Skiing on my day off!

Today was my day off and I was lucky enough to have my best friend come over from Meribel to ski and visit me.

It was so surreal having her meeting my colleagues in the hotel and for us to ski together again after last year's ski antics.

Unfortunately Beck  and I accidentally found ourselves on a very very black run (some might say Denzel Washington black) which was okay for me but not so much for Beck who has only ever skied for two weeks before. Ever. 

This black run is renowned throughout the Espace Killy because it is the Men's Olympic downhill ski course. Unfortunately due to it's serious difficulty it is no longer the ski course... am I painting a picture of the difficulty of this piste yet?

It took us about 1.5 hours and at least 10 tumbles for Beck before we reached the bottom. I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to restore Beck's confidence in her skiing ability and will have to hope that the experience wasn't sufficiently disastrous that she no longer wants to ski. As an upside, her blue runs wont't be as challenging anymore.

Tonight is my night off so I a, thinking I am going to have to have a bit of a big one. Last night we had pub trivia which is always fun, though I was well-behaved and didn't drink so it won't be too bad to have a few cheeky ones now. Last night at trivia we had lots of fun and, although we only came fifth, we won best team name, which was a bit of an 'in joke' but it was Quiz Trow - a play on one of the owner's of the bar's names.

Still loving working at my hotel and starting to get very excited for New Year's which is set to be good fun. It is fancy dress again so I am thinking a sailor's outfit couldn't go too far astray.

Christmas in Tignes

I am pleased to say I spent a beautiful, snowy, white Christmas at the hotel despite being away from the family. The hotel's staff all came together like our own little family and enjoyed a nice christmas meal together on Christmas eve before doing the evening's service. We then all partied til about 3am in the underground bar, dressed up and dancing on tables. Lots of fun, but huge headaches for Christmas morning.

Christmas dinner with staff

After doing Christmas morning brekky service the staff all gathered and opened each other's Secret Santa presents with champagne (yes, more drinking) in hand.

Opening our Secret Santa pressies

We all then skied over to Tignes - which was not fun while feeling ridiculously hungover in a claustrophobic gondola - and all enjoyed a lunch paid for by our company.

Skiing on Christmas day

We then served about 70 guests a lovely Christmas meal on Christmas night, before I fell asleep at about 10pm absolutely exhausted from my 4 hours sleep on Christmas eve.

I am having a ball here at the moment and am enjoying all the partying and camaraderie with everyone I work with.

On a side note, I love the quirkiness of France. Every morning and evening I collect bread from a bakery nearby my chalet and my baker is continually stoned. Literally, my baker is baked. He leaves his half-smoked joints on the bench-top as he packages up the baguettes. Crazy, huh!?

Some gossip to update you on

Only three days until Christmas now. I am so excited. I put up the Christmas tree in Chalet Hattiers yesterday and it was the first time I really realised that Christmas is soooooon!

I thought I would fill you in on the last 24 hours. Today is my day off, so last night was a bigger one - we had a pub quiz and my team (the Quiztina Aguileras) came second. There weren't that many people in the bar, but it was still lots of fun. Sarah, who works in the bar, was pouring my drinks with a generous hand of vodka, needless to say I got a bit drunk. 

Eye of the Needle

I met a pretty cool guy called Ollie last night too. We went skiing together today and he took me to this amazing place called the Eye of the Needle. We had to take off our skis to get to it, and climb up this steep snow covered mountain, but it was definitely worth it once we got up to the landmark. We soon discovered kissing isn't possible with goggles on. Quite a worthwhile lesson to learn early on in the season I suppose. 

Week 2 at the Chalet

Some of the guests we skied with!

I have just finished my second week working in the chalet and time is flying by.

Unfortunately I have been pretty sick this past week and have been spending all my time off in bed trying to recuperate. Without too much success in recovering I went to the doctors yesterday and have been dosed up on drugs, so feeling better already which is nice.

Last week I moved over to another chalet - it's a bit fancier - but also more to clean. I work with a gorgeous South African couple and they have such a great taste in music, so despite doing lots of hard work it isn't so bad when we have good music to listen to.

There are quite a few niice (read hot) guests coming through the hotel at the moment which is always fun, but unfortunately seeing as I've been sick I am not going to the Underground (the pub beneath our hotel), so am having to make the most of lying in bed watching films on my computer.

Cannot believe it's only five days until Christmas. Time is traveling so fast! It's a little bit weird to think that i'll be away from the family, but it's nice knowing I have already bought my pressies for everyone. Just a Kris Kringle to go for one of the staff members in the chalet.

Sorry this isn't full of juicy goss, hopefully once I feel better it will be!

xx

First day on the slopes

I am pleased to announce that today I went out on the slopes for the first time in the season. I had such a great time and thoroughly enjoyed skiing with people that challenged me to go faster.

