Canapes Canapes Canapes

My first guests arrived Friday evening just in time for tea.  I was scared into thinking my beef stew wouldn't be cooked in time so ended up burning it a little bit..oops. Think I rescued it! My family of 5 + one of the boy's friends arrived. They are very nice, seem to like my food and thought the chalet was EPIC! The rep said they loved me so think it is going well, and they even loved my omelettes this morning - never really made an omelette before!!!!

So since my first ski, everything hurts, standing up cooking 4 course dinners means my feet hurt soooooo much. This is how we all felt after the first service:

Stole a plastic box from childcare (playgroup nextdoor to my bedroom) last night to have a foot spa - was niceee!

This is my chalet!! With the icy death trap outside the front door..slip everytime.

Back to my kitchen now to make dinner :)

First Ski!

So we've been cleaning our chalets all week to get them ready for first guests Friday. All done! We were allowed our lift passes at 1pm after we had sorted out a massive food delivery and then we all rushed out.

Was good, I can still do it!! Although I don't remember it being this tiring. I can't move right now and we're going for a sneaky sauna in a minute!!

And apres ski..looked very strange when we arrived to loads of people in colourful ski outfits dancing on the tables with beers outside the bar at 5pm!

Schnee

Just started snowing today. Everyone was getting very worried we wouldn't get any snow this season but everything is starting to go white!! Still doing lots of training. Had health and safety yesterday. Only thing I really remember is this:

http://wilk4.com/humor/humorm346.htm
 
We had off piste skiing avalanche talk. I need a long stick with a beeper and a backpack that blows up like a parachute for Christmas lol. Then the CEO flew in to welcome us and tell us to 'go for gold.., any questions?' To which one boy replied, 'What's a CEO?!' Ha, funny when telling the room you're the CEO doesn't impress anyone!

Training week

Haven't had chance to blog since we arrived, and only got internet on my phone but I am fine!! Everything is good, and its cold but waiting for snow still..might come at the weekend.

So the first picture is my chalet in the middle:

Going to look very different in the snow! We've been having training all this week. We are divided into our chalets in groups and are in rotas for making the different meals each day. Someone makes breakfast (me this morning), then we go to a lecture; today was about stock takes and doing our ordering, and about giving cake to the lorry drivers to make them easier to work with when they deliver our food! Seems if you need something you just make someone a cake!

Then we go back to the chalet, someone makes lunch and a cake. Then we go to a food demo where they show us how to make the menu for each day:

Is like watching cooking programme on the telly and we have to taste it all! Then we go back to our chalets and one of us has to prepare the four courses for the rest of our group. I did the first night, and it all went fine..was all on time - easy! Ha.

And then we go to t'pub. At least half of them our northern too. Never worked or had uni with so many so start pickin it op like. And also very strange getting used to how the English drink again! In Cuba/Nicaragua people went out to dance, but here they go out to drink so sit in the pub all night downing beers and shots of jäger..looking forward to some of the nice looking cocktail bars to open!

Last picture is the girls I'm sharing and working in the same building with:

Chloe and Lucy who are both very nice, we seem to be getting on very well! Looking forward to starting properly next week. Only two of our chalets have guests so will be doing it in pairs which will be good to get the hang of it! Just waiting for my four course dinner to be served..we're even getting the aperetif tonight :D

The mountains are calling...

'La vida es como un viaje en autobús, algunos comienzan el viaje junto a ti, otros se montan a la mitad del camino, muchos se bajan antes de que llegues al final de tu viaje y muy pocos permanecen junto a ti hasta el
final. Pero cada una de esas personas dejan algo en tu corazón que recordarás a lo largo de este hermoso viaje de la vida. Baja las ventanas y disfruta el viaje, no sabes cuando llegarás a tu parada!'

Translation: 'Life is like a journey on a bus, some people start the journey with you, some get on part way through, lots get off before you get there and very few stay with you until the end. But each of these people leave something in your heart that you will always remember on this beautiful journey of life. So put down the windows and enjoy the journey, you don't know when you'll arrive at your final stop.'

Well my life seems to be one big journey, especially the next 24 hours I'm about to spend on a bus..!

 Off on my next adventure: ski season in St. Anton, Austria :)

London 2012 Handball Test Event

Had a very good week living in London, volunteering as a flash quote reporter for the Handball Test Event! It started on Monday at our training where we met the press team and found out a tiny bit about our role. We got our uniforms; nice white t-shirt and a raincoat, our free travelcards around London and learnt how to get a meal voucher. Best free lunches ever:

Then I was back in on Tuesday for more training, where I learnt the rules of handball and how to go about interviewing the players as they come off the pitch. Flash quoting means 'quickness'..apparently!

Wednesday was our first proper day. We had a team briefing and then were sent out to watch the China vs Slovakia game; to decide which player to interview and what I would ask them based on their performance.

I interviewed China, the winning team with my Chinese interpreter. We then had 10 minutes to run back to the office and type up our quotes we got from two players and the coach. After a very long day with lots of new things to learn, we all arrived back on Thursday very tired. Luckily we had a very nice team leader who had bought us Krispy Kreme donuts. Amazing!

I enjoyed my jam-filled, glazed donut with my complimentary bottle of diet coke watching Angola beat Austria behind the Angolan fans:

Having never heard of handball until two weeks ago, after just two days I had definately mastered the rules, when I would find myself coming out with things such as 'ooh look at that European style of defending!' and 'ooh aren't Austria played their second game much more aggressively than yesterday!' Handball geek!

Anyway after a very busy, but exciting week in London I am back home (even a bit sad to be missing the finals!) to get ready to leave for Austria on Monday :)

Practising

Have spent the last week with the kitchen like this:

Practising my recipes ready for Austria where I am going to be a chalet host. Liz n Les were forced to try everything. Les always told me the same thing: 'It's very nice but I wouldn't have it again'. Hopefully my guests don't say the same..!

Sage and onion scones - made with real sage (plant by the swing)

Baby rostis - bit greasy

Salmon and dill fennel blinis - too big!

Posh cheese on toast Rarebit with salad - very nice altho bit much balsamic!

Now I just have to make my mango mousse set and learn how to say them all :)