Totally Chammered!

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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?!

A couple of weeks ago we all had a fondue night at my apartment. What my bijou studio lacks in bed facilities, it compensates for with a comprehensive inventory including at least 17 place settings of crockery & cutlery and a fondue set, so I made a posh fondue, (rubbed the pot with garlic and melted a kilo of 3 cheeses into heated white wine) accompanied by bread, potatoes, salad, cold meat and 5 more bottles of wine!

I’m still very much a fair-weather snowboarder (and this season also part time skier) Had a few weeks in Feb where my days off were always white outs and then I’d be at my desk looking out at clear skies but since March arrived I’ve definitely been getting value out of my lift pass.! A perk of being a seasonnaire and recompense for all those uncomfortable nights in the bunk bed (12 to go!) is that I can pick and choose to go out on blue sky days and get maximum deckchair time on the piste too. This winter though we take our own picnics because of the credit crunch! It’s a tough life living on minimum wage you know !

Embarking on my 5th consecutive season in just 3 weeks time and wondering how long I can get away with this extended sabbatical from the real world. Global recession might delay my relocation to the Riviera and job prospects in UK look quite bleak right now so another winter in Chamonix may be on the cards. With the vague notion that having a manager job here too would legitimise this lifestyle, I have applied for a promotion but ski bookings are suffering badly so who knows which jobs might still exist next winter? Hopefully we’ll know before I leave here on 10th April and switch from carefree ski underling to bossy camping supervisor mode.

Lucky that I decided eventually to go back to Al Fresco as a lot of people are without a summer placement this year. Good news is that luxury camping holidays are selling like hot cakes so my summer job is bigger and bossier this year ! Looking forward already to all those first time campers who expect maid service & clean towels daily!

So the countdown begins to another whirlwind of end of season parties, emotional goodbyes, unpacking, inter season ‘aren’t you tanned/fatter/thinner’ reunions, haircut, shopping, fish & chips, washing, repacking, awkward start of season hellos……and then it starts all over again.

Why would anyone find this fun ?

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