A walk through Pollensa.

Link to a few photos.

Starfish

Day 7. We found a new beach and it was gorgeous. There was hardly anyone there. I saw a bright red starfish hiding unsuccessfully amongst the sea weed. #100happydays #Mallorca #EsMorerVermell

Flying

I went flyboarding yesterday and it was the coolest thing I've ever done. Without a shadow of a doubt. Tom and his team at FlyBoard Mallorca were awesome, so welcoming and friendly, it was like spending an afternoon with friends. The feeling of raising up out of the water and then you're flying over the surface, it's totally immense. Apparently I'm alright at it too, think it had something to do with snowboarding and a strong core. I hovered over to the boat to give Tom a high five and hovered away again, insane! There was a moment though when I realised how high off the water I was and I just crumpled, hit the water like a sack of bricks and bubbled back up, the life vest doing exactly what it was meant to do. I'm not a fan of heights, we know this already! It was so exhilarating, the whole experience absolutely rocked. :D

Got me thinking that even though I'm poor as a dormouse this summer my life is certainly rich with experience!

So day 7 of the 100 days of happiness challenge has to be all about flyboarding. #100happydays #Mallorca #amazing #epic

Read all about my experience by following this link. 

Beach

Day 5. #100happydays being at the beach in #PuertoPollensa. Seeing a family of sparrows take sand baths. Enjoying the sun and the water. Watching the fire fighting sea planes doing practice drills over the Bay.

Day three.

Business cards arrived. Let the writing commence.

SeeMallorca - content writing

#100happydays

Day one. Today I cleared out the villa after the guests had gone and I decided to share the goods with Catty. She's had a pack of ham and then these tasty ham chunks. Happy Catty.

Cat

Reflections and sun shine.

The eve of my birthday and thoughts are turning to the year that's just gone. It's been almost a year since I last blogged properly, a lot has happened. A whole winter season has passed, I was in my darling mountain town Morzine and once again I am back on my darling Mediterranean island Mallorca. The seasons come and go, so quickly. Tomorrow will be the first birthday that I won't get a call from my Dad to wish me happy birthday and to tell me that I must've been a good girl because the sun is shining. Dad lost his battle with colon cancer, from a diagnosis in May 2012 to his death in September 2013, the time just flew. I think the reason I haven't blogged since that happened is because I still just don't know how to put into words all the emotions. To watch someone who was so strong and full of life just disappear before your very eyes, literally wasting away day by day and there is nothing, not a single fucking thing, that you can do to stop it, it is the most horrendous feeling in the world. I'm so thankful that my sister and I got there when we did, a few days later and it would've been even worse. At least we got to share his last lucid moments with him and he knew we were there. I got to repay some of the kindness he always gave to me and some of the caring, helping him in his last few days, holding his hand when he was scared in the night, feeding him when he became too weak to do it himself, drying his tears when every now and then one would escape his eyes and roll down his gaunt, pale cheek and all the while trying to hold mine back. But still, even now, I know that I cannot say what I really want to because the words that are deep inside me just won't come, there is a blockage somewhere, I need to find it to get rid of it. I feel like I'm edited and I can't figure out why. I feel dull and lacklustre if I'm honest, not just about my feelings on my father's death, and the ensuing family fall out, but about a lot of aspects of my life.

But come now, on the eve of your 37th year Trine, it's surely got to be about positivity (be like a proton!) and being thankful for what you have and looking ahead, but not so much so that you forsake the present. Hopefully this year the curve balls will stop, at least for a wee while. I keep saying this and I desperately want it to happen, I want to get my ducks in a row. I have a bit of a disjointed existence that needs to come together again so that I can set off on adventures galore. I am thankful for so many things and so many people. My family and my friends, their support, friendship and love astounds me time and time again, it is wonderfully warming when you know that you truly can count on people to be there for you. My health, for the most part it's pretty good, apart from the blasted skin cancer which has made a reappearance. Yeah, that happened, that scar on my forehead, if I told you it was from smashing my head on a kitchen cupboard, sorry that was a lie. I guess I'm thankful that I look half decent with a fringe, cos this hairstyle is staying for a while! I'm thankful for my sense of humour, without it I would have struggled over the last little while. I'm thankful to nature, for inspiring me and intriguing me, awing me and making me want to explore. I do want to explore so that has got to be my top priority, keep going, seeing, doing, different places, faces, adventures. As Buzz would say, to infinity and beyond! There's really too much to be thankful for and there's too much good stuff happening to hold onto the bad. One day something will shift inside me and whatever is blocking the grieving, will fix itself and I will find the words for those emotions I keep deep down.

