Big Brother

Chateau Colditz is a lot like Big Brother - the cheesy reality show, not the Orwellian construct. Have you ever wondered why they sit around and talk so much crap on these shows? Wonder no more, just come to a place where you're stuck with the same people 24/7, with basically no opportunities for socializing with the outside world, nowhere to go, nothing to do... you'll be talking all kinds of ridiculous nonsense too. I mean, you can't exactly ask someone how their day was when you know you've both been emptying bins all week long, and confabs about the weather get a bit old. So you wind up having such fun conversations as (for example) whether a sphere has 'sides' (it so does!) and what you would do if someone instructed you to piss in the corner of a round room. On the bright side, I am teaching the kids the Maori vowel song (a haka mana para tawa na wha... you knows it!).

It's been even worse this week because the car's been at the garage, and many of us (including me) haven't been off-site since the weekend. People are going insane! Luckily next week it's back so it'll definitely be a shopping expedition tomorrow afternoon (I can spend my 15€ tip my happy group gave me, woohoo) and on Saturday there's a party at this French guy's house we'll probably all go to, excellente.

Adding to tensions this week has been the visit of our boss's boss, which has meant extra cleaning duties all round and the need to be on our bestest behaviour at all times. On the plus side, we've been getting actual cooked lunches instead of the usual selecta-sandwich stylies, in a bid to pretend that we're nourished by a varied diet instead of a "today's Monday - spag bol, today's Tuesday - 'chicken and grease'" never-ending revolving 'dish of the day' style menu.

However, I have news! Despite the bleak picture painted above, I'm actually loving it here on the whole, and I've just signed up to stay another month. So I'll be leaving the chateau now on Sunday, 12th August, returning to London for the night, and flying back home on Monday, 13th August. So any little bunnies in NZ can expect me, very tired and grumpy, back home on Wednesday, 15th August. Don't know how long I'll be back, I'm thinking a month and then back to Poland, with a tentative stopover in Barcelona if Scotty's landed there by then.