It's been an amazing last weekend so far, two blue bird days and a pretty cruisey time for me working on the lifts. Hopefully tomorrow will be much the same, and then we'll be having a few beers at the staff party afterwards.
Saturday, 23 April 2011
Norquay's closing weekend.
This weekend will be Norquay's last of the season, marking the end of an incredible 6 months. Although I'm not leaving immediately it feels like the end as the place where I've probably spent more time than anywhere else (possibly including my house . . . okay probably not my house) shuts.
Wednesday, 20 April 2011
Level 2 and the wolf.
My level 2 retest went really well and, as I mentioned in my previous post, I passed it.
We also had Warren Jobbit ski with us for the morning of the second day. He was there to get some video for next year's Level 2 standards video, so, having passed, I may be in the video for next year's courses which is pretty exciting.
Today as Dave and I were walking home from Town Noel came out of his house to tell that there was a wolf hanging around at the top of our street. So, naturally, Dave ran in for his camera and we got some really good snaps, and an impromptu walk up tunnel mountain. Here is a selection of the snaps we got:
The wolf:
Taking in the views:
All in all, a good, last minute trip!
We also had Warren Jobbit ski with us for the morning of the second day. He was there to get some video for next year's Level 2 standards video, so, having passed, I may be in the video for next year's courses which is pretty exciting.
Today as Dave and I were walking home from Town Noel came out of his house to tell that there was a wolf hanging around at the top of our street. So, naturally, Dave ran in for his camera and we got some really good snaps, and an impromptu walk up tunnel mountain. Here is a selection of the snaps we got:
The wolf:
Dave tracking some wolf tracks:
Thursday, 7 April 2011
This week just gets longer and longer.
Today at work I sold $600 of lessons over the next 3 days, which means that this week I'll have sold $900 in total.
Obviously, that's really good, because I'll definitely have full days of work and I get commission on the lessons. However, it does mean I'm going in on Sunday, which was gonna be my day off, and then I'll be working Monday and Tuesday on the lifts so I'll have done 13 days straight of work by Wednesday. I'm gonna be tired as hell by then but my next pay cheque is going to be pretty sweet, I think.
For now, onwards and upwards with another 5 days of work!
Obviously, that's really good, because I'll definitely have full days of work and I get commission on the lessons. However, it does mean I'm going in on Sunday, which was gonna be my day off, and then I'll be working Monday and Tuesday on the lifts so I'll have done 13 days straight of work by Wednesday. I'm gonna be tired as hell by then but my next pay cheque is going to be pretty sweet, I think.
For now, onwards and upwards with another 5 days of work!
Sunday, 3 April 2011
Photos
Here are some photos from the blue-bird day we had at Norquay today. The sky was the rich blue typical of Alberta and the sun shone all day.
Here are Tate, Coo and Phil who I went skiing up Big Chair with, Banff sitting in the valley behind them.
This is another view of the Bow valley from the run we took off big chair.
This is the view from the top of Spirit chair, with Rundle Mountain in the distance.
Here are Tate, Coo and Phil who I went skiing up Big Chair with, Banff sitting in the valley behind them.
Lots and lots of work.
After a fairly diminished pay cheque for the last pay-period I've been racking up a lot of hours this week. I've worked one shift on the lifts and one shift in the evening at tube town. I've also been working at ski school and had 10 hours of lessons last week, plus 2 today to start the new week. I was also named pro of the day, because in the last week or so I've sold about 5 more private lessons to students I've had who've really liked me and wanted more lessons with me. So, not only was it cool to be pro of the week but I'll also get commission on all those lessons which will be another nice boost to my pay cheque, plus I got a $20 tip off one my students' parents both yesterday and today.
Working with the lifties has, however, meant that I've basically got no days off this week, as ski school is still busy at the moment because it's spring break, and I'm also going in a lot to take the requests I've had! So, my next day off is next Sunday (1 week from today) and today was already my fourth day in a row. So, a 10 day week for me this week!
I've been teaching some pretty funny kids and having a lot of fun over the last few days. I had two sisters, Alexis and Victoria, who were big Harry Potter fans and so I made up a couple of Potter-based games that helped them work on balancing over the down hill ski and they / we had a lot of fun with it. I also had two 3 and 3/4 year olds, Sophia and Colburn, who were also fun to teach. Sophia had some trouble turning left and at one point she ended up in the deep snow at the right hand edge. As I picked her up, turned her round and started sliding across to get her going she started laughing and clapping her hands. She obviously had more fun skiing with others than trying by herself. Still, by the end of the lesson she was turning both ways which was very cool. Colburn was pretty good throughout the lesson, apart from at one point sliding down into the top of the terrain park, which meant we had to go through it, obviously avoiding the jumps. As we were about to get going Colburn said, "Can you help me now?!", after I'd helped Sophia down to where he'd stopped, skiing backwards in front of her holding her hands. Sophia then piped up and said, "no help me!" At this point Colburn grabbed hold of my hand, "no help me!". Sophia countered by shuffling closer and grabbing hold of my leg, "help meeeeee!" I took me a minute or two to get untangled and convince them that they could both ski by themselves.
