, and checked out the Merck Serono building.










Day Two:

Arrival at our chalet "Le Boreal" in Let Gets (Portes du Soleil). Not much snow around, but we're smiling anyway and make our way to get skis and lift passes. Dinner is served by our host Adam... traditional Tartiflette, accompanied by everflowing champagne and red wine.

Next Six Days:

The days start with whopping big breakfasts... fresh bread, cereals, eggs and most importantly BACON... endless bacon. Adam can't believe how much bacon we can consume.

Once Emma the nanny arrives to hang out with the little kids, we drop Isabelle to ski school at 9am, and then beat the rush for the chairlift up the mountain.

Ski ski ski for a few hours, and then use the excuse to pick Isabelle up when really our legs are aching, and grab some lunch. Check on the under-3s and either ski some more or we all go out for some sled races!

Mentionables:

****On the third day, we woke up to snow, glorious fresh snow! It was like Christmas morning and we even played Jingle Bells on the iPod!



****Lauren, our ski guide, took us on full day ski trips to Morzine, Avoriaz, and all the way to Switzerland. Wonderful experience, even though we were completely buggered by the end of it.



****All that cream and cheese in our meals lead to exclamations of "Foie Gras!" in the night.

****I had a cliffhanger end to my trip... literally. All I can say is it ended with an (undiluted) glass of Baileys.

Here are a multitude of photos...

Day Nine:

After crisscrossing the French/Swiss border, we end up in Geneva again. Good planning puts us in a prime position to spend our last afternoon at the Geneva Motor Show. Placed our orders for the latest and greatest and then headed for home.

Day Ten:

The digital cameras are full and luckily nothing photo worthy happened on the plane home. We're now safe and sound in Doha.

We've gone skiing! Yay!

We've not been out of Doha since September 2007, so we are taking a well-earned break... skiing in Les Gets, France! I'll blog more when we get back on 9th March.

Aren't I pretty?

Daddy bought me Barbie pink lipstick & nailpolish. See, I can do it all by myself!

Tennis Season in Doha

It is that time of year when we are bombarded with world class sports events here in Doha. We've just had Tour de Qatar, now the Super bikes are here, and the Qatar Total Open to name just a few. Best of all, it is all free! One of the benefits of living in Doha.

We took the girls along to watch Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Sybille Bammer, Dominika Cibulkova and more battle it out for US$2.5 million. I urge anyone who is interested in tennis to visit us this time next year... you can expect lovely weather, and (free) front row seats at the tennis. See http://www.qatartennis.org/qto2007/index.html

Here are some of the stars!

Winter is Over and it is Party Time!

It is warming up here in Doha now; the heaters have been turned off, our jumpers have been put in suitcases for our upcoming skitrip, and the blankets are at the drycleaners. So, our Christmas pressies (new outfits from Mormor) are finally getting worn! Here we are at Brydan's 1st birthday party.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Happy Chinese New Year! Hope the Year of the Rat is a good one!

We celebrated with a Chinese dinner out with the Beales family, with whom we're joined at the hip. Too many similarities between our families to mention.











Here are photos of the hyped up kids. To their delight we finished off the evening with a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts!
(Matilda is under the table...)

We've been waiting for this!

Isabelle finally lost one of her front teeth! It's been hanging on for a while, and voila, it popped out on the weekend! The hairy tooth fairy visited and ate the piece of cheese that she left out...

My 30th Birthday 'S' Party

Good friends, good food, cocktails & music.
What more could a girl ask for?
In case you're wondering, I am a School girl & Brendan is a Smurf. We had a really fun night, and there are too many photos, so I've put them all on a slideshow.

(If you missed it, click on the x in the top right hand corner twice.)

Samantha turns 30!!

On the eve of my birthday, Rob, Gem, Brendan and I went out for dinner at the Ramada. Champagne cocktails (yes, I finished a whole one!) followed by a scrumptious Indian banquet. Check out my birthday gift - pearl necklace and matching earrings. Thank you darling!

The next day after a lazy breakfast we headed out on our boat. Can I tell you, the wind & water were bloody freezing! Crazy Londoners decided to take a dip, and then not to be outdone, Brendan suggested waterskiing! That's me, all rugged up!

Boys doin' their thang...

The afternoon activities included a puff in our private Shisha lounge (it's apple tobacco, I promise!) and eating cake with my co-birthday girl Elsie (her sister Ruby is Isabelle's best friend, we're practically family).

The boys and their harem.

Brendan, you look like you're enjoying that!
Rob & Bren cooked up a spectacular spaghetti marinara while Gem & I watched Oprah's 20th Anniversary 6 DVD collection (just the first one...). We ended the night with a game of Monopoly (you're supposed to let the birthday girl WIN, not LOSE!!). A perfect day. Thank you!

Post Christmas activities

Wednesday, Boxing Day: Arab horse riding at Sheik Faisal's farm. Even Matilda got a go.

Moroccan dinner out at Souq Waqif.
Spiral mosque in souq area. Rob & Gem were slow starters, but soon got the hang of shopping & bargaining.
Thursday 27th: The girls just watched Nuruyev & Fonteyn's Swan Lake. Can you tell?
Still eating leftovers. Yum. I had to arm wrestle Rob for the other turkey drumstick.

Christmas Day 2007

Presents galore!! It was a tough job opening them all, it required stamina and frequent snacks!Surprise girls! Look what Santa brought this year! Rocking horse for Matilda and Lego doll house for Isabelle.

Ah! Happy customer. Team White produced an incredible feast, I must say. The result was Rob & Gem announcing that they don't need parents anymore.

You go Rob! Mmmm, turkey...

The fun continues...

Sunday 23rd: Brendan took Rob & Gem 4WDing across the dunes to the Inland Sea between Saudi & Doha. Anyone say camel?Two White boys on top of a sand dune...Brendan gives it two thumbs up! Sandy pants.Gemma, Queen of the Desert.Monday, Christmas Eve: We managed to gatecrash a Swedish Christmas dinner. Thanks Anette & Martin! At least I brought some bacon! Brendan & Martin get up to no good behind the bar.
Mohitos anyone?This one is for Grandma.Well, when else should I wear these red leather pants?Jultomten makes a special appearance.

Sad news...

My morfar (grandfather in Swedish) passed away yesterday. He was 86 years old. I am thinking of my grandmother, and hoping she is alright. We are all so glad that we made the trip to Sweden last Christmas and spent some time with them both. The girls were lucky to have met great-grandparents. Here's a photo from our visit.