the world through my eyes…

The last part of the week has been a tad stressful.  When Thursday rolled around, I checked my bank account for my last pay from my previous job, only to find there was no deposit made, PLUS my new job hadn’t deposited my pay either.  Needless to say I was very nervous, and scared that my old wasn’t going to pay me.  However, I sent an email to my old boss and about 9hrs later he replied to say I would receive my last pay and holiday payout next week.  I have never felt such relief!!

In between working and taking groups of guests out at night I’ve been trying to tweak my trip here and there to get the most for my money.  I tried to work on it a bit this morning during the slow parts of my shift, but I’m still really sleepy from last night.  Friday nights = fireworks over the falls in Niagara, so naturally I was taking a group to the top of the Skylon Tower.  There were only 12 people, so it wasn’t too bad.  However, afterwards I was suppose to take them to the Wild Mushroom so they could have some drinks etc.

Normally I take a taxi, but for some dumb reason I was told to walk them over from the tower.  Not knowing where to go, I asked a co-worker and I was told to walk up the big hill to Victoria and then walk until we got to the bar.  So we see a big hill, we walk up the big hill, no sign of Victoria St anywhere.  BUT, there’s Stanley, I know Stanley.  So with my group losing confidence in me I take them down Stanley.  I had no clue where I was going.  I knew I was going in the right direction, but I couldn’t see any familiar landmarks.  Plus everyone was thirsty!

By the time I saw a very familiar sign, they no longer believed me when I said I knew where we were.  The reaction was, yeah right Pam, you have no clue!  BUT, I did and we finally made it.  Thankfully everyone mingled and got along nicely.  Only 1 guy in the group got completely smashed and when I got back to the hostel I had to walk him up to his room as he had no clue where he was. lol 

All in all everyone had fun, so I guess it was a pretty good night.  However with only 4hrs sleep, I need a nap before taking another group to Nightmares Haunted House tonight!

Last night, being Friday was another fabulous fireworks display here in Niagara Falls. We had a sign-up sheet out for guests at the hostel so we could take a group of them to the top for the show. It was a very good thing that Mich called ahead. As it turns out the elevator to the top was out of order and being worked on, which meant nobody was being allowed to the top of the tower.

After speaking with David, she was able to get us a guarantee of going straight to the top of the tower. We had a group of 22 hostel guests with us, and the last thing we wanted to do was disappoint them and cancel the trip. 4 taxi cabs later, we were at the Skylon Tower, waiting in line to get to the top. It was 9:40pm and we were cutting it really close, as the fireworks started at 10pm.

The crowd at the top wasn’t too bad, and thankfully we made it within a few minutes to view the fireworks. Trying to keep track of 22 people up there can be a challenge! As usual the fireworks were beautiful and a big round of applause erupted as it finished 20 minutes later. The one draw back to the tower is that it takes so very, very long to get back down! However, once everyone was back on the ground we piled into taxi cabs, some of us going back to the hostel and the rest going to the Queen for karaoke!

It’s funny, last week, nobody went to karaoke from the hostel, this week, we had about 12 guests there.  It was pretty good times.  It only cost me about $15 to convince a couple of guys to stay at the Queen and then to get them to sing later.  They were SO shy in the beginning, but with a little coaxing, they sang and loved it enough to sing again, without me pushing them! haha  There were lots of laughs, which was great.

At around 1:30am I decided to head back to the hostel, as I was working at 7am.  Nobody else was leaving at the time, so that left me to walk alone.  I wasn’t exactly nervous about walking on my own, but at the same time I still didn’t take to streets that went right past the old abandoned detention center! haha.  I’m such a loser!

This morning was spent getting the housekeeping routine down, as I'm covering for the regular girl.  This is the deal, I cover her days off and I don't have to pay to stay at ... [Continue reading this entry]