Grand Alpine Tour

Have spent the last couple of weeks mooching around various parts of the Alps (in between office stints, of course). Highlight definitely the skidoo trips up to one of our snow-bound hotels at Morzine. If you've never been on a skidoo carrying FOUR passengers and driven by a manic Frenchman, I highly recommend it. Was scary as hell, but lots of fun! We got slightly airborne at times, I swear. Not too shabby when you think people pay to do these sorts of things. If you, like my Mum, don't know what a skidoo is, here you go:



Lowlight was the trip down to Alpe d'Huez on Friday. A trip which took about 3 1/2 hours on the return leg on Tuesday took, with various stops and detours, 8 hours on Friday. I just kept thinking "if I set out from Cham, what kind of fun places could I have driven to in 8 hours??" Add in the creepy driver and the fact that I was in the back (which was a blessing thanks to creepy driver, but rather dull and nausea-inducing) and you have one hell of a crappy day.

Things only got better at Alpe d'Huez - I thought I was there until Sunday, but no, turns out I was there till Tuesday - nice to know - and had to attend a three-day management course, why? It wasn't too bad as it happens, and the food was good (and free!) but would have enjoyed a weekend out on the piss still more!

Alpe d'Huez itself was quite nice - and very high up - 1850 metres! Most days we were above the clouds, looking longingly out of the dining room moments at the mountain peaks peeping out above the clouds. The road up there is something else - I pity the fools on the Tour de France coming up here:



On the way down, a helicopter was flying down from the mountain to deliver concrete or something to a truck on the side of the road - it was amazing seeing it coming in that low, dropping off its load and flying up again, over and over again.

Apart from that, nothing's new except the pile of work on my desk I came back to! Am having tomorrow off so catch you all later.

All the news that's fit to print

Chamonix was blessed with snow last week, and today I made the most of it by finding a park out of town and frolicking in the snow... by myself like a loser, but hey. I even made a snow angel (leaping into the snow and waving your arms and legs about, for the uninitiated). This made me a wee bit cold, but as I walked out of my apartment thinking "it's warm this afternoon" (temperature = 1 degree according to the post office, as opposed to a frosty -7 when I was walking home at 1 am last night) it wasn't too bad. Everything is so beautiful, all sparkly and white (if you don't look at the grey/brown mush on the pavements, that is...) and snow's so much fun! Mum says she doesn't understand why I like it, but frankly I don't see what's not to like. Apart from the constant puddles by the door in my apartment, unfortunately I am unprovided with a mop to deal to them either. Apart from the snow at street level, you can already really see the difference in the mountains from when I arrived a month ago. They were pretty much bare (apart from Mt Blanc), and while they're not entirely white, you can now see veins of snow settling down in the valleys and crevasses running like white rivers down the mountain sides and settling on the peaks.

Apart from my snowy ramble, haven't been up to a great deal this weekend. Friday night I had the crew round to my apartment for pre-outing drinkies, which was fun, then we went to the (seasonal) opening of a bar, which was average but full of people I know so fun enough. Yesterday I headed round to the chalet to hang out with my mates - we had a kitchen disco complete with podiums (chairs) strobe lights (someone flicking the lightswitch on and off) and house music, lots of fun. There was also 'drinking Jenga' - Josh had actually customised a Jenga set with drinking game instructions on every block, class! I'm just glad I didn't have to drink the jug as reward for knocking over the tower - that was poor Fi's fate. We were going to go out, but everyone lost steam a little bit and we ended up gathered round the laptop watching Father Ted - not a bad Saturday night.

In other news, most people who actually bother reading the blog these days are probably appraised that I'm not loving my job. Going to have chats with one of my bosses on Monday so we'll see how that goes... Otherwise there's an unconfirmed possibility of moving to Poland and working in a public library. Will keep you posted.

Country no. 13, come on down!

Finally, I've been to Italy! Hurrah! It was to Tiana's old stomping ground, Turin, for only about 5 hours on Saturday, but still, it was Italy and it was cool. With that much time, we didn't do a lot, but we ate pasta (mmmm gnocchi) followed in the afternoon by gelatos (mmm tartufo) and then picked up a couple of slices of delish spicy sausage and goats cheese pizza to go on the way home. And we stopped in a supermarket where I got some yum Baci chocolate. So, yeah, it was all about food and I spent an absolute ton with nothing to show for it but a bigger belly, but it was worth it! Wandering around the city a bit was also fun - it wasn't spectacular, but it was pretty and there were some nice squares and particularly some interesting things in the way of street decorations - a couple of places with things suspended above the street, hanging down, which were really cool. It was also a lovely warm sunny day and a fun 2 hour roadtrip each way, although thanks to being out the previous evening to the wee small hours I did fall asleep on the way back.

