The month that was

...and what a month it was.

It appears that I totally neglected this blog last month due to circumstances beyond my control. That is, they were in my control, but I was too lazy to control them. First it was trying to juggle around my career options while being addicted to a video game, then it was being so off the ball that things started getting weird. After it all calmed down, a plan that was put on the backburner a few years ago came back into consideration.

Addiction

For some reason I had gotten back into Guild Wars, an online video game with the gimmick of no monthly fees, and was playing it an insane amount. After returning from Melbourne, I new job opportunity came up that I quickly jumped onto. Unfortunately, this didn't work out and it left me working only weekends at my old work. This made the addiction to Guild Wars a lot worse at it meant I had more time to play it. Fortunately, I lost most of my desire to play the game after I had finished the main storyline.

Just not on the ball at all

I noticed that I was not paying a lot of attention to certain things last month. Notable moments would have been when I ran a red light late at night because I thought it was about to go green (luckily it was a quiet area with no red light cameras), not being able to go out one night because I didn't even have enough money to pay for the bus (hence not being able to reach an ATM), and generally just doing things I wouldn't normally do. Fortunately, I seem to have gained a good deal of my concentration back lately.

Snow

With the job I thought I had in the bag having fell through, I decided to explore other options. Leigh, a friend of mine from Canberra, asked if I would be interested in working in Canada for a season at the snow. Naturally, I was very interested. This had been something I wanted to do about three years ago before uni got in the way. This time, I have nothing to lose (except a great deal of money, but shut up) so I decided to pursue it.

Meanwhile Morgan, another old acquaintance (from last year's ski trip), had started to organize a trip down to Falls Creek to ski/snowboard for a week. I decided I would join this trip as it had been a place I wanted to go to for the past few seasons (but again, uni got in the way). Unfortunately, we ended up booking too late, and had to settle for Thredbo once again. The season hasn't even started yet and I'm already getting excited about it. In the midst of it all, Morgan asked me if I would do vocals for a song by his band, River of Bass, which I think will be a pretty cool experience.

Anyway, back to Canada... I had done a bit of research about the program by IEP that places people with some employers in or near ski fields in Canada. In my eternal nerdiness, I even made a spreadsheet with details about each employer and each ski resort close to the employers. With the quality of resorts over in Canada, this is something I definitely want to go ahead with. I attended a free information session about the program held by IEP a couple of nights ago, and it answered a few of my questions, so that was really helpful for my cause.

My next step would be obtaining a working holiday visa for Canada. Once this is done, I'd likely be fully committing to this little adventure. This is because you can only be issued a working holiday visa once in your life, meaning if I don't use it then I will have wasted my opportunity. Of course, it would be a nice bonus to secure a job before heading over there, which is why I signed up with IEP. The success rate for applicants in last year's program was supposedly 100%, so that figure is a bit comforting. However, me being me, I'm never sure and will be very nervous about it until I actually know if I have a job or not. I've recently decided that Panorama Mountain Resort (working on the ski fields) and Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise (working in hospitality right next to the ski fields) are my two preferences. Either one would do as both are, in my view, excellent choices.

One hitch is that it is gonna cost me a whole lot of money. Airfares would be around about $2500 after taxes, so I'm going to need to save up. Consequently, I have gone back to working weekdays at my current casual position. Lots more stress but it also restores my cash flow. I really hope all things go smoothly but, knowing life, I'm always preparing myself for a few bumps on the way.