So on the eve of my 37th year, I have decided that tomorrow (or later today cos it's got that late!), my birthday, 31st of May I start my personal 100 days of happiness challenge. I will record it and share it and live it. 37, you will be a good year, even though as a number you're pretty meh, 37, it's not got a 5 or 0 in it, it's a middling kinda number, neither here nor there. Maybe I'll give 37 purpose and meaning?!

I wonder if the sun will shine tomorrow?

x

Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

I have so much to say but still don't know quite how to say it. So here is Tobias, a puppy full of life and happiness. I want to be just like Tobias.

Proton

Wheat grass and gratitude

I went back to the UK two weeks ago to surprise a friend for his 40th birthday. Felt good to know that I'd brought a bit of extra happiness to the proceedings just by making the trip back, he was stoked and that felt good to me. I'm all about feeling good and grateful and positive at the moment.

I'm on a bit of a life/health/happiness kick and I'm trying to find a more sustainable way to maintain all three of those things. Firstly I'm changing my eating habits. I was vegetarian for 10 years from 15-25 and then I fell hard from the pedestal of vegetarianism, it was a medium-rare fillet steak that knocked me off, it was my 25th birthday dinner and I said to myself "I'll be veggie again tomorrow". Well I'm now quite a few years down the line and I'm finally back to it. I always tried to be a mindful carnivore, buying free-range, organic, local, farm-shop etc. etc. etc. But the fact of the matter is that eating meat just doesn't sit well with me from various perspectives. For starters there's the ethical point of view, because let's face it, there is no such thing as humane meat, regardless of the lovely life the free-range animal lived, prancing about in fields eating fresh grass and hanging with its buddies, the rather shocking, fearful, terrifying end it meets basically negates all of the happiness. I'm not going to preach about it, people who are interested know full well that any sentient being that has a concept of itself, its herd, forms complex social structures and so on, can in no way be happy about being transported to a factory of fear and death to meet its maker. If you don't know about it, then be a doll and educate yourself. So ethically I can't do it and there is the environmental impact to consider. Again I'm not going to write an in depth commentary on the myriad of environmental wrongs that go hand in hand with our modern farming and livestock practices, if you want to find out then go forth and do some research for yourself, but from my point of view going veggie or vegan is the way forward to a sustainable and green future for the planet and all its inhabitants. To that end I'm adopting a vegan lifestyle with the luxury of being vegetarian one day a week. That small luxury will allow me to indulge one of my greatest loves, cheese. I know, dairy is wrong on so many levels and I will where possible, be a mindful cheese eater. Still I figure that my 6-1 split of vegan-vegetarian has got to be better for me and the world and is certainly a much bigger commitment than the average person's meat-free-Monday effort. I'm discovering an amazing new way of eating, vegetables figured heavily in my life beforehand, but now they are the main attraction and I'm excited to go on this culinary voyage of discovery!

I've been reading a book by Kriss Carr and I've enjoyed it immensely. I'm using her book to start my own wellness revolution. I really recommend reading it folks, it's great! I know that some people will balk at some of her suggestions, but when you read the same thing over and over again from a huge variety of sources, you just have to get on board. Everyday I do something that I find unpleasant, I have a shot of superfood greens - wheatgrass, spirulina, barley grass and that kind of stuff. It's not fun but I know it's good for me and I figure sometimes in life you have to do those things, the not fun but good for you things, because it balances out the fun and bad for you!

