12 January, 2006 (Thursday)

A brief update
A quieter week. The festive season crowds have gone off back to wherever they were spawned, so it's just locals and a few stray Australians on holiday. This means that the mountain is back in the hands of the employees (well, until the weekend) and that the lift lines are once again straight through. No mid-run campers. No packed out Village Centre Mall (VCM). Everybody seems more relaxed. Smiling. Things are as they should be. Pity it's putting me to sleep at work.


Big White news:

• Snow is in for the season! Regular snow fall has meant that the alpine base has grown about 60cm in the past week. We're expecting more snow in the next couple of days, which means that the last remaining chair lift (the Falcon Chair) should open soon. I still haven't made it to the Cliff yet!
• Emptying the mountain: All of the Australian university students working on the mountain will start peeling off in the next month or so. Since New Years we've had a few leave, which has meant that despite the crowds receding there has been a bit of a recruitment drive going on-mountain. Could be a good time to start seeing what's available in the job market around here. How much is my pound of flesh worth?
  
• Count down to Australia Day: It isn't even mid-January, but people are already talking about their Australia Day plans. They've all started airing their flags, ordering their tim-tams and reminiscing about good times with cases of VB and BBQ-ed hunks of meat. I can feel that it's going to get downright patriotic around here soon. Which is kind of funny, because I've never really considered Australians to be particularly patriotic (in the North American sense in any case). I guess that's what happens when you go abroad.

Snow report:
Snow cover: 3cm overnight, with an alpine base of around 179cm. We're almost hitting the 2m mark with conditions improving day-on-day.
Visibility: Varies, although I've noticed that most days that I'm off work you can't make out your own hand. The last few days have been clear in the morning up-top with some great skiing to be had. This afternoon coming down Highway 33 from The Ridge I once again couldn't see my hand in front of my face, let alone the bumps in front of my skis.


10 January, 2006 (Tuesday)
Back to work. It was a quiet day in Happy Valley. Quiet? Okay silent. With 14cm of snow overnight and the rink operator calling in sick, the skating rink wasn't opened until 3:30pm. I took a total of $13.86 for the whole day (plus $US20). At one point I thought I might end up negative after float. On the positive side I managed to balance.

Tuesday night was staff night at Sam's. Everybody was back and in great cheer. I think we've all been taking it a bit easier since New Years. Aenne was out with Per (her boyfriend) and his sister Liza who is visiting from Germany. Gabbi was flashing her high heels around (she hasn't been out for at least a month after suffering a kidney infection and then the flu) and kicking it up on the dance floor (Picture: Gabbi and I). Tanya was hunting some guy in a tight white shirt and not taking kindly to my offerings of moral support - "Come on Tan, get in there! What are you doing? Don't hold back. Hit hard and fast! Do it for the team!". Sarah and Anthea were hanging out and drinking long island iced teas (except they don't make them right over here. In these parts it's a single shot drink with lots of ice and cola). Chris, our neighbour was just out for a good night.

Josh and I had a few drinks then decided to get creative with shots. I ordered a round of liquid cocaine, a favourite of bar gal Sarah (Chloe's sister), which tastes of rancid cane sugar and has a bit of a kick. Josh said we had to have vulcan mindprobes (love the Star Trek references), which contain some sort of mix of vodka and white curacao. Fun, fun, fun. Home by midnight.

11 January, 2006 (Wednesday)
Back again to Happy Valley. Thank goodness Josh brought me back some pulp from his shopping expedition the day before. I spent most of the day reading the book and looking attentive whenever customers came to buy tickets. The rink opened at midday and we had a school group come through. I was out by 4pm, trying to psyche myself for the night ahead.

