Casual Sunday is also extremely quiet Sunday. Although I'm sure I'm going to love the quiet weekends once I get a taste of the busy weekdays. We enjoyed Bob Marley radio today, jammin' to the tunes and wished for a tropical vacation.
Hey, I actually made it to and from work today and did not trip over my own feet! I really want to try and sneak in a picture of the mail corridor. The map there, which is not to scale, does not give an idea of the sprawl of this place. It's the looooong loooooong walk. If I'm not brave enough to get that shot, I might try a view from the back where my Bunkhouse A is.
I put in some time recording customer service surveys the last couple of days. I tell ya, they do make me chuckle. Some people give low marks for the food, since they don't have their usual diet of buttermilk, goat cheese, spring mix, avocados, blueberries, (and a few other things I've forgotten) available to them. Or that whole wheat pancakes, waffles and pasta are not available more often. What is this, the Ritz Carlton?? It does make me laugh to myself while entering them, which of course makes people wonder what the heck I'm chuckling at. Might as well bring my sanity into question quickly :)
Speaking of food, today for dinner I had roast turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, yams, gravy, peas and carrots. This is a camp. Feeds over 3,000 people per day. I'm impressed.
Still haven't checked out the recreational facilities yet. Or the laundry facilities. But the cable or satellite TV is great. I don't have TV at home, (live TV, I do subscribe to Netflix) so I'm enjoying movies and commercials and channel selection.
My can-mate left, and I've had the bathroom to myself for the last two days. Just like a private suite :)
Well, my brain is all out of blog material today, I'll check in again. Thanks for reading!
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Another round...
Saturday night in the oil sands. Anybody that read my first blog about camp life knows that days have no meaning here. Every day is Monday. Until your last day of work. Then it's Friday :)
I'm not going to mention any specifics about the company I work for or my location, just because I don't want this to pop up if anyone is looking for "contraband" pictures or words. It's not allowed to post any specifics about the camp, and pictures are not allowed. If anyone reading this wants any specific information, you can just email or Facebook (private message) me. And if anyone is interested in the specifics I e-mailed out a couple of days ago, just let me know and I'll forward that e-mail.
I am including a map of the complex, because I've made sure that no identifiable information is on the picture. I've marked out the front desk with a red star, the kitchen/dining/lunch room area with a pink box, and my route from my room to the front desk - the yellow line is outside, then the green line is inside. As you can see, I am in the furthest trailer from my work area. Well, maybe T5 is further away. All the T bunks are not connected by arctic corridor, and the other three between mine and the inside corridors are the outside trailers. T for temporary. Once this camp has completed construction, the plan is to get rid of the outside trailers.
The rooms in the outside trailers are the Jack and Jill variety, where two rooms share access to a toilet and shower. Each room has it's own sink, desk, bed, tv and armoire. Rooms are small. WiFi is provided as well as satellite TV. No phones in the rooms. The inside standard rooms all have private baths. There are no shared baths for any of the inside rooms. They're small, but nice to have your own bathroom. There are some Executive class rooms, which are smaller than the one I had at the previous camp, and then Operator class rooms. These rooms are set up for "hot swapping", or, having two people on opposite shifts using/keeping the room. They have two separate locking armoires, the desk has two lockable sides. One person leaves and the other comes in on the same day (thus the "hot swapping"). They are the nicest of the rooms here. The operating company gets these rooms.
Outside of the dining room area, in the central core, there are coolers set up where you can pick up a sandwich, juice, milk, maybe a corn dog or pot pie any time of the day or night. Also coffee/tea stations, and a variety of teas and hot chocolate also available 24/7. There are high bar-type tables in the corridor as well, to sit and eat lunch or have break or something when the dining room is closed.
I like the efficiency of the front desk here. More "guests". Less staff. The check in process is remarkably smooth and fast, compared to my previous experience. I'll really get to see it in action on Monday evening, when 700 arrivals are expected.
There are basically 4 shift times. Day shift, which is usually 7-5:30. Split shift, which, depending on the day, is 7am-1pm, then 5pm-9:30 pm. Or it could start at 5 am. The afternoon shift is 11 am - 9:30 pm, and the night audit shift is 9:00pm - 7:30 am. I've only done days and splits so far. Monday I believe I start the afternoon shift for the rest of my rotation.
