Well that brings us to the present. We had a good few months at home it was really good to see everyone again after 2 years away, some things have changed there's a lot more babies and a few engagements, looks like everyone is growing up not sure when that will happen for us!!

We left the UK again on December 11th to start our 2nd ski season in a small French resort called SuperDevoluy in the Southern French Alps phonetically spelt Souper DeviloWee. We have struggled to pronounce it but think we have it now. We Interviewed for three ski jobs and were offered all three which is more then we imagined. The thing with ski seasons is that the money is really poor, you can get everything included, ski pass, accommodation, food, insurance etc but they actually pay you around 70 pounds a week which is peanuts and won't get you very far in resort where everything is massively expensive.

We decided to go for the job that pays a wage but it's up to you to sort out food, ski pass etc, which suits us fine and we really have to save some money it can't all be for funzies.

We got into resort at 3pm having been on the go since 5am, navigating the French language and also the buses and trains, we were exhausted. We had seen on the website that the resort opens on 11th December so we expected things to be open and people around, this wasn't so.

We had to get a taxi to resort as the bus wasn't running yet, when we got there there was an envelope selotaped to the reception door with our name on it and a note saying where our apt was and if there was a problem to go and see Max who has an apt in the same building. We got ourselves unpacked, admired the amazing view from our balcony with mountains surrounding us then we realized that there was no one in sight and not even the noise of a car, TV, nothing. It was like we had arrived into a ghost town.

We had no food so thought we'd go and take a look around and find the supermarket. There really isn't a lot to SuperDevoluy there is a massive building at the bottom of the slope which is only a 200m walk from where we are and in this building is where you find a few restaurants, supermarket and a few bars too, but none of this was open as actually the season doesn't start until next Saturday 18th December which means no supermarket, no food, oh s*it!! It was nice of UKOH who recruited us to say that nothing was open and buy food in the main town before we get there, Steve's mum did suggest we take some cuppa soups with us, not such a bad idea now!

We knocked on Max's door twice with no answer, I did begin to think oh God what have we done, there was someone else's stuff in the apartment but we had seen no sign of anyone not even life around the main town, we were starting to get quite hungry so knocked on Max's door again and he answered, he said that this was normal and nobody gets told about anything before they arrive and UKOH is the weakest link between Eurogroup and Madmae Vacannes.

Just so you know we are working for Madame Vacannes which is owned by Eurogroup and UKOH recruits for Eurogroup so there's a lot of different parties to contend with and we get the impression that communication isn't the strong point between them. Needless to say we are here and Max very kindly gave us food to see us through until the supermarket opened which was Monday so we only had a few days to get through. We didn't bring any shower gel or shampoo because they weighed too much so we showered in hand soap for a few days, Steve had to borrow my tooth brush because he was going to buy one the day we got here.

After a good sleep we had another walk around the resort which is very small, no wonder we couldn't find any info on the place, oh well Val d'sere will have to wait. We still hadn't seen many people at all and the quietness is strange to try and get used to because there was no noise at all and with no wind at times everything is still and with nothing open there is nothing to do, no internet either until the resort opened but we do have a TV so we've been watching the French version of the Price is Right trying to decipher what they are saying.

It has dawned on us how little English folk will be here, Max is Scottish but speaks conversational French and Fern the receptionist is English but has lived in France since she was three so the language is no barrier for either, everyone else is French, we knew that we would be up against a language barrier but this is going to be difficult. Steve speaks a little French from what he can remember from what he learnt at school, I on the other hand opted to learn Spanish for GCSE instead so this is going to be interesting and a steep learning curve. I have been working most of this week and Sandrine my manager, there's only two of us, has been giving me new words which I hope is going in. We throw around frenglish conversation quite well now and I listen to French vocab most of the day on my IPod which is really helping I think.

I am soooo pleased that I brought my IPod with me because I work on my own most of the time cleaning the apartments which is very repetitive, in an 8hr day I can clean 5 apts doesn't seem like a lot but feels like it at the end of the day and without having something to listen to I'm not sure I could handle it as it would be quite a lonely job. I'm quite shocked that there's only myself and Sandrine who do the housekeeping side of things because there's a lot of apts to take care of but the guests have to pay for cleaning here and have to do the end of stay clean if they don't want to pay for it, if it's not sufficient then they lose their deposit but there's still enough work for a 39hr week.

Steve started four days after me so he has been very bored and the mountain hasn't been open so he hasn't even been able to go snowboarding, poor thing. He's doing the maintenance here along with Max and Nico I think he's had some up and down days as he doesn't quite know how things work around here and nothing really gets told to you it's a lot about your own initiative. He's been left on his own a bit too clearing snow off of steps in the apt buildings and clearing pathways which I think he'd rather not do and get on with the maintenance side of things which I don't think he's seen yet. I think it may be a case of new boy syndrome, get all the worse jobs till he's initiated, I'm sure he'll pipe up if it really starts to bother him.

We work 8.30-12 then 4-7.30 which leaves us with 4hr break so today we went up the hill and were so relieved that it came right back to us, we only had a few runs but really enjoyed it and with having 2 days off a week as well as 4hr lunch breaks we've got loads of time to get out there.

I think we're settled in now we were really worried when we found out there was due to be 5 of us in the apt which is tiny anyway and meant that one person would be sleeping on the sofa bed in the front room so there would be no living space and the bedrooms are minuscule there really wasn't enough room for everyone and we're all paying 250 euro each a month, it takes the p*ss in a big way but that was the option we had unless we could have found an estate agent and organise our own flat which would have been impossible. Our head receptionist has moved out to the other staff apt it's not right for her to be on the sofa!!! So there's four of us now and we seem to be managing.

The food is hugely expensive so looks like we'll be eating a lot of pasta and rice with meat being a luxury. We are having to think about how much we eat, we don't go hungry but certainly more conscious of how much things cost that's for sure. We almost brought a bottle of squash for 7 euro until we saw the label and thought Evian from the tap will do fine thanks.

Another thing that's annoying me is that my hair is constantly static I just can't get rid of it, I feel like I'm walking around with a straight afro, if that makes any sense!?!? Please email me if you know how to control it!!!!!

Blog again soon xx