The employees of the month gathered at the front of Central Reservations at quarter to 5, all ready for a night of bowling badness. We were directed onto a greyhound type bus and before we knew it were winding our way down to Kelowna. (Picture: James and I at the bowling alley)

In all there was about a dozen of us - Carmen (Central Res), Nick (Retail), Pez (Rentals), James and Neal (Lifties - James is with Kiwi Kate and Neal is with Gabbi, both from Tickets), Christian (Ski School), Karyn (Kid's Centre), Sue (Slope Watch / Ski Patrol), Lauren (Carvers), Will (Guest Services) and a few others. Jay Hayashi, General Manager for Mountain Operations, was our host for the night. The deal was all we could eat, drink and bowl at Freddy's, a local restaurant / bowling alley. The bus was due to arrive at 6pm sharp and leave at 10pm. No stragglers.

Dinner was a lot of fun. 20 of us sprawled over two tables in Freddy's (we picked up some additionals when we hit Kelowna). Jay ordered up entrees and we got a huge yard-glass like contraption of Kokanee brew. It held 42oz and took up a quarter of a table. During the course of the night we managed to drain 3 of these between 9 of us. Most of us ordered surf and turf (medium rarefor me - I like to taste the meat), but were initially kept busy by the large platters of entrees - fried jalepenos, garlic bread, chicken wings (a Canadian tradition?), carrots, celery, pasties and a selection of other fried delicacies.

Dessert were a round of Jager-bombs (Jagermeister shots dumped in Red Bull) and cheese cake. Pez suggested we start on Corona's, which became our staple for the rest of the night.

Wednesday night is cosmic bowling at Freddy's, so the lights were flashing and music blaring as we took over a corner of the bowling alley. I was on with Jay, Nick, Pez, James and Neal. Somebody had the bright idea that we have a shot with every strike, so within two rounds we were all pretty merrily on our way. There was a lot of shouting and backslapping and high fiving as we gutter-balled our way through our first round of ten. Nick had obviously bowled before, getting a good number of strikes. I acquitted myself respectably, breaking 100, although I was too inconsistent to make the most of my strikes. We shotted our way through a variety of ill-named shots, from Dirty Hookers to Cowboys. The Corona's helped wash down the taste, but I'm pretty sure we were behind at the end of the first round.

By the second game things started to get a little more ragged. Still lots of shouting and high fiving, but consistency was suffering. Somewhere along the way people started changing the names on the board. Jay became "The Boss", Nick "Tin Ass" and Pez "Snozberry". I changed Neal to "Nil" and I became first "Farva" and then "Feckles". We were in hysterics.

At the end of the night we fled the alley, Carmen and I having secured the new bowling shoes that they'd loaned us. Intoxicated petty thievery has a certain charm. Apparently the final bar bill was in the region of $3000, between 20 of us, although I suspect that this included dinner and bowling as well.

On the way back I just slept (still recovering from the flu), although the others were still partying it up - singing and insisting on visiting a bottle-o. They all got out and bought six packs of beer. Somewhere along the line we stopped and everybody got out. I naturally assumed that we'd arrived back at Big White, but I was mistaken. It was a toilet stop. All the guys were facing into snowbanks, deep in concentration. Woops! Class. All class.

We arrived back on the mountain around 11:30pm. I was tired and gutted so headed straight home. Apparently the stalwart few made it to Sam's and lasted until closing. I saw Neal the next morning and he was looking worse for wear. Myself, I emptied my pockets and crashed out. Woke refreshed and bright eyed for the Ridge. Go figure.

12 January, 2006 (Thursday)
Today was a Ridge day. Got in around 10 to 8 at The Village and met our newest recruit, Sam. Zia recruited her two days ago and she's just settling in. Sam: Tall, raven haired, a nose ring but doesn't ooze attitude like our Jo used to.

Skiied down to The Ridge as usual (yes Carla, it's worth the effort!) and settled in for a quiet day. It was a clear morning (you could see all the way to the top), but started to get blowy as the afternoon progressed. I processed a respectable $400 in cash (about four times that in credit and debit) and did some work on packing down the snow in front of our ticket office in the afternoon. The ski down Highway 33 back to the Village was the usual "I can't see anything" affair. I bumped down blind but managed not to collect anything.

Back at the office Steve let me know that I'd scored a few night shifts for the next week and would have Sunday and Monday off again. Almost the weekend!