Day 22 – Friday 26th November - “Eggy Bagel”

Woke up today still feeling absolutely terrible. Sat in bed and watched some of Day 2’s Ashes. England were getting so battered by Australia. Not good.

Finally got around to working on a new minimix for September. It’d been so unsettled with my final month in England and then also with the move that I hadn’t actually got around to making any. I was now 3 months behind.

It’s just so hard trying to get one done when I don’t have any speakers and only one ear on my headphones worked. Really not the ideal environment to work with.

It was only me and Hannah home around dinnertime so we went down to Coles and got some stuff to make omelettes.

When the others got home I ended up having an incredible disagreement/tame argument with Mike, Hannah & Becks about making an eggy bagel. Hannah’s argument was that the egg wouldn’t cook. It went on for about 20 minutes and by the end we were both still convinced that we were both in the right still.

Day 21 – Thursday 25th November - “The dust from the Labouring is destroying me now”

Feeling absolutely shocking today. The dust from the Labouring is destroying me now. Never felt as rough apart from when I had Glandular Fever obviously.

Decided to just lie in bed and watch the Ashes. It’s so good being able to watch it all live. Usually you only get to watch the highlights, hear the result or you have to stay up stupidly late/all night.

Decided also that I should probably catch up with writing my diary. Being almost 2 weeks behind where I should have been is not ideal, especially when you start forgetting what it is you’ve been doing. I’ve had to start planning on a bit of paper all the things I’ve done and try and match them to the days in which I did them.

Day 20 – Wednesday 24th November - “Wow what an absolute cock up of epic proportions I had made”

Had to sacrifice going to work in Marrickville today because I’d booked to do my RSA (Responsible Sales of Alcohol) today. As I’ve said already in order to work in a bar/hotel etc in New South Wales you need to have this RSA certificate. I thought I would get it done and out of the way so it could open me up to be able to do lots more jobs.

The place where it was being held was only around the corner from my hostel so it was going to be easy to get to. I knew it was going to be boring because people I know had already done it and they said it was shocking. It just annoyed me that it was going to take all the way up until 3:30.

The old boy doing the lecture was banging on and progress was mind-meltingly slow. He kept talking about Gambling and Pokie Machines. I kept thinking how is this relevant in any way. I even checked the booklet we were working through and it didn’t mention Alcohol once. That’s when I thought this can’t be right. I turned to the Swedish kid next to me and asked him if this was RSA. He said No? I called over the lecturer straight away and I asked him, he confirmed that this was in fact RCG (Responsible Conduct of Gambling) not RSA. Wow what an absolute cock up of epic proportions I had made.

At lunchtime I went to reception and asked them what had happened, they said that I’d booked the wrong one and it was my fault. It was misleading because the email address was from RSA Sydney. I asked them what the best thing to do would be, they advised me that if I left I wouldn’t get a refund and I was half way already so I may as well just finish it. So I did, I stayed and finished it. It wasn’t all such a loss after all though. A lot of the other people there had done their RSA’s the day before and were doing their RCG’s today because they said you usually need both to work in a bar because they also have Slot Machines etc.

So now it seems I’d also be qualified to work in a Casino as well. Maybe I’ll never use it but at least I do have it anyway.

Later that evening I got chatting to Jess & Hannah’s new roommates Brett & Colin from Essex. They were good lads, we watched Wolverine on the TV in the kitchen.

Worked on a few tunes before bed. I’m absolutely desperate for new headphones now. I’m getting sick of only hearing half the world.

Day 19 – Tuesday 23rd November - “Of all towns, times and places I ended up walking into my old housemate”

Another early start, 7am. Have to be in Marrickville for a whole day for 8am. Of all towns, times and places I ended up walking into my old housemate Matt Hill in Kings Cross train station. He had been in Brisbane and had just got into Sydney that morning. I said I’d catch up with him later. I ended up missing the train I was meant to be on for this reason so I was a few minutes late getting there.

Artists Impression of my Lungs

Experienced a whole day of the same tedious, backbreaking, body sweating, lung destroying, eye scratching, cleaning and moving bricks about. The reason we were actually doing this was because the bricks it had been made of were old school original sandstone bricks that are very popular nowadays and can fetch a really good price when you sell them.

It was just me and this other kid Rory; he was extremely boring and barely spoke to me at all throughout the day. Would have been so much better if I was doing it with somebody interesting or even a mate would have been key, at least then we could talk through it. It was so hot the whole day. I could never see myself doing it as a full time job day in day out. It’s just not me; I’m definitely more of a visual person, maybe even an office pen pusher as a last resort.

I must have consumed a whole house full of brick dust throughout the day. I didn’t even get given a dust mask until about an hour from the end, I thought it was getting too ridiculous because of the wind so I went and asked him if he had one, was nice of him to offer me one first. Ended up getting paid $260 cash in hand for 1½ days work. Nice little earner. But it had destroyed my lungs.

