Its been a long time

A manic couple of weeks have led to me not posting, but hopefully I'll get at least another post up at the weekend.
The first few weeks are always manic, and with Crimbo this week we'll be flat out again, so the old hands are starting to dry out despite the vigorous use of hand cream - doing the dishes for 30 people for breakfast and a four course dinner is much harder work than it sounds. Oh and a bit of chopping up veg too! I have to admit working with a pro chef does mean that the only actual cooking I've been having to do is for the odd staff meal (which is still 7 people), but most of the time even thats using the left overs.
Due to working about 70 hours a week at the moment the piste time has been limited to about 9 hours across 3 days, but tomorrow is our day off, so I'm hoping to get out there for a good 4-5 hours assuming all the snow doesn't melt (its a bit warm today).
We're now on our 3rd load of guests, and they've all been massively different.


Group 1 - Corporate, 2 days, 32 of them, pissed


Group 2 - A mixture of small groups and a family, 5 days, 12 of them, lively but nice enough and one guy managed to spend over £200 behind the bar on his own (considering we only charge €1 a beer!


Group 3 - All week, one big group to do with someone who works for the company, generally quiet and some who are quite posh. This is the big test, having 26 in for crimbo who are likely to be a bit more demanding than the first couple of groups.


All's good with the guys in the chalet though, and there's been no falling outs which is a great relief (although it is only week 3).


Hopefully I'll have some decent snow pics from tomorrow to get uploaded at the weekend.

Snow, less snow and lots of cleaning

Well, so here it is. Week 1 in Morzine.


I arrived on Wednesday and thankfully found that I'd been stuck in some sort of big brother house situation with 6 equally laid back people. You can't understand how much of a relief that was.
Its been hard work, but great. Now I just need some bloody snow! We had some and its all gone today because of the rain... damn it!

Having fun, and have already been dressed up as a builder on a night out, so looks like its going to be an interesting few months.
Anyway I'm too knackered to do too much on this and will wait until the snow comes to bore the socks off anyone who can be bothered to listen.

ACHTUNG!

To all those in Newcastle - keep off the streets from 2.30 - 4.30 as Paterson is returning to a car for the first time in 12 years!
God bless BSM

Nice Shot of Newcastle

Oh and for those non believers here's the pic of the day (although it wasn't taken today) from the bus stop at the end of the road - not a bad looking place this Newcastle!

Newcastle

So I'm back up north for a few days. Its actually quite nice to just do pretty much nothing, although I'm still not sure exactly how I got all of this stuff up on the train on Weds...

Seriously thats a hell of a lot of stuff to lug from St. Reatham Vale even to KX never mind Newcastle!
Anyway, got here in once piece and apart from footy tomorrow and a 'cours de conduite' (practicing my franglais) on Monday and Tuesday to get me bck on the road then not much else planned (apart from more cutting down on the amount of clothes I have to take and plenty of sleep).
Now to bring my Mum into the 21st century and install her wifi, sort out her new laptop and get her on Skype.
Oh that reminds me, there was one other amusing thing from yesterday. While shopping for a laptop with my Mum I was asked twice in seperate shops if it was 'for my college work' - I'm 30 bloody years old!!! Hey-ho beauty is ageless as am I.
 

And then it began...

In the glorious words of Neil Diamond, but in reference to my leaving London and not some sweet bird called Caroline.
Its Tuesday night, I've spent the day cleaning the flat and its now all done - I'm quite impressed with the work to be honest, its probably the first bit of manual work I've done for years and I've got plenty more to come (its going to be one hell of a shock to the system).
Tomorrow its off up to Newcastle for the start of the new adventure - I'm just praying that everything gets sorted with the flat in the next couple of days.
Dull post I know but keeping it factual before the excitement begins.
See you all in May!

The Greatest Thing Ever (although nothing to do with my travels)

My Ski Years...

The live action view

My vids for the season will get posted on Youtube




At the moment there's only a few random vids on there of old ski years, the FA Vase, Kevs stag do and Suzie's wedding

Liberation

I've finished work, I'm packing the flat up and then I'm off up to Newcastle for a week before heading off to France next Wednesday.
Its been a strange week, winding down from work and saying my farewells to everyone. In a very geeky way it was also really odd to hand in my Blackberry - I've been liberated from work for the first time in 3 years! And to add to that the odds are that Carat won't be in Parker Tower when I get back so looks like its going to be very much a new start next November.
Now though its time to be looking forward, pack my bags, clean the flat and then see what the next 12 months has to offer.