Hi Folks,
One of those great Tasmanian autumn days today. Warm, sunny, light wind. Put it in a bottle and take it with you. With the promise of more tomorrow.
Was a long day for the old people today. We both did a lot of hours starting at 7 with breakfast for the school kids. For our trouble we had another lovely entry in the guest book. For the rest of the day it was a constant slog as rooms were restored to their previous condition and the laundry oh the laundry. I had my first blocked toilet that was cleared with a big bucket of water and the old plumbers helper!
Susan trained our new helper WaiTing on the fine art of room cleaning.
Fast forward to late afternoon and the community dinner. Susan the trojan lead the way and with help from Lynne, Agnes and myself a great feast was prepared. There was initial consternation when at 5:05pm the size of the boneless leg of pork was realised. 5kg! gees could be a late tea. The oven was fired up post haste. I basted the meat and took charge of that item through to its completion. The gas oven runs colder than the controller so I ended up cooking mostly at 260C using the appearance of the meat to regulate the heat. With a dose of good luck the meat was cooked to perfection with lots of crackling. This is not to underplay the accompanying dishes prepared by chef Susan.
Oh did I mention her rhubarb and apple crumbles. Anyway it was a great night with lots of laughs and red wine on my behalf. I will pay for that tomorrow.
An easier day tomorrow with not many in on the weekend as the season draws to a close. Might try for a camp fire tomorrow night!
Cheers Simon
Day 71 Nubeena Wednesday 6th of April 2011
Lunch Group at Nubeena. Left to Right Caryn, Lynne, Jimmy, Susan, Rebecca, Tatiana, Melody
Hi all,
It's 3/4 time in the resort versus the schoolkids and the resort is well ahead.
Today we started off down in the kitchen at 700 with the continental breakfast being laid out and the lunches being prepared. Everything went off reasonably smootly and one of the teachers wrote a lovely page in the guest book praising the staff for their friendliness and the quality of the food and accomodation. We thought it was a bit over the top. Maybe they were feeling guilty about the window!
After doing the poolman thing I was off until 1130 when Jimmy and I vacuumed and mopped all the rooms used last night. It was a pretty big effort by the girls to clean and make up the beds albeit with only a bottom sheet. The laundry was bulging at the seams by the time the towels were factored in.
Susan organised a team lunch out in the sun on the deck which everyone enjoyed. Then it was back to task until Ilan appeared from his office. "Simon".... I knew in my mind what it was yes the transport arrangement to pick up 2 helpers tomorrow had gone amiss and i was off to Hobart to pick up WeiTing. I arrived at the airport and stood chatting to her while we waited for what seemed like an eternity for the baggage. We then performed the obligatory visit to K & D Mitre 10 for infra red globes, mouse bait and insulating tape before heading on to Sorell for fuel and Maccas coffee for the driver.
The rest of the trip was uneventful and we arrived after 6:30 just in time for the fimal sitting of dinner.
Dinner had been executed smoothly with Susan directing traffic and all that was left was a tidy up and setting up the non perishables for breakfast. Apparently group 2 were much better behaved after hearing the tales of the minor mayhem of group 1!
Susan and I adjourned to the spa before bed. I think we were the only people in the water today. That's the way I like it! I won't have to vacuum the pool tomorrow.
The local paper had information that 9 census collectors are required on the peninsula. We could do the census collection here. It would save a long drive to the NT. We will think about that one. I have also bought a secong hand dual band phone on Ebay so hopefully our Optus numbers will be on the air shortly!!
Cheers Simon
Lunch on the Deck
Day 70 Nubeena Tuesday 5th April 2011
Hi All,
It's half time in the school kid invasion! Things went pretty well today thanks to Susan and Rebecca who directed operations, ably supported by their band of helpers. I helped by staying out of the way and obeying all commands!
