Snow caves and Bullocks Flat goes white!

Holidays, traffic infringements and torn muscles.

Well, I’ve come back from a 3 day weekend back to Gerringong, which was a lot of fun, caught up with a lot of people, met a few new people, a good night out. Sunday was Mum’s work farewell party, after 10 years of dedicated service with Australia Post. Sunday night, caught up with Luke, had a few beers, then after a good night of sleep headed back down to Jindabyne. Outside Cooma, got RBT’d, no worries, but got hit with a $185 fine for a single missing P plate, and a demerit point as well!
And today, to make matters worse, I tore/overstretched my rotator cuff in my right shoulder, so there goes my skiing for the next week at least!
But! I got Employee of the Month this month, which is awesome, so hopefully if I behave and stop knocking myself around, I might pull it off two months running!
More pics etc to come soon, once I can be arsed to haul my camera out of my bag and upload them.
Regards
Pip

Blue Cow Opening

Perisher Blue’s opened Blue Cow today, confident that it would stand up to the test, so heres some photos from it:

Back to work

Well, today’s my first day back to work, and what a day!
The resort is coming alive (even though theres almost less snow than Opening Weekend!), so it was good to stretch a few muscles and haul a few SmarteCartes (The bane of the Skitube). A big shout goes out to all those at Perisher Blue, in IT, and in the ‘tube offices, who’ve been reading (Seems that IT do a Google search for anything Perisher Blue related, and this blog got a ping, so at least I’m getting readers!). The resort, even though the snow is… lackluster…, is looking fabulous, with the icy cold days giving some amazing views, with almost unlimited visual range to the horizon.
A little snow was falling this morning, to around lunchtime, with more predicted through the evening, but I’ll bet that if anything, it’ll only be a dusting.
Dom’s moved out, so I have a room to myself, even if its only for a little while. Still! enough time to snake myself the good wardrobe, and sort out all my junk. His old bed is doubling as my computer table at the moment!
More to come, as well as a couple more photos of random junk around town that I considered photo-worthy!
Regards & goodnight.
Pip

Pictures

Finally! Pictures!

Without further ado, as promised:

New Techno Alpin T60 Snow Gun

Front Valley being groomed, around 6:20 this morning

Sunrise over Mount Perisher

Village Eight Detachable High-Speed Chairlift

Me, standing on the platform at Perisher.

Frost on safety lines near the Skitube terminal at Front Valley.

Front Valley (Product may not appear as advertised!)

Perisher Valley in the morning sun, snowgun outside the Kids Club going strong

Death by boredom

Well, its now two weeks and three days (and about 12 hours) since i arrived in Jindabyne!
Most things have settled down, and i’m beginning to organise my life. House, check, Housemates, check, food, check, alcohol, check, post office box, phone credit, clothes, internet, check, check, check, check.
So, it seems that I’m all set. So, why is this so flippin boring!
Well, its not, but work is very repetitive, so each little thing that i see that needs doing is to be savoured, and spread out through the day, like little treats, breaks of work in the nothingness that is Skitube Concourse in the off-season, with so little snow on the ground.
I’ve been playing with my camera as promised, so theres a number of new pics, but i’m having trouble with my net connection, even tiny pictures are failing to upload correctly, so i’ll investigate this, and hopefully add them soon, otherwise i may need to make the trek to town and put them on via CD in a net cafe
Anyway, I’ll be out tomorrow night, but thursday is chores day, including updating my iphoto library, and trying to get these onto my blog.
Until then,
Pip

First Tracks

Well, its a few days on now, and work is in full swing!
I’ve been working since friday, and today was my first day off. Work is good, even if its a little dull at the moment because of the number of people staying at home instead of coming down to look at the little strip of snow down the side of front valley. Work generally involves looking busy for 20-25 minutes, then 5 minutes of activity as each train arrives, and repeat…
We all made the trip up the mountain this morning, got my ski’s checked to say they’re safe to ride (which all staff have to do), then went for a ski, tried to help teach Alicia to snowboard, and she’s actually getting better now! i had a few little crashes, one involving a rather large patch of grass ( i tried to take a shortcut), and another involving a Milo Kid. Ask me no questions, and I’ll tell you no lies.
Anyway, we’re all settling into our little routines, waking up on time (except for Shannon!, but she’s gone home for her mums birthday). Once we sort out people eating our food, we should be sweet, but theres about as much chance of that happening soon as there is of three meters of snow falling in the next week…
Anyway, a few more photos that I took today;

The Skitube Platform at Front Valley, looking back towards Bullocks Flat

The view from our apartment

Alicia looking fully pro on her first day boarding!