Day 18 – Monday 22nd November - “I’ve been calling her Tour Guide Barbie”

Had to be up at 8am to get to the interview for 9am. Took a train to Central but then realised when I got there that I didn’t actually know where I was meant to be going when I got to Central Station. Luckily I had my laptop with me so I took it out in the middle of the street and started working out the way. This is really what I miss about having my iPhone. The ease and accessibility of never having to be in a position like that ever again.

Finally found the office and got greeted by the famous woman that I’ve not actually written about or mentioned yet. I’ve been calling her Tour Guide Barbie from Toy Story 2 to everybody here. She’s the woman from the company that’s been ringing me with regards to the interview. She’s the most excited and energetic person in the whole world. She’s also very official and lives her life like she’s in a script.

She got me to fill out some forms and then took me and some other Swedish kid through to another room to meet the male trainer. There were also 4 or 5 girls there too but we left them in reception because we were “working on gender lines today” (sexism then basically).

He took us downstairs and we met up with 2 other boys that appeared to have been already doing it before. The trainer said we were off to Town Hall and it was a nice day so we should walk. He really reminded me of when Dane Cook does his gay character voice, although this wasn’t put on. He was just gay.

The monument we were based on for Marketing

We got to Town Hall and we set up base on the monument. The two not so new boys put on Australian Red Cross t-shirts and neck tags. The trainer then asked them what their target was going to be for the day.

Instantly I just thought, “this is bollocks”. I know the job stated that it was about raising brand awareness but this did not fall under the Marketing category at all in my eyes. Especially when you’re just working as a street sales man. Yeah it’s a charity but still after a couple of minutes in the city centre I could already tell for myself that the people of the public just weren’t interested. The trainer was just embarrassing, he kept coming up to me like “Oh we do these really fun games where we try and guess where the backpackers are from” or “We try and do the funniest walk or dance to get somebody’s attention”. I was watching him go “Hi Friend” to random passers by. It was just so cringey. I’d already lost interest within 10 minutesof being there and I couldn’t even be bothered to fill out the booklet he’d given me that I was meant to be doing.

I decided to hit him with one last question that had the power to tip the whole thing. I quizzed him about the pay scheme. I found out that it was all commission only. That did tip it. I said to him that I couldn’t work without money promises and it wasn’t the sort of Marketing that I was expecting or used to. I said it wasn’t me and I wouldn’t be able to be like or do what they were doing day in day out. He said fair enough, you might as well leave it now then. Bang. So I did, I left after 15 minutes. The way I look at it, it was just another opportunity to test out my options, I’m glad this one didn’t filter through, and I’m also glad I got rid of it sooner rather than later.

The Apple Store was really nearby so I went in just to check up on my Facebook etc. Whilst I was there I ended up applying for a job at the Apple Store. I wasn’t too hopeful because I know its such a gruelling process to be successful but I didn’t see any harm in trying.

Also whilst I was there it had to be about time to get back on Gumtree again and get looking for another job opportunity. I noticed a job that hadn’t been posted too long ago about Labouring in Marrickville. Normally I just ignore Labouring jobs because you need so many things to be able to do them, experience obviously being the key one. But this one mentioned nothing about experience, tools, white cards, green cards or even having to have your own transport. I thought this is one I have to ring. The bloke said that he hadn’t filled it yet and that if I could come down today that would be very ideal. I thought for a second and then thought yeah why not. Give me a couple of hours and I’m there. Now for $22.50 an hour that is some great news and a great turnaround for the day, after the unsuccessful morning I had just had.

Shot back home, fixed a sandwich, and got back on the road again to Marrickville. Five stops South Westerly from Central on the Bankstown Line. Got there a little early met the bloke and another kid that was also going to be working with me called Rory from Belfast. The job was to collect all the bricks from the extension of a 100-year-old house he was knocking down. We then had to clean off all the old cement and then restack them at the end of the garden. It was backbreaking, tedious and pretty boring. It was also really hard in such high heats. For half a days work though it worked out very well for me in the end. I’m also working tomorrow all day.

Day 17 – Sunday 21st November - “It reminded me of being about 10 years old again”

Because it was the weekend and most people work midweek it was inevitable that we all wanted to go to the beach today. Just the day before Aaron had been to a beach that was within walkable distance from Kings Cross. The beach was called Redleaf just past Double Bay and Edgecliff. Redleaf was basically a man-made pool cut off from the main seawater.

Ironically Aaron didn’t even come with us. He’d been up all night waiting for the Bolton game and also getting horrendously drunk.

I was told that the walk was only going to take about 25 minutes. This was in fact a lie. It took about 45 minutes.  We were all absolutely dieing to get into the water when we got there because it was just so hot.  We hadn’t really got too organised to be honest as we got there at 3, this meaning we’d basically wasted the whole day already.

