"T"

Well now I m on the long road..

Well now I'm on the long road along the M4 towards Wales
when it suddenly dawned on me that I did not know what to
expect of this job,

I mean YEAH I know its a cooks job but accomodation, pay
all those niggly little thoughts were just not in me at all
at the time I applied for this job. ( I forget now why I
did?)

but what I do remember was thinking OH S**T what have I
done..... I really did think about going back.... I mean I
had all my stuff in the back of my trunk but I was so not
prepared for this I was terriifyed by the prospect of not
knowing where I was going to stay....

Well by the time I thought about it I was almost there at
Ross on Wye... So I made my way along a long 3 mile dirt
track to where the centre was sitting... pretty.... on the
hill... Hence the name "Hillcrest"

Well no sooner did I park my car... Ailsa.. the then head
groupie came out and greeted me, with the most amazing
smile and made me feel instantly welcome. She told me to
leave my stuff for the moment and lead me up to the house
and inside it was amazingly huge. The cottage was massive
with huge rooms and loads of space I thought wow I'm
staying here for six months before I go to uni..... It
turned out we were only going to stay here for the next
week before we make up our tents!! (YES TENTS!!! Thats what
I thought)

Well after the brief tour she lead me up to the common room
which was away from the house and next to the barn,,, was
all the instructors (fresh) from training,,, They were the
people who are going to be the most influencial people for
the kids.

I walked in there with my Base shoes and Ralph top and
everybody looked at me as if to say "townie" I felt really
out of place. But Taff the driver for the centre made me
feel real welcome by asking me which team I supported... It
was the six nation and the rugby was just starting between
England and Wales... Taff is a big lad and Welsh.... Seeing
hes the only person to really speak to me I had to say
Welsh although he figured out later that I wasn't.

Before I go any further let me tell you whos who....

First there is Kate she's the centre manager.. She was
really good at her job although she can get really carried
away with something and also really stubborn and only does
it her way!! but she was really fair and later you will see
why. Then there was the head groupie. A groupie is what the
kids are assigned to when, they get to the centre. The
groupies job is to get them ready for the activities and
also to look after them after and during the break periods
the head for them was ... Ailsa... She was really nice, a
really top notch girl. I think she would have made centre
manager like kate, she was really nice and careing and was
perfect for the job... The head instructor was a guy we
nicknamed "Sherlock" because of his last name was David
Holmes.. but he was a veteran for the guys he was about 30
and was experienced with practicaly every activity on the
centre.. he was a great guy but it does take some getting
used too, especially when he thinks that hes better than
everyone else. (which I don't doubt he wasn't.)

Then there was Paul Kermit "Bravey" we used to call him
because he was deeply patriotic with Scotland his home
country he was the head domestic when I went there, and he
was really cool although he was quite a drunk and he could
never keep his cock in his pants.....

Then there was my boss, Christina Marter, She is the nicest
of the lot..... I still keep in contact with her although
she is no longer with PGL she was the head cook and helped
me get better at cooking, which was always a help....

You see with PGL you never know who stays and who goes. I
had so many firends at the end of it I don't know who's who
and where they all are... But let me start at the
beginning, I'll start with the girls, there was Rachel,
Layla, Leanne,. they were all the instructors fresh from
Boreatton Park (the head centre). Then for the lads it was
Andy, Tom, Chris (Ghetti),Barry and,James (Animal) were all
instructors apart from Barry, Animal and Ghetti they were
all first timers as well. Then the groupies, There was
Alan, and Craney who was the only guys then there was
Piglet and Martine who are the only girls. this was the start
of the season...........