This morning all the beds had to be stripped and left with a bottom sheet and a pillow so the kids could use sleeping bags. Crockery had to be removed from rooms so there was enough for the meal settings. An evening meal was provided (in two sittings)with a pizza entree, main course (lasagna) and dessert to be followed tomorrow by breakfast and a packed lunch. Also tomorrow all rooms are cleaned and we repeat the exercise. Around 40 kids in each group. Teenagers aged circa 14 - 15 so need i say more. They have only managed to break one window so far. An outside one on the end of the verandah. I picked up the pieces and vacuumed the fragments from the tennis court and verandah.
Just as well the wet area is lockable and was locked! I have been taking great care with the water quality and the last thing i need is people using the facilities!
The only other speed hump was all the special dietary requirements, what a mine field. At one stage I was at the supermarket buying dairy free margarine! I didn't know that margarine had dairy but on the label of some was declared "dairy solids"
Anyway as i said it all went pretty well. Worst part about tomorrow is the 700 start.
Night folks
Cheers Simon
It's half time in the school kid invasion! Things went pretty well today thanks to Susan and Rebecca who directed operations, ably supported by their band of helpers. I helped by staying out of the way and obeying all commands!
This morning all the beds had to be stripped and left with a bottom sheet and a pillow so the kids could use sleeping bags. Crockery had to be removed from rooms so there was enough for the meal settings. An evening meal was provided (in two sittings)with a pizza entree, main course (lasagna) and dessert to be followed tomorrow by breakfast and a packed lunch. Also tomorrow all rooms are cleaned and we repeat the exercise. Around 40 kids in each group. Teenagers aged circa 14 - 15 so need i say more. They have only managed to break one window so far. An outside one on the end of the verandah. I picked up the pieces and vacuumed the fragments from the tennis court and verandah.
Just as well the wet area is lockable and was locked! I have been taking great care with the water quality and the last thing i need is people using the facilities!
The only other speed hump was all the special dietary requirements, what a mine field. At one stage I was at the supermarket buying dairy free margarine! I didn't know that margarine had dairy but on the label of some was declared "dairy solids"
Anyway as i said it all went pretty well. Worst part about tomorrow is the 700 start.
Night folks
Cheers Simon
Day 69 Nubeena Monday 4th April 2011
Hi Folks,
The Antarctic gale abated this morning allowing rain to fall, well showers actually.
It was a calm before the storm day here. We have the schoolkids and their dietary requirements arriving tomorrow. Somehow it will all come together I am sure.
Our as yet unnamed goat is becoming tamer. I will get the collar on with out too much trauma in the next couple of days hopefully. I had to play hunt the chickens last night as they were all out and I forgot about them until after dark. After a few minutes searching I located them all huddled together on a piece of RSJ. They were all asleep so it was easy to pick them up and drop them back in the enclosure. Must ask why their wings never got clipped by the boss.
We have been chewing through the credit on our Telstra prepaid at a rate of knots since our Optus Mobiles don’t work. Just out of interest I checked their coverage map. Lo and behold there is coverage but you need a dual band phone which neither of us have. I rang them today and I think they have been taking lessons from Telstra customer service. 30 minutes talking around in circles and I knew nothing more than I did before I called. I need to buy a prepaid with dual band capabilities. I will pursue this at a later date.
We have been explaining some aussie slang terms to our overseas helpers. Such as,
“Flat out like a lizard drinking” “Don’t come the raw prawn with me” “Black as a dogs guts” “ Hollow legs” “G’day Cobber” “Running around like headless chooks” “pull your bloody head in” “look like a stunned mullet” “up shit creek without a paddle” “stone the crows” . We havn’t ventured into “bangs like a dunny door” yet.
I actually had to look up a slang dictionary since I was scratching my head a bit. Reading this one made me realise how many slang words we use and take for granted. We have had a few good laughs explaining to our helpers.
Communal dinner tonight was pumpkin soup, cheese and feta wraps and sticky date pudding reappeared. The "kids" take great delight in cooking something many don't do at home.
After dinner we had a spa and sauna to round out the evening. Tough job!
That’s all Folks
Simon
The Antarctic gale abated this morning allowing rain to fall, well showers actually.
