Thursday, May 20, 2010
It's All Good!
Since I was having no luck on the job end of things, I decided to take a little vacation up to Richmond to visit our old flatmates for a week. Mari and Liz stayed in Queenstown and worked for the week before heading up to meet me for the weekend. I had to fly from Queenstown to Chirstchurch and then Chirstchurch to Nelson, each 45 minute flights but, with added layovers and delays, it took me over six hours to get up there. I arrived in Nelson around 7pm where our old flatmate, Brad, was there to pick me up. During the week, I spent my time relaxing, catching up with friends and enjoying the nice weather.
Another reason why I went up there was because it was Brad’s Birthday! It was on a Monday so, it was a pretty low-key night. While the boys were at work, I decided to walk to town to pick up some things for dinner. Brad and Todd had rugby practice that night so i figured it would be nice to cook them dinner. What better than Mexican? YUMMY! Seeing that Chicken Enchiladas were such a hit at Mari’s birthday, I knew the boys would love them too. Ding, Ding, Ding... I was right. The boys scarfed it down like it was their last supper!
The week went by pretty fast being back in Richmond. Mari and Liz were planning on driving up Thursday. It was a long drive, but I reassured them that it would be worth it! After a long ten hour drive, they made it! But before Mari and Liz could nicely come in and say hi, they ran through the front door literally falling over each other to rush to the bathroom. Apparently, there weren’t any stops on that drive?
With working all week, Mari and Liz had a little money saved up and it was time for a shopping spree in Nelson. As they headed to Nelson, Brad and I took a little ride up to his families farm. The weather wasn’t the best, but lucky for us, the rain had stopped for a couple hours once we got there. We took out one of his four-wheelers for a ride and he showed me around his farm. I couldn’t believe how much land they owned. They have sheep, cows, bees, horses, and little wild goats that run around in the hills. As we were driving on the four-wheeler, we came across a group of goats that ran away once they saw us. However, they left behind a little baby one that couldn’t be more than a couple days old. This was the cutest little goat I have ever seen. We couldn’t just leave it there to die so we took it back to Brad’s house where his mom could take care of it. She loved it, and took the little goat in as a house pet. After the goat got some milk, it was running around and jumping over everything like she owned the house.
We spent our Saturday morning doing a little more shopping in Nelson before we went to the boys rugby game. Liz had to pick up some last minute things for her interview back in Queenstown. It had been raining all day, and it wasn’t looking like it was going to let up. We all wished we had rain boots, known to Kiwi’s as gum boots, to wear to the rugby game since the field was covered in mud! Little did we know how popular these gum boots were! Everyone we saw was wearing them. However, Mari brought a massive umbrella so at least we wouldn’t get too wet. When we got there, the score was 9-13 and everyone on the field was covered in mud. The score went back and forth for a while until the other team made some lucky tries and won the game. We went back to the flat for a little while, to let the boys cool off from the loss.
Even though it rained all day, it was Clubroom Day. The Clubroom is the main meeting area at the rugby fields. Its a large building that has several locker rooms and a banquet room with a concession stand and bar. On this day all the rugby teams from the club that had a match were invited to a bbq in the club rooms, there was even a band playing! Mari, Liz, and I were a little worried that the loss would put everyone in a bad mood for the night but, that all changed once we got to the club rooms and everyone seemed pretty happy. The night was full of dancing, drinking, and fun! We ended up staying there until the place was ready to shut down. The next day was filled with sleeping, food, more sleeping, and movies. Most of the rugby team came over to hang out as we all lounged around in the living room. To much our surprise, Todd asked Liz and Mari to cut his hair! (and man, did he need it, his hair was starting to look like a mullet) They sat him down in a chair and started cutting away. I caught a glimpse as they were were cutting the front. I don’t think I have ever seen Todd look so depressed. Liz held his hair out with a comb as Mari took the razor to it. With a quick buzz it was all gone, his hair was left too short and slightly crooked... Todd referred to it as a “frollet” because it was long in the front and short in the back! I felt his pain, it looked horrible. Liz and Mari were at the point of quitting because they couldn’t stop laughing and didn’t want to screw it up anymore. After taking a short break to catch their breath, Mari started working on the sides. I decided I couldn’t watch anymore because Todd didn’t like the sight of my looks or laughs I was giving him. Thankfully, in the end it turned out good and I am pretty sure he will be calling Mari and Liz for another haircut in a month or so!
