Sign In
Angela Marshall
Nov 04 - Although it didnt seem it at the time, getting made redundant by Amex was the best thing that could ever happen. Spent a year in France working as a rep for TUI - snowboarding all winter, on the beach all summer. Who wants to work all year round to pay for their holidays? ang on tour
Apr 07 - After a year or so back in the UK rat race working at lastminute.com, I'm getting made redundant again ! Have seen a lifecoach who confirms I am a places person - most happy in the mountains or by the sea, so I'm off on tour again to work in Italy for Al Fresco.
Nov 07 - Recharged from a month back home after an eventful camping summer in Italy, I am off to Chamonix in the Alps with my snowboard...
Apr 08 - Back at Marina di Venezia for another Summer of camping fun, living on the biggest campsite in Europe next to the Adriatic and a short boat trip across the lagoon to Venice.
Nov 08 - After quite a stressful summer, I am off to get Chammered again !
Apr 09 - Back on the Venetian Riviera doing super posh camping ...
Oct 09 - Back to Chamonix Mont Blanc for some winter sports activities...
May 10 - Staying in Cham for the summer experience of hiking & biking...
Nov 10 - Chamonix winter another season starts here...
Feb 11 - Extended sabbatical over... time to return to London and be a grown up again, earn some real money, pay the mortgage and save for early retirement to the Riviera.
Venice and Chamonix have become my two home from homes... will continue working for a travel company until I can afford to retire to the Riviera, Italian or French, as long as its a short hop from the mountains.
Here's my blog for my family and friends to keep up to date ...
Travel Blog Posts
September 19th 2010
About time for a summer blog as it’s well and truly autumn in Chamonix. I already have the heating on and winter season preparations are underway. Everyone said the summer in Cham would be lovely, they lied, I think I’ve got a vitamin D deficiency ! On the occasional hot day I have been sun worshipping at the outdoor pool. Not much swimming involved, more lounging with book, turning half hourly for even blonding and browning ! Luckily it was really hot & sunny in June for mum’s first visit to Cham. Forgetting the altitude, we started on a red walk up to Chalet Floria on the first day, had some well earned blackcurrant cake and after that stuck to leisurely day trips to Annecy & Montreux, browsing the market and eating ice creams for the ... read more
March 28th 2010
Just when we thought spring had arrived, the snow has been back for 3 days so I’m holed up in my apartment (with bedroom and balcony this year) with the heating back on full as its dreary and dull outside. On Weds we were eating lunch on the office patio talking about arranging the end of season barbecue when I realised I hadn’t done any blogging at all since I got here in October. It has been quite a different season, long gone are the carefree seasonnaire days as this winter’s promotion has brought as much stress as a real job back in London. It took a while to get my full team together, and then just after the final one arrived, one left! New technology has not worked as planned and I’ve been working all ... read more
August 25th 2009
Have been writing my blog periodically this season, but have been very lazy about actually taking laptop to the internet café to post them. So here they all are for you to read about my season. It’s almost the end of August and I sit writing at 10pm in my bikini and shorts. It’s allegedly been the hottest summer here for 40 years. Not what you wanted to hear I guess! After starting cleaning at 7am, we had 27 mobiles prepped by 2pm and I was able to fly home for a couple of days on 25th July to see everyone. I left Venice at 34 degrees and arrived at Gatwick in 19 degrees. Aside from the weekend of family fun, the rain on the tent and being cold enough to wear jeans and shoes at ... read more
June 30th 2009
The season is well underway and as it’s a bit of a landmark year, I often sit and wonder how I came to be here for my 4th season with Al Fresco. 40 years ago ( I know I still can’t quite believe it myself ), when I was just 6 weeks old, I went on my first camping trip. We had a season ticket at Laleham much like my neighbours at Camping Sonia where my live mobile is now. All of my early years’ weekends and school holidays were spent there with my extended family. We had a green ridge tent and later upgraded to a 6 berth Cabanon frame tent which I thought was ultra modern! In my teens we did camping holidays in the South of France with Eurocamp and when I had ... read more
