Vicki's revenge!

Vicki has had a good week in her chalet with a relatively accommodating family of 6. Two parents and four kids aged between 8 and 13, who all seem to eat normal things, want a nice early dinner and don’t hang around having coffee and digestifs until the early hours of the morning. All of which means that Vicki has been able to get a routine going to enable her to be in the pub before 10pm. Bargain. She even managed to join the tail end of my Monday night work drinks (which seem to inevitably follow the Monday team meeting at 5pm) and meet quite a few of my fellow instructors. A deal was struck whereby Vicki spoke to them in French and they then replied in English (or a drunken approximation in any case...). I believe I was accompanied home around 11.00, but I have to admit I couldn’t swear to that in a court of law. I blame the Swiss phenomenon of Shakers, which are cheap cocktail shakers doled out in shot glasses and seemed to consist of various alcoholic beverages including Abricotine (the local apricot liqueur). Or it could have been the large number of beers I had alongside the Shakers, I’m not sure which.

Vicki’s guests went even further to endear themselves towards her by choosing to have an additional meal out of the chalet on Tuesday evening. This meant that Vic’s day off could start a little earlier as she did not have to worry about cooking dinner for them that night. We had planned therefore to go out with all her Ski Verbier posse and make a night of it on Tuesday before a small lie-in on Wednesday and some nice gentle skiing on the slopes mid-morning. However, I was informed at 6pm that evening that my first lesson would be starting at 9am on Wednesday morning with two little girls aged 4 and 6. Our plans were therefore slightly disrupted, but Vicki made up for us both by drinking the Pub Mont Fort dry along with her colleagues who benefited from free beer all night (well, from 10 onwards, but no-one goes out before then anyway... the continental lifestyle you know...). So my early departure around 1am was hardly noticed by most of the SV crew, much less so than Vicki’s return at about 3.30am back to our flat. I think that was her form of revenge for the last few weeks, but she swears not.

My first lesson was nonetheless a success, despite really heavy snow (have I mentioned it just keeps snowing here by the way?). The two girls seemed to enjoy themselves and even booked a further two days’ lessons for the rest of the week. So I must be doing something right! And it means I get an extra 50p for every additional hour they have booked. Result! It is quite a strange feeling to get excited about an extra £3 (gross mind you) in your weekly pay packet. Money takes on a whole different meaning out here as well, as you simply have to earn enough to pay rent and drink beer. The rest is incidental. I’m not sure any seasonnaire has ever heard of a savings account, let alone an ISA or investment fund. Which, in the current climate, is probably no bad thing.

Christmas week is creeping up on us and we are awaiting the arrival of hoards of people – mainly English drunk people – to take up slope space and bar space. Thankfully just two weeks later the majority of tourists will head home to their boring jobs and leave the slopes and bars to those of us who deserve them.

Oh and for those avid readers of this blog, I had mentioned the possibility of a plum deal coming my way. Well this actually fell through. I was going to be hired for the season, effectively as a guide more than as an instructor, by a very rich couple (along with a more experienced instructor). We would basically have been at their disposal for three weeks out of 4. The perks would have been to be wined and dined during the days and evenings, meeting some of their apparently famous friends and not having to worry about scrounging lessons off the secretary. The downsides would have been having to be extra nice every day, carrying her skis, helping her with her boots and generally sucking up to this woman. And I wouldn't have actually done much instructing. But it is all a moot point now anyway, as she decided to stay with the guy she had last year who has left Adrenaline for one of the other schools. Not overly worried about it but it would have made for some good anecdotes if nothing else! Hey ho, bring on the nursery slopes... ;o)