Wow - even with the temperature cooling down a little after that MEGA thunder storm on Monday night it's still overly hot and humid. I must drink more water to stop my head banging, which I suspect is purely down to dehydration.
Hetty kindly asked after what I'd be doing whilst in France this season .... which is to say what work I'll (supposedly) be fitting in between skiing, eating yummy French food and, possibly, drinking. The truth is that, fingers crossed all the paperwork comes through ok and nothing changes, I have totally landed on my feet.
Being that I'm barely domesticated myself, the thought of me looking after an entire chalet of guests is laughable - they'd be foraging for themselves by the second week. So with chalet hosting out of the equation as an option, I looked at what the other possibilities were. Repping was one - but I wouldn't be able to promise I wouldn't swear at the guests or hit a child over the head out of sheer frustration some days. So I looked at behind the scenes roles.
My original plan was to see if I could apply my existing skill set (such as it is) to something season-y, and I've landed a beaut of a job. I'd found out that a few companies have finance staff in resort to keep things ticking over, and by chance I stumbled across an old job advert from a couple of years ago for a finance administrator role that sounded perfect. I didn't see it in the current years listings though, so set about researching to apply for an assistant resort manager role instead. Then just as I was about to apply, up popped the finance role on the job site I was looking on - they were recruiting it after all!
One application later, I had a phone interview lined up with France. That led to an interview in London and a job offer a week later. I never did do any other applications!
So I'll be spending this winter putting together the chalet accounts for my resort with the records my hosts give me, accounting for the reps' sales for the week, organising lift passes and ski school for the guests once the orders are taken on transfer day and banking the cash, and helping out a bit with transfer day itself and maybe some après ski for the guests.
The perks are looking pretty good - because there's no office in resort I work from my staff accommodation - i.e. my bed. In my pj's. Because my flat is accommodation is essentially my office, I'll be sharing the managers' flat with one or two other people and I'll have my own room - no shared dorms or bunk beds for me. I'm assuming they'll have to provide wireless, a laptop and possibly a phone as well. I'll also get my return travel, food, lift pass, equipment hire and winter insurance thrown in.
I have no set hours, so as long as I meet my weekly deadlines, when I work is up to me. I'm told that once I've beaten my hosts and reps into submission and established a routine, I get quite a bloody lot of free time (although the first couple of months might be quite hectic - which is fine because my ski legs will be useless and the snow potentially not that great to start off). With all that, who cares if I get the same crap wages as all the other seasonnaires. All I need is beer money!
I'm under no illusion that it's not going to be hard work and that sometimes I'll wonder what the hell I'm doing, but given my current job and lifestyle, I'm hoping that this will basically be my usual job with less stress and politics and much better scenery. And potentially more sleep. Ironically.
Talking of real life, I met up with my trainer again on Monday. A whole new set of weights and strength exercises, all focused on my core (and some ski fitness too) and interval cardio training to round it out. She's good but evil - I hurt in some unexpected places this morning!
Last night was tapas night with the girls - home-cooked potatas bravas, paella and lots of nibbles. Cava and sangria to drink ... and banoffee pie to finish. All delicious, but I felt horrible afterwards. It was far too much rich food, so I'm detoxing today and have stuck to minimal portions of basic food - watermelon, some noodles and chicken and sweet potato for dinner.
And apparently, not enough water.
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