The day had finally come. It seemed
like an eternity and then it rushed up on us before we knew it.
Kerry's Mum and both of my parents were there at the train station to
see us off, and a good friend Sarah came up to Victoria with us and
our stupidly heavy bags. Lugging them the short distance down the
road to the coach station was a real mission! But we found a nice
italian and sat down for dinner.
Charlie, jemima, Stef and Lucy met us
just as Sarah left for University. We had all met on the Chalet
cookery course and by some fluke were all now employed by the same
tour operator. We had a good chat and met some of their parents
before heading across the road to the coach station where alot of
young, ski/board people stood around with bags as big as ours! We all
piled on to two coaches. It was a nice touch that there were 50
people to get on 2 x 47 seater coaches meaning we had plenty of space
to loll around and generally spread out.
The coach journey was murder, for me
atleast. It wasn't too bad on the way to the ferry but after we'd hit
france it seemed to go on for ever. And it seemed I was the only one
having trouble sleeping. I remember sitting there staring blankly in
to space, everyone around me asleep, even the reserve driver, as
thick thick snow fell. And we were only 2 hours in to France!
Everyone was a little bleary eyed and
we all piled on for the last stretch. I did actually manage a little
sleep between the aire and the start of the mountains, waking up to
snow topped peaks on either side of the bus as we trundled down the
autoroute. A quick check on Navfree showed we were only 40km from La
Tania, the moutain village we were to be staying at. Of course these
40km were mainly the mountain road with steep hairpin bends that the
bus struggled to negotiate. As good as our 2 drivers were at
manoeuvring the large coaches, they just can't compete with the
excellent (and sometimes scary!) driving of the French coach drivers.
We were greated in to the companies
flagship new hotel by some of the managers, reps and hosts/hotel
assistants from the previous week. We hauled our bags up some steep
stairs and I was reminded just how much thinner the air was up here!
We were only at 1400m altitude but my chest heaved for air,
struggling with the half tonne weight of clothes and electronics I'd
brought.
The afternoon was used for settling in
to our rooms, collecting and signing for uniform and finally some
welcome drinks and a small speech from the companies French
Operations Manager. We were encouraged to mingle and get to know
everyone and sat down for dinner, looking weary. After dinner we
moved in to the lounge area where a large fire place sat with a
chimney extending up and around a set of stairs that look like they
could have been taken straight out of Harry Potter (Thanks Jemima)
All of a sudden 4 tables appeared, cups
were laid out, an easel with a tournament hierarchy on was erected
and a a loud voiced rep declared the start of the first 2012/13 Beer
Pong contest to begin. I grouped up with a nice girl from Cheltenham
who ski'd and we decided on “Sticks and Trays” for our team name,
promptly getting annihilated in the first round!
The noise was incredible, everyone
seemed to get a new lease of life and games were played for 5 minutes
or until someone lost, with any drawn games being decided upon by a
'Dance off' resulting in some very funny and acrobatic moves!
The beer flowed and come 11:30 I was
knackered, Kerry and I retired to our bedroom (which I've
subsequently found out is an 'Executive' room!) so we could get some
sleep before a 6:30 rise and breakfast at 7.
We are in the alps... and already
loving it!
Very smart uniform. Keep the blogs comming.
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