Prince Albert Raiders: Hockey players or perverts?

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[youtube=B5EghXaLQqE]

After months of no work, I finally got round to looking for something. To start with I checked papers and websites. The papers were rubbish and the websites had a few good leads. Calgary is an oil and gas city so wages are higher than the rest of the country. It means that people are flocking to the city in search of jobs. Besides this, when we first arrived there were ads for jobs in lots of shop windows. For this reason I was filled with optimism that I would find something. I was excited when I read a job posting for a web content specialist at West Jet, one of the local airlines. I applied, got an interview and then got asked back for a second competency interview. I had never had a competency interview before so prepared for days. I thought it went well but apparently not. I was pissed off in the end that they didn't even call, all I got was a sorry you didn't get the job email. I have since heard that the job was given to the HR lady at WestJet's son. So boycott WestJet and fly with AirCanada in a show of solidarity. Together we can make a difference. I should become a politician.

So after putting all my eggs in one basket and hoping for the WestJet job I was back at square one. It was during this time that I spent time creating a website for the concreting company I used to work for in England. I spent a lot of hours fine tuning and produced the following website that I am proud of www.stylecretecumbria.com. Also check out the website I made for my Dad for christmas: www.astle.co.nz.

In the end job-wise Nic and I went into a few recruitment companies. This is when our luck changed. One of them took a shine to Nic and offered her a job actually working for the recruitment company. So she started at Mark Staffing recruitment the next week. This was perfect for me too because she could find me temporary work.

My first role was with the Calgary Flames ice hockey team who are undoubtedly Calgary's pride and joy. It was supposedly a 2 day job but turned into 2 and a half weeks. It was pretty simple work, just sorting and sending tickets, customer service and a few other odd jobs. I liked the environment it reminded me of my time working with New Zealand Cricket. My reward at the end was free tickets for Nicola, Tina and I to go and see the Calgary Hitmen who are the junior (under 21) side. They are trying to make the big time so play their hearts out which makes for a good spectacle. The game we saw was a good'n with the Hitmen clinching a win near the end.

Highlights of working at the Flames were laughing at people with stupid names and searching for people with famous names like Michael Bolton and Alex Ferguson. It was funnier at the time. What you may laugh at is one of the teams the Hitmen play against is called the Prince Albert Raiders. Think about that one for a second ...

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