There's a few things in my life that are not very positive at the moment but I figure that all will work out in the end and what will be, will be. So I'm getting back into meditation as a means of bringing some focus, peace and positivity into the proceedings. I know, I sound totally hippie-dippy don't I, but so what! I found this great piece the other day on the ten things you can do to make yourself happier, it makes sense and if you didn't already know about it, there's a great blog 3BT, check it out, three beautiful things. It is actually one of the things proposed in the article that you can do to make yourself happier, be grateful for three things every day. So I plan on doing that, though it might not be in blog form, just a wee note to self at bedtime, maybe while brushing teeth instead of thinking of the stuff I have to deal with the next day.

So here's to positivity and gratitude, cheers, skol, salud, slainte! *Grimaces after downing a shot of wheat grass* (Infinitely better for me than all the shots of Jagermeister or toffee vodka I've had over the last two winter seasons, but a lot less fun.)

Shaded valleys, wild goats, rocky coves and being brave.

My friend Miss L. was here to visit and it was an amazing few days. Luckily I had fairly self sufficient guests so that left me able to really take advantage of having a visitor here, to act like a visitor myself. Several times on our magical mystery tours I felt like I too was on holiday.

We visited: Palma, the cathedral, the modern art museum, several cake shops and ate the most divine meringue in one of them. Inca. Lluc, with it's beautiful wee botanic garden and tiny blue butterflies. We hiked the Boquer valley and then swam in the crystalline sea and if we'd had sandwiches I sure would have shared mine with the wild goats that came to say hello. We went to the beach, out for drinks, took siestas in the air conditioned living rooms and had wonderful dinners out. One place we went to, on a whim of mine, a real spur of the moment thing, was one of my faves from last year that I had yet to revisit, it is called Bellaverde and it is like an oasis, I call it the secret garden. It is a luscious vegetarian/vegan restaurant where you sit in a magical courtyard under fig trees and the cats and dogs wander free, my idea of heaven basically.

I did something there which was quite bold! I caught the eye of a handsome chap, looked a bit like a surf bum with lovely sun bleached hair.We exchanged a few smiles during the course of our respective dinners and then came the time to leave. Could I muster up the courage to speak to him before I left? Sadly no. I left and as I walked out, we waved at each other. Buoyed by this action I decided I couldn't let the moment pass me by. I mean how many times in life have you caught someone's eye or exchanged a smile and thought, if I could just say hello then I could find out what an interesting person this is and explore whatever it is that made us smile at each other? I've thought that before but this time I didn't want to walk away wondering. I had a pen in my bag and Miss L. had an old business card, I wrote down my name and number and here's where my courage ran out...but Miss L. was on hand to see the plan through. She marched in there and gave him the card "from my friend" she said and he smiled.

I met him for a drink the following night and for dinner the night after that and hopefully we'll meet many more times....

Island life

Have decided that my early morning bread/pastries/paper delivery to the villas is a combination of Challenge Anneka & Indiana Jones interspersed with short World Rally stages through the narrow country lanes (where you have to watch out for dogs, goats and donkeys). The objective is to get in and out without the guests seeing you, if they do, they set you challenges. Trick is to park outside the gates, leave your engine running, at the ready you zap the gate open, mad dash to the breakfast table, dump the goodies and then run like the wind back to the gate before it closes, squeezing through just in time - that's a triumph.


Once it's done I get to drive home along the bay, between Alcudia and Puerto Pollensa. Some mornings I bring my breakfast, park up halfway along the bay and sit on the rocks looking out to sea while I have my morning repast. It makes me feel so lucky that I get to be here and all the guest issues melt away and so do all my other cares and worries. To just sit there and greet a new day in this gorgeous setting.

Belle de Neige: Chalet Bitching: The Truth

Belle de Neige: Chalet Bitching: The Truth  I just had to re-post this from Belle de Neige. It's excellent!

A season reviewed.... better late than never eh?!

So what happened there?! I fell off the face of the Earth it would appear! Actually what I think happened was that I was working and playing that hard, that I just didn't have time to blog. This second season back in Morzine involved a lot less bed days, none of that "just staying in to catch up on sleep, need to recuperate" and so on, this season I went for it.

