’twas the night before…
winfly, and all through the town, people were gathering to see their friends for one last drink at the bar before the first flight of orange, hyper people arrived in town.
tonight is the official last night of winter. tomorrow we will have approximately 300 people on station, if i remember rightly. we’re losing only 20, so this will be big for us.
not only are we getting new people in, but there is a huge, “secretive” betting pool on what time the “wheels down” will happen. the first “wheels down” sold out in roughly 15 minutes at $100 per minute. there was a 2 minute maximum bet allowed per person. i didn’t find out about this until it was too late. last night, someone else started a “mini wheels down” idea, so today i purchased 3 minutes on the “mini”. the numbers i drew were: 9, 43 and 57.
the way it works is, the minute the wheels hit the ground, the person who has that number block wins the jackpot. the $6000 jackpot for the first “wheels down” and the “mini wheels down” will go for $1200. how nice would it be to have a nice little bit of spending money for vacation when leaving? to hopefully prevent any sort of cheating, the pilot is the person who has the say as to what time the wheels hit the ground. i hear that it was a close call last year where the person on the ground called one minute, and the pilot insisted it was one minute later. they went by the pilot.
in somewhat related news, i’m still getting ready to leave. its amazing how much CRAP one can gather when there are no STORES around. at least i have almost everything i want to take home scrapbook-wise already pasted into a journal. this way i’m not transporting a ton of crap that won’t ever get glued in anywhere.
cora and i are definately looking forward to relaxing a bit in christchurch before we head to tonga for two lovely weeks in the sun. hopefully we won’t have too many plane delays and we’ll actually get out of here on time, next saturday. how weird, in exactly one week, if all goes to plan, i will be back in the land of grass and trees. i almost can’t handle it.
as excited as i am about leaving, i’m still feeling meloncholy. i’ve become close to people that i’m not ready to leave yet, but i don’t have a choice. i guess that’s the hardest thing, knowing i don’t have a choice in staying or going. when i came down here i chose to come down here. leaving now seems like it has been forced upon me.
i do love being in a place where the doctor doesn’t feel its beneath him to come in and wash pots, and people from every department volunteer to help out during stressful meal times. a place where the station manager will sit and eat a meal with a dining attendant, the two opposite ends of the spectrum. a place where almost everyone appreciates the job that you do, no matter how menial you may think it is, because no matter what, its crucial to the survival of the station.
i know that the real world waits for me in christchurch, and beyond. but somewhere in my heart i’ll always long to be back here, wintering with the same crew of people, for better or worse.