In The Industry

Well it's been a while since I had the time or computer to update this- so here we go.
Firstly if you sent me an email recently please SEND IT AGAIN. I cancelled my ISP account and find it highly suspicious that Wanadoo wiped out about 30 messages from my inbox for no reason at all. The address still works, I think they were just being spiteful!

After leaving Chamonix I went to Tignes to train hotel workers who had just arrived from the UK- well they were from all over the World though strangely not one of the hundreds was from an (dare I say it...I do dare) ethnic minority. I found this quite interesting and wondered what effect it would have on the company's profitability if they were to embark on a program 'reflect society' as the Police has done over the past decade.

By the time I got to Tignes I was tired, Tired of having no free time, tired of having nowhere to exercise or just get some fresh air (notwithstanding the one trip to the French swimming pool which so nearly ended in permanent disability). I was tired of seeing snow every where but unable to go skiing because they made me work all the time and very very tired of having nose bleeds- along with everyone else there. We were living at 2000m and with the average air temperature at about -10 c the cold air and change of pressure causes the capiliaries in one's konk to become inflexible and susceptible to the relative increase in blood pressure. Hey presto- big bogies and blood on your pillow- nice.

My students (about 80 of them) had endured a 30 hour bus trip from the UK which they had made more interesting by drinking duty free booze for the later 27 of those hours. Exacerbated by the refusal of the French driver to allow use of the one on board toilet (to be fair busses never had toilets when I was a youth- wrap them up in cotton wool!) their physical state was an indication of the ravages of slave trade.

Amongst them was my team (except for one which I poached from the chalet teams which still left me one short). I had two 'no shows', one of whom didn't come because the week before she hurt her knee and found out she was pregnant. I never did find out if these were connected or which of her conditions prevented her appearance.

After ten days of taking classes in things like complaint handling and how to give a 'welcome brief' to guests I was ready for a change. I had blagged a place in a mini bus for the big push across Switzerland to Austria (avoiding coach travel has always received total dedication) I drove through the deep nighttime snow to the ski resort of Les Arcs. My mind was preoccupied by the fact that I had done a good deed and lent my £200 Gore-tex jacket to one of the hotel managers who arrived without one. Only after several days when I was just about to leave did she offer my jacket back- only it wasn't mine. She had hung it in one of the many bars frequented in the evenings and picked up another one by mistake- sadly one two sizes smaller than mine. I found myself not knowing whether to make her buy me a new one, ask for a contribution because mine was about 18 months old or make the most of some unexpected retail therapy. Eventually she was able to recover it from one bar or another and get it passed on to me.

I spent a couple of nights in Les Arcs catching up with some of my resort manager colleagues before the journey. Things were mad on the morning of departure- having organised a big Army move involving a hundred mixed vehicles it was so bad it was actually entertaining. So, with a co-driver and another lad who had nipped in for a last minute wee before leaving, only to find the coach had gone without him we headed off to the rattle of snow chains. Typically I got the job of diverting over the Alpes in a snowstorm to deliver some important stuff back in Chamonix but eventually we were across the Swiss border and on our way- the coach had stopped for a good while to work out where their missing person had gone.

The journey wasn't too bad given it is such a long way. When we eventually got to St Anton the snow was so bad we couldn't get through to Lech and had to spend the night there. One beer was enough before I was in bed