despite the cloud cover, we had a great works day out.
in the morning we all met as planned, some rather later than others, but that is only to be expected. The majority donned their skigear and headed for a coffee ! while I and Yvonne went to the Wellness Hotel. it turned out that anything requiring heat, like sauna or steam bath, did not open before 1, and all the massages were booked out, but we had the pool and the fitness centre to ourselves, so we were happy.
Then we went up to Mannlichen, and met the others for lunch. The sun was shining, the views were breathtaking as they ever are up there. Unfortunately I had left my camera in the car at the bottom though. 
Lunch was great, everyone was really happy from the mornings skiing, and then we announced the helicopter surprise. Unfortunately the cloud was heavy just where we were, so the heli first wouldn't come, then came, but couldn't land, and then finally we could do it. I was in the first one up, and it was fantastic. To see all the mountains and the glacier from the air, to be up against the North wall of the Eiger, absolutely breathtaking. Way too short a ride though, and a wee bit thrilling on the updraughts.
The fog was only on Mannlichen, so everywhere else was brilliant sunshine, could even see my town in the distance 
Then at 3.30 the others departed down on skis, and Yvonne and I set off for Kleine Scheidegg. Im winter you have to take a different route, more up and down, and across ski runs etc, with a chair lift up at the end. Trouble is we forgot the chair lift might close at 5, and once we realised, we did not know how far it was. Also trekking through snow takes a lot longer than trekking on grass.
Then a piste patrol guy came towards us on his scooter and told us we needed to hurry if we wanted to make it, so we started hurrying, but it was still a long way. Fortunately he came back after about 10 minutes, and I asked him for a lift, and he took us nearly the whole way, which was great fun on the back of the scooter. So we made it by 4.45 to the chair, I don't think we would have made it in time without the lift, it was quite a distance. And they had closed the lift as we were in the train coming down again at 5.03. Yvonne reckons we had a guardian angel with us
If we had missed the chair lift, it meant a 200 metre hike back up hill in the snow, or possibly a hike back down to Grindelwald instead, but as the train takes 30 minutes to descend, i think that was never an option
so all in all, it was a great day out, and certainly beats work. The helicopter ride, and the scooter ride were great, and so I now feel pretty elated. 
