Alice’s blog

Thought I’d talk about something different for a change…jobs! Sorry to bore you all but just thought I’d mention that I have a new job working as a chamber maid and cleaner at the place where I live. It’s great cos I can just roll out of bed and I’m at work and it’s 6 days a week so lots of hours for me! Although I don’t think I get paid enough to do some of the tasks I do like emptying rubbish bins which nearly made me physically sick, honestly the smell! I’l be doing this job till I leave for Melbourne next week. I came far too close to becoming a sign holder which would have involved the difficult task of holding a sign for 6 hours advertising a clothes sale but luckily I saw the light after realising I would have got a measley $8 an hour which is about 3 pounds, slave labour or what!

I started my new job on Benjamin’s birthday who is Chris’s (Kates uni friend) room mate. He’s from Belgium and has thus been nicknamed Belgique. We feel this is only fair since he calls Louise Scotland! Belgique and Chris joined us on a trip to minus 5 bar which is a bar completely made out of ice, it was awesome! It’s really cold inside (surprise surprise) so you are only allowed to stay in there for half an hour and you’re kitted out with a huge parka coat, ugg boots and two pairs of gloves. It was such a cool experience (sorry!), even our glasses were made out of ice. Chris and Belgique have also joined us on a few other trips including a 5 mile hike from Coogee to Bondi, which I’v done twice might I add! There’s also been the odd trip too the pub over the road, the good old Ancient Britain whcih has to be THE biggest pub I have ever seen! It’s got a Russian theme and the bar is a huge fish tank, how exciting! It’s no Brownlow Arms though…

Having lost my job and giving up on the job search (i’m leaving Sydney soon anyway), I needed to refresh my soul and so last week Em and I went to a mind, body and spirit festival. This proved to be very enlightening, despite paying $7 for a minute salad! There was the usual crap like tarot card reading and such like but there were some interesting stalls and I had a nice chinese shoulder massage.

I also had a Helia Crystal Essences consultation. Crystal essences and the vibrational frequencies they emit apparently bring us to a state of being healthy and well within. They are used to create remedies to address different issues and during the consulation the consultant chooses which essences are appropriate for you at that particular time by tuning into or accessing your ‘higher self’. Basically you’re telling them what your issues are through your mind or something like that. It was pretty accurate although I chose not to purchase my personal remedy, I’m still not convinced on that sort of thing. We also attended a couple of seminars: ‘The secret of happiness, it’s all in the mind’ by Terry Winchester and ‘The magic of body mind communication’ by Gillian Maddigan, both really interesting.

After an enlightening day we met up with Louise and Kate and Kate’s friend from uni, Chris, for a cheap and cheerful dinner and the good old Lansdowne. Chris has just arrived in Aus and I think he’s just discovered some of the joys of staying in a hostel!Like drunk people running around corridors and throwing up against dorm doors!

I feel the need to add the fact that Sydney is now getting cold! To give you an idea it was the same temperatue as Sheffield the other day. Now to everyone at home that might be nice and toasty but to the Australians that’s cold. Just the other day an Aussie was complaining it was a bit nesh, bless ‘em they’re not as hardy as us British!

Well I’d only managed to work three shifts at the cafe before I lost my job! And no i didn’t get the boot the cafe was shut down. It’s a long story involving a pain-in-the-arse landlord who basically changed the locks so Stan (my boss) couldn’t open the cafe and now he’s moving elsewhere. I’m gutted to say the least, I really liked working there and once again I’m unemployed. Stan and Leigh-Ann who ran the cafe were so nice. The staff were nice aswell. Out of the ones I met there was Sebastian who tried to teach me coffee art where you draw pretty patterns in the coffee; Roxy who was just loud; and Alie the student from Cardiff with whom I spent alot of time discussing world issues, granted alot of that was spent discussing how much of a twat the Australian prime minister, John Howard is. It was just refreshing to talk to someone who found similar issues interesting and I’v learnt alot more about Australian politics and just Australian life in general.