It was good fun diving and flipping off of the perimeter walkway. It really reminded me of being about 10 years old again on holiday spending relentless hours in the water all day. We even had a last man standing tournament between all the boys out on the platform in the middle of the water.

I actually got round to reading some of book for once as well, had hardly read any of it since being out here. Not been delegating my time too well. Oh well, I’m having an amazing time all the same.

After taking the 50-minute walk back home, chatted to some people, got some dinner, watched some TV and then decided to get an early night. Need to be up early for the job interview at 9am. 

Day 16 – Saturday 20th November - “I got to stroke a kangaroo”

Woke up to the face and voice of Mr Mike Hanlon. I had already been expecting it before it came to be honest.

We left for 9, got the train to Circular Quay, then the ferry just over the harbour to Taronga Zoo.

It had the most amazing thing at the entrance to the zoo. A cable car ride over the top of the whole zoo from the bottom of the hill up to the beginning at the top of the hill. You get to see so much of what you are about to see just by flying over it. Times like that actually having the camera I lost would have been extremely ideal.

The zoo was really good, most zoo’s are obviously all relatively the same, but at this one I got to stroke a kangaroo, saw some crazy mountain goats, a superb sea lion show, pythons, koala’s and a million different types of birds. I also got to see a Snow Leopard up close, which was a real surprise considering Australia is obviously hot?

Bex & Mike

It was $39 (£24) for the zoo entrance, cable car and ferry for a day out. Especially as I will probably only need to and want to do once. That’s a steal.

The weather was still amazing when we got back to the hostel at 6, just in time for the weekly hostel BBQ. Got some beer’s in. Saw Charlie preparing the BBQ in the kitchen and he told me that if you help out each week you get the rent for you room halved for the week. For 5 hours work on a Saturday of preparation, cooking and tidying up that is a good deal. If I’m ever free on a Saturday I’d happily do that.

BBQ was amazing as always. For $5 (£3) you can’t go wrong. Eat as much as you can handle of home made burgers, sausages, and chicken legs. So nice, so full. Chilled and chatted on the roof with a few drinks for the evening. Pretty much the definition of an Australian life.

I was meant to be going down to the Dubstep/Drum & Bass night tonight in the city. But the way the time had passed already I absolutely could not be bothered. I had really wanted to go as well but at $35 it didn’t seem like a good deal compared to what I’m used to paying back at home. I was meant to be flogging tickets for it as well but I knew that it was never going to happen, I hadn’t met a single person that was on the same page as me with music taste yet.

I text the promoter I’d met that I couldn’t afford $35. She replied with “GRRR Bloody Backpackers” then after a few texts she said I could come for free. That was a result; I kind of had no reason not to go now.

I went down, it was fairly dead, nothing on English nights, but the sound system was good and everybody loved it. Reso was amazing.

Apparently it was obvious that I was standing on my own as soon as I got in there because a girl and her mates invited me over to sit with them. Thought that was really nice of them, they were from New Zealand and Australia. Made it less awkward to watch on my own.

Day 15 – Friday 19th November - “Bought a football from the 2 Dollar shop. It was $12?”

Woke up a few times in the night for some reason, the most relevant and prevalent time was at 9:15 when I noticed that Aaron was still in bed. Baring in mind he was meant to be at his White Card Lecture for 8:45. Because of this I therefore began to throw miscellaneous objects at him. Woke him up, told him the time and he was like “OH SHITT!!!” Not only was it the fact that he had missed the lecture but he had also told work that he couldn’t come in today because of the lecture, so now he had nothing for the day. Luckily he hadn’t paid for the lecture yet though.

We had some banter about the erroneous behaviour he had displayed and then decided to get up for some food.

When we got downstairs we chatted with loads of the others and came to the decision that we should go play a big game of football at Rushcutter’s Park. Me & Danny went and bought a football from the 2 Dollar shop. It was $12? Answer me that.

Headed to the Deli Sandwich Shop on the corner of our street with Aaron & Jess. Fixed myself an $8 badboy of a sandwich. Chicken Schnitzel, Bacon, Cheese, Lettuce & Sweet Chilli Sauce. So nice. Worth every cent.

Rushcutters from the air

Got everybody together and headed down to Rushcutter’s. It’s literally just down the road from our hostel so really good to have it nearby. It’s a park that faces part of the harbour; you can see the Harbour Bridge, but distantly. It’s also where we go to the Jetty and swim in the harbour. Ended up being a 6-a-side game. Including 2 girls as well haha.

Loads of people decided to play barefoot, I wasn’t keen. It was good that it was a really mild day compared to what we’d been experiencing, made it much easier and bearable to run about in.

Rushcutters

When I got back to the hostel I checked my emails and found I’d been offered an interview 9am Monday morning at a Marketing company in Central Sydney. Although this was good news, I really wasn’t keen on doing it.  We’ll see how it goes though.

