Hello everyone.
Well I find myself in Sydney again after something of a change of plans.
From Melbourne I headed to Newcastle in order to catch up with Dools before he headed off to Ghana. A rather heavy night followed, which resulted in me spending a little longer in Newcastle than I expected, sleeping off a hangover.
You may remember that the last time you heard from me I was about to head off to work on a holiday resort. Well, that turned into a farce after I arrived (witho
ut a hangover might I add) to be told that there was not much work available, having been told on 5 occasions by the manager that there was plenty of work. This was a shame as the chalet I had been given sat on the banks of the Myall Lakes and had an incredible view.
After an evening of being angry and pacing a lot I decided that this was merely an opportunity to try pastures new. Sadly I had no money, so visiting pastures new was not an option.
The next morning I awoke early and hitched my way back down to Sydney (thanks to a very nice man called Tom who gave me a lift) as I knew there was a floor here for me to doss on whilst I worked out what to do next. Luckily Chris and David (2 German friends who I met when I was first in Sydney) let me stay with them back in the ‘freaks circus’ that is Kings Cross.
Over the next few days I frantically applied for as many jobs as possible in the hope that sooner or later someone might feel the need to employ a POM. This was a desperate period and reminded me of when I first left university and thought that in order to get a job I might need to sell my soul. One group interview I attended was full of people who said things like “I’m passionate about finance” and “I live for selling”. Now, if the role I had been going for was that of CEO at ‘Microsoft’ then I would have expected such claims, but this was a simple cold calling job, trying to sell people something that they probably didn’t need, the details of which I can’t even remember now. I actually considered running out of the room we were in, but annoyingly was at the back and would have caused too much commotion in doing so.
A week later I found myself in employment, having been hired by a company called the ‘CIT Group’. In fact I ended up being offered 3 jobs on the same day. The deal breaker for me when choosing which job to accept was the hours. This job allows me to start at 8.30 and finish at 5. This is perfect as it allows me to watch ‘Neighbours’ (screened between 6.30 and 7 here) and also start training with Hexham’s top of the table football team, Dunbar Rovers. I basically just answer the phone and complete admin work in the office, which pays me enough to eat and keep a roof over my head.
The first week of work saw me re-united with an old friend from South America. That’s right, diarrhea came back to ha
unt me yet again after a late night chicken burger at the back end of an evening tripping the light fantastic on Oxford Street, ironically celebrating my introduction back into the world of work. As a result I spent the first few days in my new job regularly darting off to the toilet. I think people now just assume that I drink a lot of water.
After finding work the next job on my ‘to do list’, was to find somewhere to live. At this point I had briefly moved back to Bondi to live with Eoin, Naomi and Terrence, 3 of the Irish who had a spare bed in their flat. After viewing various houses and flats I finally came across a house just a 10 minute walk away from work.
The house is populated with 3 Aussies, Brigette, Kate and Nick, who are all fair-dinkum and seem to be the only Australians in Australia who like ‘Neighbours’, which went down very well with me when viewing the house. I have a small granny flat type room in the garden, complete with a double bed, which is a real luxury now.
After some lovely autumn like weather when I first returned, Sydney has now gone back to what seems to be its default weather setting, rain. The rain actually arrived the day I moved into my new place, which is particularly annoying as I have to go outside in order to get to my bedroom, so seem to be getting wet far too much at the moment.
Over the last week or so my sleep patterns have gone to pot in an attempt to follow the football back in Europe. SBS (the terrestrial broadcaster that screens games in Oz) only has 8 live games, of which only the final is a knockout game. This means that if I want to watch any of the quarter or semi finals then I am going to have to find a pub that is open at 4.30am and has Setanta sports. Where there is a will there is a way! This huge time gap has made to start to worry about what might happen if Australia were to host the 2018 World Cup. Mental note: ‘If that happens come back here in 2018’.
So far I have managed to see every screened game apart from one, and that happened to be the game of the tournament so far, Czech Republic versus Turkey. Sods law or what! I did manage to see the Dutch destroy the French though, which brought a smile to my face. Smugness is hardly a luxury I can't afford though bearing in mind the mess we are in.
A few observations:
Football can mean a variety of sports here, including Aussie Rules and Rugby League and Rugby Union, but strangely never football, which they refer to using the S word. Slightly backward if you ask me.
The number of advert breaks during shows in this country is breathtaking. Somehow they actually manage to fit 3 (yes THREE) advert breaks into one episode of ‘Neighbours’.
Most English/Irish people who have spent longer than 3 months here appear to have turned into absolute wimps and seem to think that anything under 20 degrees is cold. Good luck if any of you ever plan to go home.
Hexham, you aren’t included in that statement.
Most adverts seem to feature actors and actresses who used to be in ‘Neighbours’ and have now fallen on harder times.
For a country that prides itself on its ‘fair-dinkum Aussie bloke’ culture, a lot of the men seem to have very girly names. For example, last week at work I spoke to men called Kerry, Stacey and Lindsay.
Australia is still making 'Gladiators'. Fantastic!
Tipex is called liquid paper.
Oh yeah, you may have been wandering why, on my month in Melbourne I didn’t head to the ‘Neighbours’ set. Well, when Dec had been living in Melbourne he had waited until I arrived to visit ‘Ramsey Street’, so bearing this in mind I felt it only fair that I wait for him to return before I head ‘Erinsborough’ way.
I have an email address at work now that I am checking constantly between the hours of 8.30 and 17.00 (23.30 and 8.00 in England) Monday to Friday, so can be contacted via this address: ian.vincent@cit.com.
And just one more thing. It would appear that more babies are being born back home, so this time can I congratulate Carly and Danny who had a baby last week and have called it Tom.
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