So I've left the UK. And my job.

For some odd reason, despite really loathing that job at times, I was quite upset when I left Dalwhinnie. After missing the bus to Edinburgh the day Kevin and I were supposed to leave...well, actually we didn't miss it, it just didn't pick us up (meaning it pulled over and then pulled away in a matter of seconds for no apparent reason)...we managed to get a train to Edinburgh. As soon as I sat down and watched the heather covered mountains pass us by I got strangely upset. I think I really got to liking Scotland and I really liked the people I worked with.

We were, however, a study in isolation, in containment, in tides and tyranny. This is what I like to call us:

The Dalwhinnie Army.
Jay, Sarah, Kevin, Kate, Chris, Craig, Aggi, Kristian, Marnie, Darota, Radek, Tomik, and me. Honarary member, Colin.
We fight: The Bosses Passive-Aggressive Crazy Ally (A for short) and Alcoholic Hypocrite Calum (C for short)

Little did we know what our bosses were really like, most of us being new at the beginning of May or June. They fed us, housed us, bought us shots and drinks, and tried to act and be 20 again. Then slowly, comment by comment, rule by rule, they began.

We were treated like children by a woman who doesn't know which way is up and which way is down and who wholly believes she is always right and puts the blame on everyone else even if it means cursing us and yelling. And we tread lightly around a man who by day acts like he's your best friend and by night is drunk and can't remember what he's said or done in the morning. Ally has made more than a couple people, including myself, cry or quit. It began with Jay, who was supposed to be head chef, he and Kristian ran the kitchen after all, but no! Ally who made scones in the morning if anything at all gave herself that title instead. Ally, who when she tried to do the evening specials on a busy night got all the dishes screwed up and then blamed the rest of the staff. Jay said something to her about that and a war began. She gossiped about him to the rest of us behind his back, wouldn't go into the kitchen when he was there and then switched his hours to breakfast as payback. She even went so far as to 'spy' on Jay's mySpace page. So Jay quit. When Jay went to say goodbye to Calum, Calum said 'Thanks for leaving us in the s***.' Ally actually hugged him. We all walked to the train station with Jay, the Dalwhinnie Army. Even one of the regular locals went with us to the astonishment of Calum and Ally. Then the kitchen wasn't really ever the same. When we all got back to the inn from the station Calum was raging drunk and Ally was raging angry. They took Marnie aside and made her clean Jays room out that night. Mind you she had just had ovarian surgery a few days before. She cried in pain and anger the whole time as Calum and Ally stood and watched her clean, talking obscenities about Jay. Marnie vowed to quit as soon as she found another job. Kristian, her boyfriend, nearly punched Calum in the face.
And the rest of the kitchen had to fill in Jay's spot. Dorota, who was supposed to be the kitchen porter, began cooking breakfast. But she was still paid as a kitchen porter. Kristian began doing the evening specials, though he too was paid as a kitchen porter. The air was tense and bitter. A lot of us quit having fun. What followed in the weeks after were a bunch of petty fights and rules and a curse apon the title of head chef. We got new chefs. One was 'let go' in a matter of days. The other just left of his own accord in the night, leaving a note behind for Calum explaining that Ally was not fit to run a kitchen and was not allowing him to do his job. Then a week after Kevin and I left, Calum and Sarah started a shouting match. Calum was drunk and fired Sarah on the spot without paying her (which is illegal), so she called the cops. And that is the last I've heard from the Inn in Dalwhinnie. What it made it great however was the Dalwhinnie Army. We found our ways to have fun, to band together. Whether it was Chess, or Harry Potter, or Simming Club in the freezing stream, or Tibetan Parties in Craig's room, birthdays, badmouthing Calum and Ally, messing up Craig's organization of cups and teapots, staking out the Gypsies, chatting with Colin the local (and his mom when she visited), we were the ones that made that place stand. Kept it running. Made it friendly and homey. And that was partly why it was hard to leave. I hope now that Marnie and Kristian have gotten out of there. I hope Radek and Dorota and Tomik are doin alright. And Chris and Craig...I know they are fine. Kate and Aggi too. So that was Dalwhinnie. More or less. Kevin and I went down to England and hung around a bit. Then Kevin met up with his brother for a trip around Europe and I stayed in a hostel in London by a nice park for a few days and read Harry Potter to the end. Then I got a bus to Marseille. Mind you, Marseille was not the place I wanted to go, but it was the only bus that wasn't sold out.