Monday, May 10, 2010
Two Down One To Go!
This week was my second week of work and Liz’s first! Yes, I am happy to say that Liz also got a job at Rydge’s Resort and it wasn’t as an immigrant housekeeper! She works with me as a waitress in the restaurant and caterer for events. Danny is still on the lookout for a job, but in the meanwhile she is our stay at home wife:) On Monday, Liz’s trial day, we catered for a golf convention. This was pretty easy, we set up for morning tea, lunch, and then came back that night for a couple of hours working the bar. Liz passed her trial with flying colors and is now on the regular rotation with me!
The biggest issue with this job, fairly consistent with most jobs I have worked, is that most people act like you have been working with them for years. One coworker, Jess, likes to ask us to do things with out any direction. Just one example, she asks Liz to set out the napkins for morning breakfast, by-the-way we have at least 4 different sets of napkins. Liz asks, understandably, “where and which napkins?” Jess, rolling her eyes tells her they are the same napkins always used, as you might imagine this information means very little for Liz. It is her first time setting up for breakfast and she has never worked a breakfast. Jess then tells her they are in the linen room, which is also useless information, she hasn’t been shown it yet. Liz, still not understanding which and where these napkins are, just turns and attempts to find these breakfast napkins on her own. This might have taken a lot longer if another coworker hadn’t come over and saved the day. He was truly an unsung hero to all next day breakfast goers.
So now that we have the negatives about our job out of the way, here are some positives: we finally have made some new friends!! Tuesday after the morning shift at work, we went out and bought cake and dinner ingredients for my birthday the coming day. We were very excited because this was the first time we were going to have friends over. Three weeks was the longest we had lived in a place without making friends, so needless to say, we were long overdue! The next day, a.k.a Cinco De Mari, Liz and I started off waking up at 8am for work. We worked about five hours and then came home to nap, had to power up for the big fiesta! The night kicked off with Danny making chicken enchiladas and the cake, we were very grateful that she was willing to do all the cooking. Dinner was great, couldn’t ask for a better chef, and the guests came shortly after. Four friends from work came; Enrique a Chilean, Mariana a Brazilian, Tania an Australian, and Chelsea a Kiwi. We played cards for a couple of hours then headed out to Chelsea’s room at the Rydge’s Resort. We weren’t there too long before we left to tear up Q-town!
The next couple of days aren’t anything to write home about, literally, I will spare you the insignificant details of those days. Saturday we dropped Danny off at the airport, she was flying to Nelson to visit our friends to the North. This had to of been very exciting for Danny since I am sure cabin fever was starting to get her. Liz and I decided to do a little shopping around town, thank God nothing seemed to work out. Always a little disappointing, but mainly a relief knowing our money is safe for another day. That night I left home to head off to work, there were only two of us serving. A lot of times that would be sufficient because we are pretty slow, since we are situated on the sixth floor, but not tonight. At least not for me who is still a newbie, I got pretty stressed when six tables all came in within a half an hour of each other. Maybe six tables wouldn’t have been that bad if I wasn’t also being the host, running the food, and putting the orders into a computer system that I had just learned. Reagan, the other server and manager, told me he wanted to watch me, I didn’t think that meant that was all he was going to do! Though I can’t give him too much grief, he did cover two tables and did a great job of making sure the kitchen staff was in good spirits.... I foresee a long lasting relationship with him.
