10 December, 2005 (Saturday)
The last few days have been a bit of a mixed bag. I'm getting used to the ticketing life, and the system isn't too bad once you've done a few transactions, but the money handling part can be a real pain. Still, it's nice to chat to a variety of people and pretty different to what I've done before.
Friday - A life in tickets
Yesterday I was finally back in the Village, our main ticket office, after spending the last few shifts relegated out to The Ridge and Happy Valley (our quieter outlying ticket offices on-mountain). It was good to work with some different people - we had Carla (NZ) in from Guest Services for training, and Aenne (Germany) and Zia (second-in-charge) upfront with me. Steve (our ticketing manager) and Tammy (accounts) were working back office.
The day wasn't overly busy, although we had more people up making a long weekend of skiing, but it managed to pass fast enough. The Village gets a lot of seasons pass holders as well as gift certificates and day ski passes. I was asked to work back a bit, and everything seemed to be going well until I closed off my till and found that I was $100 short. Not a good way to end the day. It's possible that I miscounted a cash payment for a seasons pass - they go for around $970CAD now (although, when you think about it that's not too bad. In real terms that's about 15 skiing days, or just over 2 weeks on mountain). $100 short means that I'll have to make sure I balance a lot more, and no doubt Steve will be keeping an eye on me.
Saturday - skiing or skates?
Late night tonight. Just got home (it's just hit 10:45pm). I had an evening shift at Happy Valley selling tubing tickets and outdoor ice skating with Kate (NZ). Tubing is kind of like taboganning where they haul you up an icy mountain in a large inner tube and then spin you down. Ice skating just opened yesterday, and besides having to fill out a painful amount of paperwork, we also have to deal with skate rental. It's a bit of a headache. The shift was supposed to run from 3pm to 9pm, but we didn't manage to get out of the place until sometime after 10pm after cleaning up and packing up the last set of skates. The evening was kind of frantic, but it came in waves of people. It's official - family groups scare me. Mothers are fearsome and Dads need to smile more.
Still, today's late start meant that I could get some skiing in this morning (finally!), which was terrific. It was a warm day, just edging over 0 degrees. Snow was melting a little, but it wasn't too icy and I got in some decent runs. I got out with Sarah (Retail) and we did a few runs across the mountain - the Ridge, Bullet and Black Forest. My skiing felt more natural, more parallel and less throwing around of the body. One random crash out where I lost my goggles and almost brained myself with my skis, but otherwise not too bad.
Random observations
Names - This mountain seems to attract certain names. Right now there seems to be a surplus of Sarahs, Phoebes and Laurens. There's Barmaid Sarah and Barmaid sister of Chloe Sarah and Tickets Sarah and Retail Sarah, and I'm sure a few other Sarah's who don't immediately spring to mind. Heck, I'm sure I've seen a few Bens around, and more than a couple Steves and Daves. You'd think it would make it easier to remember names around here... but I can't say it does. I wonder if it's something in the air around these parts, or whether these were just the in vogue names in the early 80s. I guess creativity isn't really a pre-requisite to parenthood.
Shrapnel - I never really appreciated the phasing out of 1 and 2 cent coins in Australia until I hit Canada. Around these parts they seem to revel in having weirdly priced items and handing you a sizeable mound of coinage after each transaction. My 1 cent (pennies) collection is growing too fast for me to work out what to do with them, and I'm still trying to get used to the idea that the 5 cent piece here is twice the size of their 10 cent pieces (dimes). The mind boggles. Then you've got the quarter... but no 50 cent piece! Maybe the idea of all this change is to support their tipping culture, although how mounds of 1 cent pieces factor into that concept beyond insulting poor service I'm not entirely sure. Why doesn't the 5 cent piece get a special name when all the rest of the coins around here do?
