Train me up Scotty!...

The first 6 months of our Vagabonding adventure will (hopefully) be a slow introduction to travel and adventure.

Kerry and I have been skiing and snowboarding for the last two seasons, but we always feel that a week is never enough. We love nothing better than that feeling at the beginning of the week when you grab your gear and head off to the lift!

So we have decided to start vagabonding up in the snowy French Alps. And be gainfully employed! Applications for chalet hosts are taken all year round and in preparation we booked on the Natives Chalet Cookery Course last night.

The course helps to prepare hopeful chalet hosts with, not only general cooking skills, but more specific tasks and problems that occur on a Ski Season. From the differences in cooking at altitude (Water may not boil at some heights!) to laying a table or cooking a fabulous afternoon cake. All the while making sure the work is done efficiently and effectively to enable more time on the slopes without compromising service.

With no official service work (Waiting tables, bar work, hospitality etc) on our CV's we both felt that we would need to complete a chalet course to prepare us for the potential season ahead. Having stayed in a Ski Chalet before we kind of know what to expect but I'm sure when it comes down to the nitty gritty we will thank the course instructors after!

We are now £1000 lighter and will be taking a week out of work in July to spend the week at St Teresa's School in Dorking. The course is instructed by past Seasonnaires and if I know anything about seasonnaires its that the evenings will, undoubtedly, be ladled with mulled wine and Camel cigarettes.

Natives also offer a very good support system to help us gain the vital chalet host place we are looking for and will help with everything from CV structuring to introductions to recommended companies.

We've now got a mini Holiday booked which will hopefully be useful and fun as well as us gaining a new 'string to our bow' as such.