Just had a press release from the well known Austrian resort of somewhere or other - hang on - I'll just have a look - ah yes, a place called Oberaudorf, where the well known skier, Christian Flür, (he's well known in Oberaudorf), has achieved the remarkable record of skiing 53,577 vertical metres in 24 hours. Gosh, you may say, but Boo Hoo says he, as the intention had been to ski 55,555 metres. He beat the old record by 7,000 metres. The last thing he said before retiring to his hotel room for thirty six hours was 'I'm tired and want to go to bed'.

I'm going to attempt a record in February and am doing some groundwork at the moment. The plan is to see how far across Asia I need to fly at half term to reach Interlaken for under £500 return. I've heard a rumour that Southampton - Düsseldorf - Beijing - St Helena - Basel is a good bet but I no longer have the strength to type in all those names again, and will probably end up going on the bus, which last time took 31 hours and went via ... Düsseldorf.

The thought of going an a bus for that long is spoiling the anticipation of a week's skiing under the Eiger and the Jungfrau. When we get there it takes two days to recover and then the depression sets in again thinking about the journey home.

Is anyone going that way by car at half term!?