Skiing last week was great. I don't remember ever experiencing such perfect snow conditions. My skiing abilities were, let's say, variable, but I had one golden day (Wednesday) when everything came together, the sun was shining, and I was skiing like an Austrian. Perfect.

It was an Oak Hall holiday, so that meant a big friendly group in the evenings, many of whom learned Zendo from me as the week went by. In fact I was sometimes greeted on the slopes with a cheery cry of "Hello Master!" to which I would reply "Hello disciple! I hope you are meditating upon the koans."

I also took Fluxx along which surprisingly did not go down so well. In fact Alastair, who is a keen bridge player, seemed to find one 10-minute round of Fluxx an agonizing ordeal. Come to think of it, I remember feeling the same way when I first played Fluxx years ago, but I guess I have warmed to the Looney Labs way of gaming since then.