Saturday 5th September 2015
Early start this morning as we had to be at the village for 7.30 as we were on the breakfast shift and I really had to wash my hair before leaving.
We both enjoyed our shifts, doing slightly different jobs, Debbie was clearing tables and interacting with the families, she really enjoyed it. I was on hot food, a job I have done quite a few times before but not in the new building. As in previous years the weird combination of food that seems to be required on one plate amazes me. Today's offerings were cheese omelettes, scrambled eggs, salsa, cheese sauce, hot maple syrup, pancakes, mushrooms, a type of ratatouille looking mixture, biscuits (a sort of scone), pancakes, French toast, sausages, fried potatoes and yes, some people had the lot!!! Some even came back for seconds. This was just my section, there was waffles, toast, muffins, fruit etc, etc also. Some families stand out for no ther reason than the amount of foods.
The characters we met today... volunteers, not those from Disney, were James, who was the runner on my section and Mr Scraper who was Debbies's boss! Mr Scraper was very insistent about how the tables should be cleared, but he really taught Debbie well, more later! James was really good apart from when he accused me of letting the serving ladle slip into the omelette tray, I of course denied it and blamed him!
Everyone mucks in to sanitize the tables and chairs and vacuum the whole floor area, we finished about 11am, just in time for them to set up for the lunch time.
We made a decision not to get any food shopping and went back to the villa to relax a little and take in some sunshine around the pool, it was really hot and my iPad came up with a warning sign telling me it needed to cool down, I agreed with it and went back inside to the air conditioning.
As we were back to the village for 530 we had a late lunch again and I wish I had taken a photograph of it to share....... Debbie should actually be renamed Popeye as she loves spinach and her plate was piled high with the stuff but we were both very healthy again. While we were getting lunch ready a lady and gentlemen arrived to repair the smoke detector and to make sure the phone was okay. I can't remember if I said about this was both the phone and smoke detector were making us bleeping mad as all they were doing was beeping. Had the telephone man round and he said the line was fine but it was the phone that was faulty, new phone, problem solved. Now normally when a smoke detector bleeps it means a new battery is needed, not so this time, it had three new batteries and still beeped so the conclusion was the unit was faulty and a new one was fitted ...... success thank goodness.
Now to our evening shift, again in Mayor Clayton's Cafe, this time we were both given the task of stacking, clearing and sanitising the tables much as Debbie had done for the breakfast shift.
Now for another name for Debbie, we have already had Popeye but tonight she got the well deserved title of 'Boss'. Boss gave all the volunteers instructions of how things must be done and boy did she know what she was doing!! We worked along with a great bunch of volunteers tonight, everyone did as Boss told them and we had lots of fun and laughter. We met Lori and her lovely daughters, the family had been recipients of GKTW hospitality themselves as one of the daughters had been diagnosed with cancer when she was a two year old and now the family have moved to Florida and they have become volunteers themselves, the girls were now 17 and 15. We all had such fun and chatted with a few families too. Some young children were up on the stage singing and dancing and giving bows, Lori and I went to join them singing Twinkle twinkle little star, it was great.
Now 99.99999999% of the families here are wonderful and so very, very appreciative of what is provided for them here and especially what the volunteers do - we did however have the 'joy ' of running around for a family tonight, fetch me this, fetch me that, with no please or thank you's. They also came in late and stayed for ages, three bottles of tomato ketchup were emptied, they were all full at the start as that is one of our roles to check the condiments are there and full. Everyone of us agreed that they were challenging but of course we said nothing and smiled all the time, well outwardly at least. Now to the other 99.999999999%, well they were all amazing, some made us feel very humble with their love and care for their children. I could add so much here about them but perhaps those things will stay in my heart and head.
Now back to the Boss, we all really worked as a team tonight and had fun, thanks Debbie, aka Popeye.
Got back to the villa just after 9 o'clock but my back, feet and legs were about to give out on me so we plumped for toast, bagel, smoked salmon and cream cheese plus a glass or two of proseco. I was completely worn out so didn't manage to finish this blog last night so am doing so at 6 am. I slept really well and hope that my body clock is knowing where it is at now. So not goodnight this time but good morning!
We made a decision not to get any food shopping and went back to the villa to relax a little and take in some sunshine around the pool, it was really hot and my iPad came up with a warning sign telling me it needed to cool down, I agreed with it and went back inside to the air conditioning.
As we were back to the village for 530 we had a late lunch again and I wish I had taken a photograph of it to share....... Debbie should actually be renamed Popeye as she loves spinach and her plate was piled high with the stuff but we were both very healthy again. While we were getting lunch ready a lady and gentlemen arrived to repair the smoke detector and to make sure the phone was okay. I can't remember if I said about this was both the phone and smoke detector were making us bleeping mad as all they were doing was beeping. Had the telephone man round and he said the line was fine but it was the phone that was faulty, new phone, problem solved. Now normally when a smoke detector bleeps it means a new battery is needed, not so this time, it had three new batteries and still beeped so the conclusion was the unit was faulty and a new one was fitted ...... success thank goodness.
Now to our evening shift, again in Mayor Clayton's Cafe, this time we were both given the task of stacking, clearing and sanitising the tables much as Debbie had done for the breakfast shift.
Now for another name for Debbie, we have already had Popeye but tonight she got the well deserved title of 'Boss'. Boss gave all the volunteers instructions of how things must be done and boy did she know what she was doing!! We worked along with a great bunch of volunteers tonight, everyone did as Boss told them and we had lots of fun and laughter. We met Lori and her lovely daughters, the family had been recipients of GKTW hospitality themselves as one of the daughters had been diagnosed with cancer when she was a two year old and now the family have moved to Florida and they have become volunteers themselves, the girls were now 17 and 15. We all had such fun and chatted with a few families too. Some young children were up on the stage singing and dancing and giving bows, Lori and I went to join them singing Twinkle twinkle little star, it was great.
Now 99.99999999% of the families here are wonderful and so very, very appreciative of what is provided for them here and especially what the volunteers do - we did however have the 'joy ' of running around for a family tonight, fetch me this, fetch me that, with no please or thank you's. They also came in late and stayed for ages, three bottles of tomato ketchup were emptied, they were all full at the start as that is one of our roles to check the condiments are there and full. Everyone of us agreed that they were challenging but of course we said nothing and smiled all the time, well outwardly at least. Now to the other 99.999999999%, well they were all amazing, some made us feel very humble with their love and care for their children. I could add so much here about them but perhaps those things will stay in my heart and head.
Now back to the Boss, we all really worked as a team tonight and had fun, thanks Debbie, aka Popeye.
Got back to the villa just after 9 o'clock but my back, feet and legs were about to give out on me so we plumped for toast, bagel, smoked salmon and cream cheese plus a glass or two of proseco. I was completely worn out so didn't manage to finish this blog last night so am doing so at 6 am. I slept really well and hope that my body clock is knowing where it is at now. So not goodnight this time but good morning!
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