We skied from 11.30 am until about 4 pm before going to Vincent's for a quiet red wine before starting work. We also made a short visit to Loop Bar in Tignes where we all had drinks and refreshed ourselves before it was time to hit the slopes once again. So much fun!

This evening I went up to my chalet and our chefs cooked up the most delicious dinner party for us. We had sausages in a tomato sauce, a beautiful salad, vinaigrette potatoes and a melted camembert. Delish!

Sarah and I tried to  bake a cake for tomorrow's afternoon tea and I'm disappointed to say I kind of screwed it up. It looked good when it went into the oven, but it turns out that the 3 tablespoons of baking powder I put into the mixture were in fact only supposed to be 3 teaspoons. Oops. So the cakes were a massive flop (literally) and I will need to rebake them tomorrow.

I am finding that my days are getting more and more enjoyable the longer that I stay here on my season. Lots of fun and hopefully it only gets better!

Update on life in Tignes

So I have now been working at the hotel for a week and it has gone quite quickly really. I am still getting used to everything though and wish so much that I were skiing. We got our skis and boots today though, so hopefully the lift passes will come soon (perhaps tomorrow?!). Then we will be able to hit the slopes which, to be honest, is the reason I am here.

Work has been difficult. Some of the staff are absolutely hilarious and I am really lucky to share a room with two lovely girls. There have also been some tough times though which make living away from friends and family seem difficult and cause me to question whether I will be able to last five months here.

We have been going down to the bar below our hotel most nights and I really don't want to make too greater habit of drinking every night (as has been done the past two nights) because it is so bad for me and makes me feel awful the next day when I am up and working at 7.30am needing to look bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Must practice self control.

Unfortunately no real man-talent yet... will just have to wait and see. Though some of the guests are pretty sweet and one couple left a bottle of red wine for us when they checked out.

My mum had a numerology reading the other day (which we have both had done before and which are always so spot on) and the reading said that I will soon meet a man and he'll be really perfect for me... certainly an encouraging/ nice thing to hear. So we shall see.

It's quite difficult always trying to be perky and smiley and happy around everyone, particularly when we all live and work and sleep in such close confines. And because I share a bedroom there isn't every really any time alone. Not that I am complaining - my room mates are brilliant - but it's just an adjustment to get used to.

Hopefully I will be able to stick to it and will enjoy myself and have loads of fun, particularly once we are able to begin skiing! Watch this space.

Flying to Geneva: Part 2

It's day two of the waiting game today. Having been put up in a hotel - The Holiday Inn- last night with all food and accommodation included, I was given a 13:20 flight for today.

Because my sleeping patterns are still quite dodgy, I woke at about 5:30 am and thought I would try my luck with a standby flight. Unfortunately all of the morning flights to Geneva are once again cancelled. Here's hoping there will be more luck with the afternoon flights. If not, it will be another night in hotel accommodation.

Later in the day

So in fact my flight for this afternoon has also been cancelled and I have been moved to another hotel with a guy I've become friends with. He is also doing a ski season in Tignes which is cool. We have decided to go into London to look at the Natural History Museum and to get out our laptops to see whether there are alternative ways for us to fly out to Geneva. The problem is that snow is falling both in Geneva and at Heathrow, so the planes just can't leave their airports. In the past two days alone 18 flights to Geneva have been cancelled.

This hotel is a bit more posh than The Holiday Inn. I have a king-size bed which is always nice and the food is delicious. I could definitely get used to this!

Above is one of the photos from my adventure to London!

Flying to Geneva: Part 1

After a week in England spent organising my national insurance number, a doctor's appointment, the opening of a British bank account - each of which containing ridiculous hassles - I am now stuck at Heathrow with my flight having been cancelled to Geneva.

I have been queueing for over an hour already and am only halfway thorugh the line. Quite coincidentally, in front of me in the line is a good school friend, Eliza Bowey, who has just flown in from Sydney and is attempting to get to Ireland.

In the queue are a unique collection of people. An orthodox Jew stands directly in front of me, and in front of him is a woman severely decked out in Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton... she is getting pretty worked up about the situation at hand. Several places in front of her stands a skinny buddhist monk wearing crocks and socks. Sexy. As the queue moves forward he insists on kicking his sole item of luggage, a cardboard box from the US Army, rather than picking it up like everyone else around him.

Businessmen stand about on their iPads with laptops open, insistent on making the most of the opportunity to get some work done despite the less-than-ideal conditions.

As the paging service interrupts the silence of the line, travellers change their expressions to ones of utmost concentration. Are they perhaps being called? Could there be a flight for them?

Right now, I pray the afternoon flights will open and a Heathrow sleepover won't be necessary. However, in the event that it is, it will just have to be something to add to my list of experiences.