R.S. Barrington's Blog: Lights Out, page 3

WHAT DOGS DO YOU HAVE?

Meet Johnny. Half of our employers here in Tignes les Breveriers.

After a day of skiing, cooking for and entertaining the guests, our evenings end with a dog hunt.

Johnny leaves the Chalet for the walk home with two dogs on two leads. We sit by our open fire awaiting the phone call that will inform us of which dog has been lost.

‘Poppy’ the elder one will make her way either home, or back to the chalet, depending on what part of her short journey she was let free. Or ‘Bella’ the puppy black lab...

DINNER TABLE BEAR JOKES

This week at our Chalet we have a wonderful story teller in the guise of Father Christmas, name of Gilly.

He has already told us many stories with his big white beard as the centre piece, and the one we remember the most, is the story of how he sat opposite a drunk Welsh man in a pub. This drunk Welshmen was staring at our Father Christmas, luring him closer with drunken eyes. As the pair got within kissing distance, this Welshmen declares

“Three years I asked for a scalextric and you never bou...

SUPERMARKET SKI

Two lives cross in a winter mountain car park.

You know you’ve made it when, as you approach your sparkling new family car in a supermarket car park, where every other car around you is covered in dirty snow, salt and grit from driving in two foot of snow for the past month, you press a button and your boot opens. With a trolley full of boxes of wine you load them into your car and as you walk away the boot closes automatically. This happened as two gentlemen in there late 40′s, probably volun...

CHALET LIFE PART ONE

Guests.

Running Chalet Eterlou this winter has its perks. We get to ski everyday, our lift pass is paid for, our accommodation is three minutes from the slopes, and we get beer money at the end of each week.

We also get the chance to greet new fresh and excited guests every change over day. This guarantees to be fun if not unbearable, greeting all kinds of personalities, sense of humour and charm.

So far, 90% of our guests in the first three weeks have become friends, people who are here to enjo...

DINNER TABLE TALKS

Home this winter is Chalet Eterlou in Tignes-les-Brevieres, with Jajina as Chalet Girl I am in the position of Handy man.

When applying for the jobs we received a pdf titled ‘job description-Chalet Girl’Jajina’s made for some bed time reading, three A4 pages detailing her chores in great detail. After reading this together we opened the ‘handyman’ page.

My job was described in far less detail:

Clear the paths from snow
Fix things when they are broken
Sit with, eat with and chat up the guests in th...

THE COMING OF AGE QUESTION

As I have returned to the UK for an extended period, I am spending some very belated time with my nephew and nieces, and am reminded of how the innocence of a child’s thought can provoke such wonder and amusement.

How will my brothers, like any new parent, answer the questions that unfold on a daily basis from the mouths of someone so young? And how, in those early years, do you answer questions of a sensitive nature?

Whilst I play with all three children and wait the arrival of my fourth nephe...

WHAT I DO WHEN NOT WRITING

I have been so busy lately after returning to the UK from 20 months in France, that I haven’t found much time to write up thoughts and ideas that come to me on a daily basis. I instantly returned to my old way of life, not one that I had longed to escape, but the one where routine and habit, or auto pilot take over.

I resumed my job in a small furniture workshop and have been busy all over the country making and installing all kinds of furniture.

I thought I would share some of the things that...

WHAT I DO WHEN NOT WRITING.

I have been so busy lately after returning to the UK from 20 months in France, that I haven’t found much time to write up thoughts and ideas that come to me on a daily basis. I instantly returned to my old way of life, not one that I had longed to escape, but the one where routine and habit, or auto pilot take over.

I resumed my job in a small furniture workshop and have been busy all over the country making and installing all kinds of furniture.

I thought I would share some of the things that...

UNDENIABLY UNBUDDHIST

I’m going to predict the future and give it a somewhat happy ending, but first I’ll set the scene. Nepal 2010, home of the tallest mountain on earth and birthplace of the most peaceful religion, Buddhism, is struck by a chain of cholera. Eight people die from the affected 1400 as the monsoon season ends, this level of outbreak is classed as routine and easy to control.

It is summer. In January of this year an earthquake devastates the country of Haiti effecting 3 million of its 9 million popul...

FREE FIRST CHAPTER OF ‘THE WAITING ROOM’

One year on from finishing The Waiting Room I am celebrating the anniversary by uploading the first chapter for free. I finished this book in the summer of last year but have been slack with promoting it as I have been busy with my second book, which isn’t any more finished than it was last summer, I have no excuses.

I hope you enjoy what you read here.

THE WAITING ROOMby r.s.barrington

It’s dark in the room. The curtains are thick to block out the council placed street light which makes the ni...