Fri and Sat nights were also good, lots of drinking and dancing and talking to Frenchies. I was also the victim of a straw attack - evidently if you melt the ends of straws you can attach them to people's bums without them noticing. Apparently he managed to get 9 on my arse (obviously it's HUGE)before I twigged. This is fun when you see it done to others, not so much when it's your bum being victimized! Note for anyone trying this at home - apparently only to be attempted with jeans, unless you want to burn a hole in people's pants.

Sunday was devoted to lounging around in bed reading the paper, excellent! Oh, and receiving delivery of my fridge and microwave, yes! I even tied up the flat and did some laundry so go me.

Tomorrow I'm out of the office all day - thankfully because today was another nightmare busy one (caused in part by Friday's day-long IKEA trip, which of course means Wednesday will be even busier! arrgh!) roadtripping it to Albertville (again) and also Val d'Isere, where I've not been and I will have some time to mooch about by myself and see whatever sights there are to see since I have about 10 mins' work to do there and the girl I'll be with has to meet with people, hurrah!

A good weekend

A stellar weekend all round to report, I must say. It started out with a few too many drinks on Friday night, many of them unfortunately in the company of work senior types but there you go. More fun had when we relocated to a club with the young uns in tow where I couldn't embarrass myself too badly and proceeded to dance the night away until c. 4 in the morning.

The next day it was up not too bright and early and out for a savoury crepe lunch - most delicious and nothing like the crepes we know and love in the Anglo-Saxon world - stuffed with cheese, bacon bits and potatoes mmm-mmm. And it was warm enough to sit outside in jeans and t-shirt - despite the thermometer only reading 13 degrees ha ha that would be practically coat weather back in Auckland...

After that we ascended the Aiguille du midi lift - first to 1035 m to see Fi and Andrew parapont off the side of the mountain - most cool, might have to give it a go when I have money and feel brave enough, although the 37 euro cost of the lift up the mountain took it out of me for the time being. Then Verity and I went up the final stage by ourselves - 8 minutes to soar up to 3842 m above the valley but still not as high as the neighbouring Mt Blanc - 4808 m and the highest peak in Europe. Up here it was cold - it had still been warm enough at 1035 m to take my coat off. The view was absolutely beautiful - it was a wonderful clear day and you could see for miles. More importantly, I am finally convinced of the effects of altitude. We had to stumble up some (admittedly rising and rocky) ground back towards the lift from the paraponting site and we had to stop after about a minute of walking because Verity and I (and she's so thin she disappears if she turns sideways, in case you think it's just me being ridiculously unfit) were so out of breath. Seriously, heart pounding and everything - then at 3842 metres I could barely walk up the stairs to the viewing platform, I felt like my feet were made of lead, I was gasping for air etc. etc. Even all the way down I felt ill and still puffed, it was insane. Obviously never going to make it as a mountaineer - it remains to be seen how I'll do skiing up here!

Saturday night I opted for bed rather than going out again, and Sunday it was moving day to my new apartment - which is lush I may add. Not super big but really nicely decorated and right slap bang on the central town square, only 5 mins from town. So I'm finally all unpacked - in the process I found my lost ring, woohoo! and settled in. Plus I had a great afternoon yesterday reading the Saturday Guardian - you may be unable to buy any clothes that aren't ski gear / ridiculously overpriced / both in Chamonix, but English papers are readily available, love it. My apt also has a (small) couch and a double bed, so I'm open for business for when people want to come and stay (you know you want to).

Sun night I must admit I went back to the chalet with all my mates, in order to unproductively huddle with half a dozen of us around a laptop and not watch a movie, but you know, it was company. In the night it totally sounded like people were in my apartment, but not finding anyone on further (super brave) investigation, I managed to convince myself it was in fact people upstairs and have a good night's sleep.

I was in a right mood this morning not wanting to come back to work, but am trying to make up my mind to make the most of it, regard this as merely the difficult settling-in period and give it at least to the end of the winter. After that, I think I'm definitely going to do another Masters and become a real live librarian - cause that's the last time I enjoyed my job!

Vive le weekend!