We got some beers in and sat on the roof in the sun to toast the weekend in.

Realised quite late into the night that I should probably had been getting an early night because I was getting up early to go to Taronga Zoo tomorrow.

Bex & Mike has said about going the week before and I really wanted to go as well. There was me thinking that everybody wanted to go though, but turned out that everyone had already been apart from Bex & Mike. Third wheel for me it is then.

Day 14 – Thursday 18th November - “The property itself was a nightmare, there was me thinking that we were just going to be just pulling up some weeds and planting some flowers”

Had to get up at 5:30am!!! So unbelievably early, didn’t even bother to have a shower because I’d just be getting dirty gardening again anyway. I’d also forgotten to make a lunch as well, I was so unprepared and I still wasn’t even positive about my journey over to North Sydney. Turns out I got there early in the end anyway, I suppose that’s a good thing though.

I thought it was just going to be me but there were 3 other boys in the car as well when I got there. The bloke we were working for (Peter) was an interesting man, very social. Because we had such a long journey ahead of us before we got to the place we were working, he was keen to hear about all of our back-stories. Out of a pure coincidence all 4 of us were a very multiculturally spread workforce. One was from California, one from Botswana and the other from Sweden.

Peter equally had quite a story himself as well. He had been a Vet for 20 years and had travelled a lot in his life; I suppose he did earn quite a lot of money though. Funnily enough he’d even lived in Newport Pagnell for a year.

The View

When we finally got to the site, it was right out in the sticks on the Newport Peninsula, about 45 minutes North of Sydney near Whale Beach. The views from the house were amazing and it was so quiet. The quietest yet considering I’ve been living in the heart of the city.

The property itself was a nightmare, there was me thinking that we were just going to be just pulling up some weeds and planting some flowers. I couldn’t have been any more wrong. Landscaping would have been a better description of what we were doing rather than gardening. The land around the house was huge and so overgrown. Between all of us we had to cut down like a million trees, bushes and stubborn weeds. The 30-degree temperatures really weren’t helping the fact that I’d never worked or sweat so hard in my whole life.

Piling Up

Half way through the day, productivity was already dieing off and we were thinking that Peter was probably going to call it a day. He asked us what we wanted to do. We were all keen to carry on just because it was a one off. Although I was one for, I saw the money and thought it was better to stay out when I’m already out. Because of this consensus he then moved us around to the back of the land (I’m going to call it land because there is no way that it could be considered to be a garden) to carry on with more back breaking work.

Whilst I was working really hard on my own in a particular area of the clearance process, suddenly, out of nowhere I felt a shooting pain in my ankle, I’d been bitten by something. I hadn’t seen what it was but when I looked down to see what it was I saw a spider nearby on one side of my foot and a red ant on the other. I had no idea what had bitten me but it really hurt, I’d never really looked into insects or read up about what ones you should avoid and what they look like.

Crazy Spider which I punched to death

I hobbled to the house with plenty of haste and the tenant was out in his garage. I told him what had happened and he went to get some Insect bite cream, he didn’t seem massively worried. I was the contrary, for all I knew at the time I could have been dieing and was pretty worried. I put some of the cream on it and he said to keep an eye on it. It hadn’t done anything bad yet and wasn’t swelling up or changing colour, which was a good thing.

It was a schoolboy in the first place to have worn shorts, but the fact that I thought I was actually only going to be gardening, I had no reason to believe I would need jeans. Especially when you associate working in the Australian heat, you assume you’re going to be hot and sweating to death.

Clearing out Palms from a hill

Luckily, I’ve survived and have been able to write this now so I am still alive, so don’t worry. If you actually was?

I’ve learnt from mistakes, but it still was the hardest day of my working life. Even near the end of the day we were still dragging branches as big as the world down the road and piling them up.

I find it really hard to come to terms with making good money by working as hard as I did.  This is mainly because I used to make similar money just by sitting on my arse all day pushing a mouse. Not a real mouse!

It was Beck’s birthday today so when I got home we all went out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant just down the road. It was the first time I’d ever had Japanese food. The prices were reasonable but the food was weird. I had a tray of about 6 different bowls of various stuff, and it literally was stuff. Tofu? Mussels, Soup, Teriyaki, Raw Fish and Salad with Wasabi.

I blew my head off when I accidentally ate all the Wasabi sauce in one sitting. I hadn’t even realised it was there because it was hidden. It was like eating a whole pot of Horseradish in one go, everybody laughed at me for ages. Put me off for life.

One other issue. Chopsticks. Why did they take the knife and fork, which is an advanced culinary technology and make it worse. It wasn’t broken so why fix it? Which they didn’t

Went to the pub afterwards for some drinks. The video below is a incredible moment where a drunk bloke is not able to walk.