I also went out skiing with Gord yesterday and we worked on some stuff to help me get ready for my level 2 retest, and after that he told me this morning that I had been skiing at the level 2 standard which was naturally very good to hear.
Tomorrow I'm back on the lifts then I've got another 5 days in ski school.
Ahhhhhh, here goes.
Working with the lifties has, however, meant that I've basically got no days off this week, as ski school is still busy at the moment because it's spring break, and I'm also going in a lot to take the requests I've had! So, my next day off is next Sunday (1 week from today) and today was already my fourth day in a row. So, a 10 day week for me this week!
I've been teaching some pretty funny kids and having a lot of fun over the last few days. I had two sisters, Alexis and Victoria, who were big Harry Potter fans and so I made up a couple of Potter-based games that helped them work on balancing over the down hill ski and they / we had a lot of fun with it. I also had two 3 and 3/4 year olds, Sophia and Colburn, who were also fun to teach. Sophia had some trouble turning left and at one point she ended up in the deep snow at the right hand edge. As I picked her up, turned her round and started sliding across to get her going she started laughing and clapping her hands. She obviously had more fun skiing with others than trying by herself. Still, by the end of the lesson she was turning both ways which was very cool. Colburn was pretty good throughout the lesson, apart from at one point sliding down into the top of the terrain park, which meant we had to go through it, obviously avoiding the jumps. As we were about to get going Colburn said, "Can you help me now?!", after I'd helped Sophia down to where he'd stopped, skiing backwards in front of her holding her hands. Sophia then piped up and said, "no help me!" At this point Colburn grabbed hold of my hand, "no help me!". Sophia countered by shuffling closer and grabbing hold of my leg, "help meeeeee!" I took me a minute or two to get untangled and convince them that they could both ski by themselves.
I also went out skiing with Gord yesterday and we worked on some stuff to help me get ready for my level 2 retest, and after that he told me this morning that I had been skiing at the level 2 standard which was naturally very good to hear.
Tomorrow I'm back on the lifts then I've got another 5 days in ski school.
Ahhhhhh, here goes.
Sunday, 27 March 2011
Have you been avoiding me?
Yup.
Sorry, Blog, for my prolonged absence. I decided to wait to update until after my level 2 course had finished, and unfortunately I didn't pass and subsequently didn't really feel like posting about it.
That being said, I did pass half of it. The course is in two parts, a teaching / assessing part and a skiing part. I passed the teaching / assessing part but no the skiing, which was really quite the bummer.
That being said, half is half and better than nothing, and I can keep that pass forever and ever, so that if I do a retest I only have to be assessed on the skiing half and not the teaching again. Hopefully I'll get the chance to do this in April. With that in mind, I've been out practicing a lot lately to try and be ready for it. I went out for a session with Fred, one of the level 3s at Norquay, and my friend Phil, who is training for his level 3, although he probably won't take it this season. Fred explained a couple of things to me that I'd been pretty confused about and we had a really good session so I feel a lot better about things after that. He also said that he thinks my fail for the skiing part must have been pretty boarderline, as he said that, judging by my skiing today, I was pretty much at standard.
In other news, I'm going to be working a couple of days a week as a liftie, probably for the rest of the season, which is good because ski school is slowing down and so this will keep my pay cheque pretty sweet and help me get through the rest of my time here.
Sorry, Blog, for my prolonged absence. I decided to wait to update until after my level 2 course had finished, and unfortunately I didn't pass and subsequently didn't really feel like posting about it.
That being said, I did pass half of it. The course is in two parts, a teaching / assessing part and a skiing part. I passed the teaching / assessing part but no the skiing, which was really quite the bummer.
That being said, half is half and better than nothing, and I can keep that pass forever and ever, so that if I do a retest I only have to be assessed on the skiing half and not the teaching again. Hopefully I'll get the chance to do this in April. With that in mind, I've been out practicing a lot lately to try and be ready for it. I went out for a session with Fred, one of the level 3s at Norquay, and my friend Phil, who is training for his level 3, although he probably won't take it this season. Fred explained a couple of things to me that I'd been pretty confused about and we had a really good session so I feel a lot better about things after that. He also said that he thinks my fail for the skiing part must have been pretty boarderline, as he said that, judging by my skiing today, I was pretty much at standard.
In other news, I'm going to be working a couple of days a week as a liftie, probably for the rest of the season, which is good because ski school is slowing down and so this will keep my pay cheque pretty sweet and help me get through the rest of my time here.
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