It wasn't really a hotel where people played practical jokes on others. For this I am glad. There was, I think, only one practical joke played all season. And that was between Chef and a nanny.
While the nanny, Miss M, was helping in the kitchen she was passed a sheet of gelatine, 'this is very expensive', Chef said 'be very careful with it when it goes through the dishwasher'.
Miss M had no idea what gelatine was and so, with a look of concentration on her face, she carefully placed it in the dishwasher.
And when the dishwasher was finished...the gelatine sheet was gone (obvious to everyone who knows that gelatine melts in hot water). But Miss M did not know this and was panicking, believing she had lost a very expensive piece of kitchen equipment. She looked everywhere in the dishwasher, almost climbing inside to look right at the top.
Still nothing.
She summoned all her courage and went to confess.
Chef managed to keep a straight face for several minutes before collapsing in laughter. I think Miss M actually hit him. He deserved a smack.
Time went on with Miss M and she threw herself into life in the mountains. She smoked, drank, went out, but not as hard as the hardest partiers. She became bestest friends with H1 the HA
She always made the most of Wednesday après and enjoyed coming in for a chat with me while I was working and she was wasted. My favourite was towards the end of season where she came in to cook pizza. As she was eating and I was watching, the cheese slid all the way of the pizza, down her face and down her shirt. It is probably her finest moment. On that same evening she had to spend a good half hour flat on her back on the floor because it was much easier than sitting up. She had several flings with the same man, repeatedly declaring that she would never go near him again and then going back. No one was ever surprised. And she always seemed passionately dedicated to her friends, despite frequent bitchy rows. Several times confining in me her worry about one person or another.
My favourite ever encounter with Miss M came on the very last après, where everyone other than me was absolutely incredibly drunk. She came up to me and gave me a massive hug (the first and last hug we ever shared) 'Cat, when the season started I preferred the other assistant manager to you because I thought she was my friend. And it was obvious you didn't know what you were doing. Then the other manager was a bitch and I started getting to know you and I realised you were the best manager in the world ever.
'err thanks miss m' I began
'No no no, you really are, I think your great (speech was rather blurred here) you are great, fantastic, and I would work for you any time'
And that, drunken soliloquy was perhaps, the biggest, most genuine compliment I have ever had.
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