J here, Piste to meet you.

Hello, J here. I'm writing in Trebuchet. A nice, clear font, easy on the eye that is rather agreeable and that up until now I had no idea existed. I like it, it's quite nice to look at, and far less pretentious than writing in Italics. Italics, so desperate to look sexy but in actual fact, it just looks slightly wonky. For these reasons I think mine and A's font choices suit us both to the ground.

 

So with just over 6 weeks to go until we leave there are many things that need to be done between now and our departure date. For me that means working a boring temp job day in day out so that I will have enough money to keep up with A's hedonistic party lifestyle once we arrive. For her that means sitting at home with her dog watching Americas Next Top Model, eating cheese toasties whilst trying to decide which overpriced ski suit to spend her dollar on.

 

We will also be brushing up on our cooking skills and I am going to attempt to help A speed up her dish washing. She is a good washer I'll give her that, she just takes a very casual approach to the chore whereas I'm more of a bish-bash-bosh kind of guy.

 

Anyway, this is me checking in. I have contributed. The 2 of us were quite useless when it came to deciding what to call this blog so the witty and hilarious blog name was thought up by our good friend who for the sake of continuity I will call 'G'. Hope you like it.

Post Number One!

Hello as of yet, non existent readers! 

To differentiate between when I write, and when J writes, I will write in Italic. Because it makes me look clever, innit! If it were possible, J would write in comic sans or something childish, or maybe 'bold' to represent his 'bold' personality, whereas I am more quiet and retiring (and intellectual.)

Ok so it all started back in June, when we both decided to defer university for one (more) year and go be wild and free and cold in the mountains. J had just come back from doing his first ski season and I, having never done one, thought it sounded super fun, he didnt take much persuading to do another so thats how we ended up scouring natives.co.uk for job adverts and applying to every company that asked for chalet hosts.
 This was quite a long process, which meant firstly taking my CV and modifying it so it was aimed at ski tour operators (or TOs if you're down with the lingo). So instead of bigging up all my 'data-inputting', 'phone-answering' and 'meeting organising' experience, suddenly all the focus is on the month I spent waitressing, where I learnt such mad skillz which would be useful when cooking and cleaning for a chalet of 15 people. Similarly, my 'interests' changed from reading and writing, to throwing lavish dinner parties for my nearest and dearest. 
(Protecting myself here - I would never ever lie on my cv, I'm far too good for that. Out of the two of us J is the bad one. I shall spend the next 6 months telling him off and trying to stop him getting involved in semi-illegal adventures, and he shall spend the next 6 months getting me in trouble.)


 This is probably a good moment to mention that whilst J is a great cook, and can happily whip up a beef bourgignon, I am not and cannot. 
Dont get me wrong, I make fabulous cheese toasties, I can put together a perfect gin and tonic, and chocolate covered strawberries are my speciality, but cooking is not my strong point, I'm more one of those people who watches and comments and dances around in an apron, and I'm great at washing up, but thats about it.

After a couple of interviews that left me feeling physically sick and smoking like a chimney (I dont deal well with interviews, find them very stressful.) we eventually accepted a job with a TO I had decided was the best after whiling away many hours at work flicking between a spreadsheet (for appearances' sake) and the Natives Chatroom, reading up on peoples experiences of working for different operators.


And this is where I decided that I wanted to keep a blog. During the application/interview process I looked all over the internet for blogs on working a ski season as a chalet host, to give me a better idea of what to expect. I wanted to know about tricky guests, good guests, crazy nights, horrendous mornings, celebrating christmas with your guests but not your family, tips (or lack of them), making new friends, hopefully not falling out with your co-worker ... etc. 


So thats what myself and J are doing, creating this blog, to document all these things, and also to keep everyone at home up to date with our goings-on.