Day 3, Panania (Sydney suburb)

At 11AM there was a free info work session for backpackers downtown, so I had some of the free hostel breakfast, checked out and headed over there.
The meeting was alright, and they advised us in what order to do things (get a tax ID, bank account etc), which was pretty useful. They also had a job board that I explored a bit, before I headed out to grab some cheap sushi ($1.60 a roll!) and get on the train to Panania, where my host for the night was located.

Richard picked me up on the train station in a red BMW. Now I don’t want you to get any false ideas about Richard actually being rich, for this I can assure you he was not. He just happened to have a keen interest in cars and motorcycles, and I soon learned that he had 10 of the latter in his garage. Bought them all on eBay, apparently.
Richard looked to be in his late 50’s, and lived in a dingy little house in this suburb at the end of the train line with a cat his daughter had left behind last time she visited. I got my own room, and he even had wireless internet, although the Australian internet plans seem to be based on how many bytes you download, which made me feel like I shouldn’t use it at all.
I went for a run, the first one in a while which meant I felt like crap, but when I got back Richard cooked up some pasta for the both of us, and we ate it in front of some crap show that reminded me of why I don’t ever watch TV.
(A re-occurring theme throughout the household was the brand name "No Frills", which I found hilarious. There's something so amusing about brands who purposely talk themselves down, as if to help people grok exactly how cheap they are. Richard had both paper tissue and shampoo with absolutely no frill, as well as canned mushrooms which was in our meal.)
After dinner I read for a while and fell happily asleep with in a quiet and relaxing environment.

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