Marianne with her sister’s dog Dorris

It takes a lot of off-course preparation to keep up on the Ladies European Tour, and with two months of off-season in January and February, the circuit's biggest stars definitely don't stop working hard. With the 2010 season just about to kick off in New Zealand, what have they been doing? Find out what Norwegian star Marianne Skarpnord has been getting up to over her winter break.

"After LPGA Q-School I was really tired. In reality, I just wanted to go home and relax because it had been such a long season with a lot of travelling and so on. But considering where I was on the LET Henderson Money List I had to play Dubai to try and secure my 4th place finish which then meant I was exempt for the US Open and Kraft Nabisco Championship. I didn´t play well in Dubai, I was very tired and didn´t have a lot of energy, but I made the cut and luckily nobody went past me on the list. Anyway, I got home and took a good break from golf and practice. I didn´t touch my clubs until after Christmas. I started practising a little bit right after Christmas, just in Norway in an indoor golf centre. On the 1st of January I started for real and had full practice days again with both golf and physical training. I got sick and stayed in bed for a few days early in Jan, but no biggie! I went to Dubai the 14th of January and I am staying here until the 7th of February. The reason why I chose Dubai is because the weather is always nice here and the practice facilities and courses are great. I am practising at The Butch Harmon School of Golf. They have awesome practice facilities and Claude Harmon and his crew are great to me. My days here consist of seven to nine hours of practice, then a workout and some tennis in the evenings. I love tennis; it is a lot of fun and also good exercise. Unfortunately I am not very good, but it´s still fun ;)

I will go home to Norway the 7th of Feb and spend one week at home. I need to sort out some stuff before moving to the US and so on. I will go to Australia the 14th of Feb and I will spend one week practising in Queensland before going to New Zealand and then obviously to the ANZ Masters and Women´s Australian Open. After Australia I will go straight to the US; spend one week in Orlando and then go to California for the last week of March."

You can follow Marianne on Twitter to track her life as she travels around the world.