Exchange to Belgium 08

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

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!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

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 :)

Saturday, January 24, 2009

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

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

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

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Our new wheels

Well we're back from Finland, and the trip was FANTASTIC. So glad we decided to go for it.

I will post on it, but for now here's a pic of our new wheels! We bought this off one of the Chefs who just left (and who is also Finnish, so we met up with her 3 days later back in Helsinki!!)

Its not the latest aston martin, but it will get us about the place!

I've put some photos of Finland trip up on Facebook if anyone wants to check them out! Will have to wait for photos of Aurora Borealis til I can get them from Nean coz she was the only one with a camera good enough to catch them properly - it will be worth the wait I promise!