So in review, chalet was grand, had it all to myself and loved it (except for the mornings when I woke up feeling like I was a hundred years old or feeling hungover, then a 10 man chalet poses a huge obstacle to overcome!). Had the accommodation to myself too, which was epic beyond belief!! Guests were great for the most part, met some interesting characters, had some real fun and lovely times with them. Had a good variety in the chalet this year, some of the highlights would be sitting down to Christmas dinner with my fave group, who were constantly late for dinner on account of a recommendation I made to them, "...visit my friend Tank at Cavern he'll introduce you to toffee vodka..." apres always went on with them and they usually brought it back to the chalet! Dancing on the tables, shots of any booze we had in the chalet, nights at the Cavern with them, amazing! This year I softened to kids it would appear, one particular brother and sister combo, they were so adorable and I will admit I shed a wee tear when they left. On their last morning the wee boy came down to breakfast before anyone else and as he sat there at the breakfast table he went a bit quiet, then said "I don't want to leave Trine, because you're really kind and make yummy food". Well there you have it folks, probably the best compliment and reference I'll ever get!

Snow was great this year, that's two for two now, epic snowfall and epic powder days with my friends. Riding the black run Le Bouquetin on Mont Chery, thigh deep powder spraying in my face, not seeing where I'm going but having the most amazing feeling of pure joy and hearing the whoops and hollers from my friends around me as they're feeling the same. Riding with one of my oldest friends, Nathalie, who came to visit during an amazing snow dump, and repeating the same runs through the trees and the off piste in the Ranfoilly bowl. Every time we got to the bottom, our faces plastered with a huge ear to ear grin and looking at each other and saying "Again?!" at the same time. Stopping for a beer or a vin chaud and feeling that you've really earned it after riding hard. One of my favourite things was seeing my friends progress over the season, getting better, bolder and braver as the weeks went on and one of my absolute best moments was encouraging Flic down her first black run, the Yeti in the Ranfoilly bowl. Listening to her continuous monologue of "shit, fuck, shit, fuck" but then seeing her grin at the end of it, well done lady, you did it!

People on a season, can make or break it, 2012-13's crop certainly made it! Highlights, Flic and me - easily led, "it's just one quick drink", she is the mischief to my mayhem. Alice MB, "what special powers do unicorns have then?", my wee minion. Juicy, just everything about Juicy. Vicky, "where you to mate", I learnt to speak a bit more west country thanks to Vicky and learnt the importance of taking off coats and jackets during team meetings, and that crocs are not acceptable, but I still wear them, just when cooking, which is something I learnt from Giles. Stacey, "snakey-snakey to giraffe-giraffe" and the realisation that it's not easy when you're learning. Teresa - teabag just for being you - and the priceless look on Giles' face as we re-enacted Bacon dog and ended in fits of giggles, "bacon, yes... nooooooooo!!!!!". Jon saying "I realise it's April fool's you fucking fucker!" when I rang to tell him there was a horse in my chalet, after he had already received calls to let him know that, hosts hadn't turned up at one chalet, the balcony door had come off in another and that the hot tub had flooded the shop below in yet another chalet. Jon's laughing fit when I did the scorpion into the powder right in front of him. Tipping  with her skis  up hill and her new shiny, red helmet downhill, stuck in the powder. Finally meeting Richie, the drunkest man in Morzine, and making a Twitter friend into a real life friend, we still need to ride together though! One of my fave days was getting Giles out of the kitchen after first having an amazing lunch of goat cheese souffle with yummy puy lentils, riding in the Ranfoilly bowl on one of the first proper spring days, so hot we rode with jackets open and just t-shirts underneath, then going back to his kitchen for freshly made madeleines and rum hot choc - a perfect day! Soooooo many great moments I couldn't possibly even do them justice by listing here, suffice to say that these people and many more, made my season special, really super memories made and hopefully life-long friendships.

