Board to Beach in 3 short hops.

---

Ciao tutti ! After a busy week with my bucket and mop, I thought I’d drop you all a line to let you know I made it at last from Chamonix to Venice via 3 snowy days in London, 3 rainy days in Nice, a 12 hour train journey and 3 more rainy days at Lake Garda.

Luckily the Heathrow terminal 5 chaos did not affect me. As I had quite a quick turnaround, it wouldn't have been ideal to have my luggage lost for a few days. Just had time to see the twins, have lunch with friends, do some shopping, have a curry and fish & chips, unpack, do my washing , repack and then I was off again.

Arrived in Nice for my Cote d'Azur jolly only to find it was raining. Training was on a campsite for 3 days in the nightclub ! What a glamorous life I lead ! Left St Raphael at 8.30am to catch 3 trains to Garda, which with 28kgs of luggage wasnt much fun. Train broke down at the Italian border and had to go back and get fixed, we then missed our connection in Milan and had to stand for last hour and half on the Friday night commuter train. Distant memories of Clapham Junction came flooding back! Finally arrived at Garda in the rain at 8.30pm ! Had our first Italian pizza and Spritz and was in bed by 9.30!

Our little stopover at Garda was to help out some fellow reps deliver 130 pillows, 130 blankets, stock take 20 mobile homes and put together 16 barbecues ! Arrived at Marina on Monday 14th and my first job was to deliver 280 blankets and pillows and stock take 44 mobiles, can’t face another barbecue yet ! Had forgotten how much hard work this job is. My poor soft office hands are now sore and nails ruined already. One day my pedometer said I’d walked 10km! My French fondue and patisserie belly will soon be gone.

Was all alone here the first week, site has been pretty quiet so far, other reps are gradually arriving now that the lights are on, shop is open and internet is online. Jolly Bar opened yesterday, though I had already tasted my first spritz of the season. Our first expedition to the beach bar was on Friday night. Karaoke Bar opens on the 1st May. Have my trusty bike back in action so building up spritz cycling threshold slowly.

Have one rep Rachael working with me who arrived last Monday, another coming on Thursday and 2 kidz club reps arriving mid May. Still have one rep vacancy. We are now montage cleaning frantically as we have 30 arrivals over our opening weekend 10th /11th May. That is busier than any arrival day the whole of last summer, so I'm wondering what I've let myself in for ! Don't have my car here this year so can't even escape easily on my day off ...

Anyway, you'll be pleased to know its bikini weather here already so I’m off to the beach this afternoon to start on my tan. Ciao for now.

---