Day 13 – Wednesday 17th November - “$20 per hour”

Social Network

In the morning I checked Gumtree, as I do on a daily basis. I saw an advert about a bloke looking for somebody to help out with some Gardening. It hadn’t been posted online long so I was excited to be within a good chance of being able to do it. With no experience necessary I couldn’t quibble. I gave him a ring and he said that he hadn’t filled it yet. Winner! He told me to meet him at North Sydney station tomorrow morning at 6.50am!!!

Disgustingly early start to be working but…it was for $20 per hour. That is a good deal. That translates to be £12 an hour. Nobody can argue with that, now you can understand why people come to Australia for better pay.

Danny and I had said the night before that we would go back to Will’s flat again today and play some Pro Evo. We walked over to his place and played a couple of games, made me feel a little like I was at home, but with a great view of Sydney’s skyline. Afterwards we ended up watching the new film about Facebook’s story, The Social Network. I had meant to catch it back in England before I left but never got round to it. I thought it was really good; the editing in particular was great, snappy and fast paced. Right up my alley.

Me & Danny

Got back to the hostel and somebody mentioned about watching Get Him To The Greek. This is a film I had already seen back at home but it’s one of them films where you could watch over and over again. Russell Brand smashes it.

Day 12 – Tuesday 16th November

Apart from collecting my new bank card I didn’t really do much in the day at all.

Sat about

Looked for a job
Watched some TV

Got some CV’s printed up.
Handed CV’s out to nearby shops and bars.

Booked my RSA Course (Responsible Sales of Alcohol – you have to have this to work in a bar in New South Wales)

Hopefully I’ll get a good response. Fingers crossed.

Met a friend of a friend who was an events manager who said he would try and sort me out with some DJ work. Key

We all ended up going out to a friend of a friend’s flat over on Oxford Street. It was a top floor flat of a big apartment block and the view of the city was so good. It was a really nice pad and was nice to feel a little bit of homeliness again. Nice, modern and plush.

We went to a bar just around the corner from the flat. It was pretty pricey and it ended up shutting at like Midnight. Its nothing what I’m used to from home. Especially as it was my first night out. I actually enjoy staying in the hostel drinking instead; it has a much better environment, plus it’s cheaper.

Day 11 - Monday 15th November - “Tax File Number, Green Card, White Card, ABN, RSA, RCG???”

Today’s weather was absolutely shocking compared to what we’d just experienced the day before. Ended up not really doing much at all for the day. Spoke to my girlfriend, friends and family back at home to catch up with everybody and fill them in on what I’d been up to.

Spent some more time looking into jobs that I could possibly do and actually be qualified to be able to do. It seems there are so many jobs that expect things I’ve never even heard of such as…a Tax File Number, a Green Card, White Card, ABN, RSA, RCG. Bit of a liberty. GIVE ME A JOB!

I must have watched at least 3 films throughout the day; it felt like one of them Sundays, apart from it was a Monday.

Hannah got home from work and said about cooking Thai food for everybody for dinner, was good to eat some real cooked dinner for once. We watched the film Seven Pounds with Will Smith in it. It’s a really good film, I’d heard a lot about it and it didn’t let me down, it’s got an excellent twist in it. 

Day 10 – Sunday 14th November - “McDonalds, Subway, KFC & Sweets"

Woke up to the sound of knocking. Came to my senses and got up. It was Hannah telling me to wake up. Today we’d all planned to go to Manly beach. I said I’d be ready. I wasn’t going to be. I ended up going back to sleep. Half an hour later I was woken up again by Mike telling me to get ready quickly or they were going to leave.

Ferry

It was really early, early enough even for a McDonalds breakfast. Hannah, Bex, Mike & I got a train to Circular Quay and then caught a surprisingly choppy, yet enjoyable ferry ride to Manly. Which is a first for me because I generally just don’t like boats and get pretty sea sick. It was really good to see the Opera House & Harbour Bridge from a different angle from within the actual harbour itself.

Manly is a really nice place but it’s also really expensive at the same time. This is where fast food visit number 2 of the day came in. Foot long Subway was on the menu for lunch so that we could take it with us onto the beach.

Manly

We decided not to go to the normal obvious main beach that most people would go to, we thought it would be quite obviously over crowded so we opted to find a smaller private little beach/bay to jam in. We found the perfect place that even had a manmade seawater pool next to it.

The weather was incredible and we couldn’t really have asked for a better day.

The actual seawater itself was so clear and absolutely freezing but also really refreshing to be in.

We ended up leaving at about 4 in the end, and it was still boiling hot at that time. To round off the general unhealthiness of the day, we stopped off at KFC for dinner on the way home. All round great day out. 

Day 9 - Saturday 13th November “The beach was SO busy, I’d never seen it so busy”

Everybody that wasn’t working wanted to go to Bondi Beach again today. I was ready so started cooking some boiled eggs for lunch before we left. I then found that everybody else was already leaving, I was mid cooking so I just said I’d meet them there.

