C'est fini!

It feels like just yesterday when Chubby was skiing about like a tart dressed as Father Christmas, Roz broke both her wrists, and then there was saga of the genepy infested Black Wednesday....this season has absolutely flown by! Once again I'm back in ghettosville aka Maidstone which is a bit tough adjusting to as a) there is no snow b) no people under the age of 50 c) I can eat my meals at times other than 3 and 6pm d) seasonnaire discount is good for NOTHING round these parts and e) I'm no longer governed by the illusive character that is Mr Scotty. I'm missing la Plagne and all the people though, but I've had an awesome season. You might even say that it was gnarly. Now just DO ONE! xxxx

Rookie Mistake...Never tell your friends what embarassing hobbies your parents have

It was like my Dad's 10th birthday all over again

I don't know how they got it out of me, but during the last few days of the season it became apparent that my Dad had a rather embarassing pasttime. Plane spotting. The years of taking numbers and days sitting in a field by Gatwick on the lookout for good 'spots', had taken their toll and I had to tell someone. As amusing as they found it, I thought that Chris and Cas would leave it there, but oh no. As we were split up on the plane, I was a tad embarassed that Cas starts waving around the duty free booklet at me from 10 rows in front, and clearly starts plotting something with his partner in crime ie Chris the leprechaun. As we get off at Luton and were greeted by Pete and Marge, Pete then whips out his latest copy of 'Aviation Monthly' and Chris and Cas saw this as a good time to make the presentation. They had bought him a tiny easy jet model plane, and it was only bloody limited edition and everything! Well they made his day anyway, just look at how proud they all are (and how red I am).

Oh yeah Chris we kinda forgot to tell you this....

The chef de partaaaay took more in one night than Paul and I did all season

Paul and I are only smiling that much because we didn't have to do any work (oh and Paul was smashed)

Paul and I were pretty tipsy behind the bar so decided to enlist the help of Cas. He ended up doing more work than the both of us, and he actually SMILED! Clearly it was only his first night.

Man it was HOT!

The chicas bared all for the lads in the last week

Last day. Stamped his authority on 2 runs. Clearly he is NOT just bar

Check out the hot mamma in her bathing suit! Oh and Mr Chalet himself sporting his spring ensemble out skiing (yes the la Plagne hoodie still features).

Scotty's last week re-signage

Comedy gold

Rob and I got bored after all the pack up staff left and had a bit too much Champers by 11am, so decided to get creative with the blackboards. Let the pictures do the talking.

Cas needs his own pack up section

Cas tackles a rather tricky run

He struggles to negotiate the tricky lip at the doorway

He ends up pulling after his skiing heroics

Seriously, what a state. Cas on the champers at 9am. Clearly he's just topping up

It was a pretty quiet night when Christophe and I were working in Scotty’s, and most of the dark corner staff had gone to drink the bar dry chez Arne, when Chris comes in from outside and casually says ‘Cas is going skiing!!!!’ Given his hatred for skiing/the dark/the fact he has no skis, I have to admit I was a tad confused as to how this was possible. Oh he surpassed himself this time though, after picking up a random pair of skis (Hannah’s, whoops!), attaching them to his adidas trainers/ski boots, and then skiing through the entrance and into Scotty’s. A couple of days later, Ellie and I were unhappy that the Chef de Partay is always the initiator of jokes, and we felt the tables needed to be turned and make him the VICTIM. Lets say Caspar boasted just a little too hard that he had his own guest room for the last few days, so we rather steathly broke into room 2, gave the illusion that he had a lady friend in his bed, with the help of pillows, a hat, a coat, beer can, scotty’s band, and obligatory packet of skips that was strewn across the bed. Who’s laughing now, friendly ghost!?!

and then the packup frolics began...

Sheep skin is like, so this season

Rah rah, where can one find a ski host in such a delightful place?

Come on Will, give the rest of the guys a chance

The day the last guests left, they were accompanied by the majority of the staff who were either severely hungover, or just getting back on it, and ready to embark upon a 1.5 day trip back to the UK. As sad as it was, the show had to go on, and the Scotty’s crew had a week left to do the honourable thing and make our way through the remaining alcohol. I’m not quite sure what happened but well, we all got very drunk and just minced our way through the week, highlights being a ‘lost property parade’ where Paul ended up looking like Bruno (Ali G’s gay model pal) as he sported some random (fake) sheep skin gilet as he served behind the bar, Mick looked like our traditional retard Mark Warner guest, complete with sun hat and shorts. Oh and Will chalet broke out his shorts, much to the pleasure of us laydeez.

Surely the MOST important thing that happened this week

You know when you're in the presence of beauty

Champers darling, rah, rah rah, rah

Apologies for not writing much this week, essentially we have been trying to help out the bar by relieving it of pretty much all its alcohol. I'll write more later when I'm not so hungover, but pretty much all you need to know this week is that at the staff party I won an award. Thats right, 'most attractive female'. It wasn't even a joke either! Everything else pales in comparison really, the last week is looming though and it looks like it could be even messier, pray for Kat.

Les Arcs!

Mike, Rick and Carolita...waiting for me AGAIN!

