Something For The Weekend

Competitive Kate's guide to the mountains

Great news, Europe is having amazing snowfalls this winter (yay); some of the best for a few years. Saas Fee, Chamonix, Zermatt and Argentiere have over 300cm of snow on the upper slopes and most of the on piste runs throughout France are rated as excellent. The lower slopes in Bankso already have over 215cm of snow and most of the ski lifts are open.

All this snow does come at price though; it is blinkin' cold, especially higher up the slopes at the moment. I’ve just come back from a few days in Chamonix - perfect as it is only an hour from Geneva - the slopes were very quiet so no wasting time queueing either. The temperature (with wind chill) was dipping as low as minus 30 so you need to be prepared : take plenty of layers with you, invest in some good quality mitts to keep your fingers warm and take care to protect your neck properly (an old rugby scarf just won’t do). Make sure that your hair is perfectly dry before you venture outside and that you have located a fantastic bar to drink some vin chaud and defrost. The weather is making for even better après ski as the bars are fuller, earlier. Try and get to the slopes midweek if possible as the great snow is pulling more and more weekend breakers to the mountains.

Kate Walton

Kate is our resident ski angel and is unbelievably competitive. Never ever ever ever ask to join her training groups and if you see her coming down the mountain then get out of her way quickly or you will be sorry. She also loves The Killers, Kings of Leon and Chris Hoy.

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The lunatics are running the asylum, making the most of the summer exhibition at the Royal Academy

We've heard all about the summer exhibition a million times this year alone. We knew that Tracey Emin was helping select the exhibits this year and we saw the truck delivering the latest sculpture to take pride of place in the courtyard, but we wanted more. How could we make the most of our visit to the Academy? Our intrepid reporter Kate, ducked through a side door and joined one of the free tours of the building itself.

 

More than just a pile of bricks

We'd already booked our tickets and were ready for our day out - or at least my nephew, Jake was!

If I'm honest I was dreading Legoland, Windsor on a sunny Sunday in June thinking we would have to queue to get off the M4, then have to queue to get into the park itself and then for all the rides but actually it was a breeze. Armed with a picnic and a few toys for the car, we left London for our 40 minute journey at about 9:15am to make sure we got there for the 10am opening.