Boiled eggs are the one.

I was going on my own until Charlie said they he wanted to come as well so I waited for him to get ready then we went down. It was all good until we had the insane sunny weekend bus queues. They are so ridiculous. Decided to give it one of them where we jumped the line. Not the nicest thing to do but we would never have got on if we hadn’t.

The beach was SO busy, I’d never seen it so busy and it was very very hot as well. We found the others and got somebody else to put sun cream on my back. Very important considering the schoolboy from last time.

Had a well good time and this was the perfect reason for coming to Australia in the first place. Good weather, good people, amazing country.

We left at about 4 because it was Laurie’s birthday and she’d got a free $100 bar tab at The Sugar Mill. Had a shower and then we all went out again to The Sugar Mill, got some wine in between about 10 of us and carried that on early into the next morning back in the hostel.

A Little Rant

I was watching TV the other day whilst getting ready and I’ve already seen some pretty chronic examples of what people mean when they say that Australians have shit TV.

Well what I saw was super shit TV. It kind of shocked me really how bad it was. There were SO many advert breaks and promotional cut-aways for the products where the presenter is like “So how does the blah blah work?” and then a face breakingly smiley company representative will explain how it’s the best thing since sliced bread.

After the whole 15 minutes of the advert it comes back to the actual This Morning style programme and you forget what you were actually watching. The presenter then goes on to talk about how Tiger Wood’s is teeing off in the Australian Golf Cup for about 30 seconds before it goes to some more adverts again.

It then comes back again and she’s got a TV check with her that’s going to make a Salad of some sort, probably because that’s all he’s got time to make.  She hurries him along in a cringey way. Then announces that they’ll be right back after this. Back to another promotional cutaway about Pre-Pay Christmas Hampers with another smiling women. Its absolute shit.

I have no idea how much the actual presenter women gets paid but she must be doing about 10 minutes of collective presenting throughout the whole hour.

Bring me the BBC.

Day 8 - Friday 12th November

For some reason I have absolutely no recollection of this day. That probably means that I did nothing. But I’m not really sure to be honest.

Lets just say that maybe I did some washing just to pack out the day and excite it a bit more than it really was.

Day 7 - Thursday 11th November “I decided to call it Upside Down, because of where I was in the world.”

I’d not really planned on doing much today so had a bit of a later start. Woke up and I was so hot, my sunburn was stinging like hell and was heating up my whole body.

Because my headphones had broken again on the plane over it was annoying me that I could only hear out of one of ears. I temporarily fixed them, which was gold. I sat downstairs in the kitchen and started working on a new tune.  After a couple of hours I had made pretty much a whole tune. I decided to call it Upside Down, because of where I was in the world.

Headphones are shit; keep cutting again and now there’s no obvious way to fix them. Annoying.

Nicola & Laurie asked me if I wanted to go to Bondi but I said I couldn’t because I had a bank appointment which I couldn’t really miss. Was kind of lucky as well because my sunburn was absolutely killing me and going to the beach to top up on a burn probably wasn’t the best idea and was also pretty embarrassing.

I kind of felt like I should do something today but I was being restricted by my bank appointment and also the fact that I’d already done so much already made me feel like I’d already been out here for so long. I’d not even been here a week yet. It was the same feeling as when I’d first started Uni. It’s all so new and you do so much that time goes so slowly.

Looked at few more jobs on Gumtree. Saw a few to do with promoting events. I was thinking about doing the charity jobs but after being stopped in the street by some, I really don’t know if I can be bothered with the unpredictable hassle of it. I’ve heard bad things as well.

Heard back from the big Sydney Dubstep/Drum & Bass night called Science Faction. They want me to come down to the office to meet with them. Sounds pretty good. Getting a job there would be ideal, but DJing for them would be the one.

Day 6 - Wednesday 10th November “I felt like I was in the film Jaws and people were about to start chipping it out of the water either bleeding or just screaming “SHARKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!”

Another early rise today at 8. Managed to catch the end of the Tottenham vs Sunderland game whilst eating breakfast. The hostel has FoxTel which is basically Sky but with a different name. It has like 150 channels so makes you feel right at home when loads of the same programmes are on from home.

Rang the bloke again about the DJ job, he asked me what I did and said he’d get back to me. Will you though?

Thought I’d go to the bank today and open an account, start getting the Australian ball rolling. Turns out they didn’t have anybody free so they said come back tomorrow when somebody would be available.

Because that had happened I thought I’d go check out Bondi Beach today. People are always talking about it as being an amazing beach so I wanted to see what the hype was about. Had to get a Train from Kings Cross to Bondi Junction then had to queue for ages to get a bus to Bondi Beach which was another 10 minutes. Got off the bus and the view was pretty incredible, the beach was really white and it was quite busy as well.