Taking another break

Rick and Mike. Mike claims to be straight but this snap proves otherwise

The oldest chairlift in the world, invented by the cavemen, surely you could fall out of that thing

In the early days of my snowboarding escapade, when burning my board instead of using it for 'gnarly' tricks, was a more suitable option, I could only dream of boarding the whole day over to les Arcs. Given that I am now semi pro, the time had come to make the trip over. In a slightly hungover state of mind, Mike, Rick, Carolita and myself started out and made it over and it was a good day! We saw what can only be the oldest chairlift ever, and we had spaghetti bolognaise, man we know how to live! Oh I also got pushed over by a snowblader which was massively underappreciated considering how stupid they are and how they should never have been invented. It was an awesome day out, and I managed to get over to les Arcs and have a mooch around, which I think is quite an achievement (even though I'm semi pro of course).

P. A. N. D. A!

It's the band along the top of the spam that really sets the look off

It's official, summer is nearly here. Being in a ski resort some people might think that that doesn't really make much difference. Those people are WRONG! More sunlight + Kat = bronzed goddess*. Add to this the small factor of goggles while you are out boarding and you get the scientific phenomenon which is, 'Panda eyes' (whiteus eyedus freakus). Witness this in the above photo you paupers!

* ie burnt.

Gnarly

Dropping hammers on the green run (thats a good thing)

Sick (also a good thing)

Too gnarly for my own good

When Marge and Pete were out, I swear they were like the paparazzi! I couldn't even do the green run without nearly bashing into these media hounds! Anyway, man I look gnarly.

Scotty's Night Out...back on the sauce

You wanna joina mya pola cluba?!

New Will, the damage from having a safety pin in his ear finally started to show

Mr Tex Mex, a role model for all Scotty's employees

Will Chalet getting his groove on (and being checked out by guy behind him)

R to L; Chris the guvnor, Incompetent Female I, Incompetent Female II, Random

I swear he took the shine off the pole he was on it so long

Booze, my long lost friend, it has been too long

The powers that be decided that the Scottys crew needed a 'moral boosting' mission, in the form of a booze up. Considering all the changes that had been going on recently it was only going to go one of 2 ways, either we would all get on like an alcohol induced house on fire, or we would all end up fighting, like we pretty much do all the time. Add to that the fact that this was the first time I had been back on the sauce in a week and I was still in a bit of of hazy antibiotic blur, it was going to be interesting. We made the daring trek up to Belle Plagne, which involved not 1 but 2 forms of transport, we're talking extreme adventure here, to 'le Bowling' (another Will Chalet brainchild that we ended up doing purely to please him, I must remind you that he is only 23 years old). Suprisingly le bowling turned out to be quite fun, although our true competiveness did start to show, this was offset by the comedy of New Will, who was already pretty hammered, and everytime he threw the ball it would be met with elaborate falling over in an attempt to perfect his 'technique', and Hannah showed us that simply dropping the bowling ball from quite a height is a winning formula. It did get a bit ugly however when Will started willing us all to lose, and of course in the end we had to let him win. Then it was on to the Cheyenne Cafe, a Tex Mex right at home in the middle of the alps...hmm. Well the service at the start was a tad like Scottys, when we walked in we were met with the usual 'oh god not more customers' look, the bar was covered in dirty glasses, a lack of understanding (or desire to understand) between client and waiter, and everyone that worked there had a pretty surly look on their faces. We were right at home. Fortunately the food was absolutely delicious and we all had a combo of fajitas and steak, although unwittingly we walked into a 'faj' related landmine, where the lads abused the fact that the 'faj' tasted good, and kept making 'faj' related jokes all night, mature as ever guys! Despite how much effort the waiter tried to look as pissed off as he could all night (Mr Scotty would be proud), he did crack a wee smile when he came out armed with some filth in a bottle and we all had a shot with him. I was left speechless for a good 10 minutes due to the level of rankness of said shot, and then, as you do, we made it our mission to see how quickly we could get kicked out of a bar. 3 SECONDS IN THE MATAFAN RESTAURANT PEOPLE! That has to be some record, but I think New Will sealed the deal when he sauntered in there with his own drink, good work. We then went on to possibly the thinnest bar in the entire world, 1 deep at the bar and you were in trouble, where Ben and Mikko's (of Scottys band fame) Dads were playing, which was cool and slightly weird that there are in fact other songs besides what Ben and Mikko/Rehab/Queens of Leon play, shocker! After that it was on to Saloon, one of the last remaining clubs in la Plagne (Blue Night couldn't be bothered to play their electricity so Aime 2000 is officially dead) where we pretty much partied for about 4 hours. Carolita went home, New Will did a runner as soon as they asked for his coat, Stu went off with some Crystal lads, so it was left to the incompetent females, Chris and Will (who passed out in the corner sucking his thumb) to amuse ourselves in a pole dancing fiasco and try to avoid the masses of sleazy men who didn't seem too fussed about your gender or sexual orientation (NB: As we have already established, Saloon = Glorified gay bar). So tonight we discovered that, shock horror, there is life outside Plagne Centre, and more shockingly, Scotty's!