Another Cham Adventure

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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 hours trying to keep up. In January we failed our resort accounts audit and I thought I’d get sacked, it was all quite demoralising and then I learned my summer escape to Venice had been snatched from beneath my nose….

But it’s not all bad, I am living at the foot of Mont Blanc surrounded by spectacular mountains. A few sitting & thinking sessions on a chair lift on a blue sky day are all I need to remember what I’m here for …..and a few Friday night wine drinking sessions to celebrate the end of another week !

This season we have a civilised lady wine drinking society and try to frequent more upmarket establishments where quality rather than quantity is the rule. Apres has become a bit too rowdy for me, I must be getting old, a quiet wine bar is more our scene and of course I only have a 5 min walk across town to get home, no sleeping on the last tube for me!

The old lady ski club has also been in action, this involves getting to the slopes weather permitting around 11ish, doing a couple of runs, stopping for lunch, doing a couple more runs and ending the day with a well earned vin chaud about 3ish. I have become ‘ambineigerous’ - that’s a skier or a snowboarder depending on how the mood takes me. Having visitors here changes all that as they want to ski all day every day even if it’s minus 20 degrees or you can’t see a thing and last week I broke my season record with 12 runs in one day! Some are dubious of my counting methods, but if it has separate name then it is a separate run. Visitors are always welcome of course if they remember to bring mature cheddar or magazines or shampoo or chocolate.

So all in all, I think I have become more integrated into the locals’ way of life this season as I find myself eating more goats cheese and lardons every week and I definitely eat patisserie every day. Good job then that I am looking forward to experiencing a summer in Chamonix and a bit of mountain biking & hiking.

I am going to miss my summer of siestas at the beach in Italy, I’ll have to make up some excuses to visit the Lake Garda office for a fix of spritz & pizza.

But at least this summer I might get a proper holiday and can take time off rather than rushing around madly in April & October.

I’m off home next week for a couple of days to changeover my wardrobe and get a haircut after a couple of days in Scotland visiting my new wee baby nephew. Better start the favourite auntie mission early this time! I'll be back again in May and July hopefully too.

Seems strange to think I’ll be here for another year but after that, who knows??

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