This was one part of the job that worried me when I applied. I’ve only ever driven on the right once before (Magaluf a few years ago) and I got into an accident at a junction. I hasten to add that it wasn’t my fault (I have a witness!), but being the tourist I got blamed anyway.

So you have the obvious with all the traffic being on the wrong side of the road. Nice country, barking mad drivers. After a while, I got tired of all the beeping horns and flashing headlights (and screeching tyres, smashing glass, screams of abuse…) and decided I wasn’t going to be able to re-educate them simply by stubbornly driving on the left regardless.

After a while, you get used to it. Like in Spain, my first real problem was that every time I tried to change gear, I’d open the door instead. Not fun at 50km/h on an uphill stretch with a sheer drop to my left.

While driving in France, if you’ve not seen a Renault Kangoo van after five minutes, you should pull over at the first opportunity and have an eyesight test. The bloody things are everywhere. Almost every small van you see is a Kangoo. And they’re crap in the snow, I’ve been reliably informed. Which is great as I’ll be using one to get to and from the resorts. Lovely.

Traffic police here are complete bar stewards as well. Speed traps are everywhere and not necessarily signposted, or even obvious. Sometimes you’ll see them stood at the roadside with a camera on a tripod. Other times it’s a plain, undecorated car in a layby. On a par with a story one of the Aussies here told me – a camera hidden in an adapted wheelie bin.

I’ve actually been driving a big Renault Trafic recently, and the things go like stink. Six gears, tons of pull and they corner wonderfully. I can even get the tyres to squeal going round some of the hairpins. I will of course be backing off the accelerator come the snowy season! Some of the corners don’t have any barriers and the drops are pretty damn scary.

The company offer a short driving course which I’ve been offered a place on as well. I think I’ll take them up on it as I will be doing quite a few miles kilometres. A little knowledge is always a good thing.

So now I only have to worry about what happens when I get home and I’m used to driving on the right…

Time has positively flown here and I apologise again for not being as up to date as I’d hoped. I’ve been working 14 to 16-hour days, driven to two resorts twice, configured around 40 PCs, sorted numerous laptop and desktop issues, got the office interwebnet connection going, repacked and delivered around 20 PCs… and still somehow managed to get wasted almost every night.

I was driving the minibus (handy for safely strapping unsecured monitors to seats) down the mountainside from Les Arcs the other day and a thought just slammed into me: I am going to have a great time here. It’s the people above all else. It’s like being part of a great gang where everyone helps each other out.

I’m not meant to get fed on my contract – instead I get a private flat so I don’t need to share. But the chefs have said if I’m ever hungry, just to pop by. They’ll always be able to feed me. Resort managers have said they can swing me a half or full day lift pass for their area should I find myself up there fixing a PC or whatever. I know the people who run two of the most popular bars in town and managed to get into one of them last night when they were being restrictive on entry. My boss even bought me a beer the other night to say “thank you” for the time I’m putting in. Hell, she’d virtually ordered me to take some time off when I had worked through my third straight “day off” in a row! As the office is empty for the next week or so (everyone’s off organising training), Di and Peter have invited me over for dinner one night.

I’ve been here for 3 weeks and I feel like I’ve known and worked with these people for months. It’s this kind of “you scratch my back” atmosphere that really encourages you to work hard. The chefs will all have their PCs sorted (personal and business) sharpish if there are any problems. In return I know when I’m low on cash I can get a meal. A long trip to a resort to fix a silly problem will no longer be a chore if I know that for 45 minutes’ work, I’ll get to board for 3-4 hours.

It is hard work, but I’m enjoying it.

Add to that the scenery round here. As I mentioned I drove to Les Arcs – and also La Rosiere – twice this week, and the views were just breathtaking. I drove at very different times of day and the same mountains change so much with the differing light and weather conditions.

