This was taken on my birthday five years ago. I'm lucky enough to have friends who live in Switzerland, who bundled me into their people carrier, drove me into the mountains, lent me their skis and then left me on the top of a mountain to make my own way down.
Teaching me how to stop would have been a start. A big wobbly bottom lip later I did make it to the bottom, but I don't think I won any points for style. Even buying a hat didn't make it any easier!
Montreux 2007.
Oh how I wish that I could just whooosh down the mountain - and while I do see the attraction, I think I'm just a bit too pathetic to launch myself head first down a mountain on slippy white stuff.
Unlike other, much more daring friends with better balance and a proper pair of salopettes - there's been an avalanche of skiing photos appearing on Facebook recently.
Beautiful scenery with effortlessly beautiful people (these fabulous photos were taken by my friend Toni in the small French village of Chinaillon).
However, while some make it look easy, others don't. Take my friend Ginette from Preston.
Not only did she have to be bought down off the slopes by Mountain Rescue:
"Had a slight groin injury on my skiing trip and needed a little help coming down the mountain. Check out my sympathetic friends (not)!"
Click the link below to see the rescue for real (apologies for the poor quality but I had to re-film it).
But the next day, this happened after she set off down the hill like Franz Klammer.
