sunday sugar

4/1/15

The morning was spent cleaning (as usual!), although I did get to do less than usual as I had to prepare Sunday Sugar.  Lunch was at 12.30 as usual though!

Rachael at lunch

Sunday Sugar is a tradition that every Sunday, someone bakes something sweet.  This week I had volunteered.  I decided that I would hit two birds with one stone and cook Sunday Sugar at the same time as cooking my traditional meal from my country for my staff challenge.  What is more Australian than Pavlova? Apart from Vegemite... though no one here seems to appreciate it!!

So here are the pictures of baking my Sunday Sugar Pavlova...

Egg yolks and whites separated

So much sugar...

Eggs whipped and sugar ready to go in

Baking time

Decorated and ready to go

Pretty much as we finished Sunday Sugar it was time to start dinner.  It is very much like a Guide camp here - one meal finishes and the next one starts!

Dinner was Spaghetti Bolognese, Garlic Bread and Salad.  We had cooked for 32, however it turned out that only 21 came to dinner.  So as per usual we had too much food, and way too much desserts! Which only meant one thing - double desserts for Staff!!

Jen consuming her dinner: 

"My precious..." 

Tonight's movie is 'Wild Child'.  Megan is currently lying on the couch procrastinating packing to go home tomorrow, whilst the rest of us (Danielle, Charlotte, Ana and I) are suffering from our food coma of Pavlova and dessert!

 

My new badge (I found it in the swap box!)

ice skating

3/1/15

This morning I was on program - Ice Skating day! We had program meeting at 8.45, later than the usual 8.30 because the rink didn't open until 10 am.

We rang the program bell at 9 and were slipping down the Chalet hill by about 9.15.  There was black ice everywhere! So much that one of the girls even said - 'what are we walking into town for we can just ice skate here!'  We had 13 Guests with us - a group from South Africa.

We made it into town, no one died or slipped to terribly along the way either! We met Jen at the Sport Centre, she had organised tickets for us to go Ice Skating.  

Some of the South African Girls

 

We skated until early afternoon, by which time it was raining. Chloe rang Jen, and Jen came and picked us up from the arena, in the Van and ferried us back to the Chalet.  It did take two trips, but it was nice not to have to walk back in the rain!!

When we got back, the guest services girls were having a break, having finished most of their jobs, so we joined them. At four we went and cooked dinner - Chicken Curry.  It was a little bit of touch and go with the recipe, in relation to amounts and cooking times!  

In the end it tasted good though!  Because we had one guest at dinner (and one is all it takes!!) we had dessert.  We had mini doughnuts.  However, as we had defrosted enough for fourteen people and there was only actually 8 at dinner... we got five mini doughnuts instead of three!!  

We headed back to Stockli for another movie night!  This time it was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and St Trinians.   Katrina had baked throughout the day - She had made buns! So Chloe made hot chocolate (from more of the left over fondue) and we had hot chocolate and buns for supper!

cleared by the doctor!

2/1/15

I was once again rendered unusable until my doctors appointment at 10 am.  Though I did attend morning meeting at 9.30, then left with Miguel at 9.55 am.  The doctor asked me whether I still had a headache (yes, I did), so he wanted me to rest more.  I managed to negotiate to 'working easy' or 'taking it easy', but I'm not sure he understood.

Anyways I was allowed to return to work.  I then spent the rest of the day folding laundry and sweeping. I wasn't allowed to remake rooms or cook....

Megan made Bread and Butter pudding with the leftover rolls from yesterday.  Here's Chloe enjoying it so much she licked the bowl.  

We worked right after lunch instead of having a break and as a result we had finished everything by 3 ish.  So we had a break until we were needed in the kitchen at 4.30.  We had Chicken and Leek Pie for dinner and Profiteroles with fondue topping for desert.  As predicted, Chloe cleaned the spoon and bowl.  

After dinner we all retired to Stockli.  Around Stockli, we are constantly finding pictures of Baden Powell (below). For example, there are two in my room on the roof, on glow stars, there are random ones underneath shelves, in cupboards, on the walls and just in all sorts of places.  They are from the Summer Vollies (Jeez Chloe and Megan!!) Katrina (though I'm not sure how!) found this one underneath the kitchen table.   On the back it says:

                             " Trust should be the basis for all our moral training" - RBP

                                                                                Summer 2014

We finished the night watching movies and eating the left over fondue from Swiss Night.  It was almost like a truffle!

woodcarvers and adelboden hike

16/12/14

This morning was an early wake up… of a whole 7 am!  We had breakfast and then had to pack our lunch for our full day of programme.  Programme meeting was at 8.30 am, we planned our day and the route we were going to take.  Then we went outside and did our hiking checks for clothes, shoes and what was in our packs before breaking and heading off. 

