Just arrived in Paris for the Paris Slalom World Cup again, its much bigger this year, with participants from over 10 different countries I think. The number of competitors is huge.

A couple of years ago we decided to ditch the whole hotel business, and start renting a couple of apartments for us all instead. Much better - you get your own living space, kitchen, and it works out much cheaper too. This time, the number of people in my apartment varies from 4 to 7 depending on which day it is. For the most part, its just me, one other UK skater, and the two American skaters. Its really great, especially when you turn up to find that despite extreme jetlag, they’ve already unpacked the wireless router and set up a network for the week - happiness!