Lakeview staff and other things

May 24th - May 26th

Wednesday, and more carpet cleaning to be done, we ended up finishing all but two of the rooms (guests in the last two). Nicky and Chloe decided to do them on Thursday (yay!!) when they clean the couches and chairs in the motel units.

Picture: Nicky & Chloe hard at work, cleaning carpets. One doesn’t appear to be working as hard as the other.

At night Joey had booked us in at El Camino. They have 20 cent chicken wings on Wednesday nights. As you know, or can at least imagine, we are not big eaters. Basically, we probably had between 20-30 wings each, which is nothing to be proud of. Joey did tell us that one of his friends ate 60 at one sitting.

Photo: Nicky & some fat guy, with a sauce stain on his whale tee shirt (“They roam the ocean in freedom, with man their only enemy”). I think he may be staring at an imaginary chicken wing. And who the fuck wears a baseball cap under a sombrero?

No sleep on Wednesday night (may have something to do with chickens), due to this I was up early on Thursday, but was unsure what I was going to do for the day. I decided that I should probably get photos of some of the people that we have worked with on this trip, so I spent most of the day annoying workers and taking photos of them. Apart from the taking photos part, many of you would say that’s all I’ve done at work for years.

One photo was not of a worker, but instead of his house. Jack, one of the grounds men, lives in his car on site. Jack feels that it is a great place to live and reckons that his home is very roomy. Jack originally comes from Tapanui, which may explain things.

Photo: Jack’s house.

The other grounds man here is Jan, from The Czech Republic. Jan was a stone mason back home and also worked as a coffee machine technician. He is great value and a really hard worker.

Photo: Jan pruning trees.

Over the rest of the park there are five workers who are really efficient and extremely entertaining. Sam is the reservations/customer manager, he is from England. Lou, Shani & Melissa are Kiwis, who are very funny. Then there is Chloe, who is from England (Scotland border) she too, is bloody funny. If I remember rightly, she worked in a nuclear plant back home and has travelled all over the world.

Unfortunately, when I think of nuclear plants, I think of the Simpsons and Homer falling asleep at his desk at the plant. Oh dear, for some reason Homer reminds of someone but I can’t for the life of me think of who it is.

Overall, the staff do a brilliant job, and have made us feel very welcome. So, a big thanks to them. Especially, since we are soo much older than all of them.

Photo: Sam

Photo: Shani

Photo: Melissa

Photo: Lou

Oops sorry, Lou was sick this week. This is Kwan (Jiratchayaporn Kwanguut - spelling will be wrong). Kwan worked at the Rosebank Lodge with us. She is now the Sous Chef there (about time too). Kwan could actually have a whole page dedicated to her; she is crazy, a really hard worker & loves drinking. In the three years that she worked with us; not once did she ring in sick with a hangover, and like a lot of the staff used to do some huge hours. She also had a habit of claiming that she did not understand English if she didn’t want to talk to you.

Friday, and Nicky is off to Clyde, to help out at the Clyde Dairy for the night. I think she is really looking forward to it, maybe it’s just the thought of not having to put up with someone, it must be Joey.

Photo: Not entirely sure what this guy contributes to the holiday park.

Joey is off to the Highlanders game in Dunedin tonight. His best friend Matt Whaanga is starting at centre. Well done, Matt. Joey was very excited to tell us the news. There will be a Speight’s question to come: “Who played their first game for the Highlanders when Aaron Smith played his last home game.” Tomorrow Joey is the manager for Arrowtown, in its game against Matak. He did say after practice that sometimes “NO” is the correct answer. His physio told him last week that it will be a long time before he is able to play rugby again.

That’s about it for today, so off to motel #4 for me, soup and toast for tea.

Have Fun,

Tom