We left just after nine, and got to the wood carvers just after ten.  We were told it would take a lot longer with guests!! Here's some photos I took along the way...

I found some Winstons!! (My old car!)

The Woodcarver's was thoroughly impressive! The have been collaborating with Our Chalet since 1945.  The business has just been handed over to the third generation, and they recently revamped the Our Chalet sign which can be found at the end of the drive way.  The ceiling of the shop is covered in badges from the people who have visited and we were encouraged to add more! I found a Australian Friendship one among them.

 There were so many things I wanted to buy, but as I am sure I will be back, I restrained myself to just buying a trefoil name badge with 'Mel' on it.  After the Woodcarvers, we walked a little down the hill to a little cafe called 'Cafe Blatti'.  A lovely German lady runs a cafe out of her house.  I had lemon cake and a cup of tea, and I would highly recommend it!!

After our late morning tea break, we hiked down to the river.  Chloe made us walk almost to the bottom of the gorge, before she realized the path through the gorge was closed, then made us hike all the way back up again.  When we reached the river side it was time to have more food, lunch! However before we did that we all completed another section of our Staff Challenge by standing/kneeling in the rive for five seconds.  It wasn't that bad on your toes as such, however once it hit your knees and shins the water was freezing.  It was a lovely feeling to sit and put our shoes back on the feel your arteries and veins vasodilate, and return blood flow to your feet.  It kinda made them feel all warm even though they were freezing.  

After finishing lunch, we continued on into town, where we met up with Jen.  Here was where we got to organize our ski hire!!  We had organized to hire from a company called InterSport in town.  They decked us out with ski boots, skis and poles.  Apparently you can only hire a helmet if you are under 15.  The guy laughed at me when I asked him... So it looks like I will either have to borrow one from the Chalet or buy my own!

After we moved all our gear to the van... there was a lot of gear to move, when you think 8 people with boots, poles and skis, then begun the Adelboden Scavenger Hunt.  We had to find things such as the cow (bonus points for making it moo), take a photo in front of the town fountain (bonus points for getting your noses wet), how many steps between two shops which I can't spell the names of, how many public toilets can you find, and take a funny photo on the childrens playground.

Us in front of the town fountain

Our funny picture on the playground

We also went to the Co-op to buy some more snacks and chocolate... you can never have enough of Swiss chocolate, before meeting at 4.15 pm and heading back to Our Chalet.  We managed to get a couple of shots of all the Vollies together and the Vollies and Interns.

Once we got back to Our Chalet, half of us split and finished setting up the attic of Spycher and the cooked dinner.  Then after dinner we had the evening off! Finally our internet was working (kinda), so I caught up on the news (omg Sydney!!) and talking to people at home.

At about 8 pm we headed over to Jen and Mara's house for hot drinks after they invited us at dinner.  It was nice to sit on the floor and talk about nothing!  Half headed back before the rest of us, and Charlotte, Chloe, Katrina and I headed back last at about 9.30 pm.  When we got back, Chloe stood in front of the fridge trying to decide if it was to late to have food (shes a bit of a food/sweet junkie!).  When she opened the fridge there was a bit of a surprise! 

 Needless to say, she screamed (waking up all of Stockli in the process) and we all thought it was hilarious!  She ended up on the floor for about 5 mins trying to control her self, and we eventually calmed her down when Katrina bought out chocolate.  

"The mood-enhancing properties of chocolate are well known in both the Muggle and wizard worlds. Chocolate is the perfect antidote for anyone who has been overcome in the presence of Dementors, which suck hope and happiness out of their surroundings. Chocolate can only be a short-term remedy, however. Finding ways to fight off Dementors – or depression – are essential if one is to become permanently happier. Excessive chocolate consumption cannot benefit either Muggle or wizard."

—Description of the effects of chocolate, Harry Potter.

The funniest bit was, when we were all sitting at the kitchen table after we had all stopped laughing, Chloe got up and opened the fridge and almost scared herself again!!