I've just got back from hiking up to First and then Stand, a total ascent of about 1300m as the cablecar has stopped running to Allmenalp for Autumn. It feels like I haven't written anything for ages, which is odd because I haven't really been doing that much lately. I've been in a bit of slump where I would rather sit in and read books on the Kindle than go to the Crystal (not Dessies, which has been closed for about three weeks now but is due to reopen tomorrow, to the great excitement of the Pinkies and the trepidation of their bank managers) or head down to socialise with the Dutch Work Party, who arrived just after the Spanish Work Party left. Sadly, the staff team just don't seem to be gelling in the same way with the Dutch as we did with the Spanish. They work just as hard, but there was something more open and friendly about the Spanish as they raked leaves or dug out tree roots in the campsite. And speaking of all things outdoorsy, I have been officially signed off to drive Chloe (tractor) and Leena (transporter), which is very exciting! It meant that I got to spend all of Monday morning driving between the Wood Compound in the campsite and the wood store in the Chalet, filling it up for the winter to come, and then in the afternoon I was transporting loads of leaves to the dumping ground we have set aside in the campsite for such things- that was a lot of fun as I had to climb into the back of Leena when it was raised up in order to help the leaves out- for a bunch of dead things they were bloody hard to move! But other than that, I haven't done much. I think it's because I've had quite a few weeks with a lot of catering, or so it seems.

At KISC, we are all supposed to have roughly the same amount of time in the various areas of the centre- house, catering, grounds, and maintenance. Some are limited, namely maintenance and grounds, because of the weather and other factors. Also, if you prove yourself chronically unable to work in the kitchen without setting yourself and other people on fire then they will probably put you down with the washing machines more often. However at the moment it seems that some of us have more catering than others (namely me) and others have more house (the girls). Of course I may just be imagining it all, but I had catering four times last week and while I don't dislike any of the jobs we have to do here at the centre, four twelve-hour days a week is quite tiring and it's hard to motivate yourself when you're exhausted! Thankfully this week I only have two days of catering all told, so it's nice to have a bit of a break and to work a usual day. Tomorrow I am in Maintenance, which will be fun as it's only the second time I've been in and hopefully by now all the insulation is finished (the insulation seems to sit in the wall and people's hair with equal ease, ifthe other people who have done it are anything to go by)

Also this week we have the Ruechestei 2011. This is an incident hike taking place at night, and KISC have entered a team to compete against the Rover Scouts of the Bernese Kanton. It should be fun; the story for the event is that a fictional town has been hit by an earthquake and each team is a family who is being evacuated. Unfortuately, as the shortie who seems to have the most German (I should never have been so loquacious at the dinner we had with all the centre's suppliers a few weeks back) I have been given the role of father of this family. I and my family (so far I have a cousin, a great-granddaughter and possibly a brother) have to make a list of things that we want the crisis team to get from our house and take to the evacuation place, and we have to choose three important items that we are going to take with us on the hike (the list is fictional). To this end I have been practicing my German, mainly on a hairdresser who cut my hair (for a massive thirty francs, which I then discovered had been wasted as Jenneke could have done the same job at the centre for free. Bum.) and it was very satisfying, as I managed to understand her and she managed to understand me!

That's all for now, so next time hopefully you will hear how we did at Ruechestei, and whether or not I have gone mad with too much time in the kitchen, and whether or not I've crashed Chloe or Leena yet... watch this space!