Mini Adventures

Hey!  In very exciting news (for me, at least), I am now officially a debt-free person.  With actual savings too.  It's all terribly exciting and adult, and I can't tell you how satisfying it was to pay off my cards and loans.  I even closed my student overdraft.  Finally.  It only took 12 years!

So that's all very awesome, and now that I am a solvent human being, I have every intention of staying that way.  Of being a person who has money in the bank, and can pay off her credit card in full each month and isn't generally scraping the barrel just before pay day.

Yay for me!!

And once the excitement of that was over, I set about planning a holiday or trip for after the season end, in earnest.  I'm feeling pretty proud of myself, because after some conversations with friends, it looked like no-one was really around at the right time to go away with me, and rather than just give up on the idea, I've gone ahead and booked something just for me!  Eeeeeek!

The only time I've been away on my own before was my month long trip to Africa in 2013, and somehow this felt different and a bit more scary (don't ask - it's not logical at all) because that was a fully planned tour and this was ... well, just a holiday.

But I've hit upon the perfect solution.  I knew I wanted to go somewhere warm, and I knew that rest and relaxation were high on the agenda.  I also realised, that if I was going travelling on my own then I needed some kind of agenda or activity to keep me engaged and stop me feeling lonely or bored at any point.  After looking at lots of different ideas and discarding them on the grounds of being too expensive, too long, too boring and a host of other reasons, I hit upon a good one and I just booked it today.  So 4 weeks today I'll be surfing in Morocco!

I've found a surf camp that also runs beginners surf courses (despite owning my own board, I am very much a beginner ... or useless, depending on which way you look at it!), with optional yoga sessions in the mornings, doesn't charge an arm and a leg to penalise solo travellers and offers a chilled out, social situation, where everyone eats together at meal times.  Perfect.  There's a pool and a roof-top terrace, lessons on 5 days and options to visit nearby markets, hammams and all sorts of other interesting local attractions.

I'm really happy about the yoga part of the holiday too, and like that the surf lessons are only 2 hours in the morning, as I know I get knackered quickly, which leaves you the option to either do additional surf guiding in the afternoon if you're feeling particularly energetic or just chill at the riad.  Perfect.

I've never been to Morocco before, so that ticks off one of the three new countries I wanted to visit this year, and will also count towards my surf goal too.  It'll be a great week to rest, relax and recharge before I hurl myself back into work full time.  Plus I have just over a week at home with my Dad first - yay!!

All in all, I'm feeling pretty positive right now.  I think my friend and I have vaguely come to agreement on the terms of my renting her spare room in London.  The last big transfer day of the season is out of the way and it's less than 3 weeks until I see my family again.  The sun is coming out tomorrow, so I might actually put my damn skis on and go up the mountain (as it's been a shameful 9 days since I last did so), oooooh and I might be parapenting next week!  Generally, life isn't too bad.

Here's to life!

And Folie Douce Fridays!

Spring Ski

So where are we at the moment?  The winter season has suddenly nearly, really reached its end, and there's maybe two more weeks of guests left after this current lot leave on Saturday.  Two and a bit weeks, then a few days of resort shut down and it's all over.  Again.  Yikes!

As the weather is currently super sunny, it's a spring slush-fest out here, but we are making the best of it and organised a trip to meet up with friends in lovely little Sainte Foy on our day off last week.  We spent a glorious day racing round their pistes and enjoying the hospitality of their rather lovely mountain bars ... I can neither confirm nor deny that we visited Marquise on three separate occasions during the day.  Finally piste security chased us off the mountain as the sun started to sink below the horizon.

In my spare time, when I've been lazing about inside, I've managed to update my CV ... a traumatic experience because I had to edit a whole page out to get it back down to a manageable length.  Now I'm just waiting until it's time to send it off to some agencies and see if anyone wants to give me a job.  It's looking like it might be a London adventure for when I get home though, as my friend and I are just hammering out details of my renting her spare room.  Eeeek - bit of a change!

