There are some funny traditions that we keep, some we don’t really know why and some that are very important to us. Does letting a dark haired person bring a piece of coal and bread into the house really bring good luck? One tradition the Japanese keep for New Year is the eating of soba noodles. Apparently this is because the noodles are long and enduring – as we each hope our lives to be. So we had noodles and sake towers served here but also other Western traditions like lots of amazing party food, fireworks, champagne (in the shape of a champagne tower) and dancing to Auld Lang Syne (after Anna requested the DJ play it about 10 times and he finally gave in about 1am). One Japanese tradition I do like, which isn’t just for New Year, is that you should never fill your own glass. Don’t worry, if you fill someone else’s glass, they will usually reciprocate by filling yours.
So for us New Year also marked 25 years since we had got together at New Year in Perth, Australia. Who knew it would lead to us spending so many years sharing together our love for life and travelling?
And we celebrated with a normal day teaching at Club Med, followed by a huge night on the dance floor with the guests which finished about 1.30 am for us. All the ski staff had celebrated together the night before by getting together in the common room after the evening with the guests. One of the guys had organised an awards night where every award was a shot of alcohol. There were some very funny categories such as “Teacher’s Pet”, “Most whipped by partner” and “Best Rig (body)”. Unsurprisingly, Pete won Mr Late.
Surprisingly I came joint first with Anna for “Best Dressed” for all our dress code outfits. We finished partying by 2am and headed to bed but some of the younger staff stayed up much later, getting in trouble with the HR lady – oops!
So two very late nights, back to back, and then we had to ask could we take a night off. Us oldies can’t keep up that pace! A usual working early night here is getting the 23.07 bus home. A “night off” seems to be walking home after the show so you get home about 22.00.
Thankfully I am now writing this on our next day off (3rd Jan) when we had a lie in sleeping for 12.5 hours solid and I fully intend to go to bed early tonight too to try to recharge the batteries! Apparently the next lot of guests to arrive are the party animal Australians followed quickly by the Chinese New Year celebrations – so we had better get ready!
