It turns out I'm quite good at it. Though to be fair, I probably could've told you that. The thing is I have zero confidence in myself and when I persistently get chosen to give presentations, to stand up in front of crowds and talk, to get up in front of a class and teach, I somehow always pull it off but question why people keep asking me!? I wonder how it is that you can be good at something and have zero confidence in your own ability? I had to do my version of the "welcome speech" to the chalet guests tonight and apparently I passed with flying colours. Not only was it to my chalet mates, it was to our trainers and two special guests - one a legendary chalet host within the company and the other, the financial director of the company, yikes! Actual feedback from the night "I've never heard a more smooth flowing, natural sounding and friendly first welcome speech ever. Well done, you have set the bar high for your fellow trainees".
I rock. Fact.
I'm also drunk. Fact.
And that's probably why I'm a cocky twat at the moment! Let's see how my first cooking session goes on Tuesday... *she says preparing to fall flat on her face, give people food poisoning and eat humble pie*
Sunday, 4 December 2011
One drink, yeah? Just ONE drink...
Isn't this how all good evenings start? OK, maybe not ALL good evenings but some certainly start that way. I just wanted one beer, sadly we're not allowed any booze in the chalets during training (apparently the debauched lot of trainees from last year ruined it for everyone!), so I had to go out last night. Think of it as part of training. If I think of it like that then I don't feel so bad about my thumping head, dry mouth and extreme tiredness. It's all part of the experience eh?! Thankfully today is the start of cooking demos, so all I have to do for most of the day is sit and watch people cooking. The only thing I have to do well at today is the welcome speech, it's my turn to do this tonight and there's some managers coming along, so I better get it right!
We had to do some presentations yesterday, my group had to do 'The Season of the Chalet Host'. We compiled a list of statistics based on an 8 person chalet and a 20 week season, and read them out. Might not sound thrilling but it was.
One season, one host.
160 guests, 160 perfect guest questionnaires ;)
140 cakes baked, 1920 meals cooked.
50 glasses broken, 600 toilets cleaned, 300 Jägerbombs consumed, 16 hissy fits pitched.
3 chalet fires, 2 ski injuries, 30 skiing days lost due to severe hangover :(
1200 eggs cracked (20 on the floor).
720 bottles of chalet wine consumed by guests (unknown quantity consumed by staff).
1400 toilet rolls fluffed, 60 new friends made... chalet hosting, best decision ever.
That last line, best decision ever, that remains to be seen but I'm positive at the moment! We were going to include a line about how many new people you sleep with or "countries conquered", but we thought we'd best keep it clean for management. ;)
We had to do some presentations yesterday, my group had to do 'The Season of the Chalet Host'. We compiled a list of statistics based on an 8 person chalet and a 20 week season, and read them out. Might not sound thrilling but it was.
One season, one host.
160 guests, 160 perfect guest questionnaires ;)
140 cakes baked, 1920 meals cooked.
50 glasses broken, 600 toilets cleaned, 300 Jägerbombs consumed, 16 hissy fits pitched.
3 chalet fires, 2 ski injuries, 30 skiing days lost due to severe hangover :(
1200 eggs cracked (20 on the floor).
720 bottles of chalet wine consumed by guests (unknown quantity consumed by staff).
1400 toilet rolls fluffed, 60 new friends made... chalet hosting, best decision ever.
That last line, best decision ever, that remains to be seen but I'm positive at the moment! We were going to include a line about how many new people you sleep with or "countries conquered", but we thought we'd best keep it clean for management. ;)
Saturday, 3 December 2011
Training days.
Food hygiene this morning. Company structure this afternoon. Food hygiene was good. I mean as good as it can get, learning about E-coli 0157 and clostridium perfringens, and washing your hands constantly. Had some lunch and amazingly enough we're watching cooking programmes now, cos it's not like we have enough cooking in our lives already!
Right, I've got to take advantage of this down time to get an article on green snowboarding issues written.
À bientôt.
Right, I've got to take advantage of this down time to get an article on green snowboarding issues written.
À bientôt.
Friday, 2 December 2011
The eagle has landed ... and the fields are green.