The area around is quite lovely. No big huge piles of earth, since there is no open mining going on. There is a lake visible from my bunkhouse, and just a few miles away is a beautiful lake and provincial park.
This is a "boot free" facility, meaning when returning from shift, the workers must enter through the boot room area, remove their boots and outerwear and leave it there. Or carry it to their rooms. It still gets dirty, but nothing like when the muddy boots are tromping through.
One little anecdote and then I'm going to end for the evening. As I was returning along the outside walkway, or boardwalk, to my room after dinner, I inexplicably stumbled on something and took a tumble. Hard. Right in front of the crowded smoking pit. Sigh. To his credit, the nearest person came over to ask if I was ok and offer help up, which I did not take, trying to find a little dignity somewhere. I have a bruised shin just below the knee, scraped elbow, bruised hip and hand. And I'm probably going to have to report it as an "incident".
Tomorrow is casual Sunday, no work clothes required. And I didn't bring my jeans.
I'm not going to mention any specifics about the company I work for or my location, just because I don't want this to pop up if anyone is looking for "contraband" pictures or words. It's not allowed to post any specifics about the camp, and pictures are not allowed. If anyone reading this wants any specific information, you can just email or Facebook (private message) me. And if anyone is interested in the specifics I e-mailed out a couple of days ago, just let me know and I'll forward that e-mail.
I am including a map of the complex, because I've made sure that no identifiable information is on the picture. I've marked out the front desk with a red star, the kitchen/dining/lunch room area with a pink box, and my route from my room to the front desk - the yellow line is outside, then the green line is inside. As you can see, I am in the furthest trailer from my work area. Well, maybe T5 is further away. All the T bunks are not connected by arctic corridor, and the other three between mine and the inside corridors are the outside trailers. T for temporary. Once this camp has completed construction, the plan is to get rid of the outside trailers.
The rooms in the outside trailers are the Jack and Jill variety, where two rooms share access to a toilet and shower. Each room has it's own sink, desk, bed, tv and armoire. Rooms are small. WiFi is provided as well as satellite TV. No phones in the rooms. The inside standard rooms all have private baths. There are no shared baths for any of the inside rooms. They're small, but nice to have your own bathroom. There are some Executive class rooms, which are smaller than the one I had at the previous camp, and then Operator class rooms. These rooms are set up for "hot swapping", or, having two people on opposite shifts using/keeping the room. They have two separate locking armoires, the desk has two lockable sides. One person leaves and the other comes in on the same day (thus the "hot swapping"). They are the nicest of the rooms here. The operating company gets these rooms.
Outside of the dining room area, in the central core, there are coolers set up where you can pick up a sandwich, juice, milk, maybe a corn dog or pot pie any time of the day or night. Also coffee/tea stations, and a variety of teas and hot chocolate also available 24/7. There are high bar-type tables in the corridor as well, to sit and eat lunch or have break or something when the dining room is closed.
I like the efficiency of the front desk here. More "guests". Less staff. The check in process is remarkably smooth and fast, compared to my previous experience. I'll really get to see it in action on Monday evening, when 700 arrivals are expected.
There are basically 4 shift times. Day shift, which is usually 7-5:30. Split shift, which, depending on the day, is 7am-1pm, then 5pm-9:30 pm. Or it could start at 5 am. The afternoon shift is 11 am - 9:30 pm, and the night audit shift is 9:00pm - 7:30 am. I've only done days and splits so far. Monday I believe I start the afternoon shift for the rest of my rotation.
The area around is quite lovely. No big huge piles of earth, since there is no open mining going on. There is a lake visible from my bunkhouse, and just a few miles away is a beautiful lake and provincial park.
This is a "boot free" facility, meaning when returning from shift, the workers must enter through the boot room area, remove their boots and outerwear and leave it there. Or carry it to their rooms. It still gets dirty, but nothing like when the muddy boots are tromping through.
One little anecdote and then I'm going to end for the evening. As I was returning along the outside walkway, or boardwalk, to my room after dinner, I inexplicably stumbled on something and took a tumble. Hard. Right in front of the crowded smoking pit. Sigh. To his credit, the nearest person came over to ask if I was ok and offer help up, which I did not take, trying to find a little dignity somewhere. I have a bruised shin just below the knee, scraped elbow, bruised hip and hand. And I'm probably going to have to report it as an "incident".
Tomorrow is casual Sunday, no work clothes required. And I didn't bring my jeans.
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