Time flies. Not too much to tell, as I spent the last few days in bed with a flew. Had breakfast with Cecile in Bronte on Monday (Labour Day), walked back to Bondi and from there went straight to bed! Annoying, but shit happens. Had a job interview yesterday that went surprisingly well. I didn't get the job (no Access skills) but they were enthousiastic and are now looking elsewhere in the company (TNT) for me. I hope something will come up, should hear more today! I really can't wait to start working, and my bank account agrees. Will start looking into office work next week, see if there's more work in that area.
Apart from being in bed, I pretty much spent last week looking for work on the internet, walking around Newtown a bid and just being lazy at home. Wendy was off to Lismore (Gold Coast) for the weekend so I had the place to myself. Had Thai take out on Saturday and spent the night reading, accompanied by Frankie (the cat, not some aussie bloke!). There was a Dutch borrel on Thursday, which was ok. Met a nice Dutch girl who lives at the beach in the south of Sydney, will catch up with her soon. Oh, and went to Balmain on Friday, another area of the inner west. Just strolled around a bit and had lunch.
It's amazing how wide Sydney is, there are hardly any flats, most people seem to live in two storey houses, which means housing 4 million people takes up a lot of space! And though the train system is excellent, the bus system is really funny. It seems very inefficient. In some areas, you can chose between four buses to take you from A to B, whereas in other areas you need to take enormous d-tours in order to get to where you need to be. As all of the beaches on the east can only be reached by bus, not by train or ferry, this is pretty weird.
Off to Katoomba, Blue Mountains, tomorrow for a quiet weekend. It should be absolutely beautiful there! A bit cold I expect, which is fine for bush walks. Meeting my kiwi friends on Sunday, haven't seen them in almost four years and really looking forward to catching up.
Had a great weekend! Met with another agency on Friday, guy was very enthousiastic and said I'd be an A1 candidate (whatever that may be). I hope the agencies' enthousiasm will soon materialize into work. Will go and try to find call center work tomorrow, just for the time being, am really fed up with doing nothing.
Took the train to Katoomba, the 'capital' of the Blue Mountains after the interview. Checked into a hostel that turned out to be really nice. Warmed a can of soup and sat in the living room watching tele in front of the fire, as it was cold and I was tired. Met a nice English girl, chatted a bit, and she gave me some red wine, so had a good start of the weekend!
When I got home there was an email from my friend Brigit, who lives in Hong Kong. She was in Sydney for a day, so met with her and her boyfriend, which was great. Hadn't seen her since January, so it was really good seeing her again. After drinks, had dinner with my kiwi friends. I was very happy to see them too, and had a great night out with them. Was so exhausted that when the bus driver asked me if I was Irish, I answered I was Hollish...
I found a job! After visiting and calling many agencies yesterday, I found work this morning! Geofrey Nathan, a management consultancy agency, referred me to an employment agency this morning, and they asked me to drop by and 10 minutes later I had a job! Officially, I am an admin assistant, I think I have to collate phone numbers for a database or something. Anyway, it's three days to start with, 10 hours a day and if it goes well, there'll be more work. So, no matter how shitty it is, 30 hours can't be too hard. And it pays two weeks rent!
Also got my Medicare card today. Next time I go see a doctor, I just show my card and Medicare pays the bill. Very convenient. Some arrangement that the Dutch and Ozzie governments have.
Just when I was on my way to the agency, I had a call from Mike, one of the guys I met in Vietnam last May. He knew we'd be seeing each other on Friday, but said he'd finish work early today and wanted to collect me and take me to a nice beach or something. So sweet!!! I was very sorry I couldn't make it and am really looking forward to seeing these three special guys on Friday night. Staying at Nudge's but have to get up at 7 am on Saturday because I have to work. I won't quite be the drunk night out I planned, but so be it.
The bombings in Bali are all over the news here. A lot of footy and rugby clubs were there, so some very young guys got killed or are missing. I read some very touching stories in the newspaper. Watching victims and witnesses come home on tele was quite shocking, people were so sad and shocked. Was surprised that the news here also covered Prins Claus' church service. Just very briefly, but they did,
Just finished my first day of work here. Spent 9.5 hours looking up people in the white pages and if there was phone number, adding that to the database. Very interesting, not. But work's work, it wasn't that bad and long days mean a lot of money.
Sunday morning! Just finished reading the Telegraph in the sun on the balcony, another beautiful day!
Worked on Friday as well, but not on Saturday as all work was finished. It wasn't too bad. Going back to work for them on Wednesday, customer service / call center job I believe. Went to manly Froday after work for a good night out with Nudge and Mike. Went to their local with some of their friends and then to a club in Manly. Boogied till 2 or 3, had a really good time. Stayed at Nudge's place and woke up with a bad hangover. As it was Nudge's girfriend's birthday, a friend of them came over at 9 with bacon and eggs and the works. Nudge bbq-ed breakfast which was pretty cool! Took the ferry back to town a few hours later. I really like Manly, it's got a really good vibe and a beautiful beach. Will go back soon. Met with two Doetinchem girls yesterday for a drink in Darling Harbour, dinner in Chinatown and another drink in a sports bar. One of the girls, 29 yo, had to show her ID. As drinking age is 18, she was really pissed of. But they've got some pretty big bouncers here, so you don't really argue. I thought it was pretty funny anyway.