YAAAAAAAY! I'm here. The eagle has landed and the fields are green, sounds like code speak between two secret agents dropping off a briefcase full of top secret documents. But it's not, I have landed and the fields are indeed very, very green. There is not a flake of snow to be seen, so it's safe to say that I won't be testing out my new set up just yet.
What a journey! We were late leaving Wimbledon, the ferry was delayed because of bad weather during the crossing and the drive seemed to go on forever. We left Wimbledon about 3:30pm and we got to Morzine at about 11am. Guess what? There was one girl wearing a onesie on the bus, just one, and it WASN'T me!! So far so good though, there's a couple of people that I reckon I'll be spending some quality time with in my resort. Met an awesome girl called Sarah who's just come back from mountaineering in Nepal, she's rad. Shame though she'll be in Verbier for the season.
We're chilling at the chalet at the mo. Had some breakfast, getting settled in, getting acquainted with some of my training buddies and hearing war stories from seasons past. The chalet we're in for training is lush: http://www.vip-chalets.com/chalets/Dakota-Lodge Have a look!
I've heard good things about tips from returning staff, so fingers crossed I'll be able to live off tips and leave my wage in the bank... best laid plans and all that. Better dial up that mega-watt smile and get a polo shirt one size too small! Haha!
Some dude has just walked in, cutting the sag massively, and when he introduced himself he said 'awwright darlin' in a proper geezer accent. There aren't too many hoorays here, I'm guessing that Hugo, Cristabella, Tarquin and Isabella are all in Val d'Isere. Seems like there's more normal people here, less of the silver spoon/trust fund brigade, living off Daddy's Amex crowd. Which is good, cos my Daddy hasn't got an Amex so I wouldn't be able to keep up, it's the budget tour for me and seems like there's a few others that this applies to too.
Shower time and then maybe a wander round the town. Throat feels like crap today, but that's to be expected I guess after 20-21 hours on a bus/ferry/car and no sleep. Going to dose up on painkillers and get on with it.
Check ya laters alligators!
What a journey! We were late leaving Wimbledon, the ferry was delayed because of bad weather during the crossing and the drive seemed to go on forever. We left Wimbledon about 3:30pm and we got to Morzine at about 11am. Guess what? There was one girl wearing a onesie on the bus, just one, and it WASN'T me!! So far so good though, there's a couple of people that I reckon I'll be spending some quality time with in my resort. Met an awesome girl called Sarah who's just come back from mountaineering in Nepal, she's rad. Shame though she'll be in Verbier for the season.
We're chilling at the chalet at the mo. Had some breakfast, getting settled in, getting acquainted with some of my training buddies and hearing war stories from seasons past. The chalet we're in for training is lush: http://www.vip-chalets.com/chalets/Dakota-Lodge Have a look!
I've heard good things about tips from returning staff, so fingers crossed I'll be able to live off tips and leave my wage in the bank... best laid plans and all that. Better dial up that mega-watt smile and get a polo shirt one size too small! Haha!
Some dude has just walked in, cutting the sag massively, and when he introduced himself he said 'awwright darlin' in a proper geezer accent. There aren't too many hoorays here, I'm guessing that Hugo, Cristabella, Tarquin and Isabella are all in Val d'Isere. Seems like there's more normal people here, less of the silver spoon/trust fund brigade, living off Daddy's Amex crowd. Which is good, cos my Daddy hasn't got an Amex so I wouldn't be able to keep up, it's the budget tour for me and seems like there's a few others that this applies to too.
Shower time and then maybe a wander round the town. Throat feels like crap today, but that's to be expected I guess after 20-21 hours on a bus/ferry/car and no sleep. Going to dose up on painkillers and get on with it.
Check ya laters alligators!
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
T minus 38 hours...
