Dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge.

Another glorious week has passed and as i sit here typing i am starting my first of 3 days off. It has been a pretty eventful week. Work has been cool as ever except that i discovered that the reason we have had our hours slashed this week was because this is usually the quietest week of the season. No need for extra staff, so it kind of worked out as a money cutback thing but also spun as a "Big thank you for all your work" type thing here's an extra day off, go have fun. Well, it seems that the global recession may be truly on the way out because instead of being a nice quiet week in the shop we have in fact tripled our predicted takings! It has been hella busy. In fact the last two days i have worked not only have we taken huge amounts of money and tripled the projected takings but also beaten the season record for takings. And all without any staff! Nice one NZSki! I have been running around like a blue arsed fly for the last few days. It has been relentless, and all whilst my boss was enjoying his days off. We have had till crashes, irate customers and queues running out of the shop but it has meant the days have flown past and our stock has been depleted to record lows. I would still take a stressful day in the shop over a stressful day at Queen Charlottes hospital any day though. At least no one died!

No one can tell me why it has been so busy but it seems a combination of bad weather and the Australians all staying on past the end of school holidays looks like a probable cause. When i say bad weather i mean lots of snow which is actually pretty good for a ski resort. We have had around 17cms of snow in the last 3 days alone. Wet and sleety in places though hence we have sold shit loads of goggles and face protection (bandanas and neoprene masks as oppose to crash helmets) .As i am typing this it is absolutely cats and dogs outside and as i have said before, rain in town usually equals snow up on the hill. We had planned another day riding with JC (Jesus Christ), Laura and Kieran but when i just mentioned it to Kate she seemed less than enthused. It is cloudy out but the mountain looks relatively clear on the webcam. (www.nzski.co.nz if anyone wants to see where i work. Coronet peak remember).

Last night saw the start of our company dodgeball tournament. Yes, you read that right. The shop have joined forces with the custodians (cleaners and information) and i am now an official dodgeballer! We had our first team meeting on Tuesday night to sort out our costumes as every team has to have a theme. We are called 'Bin Ladens Ball Bags' as our costumes are fashioned from bin liners. I guess half of the team being custodians, we had to have trash factored in somehow. My costume is a fetching bin toga, finished off with a green plastic bag belt, complemented with a full Windsor knotted white bin bag tie and a green bin bag bandana. Very fetch! The rest of the guys have similar plastic creations. I think Richards is best though with his bin bag Borat style man-kini! Billy is getting swoons too as his is just a bin bag kilt and no top. His six pack glistening as he throws dodgeballs at small girls on the opposing team. Women love that shit eh?

So we all met at the Q town events centre last night. Our team consists of 10 players, 6 dudes and 4 dudettes. We struggled to get enough dudettes so poached Kate from F&B (food and beverage) and Ashleyne from rentals. The other two are T and Lindsay who work with me in the shop and the other guys are my old mate Billy and the custodians Richard, Rob and Dickon (yes that is is real name and yes his parents must be evil!). We got our numbers wrong and tried to drag Blake (T's fella from ski patrol) to play but he was not having it. Well, not this week. I think he's gonna play next week though. The other teams filtered in and i was in fits as i saw their costumes. We had teams of ninjas, transexual lumberjacks (complete with cut off jeans, shirts tied at the waist and wigs), 80's Aerobics, cross dressing English tea party (summer dresses and tweed jackets), mimes, Buzz Lightyears, Super heroes, Hip hop dancers and Victoria secrets models (even the dudes wore lingerie!). Our management team didn't bother and turned up in shorts and t shirts and were promptly booed!

Our first game was against the team of ninjas (complete with cardboard swords and nunchuks!). We hadn't really talked tactics and it showed when the ninjas thoroughly trounced us 2-0. We walked back to the bleachers with our bin bag heads held low. I then got the team together and we had a tactical meeting. We decided that we would leave most of the attacking to the boys as the girls threw like, well..........girls and the other team kept catching their balls which not only knocked out our player but reinstated one of their own team. So we decided the girls should dodge and pick up the stray balls and hand them to either me, Billy, Rob or Dickon (as Richard also throw like a girl). We also wanted a more even rotation of players reinstated. When the girls got knocked out they formed an orderly queue and went back into the game in the order they were knocked out in. It meant us guys had to wait at the end of the line. This meant that at the end of the game we were left with one guy and 3 girls who all threw it like pansies and reinstated more of the other team. So we decided to go boy/girl/boy/girl when we got reinstated to even it out.

Happy with our tactics we went into our next game against Victorias secret with more confidence. It helped too as we won 2-1 and one of the games we didn't have a single player from our team eliminated! I did feel bad at hurling balls at women in lingerie with angel wings and tiaras but the predator instincts in me took over and i really got into it. I need to work on my accuracy a bit though. Especially since one ball i hurled hit the back wall and rebounded into the crowd of spectators, injuring a small child. But who the hell brings kids to a dodgeball tournament anyway? Some parents, eh?

The tournament has 14 teams and we play on a Wednesday night. It is a league so i will no doubt have more thrilling dodgeball related tales to tell. "Touche!" (As Ben Stiller might say in the movie)

Hey, remember i have been going on about how Christmassy the town is at the moment? Well, it may have something to do with there being an unofficial Christmas Day on the 25th July here. I have started to see lots of signs in bars beckoning people to come in for Xmas drinks or Boxing day (26th July) meals. All seems fun. We have been invited to drinks at a Xmas eve party tomorrow night. Kate and Laura said they might go dressed as Christmas trees. I mean, who wouldn't?

I am still managing to play a few games of poker a week too. This week saw the start of the NPPL (National pub poker league) take over one of the venues we usually play in. It was way better organised and i had a great time finishing 2nd. Winning a $30 bar tab, a hat, a medal and an entry to a $1200 cash game in 5 weeks! Well, to be fair everyone who made the final table got entered. It meant Kate, Laura and Kieran made it but JC didn't. Plenty of us to rub it in though, ha ha. It also meant i got entered onto the NPPL website where i receive ranking points. I am currently ranked number 2 for the venue we played in. Not that impressive when you consider it was the first time we played there. We have both been such consistent players these last few months and it's a shame we haven't been to any NPPL nights. Who knows where we'd be ranked.

Anyway guys, i'm off to have a bit of brekkie then hit the slopes. Sweet as (as we say over here).

Peace (as i say all the time)

D

XXXX