I’ll be taking my camera around a little more soon, so there’ll be more to come.
Regards
Pip

Work and Play

Well, tuesday was a good day at work, finished my certification for the railway, got to walk through the tunnels a bit, which was great. We started at bullocks and caught the train to front valley, then a little way into the tunnel between front and blue cow, to the Attic, where they used to take out the blastings and bring the buses in to take workers up to blue cow, where we learnt about the lighting systems and the communications throughout the building as well as the electrical systems, before walking back down the tunnel to the sump, where water is gathered throughout the tunnel, before being pumped further down the tunnel. After we reached front valley, we got our uniforms issued, then caught the train back down the bullocks where we had the test for the days activities, which was fairly easy. After this, we were let go, and i headed home, and ended up having lunch and sitting around for the rest of the afternoon.
Today, slept in until about 10 (god that was good), and after a quick lunch at the bakery with Josh and Mika, we went clothes hunting, Josh ended up staying in ESS boards after falling in love with a board he saw there. I scored myself an Anon tshirt, and went down to Natural high and got myself another pair of ski pants to wear to work, which are really nice, even if they were fairly expensive.
Now I’m back at home, deciding what to do :s
Ciao for now
Pip

Work Begins!

Well, Started work today, 8:30 start, not too bad. Its been fairly warm down here overnight, so the fog this morning around the lake was to epic proportions by time i left at 8:00, but as soon as i turned off to the road leading out to the tube, it was clear, and looking back, Jindabyne was swathed in mist, very cool indeed! Began work at the main terminal in bullocks flat, and met both Greg Isele, the skitube manager, and Crusty, my manager, who’s a top bloke. Only one other concourse staffie there so far, a returning staff member, Danielle.
So, our day was fairly easy, a little shovelling, clearing out the smartecarte racks, and water-blasting them clean from sitting in the terminal all summer. Then after putting all the carts away, we cleaned up one of the locker rooms at the terminal, then caught the train up to Perisher, and wandered about up there, stuffed around getting into the staffroom because nobody knew the code (XD). A little guesswork later, we went and got some lunch, and then went back down to bullocks flat, where we were told to go home! Half a day of work indeed, but it was good to refresh my memory as to where everything was, which was good.
So, this arvo, fixed a few things around the apartment, went into town, looking for a PO box, and went and had a whine to the ladies at the real estate agents, because the key they cut for Alicia for the apartment was the wrong blank *sigh*. Tonight the whole crew sat around and watched a few movies, cooked some dinner (McKains crunchy chips + chicken) and had a few beers.
Anyway, an earlier start tomorrow, 8:00, so i’m going to sign off for the night.
regards
Pip

I’m Here!

Hey hey!
Well, I’ve arrived, stayed last night in Braidwood at Tims place, then drove the last two hundred or so k’s here, arrived about 11:30 this morning. Went straight to the realestate agents, and got keys etc, and went in search of Kirwan 43, which was interesting, but the directions were good, and all was well. Sharing with 8 others, all of which are very nice, a few coasties, one sydneysider, a tasmanian and a british couple. There’s five guys and 3 girls, so no-one feels *too* outnumbered. We’ve all brought literal tons of food, so we’re not going to starve by a long shot, and everyone seems to be well dressed for the climate (bar Dominic who’s already gone for a swim in the pool XD). The Brits are nice, and its hard to not start mimicking their accent, not out of mockery, just because its cool! Theres no snow yet (obviously!) but there is a little left over on the highest peaks, which is exciting to see as you come over the mountains leading into the valley. The lake looks spectacular as usual, deep blue and shining in the sun, managed to snap a few photos of it while i was driving, none too safe, but it did the job! .

Went to lunch at Nuggets Crossing, then dinner at a pizza joint in the old shopping center which i’ve forgotten the name of (not Bits n Pizza’s or whatever its called, the other one, up the stairs), which was very nice. Set up internet, as you can see, so I’ve got 40 hours of 25kkbs down/56kbs up, unlimited downloads, for 50 bucks courtesy of Airlan to use. Anyway we’re all sitting around watching telly now, so i’ll sign off for the night, and save my internet!.
tomorrow is big exploration day, going for a drive to the Skitube, to see about times and the likes, to make sure i leave early enough, and i’ll do a little more unpacking i think. Might need to do a milk run fairly early, otherwise it’ll be very crunchy nut cereal for me in the morning!
“Eagles can soar, but weasels dont get sucked into jet engines”
Ciao!
Pip