One thing I have learnt from my season is that I have a weakness which really has turned into an allergy, Scottish guys, especially those a few years younger than me. Steer well clear of hot Scots you meet in toilet queues who turn out to be your Christmas day present, and definitely avoid at all costs the hot Scot lead singer in a band. You know, you learn these lessons in life, hopefully you had fun along the way, I did so all good!! Later in the season I met The Pilot, he's older than me, swapped the numbers round and took a chance....we'll see how that works out. Come now, don't blush, you knew there was going to be a salacious paragraph in here somewhere and frankly, I've cleaned it up for public consumption, what do you expect, I'm a chalet girl - this is what we do... haha! ;-)

What else can I tell you about my season, not that much more, you had to be there I guess to really appreciate it. Starting in Val with team clean and my dear Jam-jam (aka, Noblet), then Morzine my alpine home town for 5 whole months and ending up back in Val at the end of the season for the final hoorah. I treasure the memories I've made and I look forward to going back to make more.

I ♥ Morzine.

Val D. Rah rah.

I'm glad I'm not doing a season here. Live and let live and all that, but no way I could live here even for a season. Couldn't handle the people. End of.

Bruises, bloody noses and other bad things

There are some bad things about doing a season and working as a chalet host (or in my case at the moment, as part of the team of helper elves that get everything organised before all the others arrive). Bruises for one, I have bruises on my knees from bed making, believe it or not. I also get bloody noses a lot. I never quite acclimatise to the dry, hot chalet environment so every morning I have a super blocked, dry nose and when I blow it it usually turns into a bloody mess. The other bad thing at the moment is tiredness and frayed tempers. All it takes is the wrong inflection in someone's voice, a certain tone or little dig and then, with me particularly, light the touch paper and stand well back. I am a fiery wee thing, a red headed Viking, that easily bursts into a rage. That just happened. I'm still angry and consequently keeping to myself, not going to the pub tonight. Angry drinking would not be good. Plus tomorrow is a busy day as 25 or so of the new staff arrive tomorrow evening.

So I shall moisturise my dry, already chapped hands from all the bathrooms I've cleaned. Lay back and stretch out my back, sore from two solid hours of hoovering. Relax and unwind, with a beer and my own moody, miserable company. Yay, oh to be a seasonaire.

Don't worry, normal service will resume shortly and I'll stop being such a mardi bitch.

TRASHED

three letters

FBI, CIA, NSA; all of those three acronyms figure in the books that I'm reading at the moment. They're a series of books by David Baldacci, The Camel Club. I'm really enjoying them, on the second one now.

Other three letter acronyms that are a part of my life at the moment are BVD, MOR and VDI. Part of our helper elves job here in VDI is to make sure things are going to the right places for the right times, food for cooking training, paperwork for certain modules, boxes for other resorts etc. So knowing what your three letters stand for is pretty useful.

There's one acronym that's not been a part of my life for some time, TLI. It was a Twitter interaction today that brought TLI into my thoughts. Made me a wee bit sad and angry if I'm honest. Bit of a mess of feelings actually that I don't quite know how to verbalise.... It's puzzling me and keeping me awake and all I should be thinking now is ZZZ. So going to give that a shot and see if the ZZZs push out all the other three letter acronyms dancing round my head.

The marmot is in the mountains

Day one of Team Clean is done. Hello to all from Val d'Isere. One day down, one lorry unloaded, one chalet cleaned and about 100 recipe folders put together. We took a drive down to Bourg St. Maurice to do some food shopping and the vistas were tremendous. Snowcapped mountains, the glacier, the dam full to the brim of ice cold water throwing up reflections and shimmering in the sunlight. Absolutely gorgeous. Next time I'll remember to take a pic of it!

Have a look at these:
To you they may look like a box of toothpicks, what's so bad about that you may ask? Well let me tell you, this box of toothpicks, despite the name on the front, bring neither Joy nor a sense of Festival Festivity to a chalet host. For these are not toothpicks with which you might spear a fat olive, use for canapes or even pick your teeth. No, they are toothpicks for picking off limescale in the bathroom and kitchen. Yes, you read that correctly. These little sticks of wood are used for chipping away hard calcium carbonate deposits. I would prefer to it another way but toothpicks are considerably less expensive than lemons.

We're in a huge building that houses about 70 staff and we're rattling around on one floor of it. We've relaxed in the common room watching a film this evening. Though we've all been slightly perturbed at having to utilise the sofas in the communal area. We've all heard stories you see, and we're concerned for the upholstery and its state of cleanliness. Just don't put your face on a pillow or the armrest and you'll be fine...

