Im sitting
on my couch, in Darwin, fan on, watching “The Perks Of Being A Wallflower” and
writing this spontaneous blog... WELCOME BACK BLOG FANS! :D This is a little
different... I’ve made no notes, and theres no major trips to tell of... This
is just a little catch up, coz shiz happens, and I haven’t really told everyone
whats been going on much... The blogs are back in town, the blogs are back in town! ;)
The last
update I wrote, I think Cat was just starting her job at Britz campers. This
job is now coming to the end of its contract, and the company is closing up for
the “wet season”. I was getting odd labouring jobs, sweating my arse off,
making the odd buck or two... I took a job on where I was helping sand, paint,
and restore boats. It was fun at first, but then the boat went out on the
water, and I ended up spending my days moving heavy shit around the dusty yard,
in the blazing heat, and sweeping... Lots and lots of sweeping. On top of that,
my hours were getting cut, so my shit wage, was getting even shitter... I was
trying to get more work at this point but I was failing. I came really really
close to getting 2 jobs at graphics companies, but they did a U-turn on me as
soon as they found out I wasn’t a permanent resident here. It was starting to
piss me off. Lots of guys from all over the world are here, making lots of
money, in good jobs that they’re trained in, and I was always bottom of the
barrel. Darwin revolves around construction work. I actually wrote a poem / rap
about it :p I was gonna do my first “vlog” (video blog) performing it, but
luckily my fortunes changed for the better before I had the chance to... I had
things like...
Now we come here making grands
On the beaches, lay in sand
No more need for faking tans.
And
References –
A handful
Experiences
– AmpleI’m job hunting all the time, and my mind is getting tangled
Anyway...
Things chopped and changed a lot. I quit my boat job, and started work for a
partition company. Helping build walls and ceilings, in homes and offices. It
was OK. There was other backpackers there, so I didn’t feel like the little,
lonely, foreign runt anymore. The guys here were funny. A French guy and an
Argentinean make funny jokes about the bosses and Aussies. They do impressions
of Australians having sex: “Ahh, thats good mate!” “Fucking good mate!” lol...
We have bosses that are Greek and pretty fucking miserable. Also, there’s
Australian tradies that work on the more technical stuff. Some are really cool,
but some have that same “stupid backpackers” attitude, because some guys don’t
speak fluent English, and a lot of us don’t have experience in this kind of
work. So they walk around like their shit don’t stink, looking down on us in
the same way the bosses do. Theyre over-paid, and under-educated pricks though.
All they do it measure and cut things... Cat took on part-time evening work at
a pizza place :) On her first day she brought me back a free one she made, and
it was really nice...
But this is
where the game changer kicked in... Cat was at her Britz job one day, and she
answered the phone to a friendly lady. They got chatting, and it turned out
that this woman worked at a school that often hired backpackers. She said she
hates how most of us are mistreated here, and if Cat ever needed a job, she was
welcome to come along. After swapping contact details and asking more
questions, we found out we could BOTH work there, LIVE there, RENT FREE, and
get paid a GOOD wage. GAME CHANGER! THATS why I scrapped my vlog, inspired by
stress and negativity :p Maybe I should write a happy poem :D
So, this is
whats going down - Today I worked my last day at this partition company (they
don’t know it yet), and tomorrow, we’re moving out of our Darwin home, to our
NEW Darwin home, in the middle of a SCHOOL! :o Cat will do general work around
the grounds , and I will be the bloody CARETAKER. King of the school! Haha...
So I should be starting that on Monday morning, and start saving a BOMB! Cat
will be moving in with me, and starting work after her Britz job finishes in a
week or so. It will be sad to move out
of this place, as I really do like it. This new place is smaller, older,
without a pool, and its in the middle of a school, further from the city. But
to be fair, we came to Darwin to work and save money - nothing else. So this is
what we’re doing.
Not much
else to say really... Every day I have off I research travel routes, things to
do, visas, and everything for travelling Asia. Got a rough route planned. Philippines,
Japan, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Singapore, Sri Lanka,
India, THEN home. Want to see Uluru, in the centre of Australia before we leave
here though. But to be honest, im just really excited to leave Aus and start
travelling again really. As you might be able to tell, struggling to work here,
and being degraded, and stressed has been a challenge. We could come home to
work and save for Asia. Cat was close to doing that at one point. But I told
her to stick to our decision to stay here and graft. Cat agrees after a bit of
encouragement :p I’ve missed some big events at home lately. My brother got
engaged and had a big party with all our friends and family. Someone very close
to me came out of prison, and id like to see him. My dog got hit by a car...
and I heard this morning that my nan passed away... So her funeral will be
another big thing ive been away for. Most people I speak to encourage me to
stay away as long as possible though. “Keep living the dream!” Even if it aint
exactly pretty right now :p At least we got good luck with the new jobby
though! Time to stack that cheeeeese!! Money, money, money baaaagggsssss!
(and keep
them tight)
;)
