Weds In The Night and Thurs In The Day

The 'baby listening' shift is something I've mentioned before and its really quite boring. Usually my job involves standing in a circle of children 90 strong and leading songs at the top of my voice, having food with them and stuffing my face whilst telling them shit jokes and schmoozing the parents for tips, or hanging out with them in evening clubs where I make misteltoe hats and biology themed art for my house. Excellent job overall.

Excellent apart from the baby listening which has me sitting down for 3 hours outside a child's room whilst the adults eat to make sure that the kids are safe. This Wednesday night had myself and Danni at a chalet called the Braconnier which is where we are stationed to eat with the children this week. I think because the rest of my job is so fun that it makes this shift all the more bland.
           If you've been to uni then you know that 'lecture feeling' you can get at times. You can only think about  leaving and going to bed because for some reason, doing nothing is very tiring, and then all you can do is fantasise about bed. But, similarly to lectures, when you leave the lecture theatre or in this case leave the baby listening, you perk up immediately and wonder why you were ever tired.

Thankfully this was the case yesterday too, as I was refreshingly revitalised upon finishing. Danni made the error of going to bed and I headed to The Comptoir where there was a live band performing covers of recent songs (Wake Me Up, Get Lucky, Blurred Lines- huge surprises there then). My hopes were high as this was the same band that played on Christmas Eve which was an excellent night. That was the sort of excellent where you spend some time asleep in a wardrobe when you get home being jabbed with ski pole by friends (a story for another time).

Shortly after I entered I was tapped on the shoulder. It was one of my guests from the Brac, eight feet tall as she was standing on top of a table and jamming to the cover of 'Ignition' that the band were playing. She jumped down and ordered me to the bar so that she could buy me Jaegerbombs.
           This was a nice reward for being at her chalet until 11.10 wishing that I would slip into a coma. Following some dancing and me feeling slightly awkward, I got on some tables with my friends and had quite a great time singing 'Bad Touch' (Do it again now).

I woke up feeling pretty good, the sun was out and it was my day off. We only get one day off a week but whereas in England this would be quite a terrible thing, it feels like a long time to have off here.

With my friends Warren (definitely still drunk from the night before) and Jonny (who showed me pictures of Warren pantless in the street last night and of Warren passed out in the bathroom) we headed to the slopes. We formed a performance group named Les Papillons Magnifiques as we wanted to get some air and felt the need to label ourselves. It turns out that the magnificent butterflies excel in landing jumps very poorly and stacking it when they aren't even moving.

We headed to a run called Fontaine Froid which is more commonly known as the Seez run as that's the village it leads to. Its a very long red which takes you through a large forest with plenty of scope for off pisting and jumping. This saw the first of many falls for the day with Warren leading the landing party. When we got to the bottom we had a beer which, in hindsight, definitely woke the alcohol resting in our veins from the night before and went to work on annihilating our balance and bolstering the confidence. On the 15 minute chair lift back up it was noticed that the unpisted route around the chair lift pillars looked like a great challenge so we went and got on it.

Some air was gained, there was fun and after that we took a road less travelled through the trees. It was ok though, because we were following someone else's tracks so we knew we would be safe. But then there suddenly appeared many more trees, a brotherhood of rocks and an fierce increase in incline. This led us to believe that even though we were following a previous adventurer, that that person was nuts as balls and was maybe going to get us killed.

We imagined that there would reach a point where we'd find a frozen body instead of tracks. Rather than declining the challenge we kept our skis on and, after some dodgy side slipping and crossing a stream, we made it out.

There were allegedly some antics on the chairlift which can neither be confirmed nor denied. (My lawyer told me to put the allegedly bit in). When you're on a 15 minute chair lift and have consumed beer, you might find yourself without a toilet. Rather than wetting your salopettes, if no one is around, then you better drop them and wee off the lift. This would have worked well on the Seez lift as the chair does not go over the piste. Can't have been good is someone was travelling down the mountain on the lift and saw you (why would you take the lift down instead of skiing down though?)

Also it is not advised to jump from lift, even if it 'would be pretty cool though hey'. What's not cool is when one person stays on the lift too long after the drop point and then realises that he is too high to join the others. The landing was actually fine as a suitable point was picked. One of the jumpers just went straight off and then was followed by someone who hung down monkey style. (Allegedly). Then, as Warren sailed upwards on the chair, the lift stopped, leading to panic and hiding in the trees.I actually weed again but all over my skis this time. It was ok though as it was just someone getting on at the top. (Seriously, ski down people!)

Jonny and Warren wanted me to mention that to finish the day of we took a button away from Seez back to La Roserie. This proved too much of a challenge for me as I fell off it whilst going around a corner and had to ski back down like a fat idiot. I would argue that it was more than 50% incline but really that no excuse.

It was a pretty awesome day off, and maybe you can see how all the action there was does make up for the fact that we only get one a week. I was wet in the pants which I hoped was from snow being in there rather than anything else.


Peace!


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