Tuning In Live From The Last Day of Panorama 09/10

This week's blog is sad yet simple. The theme; Panorama = Over. It's been about five long and amazing months since we all arrived here in November and now the season is officially done. We had some good snow in the last few days which allowed for a bit of fun for us leading up to what was seeming like a very depressing departure. I have to say I have spent 21 years of my life in Australia and not made such a wide selection of very flippin' close friends as I have spending five months in staff accomodation at Panorama Mountain Village. Panorama life is like real life on steroids.

I'd just like to speak about some of my favourites; as the season has wound down there has been less trips. I've needed to save my cash to buy a new van, which we dubbed "KeVAN Rudd" after our dear Australian prime minister. After that there is the expensive return ticket from Vancouver to New York City to buy. I would say it's putting me out of pocket if I hadn't have had to sell my pockets for petty cash. So instead of saying what's happened in the last couple of weeks I'd like to start with some great memories and just general thoughts about everything over here.

I still remember my first three days at Panorama. No computer or internet, no mode of transport (I had to hitch-hike to get groceries), hadn't made any friends yet, no way of contacting people back home and to top it off I had the worst job in the village working as a janitor in housekeeping. I just wanted to wait it out for a month and bail. The first week I met Brad and Nanna on the friday night at our Monument house party, woke up still kinda drunk the next morning and ended up in Banff that night. That was three days into it, this is three days leaving and what a different feeling it is. Here I am five months later wishing I didn't have to leave. The gradual parade of housemates leaving for different destinations started yesterday morning. First it was Dim and Martha waking me up to say a quick goodbye, then Brad and Alex came in to film our emotional goodbye message which I then followed by chasing the van down the street yelling. But I think the worst of all was seeing pretty much every housemate I've had for about 5 months get onto the staff bus and leave in unison for Calgary at about midday. The thing with this part was that a lot of them I was awesome friends with, but not close enough to be so sure there will be other adventures together.

I've rode seven different mountains and seen a lot of what the Canadian winter has to offer. The list includes Whistler, Revelstoke, Sunshine Village (Banff), Lake Louise, Whitefish (Montana, US), Kicking Horse and of course, Panorama. At times I've drunk enough to feel comfortable walking home from the bar through blizzarding snow in a T-shirt and jeans and I've come dangerously close to winning the Panorama best form competition. I've been lost in Montana and invented the "Boston Browser".

Most notable of the drunk efforts this season has been the recent four day bender to end the season. It all started with friday; tuning in live from outside Monument House where the staff were "getting maggot" as our live broadcaster Sam would tell it. We lunged in the common room, we had a random haircut happening in the middle of the party and we had some moshers destroying the old lounges. Second night involved the last Saturday at T-Bar where once again the staff were "getting maggot". I kept running into the infamous ski-shot after not having done it all season. We decided it was a must but before even ordering some girl asked me to do her shot as she didn't want to do it. We shredded the dance floor but saved a little bit for the next two days. Sunday was slush cup, where Mr. Brad Van Der Linde won best trick for his amazing backflip into the manky water. The night brought in "Drink the Jackpine Dry" where I accidentally spent about $60, ouch. Monday though was the best vibed day I've ever had in my life. Alex woke me up (hungover of course) to do a shot and a have a beer. We grabbed our beers and headed to the end of season staff party we're we had a massive feed and chilled to mid-ninties classics on the great hall deck overlooking the front of the ski hill. We got to ride one run for two hours but it was one of the best rides of my life (partly due to the staff once again "being maggot") but also to do with the fun vibe, riding in jeans and a hoodie instead of our heavy duty snow gear. We had the awards and continued back to staff accomm for a bonfire. The bonfire was irregular to say the least, with it being started by everyone throwing items they didn't need in a pile and lighting it on fire. There were boots, TV's, snowboards, clothes; but most noteably was the 15 metre beam that took almost 30 people to lift onto the fire. In the words of Sam Reindler "it takes a few good men to burn a log", and that it did. It will probably take a small crane to get it off now (good luck summer maintenance team). The night was a mixture of confusion and amazing, mostly amazing though. Tuning in live from all sorts of locations in the T-Bar for pre school pee's, dance floor shredding and texta commando's.

The one word that can describe the new vibe in Monument House is "gutted". It's not sad enough to have a teary but everyone definately feels lost. But I am very grateful for the time well spent and I will always remember everything about this place; my amazing friends, monument house, taynton bowl and hanging out in the great hall for four hours when I'm meant to be working (hope my boss doesn't blog, I still technically have two more weeks of work). But last night in all the confusion and sadness happening around the house I got creative and wrote a song as a sort of personal salute to Panorama, Monument, all my friends I've made and the times I've had. Since I'm blogging on a personal level with this Canada thing, I figured I'd share with you all a few lyrics (fingers crossed it's not gay).

The Monument Lodge

Life is only short if you expect it,
but I found out a time and place that's worth it
When August comes around I hope your waiting
to sweep me off my feet again.
The last four days we waited for the earth to stop it's spinning
we said our goodbye's and cursed our flights
the homecoming's that we never needed.

All my life I've waited for this to come around
All this time, for you to come around.

The ghosts in the Monument Lodge are weighing heavy on me.
The place is closed, and noone knows if we'll ever be here again.
So when I leave, I'll brush my teeth and stare at what's in front of me
trying to figure out if I've just been dreaming

We act on bad idea's as if we mean to

but that's the only vice I'll live and breathe to

In two weeks time I'll be in New York City,

but I'll always revise this time.

All my life I've waited for this to come around
All this time, for you to come around

And I've waited so long, for this to come into my life
You'll never be excavated from my memories
But when I go, I do not know if I'll ever feel like this again
But I'll never forget my time in the Monument Lodge.

All my life I've waited for this to come around
All this time, for you to come around
Getting on the road, the falling snow and I'll never forget the crowd.
All this time, for this to come around.

Back to you in the studio Tom...