It's been a crazy week hence the lack of update. My main goal has been to get my accommodation
in the mountains squared away for the coming season. To that end I headed to Banff again for a job fair for the largest ski resort in the area - Sunshine Village. This meant driving in Canada for the first time, and a special thanks to my Canadian chum Chris, he leant me his absolute machine.. An old Hyundai that on starting up assaults you visually with warning signs of fault lights, which if anything really gives you a feeling of being happy to be alive.. because you never know when the vehicle might blow up.
I mean, that married up with the fact I have no idea what the speeds are and driving on the right was pure comedy. But hey, I didn't die!!
Anyways.. I booked a few nights in a hostel. What I didn't realise was the night of my arrival also landed on Halloween. Thus the Slutty pirate costume was coming back out to play!!
On arrival into the room, I was top bunk. A lad looking to be in his early twenties was unpacking on the bunk below mine. I introduced myself with, "you going out tonight? Oh and I'm Ali.." turns out "Lachie" (Aussie bloke and that is his name) was and there were a load of people already pre-drinking. Perfect.. play catch up, get drunk and meet new people. Ended up working surprisingly well. Having met a load of girls and guys alike, most either Aussies, they're everywhere, a German, a Kiwi, and a few Poms. Turned out to be a great night.. possibly a little heavy considering the open day/ interview the following day but that all went swimmingly anyway.
The next day came, having gone to bed after being out til gone 2am and up at 7am. It's at this point that I would like to note I am the old m an in this group. Most of these guys are barely out of Uni or haven't gone. A mixed bag from 18-me..30. So yeah, I was feeling pretty good for myself, considering I out lasted them all and I was up and ready to rock this interview.
As you can imagine, jobs and especially accommodation are extremely difficult to get so having spent a whole day re-writing my CV and cover letter to try top make myself more employable as a rent boy/ ski bum. It was surprisingly painful to look at all the hard work and various engineering accomplishments and then deleting them from my CV. Especially as I had just emailed back Aberdeen to decline the offer they gave me.. so yeah, I'm committed, or at least until the next Decommissioning project comes in.
Below are some images of Banff, the Moose from the Moose Hotel will definitely be sat on at some point, and the queue ahead of me for the job fair. This was twice as long behind me and I turned up early.
The interview went surprisingly well. The first 28 to sign their names up got an interview that day, for only 8 positions. To which, there were 2 in rentals, and a few more in room attendants.. can't wait to get cleaning... then the interviewer on reading my CV mentions she might actually have a job for me. Outdoor maintenance and handy man.. something more in line with my engineering background.. I'm not going to correct her so I will wait and see.
So I now wait for a call or an email... the jobs are meant to start on Monday so this could be last minute.. anyway. post interview a group of us from the hostel and I went for beers. On our travels we met this beast of a truck (below). These things are insane. I mean, the image doesn't do it justice but I'm kinda leaning towards needing one myself. HA! A cheeky F-350 Heavy Duty.. just can't get them in the UK.
Beers led to going out that night and another sore head on waking up meant needing a coffee. At this point I met this cutie. I should also mention that I am honestly loving the fact everyone is super nice. You meet new friends here so easily. Chatting to someone or just having a coffee and then you'll end up going for drinks with them later. This poochkins was being looked after my Jasmine, a Brit who was on her break from the coffee shop, and I ended looking after him for a few minutes. Then everyone starts to stop and asks about the dog. Introducing themselves and all being really lovely and polite. Note to self.. GET A DOG!!! Also as I love dogs but yeah lots of other benefits as well.
After all this, I decided to kill some more time whilst waiting on this notional email, I'm still waiting, so I go for a walk to the nearest water fall come across this incredible massive old hotel, pretty much straight out of the Shining, but looks awesome.
I must admit, I'm loving this place. The feel, the views and the people. All else fails with the job (after it for the accommodation), I think, I'm just going get a room at the hostel and ski all day but this place will be buzzing. I can sense it!
Just stunning!!!
After all, this, still no email and I've come back to Calgary for a few days.
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