At last! The British Association of Snowsport Instructors, aka BASI, have come back to me saying that I don't need to take their basic stage 1 ski instructor's exam and can go straight on to stage 2. This is indeed a great relief and will hopefully cost £1500 instead of £5000.

Nowadays, a BASI licence is one of the few qualifications that's accepted in ski schools throughout Europe. Even France may well have to let BASI 2 licence holders teach there although they have done their best to deter les rosbifs.

It's infuriating that having got a Norwegian Ski School Instructor's certificate in 1973 (yes I'm that old), worked in ski schools in five countries, written an instruction manual and taught hundreds if not thousands of people of all ages, I've now got to do it all over again and more, as it gets harder to find jobs other than in Austria or Switzerland. First come the two manuals to be read, then the course in France, then the criminal records check to make sure I'm not a paedophile, and then the first aid course.

There is an irony here - if I pass, is it anything more than a symbolic gesture to prove it's still possible at 62? I've got this pain in my left thigh and can't straighten my right leg out too well. Coming down stairs is quite tricky and I have the hell of a job looking for my glasses to discretely read the piste map when I lose my class...