The rock and roll lifestyle of this seasonaire involves being in bed with a cup of tea nice and early on a Saturday night, for tomorrow we have a LOT of cleaning to do. Don't worry though, the blog will be interesting as the season progresses, I won't always be going to bed early with a cup of tea....

Angels, bridges (inc. Oresund), wind turbines, Danish pastry and the C word

I’m on my way to Copenhagen from Nibe, where I’ve been staying with my Dad and his gf Glaucia. I left their apartment at 7am this morning and I won’t get to where I’m going until about 9-10pm. It’s going to be a long day! Currently I’m on a train journey that’s going to take 5 hours and 20 minutes. Plenty of time to sit and think, and to see the beautiful Danish countryside as we chug through it. I’ve not seen as many cows as I’d like to have seen so far, that saddens me. I have however seen lots of wind turbines and that makes me happy.

I was born in Denmark and my parents left when I was 1 and half or 2. I’d been here for Christmas when I was 6 and then for a christening when I was 18. That’s it. That doesn’t add up to a whole lot of time. Since my Mum passed I don’t really speak Danish to anyone, the lingo is very rusty indeed. So rusty was it that when I met Christian this summer, I insisted that we should speak English! Now however, I would be so bold as to actually have a conversation in my mother tongue. It’s cool really how from the depths of my little peanut brain came this language that I thought had long left. I’ve chatted away quite happily to folk during my Danish dash, some times less eloquently than I perhaps would like but it’s made me happy! So I’ve decided that I should come back really soon and travel around a bit. I’d like to explore the country I’ve seen whizzing by outside my train window today.

The reason for my being here of course is that my Dad is here receiving treatment for his bowel cancer. The C word. That horrible C word that will affect 1 in 3 of us. If I should become that 1 in 3 then I hope that I will be able to fight it like my Dad has. So far he’s had 4 chemo sessions and it looks like that might be the worst of it over and done with. For a cancer patient he looks amazing, the hair loss was hardly an issue as he basically only had a handful of hairs on his head anyway! He’s looked after himself so well over the last few years and I think that has given him a real boost in dealing with this sickness. He’s not lost weight or his appetite which is great. His nurses all loved him and the last time he had chemo they all came in to say goodbye and to thank him for being such a great patient and that he’d been a breath of fresh air for them. That’s my pops, always making friends along the way. One of his nurses came in one day and asked him to please tell her his life story. She took time out from her busy day to sit and chat and listen, I love that. He’s done amazingly well and I know he’s not out of the woods yet, still a way to go and who knows what will happen in the future, but for the moment I feel so insanely happy that he is doing well and it certainly looks like he is on the way to recovery.

Those of you that know me will know that I think organised religion is a bunch of baloney. I am a ‘spiritual’ person though, for want of a better word. Glaucia received an email from a friend, one of those chain type emails that you’re supposed to forward on and you’ll be blessed somehow, you know the ones. Well I must admit the ones people send me usually end up in the trash cos I kinda think that if some God is going to bless me, it probably won’t be via email! This email said some Angels would visit us, can’t remember all their names but I know Gabriel was among them and Metatron (which is the cool cos it’s like a Transformers name!!). Anyway, this morning as I got in the taxi and drove away from Dad’s, a song came on the radio; it was ‘I Have a Dream' by ABBA, the chorus starts: I Believe in Angels. No, I'm not converted or anything of the sort, I just thought it was kinda funny/odd/relevant and I must admit it did make me slightly emotional. Sometimes things like that happen, don’t they?

Right then, I'm going to sit back and relax now. Next stop, Kastrup airport then Geneva airport and then the Alps. Mountains here I come!

Things I saw in DK:

A fox. Or rather what a fox used to wear. In the window of a charity shop. Did you know Denmark's number one export to China is fur? Bet you didn't. Not something that I personally would be proud of.

A place to leave your dog outside the supermarket. Love it. 

Kanelsnegle. Authentic Danish pastry. Perfect with a cup of tea after a bracing walk in the harbour wearing  your Sarah Lund sweater.