It appears spring has definitely sprung. Once again, the temperature reached about 13 degrees and the sun was beating down on our faces as well as the snow. The upside is being able to lounge around on terraces supping a beer or two whilst getting a nice tan until much later in the afternoon. The downside is having to wade through slush puppy on the lower slopes to get home - where's Moses when you need him?! But we have had a decent amount of snow to at least give something to melt, rather than just going straight down to grass. Proper dumping snow fell like un-sieved icing sugar for a good couple of days earlier this week, which was nice.
Vicki has had no clients in this week, so requested to shadow the reps around the resort for a few days. She has now seen quite how little they do compared to the hard-working chefs, hosts and chef-hosts. ;o) It has been a nice experience for her to see a few of the other jobs around the resort actually, and it gives her some idea of what else is on offer, should we ever decide to come back for another season... (if you listen carefully, you can actually hear the sharp intake of breath from Brussels as you read this). But we did take the opportunity of her having a couple of days off to ski a little further afield all the way across the 4 Valleys. This is not a particularly great day's skiing, as there are a lot of tracks and drag lifts to contend with, but at least Vicki was able to ski somewhere different for the day! The earliest start for her this season on the piste lead to her latest finish on the piste as well - so a proper day's skiing, almost like a proper tourist! And the beer in the sunshine on the terrace was well-deserved.
I decided to take the week off to be able to spend some time with Vicki in her quiet week. And in any case there is very little work going, as the resort is eerily quiet. But I did accept a lesson this coming Saturday, as a little 5-year old girl who I taught in a group lesson a few weeks ago requested me (well I think her parents actually did, but you get the drift). So I get extra kudos from the school for taking a lesson during my holidays, and hopefully I will get a nice tip for some birthday drinks! I asked to extend my holiday to the end of Monday 16th, to give me some leeway to recover from what could be a messy Sunday. My birthday will be spent in the pub watching France vs England in the 6 Nations. Seeing as most of my mates from the ski school are French, it could be interesting to say the least. The suggestion has been made that each camp should drink their national drink - the French on Pastis, the Brits on lager. That suits me fine as we can see who comes out on top after 80 minutes!!
We also took the opportunity this week to try out the restaurant in the only 5-star hotel in town, the Chalet d'Adrien. It was an absolute delight and reminded us of quite why we work to earn money. Although someone in the kitchen appears to have accidentally typed in 100 instead of 1, in the quantity field under "Truffles". Everything comes with truffle oil, truffle sticks, truffle shards, truffle grated, truffle pyramids! It got a little too much, and this is obviously how they justify charging exorbitant prices for all their food. But it tasted delicious all the same and was worth every penny. We are on a mission to try out all the restaurants in town, except the dives of course, before the end of the season. So plenty of nice food to come in the next few weeks hopefully!
In the meantime, I am slowly coming to terms with actually properly getting into my 30s... It is bad enough telling people you are 30 here as that is only just out of your 20s, but 31... Crikey. That's proper old! Oh well, just one thing for it - best get blotto so I can forget all about it!
More sun forecast for the next few days, with some snow announced for next week. So it could yet be a pretty damn good end of season. So for anyone who fancies a last-minute jaunt to sunny snowy Verbier, you know where we are!!
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