The start of 2013 – what would this year bring???

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The start of 2013 – what would this year bring?

So I woke up feeling pretty fresh on NY Day; the sun was shining and I was in a great mood. I decided that today I was going to start the job search! First of all I had to sort out my CV. I felt pretty excited about getting into work, meeting new people, experiencing the work life of Sydney and of course earning money!! However, deep in my heart I still felt as though I wanted a never ending bank balance so that I could just go exploring without any money issues!!





I began the job search online, I had been told to look on a few different websites including Gumtree and Seek. I applied for around 50 jobs in total; administration, receptionist roles, secretarial roles both in office and Legal sectors. I got a call from a recruitment company on the same day called Hays who asked me to go in to sign up with them so they could help me out with the job search. I made the appointment for the next day.

I felt pretty satisfied with my day and thought it couldn’t be too long before I secured myself with a job. I couldn’t have been more wrong…

In Australia you have to have an RSA Certificate(Responsible Service of Alcohol) to work in a bar, so in order to get this certificate you have to attend a day course to learn about the restrictions and tight laws that the state have on alcohol and abusing it. Although I knew most of it, it was fairly interesting how much responsibility you have as a bar tender in Australia. For example, you have to ensure that if you have a drunk person in the premises that you feel is far too intoxicated you have to refuse service, offer them water, and then ask them if they would like a taxi home or if they would like you to call somebody to collect them. If you don’t offer a method of transport home then if they were to have an accident due to their drunken state then you yourself would be liable. If they declined however, you would be in the clear. It’s not like that in the UK!!





I signed up to the course and as you can see above I learned a couple of new things along with a lot of things that I already knew about bar work. So the next few days went by, I applied for hundreds of jobs, signed up with a few recruitment agencies and had been around to the local area handing out CVs in shops and bars. During this time I went on a Wine Tasting course in Hunter Valley which is famous for its wineries. The day included a tour around the Hunter Valley stopping off at 4/5 locations to taste their wines, a free lunch and of course the pleasure of meeting new people! Our bus operator was a guy called ‘Skippy’ and he was what I would call a real Australian. He had so much knowledge about the history of Australia and proceeded to tell us as much as he could in the 3 hour journey to Hunter Valley. I was fairly interested, and I enjoyed learning some new things about the discovery of Australia, and some of its history! (I would love to relay the information to you but I don’t remember the exact details of it just brief outlines of how and when James Cook arrived in Australia, travelled around, drew a map of Australia, how he was so close to the actual measurements of the map, and how some of the crooks and villains escaped and got around Australia robbing the rich to make money to survive). As a whole I had a pretty good day and learnt a fair bit!

The following day I was moving out of Jem’s as her sister and her family were coming over from the UK. I was so grateful for my time at Jem’s, it was so nice to stay there; her and Steve had really helped me out.

I packed up my stuff and moved into the Wake Up Hostel just down the road, I was fairly excited to meet some new friends and live the backpacker life again! I was in a mixed dorm with 6 beds and it cost me around $42 a night (yes very pricey). The Hostel had a bar underneath called the Side Bar which had something going on every night, cheap drink promo’s, live bands and cheap meal deals to keep the backpackers entertained. We had key cards that could only get you to the floor that you were on and to the kitchen area. It was right by the Central Station and there was easy access to Darling Harbor and the CBD part of the city.

My room was empty when I got in and it seemed that there were a couple of people in the room that had obviously gone out for the day. I made myself at home in the top bunk and had a little nap, a little later on a couple of girls came back and we had a little chat, I found out that they were both leaving the following day to do the east coast. They were nice and I planned to head down to the side bar with them that evening. Mark came and met me in the side bar with his friends from his hostel and we all played drinking games and got up to the usual mischief!

Whilst I was at the bar I met a girl who was on her own, we started chatting and then I invited her to come and join us, her name was Katie and she was from London. She was travelling alone for 3 months in oz after finishing uni and before starting a new job. She was really nice and we got on well, over the next few days she introduced me to a couple of her friends called Emma and Jade that she had met in Melbourne who were staying at another hostel about 10mins up the road. We had a few days/nights out together before Katie headed off up the east coast for a few weeks! After Katie left I spent another 4 days with Emma and Jade and we explored the city, went to the Wildlife Centre, did the Westfield Tower and drunk as many cheap drinks as we could. We visited Darling Harbor, saw the Giant Duck and went I went to the Hard Rock Café with Mark (my first ever one!).





I introduced them all to Matt who was a young 18 year old guy from Italy that had just arrived to Australia. Matt arrived and was a little homesick, tired and shy. I had been in the room a couple of days and I introduced myself to him. He didn’t seem to want to talk much and slept a lot for the first day. After a day or two I begun to get some conversation out of him and he had basic English but was looking to stay in Sydney for the year, get a job and then go off to Japan for a few months before returning to Italy. Matt was such a sweet guy, he was gay, proud and funny; I got on well with him.





I introduced Matt to the girls and he came out with us a couple of times, getting into the way of life of backpacking in Sydney. Matt and I went job hunting together and entertained each other when the girls left for the East Coast, after a couple of weeks in the hostel Matt met a guy and then he moved into a house share with him around the corner in Central.