Bondi

It was insanely hot and sun cream was a necessity, luckily I’d bought some when I first got here. I really needed to get started on my tan, just so I don’t look like a fresh white travelling ghost. So many people are already so tanned.

I sat and wrote some more diary on the beach. To be perfectly honest, sunglasses would have been the absolute key but I hadn’t brought any with me as I’d been wearing my girlfriends Ray-Bans back home. Schoolboy error. I’d nearly bought some earlier in the day as well for $8. No idea why I didn’t because I really needed them right now.

There were so many foreign people on the beach, particularly Americans and French. A lot of people were also in the sea, I wasn’t going to be getting in because of pranging about the Sharks, plus I had my laptop bag with me.

I felt like I was in the film Jaws and people were about to start chipping it out of the water either bleeding or just screaming “SHARKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!”

I’d set my alarm for 3:30pm because I needed to go to the record shop today for 5 if I was going to get networked with “the boys”. Had to give it time to get back get cleaned up and make it over to Oxford Street area.

The alarm went off and I’d pretty much been asleep because it was so bastad hot. Got my things together and as soon as I stood up the sky clouded over and a massive clap of thunder came out of nowhere. It couldn’t have been any more perfect timing, in two senses. 1. I was leaving anyway 2. Every man and his dog also got up and tanked it off the beach. The already normally packed buses were rammed to death. It was still so hot as well so it was so stuffy. I was lucky to get on the first one with a bit of organised pushing.

The heavens had absolutely opened, ridiculous rain on the train home and when I got out of the station at Kings Cross the whole street was actually flooding as you can see in the video I took. Even took me ages to get back to the hostel from the station which is just round the corner because I had to slowly work my way from shop cover to cover to stop getting drenched. It was just so typical and annoying that the one time I want to go somewhere the weather is piss poor. I really wanted to go over to the record store but by now it was already nearly 5. Sat it out for a bit more then it cleared up. I got a jacket and braved it. Because I was walking so fast, it wasn’t raining and it was still hot. I was absolutely boiling in the new winter clothes I’d put on.

When I got to the store, there were geezers just jamming to Drum & Bass really loudly. Got chatting to them, in particularly an English bloke called LaFoy or LaFroy? His DJ name was Spikey Tee though. He’d been living here for 9 years and said he’d come out here stupidly out of love for a girl. He was a funny bloke. He was interested to hear my stuff so I linked him up to my mixes and tunes and he did the same. Hopefully might go back every now and then and just jam with them.

Took a trip to the city afterwards to look about again. I decided to try out the train system on the way home. Whilst I was in there I saw Jess & Hannah, my roommates who’d just been to the cinema. I can’t believe I’d never thought of taking the train home before. It normally takes 30-40 mins to walk home. The train took 2. Learn something new everyday. This will save me a hell of a lot of time.

Got back to the hostel and took my shirt off in the room and everybody was like “Oh My God”. I hadn’t even realised but I’d burn my back so badly. I obviously hadn’t put on my sun cream probably because I had a blatant handprint where I’d only reach certain parts in the middle of my back. Although it hurt it was pretty funny.

Things that are different, better, strange, annoying in Australia

·    Roads are so wide, long and open, you can literally see for 2 miles down a road.

·    There are SO MANY tramps!!! Especially where I’m living in Kings Cross, which is basically the Red Light District. They’re loud, annoying and relentlessly dirty.

Ibis

·    This animal is like an addition to their pigeons. It’s called an Ibis. They just walk about and they’re pretty weird. They look like turkeys.

·    Their Fanta is ridiculously Orange coloured.

·    Cans of Solo (Lemon) are amazing. (Can of Solo *In the tune of Jason Derulo – Ridin Solo*)

·    Cheap wine is called Goon. It’s flat, horrible and gives you chronic heartburn.

·    Internets Shit

·    Australians have a lot of leisure time and money. Mainly because of their high wages and climate. There are thousands of cafes and they eat out all the time.

Day 5 – Tuesday 9th November “I ended up putting down a deposit for it. It was about $1000”

Everybody had work again so I was up early anyway. Thought I’d catch the free breakfast before going out.

Went to the police station to report my camera missing just in case by some miracle somebody had handed it in. They told me that the place to report it was on the phone with a serial number rather than in the actual station.

Went to an Internet Café to print out a CV for the record store. Also looked on Gumtree (a traveller’s bible for jobs in Australia) at lots of different jobs. I think its good because I’ve been looking at so many jobs that normally back home I would never even consider doing which I’m actually contemplating here, e.g. a Junior Tennis coach. Ha.

Already got some catalogue delivering line up in the CBD for a week in December. It’s all money though, which is obviously the key.

Also possible charity work, event promotions and the potential record shop job. It’s all about just waiting now to hear back.

