6 March, 2006 (Monday)

A brief update
Somehow March has crept up on me and suddenly I'm looking down the barrel of another month. I think I'm having one of those days when I wish that it would all slow down a little, just so I can get my bearings and focus. But then when I'm honest with myself, I enjoy it when things are rolling along at a decent nip.

The past week has been pretty full-on. From a hazy start last Monday, it slowly picked up speed with lots of time on snow, a few evening shifts and even some time at the ice rink (of all places!). I managed to be on snow Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday with some fantastic snowfall and good skiing to be had. Other than that, no huge epiphanies or discoveries - it's just life as usual. But hey, this is a travel blog...

(Picture: Sunset from the tubing cabin)

Week in review:
Saturday night at Raakel's: It was a busy night at Raakel's with Manuel (from Germany) DJ-ing and the crowd packed out. On the weekends I think Raakel's is starting to become the staff bar, with many of the Big Whiteans escaping from the tourist hot-spot of Sam's. In any case it was a good crowd on Saturday, and with my freaky violet contact lenses in I managed to get a few strange looks. The best way to start a weekend... Happy couples were the feature of the night, with excessive alcohol, pool tables and bad dancing. Of course, I was just there to watch and take notes.

Sunday night bowling: The tickets crew went bowling in Kelowna as part of our social budget. We shuttle bus-ed it down straight after shift (thank you Happy Valley for taking over my life!) and were soon stuck into steak sandwiches, draught beer and amusing conversation at Freddy's.

A civilised dinner
Tim was asking Aenne how to pronounce various words in German. It started with an innocent inquiry as to greetings, which soon morphed into words for body parts, before degenerating into insults. Precious meanwhile was updating us on her current boy dramas, while Sarah was doing her utmost best to drink her weight in beer. We got through 11 pitchers worth between about 10 of us. I guess that's a good effort? (Picture: Steak sandwiches at Freddy's - Tim, Carla, Kate, Kristi & Tammy)

Medium-rare steak sandwich, a caesar (clamato juice and vodka with a spicy bean on the side), and more than a few beers later I was on the bowling alley strutting my stuff. The tickets crew was spread over three lanes and starting to get loud. Kristi was high-fiving like she was about to lose her hands, Tim has changed his name to "Paaaanus" in homage to his earlier conversation with Aenne and Zia was running away from my camera.

The night kind of went from there. We played for two hours without break, with people's names slowly changing as the whim took them (or took me, depending on who you asked). (Picture: Tickets bowling: Tim, Sarah, Gabbi, Tammy, Deb, Steve and his wife)

Enter Lifts
The lift crew were having their appreciation night on the same evening, although they followed a slightly different route than us. All 70 of them crammed into 2 buses, and drank their way down to Kelowna. Their first stop was the local Irish pub, which they soon discovered (30 pitchers later) was serving a special of 6 shots for $14 dollars. When they left around 8:30pm they were collectively in good spirits. However, their buses were running a little late. (Picture: Chris & Foxy - partners in crime)

The scene: 70-something mid-20s coming out of a tavern into the main street of Kelowna, more than a couple drunk as skunks. Some bright young thing rushes across the road and throws a snowball. A largescale snowball fight ensues, which attracts the attention of a local police patrol. The patrolman pulls over at the sight of this mob, calling for backup. Some snowballs hit his patrol car.

Identifying one potential assailant the cop goes for the hoon, cuffing him and throwing him in the back of the car. In the muddle that ensues, the cop yelling for the youths to keep their distance and the Big White lift crew realising that one of their number has been arrested, one of them sidles up to the other side of the control car and unlocks it in a bid to free his compatriot.

The cop, notices immediately and arrests the bright spark, screaming that he's going to be charged with obstruction of justice and possibly deported. There are now two grinning lifties in the back of the car, the crowd goes nuts. Another patrol car arrives.

Anyway, to cut the story short they end up being liberated (thanks to some influence from the local money) and get back onto their bus to go bowling. They pour into the bowling alley and Foxy is in my face telling me how he was arrested, then Chris rolls over and starts telling me how he almost freed Foxy from the back of a cop car. It was a riot!

