First day of work, and although one of my roommates doesn’t start till 10, she decides to come down with me and another girl starting at 9:30. It’s a bit of a rush at the start though, because I underestimate how long it takes to get down the Wizard hill and we get there at 9am sharp, so get straight on the chair upwards.
Turns out we were supposed to wait for the supervisors, and they ended up being late because they didn’t know where we were (in our defence, nobody said we had to wait for them, and at 9 there was nobody there, so we made a judgement call).
When we get there, we head to the changing rooms and grab chef blacks. One of the benefits of working at Rendezvous is that I don’t have to worry about cleaning my uniform. Each shift we grab a new set from the staff room, and afterwards, dump it in the laundry. The only part we have to keep are the hat and name badge.
When the supervisors arrive, they separate us into our stations. The restaurant isn’t fully open yet, so it’s the fries, hot grill and the Mexican stand. Maddy and myself are on Mexican with the prep cook Nick, who gives us the quick rundown of what’s required.
The Mexican stand offers burritos, tacos and salads, as well as kids combos (smaller salads or one taco to go with 2 snacks and a drink), with beef, pork, fish and tofu meat options. They’re also very big – the burritos could easily be shared by two people – so learning how to wrap them is easily the biggest challenge of the day.
Thankfully we learn on a relatively quiet shift. Wednesday is their busiest outside of the weekend because the tour buses come up Blackcomb that day, so we only had to deal with regular traffic. Next week the schools let out and it’ll get busier, so need to enjoy it while it lasts. Only had a few rushes with maybe 2 people waiting to be served – Maddy and myself managed to keep up for most of it, especially with Nick keeping an eye on any prep and cooking the fish and tofu. Poor guy was getting the run around since he also had to do the baking prep while training us up.
Since it’s quiet, the Mexican stand closes an hour early, and we start cleaning at 3:30 unlike the grill which keeps going, and we’re all packed and ready to go at 4:30. Means we lose an hour of wage, but after a day on our feet we’re not complaining, especially since today is also the afternoon Whistler Blackcomb is having its first Staff party of the season. It’s held at Base 2, and has a free barbeque and live music.
I decide to head home and get changed before heading to the party. By the time I get back, all the buns have gone from the buffet line, so I go for chicken instead of burgers. Probably better than grabbing empty carbs, but feel a little disappointed when buns reappear. Keep meaning to grab a burger and things keep foiling me.
I spend the afternoon nibbling on the dessert table and talking to other workers while listening to the band (who really aren’t bad). Get speaking with a girl who works in the clearance store, and a few WHC members, and eventually get drawn over to one of the games set up. It involves hammers and nails…
From what we can tell, the game involves spinning a hammer, catching it, and then trying to hammer a nail down. You can only hit the nail if you manage to catch the hammer. Needless to say, this is a dangerous game – especially since most of us are wearing thongs or sandals. Two of the girls were still really good at it though (nearly took out my feet on more than one occasion, as well as the girl next to me), which led us to having the two of them go head to head. Got through more than one set of nails while we went through multiple rounds.
All things considered, it wasn’t a bad event. My biggest dismay was the time – most people I knew were working and were in no mood to show up for the last hour after a full day of work (3-7 seems a weird time to – anyone starting early will only get out in the last few hours, and anyone starting at 1 misses it entirely). Meant that I didn’t really get to socialise with people I wanted to, but least I met some new folks I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise.
