Up the hill with Kim & Ellen
It was about this time when Lyn, who is one of the about 50 permanent residents at Falls and the manager of the Lodge in the summer, slipped and broke a leg. She was to be the breakfast chef over the winter….not now….she was shipped off to Albury for an operation and returned a week later on crutches. There was only one family staying that week and Brian was getting up to cook for them but wanted someone else doing it. I used to cook the Barbie’s at home and cooked a mean breakfast, so I put my hand up. I thought, how hard can it be? until it was pointed out to me that I would be cooking up to 50 breakfasts in an hour and a half. There was one condition; Brian had to stay out of the Kitchen! He had tried to show me how things were, in a commercial kitchen but only managed to wind me up, by running around like a chook with its head chopped off. Instead, Lyn would hobble up the stairs and sit in the corner and give me direction (calmly), until I got a routine together. So I was the new breakfast chef. The only thing that really gave me grief was the hollandaise sauce for the eggs benedict but I got there in the end.
I enjoyed my new job, even getting up at 6am, 6 days a week didn’t seem a chore and it kept me out of the Man at night. I’d get all the stories though, Kim at 20 years old and a seasoned boarder and goon drinker would arrive at 7am to get set for waitressing, with a huge smile and a little giggle, she’d remember in bits and pieces what went on the night before. The kitchen was more like a confessional, Lyn and I could only smile at the joy and exuberance of youth.
I am…. THE LONESOME TRAVELLER….travelling east….BE HAPPY!
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