Nelle takes on Snowboarding

Check out my board!!! I got up early on my day off and headed up the mountain for a snowboarding lesson, which turned out to be fantastic. I'm now feeling muscles that I didn't know existed, but it was great fun. I had the PERFECT day for it - enough snow, no wind, clear sunny skies, GORGEOUS!

This is the view from the Ptarmigan restaurant where I work (that buidling in the picture). On a good day, you can see the sea from here (the Moray firth at Inverness). It's stunning!

This is the summit of Cairn Gorm mountain, right above the Ptarmigan restaurant. It's the 6th highest mountain in the UK apparently!!

My jump shot; the look of pain/worry on my face is the fact that I'm standing on a ski run and there are skiiers bearing down on me!! Only got one chance to take a shot and wasn't gonna risk my neck again!

A new (cheaper) flat

As most of you know we moved out of the resort staff accomodation as it was a bit pricey, so we're now down the road a bit. The photo above is the area we live in - it has colourful houses and funny speed signs; "twenty's plenty" lol.

Here's our new place;


It's on a little avenue off ROBERTS ROAD!!!

Ski Hire Geeks

Hamish and his fellow loonies had a 'geek' themed day in ski hire, so they all dressed up appropriately.


I never stopped laughing. But secretly I was jealous.

They also had a battery-operated dog chained to a poll that does naughty things...

Birthday in the snow

Hello to all :)
Well, I had my second birthday in the northern hemisphere which means I've been away for a year now, and also that my birthday has been wintery!

We had a great day skiing up at Cairn Gorm, our staff passes getting us free access on the train, up the mountain, ski gear and even lessons!!

Mish shows us how its done

The only photo I got of me in my ski gear and Im not even looking at the camera! Munter!

Aviemore - CairnGorm Mountain

Well here we are in Aviemore - have had 3 days work so far and all is going pretty well. There has been a ridiculous amount of snow over the last few days (apparently we brought the awesome snow with us) and so the mountain staff have been battling to keep the roads and mountain open so that the millions of people who have heard about the fresh powder can get at it.

Here's Mish in his new home, the Ski Hire dept.

Our staff accomodation at Aviemore Highland Resort - nice!

The road we drive to work on - snowy but GORGEOUS


RED SQUIRRELS!!! These were at the Glenmore Cafe :)

I O U

So I do owe a blog or two about our adventures in Finland over Xmas. I don't have time to write the whole thing up just now, but will put some photos up at least to start with. I have slotted them in underneath these last 2 posts though, so they're in chrono order (lol). Anyways, enjoy! xxx R

Moving on to new jobs

Hello everyone!
We're currently in Aviemore, central highlands, after having had an interview today at Cairngorm mountain for new jobs. We have both been offered positions there and will start on the 4th Feb!!! (Last day on Skye is 1st Feb).

Hamish will be working in the ski hire department as a ski technician (fitting skis, boards, boots etc for people and also doing maintenance stuff), and I will be working as a catering assistant in both of the 2 cafe/restaurants up the mountain. The ptarmigan restaurant at the top of the mountain is the highest in Britain. eh? eh? eh? The jobs also come with a ski pass and use of equipment, so we can learn to snowboard on our days off!! There are also a herd of reindeer on the mountain, apparently they came from Finland!

We will be living in a hotel (special rates for staff) for a while until we find some accomodation, but will only be working at the centre for about 3 months until the end of the ski season sometime near the end of april. From then we will start travelling Europe, and then maybe work another month or so throughout the summer to make sure we dont starve.

Check out Cairngorm mountain's website!
you can also see the cas bar and ptarmigan restaurant on there where I'll be working.

love to all! xxx R