Ski lessons in Verbier

• Not what I expected when it took the dog for a walk…..T http://twitpic.com/29h6ev #

…that you see something like this when you are walking the dog…

It turns out it was a Toyota from the Verbier Festival in the stream of the Moulin..! Couple of beers mi’ thinks..! T

• If you don't follow our snowboarder Andy on Twitter, here's what you're missing… G http://twitpic.com/271rzn #

Firstly I would like to apologise for not keeping you good, loyal folk in-touch with the goings-on in Verbier.

But there really is no point in keeping you up-to-date on nothing. We lead a tranquil, slow-paced life here in the summer. Really – nothing has been going on for the past week.

So it’s good to see town buzzing again now, it’s also good to have a couple of weeks of solid sunshine. Thats much more like it.

As well as the festival we have a weekly market on every Sunday. The usual deal, pretty much cheese, honey and knick knacks.

But this week there were a few familiar faces with stands; Lucy Dunnet from donut designs had a number of her fab painting on show (see below). Also Jo Chandler from Petit Verbier stall lined the street offering face painting and a play area for the kiddies.

Once we made it up to Ruinette we waked over to the area by the Restaurant La Marmotte. We came across what can only be described as a Val de Bagne version of the Bath and West show. A proper agricultural shindig complete with the fizzy white wine (Fandant) and tonnes of melted cheese (Raclette). Just as were heading off the ‘main event’ started; The cow fight.

Now I thought this happened in Sambrancher or Le Chable at the end of the season. A kind of gladitoral going home event for all the ‘etrangers’ of Verbier. From what I gather this is qualifying. Which is hilarious. Not only that, I have recently found out there are different classes and weights. This perticular event was for 2 year old virgins..! I am not kidding.

Don’t get your hopes up, it’s a slow process, if the process actually starts. A number of the ladies were not keen to fight so were disqualified. Once a fight does commence there is no understanding of the rules. Only one thing can be counted on, one will win and one will lose. How they actually manage to determine this is completely beyond me….

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• Stunning summer Sunday #
• RT @performance_ski: Stunning summer Sunday http://twitpic.com/26g746 #

• Off to Grenoble tonight….T #

• I uploaded a YouTube video — Walking Laika http://youtu.be/H1CtFYlUOR4?a #
• Check out summer in verbier, at altitude…http://bit.ly/dws7l3 #

We were on a mission to find a picnic area for some clients at the Lodge, the brief was to find an area near a lake but not normally accessible. Sounds easy you say. Well in actual fact it’s not as easy as it looks. The first problem is that you have to find some way of getting up high. Not all vehicles can make it due to the rugged road and snow residue.

Thanks to the kind people at Ski Armadillo we managed to borrow their Polaris off-road vehicle called Boris. As we climbed up from Ruinette we came across a pile of snow that stopped our progress completely. It wasn’t a complete waste of time as we trundled round to La Chaux where we found the perfect spot:

We weren’t the only ones enjoying the ride. We decided on the cheap way of walking Laika:

• Sun is out. Beer is cold. Is England in trouble? #

• Finally some sunshine. Let's just hop Murray plays well! #