Wow, what a whirlwind the last few weeks have been. I've got 38 hours to go. 38 hours before I'm getting on a coach and heading off to the ALPS! Things have been a bit hectic. Back from visiting my Dad in Portugal. Metro ski and snowboard show with War and Piste. Freeze festival with War and Piste, such amazing fun, totally sick and rad (yes, I did just write that). http://warandpiste.com/index.html for those of you wondering what that is. Seeing friends and family. Then things took a turn, you couldn't make this stuff up, seriously. This weekend was meant to be the last big hurrah with all my friends, but it went slightly awry. I had an appointment on Friday with an ENT consultant, he put a telescope thingy up my nose that then dangled down my throat - felt pretty grim. The upshot of all this was that he wanted me to come into hospital on the following Monday to have a biopsy of my adenoids. Yeah, that kinda put a spanner in the works. I had literally every day planned and there was lots to fit in. So I had to forego seeing some of my oldest and dearest friends on the Friday night so that I could get most of my packing done because on Saturday I had plenty to do.
Just to add to my last minute stresses my car failed the MOT and I needed to go get two new tyres put on, so off to the breakers yard for a couple of part worns on Saturday morning and back to the garage for the re-test, passed, yay! Then into town to find a costume for my leaving do - the theme was T. Back to the house to sort out stuff. Non-stop, go, go, go!
My leaving do was fantastic, my friends made such a big effort, they came from far and wide and I feel so honoured to have such amazing people in my life. There were tigers, truckers, Mr. Tickle, Teen Wolf, Titania, the Trotters, a tampon, the three Trines and many more! It was awesome, it got messy and the next day was a very hungover day.
I said goodbye to some people on the Saturday and Sunday, now I know I'm only going for 5 months, and I'm only going to France, it's not like I'm moving to outer Mongolia for 3 years but it's still sad to say goodbye. What I was surprised about was how certain goodbyes felt very different to the way I thought they'd feel. I have some friendships that have really only blossomed recently and those goodbyes felt harder in a way than some others. The one goodbye that I thought would really affect me, didn't, not the way I thought, it was weird. Maybe that's because there's only so many times you can say goodbye to one person and everything that that person means to you. Funny thing the human psyche, how emotions and thoughts don't always play out as you expect them to.
Anyway, that was a brief deep and meaningful interlude. Back to the nose/throat story. The hospital on Monday, anaesthetist put the frighteners up me massively explaining the risk to me with my asthma and the start of a cold, said he was unsure about proceeding but because I'm leaving on Thursday they were going to push ahead with it. Told me this would be the time I'd be most susceptible to a chest infection, which is the last thing I need to take with me to the mountains! Anyway, I had the biopsy done, results come next week but the consultant has a gut feeling all is OK. When I came round from the anaesthetic I was so concerned with what I'd say and what utter drivel I would talk but I surprised myself by being remarkably coherent. I know someone who said something about telling her husband to get some logs, and the recovery room nurse said the best one she had was a woman who had to feed her chickens and apparently went to get out of her bed. Today my throat is feeling pretty sore, but the ice cream is helping! Haagen-Dazs Pralines & Cream, mmm. A side effect of the intubation is that the uvula takes a bit of a beating and today it's swollen and seems a lot longer than usual, so long and dangly in fact that it's making me gag. It's pretty gross. So long as I'm quiet it's all good. Me being quiet is strange. One of my friends said she could tell I wasn't talking much cos my text messages were even longer than usual! Ha!
Last bits of packing to get done tomorrow but I'm pretty much there (I hope!). Should only need a few hours of mucking around. Got to get the car cleaned up and cleared out. Get my room sorted, looking neat and tidy. Then final drinks with a few friends tomorrow night. Getting a lift from a friend up to Wimbledon on Thursday which is where the coach is departing from, yay, didn't much fancy the train up with a suitcase, boardbag and rucksack. Massive bonus.
How do I feel about going away? Excited, apprehensive, on the cusp (of greatness or failure, don't know which yet?!), shy, out of my comfort zone, adventurous. A whole mess of feelings. I've been practising chalet menus (that have been well received by friends) but haven't managed to cook it all so I'm nervous about cooking. I'm concerned everyone else will be 12. I'm afraid I won't cope with everything I have to do. I'm afraid of failure, I always am, always have been and when I was younger I would always sabotage myself, might as well fail before even really trying. But without sounding like a twat, I've not really failed at anything I really wanted to achieve in the last few years - certain things like my environmental science degree and my teaching qualification. I have a t-shirt that has the word underachiever on it and over the last few years a few people have commented on it and said I'm anything but, I don't really see it, I'm not an over achiever, I just want what I want. The point is, I want to do well and I'm afraid I won't, it worries me but all I can do is try my best, at everything - cooking, hosting, drinking, partying, snowboarding and everything in between!!!