All I’m looking forward to now is getting my rental board and having a chance to strap it on and slide down one of the slopes! Les Arcs is forecast to get a metre of snow over the weekend which could be problematic if it causes road closures. We’re expecting 700 staff to get there for training on Sunday! I’m also supposed to be based there as I deliver and set up most of the remaining PCs. Little point in heading there if I’m going to get stuck with no other work to do – especially as the lifts and hire places aren’t open yet!

I do have some photos of the area which I’ll post when I get time. Once the PCs are out in the field, I should have more spare time to work on this blog and I’ll try to find some interesting things to pop up on here. Chamonix really is a beautiful place and I’m happy I’ve landed here for the season.

It’s pushing midnight now and I want to get this posted before we roll over into another month!

Sorry to be so “lazy” recently, but I promise that I’ve been nothing such! It must have been almost 2 weeks since I last posted, but I’ve barely stopped. Since I arrived, I’ve had no time off, opting to waive my first day off (I get one a week) until later due to the sheer volume of stuff to be done.

But first… A lot of people have asked what I’m doing. Well, my job title is “IT Coordinator”. The area I cover is centred around Chamonix Mont Blanc in the east of France, where I am based, and extends through resorts such as Courchevel, Val d’Isere, Tignes, Meribal, Verbier, St Anton and the wonderfully-named Obergurgl. With luck I shouldn’t be travelling to the majority of Swiss and Austrian resorts (too far) but I will be visiting almost all the French ones at some point.

My job entails… well. What doesn’t it entail? Arranging ADSL communications (or dial-up where not available). Liaising with the owners of buildings (the company doesn’t actually own any of the hotels – they’re all leased) to see where we can run cables and so on, or plug in wireless kit. Setting up and configuring PCs – and I’m dealing with some dodgy old, battered kit as well as a decent number of new PCs this year.

Software installs, network configurations (LAN and WAN), hardware maintenance, purchasing, system builds and repairs, tuition, security, documentation, backups (implementation as none exists), server build (again, none exists… yet), inventory, database design for said inventory…

And that’s just the simple stuff. On top of that I have to muck in with other work as required – at the airport on transfer day, inputting accounts details and so on. Somehow I have to fit in some snowboarding. Talking of which, the weather was *WOW* last week, with around two feet of snow dropping over 24 hours. Since then, though, it got mild and the snow’s all gone apart from the mountain peaks.

And talking of them, I have to say "wow" – what a view. The town is surrounded on all sides by magnificent peaks and a blue-tinged glacier which looks amazing – frozen part-way in its flow down the mountainside. The whole place is lovely, and I’ve always been a mountain person. It’s superb around here.

The flat I’m living in is a little petite, but cute. And warm, which is important. WA Assett remodeled my bathroom and its amazing, hallway with two bunk beds and a front room with a fold-down sofa bed. The kitchen is tiny but I’m only cooking for one (or will be once I stop getting free food) so shouldn’t be a problem. I’d rather swap the dishwasher for a washing machine though! It would be much more useful. As would an English telly – everyone speaks French on mine for some reason.

The people I’m working with are great. Hard workers, hard partiers, friendly, helpful, welcoming. I felt part of the team by the end of my second day. I guess being able to out-drink most of them (except Charlie the chef, but she’s from Yorkshire) kind of helped.

It’s not the cheapest place to live, but with my main living expenses covered (rent and utilities) it could be worse. The pay is lousy (I could have taken a job as a driver with another company for £200 a month more), but this is more of a challenge and way better on my CV. Plus I knew from the start where I would be living and that I’d have a place of my own. And I get to become the BOFH of an organisation for the first time. I’ll get into the techie stuff another time, or on another blog.

So, here I am. In France for 6 months or so. My contract finishes on May 23rd and I’m already coming up with plans of what to do after that. Download and Graspop likely feature, as does Iron Maiden at Twickenham on July 5th. Well, I can’t get to any live music while I’m here and already know I’m missing Linkin Park in January!

Right now, I have to head off to attend a meeting with the big cheeses. More about what I’ve been up to when I get back, possibly tomorrow evening.