Fun in the sun

Saturday was both national stretchy day and national one-piece day. This meant lots of wacky outfits out on the hill. Not only that, but it was also quite a warm day (and by warm I mean around 10-15 degrees) so a big group of staff got together in various forms of attire and had a relaxing sunbathe at the summit hut, which brought back nice memories of Australia Day. The most memorable moment was when MJ showed up wearing a maternity bathing suit... and not much else but his skis. Talk about one-pieces.

I did a bit of one-piece skiing myself, before I dressed up in a different kind of one-piece - an Easter Bunny costume. I worked as the bunny for a couple of hours on Saturday night for a kids event where they had inflatable playgrounds (which some not-so-young kids momentarily hijacked) and performers. It was quite a scary experience having so many kids have so many different reactions to you while in costume.

It wasn't as scary as the next day, however. I didn't need to put the costume back on, but I was 'hiding' Easter eggs for a big Easter egg hunt in the village. It wasn't exactly hiding because the kids would hound you the moment they saw that you were carrying around a bag full of Easter eggs. Those kids are good. After a while they would yell out, as if part of an angry mob, "follow that man!" Needless to say, I was relieved when the eggs ran out.

On Sunday afternoon, there was a big air competition out on the hill. I completely missed the competition due to poor anticipation (I left home too late), but I did manage to catch a massive snowball fight that happened at the end of the competition. It was great because it was still nice and warm and a large portion of staff had drawn battle lines and were throwing snowballs at each other. I eventually joined in, and didn't get wet until afterwards, when a few of us decided it was a good idea to toboggan down the bottom of Showoff (the ski run directly next to the Mile One Quad) using only a canvas banner. By the end of it, the four of us were unavoidably covered in wet snow. It was lots of fun.

Perhaps one of the finest periods of the week was Monday night - the final jam night of the season. I finally got up and sang for the first time in a long time, but the best bit was when a group of people from the housekeeping department (myself included) got up on stage and sang Stand By Me. It was very moving... but also mostly very amusing because we were all quite drunk. The other songs I sang To Her Door (Paul Kelly), Black (Pearl Jam), and Good Riddance (Green Day), and did an encore request for Ian (singing Last Kiss) before everybody got up on stage again at the very end and did a spectacular rendition of American Pie for the final song of jam night '06/07. I'm pretty sure a few of us woke up the building when we got home after singing American Pie again really loudly.

Quest for the cup

The Stanley Cup Playoffs started today. It was great to see hockey playoff action live on TV, something that I don't think I'll ever see again when I return to Australia (at least for as long as I stay in Australia). I was feeling a bit sick so I didn't stay up longer than about 10, right after the San Jose Sharks won a thriller double overtime game against the Predators. I figured the game that my team, the Vancouver Canucks, were playing (against Dallas) wouldn't really be as exciting, so I went to sleep. When I woke up in the middle of the night, at about 1:30, the game was still going, locked up at 4-4 on quadruple overtime. It was crazy, and I was glad that I managed to catch the end of it. The Canucks managed to get a goal late in the fourth overtime period to win the opening match in the series. At that moment, I knew I was definitely gonna miss the hockey on the TV.

I've got photos and videos of events described above, but I've been far too busy or tired to post any up. I'll probably have them up by the end of the week, as tomorrow (a.k.a. today) is my last day of work... which I suppose I should go back to sleep for. I hope I'm feeling better in the morning, because I sure need that money for my travels.