One thing I am looking forwards to when I get back to the UK is getting back into a bit of a healthy eating routine and regular exercise.  Obviously, I do ski out here, although probably not as much as I should, but activity is a bit hit and miss and I'm feeling quite lazy.  I'm also craving some control over my diet again.  I haven't been terrible out here, but I am still a little heavier than I like being at the moment.  Despite the usual temptations of all the food and booze out here, I'm only a few lbs heavier than when I arrived, and I keep an eye on it, but I'd really like to get back to some kind of routine.

I actually debated starting Weightwatchers again whilst I'm out here, but due to a lack of kitchen scales or useful food like veg and fruit, it would be incredibly difficult, so I've settled for a compromise of just starting to be more aware of what I'm eating and roughly tracking it instead.  That will curb any excess damage before I get home and I've got a couple of weeks off when I get home to relax and get a head start on being back in a routine.

Other than that I've just been scanning the internet getting ideas of somewhere to go for a short break when I get home.  I don't really care whether it's a city break or a more traditional holiday, but it will be good to get some time that is just decadently dedicated to enjoying myself and seeing somewhere new.  I've got a couple of friends interested in joining me, and I've been looking at possibly Lisbon as somewhere that's beautiful, interesting and warm ... somewhere warm seems to be high on my list of priorities after months spent in the snow.

So I shall leave you and go back to my daydreams of warmer climes and maybe the odd palm tree ...

Spring Forward

After feeling really rather gloomy and just ... blaaah .... for a little while now, I've suddenly found that life, rather as it has a tendency to do, has jumped into fast forward.

Partying with the team at a remote cabin in the woods in Courcheval

The sun is here and with it the annual spring ski on slush.  And parties.  And thoughts turning to the end of the season and going home to family and friends.

Plans starting to form for what to do after the season;  maybe shaking things up in London and living with one of my oldest and closest friends for a while at least.  New jobs.

And an amazing final gift from my grandma.  

Long term readers of this little corner of the internet will know that debts are something I've struggled with almost as long as this I've been writing here.  I've been slowly working away behind the scenes getting that shit sorted out, sort of in parallel to working on my health and other aspects of living a happy, fulfilling life but as anyone who's been in debt knows:  it's a long road back.  

To be fair, I've taken a few detours that slowed progress by doing my ski seasons and going travelling at intervals, but they were things I deemed worth it.  What I have learned is how to live within my income, and how to save for things I really want whilst still making progress and keeping my debt repayments covered.  I am getting there, slowly but steadily, but still with a couple of years to go.

On Monday, I received news from my dad.  After my grandma peacefully passed away last summer, the solicitors have finally finished wrangling all the legal stuff and it turns out she's left me a rather wonderful legacy that will allow me to clear all my remaining debts and start a completely fresh financial slate.  I've never been in this position before, where I'll not only be completely debt free but also on a salary I can afford to live within and with the attitude and motivation to do it.

I wish I could tell her how much this means to me, and promise her that I'll use it well; to really make a change to my life.

It feels like all manner of new leaves are being turned over as the green of spring arrives.

And so it seems like another period of change is upon me and I can't wait to see what's on the other side of this one!

Global Beauty

Well, it's rainy and miserable here in Meribel today ... I know, rain in March in the Alps, crap weather  or what??? ... so I'm sitting cozied up in bed surfing the interwebs and contemplating tarting my CV up and applying for jobs.

Before I do that though, I stumbled across the article below, about Mihaela Noroc's amazing photographic project, and couldn't resist sharing with you.  Mihaela is a young woman from Romania is currently travelling the world and photographing women of her own age as she goes, building a global picture of beauty across many countries and cultures.


I find it fascinating that not one of these girls is wearing an absurd amount of make-up or flashing lots of flesh, and that they all have healthy figures and diverse cultural backgrounds, and yet they are all absolutely stunning.  If it's Global Beauty vs sanitised and twisted Hollywood Beauty, I'll take Global Beauty any day!

So here, for your gloomy Monday delectation, is a reminder that beauty comes in many forms and everyone should be proud of themselves and where they come from.

Mihaela Noroc's "The Atlas of Beauty"

Right - time to do something practical and update my CV now!

900 and 35

Apparently, this is my 900th post!  Who knew I had that kind of perseverance in me???

