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Years ago we were pally with a young lad called Jon. Amongst other jobs, he ran the Anonym bar in the Silberhorn. One summer he went to America to work, met a girl and never came back.

On Monday this week, 17 years after he left, he walked back into town. Here’s Danny entertaining him with some magic last night.

Colin took him skiing today.

No skiing for us – we’re still pooped after chasing Emily around the mountain yesterday (we might have been up a bit late last night too). We popped into Central Sport to visit Ali, and we’ll see everyone in the pub later.

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It was cloudy early on, but it brightened up towards lunchtime so we met Emily and headed up the hill.

Boozy coffees in the tipi.

Lots of civil defence people building stuff for the races this weekend.

We set off back towards the village.

A quick whizz down Wixi and the wood path and we were back at the Figeller bar on the nursery slope for more booze. Great day.

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Last night we were off to the cinema for our annual dose of Star Wars.

It was the usual nonsense, but very enjoyable just the same.

Today we popped over to Grindelwald as I need a new pair of insulated trousers. Grindelwald’s valley is particularly dark and cold at this time of year; we were freezing.

Anyhow, we had a nice lunch in the Memory bar and I found a nice pair of trousers. It has to get colder at some point, right?

Dramatic sky when we got back to Wengen.

Weather changing? Not according to the forecast.

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We had a little snow yesterday evening, just enough to make the paths slippery, but sadly insufficient to improve the coverage on the ski slopes. Skiing back to the nursery slope now involves negotiating some astro turf.

As we walked past the school a rescue helicopter landed to collect the doctor. Saturday is usually the worst day of the week for accidents, sadly.

The second Europa Cup race took place this afternoon. Italians Davide Cazzaniga and Henri Battilani were first and second, with Swiss skier Ralph Weber in third.

Needless to say the Italians were absolutely delighted – there’ll be a party tonight.

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The weather forecast wasn’t great for today, but a glance out of the window this morning suggested that this was probably wrong, and up we went. The train was full of racers, coaches and officials.

The snow’s getting quite firm now, but it’s ideal for racing. The Lauberhorn was a hive of activity. It’s the first of 2 Europa Cup races this weekend.

The next race is tomorrow. Europa Cup is one rung down from the World Cup races which take place next weekend, but it’s still taken very seriously. The atmosphere amongst the competitors is quite subdued – there’s not much chatter. Having raced out of that start hut ourselves on many occasions, we know how they feel.

We had a good ski before heading home for lunch.

Curry tonight.

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Construction for the race is in full swing now. The stadium at the finish area is largely complete.

Helicopters work non-stop delivering supplies. It’s noisy in Wengen at the moment.

Even noisier than the helicopters are the air force jets which have been practicing overhead.

The main stage in the World Cup village is nearing completion. It will be covered in the sponsors’ corporate messages soon.

The Europa Cup teams are in town this week. They get bored in between training runs. Here are the Austrians playing football outside our house.

Steve Donnelly is playing in Rocks later.

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Our day-to-day watches are old-school mechanical things, and like everything mechanical, they need some attention every so often. Of all the watch shops in Interlaken, only one is authorised to do the necessary work. Faced with the fact that this glitzy shop has a monopoly, we were expecting severe financial pain.

We handed over our watches to the watchmaker and gave him some details of their history. He sent us off shopping while he set to work. We had a nice coffee in a patisserie round the corner and even managed to resist the hand-made chocolates.

We cruised around the shops on the Hoheweg and eventually returned to the watch shop, to find our watches mechanically sound and looking like new. Val’s, in particular was absolutely glittering. More work followed, with adjustments to her bracelet including removing a couple of links, and a tightening of the clasp.

Eventually we were done. I swallowed hard waiting for the bill.

Zero.

Yes, you read that right. The whole thing was complimentary. I was absolutely astonished. So next time you fancy something new and shiny, please consider going to Bucherer’s in Interlaken. They’re awesome.