As I left the Internet Café to go to the record store I got stopped by a backpacker style travel agent shop asking me if I had any plans to go travelling around Australia. She asked me if I had any time to go through what options there were. I thought I didn’t really have to be anywhere so why not take a look at what was on offer. Especially as I hadn’t really made any plans yet for my time in Australia.

She sat me down and told me about the main East Coast trip that most people did, I let her go through it bit by bit. Although I did only just go in to hear what she had to say, I actually got really hooked into what it included. It’s not even that she was good at her job and convincing, the trip generally just spoke for itself and had so much involved in it. The pictures looked amazing and I know that so many people that travel to Australia either have done it or choose to do this same thing. I ended up putting down a deposit for it and can pay it off nearer the time. It was about $1000, which isn’t all too bad, considering if I can get a good job that can pay more than enough for me to be able to save enough.

Finally took the walk up to the record store to hand in my CV. Picked up another magazine and sat on a bench to give it a flick. Found a jobs section in the back. There was a club looking for a DJ. Was starting to look like everything I did had a certain level of fate. I decided to give the number a ring but the receptionist there told me to ring tomorrow morning instead.

The view from where I sat

Sat in the park for what must have been about 2 hours writing up the past days of diary, seeing as I’d been so busy being a tourist etc. When I’d finished I walked over the road and went and looked around the new Westfield Shopping Centre that had just been built in the city. I was so impressed with it. I had about 6 floors of relentless plush, expensive branded shops such as Swarovski, Adidas, Prada etc. All with amazing décor on each one. No cheap shops in this place, not like England would have it.

The bottom floor was the most insane bit of the whole place; it went on across ways and joined on to other shopping centres underground. I’d never seen anything like it and it felt like I must have been walking for about a mile underneath the city.

Day 4 - Monday 8th November “Saw some badass Sharks, Stingrays, Turtles and general fish.

Everyone in the hostel goes to work in the week, so it seems I was on my own for the day. I decided to be a typical tourist and go sightseeing. Plus I need to work out my way around the city anyway.

Finally got round to writing the postcards and sent them to the girls. Found the nearest supermarket, which funnily was called Woolworths (not the one we’re used to, its more like an Asda over here), and made some sandwiches. Headed back to the hostel and spoke to the owner about the music scene out here. I wanted to find out the best places to go and what nights were around. He pointed me in the direction of a few good magazines and record shops to check out nearby that might be able to help me out.

Danny (Hostel Owner) drew me out a map of how to get to the places so I set out and followed my way to them. The first shop was called Hum, it was basically HMV, fairly generic shop but I asked them about the magazines that Danny had mentioned anyway. They had them and she gave me a copy of all of them. She also recommended going to the Record Store just around the corner which would probably deal more with what I was looking for.

Took a walk around to the store but the bloke was just going out, he told me to come back on Wednesday and the owner (who was a DJ) would be around then. Also if I was to come at about 5:30 that would be when ‘the boys’ came in and they have a mix. Sounds like excellent news. I asked him if there was anywhere else around that would be good to go to, he said that just around the corner there was another place as well. This was a plush looking place that also sold equipment as well as records. They didn’t really stock much Dubstep & Drum and Bass though. He told me that were looking for somebody to fill a part time job vacancy but I would have to be quick with my CV if I was interested. I said I’d get mine to him ASAP.

Darling Harbour

From there most of the errands were done so thought I’d walk to the city. Headed off to Darling Harbour. It was a pretty long walk but was good for getting to know my way about still.

Darling Harbour is a cool place, full of places to eat and drink, and generally seems like the centre of entertainment. Even has the world’s biggest IMAX cinema.  I recognised across the harbour the hotel that my Mum & Dad had stayed in just the previous year which I remember seeing a photo of.

Darling Harbour

I was pretty annoyed that I no longer had a camera and also the battery on my iPhone was dieing so couldn’t really take any photo’s whilst I was there.

Took a look at James Cooks’ ship in the Harbour and also an old school submarine sitting next to it, didn’t bother paying to go on though.

The sky came over all overcast and I’d reached the end of the other side of the Harbour by the Wharf’s. I’d kind of run out of places to go nearby so I decided to go check out the Aquarium. It was only $23 for a student. I’d been doing lots of currency conversion’s on my phone so I could work what was and wasn’t a good deal. The aquarium was only £14 so that was a good deal for a one off.

Shark

Saw some badass Sharks, Stingrays, Turtles and general fish.

When I left I took a turning out of the wharf point and ended up in the CBD somehow. Because I was knackered I thought I’d get a train back home. That’s where I was wrong.

It was rush hour, there were business heads rushing all over the place, and the map didn’t make any sense to me at all. I decided to come to terms with the fact that I was lost again but try finding my own way out of it. I took a few nose-following turns and found my way back to familiar territories.

Stopped off at the Apple Store for a bit on the way home then walked back during the most insane Thunderstorm I had seen in my life. Relentless, constant flashing but for some reason there was no sound.