Eh? - If there's one thing I want to avoid before leaving Canada, it's ending every second sentence with "Eh?". While I think the Canadian accent is kind of cool, and definitely more fun than the American accent (and yes, I think there is a significant difference... well as much as there is between Australian and New Zealander accents), the whole "Eh" thing is beyond me. The "Eh" is somewhere between a question and an exclamation. It's often documented and can easily insinuate itself into a conversation. It's also redundant and reminds me of the caveman grunt often adopted by sports jocks to punctuate sentences. Maybe we should start an "Eh" jar in the apartment?
Depth and the usual questions - I've had a few good conversations since coming on the mountain, but only with a handful of people. Usually conversations seem to follow the same structure before people lose interest and wander off. While I'm all for shallow mouthing of social platitudes as a way of passing time and pretending to get to know other people, the on mountain 5 questions is starting to wear on me.
1. "Hi, I'm. How are you?"
2. "Where are you from?"
3. "How long are you here for? Are you travelling on from here?"
4. "What did you do at home?"
5. "Do you ski or board?"
I'm still trying to work out whether it's:
a) Due to the relative youth on mountain (estimated average age would probably be 21),
b) Whether people visiting Canada for a ski season are naturally vacant, or
c) Whether I'm just pressing the wrong buttons.
I guess I've just had a very different experience to most of the kids on the mountain. The majority of them are fresh out of school or university rather than suffering from a newly minted quarter life crisis. It's little wonder that my wiring is slightly different.
Happy Holiday Makers - One thing that has consistently surprised me since arriving at Big White is the number of couples who have come here for the season. Apparently snow hills are popular places for home-wrecking, certainly the supposed partying and debauchery have a part to play in it all, but Big White seems to have more than it's fair share. Perhaps it has to do with the reputation for being a family resort, or it's just become fashionable to travel with your long-term squeeze... I don't know. The majority of the gals I work with in tickets are here with partners. I guess it will be interesting to watch the action this season and see how they last? Temptation Island here we come?
Okay, well time for me to sign off. It's just touched midnight and Jae and Josh have risen and left for their midnight shifts which means I should probably head bed-ward. I've got another fun day of skates and snow tomorrow at Happy Valley. It should be a quieter day, but 8 hours isn't short. Time to plug in the iPod and my 600 megawatt grin.
Friday - A life in tickets
Yesterday I was finally back in the Village, our main ticket office, after spending the last few shifts relegated out to The Ridge and Happy Valley (our quieter outlying ticket offices on-mountain). It was good to work with some different people - we had Carla (NZ) in from Guest Services for training, and Aenne (Germany) and Zia (second-in-charge) upfront with me. Steve (our ticketing manager) and Tammy (accounts) were working back office.
The day wasn't overly busy, although we had more people up making a long weekend of skiing, but it managed to pass fast enough. The Village gets a lot of seasons pass holders as well as gift certificates and day ski passes. I was asked to work back a bit, and everything seemed to be going well until I closed off my till and found that I was $100 short. Not a good way to end the day. It's possible that I miscounted a cash payment for a seasons pass - they go for around $970CAD now (although, when you think about it that's not too bad. In real terms that's about 15 skiing days, or just over 2 weeks on mountain). $100 short means that I'll have to make sure I balance a lot more, and no doubt Steve will be keeping an eye on me.
Saturday - skiing or skates?
Late night tonight. Just got home (it's just hit 10:45pm). I had an evening shift at Happy Valley selling tubing tickets and outdoor ice skating with Kate (NZ). Tubing is kind of like taboganning where they haul you up an icy mountain in a large inner tube and then spin you down. Ice skating just opened yesterday, and besides having to fill out a painful amount of paperwork, we also have to deal with skate rental. It's a bit of a headache. The shift was supposed to run from 3pm to 9pm, but we didn't manage to get out of the place until sometime after 10pm after cleaning up and packing up the last set of skates. The evening was kind of frantic, but it came in waves of people. It's official - family groups scare me. Mothers are fearsome and Dads need to smile more.
