Exhausting Easter (or, lots of work...)

Under Alberta Employment Law, employees are treated to at least 1.5 times normal wage on public holidays such as Good Friday. Sunshine goes one step further and gives us an hour off (or, an hour's pay in lieu) for every hour we work on one of these holidays. Normally, Friday and Saturday are my days off but I worked on Friday to make up for the day off I had to go to Kicking Horse. I was down at the Bougeau base and having a nice last-day-of-the-week, but received a phone call half-way through my cashout asking me if I'd be able to work at Chimney Corner- the porter had hurt his ankle. The hotel was at 100%, I would be the only one on, and I'd planned to go into town. The only thing that persuaded me to go was the supervisor's voice (which was particularly pleading) and the thought that I could have an extra 6 hours or so at holiday pay. So I agreed and got off a little early so I could still eat before heading to the restaurant.

The shift turned out a heck of a lot easier than I thought it would- since there were lots of people arriving from various time zones after various journey lengths, the restaurant had a steady flow of people right up until the time the kitchen closed, as opposed to the mad rushes typical of the other weekend days. This made my job a fair bit more relaxed, since I wasn't faced with a hotplate full of orders which had been ordered and prepared simultaneously. However, I never found the time to do any cleaning or clearing until the kitchen closed so it was all left late, and subsequently I left the building at about 12:30. But that didn't matter considering the main reason I wanted to work was for the rare hours at extra pay!

So, after a very nice lie-in on Saturday morning, I headed into town to take care of some business and stock up on the things I was meant to buy the previous night. The resort was at its highest attendance since Christmas so there was no chance I was going to ski! Plus, there hadn't been any fresh snow for a while. Still, as you can see, there's still a huge contrast between Sunshine Village (7082') and Banff town (4799')...



Sunshine...

...Banff



First stop was the SameSun Hostel to see if my bike still existed. Not surprisingly, after 3 months being locked up in a fairly busy hostel, it didn't... I left them my number (for the second time!) to call me to see if anyone remembered cutting the lock and moving it because it was in the way, but I've not had that call just yet... Tried to find a computer shop which might be able to un-break my laptop (but, apparently, there's nothing this side of Canmore), then the normal stuff such as topping up my phone and getting more groceries and catching the bus back to Sunshine.

I worked at Chimney Corner again, but a combination of factors (tiredness, business, demanding customers and a change in the kitchen) meant that I was obviously not enjoying myself so a 'word' from the Supervisor was required. I explained that I was feeling overworked and not finding as much time to enjoy myself as I have done. I was offered next weekend off which I was very grateful for, but was still required to work this Sunday and Thursday evenings. But hey, everyone has bad days, and I apologised to the servers who'd been on the receiving end of my shortness...

On Sunday, the shift went much better, with the manager helping to dispatch the food and customers who were, on the whole, generally more sensible with their requests. I left feeling a fair bit better and looking forward to the 3 evenings off which were coming up...