OK, last thought for the day, over the last few months people have asked me "what do you do?" and I answer with "I'm going to France to be a chalet host", because that's what I'm going to do, that's my adventure. Why is it that the very next thing that comes out of their mouths is "what will you do when you come back?" Why? Why ask that? It's annoying to me!!! I don't know what I'm going to do after that, when I come back, if I come back? All I know is that I want to focus on this next adventure and I want to enjoy every second of it, live it while it's happening, because it'll be over in the blink of an eye and next April/May I'll start wondering what's next, but not until then. So if you see me out and about and I tell you I'm going to be a chalet host in France then just congratulate me.
Xx
Just to add to my last minute stresses my car failed the MOT and I needed to go get two new tyres put on, so off to the breakers yard for a couple of part worns on Saturday morning and back to the garage for the re-test, passed, yay! Then into town to find a costume for my leaving do - the theme was T. Back to the house to sort out stuff. Non-stop, go, go, go!
My leaving do was fantastic, my friends made such a big effort, they came from far and wide and I feel so honoured to have such amazing people in my life. There were tigers, truckers, Mr. Tickle, Teen Wolf, Titania, the Trotters, a tampon, the three Trines and many more! It was awesome, it got messy and the next day was a very hungover day.
I said goodbye to some people on the Saturday and Sunday, now I know I'm only going for 5 months, and I'm only going to France, it's not like I'm moving to outer Mongolia for 3 years but it's still sad to say goodbye. What I was surprised about was how certain goodbyes felt very different to the way I thought they'd feel. I have some friendships that have really only blossomed recently and those goodbyes felt harder in a way than some others. The one goodbye that I thought would really affect me, didn't, not the way I thought, it was weird. Maybe that's because there's only so many times you can say goodbye to one person and everything that that person means to you. Funny thing the human psyche, how emotions and thoughts don't always play out as you expect them to.
Anyway, that was a brief deep and meaningful interlude. Back to the nose/throat story. The hospital on Monday, anaesthetist put the frighteners up me massively explaining the risk to me with my asthma and the start of a cold, said he was unsure about proceeding but because I'm leaving on Thursday they were going to push ahead with it. Told me this would be the time I'd be most susceptible to a chest infection, which is the last thing I need to take with me to the mountains! Anyway, I had the biopsy done, results come next week but the consultant has a gut feeling all is OK. When I came round from the anaesthetic I was so concerned with what I'd say and what utter drivel I would talk but I surprised myself by being remarkably coherent. I know someone who said something about telling her husband to get some logs, and the recovery room nurse said the best one she had was a woman who had to feed her chickens and apparently went to get out of her bed. Today my throat is feeling pretty sore, but the ice cream is helping! Haagen-Dazs Pralines & Cream, mmm. A side effect of the intubation is that the uvula takes a bit of a beating and today it's swollen and seems a lot longer than usual, so long and dangly in fact that it's making me gag. It's pretty gross. So long as I'm quiet it's all good. Me being quiet is strange. One of my friends said she could tell I wasn't talking much cos my text messages were even longer than usual! Ha!
Last bits of packing to get done tomorrow but I'm pretty much there (I hope!). Should only need a few hours of mucking around. Got to get the car cleaned up and cleared out. Get my room sorted, looking neat and tidy. Then final drinks with a few friends tomorrow night. Getting a lift from a friend up to Wimbledon on Thursday which is where the coach is departing from, yay, didn't much fancy the train up with a suitcase, boardbag and rucksack. Massive bonus.