May 30th 2009
Ciao bloggers ! Another Al Fresco summer is well underway and 6 weeks in we are already having a heatwave and melting in 30 odd degrees. All 54 mobile homes full this weekend so no sign of a recession affecting our bookings. Montage is long ago completed and the season routine of cleaning and repping now familiarly interspersed with pizza and spritz. Have fallen off my bike as is customary at beginning of season, but completely sober at 4 o’clock in the afternoon and only because a german lady was on wrong side of the road and I couldn’t brake as I had beach towel and book in one hand! My team this year seem good and keen, Nick who worked in Brittany last year is good at fixing things and Adam & Kate who were ... read more
March 29th 2009
Salut Bloggers! Winter is melting away and I haven’t done any blogging again. Bit of an IT issue this season as no wifi connection in my apartment and I can’t facebook or upload photos or blogs at work but today I am at the Couleur Cafe specially to do an update. Winter has slipped much like the last into a cycle of cold & sunny days practising jumps on the mountain and hot & noisy sessions jumping around at après, oh and I do a bit of work too! Have a few new friends this season who I go to après with more often after work rather than after ski for a few vin blancs ! Well I say friends but I haven’t seen any of the photos of me they’ve been tagging on facebook yet?! ... read more
January 2nd 2009
Christmas officially started when Rosy arrived back from the UK on Sunday 21st with still warm homemade mince pies. They had to be opened and investigated at customs but made it through luckily! Monday night we had the office Christmas do, roast turkey dinner followed by the best ever sticky toffee pudding plus loads of free wine and I think secret santa had some inside info this year as I got Bugsy Malone DVD! Tuesday late start in the office with morning after hangovers & gossip but Rosy & Rory had volunteered to go to Carrefour to do the Christmas food shopping. They managed to get most things but we had to do a tour of the supermarkets in town to get the cranberry sauce and sprouts. Christmas Eve in the office, more homemade mince pies, ... read more
December 21st 2008
At last my first day on the mountain ! After several false dawns when the weather conditions were just too adverse, I set off yesterday finally for some fresh air and fresh powder at La Tour with Suzy and Susanna. It has been snowing loads, about 2m up top so I was glad to finally get out on the mountain as I was getting a bit of mid season blues already, if that's possible in December? My healthy tan has deteriorated rapidly after 6 weeks of sleepless nights in the bunkbed, I now have dark rings under my eyes and the patisserie habit is starting to affect my waistline. Instead of waterproof mascara, this winter I'll be using a lot of Radiant Touch! This season I am making use of my free ski and boot hire ... read more
November 23rd 2008
Bonjour ! My holiday is well and truly over, I am back in Cham at last and settling back into mountain life. 2 weeks in the office done and the weekends off. It’s a little strange here so far, same but different, some familiar faces and some newbies. I have a new desk by the window, sitting next to Rosy again. They tried to split us up so we had to put our foot down! Luckily our stressful summer together hasn’t affected our friendship. We just have agreed to differ about certain things. I’ve already had a note on my desk saying ‘I love you more than sausages’ and an email saying ‘I look like a potato’. There’s not much hope for my mental health but Rosy has also emailed me the number for Samaritans so ... read more
September 27th 2008
Ciao! I’m sorry to say I’ve been a bit blogging useless this season keeping my friends and family up to date with the comings and goings in Italia. It has been a season of ups and downs from beginning to end… No sooner had we got the opening weekend out of the way, the kidz club reps arrived and started fighting. 10 days, lots of tears and shouting later one went home. Just after that drama subsided, I had to fly home unexpectedly. After only 4 days at home in April, it was with mixed emotions that I got to go back to UK and see my family under such sad circumstances in June. Returning to the holiday frontline 10 days later, my team had coped admirably and a new kidz rep had arrived. First impressions ... read more
Tot: 0.145s; Tpl: 0.007s; cc: 11; qc: 73; dbt: 0.0466s; 1; s:apollo w:www (50.28.60.10); sld: 1; ; mem: 6.5mb
© 2013 TravelBlog.org & Bloggers