I know, you have all missed us. Contrary to what some people may be saying, we have not been arrested and locked up for drunk and disorderly conduct. Well not yet anyway. It is simply that our trusty laptop decided to give up the ghost. Now in normal circumstances (ie not stuck in a Swiss ski resort where “the internet” is regarded as magic and divination) this would not have caused too many problems. However, being out here the laptop has become a real lifeline to civilisation. A few calls to various friends in high places – or at least in places where “Logon Initialization Failure” has slightly more meaning than in Vicki's or my brain – lead us to the conclusion that we were up a certain creek without a ski pole. But luckily our expert friends cheerfully informed us that a simple disc should be able to solve all our problems. Just one disc. Simple. Ah... that would be the one disc which we very carefully packed away and put into storage, lest we lose it on our travels. Bugger. But divine intervention (well we certainly refer to him as God over in these parts) was able to send us a replacement disc, with very CLEAR AND IDIOT-PROOF INSTRUCTIONS. Which is lucky, because even with those in hand I struggled something chronic to get the thing to work. But in the end, brute strength prevailed over technology and I managed to get the disc into the computer. Now to work out how to get it to do whatever it is supposed to do.... Not to bore you with the finer details, it eventually worked and here we are back in the land of the connected. Thanks to all those we spoke to, you know who you are. You are life savers!
All this to say that the last three weeks or so since our last post have been relatively uneventful. Vicki has of course been working her little fingers to the bone in the chalet. Her guests have mostly once again comprised of small children, but this week sees her taking care of three adults - a welcome change, with no kids' tea, fast eating in the evening and guests who take breakfast when they say they will! And a bonus is that fry-ups are not required, thus freeing up her time to do the cleaning and other tasks requiring her attention. Last week also saw the reintroduction of her having to her food orders online. This is a new system which definitely still has some flaws to iron out. But when her manager asked for feedback, I am not sure he was expecting quite the list a Chartered Marketer, formerly responsible for the publication of numerous websites, would deliver! But at least this means fewer trips round Co-Op for Vicki, barging other companies' reps out of the way and fighting for the tills. But she has managed in amongst all that work to take the board out again for a few runs. The beginner slope behind our flat has proved an ideal blooding ground for her. And now that she is linking turns on there, the next step is to head up the mountain and try the proper slopes... watch this space!
My two weeks of half term were actually not as bad as they could have been. I was given some children both weeks to take care of, but thankfully all good skiers and only one for the first week and two for the second. And the first week allowed me to be entertained for lunch in the only 5 star hotel in Verbier, the Chalet d'Adrien. For three days! The clients decided that they would rather eat all together (the other two kids each had their own instructor...) and so we eat - at their expense of course - on the sun terrace, lapping up the rays and looking out onto Verbier from on high, three days running. This was actually the start of the rather alarming warm weather. On one day, the thermometer on Vicki's chalet's balcony actually read 25 degrees Celsius!!!!! That is so wrong it beggars belief! My second week of clients had me leading a 9-year old and a 11-year old around for the week. This started with the worst white-out of the season on Monday. Now for those of you who have never had the pleasure of a white-out, the best analogy I can offer is that moment when you turn out the lights in a completely dark room before trying to navigate your way back to the bed. And generally this ends up in stubbing your big toe rather painfully against the bed before stumbling back and cracking your funny bone against the wardrobe. Now imagine this on a pair of skis, with no idea of whether the slope is wide, narrow, steep, flat, rocky or covered in some other poor sod's skis and poles who has just taken a tumble. But thankfully, due to my superb navigational skills and expert skiing, I was able to lead the two (slightly nervous) kids back to safety - along with a few others who took the opportunity of following a ski instructor back down the slope! That week also saw me tach snowboarding to the 9-year old boy. Now the more observant of you will have seen that I have no qualifications whatsoever to do this, but this being Switzerland, you can do whatever you like. Apparently, I got on OK, as he was linking turns pretty well after only three afternoons!
The last few days were brightened by the appearence of my mate Bryn from the UK, having decided on Thursday to come out for a short break. So on Friday evening, we were able to sit down in the pub below the flat to watch the France game in the 6 Nations together, whilst having a Diet Coke or two... And this pretty much continued for the next three nights as the rugby, the Carling Cup Final (did I mention Bryn is a Man Utd fan...?) and my weekly team meeting gave us far too many excuses to end up in the pub far too early. But we coped. Just! Bryn did manage to get some good snowboarding in, and as I was only working mornings, Vicki and I were able to meet up with him for a few hours in the afternoon. Bryn left us on Tuesday morning, and we were then able to sober up and get a few hours' kip.
I have some VIP clients of the ski school's for the next three days, teaching a little 4 year-old, which could be fun. And having just come off 6 mornings with a 3 year-old, my inane kiddie patter is coming along nicely. Although I think Vicki would prefer it if I kept the "pee-pee" and "ow-ow" talk to the slopes... March sounds like it could be quiet work-wise before the last rush at Easter, but I am doing ok for the moment. Vicki has next week off, so I am going to try and get a few days off to coincide with hers. We may even get to spend some more time together! Once again apologies for the long absence, we will definitely try to get some more updates in ove the coming month!
Cheers all!
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