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On Monday, the knives for filleting the fish were missing from the shore lunch boxes. We searched around the kitchen but couldn't find them and we were sure that they'd been put back in the right place after washing them yesterday. So we took some from the kitchen with us just in case. As an afterthought, we checked the fish house down by the dock and found them. One of the guides had taken them to sharpen them and hadn't brought them back to the kitchen. After shore lunch, when we got back to the boat to drive back to the lodge, we had real difficulties trying to get the boat off the ramp. The motor had got stuck on the ramp. It turned out that our boat had been moved higher up the ramp by one of the guides and consequently the motor got stuck. We didn't even notice that the boat had been moved! Fortunately, one of the guests was still around and helped us free the boat. We couldn't have done it on our own!
We tried to be creative in the kitchen and because we had quite a few birthdays and anniversaries, Helen was able to try out her cake decorating skills. Sometimes this was a last minute thing! Sometimes we even did it for breakfast - candle in a sausage! Well at least it was something! We even made butter swirls, piping the butter onto plates to decorate the tables for a change.
For quite a while now, the owners wife had been trying to work out the best way to get rid of the girls. We had been trying to save their jobs for them right from day one, literally. (As soon as she had seen them, the owners wife had wanted to put them right back on the bus!) There had been talk of getting a "holiday" for some time, but we had not responded, as, by now, we had got used to the way this lodge works and were very sceptical that "holiday" actually meant getting fired and not coming back. The girls, however, seemed to want a holiday. Not surprising, seeing as we were working such long hours - 100 hour weeks were the norm and we were already into our 8th week and had not had a day off! We all needed a holiday!
Unfortunately, our suspicions about the meaning of the word "holiday" were proved correct when the owners wife actually spoke to Helen about how she could get rid of the girls. It was almost as if she was asking for advice! She wanted to send them off on a weeks "holiday" but intended to tell them on the phone, not to come back. Helens "advice" was that she should at least make sure that the girls took all their possessions with them. So the wife said she'd tell them their cabin needed renovating and they should take all their stuff with them. Helen knew immediately that she was being set up into a bad position. So she asked what the guest situation for the next few weeks was like. All of a sudden the wife found out that, although there weren't many guests for the coming week, the following week was quite full. So Helen suggested that the girls should stay for at least 2 more weeks.
It turned out, that the owners wife had already told the girls that they would be getting a holiday at the end of this week. The girls had not told us though. It looked like the wife had miscalculated because she hadn't looked at the diary to see how many guests there would be in the coming weeks. She had just seen that there weren't many for the following week and had given the go-ahead for the girls to get a holiday. Now she needed them to come back after a week, even though she really wanted to get rid of them altogether. It all seemed to be quite a mess! And Kirsten and Helen seemed to be stuck right in the middle of it!
On Thursday, Jess and Helen went out to do shore lunch together which gave them a chance to talk. Helen warned Jess that she and Lisa should take all their stuff with them when they left because there was no guarantee that they would be asked to come back whether they were needed or not. The owners wife had even mentioned putting ads in the papers for more staff! Jess seemed to know that that might be the case for her, but she was sure that Lisa would be coming back because Lisa got on well with the owners wife. This was actually true, Lisa and the owners wife were both moody and unpredictable and you couldn't help but laugh at Lisa and all her loud antics and outbursts. But this was also embarrassing when it happened within earshot of the guests!
On Friday, we said some fond farewells to our guests and got hugs from them. On Saturday we welcomed more guests and Kirsten made some cinnamon rolls for them which they loved. There was also more discussion about when the girls holiday would start. First it was supposed to be Friday, then it moved to Sunday and back to Friday again. There was no bus on a Saturday so that day was ruled out. But the owner also wanted to get rid of one of the guides - there'd been rumours that he would be fired for weeks. It always seemed that he would get fired "next week". Then next week arrived and so he would be fired "next week" and so on! Anyway, now this guide would be going on "holiday" at the same time as the girls. It was just a matter of which day.
On Saturday, we had a problem with our air conditioning as water was dripping from it. We took it apart and found that the insulation padding was soaking. So we took it out, wrung it out and hung it up to dry. We put a small towel inside to replace it and Helen got up onto the roof to brush off all the rain water that had accumulated on the roof and to see if there was a hole letting in the water. But there wasn't. It seems that the problem was just a build up of condensation!
Finally, it turned out that Sunday was "holiday" day. The girls went and did the cabins and then the owners wife said she needed to leave and went to fetch the girls. The girls never said goodbye so Kirsten and Helen thought that they probably hadn't been given the chance and had just been whisked off. The guide who was supposed to be fired was given a stay of execution as he was needed for construction work as another guide had unexpectedly had to leave! I think we should write a new soap opera - "The Lodge" or "Up a creek without a paddle!" It's certainly not boring here!
Finally that week, we also had another resident outside our kitchen back door. A garden snake that seemed to like catching the mice! Well, at least that was how we accounted for the large bump in the snakes body! What a nice thought!