900 posts over 5 and a bit years - I might have a slowed down a bit with my posting schedule since those early days, and sometimes the topics wander all over the place, but for now this little corner of the internet is still ticking along.  Yay me!

Over the last 24 hours, I've been exchanging emails with my dad, and feel oddly cheered as a result.  I have also decided that, whatever happens and wherever I end up when I get home, this summer is the Summer Of Fun (TM, of course).  I then read this lovely article on J for Jen, and decided that maybe a list of 35 things to before I turn 35 this November might be fun.  Moi?  An original thought?  I think not.

35 fun things to do in 6 months is perfectly doable.  Hell, I might even do some of them before I come home from the ski season.  As with Jen's list, this isn't about earnest pursuits; more fun stuff to make sure I have an awesome year and finish it happier.

So what sort of things would I like to do for my extended Summer Of Fun?

1. Parapent - I keep seeing them floating over the valley, and I meant to do it last year and ran out of time.  This year is the year.  Done - and it was sodding amazing!!
2. Visit 3 new countries - this is a pretty big goal, so it will count for 3 points, I think - one trip is already sort of being planned for November, when I'd like to go to Vietnam for 3 weeks to explore.  Two more shouldn't be such a big ask, as there's bits of Europe I've yet to explore.
3. See point 2.  Spent the week surfing in Morocco and it was gorgeous.
4. See point 2 again!
5. Go to a festival - possibly Somersault.  I missed out on this last year, due to weekend commitments with my work, so this year I'm off to have festively fun.
6. A trip to the theatre - because I haven't been for ages.
7. Watch the outdoor cinema at Somerset House.  Because.
8. Surf at least 3 times.  I love surfing, even though I suck major balls at it, so I should make sure I use my board, wherever I end up living. First trip - the week in Morocco ... some improvement witnessed!
9. Visit all my friends with children.  I have friends with kids now - some I just won't have seen for 6 months whilst I've been away over the winter, some will have been born whilst I'm away, and some, to my eternal shame, I've not met yet despite them being born whilst I was away LAST winter.  The shame.  And the guilt.  I have a lot of catching up to do with friends and their mini-me's.  Seen two, which I think means there's 4 to go - and possible 2 more if people get them pushed out anytime soon!
10. Go to a gig - I like them, I don't go to enough of them.
11. BBQ.  Because it's summer and they're fun.  Nuff said. Been to at least 1 now.
12. Picnic.  See the reasons for 11!  Picnic'd at Wimbledon and Kew Gardens amongst others.
13. See live comedy - laughing is GOOD for you. 
14. Have an old fashioned day at the beach - sand castles, swimming, sand in your food, the fun-fair (if there is one) - in short, the works.
15. City break - I love a bit of culture and I haven't done this for aaaaaaaages.  Doesn't matter whether it's UK or Europe - it'd just be nice to see somewhere new.
16. Get my ears pierced again - I have 4 delicate little piercings already, but would like something more, although I haven't quite decided what yet.
17. Eat at a Michelin star restaurant.  Never done it, feel it's lacking in my life.
18. Visit a museum - maybe the V & A, as I've never been and have always wanted to.
19. Throw a dinner party, so I can be an adult and all sophist-amacated and all.
20. Get a massage or three.
21. Finally get the tattoo I've been umming and ahhing about for 4 years.  I've wanted one for ages
22. Spend the day at a castle or country house - more culture!
23. Go horse riding again, just because I love it and haven't been for aaaaages.
24. Read the first volume of Game of Thrones.  I love the tv show and feel like I should see how I get on with the books.
25. Take a photography lesson for my SLR (it's been 2 years since I got it ... whoops!)
26. Do a proper tasting menu at a restaurant. I'm very guilty often of thinking that I know exactly what I like food-wise, and I feel it would be nice to be challenged a bit on that.
27. Learn to ice a cake properly - my cakes are tasty but ... rustic looking
28. Clear out my wardrobe again - it might not literally be the most fun thing to do but it's soooo flipping cathartic! Brutally chucked 2 bin bags out, 3 to the charity shop and still shedding bits.
29. Finally get my finances in order.  Can't.  Bloody.  Wait.  Mostly there - I'm debt-free and now thinking about how to save for a mortgage and get all grown up!
30. Buy myself a nice, new proper grown-up, statement handbag.  I love accessories, and used to be a bag fiend.  Over time, I divested myself of a lot of knackered, unused or just under-appreciated bags, so that my current collection are all good leather and work-horses.  However, they're all started to look a bit tired in their own right, and I feel like a sassy, sorted, adult woman should have a good, stylish, workhorse bag.
31. Go to Disneyland.  I've never been and would love to go.  I could probably only manage a weekend in Disneyland Paris for now, but that would be a start!
32. Get dim sum in China Town. 
33. Find a dog I can spend some time with - canine company is the best
34. Rooftop cocktails on a summer's evening
35. Try and find a healthy balance to work, rest, good food and some exercise I enjoy. I'm finishing on a serious note, but I know I feel so much better when I'm balanced - healthy food and a bit of decadence, fun, rest and some activity to offset work and the serious bits of life.