All in all I stayed in the Hostel for around 3/4 weeks and spent time with friends and having fun, but quickly running out of money. I was beginning to get worried and although the job hunt had slowed down I was still getting absolutely no calls back from anyone about any possible job vacancies. I was getting really worried and so after the girls left and Matthew moved out I spent a few days just job searching on the internet. I started to feel really down as I had not really made any long term friendships as everyone who I had met were only in Sydney briefly before moving on to do other things. I was missing the experience I had in Thailand and was really homesick.





I was having a cigarette one evening that week outside of the hostel, and I feeling pretty sorry for myself as I had no money and nothing to do. Suddenly a girl came up to me looking confused with her iPhone and saying that she could not work out how to make the internet work on it after she had bought an hour’s worth of internet from the Hostel lobby. I showed her how to do it and found out that her name was Sandra; she had been transferred over from a magazine job in the UK and was living in the hostel until she found herself somewhere to live. She was just on her way down to the side bar and asked me to join her. You didn’t have to ask me twice! She introduced me to a friend of hers and ordered me 2 vodka red bulls. This was the start of a friendship with one of the craziest, funniest and loveliest people I have ever met. That night we had lots of drinks, a good giggle and I forgot my worries.





That Saturday I went with Sam to a place called Redleaf pool which is on a beach near Double Bay that has been sectioned off with Shark Nets to protect swimmers and as you will see from the picture it is really pretty.



We had a lovely couple of hours swimming and as it was Australia Day we went to meet Jemma, Karen and a few of their friend as we had all decided to have a picnic in the park on the other side of the bridge to celebrate Australia Day. Bit of info on it for you...

The date commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove, New South Wales in 1788 and the proclamation at that time of British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of Australia (then known as New Holland).

Although it was not known as Australia Day until over a century later, records of celebrations on 26 January date back to 1808, with the first official celebration of the formation of New South Wales held in 1818. It is marked by the presentation of theAustralian of the Year Awards on Australia Day Eve, announcement of the Australia Day Honors list and addresses from the Governor-General and Prime Minister. It is an officialpublic holiday in every state and territory of Australia, unless it falls on a weekend in which case the following Monday is a public holiday instead. With community festivals, concerts and citizenship ceremonies, the day is celebrated in large and small communities and cities around the nation. Australia Day has become the biggest annual civic event in Australia.





Sam and I turned up fairly late; this would be no surprise to those who know me well! We met up with everyone and had a nice afternoon sitting in the park, chatting, drinking and eating BBQ food! Great way to spend Australia Day! <a name="_GoBack"></a>





The next day after speaking to Sam about my worries she offered to help me out and put me up in her apartment to help me out with money and also so I could have more access to find work. She was a life saver and I still to this day appreciate what she did for me, if I didn’t have her I wouldn’t have known what I would have done.

I spent most of my time at her place looking for jobs and sleeping. I was not in a great place and felt very down. I sleep a lot when I’m unhappy. I began to start thinking of ways I could get money together for a flight home, I was at my wits end and began to feel like there was no way out of the money drought that I was in. I had started to lose all hope and just wanted to give up. After a while of being caught in a horrible place of wanting to go home but not wanting to fail myself by going home early, I got a call from a company who asked me to come in for an interview. It was a company called Van Eyk Marketing and they wanted me to pop in the following day. The job was a sales role but they didn’t go into too much detail, they just told me I would find out more when I attended the interview.





I was so happy to have an interview my mood lifted and I finally began to see a light at the end of the tunnel!! It may sound dramatic to some of you but being stuck in an extremely expensive country with no money and no job opportunities is really difficult and takes its toll on you.

The following day I went to the interview and there were over 20 people there. It was a quick interview process where you had to sell yourself in front of 2 other candidates. I forced myself to be confident and managed to pull it off. I was pretty sure I would get a call back.

The same day I had a call to invite me in for a second interview the following day. I was so happy to be finally getting somewhere and I still didn’t really know what the job involved but the office was swanky and it all seemed pretty awesome so I got sucked in easily. The following day we had to go back and follow another interview process which showed our potential to sell. Group selling and of course selling ourselves, it was all pretty easy but I began to be aware that this was a job that would involve door to door sales. I was pretty upset that it wasn’t going to be the swanky job I hoped but at this point in time I was desperate for any kind of money so anything I would do!





I got a call later that day to say that I had got through the interview and I was to begin the following Monday. It was a role that was 100% commission based and so all travel expenses and telephone calls would be out of my own pocket but the company advertised it so well that they made me think that this job could turn me rich. In theory if you had a lot of time and effort to put into the company and if you were good at selling then you could make it far and earn thousands per year, but as a quick fix to get money to save for my travels it really wasn’t for me. I lasted 2 weeks and spent more money than I earned as I only made 12 sales which paid me $50 per sale. I earned $600 in 2 weeks but $200 got taken off me for any sales that may have fallen through so I walked away with $400. It may seem like a lot of money but in Oz it’s a pretty poor wage for 2 weeks work. I quit the job after 2 weeks because I was just getting nowhere and I was spending more money than I was earning. It was just not worth it.

