Ladette to Lady - Episode 3

11-10-2006 09:29

This week the ladettes get the chance to be chalet girls in Verbier, one of Switzerland’s most prestigious ski resorts. They’ve got just two days to prepare for the job interviews - but with six ladettes and only three vacancies, competition for a place will be stiff. Being a chalet girl was a rite of passage for Finishing School graduates and Cleonie Stenhouse from Lumley’s Catering Recruitment used to come to Eggleston Hall in the 1970s and 80s to sign up the best graduates. Now she has agreed to recruit three ladettes.While most are excited about the opportunity, not wanting to be left behind at Eggleston, Northern lass Victoria, who has only ever been abroad once before on a girls holiday to Ayia Napa, isn’t feeling too optimistic:“I know it’s just Switzerland, but what if something goes wrong, what if they have a right big storm or something like that and we all get killed?” After seeing all six girls she tells Principal Gill Harbord that: “they would all be a total disaster”. Nevertheless, Essex hairdresser Frances Rowe, binge drinker Victoria Jenkins and tomboy Clara Mayer are hired and set off for the Alps.The girls are ecstatic with this achievement. Frances particularly can’t believe her luck and is in tears as she says: “My dad is going to be so proud of me. This is amazing.”The ladettes soon discover that being a chalet girl is no holiday. They’ll have to prepare gourmet meals on an extremely tight budget, keep the chalet in impeccable condition and play hostess to eight demanding men. Things get off to a shaky start when their cake disintegrates as soon as it is taken out of the oven. Eager to get on the slopes the ladettes replace it with a shop-bought one and their guests are suitably impressed – but it’s an act of deception that will return to haunt them. Their guests sit down to what they hope will be a cordon- bleu meal and are served up what can only be described as a school dinner.Invited out for some après ski fun, the girls revert back to their old ways and before long are up on podiums, grinding on the dancefloor and matching the men drink for drink, to the shock of all around them.