Sunday the day of rest, or at least it is for most people, but not Liz and I as we had to work. The shift started at six so we were up at five, at least awake enough to hit the snooze a couple of times. This was my first breakfast shift, nice and simple, perfect since I am not a morning person. Liz and I cleared plates for a couple of hours until I got to go on break. We are allowed to collect food from the buffet to take on our break, this was very exciting since they have a nice variety to choose from. As I get to the pancakes the chef comes out to restock, he is an outgoing funny guy. He loves teasing and making sure we are doing well by asking us repeatedly... He comes around to where I am standing to restocking sausages and while doing so covers up the pancakes I am about to take from. Not much of a problem, I lift the lid from the other stack of pancakes and start to take a couple from this stack. While doing all of this he had struck up a conversation with me, telling me that I have a nice breakfast, then he proceeds to tell me I can’t have the pancakes that I was taking. I laugh and say “OK” in a tone as if I was going along with his joke, but I keep taking from the same stack. The pancakes look the same and there wasn’t any clear label, so my conclusion was that this must be another one of his jokes. Not a very funny joke, but who am I to judge. Then he proceeds to laugh and say “and she is still taking from the same stack.” As the pancakes are just about to touch my plate he screams, “I TOLD YOU NOT THOSE ONES!” I freeze for a second, in half embarrassment and half fear, then put the pancakes back. I quickly explain that I assumed he was kidding, since that is in his nature, I saw no apparent sign, and they looked the same as the others. He was a little calmed down, but the damage was done, I didn’t need to look behind me, I knew the customers were definitely looking. He explained that those were gluten free pancakes and if the head chef ever saw me take those he would be very mad. I walked away a little shaken up and took my break. I wish I could say he saved those pancakes from the hands of someone without the gluten alergy, but it was in vain, for when Liz went on her break she took those very pancakes. Lesson learned, don’t assume someone is just telling a bad joke, it might just be their passive aggressive way of telling you something, who would of thought... That afternoon we went home and took our long awaited nap, this was followed by dinner and watching Lord of The Rings: Return of The King with our roomies. We had a lot of fun trying to guess where some of the scenes were shot. Liz and my repeated guess was the Remarkables, the mountain range right outside our window, we aren’t that familiar with the New Zealand landscape yet...
The biggest issue with this job, fairly consistent with most jobs I have worked, is that most people act like you have been working with them for years. One coworker, Jess, likes to ask us to do things with out any direction. Just one example, she asks Liz to set out the napkins for morning breakfast, by-the-way we have at least 4 different sets of napkins. Liz asks, understandably, “where and which napkins?” Jess, rolling her eyes tells her they are the same napkins always used, as you might imagine this information means very little for Liz. It is her first time setting up for breakfast and she has never worked a breakfast. Jess then tells her they are in the linen room, which is also useless information, she hasn’t been shown it yet. Liz, still not understanding which and where these napkins are, just turns and attempts to find these breakfast napkins on her own. This might have taken a lot longer if another coworker hadn’t come over and saved the day. He was truly an unsung hero to all next day breakfast goers.
So now that we have the negatives about our job out of the way, here are some positives: we finally have made some new friends!! Tuesday after the morning shift at work, we went out and bought cake and dinner ingredients for my birthday the coming day. We were very excited because this was the first time we were going to have friends over. Three weeks was the longest we had lived in a place without making friends, so needless to say, we were long overdue! The next day, a.k.a Cinco De Mari, Liz and I started off waking up at 8am for work. We worked about five hours and then came home to nap, had to power up for the big fiesta! The night kicked off with Danny making chicken enchiladas and the cake, we were very grateful that she was willing to do all the cooking. Dinner was great, couldn’t ask for a better chef, and the guests came shortly after. Four friends from work came; Enrique a Chilean, Mariana a Brazilian, Tania an Australian, and Chelsea a Kiwi. We played cards for a couple of hours then headed out to Chelsea’s room at the Rydge’s Resort. We weren’t there too long before we left to tear up Q-town!
