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The big race isn’t until next weekend, but this weekend there’s a warm-up event for the younger skiers. It’s easy to pick out a racer at the station – they have ridiculously long skis.

Val was teaching again this morning. Busy on the Lauberhorn, but it’s worth it for the view of the Eiger.

Here’s the lower part of the race course – it passes through a tunnel under the railway. It is said that if a train passes overhead as you go through the tunnel, you will win the race.

This evening we’re off to Mürren across the valley. They have a splendid Chinese restaurant.

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Colin played at the Alpine Hotel yesterday evening. Really good night – the place was packed. The hotel’s new owners were there and I’m sure they will have been impressed.

Val was off to work early again this morning, and I popped down to Interlaken in search of cheap beer. Alas, I found none. Back in Wengen work on the race is in full swing, and the ‘World Cup Village’ is under construction.

This will eventually become a big stage for the prize giving and, needless to say, a lot of bars and food outlets. It’s amazing to think that all this stuff comes up on the train, and that in 10 days time it’ll all be going back down to Lauterbrunnen. They must sell an awful lot of beer to make it worthwhile.

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Lots of work going on at Allmend, getting ready for the race.

Officially this is as far as you can go on skis, as there’s insufficient snow to get back to Wengen. There are always a few who are willing to give it a try however.

And this really is as far as you can go, unless of course you like skiing on mud.

Of course, kids don’t care about mud.

Val had a lesson at Scheidegg this morning, where of course the snow is much better. Most of the kids have gone back to school now, so it’s quieter than it was over the holidays. Colin is playing at the Alpine Hotel later, so we’ll have a bit of a night out.

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We haven’t seen much since we got up this morning, owing to a blanket of thick fog that’s filling our valley. It’s still mild, and the ski run from Allmend back to the village has finally admitted defeat and is closed. The nursery slope is in a bit of a state.

On the plus side, I’ve just chopped up some potatoes, so we’ll have proper fish & chips later.

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We decided to pop over to Grindelwald for lunch. It’s a bit of a gloomy day, but still very mild. The bad news is that our favourite lunch spot, the Memory Bar is no more. It has been completely renovated and is now called ‘Barry’s Lounge’. The food was good though. Grindelwald’s railway station looks out onto the ski area. It’s not looking good.

We might expect the mountain to look like this in June, but certainly not in January. The wait for snow continues.

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We had a good evening out last night, starting at the Sunstar (sorry, Alpine) Hotel. Bell ringers ringing in the new year. What a racket!

We headed for Rocks some time before midnight, enjoyed the fireworks and a few drinks, but on the whole it was a fairly quiet New Years Eve. This morning the weather’s glorious again.

Once again it’s warm enough to enjoy coffee on the balcony. Happy New Year!