I’ve also learnt just how many weird characters there are in Glebe. People may come to Glebe and say “but I don’t see any weirdos” that’s because they all hide in Cafe Oasis, or atleast they did, sob. James, Glebe’s very own Big Issue seller was there on a regular basis, which is probably why he never sold many magazines. He is extremely odd without wanting to be too mean as I think he’s suffered from Schizophrenia. The other day he collared me in the street and after a brief chat he asked me if I had any spare womens clothes because he likes to ‘dress up’, I mean what are you supposed to say to that?! During my three days of toasty and coffee making I also had the pleasure of meeting Trevor the parrot man. You’d see him sat outside with one parrot on each shoulder not far from some old man or woman muttering to themselves as they wander down the street.

I climbed the Sydney harbour bridge on wed! It was amazing and possibly the highlight of the whole trip. Em and I went up for her birthday- lucky devil! I can’t describe it it’s just awsome being so high up and being able to see the whole of Sydney. We went up at the best time aswell. It was daylight going up then we got see the sun set over the blue mountains, which was so gorgeous. I was quite nervous but once you get to the arch you can’t see below and you’re too overwhelmed by the view. You are attached to a rail the whole time and you get to wear a very sexy jump suit.

 After having our pictures taken at the top we climbed down in the dark which scared me more than coming up-my legs were shaking as i was climbing down the ladders! And of course we all sang to the birthaday girl. Back at the flat we had a well earned beer and gorged on Dominos pizza. Em got a job too at a guest house up the road so none of us are unemployed bums anymore.

 The night before the big climb we had a BBQ on our roof top for Lady Jayne and invited Marrianne and her boyfriend Ali and Jo. Unfortunately for us Austaralia had seemed to have got itself confused with England so we had to sit munching on our burgers in the cold and wet. It was great all the same. Tuesday was actually Anzac day which is Australia’s equivalent to our rememberence day. Anzac being the Australian and Newzealnd Army corps. They make more of a deal of it than we do back home, with a huge parade through Sydney and the Tv programmes actually made me feel quite emotional.  

On Sunday all four of us went to our very first Aussie Rules match at the Sydney Criket Ground. For those of you that aren’t clued up on the Australian sport I will explain. It’s basically a cross between gaelic football and rugby witha bit of basket ball!. The players can pretty much do anything or atleast that’s how it seemed as I watched players grab at each other, pile up in a big heap and run around in a completely unorganised fashion. All with the aim of kicking the ball inbetween posts like rugby.

Trust the Aussies to have a game where you can bounce and throw the ball and where you still get points even when you miss the goal! We watched the Sydney Swans play the Melbourne Demons: the Demons manged to kick Sydney’s ass at the last minute much to our disgust.  Think I prefer the criket.

Ahhhh! I finally have a job yay!!!! Finding a job here is not as easy as you might think my friends. 

Having been snubbed by agencies and a fair few employers I had begun to lose all hope of ever finding a job until a nice chap called Cisco popped into our kitchen and invited me and Em to an open day for a marketing job. So off we went to transform ourselves into one of those irritating people on the street that tries to sell you something you clearly don’t want. Little did we know it was actually door-to-door sales work and that we’d be sent off into the back of beyond with actual salesmen and women.

 This was fine so far, although I’d been assigned to the lovely Cisco who constantly babbled on about the job and the company and blah blah blah. He also felt the need to go into great depth about his sexuality (he was bisexual incase you were wondering) and his sex life and how he’d slept with his lesbian friend…you get the picture. Basically Cisco and friends go door-to-door promoting the phone company AAPT. They were trying to convert people to that company and me and Em had to observe our ‘mentors’ so we got a feel for the job. All the phone jargon confused me and to be quite honest it was pretty dull.

 I wasn’t convinced about the job but I may have considered it had the training day not been so badly organised. I got sent off to catch a train back to the office which I had to pay for and took an hour, meanwhile Em had been given the wrong directions and was left to wander the streets in the dark trying to get home. By the time I got to the office steam was coming out of my ears and I was really worried about Em. I complained and said we wouldn’t be attending the final interview. Em rocked into the city about 8pm and after a much needed stop at the bottle shop we traipsed home. It was such a long, crappy day and has put me off door-todoor sales marketing for life!

By this satge I was starting to despair and in a last attempt at earning some bucks I made a second visit to a cafe on our street who, it turns out, had lost my number. I gave them my resume and tada I now have a job at Cafe Oasis.

I know you all love a happy ending folks.