What's your job ?

[Jody]

I have 2! One for summer and one for winter!

Winter;- Early December until Mid April
I work as a 'concierge' in a couple of ski chalets for an English family.

There's a catered chalet, sleeps up to 15, I work alongside a chef and 2 housekeepers.
When the family are in....
I start at around 7 am, set and serve breakfast, clear down and clean living and dining areas plus any additional tasks (ie helping the chef), I usually finish that shift around 13:00.
I'm then off work but on call until around 16:00 (usually I'll get one call to collect someone from a restaurant!)
at 16:00 I go back in, turn the steam room on and serve afternoon tea as the guests come back in from the slopes. This then rolls into dinner and I'll finish around 22:00.

That can be for upto 10 days and I might not get a day off !! However the family normally only come out for a total of 3 weeks in a 20 week 'season'.

When it's not the family staying, it's less intense,
I'll start around 7, but be done by 11, I'm am on call until I go back in, but the chances of getting a call are virtually zero!
I go back in around 18:00 serve dinner and clear down afterwards, again I'd finish at approx 22:00.


There's also a self catered chalet (part of the same building, they have an adjoining door which can be locked).
All I really do here is show guests in and out and am a source of local information.

On average I have catered guests for half the season, self catered even less. The rest of the time, I still get paid, I still my accommodation and I still get a lift pass.

It might just be the best job in the Alps, certainly the best one I've had in 11 years of being there!


Summer;- Mid April until Early October
I work for a Dutch camping holidays tour operator (Vacansoliel).
Every site is different, for the last 2 years I've been close to Biarritz, working on my own looking after 20 mobile homes.

I clean the mobiles at the start of the season, ready for guests.
I organise all the booking placements (ie which booking goes into which specific mobile)
I check in and show in guests
and I check them out again. Guests have to do their own cleaning.

On a good day, I'll have one changeover to do. So I'll stroll into work at 10am, check the guest out, then do the few bits to bring their clean up to my standards. By 10:30 I'm finished for the morning, I'm then off until 16:00 when check in opens. It's not unusual for the arriving guest to be ready for me at 16:00, I check them in and I'm done for the the day. Under an hours work!
My contract is for 35 hours, but in reality I normally do the job in less than 20.

It's well known on this particular site, that I have the best job !!

This year for the first time ever I've got myself on the French 'benefits' system. As a result for the 8 weeks I'm not working this autumn I get €290 a week 'dole money'.

I'm pretty happy with the life I've built for myself!!

[Mussels]

I wouldnt say I have a high powered job. Certainly I get paid a lot more than average, but also a lot less than the kind of high powered job you're probably talking about.

I do love what I do though. I also have the luxury of doing the kind of job I want to do, rather than doing the job I can get.

All because I tried hard at school

That's the only angle I have to get my kids to work at school, they know I was rubbish at school and my wife excelled yet I'm the one earning the money. So I tell my kids an education will get them an interesting and rewarding job rather than spending 9 years as a drunk on ships doing menial tasks.

[Skub]

That's the only angle I have to get my kids to work at school, they know I was rubbish at school and my wife excelled yet I'm the one earning the money. So I tell my kids an education will get them an interesting and rewarding job rather than spending 9 years as a drunk on ships doing menial tasks.

I don't know if you're selling that too convincingly.

[Horse]

spending 9 years as a drunk on ships doing menial tasks.

I don't know if you're selling that too convincingly.

I certainly don't remember the careers adviser mentioning that option

[slowsider]

Many good jobs used to say "Degree applicants only" - with the plethora of 'colouring-in' degrees and correspondence diplomas in climate change etc, it's starting to wane.

Our place they add one word, to make it a 'numerate degree'.

But staying between the lines can be important in some sectors

[formula400]

I used to design and develop cakes for Mr Kipling. Not many people know that ....!
After that I moved onto engineering biscuits and twiglet technology. I kid you not ....

really???

[Horse]

Many good jobs used to say "Degree applicants only" - with the plethora of 'colouring-in' degrees and correspondence diplomas in climate change etc, it's starting to wane.

Our place they add one word, to make it a 'numerate degree'.

But staying between the lines can be important in some sectors

Offside for view?

[David]

Why fibreglass rather than steel or whatever?

I'm impressed that fibreglass stands up to that sort of load

Electrical conductivity...or rather, lack of.

There's glass fibre and there's glass fibre. The same is true of most composites!

The material in that shaft is robot placed in a process like this. These particular fibres are very strong in tension, so by winding them at the correct angles you can get the properties you need. You can make a GFRP shaft which is as strong as steel (but then there's steel and there's steel.) like that.

Astute observers will notice this is a carbon pressure vessel, not a glass shaft, but the principal is the same.

Glass is stronger than steel.

[David]

No-one has picked up on the working on Boone bit (and a lot of other telly shit)

[Horse]

No-one has picked up on the working on Boone bit (and a lot of other telly shit)

Even on a forum chock full of old gits, few will remember that (or admit to it)

You must have some anecdotes from Action Vehicles- what went well and what didn't quite ...

[wheelnut]

I am but the body of a dog.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Glass is stronger than steel.

Makes much better windows too.

Depends very much what you mean by "glass", "steel" and "strong" though

[harum-scarum]

My first pay packet was for polishing smarties for Rowntrees. Then I filled pork pies with jelly briefly, and then spent 38 years working in mental health, initially as a mental health worker and latterly (and soul-sappingly) as a manager. I retired last year. Since when I've become a volunteer and (unpaid) company director in a community-owned micro hydroelectricity plant. 1.4GW of clean green ultra-low carbon electricity generated so far...

[David]

No-one has picked up on the working on Boone bit (and a lot of other telly shit)

Even on a forum chock full of old gits, few will remember that (or admit to it)

You must have some anecdotes from Action Vehicles- what went well and what didn't quite ...

Loads, but ask me nicely
Did i mention tug skippering?

[porter_jamie]

Glass is stronger than steel.

Makes much better windows too.

Depends very much what you mean by "glass", "steel" and "strong" though

chopped mat is 100mpa, 8.8 bolt is 800mpa and fancy steels can be 2000+, e glass 1500+, s glass 2000+, carbon fibre 4000. just a bit of glass about 7.

[Mr Moofo]

I used to sit next to a guy who did a PHd in chocolate moulding Apparently the machine which makes Twirls is way more sophisticated than one which does fancy structural plastic parts. Supposedly chocolate is crazy hard to mould in machines and Twirls are the epitome of difficult chocolate.

Did he tell you how they get the chocolate coating onto a Maltezer while keeping it perfectly spherical?

By panning it .....

[Mr Moofo]

I used to design and develop cakes for Mr Kipling. Not many people know that ....!
After that I moved onto engineering biscuits and twiglet technology. I kid you not ....

really???

Yup .. really!
But as a pastry chef, we also employed Jodi Rocca as a consultant and took him to Hong Kong, also slide people like Amex Atala.
Axle was a great drinking buddy - Jordan was seriously “wired”

[formula400]

Blood hell, that’s cool. He is strange, very talented but strange

[The Martian]

Started off storing stuff, installing stuff, then managing stuff and onto making stuff safer.. except myself.
Since being broken I now fix and refurbish stuff.

[Wreckless Rat]

I used to sit next to a guy who did a PHd in chocolate moulding Apparently the machine which makes Twirls is way more sophisticated than one which does fancy structural plastic parts. Supposedly chocolate is crazy hard to mould in machines and Twirls are the epitome of difficult chocolate.

Did he tell you how they get the chocolate coating onto a Maltezer while keeping it perfectly spherical?

By panning it .....