Week 19 - Goodbye Mr Chips...
Week Ending 16/4/6

The big news for this week was that Jonny left to go home, before heading off to do his summer season. Everyone knew the hoodys would be arriving imminently and figured it would be good to all go out ‘reprazent’-ing the Tov all dressed the same for Jonny’s leaving do. They were all looking at me to get it done.

I guess I was just standing in the wrong place at the wrong time, but somewhere along the line I became the bloke who arranges the Hoodys. Getting hoody’s printed up is a seasonairre tradition in which everyone’s names, the hotel, the year etc. are all printed up on a sweatshirt or t-shirt as a keepsake from the season.

Most hotels get theirs from Natives, but someone got a catalogue from Fat Face and their Team Kit looked way better, so the general consensus was that we should go for that. Luke did the Toviere graffiti writing and I nicked the Val d’Isere eagle logo, collated everyone’s names and nicknames, then whacked it all in an email to Fat Face.

The delivery company turned out to be a bit rubbish and we couldn’t get them delivered for Jonny’s leaving do, even though I was bang on form, back in ‘London-Mode’ all efficient and concise on the phone to Fat Face. I was pulling out trump cards like ‘I met the head of Marketing at the Fat Face night ski and he said that for helping you guys at that, these should be put to the top of the priority list.' I felt quite bad when it was clear the delivery company sucked and the woman from Fat Face in London said, “I’m really sorry Matt, don’t shout at me but...” I had no intention of shouting, I hadn’t raised my voice once, it’s just nice to know that in the last few years of playing Peter Pan that I’ve not lost my touch at getting stuff done!

Anyway, Jonny’s leaving do went well and we got the hoodys the next day before he left so it was all good in the end. I was quite proud actually, everyone really liked them and there’s generally at least 2 people wearing them at any given time around the hotel, even though they don’t actually have hoods!

Another thing I’ve been working on is collating everyone’s pictures from the season on my laptop and putting them on a DVD so everyone can have a copy. I stuck a little ‘Cheers for such a great season’ message in the form of an ad for this site (being the narcissistic fuck that I am) and I got a bit choked up. I wasn’t the only one. The reality of going home was starting to hit everyone. In a short while we’ll all be home and out of this beautiful bubble of snow and lazy (yet efficient) work.

To make things even more surreal, I’d arranged to fly home on Thursday for a few days to go to my Grandad’s secret 80th birthday party on Good Friday. I went ‘home’ to the house we’d moved into just a week before I came away. It was brilliant to see Mum and Dad again, and to see how much they’d decorated while I’d been away. But it felt weird to call it ‘home’ as I’d lived in it for about three days before I left, then moved to Val for 5 months where I lived and worked in the same building. ‘Home’ felt like a very abstract concept.

Anyway, next day, Dad and I went to the pub where my cousin brought my Grandad to see a ‘surprise.’ My uncle turned up too, and Grandad seemed to enjoy the surprise that I was home and bought the story that I’d been caught up in Easter air traffic and thus couldn’t see him on his actual birthday on Thursday.

All the while Nan filled the house with Grandad’s friends and family ready for our return. When we got back to their house, I was quite glad that everyone was just gathered in the hallway as we came in rather than hiding behind stuff waiting to shout ‘Surprise!’

….He is 80 after all.

The party was good and it was really nice to have some good buffet food after 5 months of ‘staff’ food. (Ie ‘Guest’ food from the previous night chopped up and put in a sauce.) Plus it was nice to catch up with the whole family and Nan and Grandad’s friends.

The following day I arranged to meet up with all my mates for a curry and a bit of karaoke in the pub opposite. Craig, Dan, Tom, Deb and Billy all came along (Billy with a CD of pics of when I met up with him in Val Thorens, click here to see them.) I don’t think my body was ready though. At altitude, your taste buds are less sensitive than at sea level. Having acclimatized to life at 6000ft, just the poppadoms and lime pickle brought my cheeks out in a sweat!

On the flipside, when it came to getting up at 4.30am after 3 hours kip to get the taxi to the airport. I felt tip-top. It didn’t matter that I’d drunk loads and had very little sleep, my body was used to working a lot harder to make oxygen to process the alcohol 2000m above sea level, so I woke up feeling great!

So at 4.30am I left home (and after only a couple of days, it did feel like home) to come home again. Home for one final week of boarding, bar work and buddies. Weird…