The next couple of days aren’t anything to write home about, literally, I will spare you the insignificant details of those days. Saturday we dropped Danny off at the airport, she was flying to Nelson to visit our friends to the North. This had to of been very exciting for Danny since I am sure cabin fever was starting to get her. Liz and I decided to do a little shopping around town, thank God nothing seemed to work out. Always a little disappointing, but mainly a relief knowing our money is safe for another day. That night I left home to head off to work, there were only two of us serving. A lot of times that would be sufficient because we are pretty slow, since we are situated on the sixth floor, but not tonight. At least not for me who is still a newbie, I got pretty stressed when six tables all came in within a half an hour of each other. Maybe six tables wouldn’t have been that bad if I wasn’t also being the host, running the food, and putting the orders into a computer system that I had just learned. Reagan, the other server and manager, told me he wanted to watch me, I didn’t think that meant that was all he was going to do! Though I can’t give him too much grief, he did cover two tables and did a great job of making sure the kitchen staff was in good spirits.... I foresee a long lasting relationship with him.
Sunday the day of rest, or at least it is for most people, but not Liz and I as we had to work. The shift started at six so we were up at five, at least awake enough to hit the snooze a couple of times. This was my first breakfast shift, nice and simple, perfect since I am not a morning person. Liz and I cleared plates for a couple of hours until I got to go on break. We are allowed to collect food from the buffet to take on our break, this was very exciting since they have a nice variety to choose from. As I get to the pancakes the chef comes out to restock, he is an outgoing funny guy. He loves teasing and making sure we are doing well by asking us repeatedly... He comes around to where I am standing to restocking sausages and while doing so covers up the pancakes I am about to take from. Not much of a problem, I lift the lid from the other stack of pancakes and start to take a couple from this stack. While doing all of this he had struck up a conversation with me, telling me that I have a nice breakfast, then he proceeds to tell me I can’t have the pancakes that I was taking. I laugh and say “OK” in a tone as if I was going along with his joke, but I keep taking from the same stack. The pancakes look the same and there wasn’t any clear label, so my conclusion was that this must be another one of his jokes. Not a very funny joke, but who am I to judge. Then he proceeds to laugh and say “and she is still taking from the same stack.” As the pancakes are just about to touch my plate he screams, “I TOLD YOU NOT THOSE ONES!” I freeze for a second, in half embarrassment and half fear, then put the pancakes back. I quickly explain that I assumed he was kidding, since that is in his nature, I saw no apparent sign, and they looked the same as the others. He was a little calmed down, but the damage was done, I didn’t need to look behind me, I knew the customers were definitely looking. He explained that those were gluten free pancakes and if the head chef ever saw me take those he would be very mad. I walked away a little shaken up and took my break. I wish I could say he saved those pancakes from the hands of someone without the gluten alergy, but it was in vain, for when Liz went on her break she took those very pancakes. Lesson learned, don’t assume someone is just telling a bad joke, it might just be their passive aggressive way of telling you something, who would of thought... That afternoon we went home and took our long awaited nap, this was followed by dinner and watching Lord of The Rings: Return of The King with our roomies. We had a lot of fun trying to guess where some of the scenes were shot. Liz and my repeated guess was the Remarkables, the mountain range right outside our window, we aren’t that familiar with the New Zealand landscape yet...
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Bringing Home the Bread
This last week has been a quiet one, it rained five out of the seven days. Queenstown was on the verge of flooding. The lake had risen so high that it was level with all of the docks. We went to town to see if any of the businesses had been flooded, but they all were better protected than when the town flooded in '99. I read in a newspaper that the attitude of the town then was don't worry about it, the water will go away. It seemed that the town was more than ready this time with many volunteers helping with sand bagging and barricading businesses on the lake front.