Still, today's late start meant that I could get some skiing in this morning (finally!), which was terrific. It was a warm day, just edging over 0 degrees. Snow was melting a little, but it wasn't too icy and I got in some decent runs. I got out with Sarah (Retail) and we did a few runs across the mountain - the Ridge, Bullet and Black Forest. My skiing felt more natural, more parallel and less throwing around of the body. One random crash out where I lost my goggles and almost brained myself with my skis, but otherwise not too bad.
Random observations
Names - This mountain seems to attract certain names. Right now there seems to be a surplus of Sarahs, Phoebes and Laurens. There's Barmaid Sarah and Barmaid sister of Chloe Sarah and Tickets Sarah and Retail Sarah, and I'm sure a few other Sarah's who don't immediately spring to mind. Heck, I'm sure I've seen a few Bens around, and more than a couple Steves and Daves. You'd think it would make it easier to remember names around here... but I can't say it does. I wonder if it's something in the air around these parts, or whether these were just the in vogue names in the early 80s. I guess creativity isn't really a pre-requisite to parenthood.
Shrapnel - I never really appreciated the phasing out of 1 and 2 cent coins in Australia until I hit Canada. Around these parts they seem to revel in having weirdly priced items and handing you a sizeable mound of coinage after each transaction. My 1 cent (pennies) collection is growing too fast for me to work out what to do with them, and I'm still trying to get used to the idea that the 5 cent piece here is twice the size of their 10 cent pieces (dimes). The mind boggles. Then you've got the quarter... but no 50 cent piece! Maybe the idea of all this change is to support their tipping culture, although how mounds of 1 cent pieces factor into that concept beyond insulting poor service I'm not entirely sure. Why doesn't the 5 cent piece get a special name when all the rest of the coins around here do?
Eh? - If there's one thing I want to avoid before leaving Canada, it's ending every second sentence with "Eh?". While I think the Canadian accent is kind of cool, and definitely more fun than the American accent (and yes, I think there is a significant difference... well as much as there is between Australian and New Zealander accents), the whole "Eh" thing is beyond me. The "Eh" is somewhere between a question and an exclamation. It's often documented and can easily insinuate itself into a conversation. It's also redundant and reminds me of the caveman grunt often adopted by sports jocks to punctuate sentences. Maybe we should start an "Eh" jar in the apartment?
Depth and the usual questions - I've had a few good conversations since coming on the mountain, but only with a handful of people. Usually conversations seem to follow the same structure before people lose interest and wander off. While I'm all for shallow mouthing of social platitudes as a way of passing time and pretending to get to know other people, the on mountain 5 questions is starting to wear on me.
1. "Hi, I'm
2. "Where are you from?"
3. "How long are you here for? Are you travelling on from here?"
4. "What did you do at home?"
5. "Do you ski or board?"
I'm still trying to work out whether it's:
a) Due to the relative youth on mountain (estimated average age would probably be 21),
b) Whether people visiting Canada for a ski season are naturally vacant, or
c) Whether I'm just pressing the wrong buttons.
I guess I've just had a very different experience to most of the kids on the mountain. The majority of them are fresh out of school or university rather than suffering from a newly minted quarter life crisis. It's little wonder that my wiring is slightly different.
Happy Holiday Makers - One thing that has consistently surprised me since arriving at Big White is the number of couples who have come here for the season. Apparently snow hills are popular places for home-wrecking, certainly the supposed partying and debauchery have a part to play in it all, but Big White seems to have more than it's fair share. Perhaps it has to do with the reputation for being a family resort, or it's just become fashionable to travel with your long-term squeeze... I don't know. The majority of the gals I work with in tickets are here with partners. I guess it will be interesting to watch the action this season and see how they last? Temptation Island here we come?
Okay, well time for me to sign off. It's just touched midnight and Jae and Josh have risen and left for their midnight shifts which means I should probably head bed-ward. I've got another fun day of skates and snow tomorrow at Happy Valley. It should be a quieter day, but 8 hours isn't short. Time to plug in the iPod and my 600 megawatt grin.
posted by the wastrel @ 10:51 PM
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