The Busy Life of the Working Man

Firslty, I must apologise for the long delay since last writing an entry here. There are numerous reasons for this absence, namely, in no particular order;

- Having a job that involves working from 630 or 7am till 5ishpm means that by the time I finish work I'm about ready to drop so I tend to head home and collapse
- As the muskateers remaining in the house now number only myself and Rich, I have no laptop and therefore no free internet access at home
- And last but not least, I do have a real short attention span, and everytime I buy some internet time at the local internet cafe (I'd recomend Squires!) by the time I've finished emailing everyone, the muse has disappeared and I go home to collapse! (Do you spot a recurring theme here!)

Anyway now I am three weeks or so into my working life over here in Canada. My work over here is still pretty good. It can be a bit repetitious, but each day is different meeting different people, learning new tricks of the liftying trade etc etc!

As a bit of an insight to my life at the moment this is what a typical day entails:

530am: Wake up with alarm
545am: Wake up with alarm again as I try to get some more sleep in. Go to the bathroom to get ready. Go back to bed and fall asleep again.
610am: Actually get up this time, throw my uniform on and normally forget about three things on the way out of the house.
630am: Catch the first bus into town.
640am: Get into town, realising that this bus is still a little bit early for work!
700am: The morning meeting. Get the info on the weather, how much new snow etc. Motivational speeches, messages on safety. Reminders that if we're nice to people and get over 85% on our consumer satisfaction surveys we get more money to spend on the boat cruise around Vancouver that will be our end of season party! Get told a really bad joke (Example: What's small, pink and hangs out your trousers? Your Granny!)
710am: Board the Village Gondola for transportation to my lift (now normally up in the alpine areas)
715am: At the mid point of the gondola, quickly run into the staff lunch room there to see if any coffee has been brewed, normally to find that there's no coffee, or it's cold. (Although this turned out to be to my advantage one time where I managed to miss the cup and pour it all over my hand!) Quickly run back to the gondola, hoping that I've done the coffee trip in time so that my board and gear isn't having a lonely trip up to the top station.
730am: Get to the top of the gondola. Mill around for a while to check that we have clearance from the Alpine Office (To make sure we don't get blown up by ski patrollers using explosives to create avalanches, or get hit by one of said avalanches!)
735am: Ride down to the designated lift. My designated lifts tend to be the Peak Chair, Harmony Expresss, or T-bars. If I'm on T-bars I'll generally be sent to help set up the fences on either Harmony or Peak, as the T-bars are a low priority and get opened after the main lifts are opened.
830am: Generally by now all the fences and signs are up around the lifts, the maintenance checks are done and we're ready to rock and roll!
900am: The lifts are probably open to the public now. This week has been pretty quiet, so now starts one of a various number of activities:
- If it's busy you chat to people getting on the lift, making sure no one kills themselves or falls off the chair straight away. Be ready with Emergency Stop button!
- If there's three of you working a lift, you start your breaks. This is the best bit, as the most difficult part of the job is timing all the breaks so that we fit them in! Our break time during the day ranges from 1hour to 2hr30mins. Normally you have a number of shorter breaks to go riding, sometimes a breakfast break, and a 1hr lunchbreak!
- If it's really quiet you can think of various funny things to write on the message board. For instance, warning guests of Polar bears at the top of the lift, or trying to sort out dates for some of the lifties! If you have even more time on your hands you can turn your hand to snow sculptures. So far there's been large snowmen, pick up trucks, cats and various other things, as well as a display of rubber ducky's!
300pm: Start dismantling the maze of fences
330pm: Time we're supposed to shut, although we always stay open for 15mins after. The public think we're doing it as a special favour for them, and get really happy, not realising that we've got to do it! People are easily fooled!
345pm: Close the lift. Fend off people who, despite staying open an extra 15mins for them, get angry when they're refused a lift up. This is because the ski patrol take the last lift up, and have to ensure that the mountain is empty of people at the end of the night. If we let extra people up the lift, we get killed basically! Ski patrol are strict like that!
400-430pm: Finish tidying away. Complete paperwork. Start the ride down to the valley. This generally involves boarding down the 2500m vertical drop with no stops, unless another lift needs help to tidy awway!
500pm: Generally get back to the valley roundabouts now and swipe out for the day.
530pm: Catch the bus home and collapse!

So that is my working day pretty much. It can be hard work, but it's fun, and it can be pretty rewarding when you can tell that you really have improved people's days by being nice to them or whatever!

I'm also beginning to get to know my fellow lifties socailly, and went out with them 3 times last week. This included a FUBAR night (Meaning F****d Up, Buy A Round). This involved me not remembering much and waking up at 5m on the living room floor! Last night was a disco ice skating party which was fun. I was by far the worst skater there, but it was all fun! Had another go at ice hockey, again which was fun!

As for non lifty related stuff, my riding is getting on quite well. Managed to build up the courage to hit the medium sized kickers in the park which is fun, as it really does feel like I'm flying for ages. I know that a video camera would prove me wrong on that score, but hey, it's all about the feeling, isn't it!