We left the bowling alley to the tender mercy of the lifts crew around 10:30 and made our way back up to Big White. I slept most of the way, although Sam rudely woke me mid-way with a wet finger in the ear. (Picture: Back at Sam's - Hills, Liz and Fluff)

A long night
Sam's was quiet for a Sunday, although I walked in to discover that it was Liz's farewell. The rentals crew was out in force and before I knew it what was left of tickets (Tim, Precious, Kate and I) were on the dance floor by ourselves. By 12:30 I was ready to pack it in. The bacon and egg sandwich just topped off my night.

Monday at Gem: Monday was at Gem with the Westridge gals. The Gem Lake lift was on stand-by, closed because of high winds. We spent the morning talking about travel plans and friends back home. I did a lot of listening.

Back at the Village by 1pm, I was strapped into my skis by 1:30pm and randomly ran into Josh at the lifts. We skiied trees for most of the afternoon and I had a major fall through a pair of closely grown trees on my way back, ripping a nice new scar into my chin. It was bruised and swollen for 3-days afterwards.


Tuesday 'Freaks & Geeks': Sam's had it's final dress up night on Tuesday, entitled 'Freaks & Geeks'. While there were a few convincing freaks out (Precious does a great goth), the Geeks were a standout. It was another fun night at Sam's, with some good pictures and even a few good chats with random people. (Picture: Freaks & Geeks - Chris, Me, Precious, Josh)

Wednesday icing on the cake: Like mid-week icing on a cake, my first day-off was a great snow day. I spent the day barrelling down the slopes and criss-crossing glades.

I spent the day barrelling down the slopes and criss-crossing glades.

Friday split: Friday was my first split-shift since New Years. The morning was flat out at the Ridge, where I sold around $9000 worth of tickets in my three hours there with Aenne. I spent the afternoon skiing with Josh. We hiked up the back of the Black Forest through knee deep powder, puffing clouds of white through red cheeks. I turtled down the Cliff (sliding about 10 metres down a steep slope on my back), before running straight down Sundance, scaring the daylights out of weekend skiiers and a few snowboarders. (Picture: Freaks & Geeks - big-time geeks)

My first Freaky Friday Night Special shift with Tim was just as busy - another $10,000 in sales with lots of multi-day purchases as well as friday night tickets (pa-ching Big White). Trish came up from Kelowna with her cute blonde friend Sarah, to take advantage of the Friday night deal. When I got off work at 7pm I joined them for a few night runs, showing off a little (I admit) on the iced up runs. Both Sarah and Trish kept up pretty well, especially for people who haven't been on snow this season! We enjoyed a civilised dinner at the Copper Kettle, before the gals begged out on account of tiredness and the long drive back home. They've promised to visit again during Spring Break. Hmm...

Sunday on the rink: After the gals left I of course found myself back at Sam's. It was a quieter night, but I still found myself back there until close, chatting to Chris (Skaters @ Happy Valley), Kym (activities) and Carla (retail).

My Sunday was spent at Happy Valley - during the day it was steady, and after a 10 minute wash and change I was back out trying to play ice hockey. Within the first 2 minutes of the game John (the twin) fell and cut his head open, requiring evacuation and stitches.

The rest of the game passed in a messy melee as rentals literally skated rings around the tickets crew. By the end of the game we had 6 players on ice for tickets and 4 for rentals, and they were still out scoring us. My own mad ice scrambling is improving, but I still have some way to go before I think I'll be capable of coordinating my skating (sketchy at best) with swinging a big hockey stick at a puck.


More reflections of the same pond
Apparently we've only 6-weeks left in the season, but some days it still feels like I just got off the plane. It's a mad blur. A procession of faded evenings similar enough to be the same, broken up by days sliding down the mountain in thigh thick snow and shifts spent manning a battle-worn skating rink.

In the dusk of my season I'm getting more reflective; thinking through my time spent here, gazing at the many happy snaps, mulling through what I thought I'd be in for and making sense of how it has panned out. There's still over a month left, but considering how fast time has already passed, that really doesn't feel like such a long time at all. If one thought can sum it all up so far - no regrets. I've met some great new people, made some firm friends and perhaps I'll even take from the whole experience some pearls of wisdom and a few amusing anecdotes (great for those dinner parties back home - joking).

Yet, at the same time I'm excited. I'm looking forward to moving on, to seeing new places and having new adventures with new people. I'm going to travel for a while I think. Keep my own timetable. See what is beyond this little mountain. Find my way across this country and maybe even indulge in the tourist thing.