I haven't really felt much one way or the other about my birthdays for the last couple of years.  Once I got past 30, I just had a busy couple of years and wasn't too worried about the numbers rather than the self-improvement I achieved.  35 for some reason feels a bit bigger though - I'm suddenly half way to 40, so this feels like a good time to re-affirm that there's more to life than being far too sensibly adult all the time.

At the moment, I feel like I'm leaning towards the idea of London for the summer, although I haven't yet spoken to my friend about that, and there's still quite a while before I'm due to head back to England, so let's not get ahead of ourselves and say I've made a concrete decision, as we all know how quixotic and changeable I am about decisions.

In the meantime, perhaps I'll order my guidebook for Vietnam and give myself something to get excited about!

Crazy Brain

So life continues on, out here in the French Alps, and whilst I now have a kind of rhythm to my day to day life, I find myself curiously distracted by thoughts of what happens in a few months when it's time to go back to the UK again.  I'm finding it quite hard to let myself just live in the moment, right now.

The snow finally came in larger quantities, and the days are mostly blue skies and sunshine, but I'm struck with a sort of ennui, and it doesn't all quite have the shine it did last season.  How quickly we become jaded of new experiences, eh?  Or it could be the mid-season blues.

On the positive side, for the last two weeks I had friends out here from home, and seeing them has been wonderful.  A slice of home bought to the mountains, leaving me feeling quite grounded and refreshed.  And suddenly aware of how much my skiing has improved when I'm perplexingly quicker now than these girls who used to run rings around me on skis!

The conversations have turned this way and that, with these oldest and closest of friends, dwelling often on how much our friends' lives have moved forwards in the traditional direction of settling down and families, whilst ours have not / have gone in different directions.  It's refreshing to be able to talk to people my own age who have similar experiences, when you're surrounded by youngsters all day out here!

Then there's been the conversations about what will I do when I get home?  The answer being I have no idea, and the whole issue is already making me feel quite stressed, even though it's several months before I finish here.  There's currently about 3 options sat on the table, and I genuinely don't know which one to pursue.  It's hard to believe I'm worrying about this, when I live in the midst of the mountains, and should really just be making the most of my play time each day, but it seems like my brain has no off switch right now.  Although skiing in the woods on deep fluffy powder does help switch my brain off for a while ...

The main two questions seem to be these:  a) what do I want to do for work after the season and b) where do I want to live?

Regarding question a)  do I switch to contracting with a view to earning some money quick and being able to go travelling next year (6 months in South America being the current goal), and the potential for a change of scene regularly and no company politics, or do I apply for a job I've seen which I've had my eye on for ages, and could be an amazing opportunity, but probably means travelling's off the cards and I could / would think about settling a bit.

Question b) where do I live when I get back?  The permanent job's based near Portsmouth, which I can't say is a place I've ever particularly wanted to move to, hence my hesitation to do anything about it so far.  However, some research reveals that it's obviously on the coast, and there are lots of pretty villages and outdoor things to do near by, but the only major city nearby is Portsmouth which I wouldn't want to live in.  I could go back to Bristol, where in theory I might be able to contract for my old employer, and I would sort of just slide back into life as it's been for the last 4 years (which have been good years, I should point out!) but something's still making me hesitate about that.  Or option 3,  I could throw a complete curveball and move to London.  This option's come up as my friend, Jo, who visited Val Thorens two weeks ago and would be my potential South America partner-in-crime, asked if I'd considered moving down there for the money and renting her spare room off her.

