Becoming a rent(als) boy

Hey guys, exciting news. I'm adding to my huge winter repertoire by working in rentals, finally! As the season is winding down now my boss Toshi has decided to cut some of our hours in the shop. A move that back fired last time he did it when we had the busiest week this season. But to be fair there are certainly less people on the hill and our takings in the shop are coming down a bit. It's understandable, most people will have their gloves and goggles by now so the shop doesn't need so many of us around. I was quite annoyed at first because less hours obviously means less money. Yes it also means more time to ski but the spring conditions at the moment aren't exactly enticing me out onto the mountain. Plus my dodgy back and twisted knee have kept me off the snow for around a week already. So, i took some initiative and went and spoke to the head of rentals. Jim and Kate (not my Kate but rentals Kate - also known as hot Kate) were the guys who interviewed me ages ago when i first went for my job interviews on the career day. I have met them loads over the season so asked if they had any extra hours going over there. Hot Kate seemed really keen to get me over there as rentals is losing lots of staff over the next few weeks. Jim was a bit of a harder nut to crack but he also saw it as a good thing too. I used the whole "wanting more experience" aspect which is true, rentals was my first choice when i applied for the job, but in truth i could also do with a little extra coin. I went over for an introduction to rentals the other day and set up some skis and a snowboard for Jim to show him i wasn't a complete dunce. He seemed quietly impressed that i knew a little bit about dins and forward pressures in the skis and that i knew how to set up a snowboard considering i haven't really ever snowboarded. I have another proper trial tomorrow morning which I'm looking forward to.

I even got invited out for a drink with the rentals crowd the other night. I know a few of them but it's amazing how a few beers can really relax people and before i knew it i felt like i had known them for ages. Toshi and Hot Kate had already told them i was a midwife so i had to go through all my midwife stories and enlighten a few of the guys who all thought that all i did was stare at moo's all day. No, i told them i stare at boobs too! I ended up getting very very drunk and getting into trouble with Kate (my Kate not Hot Kate - although my Kate is pretty hot too). Oh well.

I had an awesome jam session with JC the other day. We met at his house and before i knew it we were banging out some awesome blues together. JC is a pretty wicked slide guitar player and is really bluesy. He made me sing in front of him too as i was being all embarrassed at first. I sung my 'go to' song which is Comfortable by John Mayer. Even though i had a cold and a sore throat i nailed it and JC seemed genuinely impressed. He wants me to play it at open mic night but i feel it isn't crowd pleasing enough. We also worked on "It's business time!" by The Flight of the Conchords. JC plays the bass part and i play the main riff. We couldn't quite figure out how to sing it at the same time though. Usually the guy playing bass (Jemaine Clement) sings the verses but JC didn't know all the words. I was trying to sing it but found it hard to play the main riff as well. More practice is definitely needed before we break it out for open mic.

It was awesome playing with another guitarist. Especially one who is better than me and who has an understanding of music. Laura (JC's GF) has a music degree and pretty much taught a lot of stuff to JC. So he was like "play that same riff in G" and i was like "Huh?" It took him a little time to figure out that although i play guitar, i don't understand much about music. I of course just read tab so had to keep asking what fret he meant but we figured it out. We then spent a fair old chunk of the afternoon playing rockband on the Nintendo Wii and wailing along to songs. JC is so funny. He hates people being left out so kept trying to encourage Kate to either sing or play drums. Kate being super stubborn flat refused to sing but got onto the drums a few times.

We then went into town to play pool, have a few beers and watch a movie. We got to the cinema to find that the movie we wanted to see had just sold out. So, we headed back to the bar for more pool until the next showing was on. Saw District 9. Hmmm, not exactly an epic blockbuster but an interesting story all the same and some pretty good SFX. Worth a watch if you have nothing better to do, like cut your toenails or something.

The big news this week really is the arrival of Derby Danny and Catherine, our friends who live up in Whangarei. They put us up for a while when we went to visit them earlier in the year and know it's our turn. It's Dannys Birthday too so i imagine we will go for a few shandys over the weekend. They also ski and board so we are heading up CP for a little night skiing and then gonna hit up Remarks for a little session too. I'm psyched as Remarks has been closed most of this week due to high winds so there is nearly 50cm of new untouched snow up there waiting for me to faceplant into! CP has somehow stayed open all week even though we have had high winds too. I think the guy who runs CP is Mr Burns in disguise. We should've been closed loads but he only sees things in dollar signs so when other hills like the Remarks or Cardrona close everyone comes to CP. It means we get paid but it also means we have to deal with lots of pissed off customers who keep moaning that the lifts keep stopping cos the wind is howling. Today for example we got held at the snow centre where you get the bus up the hill for an hour due to wind, then we headed up and it was like a scene from March of the Penguins!! Howling gales and blizzards - no Penguins and certainly no commentary by Morgan Freeman. People still struggled up the hill though as we had 1 lift open. And that was the baby magic carpet on the nursery slope. We opened one lift for 20 minutes which meant we wouldn't need to give out full refunds then they shut the lift and sent most of the staff home! Money grabbing bastards! I would've been pissed to the max if i had paid $93 for that which is the cost of a day ticket. Needless to say i got sent home which i was cool with as i am still recovering from man flu, a twisted knee and my eternal back problems. Really wanting to save myself for when Danny and Catherine get here, especially since the weather is supposed to get better tomorrow and there is a shed load of new snow about. Catherine asked us if we had any spare goggles the other night that they can use when they come down. I laughed as due to that Bolle incentive we have about 6 pairs just laying around at the moment. I even made another claim today! Just for sunnies though as didn't quite have enough points to get more goggles. The incentive finished today so will hopefully get the rest of my stuff over the next few weeks. Dude, i'm gonna look like Bolle threw up on me!

Wow, so i have a free afternoon today. Might watch a DVD or download some porn. Mmmmm, porn. Er, anyway..........................I'll catch up with you guys soon.

Peace

D

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