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Published: January 31st 2007
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Well hello all,
I apologise for the fact that it's been ages since this was updated. My only excuse is that looking after so many guests has taken it's toll or maybe it was the blue skies tempting us into skiing rather than being cooped up in the internet cafe? Anyway, I have yet another cold/bad throat so I am taking it easy today to try and recover. I'm sure it's the lack of sleep and rubbish diet that has contributed to this rather than the smoky bars and skiing all day!
Also, I would just like to say in my defence that I have only ever got up late on NY day whereas now Angus has managed it 3 times! I was actually up and ready for breakfast but he had told me to go back to sleep and then never woke me up. Lst wk Angus' uncle Richard was here as well as Will from uni so there were lots of rather drunken nights and going to bed at 3am. The classic was Angus feeling rubbish after dinner and stating he would only go out for the one pint. However, Rich and co were buying rather nice bottles
of red and champers which led to Angus stumbling in at 3:30, waking me up and surviving off Irn Bru to get him through the following morning! It was a great wk though as it made a change to go out with some different people. That is the problem with our company as it only has the 2 chalets here and we haven't met anyone else. All the other companies are pretty huge and the seasonaires tend to stick in their groups so we are slightly dissapointed with that side of things.
Anyway, we finally have our new guy, Steve, after weeks of manic hard work between the 3 of us. Steve did a season last yr so knows the ropes and works hard. He is a bit older than us, in his 50's, but it's not a prblem other than having certain ways of doing things which can be slightly irritating after running the chalet for so long ourselves. It's really good he joins in with us too and comes to the pub as they were a bit mean to him last yr and never invited him out! Changover day on Sun was much better this wk as
it had been taking Angus and I 5 hrs to get everything done. It's rather odd doing all that from 4am when it's still pitch black outside. I always end up cleaning the bathrooms as blokes seem really squeamish about that and to ensure I don't get bleach over me I wear a skirt or just pants before Steve came. However, one Sun I went into the boot room as the bread delivery guy turned up and I yelped and ran off just as he said Bonjour and laughed at my lack of clothing-oops!
The guests have been quite a mixture over the last few weeks. We had a group of mainly medics from Sheffield Uni which was great for me as we had loads in common including the same supervisor! They were all lovely and my favourite guests I think. The week after them was unusual as it was our first wk of not having one main large group. They were all rubbish at socialising and at dinner there were a few awkward silences. Usually we are invited for a beer/drinking gmaes etc with the guests but they treated us very much like the hired help and so we were hiding in the kitchen or going out as soon as dinner was over. They were definitely our worst wk. One of them was actually from Herne, where I grew up but he was a rude Ian Beale lookalike who would come into the kitchen in the morning and just grunt the word porridge at us!!!
Last wk we had quite a few small groups again but they were such a laugh and got wasted every night. There was a group of guys in there 60's who were hilarious and came back one night drunk and dancing the conga around the chalet. The group of younger Londeners were furiuos cause they were in bed so the next night they got hammered at the apres ski and shouted abuse all throughout dinner to the other table with the older guys on! We had to act like parents and tell them off but it didn't make much difference.
One of the older guys runs a few boutique hotels were Clinton, Blair and Robbie have stayed. He was rather impressed with us and said we could work for him but he only ever praised Angus for the cooking. I'm not qite sure what he thought I did? OIh well, it makes a change as usually people ar quite sexist and thank me and not Angus so it's all fair.
A couple of wks ago I went into ski school as Angus and I came to an arrangment about the jobs. I was booked in for level 2 which covers blue runs as that was what I had started doing. However, they assesssed our skiing and didn't have enough people for all 3 groups so I was put up to level 3, reds and blacks-argh! He took us down one of the worst, icy reds on that same day and they all applauded me afterwards as that was my first red run. I am now doing them without even worrying about it. The weather wasn't the best that wk so we ended up not doing any blacks which I was relieved about as he wanted to take us down the Face, the famous uber scary run used in the early 90's mens downhill. It is just this awful looking icy monster so I have still managed to avoid it for now. The boys did take me down my first black on Mon though in Tignes. It was absolutely fine until the end where it was a mogul field with sheet ice inbetween. I panicked and got stuck on this tiny patch of powder with Angus trying to coax me down. I was more bothered about everyone else falling over who were good skiiers as it was just awful. I finally got down, with Angus apologising as he felt bad taking me down it knowing about that eveil end section. Him and Chris keep practising jumps and are determined to do a 360 before we leave. I will just be happy to look good when skiing and not break any limbs.
It is such a funny atmosphere when out skiing as quite a few of the mountain restaurants have DJ's and blaring music so people are outside dancing and trying to look cool. It's sort of like being at a beach bar in Ibiza and boogying in the daytimne but whilst wearing thermals! One place, Le Follie Dus (not spelt right) has a drummer on the roof (although he drums to a CD) and a barman ouside with this huge white fur coat, drinks on ice and a punk pit bull with a studded collar! It is quite a cool place to go for a mulled wine but then we miss out on most of the apres ski as we have to come back to cook-grrrr!
Right, I'm going to head off now to attempt to sort some bank stuff out in my terrible French and then we are off for an apres ski curry. Hopefully it will blast my cold away otherwise I will have to take the pharmacist guest up on his offer of giving me some antibiotics illegally-naughty!
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Gayle
non-member comment
Hello sarah hello angus - As we hadnt heard from you I thought you both must be having a great time, good to hear you are. Apres ski sounds much better than Middlesbroughs bright lights. Tres jealous of all the skiing but dont break anything or you might get me zaping you with x-rays ;o) Hope you got my mail this time sarah, take care Gayle x