Australia makes it into the round of 16!

If you don't know what I'm on about well then... ummm... I dunno.

Anyway, this momentous occasion in Australian sporting history coincides with a bit of good news for me personally. After a shaky start to the month, which I'd rather not get into, I have some good news to keep me happy. The first bit of good news is the fact that I have successfully applied for my working holiday visa for Canada (see previous entry for more about why I applied), meaning the trip to Canada is almost certainly on. The second bit of good news is that I'm getting a decent amount of hours per week at work (averaging at around 15-20 hours), which means I'm starting to earn money for the trip.

Location, Location, Location

In terms of the IEP program, I decided at the last minute that I'd try for a position at Whistler/Blackcomb (well, a hotel at Whistler/Blackcomb... which will do me just fine) seeing as it's a monster of a ski resort that will no doubt keep me busy for the entire season. My second and third preferences were the aforementioned Panorama and Lake Louise, respectively.

Money, Money, Money

I asked mum if she could 'fund' my trip to Canada. That is, I'd use the credit card, etc. on the condition that I pay her back upon returning and getting a full-time job. Both of us were more than happy with this agreement, figuring that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a once-in-a-lifetime experience, so I should make the most of it. I'm really hoping that working during my trip will limit the damage while keeping things fun.

For the meanwhile, work hours have been going well, as I mentioned, and I've saved around $1000 for my return flights to Canada, which will probably end up costing around $2000, give or take. Hopefully the rest will be covered in the next couple of months of work. There's also the possibility that my mum can use a combination of FlyBuys points and United Mileage Plus points to manage a 'free' trip for me, so to speak. I kind of doubt the convenience of this though.

Apart from those details, I've decided to put myself on a self-imposed ban on making any further plans for Canada so as to not get my hopes up too much. It is looking rather good at the moment though.

Let it snow... well, you get the point

Back to matters closer to home and in the near(er) future, my trip to Thredbo is now only about 3 weeks away. I've been watching some snowboard trick tips videos and I plan to improve my skills when I go. Ideally, I'll pull off some sweet moves on tape and get sponsored... although realistically, I'm just hoping I don't get hurt or look like an absolute tool. In any case (except the one where I get hurt), it should be a great week at the snow. The cover has been good at the Snowy Mountains ever since opening weekend (possibly attributed to the multi-million dollar upgrade to the snowmaking system), so let's pray it stays that way until at least after the trip.


And finally, to get back to my first statement, best of luck to the Socceroos in the round of 16 against Italy. I hope the boys make it far, though I don't think anybody will be disappointed with how far they've already made it. Who's the man? Guus the man.

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.