It was a calm before the storm day here. We have the schoolkids and their dietary requirements arriving tomorrow. Somehow it will all come together I am sure.
Our as yet unnamed goat is becoming tamer. I will get the collar on with out too much trauma in the next couple of days hopefully. I had to play hunt the chickens last night as they were all out and I forgot about them until after dark. After a few minutes searching I located them all huddled together on a piece of RSJ. They were all asleep so it was easy to pick them up and drop them back in the enclosure. Must ask why their wings never got clipped by the boss.
We have been chewing through the credit on our Telstra prepaid at a rate of knots since our Optus Mobiles don’t work. Just out of interest I checked their coverage map. Lo and behold there is coverage but you need a dual band phone which neither of us have. I rang them today and I think they have been taking lessons from Telstra customer service. 30 minutes talking around in circles and I knew nothing more than I did before I called. I need to buy a prepaid with dual band capabilities. I will pursue this at a later date.
We have been explaining some aussie slang terms to our overseas helpers. Such as,
“Flat out like a lizard drinking” “Don’t come the raw prawn with me” “Black as a dogs guts” “ Hollow legs” “G’day Cobber” “Running around like headless chooks” “pull your bloody head in” “look like a stunned mullet” “up shit creek without a paddle” “stone the crows” . We havn’t ventured into “bangs like a dunny door” yet.
I actually had to look up a slang dictionary since I was scratching my head a bit. Reading this one made me realise how many slang words we use and take for granted. We have had a few good laughs explaining to our helpers.
Communal dinner tonight was pumpkin soup, cheese and feta wraps and sticky date pudding reappeared. The "kids" take great delight in cooking something many don't do at home.
After dinner we had a spa and sauna to round out the evening. Tough job!
That’s all Folks
Simon
Day 68 Nubeena Sunday 3rd April 2011
Garden Produce
Hi All,
Today is the second day in a row I have rostered myself for a spilt shift. Opening at 8:00pm and closing at 9:00pm, this is on account of having "Helper Only Staff" on the weekend. During the week Annette or Caryn work 9:00am til 5:00pm allowing a different rostering pattern. Due to the fact that Melody has not yet had a full induction to reception tasks; sign outs/ins, accounts, and the like I thought it best that I do the admin stuff and she concentrate on room checking and laundry. Things worked out pretty well. Except for the tiredness.
I was able to progress the procedure manual and cleaning schedules, as well as spend some time getting my head around the school visit on Tuesday. We were away for the last school group so it is a bit of the blind leading...
The most challenging aspect of the job is communicating with the helpers particularly when they have limited English. At present we have helpers whose native languages are Mandarin (2) Cantonese (1) French (1). They are a good group and are quite willing workers.
It has amazed me to learn about food/eating habits of our Asian helpers particularly. It seems that eating out for 3 meals a day is the norm, as a result some of these kids have never seen a meal cooked at home much less cooked a meal themselves until they arrived in Australia. The communal dinners give every one a chance to cook, and I have quietly made it a project of mine to encourage these kids to develop cooking skills.
Agnes from France has secured some paid work at the pear orchard, and has organised to ride one of the resort bikes there, to aid her navigation skills, Simon drove her to the site in the afternoon. While they were away it occurred to me that the "Hong Kong Couple" as we call them, could probably drive her as they work there also.
After introductions it was worked out that they had all met on a farm in Cohen. We all had a laugh about the small world and reflected on a couple of other small world moments.
French Julie who we only met for 5 minutes on our first day left for Melbourne on our second day here. English Julie was wrestling with her watch on arrival in Darwin last week and stopped a passer by to check the time, it was French Julie! Agnes also worked at the same school HelpX in the Blue Mountains as Marielle and US Ben, but didn't meet them. Ben and Jiwon have gone to the HelpX in Denmark WA where we may head next. I was calculating the chance of these meetings, and suggesting his was more than just coincidence, Simon the sceptic poohooed the idea.
