Are you moving house?

Just a very short post to direct you to a link about a TV show that is seeking participants.
If you are moving or know someone who is, then check out this new Channel 4 TV show. If you are chosen to participate, the production crew will move you and give your new house a make-over.

http://www.aboutmyarea.co.uk/Hampshire/Portsmouth/PO6/News/Reviews-and-Features/214841-TV-Show-Seeks-Secrets-Movers

Thinking of visiting Les Arcs for the first time? Read this for some honest facts about the French ski resort.

Les Arcs is a great place. I should know I've spent enough time there. In fact, it's almost like my second home. We have just booked another trip to Les Arcs in March so I thought I would take the opportunity to pass on some honest opinions about the resort for the benefit of anyone thinking of taking a holiday there.

Don’t stay in Les Arcs 1800 if you want alpine beauty. The resort was built mostly in the 1970’s and many of the apartment blocks are outdated. Large blocks like the Belle Challes and the Nova have lots of tiny apartments filled with bunk beds that gives a prison feeling to them. From the outside the blocks look more like huge cruise ships than quaint alpine chalets.

Do go on the torch lit descent from L’Arpette restaurant. The mountain restaurant holds an evening meal most weeks of the winter season. Meet there after the lifts close, drink lots of wine, eat lots of cheese, dance on some tables and then ski down in the dark. It truly is an experience that you don’t want to miss.

Don’t expect to go home with much money. Les Arcs 1800 is expensive. Lift passes are expensive, the bars are expensive, the restaurants are expensive, car parks are expensive, even the supermarkets are expensive. Embrace that fact, go prepared and don’t let it ruin your holiday.

Do drink a shot of Genepi. Les Arcs 1800 has excellent nightlife. The bars shut at 2am and the nightclub goes on until dawn. There are plenty of bars to choose from - Bar King Mad for the younger, trendier crowd and Red Hot Saloon is a student haven. Visit Before Café for some cheesy pop music and a shot of Genepi, Chez BouBous for a nice mix of French and English and L’Etranger for a truly French experience. Whatever you do, you will know if you’ve had a good night by how much is missing from the kebab you don’t remember buying.

Don’t miss out on the slopes. With all the nightlife it is tempting to just drink the night away and spend the next day in bed. As any experienced skier/snowboarder knows, nothing cures a hangover faster than a few runs. As Les Arcs is in the Paradiski area, the ski area is massive so you will have plenty to choose from. If you buy a full Paradiski pass you’ll certainly be pushing yourself to visit everywhere on the two mountains in one week. The Les Arcs area itself is a big area and there are plenty of different runs to suit all levels. Visit the snowpark for some good fun and later on in the season, take on the Altiport swimming pool for a challenge. 

KIMBERLEY BARBER

Me on the slopes in Les Arcs, France

When quiz nights turn sour…

Bullies come in all shapes and sizes and this woman clearly thought she could bully me. Maybe she was threatened by my youth or jealous over the fun we were having, whatever her reasons, it didn’t get her anywhere. It just made her look ugly, frustrated and vile. 

Competitiveness is not necessarily a bad personality trait. My competitive streak has often to lead to good things.

The desire to be top has transposed itself on to many aspects of my life. It is the reason that I work in sales and is definitely the reason I went back to university as a mature student.

Being a competitive person means that my ears prick up at the slightest mention of the words ‘quiz night’. 

I’m not the brain of Britain and my general knowledge is severely let down by my lack of interest in most mainstream sports but I do read newspapers daily and am quite good with other subjects like geography, food, word meanings and music.

Last week while staying with my Dad, I went to the local pubs weekly quiz night. As the pub is in the darkest depths of Cornwall, mobile phone signal is non-existent - making cheating impossible and the quiz night more interesting.

The quiz was going well and our team ‘I’m not a gynaecologist…’ had swapped papers with another team to mark. On marking their answers it was clear to see that we were competing against a professional pub quiz team.

Not only were the answers nearly all correct, they were written clearly and neatly. Unlike our scrawled and doodled-on scrap of paper, there were no crossings out.

As the night rolled on, pleasantries were swapped with the team and it seemed everyone was having fun. One member of our team kept saying the answers loudly and I’m sure that a few members from their team had a sneaky peak at our answers when they were conveniently ordering their drinks next to where we were sat at the bar. We had no chance of winning but we played along anyway.

On marking the music round, one of the answers the other team had given was ‘My Town’. The actual answer was ‘White Town’ so I marked it wrong.

That turned out to be a big mistake.

When they collected their results, one of their players saw the cross and was not happy with it. The woman, who throughout the night had been pleasant and smiling, turned into an ugly character. Probably in her fifties, she looked nicely dressed and well presented, so the telling-off I received was rather unexpected.

She snatched our paper back and took a point off of our team for answering ‘Gonna Get Us’ when the song title was ‘Not Gonna Get Us’. We had already got most answers wrong so the impact to our score was minimal but the way she berated me at the bar and quibbled over a point has shown me that competitiveness can be a bad personality trait if taken to the extreme.  

Needless to say we didn’t win the quiz. I rather lost interest in it after she had made me feel so uncomfortable.

Surprisingly, they didn’t win the quiz either so that was at least some consolation. Perhaps they lost because I marked that answer wrong. But you know what? If I had to do it again, I would mark that answer wrong every time.

KIMBERLEY BARBER