Personal holidays are so important in this business and our first of the year never disappoints.

A week in the French Alps skiing. Being creatures of habit, it’s been the same resort, hotel and week for the past seven years.

Flights are from Bristol and we’ve booked into the new 1903 lounge to see what it’s all about. It doesn’t disappoint as the staff on arrival are lovely, the food’s pretty good and there’s plenty of Champagne.

A delay to the flight means I’m six glasses in by the time it’s called and, with my hair-raising hard-drinking days firmly stuck in the 90s, I’m feeling it.

Best foot forward and all that, I make a grand entrance to the flight by falling over at the top of the steps. With a bad knee, and feeling like a young Oliver Reed, I quickly get myself in my seat and, thankfully, no one’s next to us…

I wake up at 5am the next day in our lovely four-star Alps hotel with a mouth like a budgie’s cage, feeling like I’ve gone five rounds with Mike Tyson and very little recollection of how I got here.

Off to breakfast we go, with the reception staff disappearing into the back office as soon as I appear from the lift. I head past them and into the restaurant, hoping some greasy curly bacon might ease my pain (it doesn’t).

It’s here my other half fills me in on the finer details of our journey to Geneva.

On the plane, with my headphones on, I was having a bit of a silent disco. I didn’t cause any drama, just embarrassed myself.

That changed when I started singing Edelweiss to the Swiss passport control officer when we arrived. My singing is regularly referred to as an acquired taste and I’m not sure it was appreciated in this setting.

Amazingly, I was allowed in the country and off we went to find the transfer bus. Once we located it, I sat down and promptly fell asleep, snoring my way up the Alps.

I vow I won’t drink for the rest of the trip and decide to be healthy. I keep my promise for the next seven hours, but the plan is then scuppered by a large fondue and a couple of bottles of local wine.

Maybe my next trip should be a week at the Priory. Does anyone know if they do agent rates ?

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