Feb half term

Excellent trip. The main highlight was definitely Non's English club - a big success. The year 8s not wanting to leave after the last session was a fantastic tribute to her skills. Well done and thanks to everyone who's helped organise it.

Wondering around the Castle district in swirling snow, and slowly realising Dan's having a proper tram day, giving me essentially a day off with N and A with much-needed good conversation - it was unexpected and deeply relaxing. And beautiful, too. Snow makes any city look great, and the view of Budapest covered in the stuff was magnificent.

Sledging, skiing in Matra, ice-skating, spas - the discovery of Aquaworld, so perfect for spending a snowy, lazy weekday with the kids. We kept returning to the outdoor pool, climbing out, leaving our footprints in the fresh layer of wonderfully soft snow while fooling around, having snowball fights in swimsuits, then jumping back into the nice warm water with snow in our hands. It was grand -- the best fun I've had with the two of them on this trip.

Our old favourites also worked well: Ice rink followed by Szechenyi and Deryne was very pleasant, too. Mini Deryne was a strange concept, though: we managed to finish a vast number of miniature dishes at an alarming pace -- much of the stuff we would never have ordered, had we been given a menu.

What was not so good: the taxi from Ferihegy was incredibly smokey -- let me not get started on this.

Then there was this business of having to queue up twice in the charming Ronkhutte while enjoying Hungary's unforgettable Alpine skiing experience. Why the ruddy hell are there two separate queues for food and drink, and, even more importantly, why is service so incredibly slow? How on earth do they cope at the weekend?

Grandparents' constant squabbling over pretty much everything was hard on the nerves. They do mean well, but somehow it's just not working.

And the visit to X in hospital. A definite highlight, although incredibly sad. But I'm so glad I saw her, and she saw me. She couldn't hear or understand most of what I said, but I know for that half hour, or perhaps even a bit longer, I made her very happy. And that's a big thing for somebody who won't be with us much longer.