Seeing all of the businesses closing down in case of the flood did not stop us from job hunting. Again not very successful. A few businesses actually collected our CV's, so that was a little better than them saying that they were not hiring for another three weeks. Mari had me go fill out an application at her new hotel job. She had been getting the latest gossip from her other co-workers that there were people quitting and that a housekeeping position was available. We walked to the hotel together because she had to fill out forms herself. On the way she informed me that her supervisor did not like the supervisor of housekeeping and that she was not very nice. That made me a little scared and nervous, but desperate times call for desperate measures!
On a positive note for the week, Mari is getting a lot of hours at work. Her second day she worked eleven hours! She must have done an exceptional job because after that she was getting called in each day after that to come work more hours. She was bringing home the bread, literally. Mari actually started bringing home loafs of bread that were left over in the staff room. She brought home raisin bread, which was a real treat! Mari was also making new friends at work. Fabio, Will and Eddie were a few of her new buddies. She even invited them to her birthday party that was coming up this following week. This is great news, since we don't have any friends. It would have just been Mari, Danny and I celebrating and maybe our flatmates if we were lucky. Now it will really feel like Cinco de Mari.
Mari's new work life has been the excitement around here, but Danny and I have been trying to do a good job of keeping ourselves entertained. We have been watching movies, playing rock band and going on tramps around our neighborhood. Our weekend was filled with American Idol gives back. The living room, where we spend most of our time, is one of the coldest places in the house. To keep warm we have to build a fire every night, which is usually made by Danny. Though this weekend we were faced with chopping our own kindling wood. It was the first time I have ever cut wood and it was quite the process to get comfortable with my aim. After 20 minutes I had succeeded! As you can see it doesn't take much to entertain ourselves.
After a long weekend of nothing, I got a phone call from Rydges Hotel where Mari works at. They said that I have a trial run tomorrow at 10 am! I hope it is for waitressing, but I will take the housekeeping job if that is what they are offering. So, wish me luck and stayed tuned to see what job I get.
Seeing all of the businesses closing down in case of the flood did not stop us from job hunting. Again not very successful. A few businesses actually collected our CV's, so that was a little better than them saying that they were not hiring for another three weeks. Mari had me go fill out an application at her new hotel job. She had been getting the latest gossip from her other co-workers that there were people quitting and that a housekeeping position was available. We walked to the hotel together because she had to fill out forms herself. On the way she informed me that her supervisor did not like the supervisor of housekeeping and that she was not very nice. That made me a little scared and nervous, but desperate times call for desperate measures!
On a positive note for the week, Mari is getting a lot of hours at work. Her second day she worked eleven hours! She must have done an exceptional job because after that she was getting called in each day after that to come work more hours. She was bringing home the bread, literally. Mari actually started bringing home loafs of bread that were left over in the staff room. She brought home raisin bread, which was a real treat! Mari was also making new friends at work. Fabio, Will and Eddie were a few of her new buddies. She even invited them to her birthday party that was coming up this following week. This is great news, since we don't have any friends. It would have just been Mari, Danny and I celebrating and maybe our flatmates if we were lucky. Now it will really feel like Cinco de Mari.
Mari's new work life has been the excitement around here, but Danny and I have been trying to do a good job of keeping ourselves entertained. We have been watching movies, playing rock band and going on tramps around our neighborhood. Our weekend was filled with American Idol gives back. The living room, where we spend most of our time, is one of the coldest places in the house. To keep warm we have to build a fire every night, which is usually made by Danny. Though this weekend we were faced with chopping our own kindling wood. It was the first time I have ever cut wood and it was quite the process to get comfortable with my aim. After 20 minutes I had succeeded! As you can see it doesn't take much to entertain ourselves.
After a long weekend of nothing, I got a phone call from Rydges Hotel where Mari works at. They said that I have a trial run tomorrow at 10 am! I hope it is for waitressing, but I will take the housekeeping job if that is what they are offering. So, wish me luck and stayed tuned to see what job I get.
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