So this is my first post about a person, a nanny of all people. I have asked for and received full consent to write what I like. She is a brave girl, but I knew that already. I wont ask permission from most people (mainly because I know I won't get it).
The first time I really heard anything about Miss P was the morning after a big night out, the childcare manager was talking about her, 'Im a bit worried about her, she is here for the babies. Not for the skiing, or the parties, just for the babies'. It turned out that that night Miss P had discovered the perils of sambuca.
I had little to do with Miss P for the first few weeks. I had enough to worry about getting to know my own staff and set up a hotel, let alone getting to know childcare. However the second time I heard about Miss P came very shortly after the first. It turns out her room mate, another nanny, had brought the bar supervisor back to their room. In the long thin room they shared the beds were end to end and a poor, quickly sobering up Miss P closed her eyes, pretended to be asleep and thought of England while a collection of feet bashed into hers.
The Miss P who left France last week would not have put up with that, a short sharp 'Fuck off' would have been uttered before the two people were even halfway into the room. That is why I have chosen Miss P for my first subject. Never have I met anyone who changed so much, and so much for the better in such a short time.
I got to know Miss P quickly as I realised my shift went much faster if I spent a large part of it in the nursery cuddling babies. And at the beginning she was an 18 year old who liked babies. As I rule I have spent the past few years doing my best to avoid 18 year olds.
And Im going to fast forward a few weeks, maybe a couple of months to when my experiences with Miss P collided again. It was obvious she was unhappy and this is where my role as Head of Staff Welfare kicked in once again. She was still quiet, she was still shy and still clinging onto her life at home, the boyfriend, the parents. She never went on nights out and was unhappy at being awoken at 3am most mornings by here pissed up colleagues. And she wanted nothing more than to get out. To leave. To go back to England. And it was over several weeks we sat and talked and cried and counselled.
It was about this time that Miss P discovered the Dominos. I flatter myself that the change in Miss P was partly due to my amazing counselling skills but in reality I think it was mainly the Dominos.
I don't know what made Miss P go out that night, but I'm glad she did. Her face almost immediately lit up as a group of sweaty, handsome young men climbed onto the stage to sing a collection of her favourite songs (and Peter Andres' Mysterious Girl which is one of mine).
The change was visible almost over night. And it was a pleasure and a joy to watch, for by this time Miss P was firmly stuck under my wing and I considered it my personal mission to make sure she got to the end of the season.
Miss P saw the Dominos every time they played in Meribel. Not only this but she began to talk to them. She also did something I saw as very very brave. She realised she didn't love her boyfriend any more and she ended it with him. Personally I believe she was partly with him because she though she couldn't ever do any better and I hope while she was away she realised she was worth a million times more than that. More than marrying and having babies with the man she met at 15, the first man who came along. She should marry the 20th man who comes along, after she has had a bloody good time getting there. Test them all out.
She also realised that she loved going out and she loved being drunk and she was suddenly being chatted up by a huge number of men. And they all seemed to be KPs pretending to be chef and she fancied every single one of them.
For a while not a morning went by without me being told some new story about Miss P. They ranged from the true 'Miss P went out, got drunk and lay in the middle of the road' to the totally unbelievable 'Miss P had sex with a guy from the Ronnies in the delivery bay'. This she denies to this day and I am inclined to believe her.
This new attitude, a no shit attitude that could, on occasion go too far. She has been known to threaten to bottle people who really upset people, although when she does this she is taking the mic out of herself as much as anyone else. Luckily she has never threatened anyone to their faces, or at least no one who took her seriously. The worst of these outbursts was in fact directed towards me ('after all you have done for her' I hear you cry). I once made the slightly drunken mistake of (jokingly) telling her that as her manager I had the right to push in front of her at the bar and promptly positioned myself directly between her and the bar. She then told me she was going to glass me (once again I hope, jokingly) and went to tap her pint glass on the bar, but unknowing of her own strength smashed it. The look of horror on her face matched mine as I looked up at a girl brandishing a very sharp and pointy bit of glass near my face. I started laughing and Miss P fled.
Of Miss P's sex life I am not going to dwell, she has yet to meet Mr Right but she did meet Mr Right Now. Which is exactly the way it should be. And he actually was a chef and not a KP. He was short and had a cast on his arm (from which Miss P received a rather unfortunate crack over the head) and his crush on Miss P was obvious. And it was talked about for a very long time.
What finally highlights the complete change in Miss P is the rather unlikely friendship she struck up with the hard drinking, hard smoking, tattooed 25 year old chef who joined the hotel in the last few weeks. He is my best friend forever, she once declared to me. I don't think the Miss P who I first met back in December had ever talked to a man covered in tattoos before, let alone done it out of choice.
So Miss P if your reading this you know who you are. You know that I am so proud of you, I am proud of the person you have become. I am proud that you realised that going out is more fun that sitting and eating crisps. I am proud that you have lost 3.5 stone in 6 months. I am proud to be your friend and I hope you know that you can never get rid of me and I will follow you forever!
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