A job I need to get to in the next few days is taking some clothes to the opshop, in preparation I let "the kids" look through the stuff and they all found something useful to wear, a scene from the summer sales! Armed with their new clothing and a ChupaChup, the kids retreated to their rooms to hop on to facebook and share the days activities, just like us old folk.
Cheers
Susan
Day 67 Nubeena Saturday 2nd April 2011
The Safe N Sure Mousetrap. Cheap and very effective. Woolies should have them.
Hi Folks,
I staggered outside this morning with a piercing cold wind blowing up my shorts! A sign of things to come.
The day was spent doing my little tasks and organising Jimmy, who works efficiently, to do multiple jobs. It is good having someone to help out as there is actually time to get jobs done that make a difference to the way the place looks. To my eye it is looking better.
I started on shelves for Susan in the laundry. However with no hammer drill things came to a stop. Looks like a job for the local handyman unless there is a drill that I don't know about. Speaking of the laundry I have killed 3 mice there yesterday and today. There is one mousetrap here of a type I haven't seen before. It is like a plastic clamshell with a spring around it. The beauty of it is the lightness of the triggering. With the standard trap you have to position the trigger bar to make them sensitive but this one is naturally sensitive. I'll post a picture if I remember.
Susan is pursuing her own improvement program and is also making progress. The helpers call Susan mum now which I guess is a good thing!
I was involved in cooking the communal tea tonight along with Melody from the UK and Agnes from France. It went reasonably well although it was a little bit bland due to my cooking style or lack of it. I guess food always tastes better when other people cook it.
Night Folks
Cheers Simon
PS I very nearly fell head first in the pool this morning. Kneeling over the rolled up pool cover to prime the vacuum cleaner hose and the cover rolled forwards towards the water. Certainly woke me up a bit. Very close!
Day 66 Nubeena Friday 1st April 2011
Hi Folks,
What can I say about today.
Not a lot really.
Our new unnamed goat refuses to go anywhere near a rope so will be languishing in the corral until she can be tethered.
I have a new helper who has only very basic English skills. On the upside he is an excellent worker. We moved about 50 cans of paint from 4 locations to one. I also had him doing weeding and raking all the refuse out of the animal pens.
Now that winter is approaching the mice are starting to come in. After yesterdays success I set some more traps today. Maybe I can knock them off before they get out of hand. Hopefully some of them will get distracted by the 30 * 5 metre pile of hay bales that are out the back under black plastic.
Did a few repairs, organised some work for my offsider tomorrow, cooked a basic tea and that’s it. All a bit ho hum really.
The pools seem to be under control. I would invite anybody with an interest in maintaining them to read this
which covers it all quite nicely apart from salt water chlorination. Probably the only thing new is legionella pnuemophila. Although having said that it doesn’t seem to get a mention when biological testing is considered in Tasmania. Given the vapour/mist that rises from spas I found that a little surprising.
Looks like a quiet weekend guest wise. The calm before the storm.
Cheers Simon
What can I say about today.
Not a lot really.
Our new unnamed goat refuses to go anywhere near a rope so will be languishing in the corral until she can be tethered.
I have a new helper who has only very basic English skills. On the upside he is an excellent worker. We moved about 50 cans of paint from 4 locations to one. I also had him doing weeding and raking all the refuse out of the animal pens.
Now that winter is approaching the mice are starting to come in. After yesterdays success I set some more traps today. Maybe I can knock them off before they get out of hand. Hopefully some of them will get distracted by the 30 * 5 metre pile of hay bales that are out the back under black plastic.
Did a few repairs, organised some work for my offsider tomorrow, cooked a basic tea and that’s it. All a bit ho hum really.
The pools seem to be under control. I would invite anybody with an interest in maintaining them to read this
which covers it all quite nicely apart from salt water chlorination. Probably the only thing new is legionella pnuemophila. Although having said that it doesn’t seem to get a mention when biological testing is considered in Tasmania. Given the vapour/mist that rises from spas I found that a little surprising.
Looks like a quiet weekend guest wise. The calm before the storm.
Cheers Simon
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