Monday 1 December 2014

Happy December

Happy 1st of the month all!

Can you believe it's December already?  Crazy, right?



Here in Meribel I feel like I'm suffering a little pre-season blues, so I'm making the effort to try and make it at least a little festive to cheer myself up!

As you can see, it's still greener than a green thing here, which I think is part of what's getting to me.  I think the rest of it is just that I forgot how intensive this first month of training and resort set up is, and it's just wearing me down a bit.  Looking back to entries from this time last year, and remembering how it was last season, it's nothing different ... in fact, honestly, it's probably slightly easier going this year, as I know what I should be doing this time round.  At the same time, I'm not the newbie in the team any more, so I'm being leaned on more, and also being relied on for my French more than last year which is a little stressful as I don't feel very confident about that.

At the moment, our flat is being used as the resort social hub for our staff team - it's invaded morning, lunchtime and evening, and often between-times too, for meals, work and relaxing, and I'm finding having people around all the time very intense ... especially as my flat-mate and I are basically expected to host - cook every meal and clean up after the boys afterwards.  Some are better than others, but we keep finding empty beer bottles in unexpected places, wet foot-prints on the floor and they'll happily sit there and let us cook and wash up for them.  It's a lot of people for a smallish place, and I feel rude retreating to my room, but have started doing so anyway, just for the illusion of some space and peace and quiet!

This too shall pass though, eh?

The snow will come, the lifts will open, the guests will arrive and I'll settle back into my normal relaxed routine.

And it's not all bad!  Whilst I miss my friends in La Plagne, I drove over to see them a couple of nights ago, and realised they're actually much closer than I thought they were which is ace.  And Meribel itself is pretty cool - it's very pretty with it's traditional chalet style architecture and lack of high-rise buildings, and it's certainly got the facilities (or will do when it's all open!).  We must have at least 6 bars within 50m of the apartment, the bar staff I've met seem friendly, and the offices I'll be needing for my work are all within walking distance of my apartment instead of a bus ride away, which makes for a lovely novelty!

On the weight side of things, I didn't have my scales with me for training, so I stepped on them with some trepidation when we arrived in resort, only to find I was pretty much exactly where I was when I left the UK - not bad for 10 days of training!  I'm seem to be holding steady at the moment, which considering we're cooking 3 meals a day for the boys and doing a lot of hanging around working without much moving or any skiing, and a bit of comfort snacking on the side, isn't too bad.  I'm keeping an eye on it, and trying to make sensible decisions and hope to see some downward movement when the season proper kicks in.

So now we're just waiting on the snow .... where are yoooooooou??

In the meantime, we're getting some very pretty, dramatic views from our windows - love a bit of cloud forest!