The weekend was a rather uninteresting one. The owners of the motel were away Friday-Sunday so I was looking after the place by myself. So that meant long work days 14 hours (730am-930pm) to be exact! Granted, work was far from continuous, but it also meant I had to be here the entire time. So no hiking or snowboarding for me this weekend. Working during your birthday (Saturday) isn’t the most exciting way to spend it, but it’s just another day for me now that I’m 28. Not an overly exciting or special year on number alone (29 is my champagne birthday…but where shall I be spending it?), but hopefully I can make it an amazing one based on experience. 😀
Category Archives: Personal
Bad idea
Picking up groceries, seeing yogurt covered raisins, thinking ‘oooooooooooh those look tasty! And healthier than chocolate covered ones!’, buying ~350grams of them…and proceeding to eat them all within 24 hours. I know these exist in Canada too, I simply had never sampled them. I always stuck with the chocolate covered variety, especially chocolate covered almonds.
Tasty indeed. But also evil and make me feel kind of ill when I eat too much.
These were the last remnants of that large bag. They were gone within 5 minutes of the photo. This is what happens when it pours rain outside. I eat tasty treats. Well, it is almost Halloween after all, even if this isn’t a day many Kiwis partake in. Very few advertisements, no bombardment of buying options in stores, and I’m betting nobody around here is dressing up on the 31st. Honestly, it’s a little refreshing given the rampant commercialization that goes on now in Canada. I really dislike that it pretty much goes from Halloween decorations filling stores from the end of September and then switching over to Christmas at the start of November. Still, talking to Kiwis, who see the day as a silly North American thing, I do think they are missing out on some of the fun of the day. Not so much as an adult (I’m much more ambivalent towards it now a days, though costume parties can be fun), but as a kid it’s fantastic fun. It gets you out of the house, meeting people, encourages creativity with costumes, and all round is a holiday that I have fond memories of as a kid. Even when it was below zero when trick or treating…brr!
Perks of the job
Probably my favourite thing about my current job is when I first get into a room to clean it, I do a quick walk around and check for left behind items. They are set aside for a couple days in the event that the person comes back to claim them, but most time they are left for good so the motel owners/me get to keep them. So far, I have found:
- Money (10 and 20 cent pieces, nothing special).
- Freezer bricks / ice bricks – probably the most commonly left thing. Easily forgotten once you put them in the fridge. I’ve found about a dozen so far! I’ve kept the two largest for myself, useful things if I ever get a cooler
- Feminine Hygiene products
- Butter/Margarine (probably don’t need to buy any for the next 9 months)
- Cheese
- Crackers
- Canned fruit
- Bread
- Movie pass
- And my favourite…ice cream bars! I’ve found these twice now, and they are always a treat. YUM!
Much Better!
After far too many days of rain, the last 2 days saw….well more rain. BUT, Ruapehu was open for skiing/snowboarding. The conditions weren’t great, but the winds were calm and it had decent visibility. And best of all for me, being middle of the week there were very few people.
Yesterday was my 3rd (half) day on the slopes, and I FINALLY got over the barrier of doing proper turns (rather just going via heels or toes) and navigating slopes in the green areas. Such a good feeling to be able to make full turns and not just go down hills via digging my heels in. Proper snowboarding, here I come!
It’s a beautiful mornin’
Unfortunately, I was inside working. Clear blue skies were spotted for the first time in 2 weeks, so the owners of the motel took off for the mountain (both are avid snowboarders) shortly after the slopes opened at 9am, leaving me in charge. Being a Monday, the motel was quiet, with only 2 rooms needing work. Since I had all morning to myself, I decided to take my camera along on the journey.
Working hard for my money
For the first time since June, I received a paycheck!
Certainly not going to get rich working here, but it’s something at least. My housing, internet and laundry costs are fully covered while I’m working, and I’m a pretty good budget eater. I figure since I can cook for myself here quite easily, my food costs are well under $50/week. So that means a profit of at least $110 last week – $108 of which was used for my day of snowboarding. In other words, great! If I can essentially live for free while still doing expensive activities for the rest of the month, that would be fantastic.
The work itself? Each morning my day starts at 9am. Early, I know! For me, I’m up at 7am regardless so it’s pretty relaxed getting going. Morning work is cleaning and preparing rooms – the motel has 18 units. During the weekend the place is usually near capacity, during the week it might be half full. There are 4 different types of housekeeping to be done, the first three are when someone checks out, the 4th is when they are staying for at least another night:
Colin performs car maintenance, round 2
Given my abject failure in fixing my car cigarette lighter a while back, the title of the post may bring this kind of image to your mind:
Or this:
Always learning
One of the perks when I was working as an engineer was that I had some disposable income, therefore, I didn’t always choose the cheapest option at the supermarket. One case would be for fish – I’d get nice salmon fillets (or other fish fillets if something else was interesting looking/on sale) when I wanted fish, and cook them up at home (mmmmmm Maple-Glazed Salmon…). I still have cravings for fish down here in NZ, so I’ve turned to the less expensive alternatives which I have considerably less experience with. Canned fish. So far:
Canned Tuna – Inexpensive, goes well with many things, easy to prepare and dispose of. Comes with a variety of sauces/seasoning/mixes. Smell reminds me of cat food. I’ve used canned tuna in sandwiches, pastas, eaten straight, etc. Versatile. I can understand its popularity!
Canned Salmon – Inexpensive, though a costs a little more than tuna, salmon normally is my favourite fish, easy to prepare and dispose of. Comes in ‘normal’ or ‘smoked’, and also reminds me of cat food. I tried using canned salmon for the first time tonight. Turns out as a bonus it is RIDDLED WITH BONES (well, vertebrae cartilage to be exact – yay calcium!).
My Salmon-Alfredo Penne pasta didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped.
*crunch crunch crunch*