How do I feel about going away? Excited, apprehensive, on the cusp (of greatness or failure, don't know which yet?!), shy, out of my comfort zone, adventurous. A whole mess of feelings. I've been practising chalet menus (that have been well received by friends) but haven't managed to cook it all so I'm nervous about cooking. I'm concerned everyone else will be 12. I'm afraid I won't cope with everything I have to do. I'm afraid of failure, I always am, always have been and when I was younger I would always sabotage myself, might as well fail before even really trying. But without sounding like a twat, I've not really failed at anything I really wanted to achieve in the last few years - certain things like my environmental science degree and my teaching qualification. I have a t-shirt that has the word underachiever on it and over the last few years a few people have commented on it and said I'm anything but, I don't really see it, I'm not an over achiever, I just want what I want. The point is, I want to do well and I'm afraid I won't, it worries me but all I can do is try my best, at everything - cooking, hosting, drinking, partying, snowboarding and everything in between!!!
OK, last thought for the day, over the last few months people have asked me "what do you do?" and I answer with "I'm going to France to be a chalet host", because that's what I'm going to do, that's my adventure. Why is it that the very next thing that comes out of their mouths is "what will you do when you come back?" Why? Why ask that? It's annoying to me!!! I don't know what I'm going to do after that, when I come back, if I come back? All I know is that I want to focus on this next adventure and I want to enjoy every second of it, live it while it's happening, because it'll be over in the blink of an eye and next April/May I'll start wondering what's next, but not until then. So if you see me out and about and I tell you I'm going to be a chalet host in France then just congratulate me.
Xx
Sunday, 23 October 2011
Sunny Sunday stroll.
Sent from my BlackBerry®
Monday, 17 October 2011
Jamming forks into my ears...
I've just landed. Back from a week at my Dad's in Portugal. The holiday was brilliant, great weather, great food, great company, as always. I always have a great time with my Dad.
The reason why this entry is titled forks in my ears is because that's what I wanted to do to myself on the flight back from Lisbon. Just so that I wouldn't have to listen to any more of the inane drivel that was passing as conversation on my flight. The couple sharing my row talked in painstaking detail, for the best part of an hour, about every single meal they had consumed during their holiday. Not in a foodie way mind you, just talking basics, not extolling the virtues of an Atlantic oyster versus the characteristics of one from the Mediterranean, just the mere basics of what they ate, what time of day and where they were. I don't think I've ever heard such a dull conversation about something that can be really very exciting.
Across the gap into seats d, e and f there was a middle aged couple and one other person. Thankfully for her she fell asleep instantaneously and was spared the two and a half hours of sudoku arguing, flight analysis to ease the woman's frayed nerves, a discussion on 'serif vs sans serif' and an in depth guide to the intricacies of the man's iPad. This last one was particularly interesting because he had absolutely no clue what he was talking about and in essence what he told the woman was that an iPad is magic, it's powered by magic, works like magic and presumably, I'm extrapolating here, you pay for it with magic... Magic beans perhaps?!
Yes, I could well have put my headphones in and listened to music, if only I'd been less efficient when packing, my headphones were in my case in the belly of the magic flying beast.
:)
The reason why this entry is titled forks in my ears is because that's what I wanted to do to myself on the flight back from Lisbon. Just so that I wouldn't have to listen to any more of the inane drivel that was passing as conversation on my flight. The couple sharing my row talked in painstaking detail, for the best part of an hour, about every single meal they had consumed during their holiday. Not in a foodie way mind you, just talking basics, not extolling the virtues of an Atlantic oyster versus the characteristics of one from the Mediterranean, just the mere basics of what they ate, what time of day and where they were. I don't think I've ever heard such a dull conversation about something that can be really very exciting.
Across the gap into seats d, e and f there was a middle aged couple and one other person. Thankfully for her she fell asleep instantaneously and was spared the two and a half hours of sudoku arguing, flight analysis to ease the woman's frayed nerves, a discussion on 'serif vs sans serif' and an in depth guide to the intricacies of the man's iPad. This last one was particularly interesting because he had absolutely no clue what he was talking about and in essence what he told the woman was that an iPad is magic, it's powered by magic, works like magic and presumably, I'm extrapolating here, you pay for it with magic... Magic beans perhaps?!
Yes, I could well have put my headphones in and listened to music, if only I'd been less efficient when packing, my headphones were in my case in the belly of the magic flying beast.
:)
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