Thought i would give you all a quick update as things have become a bit more settled for me in just the last week or so.
After a great 3 weeks travelling the East Coast and a good Festive blow out i eventually had to knuckle down and find myself a job and somewhere to stay in Sydney. I moved out of the party hostel on Pitt Street and to a much quieter hostel for long termers in Glebe which is the Westend of Sydney. I'm sharing a room with 3 girls at the moment from England, Canada and China and they're all lovely so it's been good so far. I have everything i need in the room - a fridge, TV and ensuite which are all basic but it's the best equipped hostel i've had in Australia yet and one of the cheaper places in Sydney. So it looks like i'll be staying here for the foreseeable future, i did originally want my own room but i actually think that'll be too lonely for me just now and i've not met anyone who's in the same boat as me to share an apartment room with so quite happy here for the moment.
It's quite hard knowing where to start looking for a job in a big city but on the 3rd of Jan i started hammering my CV out to recruitment agencies as i had in my head i wanted to do temping work which is boring but pays between $20-25 per hour. Unfortunately alot of the agencies were closed until the 10th Jan for Christmas holiday..lucky people! So i was starting to get really impatient as i wanted to be working within a week (i really need to become more patient!). However i managed to set up a meeting with one on the Weds, and my friend Lisa knows a recruitment consultant so i went to meet him on the Friday. Since i couldn't be bothered hanging around waiting on them to get back to me, and after chasing up a few of the jobs i had applied for, i finally gave in and started handing my CV into the cafes and restaurants on the main street in Glebe. I really didn't want to go back into hospitality again as you need a certificate to serve alcohol, it's $75 plus 6 hours of your life wasted in a room. I already have one for Queensland but they make you do another one for New South Wales which is just a con. Anyway..the manager at the bar directly across the road from me seemed really keen and asked me to come back once i had the certificate..another thing is they are so strict here with the qualification as they can be fined alot of money if staff aren't trained and some drunken person causes a riot. It's quite funny cos we don't have anything like this in the UK and it's probably something we should have if they want to stop us being alcoholics - if you serve someone who is completely plastered and get caught by an inspector you can get fined $11,000!!
So i booked and done my RSA on Thursday, handed my certificate into the bar on Fri and was asked to come in for a trial on Saturday night. I was absolutely shitting myself cos i've never served drinks behind a bar before, anytime i've worked in restaurants i've just waited til the bar people made my drinks so i kid you not - i Googled how to pull a pint haha!! The manager was pretty cool and the rest of the people who worked there so they gave me a hand with everything in the first 30 minutes and my first few pints were dodgy especially cos i was actually shaking with nerves. Trust me to choose the bar with the biggest selection of beers - every one gets served in a different glass etc..plus they have loads of imported beers and ciders so remembering them is going to be hard. I can't have been as bad as i thought cos they asked me to come back so i start on Thursday..I've found a smile goes a long way when you don't have a clue what you're doing!
I got the best surprise from Lisa as she had got tickets to go to N*E*R*D on Friday night and it was amazing!!! They were supported by Tinie Tempah, Chromeo and Boyz Noize so it was a great gig to dance about to and we got pretty drunk hehe. I was at the front at the side trying to get Pharrell's attention to ask him to marry me but unfortunately that wasn't very successful :( we got completely lost trying to get a bus home, thank God for google maps and i never got home til 3ish cos i missed my stop and had to wait for the bus to turn back again. oh dear!
Saturday was a bit of a write off (apart from my trial) but there was a great market along the road from me which they have every Saturday. I can see myself spending hard earned cash here every weekend as it had a good mix of vintage & new clothes, bags, shoes and jewellery. As well as loads of other nick nacks, it reminded me of a much smaller version of Camden.
So that's me for the moment, i also found a dance studio in the city so once i start earning money again i'm hoping to get back into it at least once a week. I also started running again today and the park down the road has exercise stations so i tried them out which was fun..i'll be in pain tomorrow i'm sure!
Ciao for now x