So this the end of my first full week as Properties Administrator here in Chamoneeeks... And what have we done? Quite a bit actually. Today had another lovely 1 1/2 - 2 hour drive for the pleasure of 20 mins' work, but was quite pleasant as Andrew and I had some rocking tunes on the dial and some good chats and certainly better than being tied to a desk. AND it prevents the gendarmes from ringing me up and yelling at me again for not faxing them copies of the liquor licenses I didn't even have yet, for properties that won't be serving liquor for 2 bloody months! Arrgh!

Do feel like I'm semi settled in, semi know what I'm doing. The great bugbear is still French. I do feel, however, like I've made a bit of progress with the phone convo thing in only a week, so onwards and upwards I hope. I must admit, though, any task involving ringing French people is inevitably postponed as long as possible in favour of the boring filing and paperwork which make up the rest of my role. NOT the way to get better, but it's damn hard! Even harder when they ring up out of the blue and I don't even have the chance to prepare for the conversation.

Going out this weekend with the boys and girls from the chalet should be a good laugh I hope! And then on Sunday I'll be moving into my own apartment, centrally located to all the delights Chamonix has to offer. Oh AND I got paid from the chateau and reimbursed for my train ticket today so relatively speaking I'm rolling in dough.

Best news for last though.... My super-smart and hard-working mum has just finished her BA after something like 20 years' of part-time slog - ever since I can remember she's been going, at any rate. Since I have yet to graduate with my MA, my lovely Dad has had the brainwave of flying my out - gratis as far as I'm concerned!! - to graduate alongside Mum!!! How great is that!!! I've tentatively asked for the time off already and doesn't look like it will be a prob, so - unless like last time, live intervenes - you crazy kids at home can look forward to seeing me next May! Yeah!

Tout va bien sort of

Well I think things went a little bit better in the office today - mostly because I actually did some stuff so managed not to feel absolutely useless for a change! The things I accomplished were only 1) do a mail-out and 2) arrange a quote for hot tub maintenance, but still, those were two of the big 'to-dos' on my 'to-do list' so there you go. Lowlight of the day was when bitch-ass woman asked "whether there's anyone there who can speak French?". She also happens to be my temporary landlady, so may sabotage the property in some sneaky way before moving out... In case any legal eagles read this, that's an empty threat. So hopefully onward and upward, French convos seem to proceed better if I write myself a little script first, which is pretty slow going of course but hey worth it I suppose for now and I'll get there in the end. Right well been chained to my desk all day so best be off x

All change

Weeeell here I am in Chamonix then, after a pretty uneventful journey (once Jay and I managed to find the way to the train station - this is a seriously easy place to find and between us we must have been to Lille a dozen times, but hey we got there).

Have had a super busy last couple of days, the job is very daunting from what I can tell so far, still not really clear what I spend the majority of my time doing and how I know what to do when - enquiries have met with vague "just keep your ear to the ground"s which ain't all that helpful to be honest.

Today was nice though, we drove about 2 hours each way to Albertville and Courcheval to deposit liquor license requests at the mayor's offices - this was through gorgeous winding mountain roads, on a lovely cold but sunny day, with all the autumn colours all about. Hopefully tomorrow will be nice as well, I have the weekend off to explore the place.

Last night went out for a couple of drinks with the girl and guy downstairs at my current accommodation (which I'll be moving out of in favour of my own apartment shortly), pretty low-key but nice to start making some friends. They are in the jobs I originally applied for, so were filled with wonder in my superior abilities being able to snaffle this job ha ha.

One thing I was surprised and a little bummed out by is that all the bar staff etc everwhere we went were English. I was expecting English-speaking in a tourist town like this, but come on, where are the Frenchies? Going up and ordering a drink in French from an English person is taking things a bit too far... However, I've witnessed the woman in my job answering a number of phone calls in French, so I don't think I have to worry about not using the language, in fact I'm worried about not being good enough. However, although she spoke pretty quickly, she made dozens of grammatical errors that even I could pick up on, so let's be optimistic.

Am missing my chateau friends quite a bit, hoping that I will settle in and feel better soon, make friends la de da. The office I am in is full of 30-somethings, but once more people who applied for the job I originally applied for get here I'm hoping things will liven up a bit. And then of course there's "the season" to look forward to - which I'm not entirely sure I AM looking forward to. I suppose it will be fun to have lots of bars open and people around and so on, but on the other hand, tourists - everybody hates them! At least I'll have the privilege of being a bitter, supercillious "local" if I so desire.

Stand by for updates xx