I did London before, a decade ago now (Jesus KER-IST, where did the time go????) and it didn't make me that happy in the long-term back then, but I'm a very, very different person now.

Arrrrgh, I just don't know!  I'm also fighting an annoying obsession with buying a house right now, which also doesn't fit in with my plans (or my financial viability), as well as looking longingly at pictures of dogs and wishing there were space in my life for one (there isn't - it wouldn't be fair on the dog at all).

My brain is just.  All.  Over.  The.  Place.

So instead, I'm going to make the effort to get back into the moment and enjoy the here and now, rather than wishing it away and that Spring was here already / worrying about the future.

So on that note, I'm off to sit on a sunny deck for the afternoon with my housemate (in the pink jacket below with my friend Hannah last week) and try not to worry about anything more than getting a sunburnt nose.

Au revoir, mes amies!

... And A Belated Happy New Year Too

Aaaargh - I promised I'd be better than last year at checking in regularly, and it's been 5 weeks since my last post - that's not a big improvement, is it?

So, yeah, Happy New Year and all that!  The time just keeps flying by and I'm not sure where it goes.

So what's new?

Well, resort is now well and truly open and we're on our 4th week of guests now.  I don't know if you've seen on the news though, but we're having the weirdest weather in decades and the snow is shiiiiiiiiiit.  It was super late to arrive, then we got a massive dump of it about 10 days ago .... and then it got warm again, rained a lot, and huge amounts of it has gone again.  I could literally cry.  It's rolling round to mid-January, which is approaching what should be the coldest point of the season, and it was so warm yesterday I was working with our balcony door open.  Not good.

There should be several feet of snow by now covering the roofs in resort and they're bare.  The village streets are bare.  The pistes into the village are either streaked with brown and closed or only open courtesy of snow cannons and snow "harvesting" from other areas, and they're cut up pretty badly.  Higher up is a bit better but still thin cover and super icy from the constant freeze-thaw.  All in the all the skiing's not great right now, which doesn't really tempt me out, as I fear for the base of my skis and already took a few nasty falls on it.

Which is really just as well, as I don't have time to ski any way. This time last year I was going out 3 or so times a week skiing, and out most nights, but this year seems to be more about the constant work and then falling into bed and passing out.  Mostly because I've been doing a lot more budgeting work with the chalets, so financially they're in a much better position for the season, and I know that in my other work everything's reconciled much tighter, so I won't have problems later on, but it takes up a lot of time.

Socially, I don't have the big group of resort friends that I was so lucky to have last year.  I have some nice people in my company, but given I live and work every day with one of them, I'm craving outside company and I don't have it.  Catch-22 - because I'm so tired and don't have the extra company, I don't get out to meet any one.  It's a bit of a vicious circle.

It has it's benefits though as I'm not spending much money .... which is a good job since our apres programme hasn't really taken off yet and I'm broke, and I haven't really had any major hangovers to contend with.

Weight wise, since I haven't really been skiing (just 5 times since the start of the season) and I'm sitting home working a lot, my weight hasn't really changed.  It's maybe down a couple of lbs, but nothing major, so I do need to get motivated on that as I know I feel better a bit lighter than I am right now.

So I guess it's all pros and cons at the moment:  cons - I'm feeling a bit lonely and left out, and demotivated from the lack of free time or snow to enjoy.  Oh yeah, and I managed to break my camera and smash my iPhone within the space of a week over Christmas.  Pros - the resort's in better shape for the rest of the season thanks to my work, and I'm healthier than last year as I'm getting more sleep, drinking less, eating a little more balanced and not so vulnerable to the tonsillitis, etc that lots of people are getting currently.  If I can just lose a few lbs and get a bit more skiing done, I'm sure I'll start to feel a bit more positive about it all.  And hey - it's still beats an office job!