During these 2 weeks I had spent more time with Sandra andhad met another girl called Claire who was from Dublin. The 3 of us often went out and spent a regular Thursday night down at the Cock & Bull in Bondi Junction where you got a free steak with any drink you purchased!! Perfect for a poor backpacker! Sandra, Claire and I grew very close over this time and we all looked out for each other, it was the first time in a while that I had felt settled. All I needed was a secure job.

I had seen that there was a day festival coming up called Future Music Festival which had a few great bands playing and I was so desperate to go. I still had no money by this point and didn’t think I would be able to go. My birthday was approaching and as a surprise Sandra and Claire decided to get me a ticket to go with them! I almost cried with joy! I’d known these girls a few weeks; they knew how much I wanted to go so got me a ticket as an early birthday present! I was so chuffed! The Festival was amazing and I had the best time!





In the same week I managed to secure myself a job – still doing sales but it was over the telephone and it turned out to be in the same company as Claire! It was working forPeakbound on behalf of Citibank selling Life Insurance to existing customers. It was $23 an hour plus commission. I was loving life again! My first weeks pay check came in and I had just over $800 to spend. WOW. I could not believe how much I was getting paid. Life was just getting better and better. I was making new friends at work and I finally began to enjoy Sydney.





I was still living with Sam and had begun to start paying my way as she had been so kind to me. I had not planned to live with her for the entire time but she was kind enough to let me stay! I met loads of new friends at work and every Friday we went out to the local pub for a few drinks. It was a great environment to work in, but the job itself was not fun. Selling life insurance to people who genuinely don’t want to talk to you is not easy. You know those annoying calls you get when you just want to get them off the phone and you make any old excuse or you end up telling them to piss off....well I was one of those people. Yep me.

I worked at Peakbound for around 4/5 weeks in total. Once you had been trained for 2 weeks you were on your own and had a minimum sale target to make each week. If you didn’t make this target you got ‘let go’; if you weren’t making the company money, then they were paying you for nothing. Fair point; but it was annoying as I just did not have it in me to force people to buy life insurance, especially to people who had no interest in buying it. Some of the staff were amazing and could sell bacon to a pig, but I was not one of them!





I was let go on a Monday morning around the beginning of April, I had not made any sales the previous week and although I had tried really hard I just didn’t have the sales technique. I was upset and worried I would end up back in the same place as I was before so I had a little cry as I was walking back to the city to get the train. I ended up meeting Sandra who took me to the cinema to get my mind off it. She tried to keep my spirits up, and I felt better. The following day Sam, Patrick and I were moving house and so for the next couple of days I was busy with the move and sorting stuff out. I applied for lots more jobs and had responses fairly quickly. The following week I ended up getting a temp job for 2 days doing reception work and then I was assigned a temp job for 4weeks with an ongoing contract working at BSA (Broadcasting Services Australia) helping with the Digital Switchover for the Government helping OAPs get Set Top Boxes and fixing antennas so that they could watch DigitalTV when the switchover happened.





The job was at Olympic Park which was a fair travel from Bondi where I lived. It took approximately 1 hour 20mins from door to door. I had to begin to get used to waking up very early and leaving the house by 7.30 to get to work for 9am. The journey was a 15min walk and I had to get 3different trains. I thought it was going to be horrendous so I nearly didn’t take the job but I was told that a few of the other temps lived close to Bondi and so I felt that I couldn’t decline for that reason and after all; I did need the money. I thought to myself I could have this job and look for another if it was too much.





The journey ended up not being too bad, I began working at the company and the first couple of weeks were boring as hell. I was literally entering data, and it was mind numbingly boring. I had no idea why I was doing what I was doing and it made no sense to me but I just had to do it. The management style was poor. I was taught how to do my job by a person who had been there for 2 weeks and was leaving that day. He didn’t know why he did things either, he just did them.

I didn’t really like the job but I was happy to be working and my aim was to begin saving for my trip up the East Coast, New Zealand and South America. After around 4 weeks Ichanged role to inbound calls and troubleshooting, bookings and general help. I began talking to more people in the office and made friends with a few of them, one Friday night after work I joined them all for their Friday night antics which involved going straight to the pub after work at 5 and getting pretty wasted. It became a tradition, and the BSA lot ended up becoming a big part of my life in Sydney. I met some great people there and I am sitting here on my last day at the office thinking about how I am going to miss them as I leave for my travels. We have all talked about a re-union one day in the UK and in Dublin so I’m looking forward to that!

After a few weeks of going out and getting far too drunk I decided it was time to start saving for the rest of my travels as I didn’t have long left to save before I would have to head off to do the East Coast, New Zealand and South America. I didn’t want to miss out on any of that by spending money on alcohol and nights out so I decided to be strict with myself and save between $400 and $500 a week and do any overtime I possibly could. I began to save and paid for a trip around New Zealand that was on the Kiwi Experience website. I was in the sale for a month from $999 to $499. I had enough money and paid for it so that I didn’t miss out on the deal. I didn’t quite know when I was going to be in New Zealand but luckily it was valid for a year so I could just email them the dates later.

After I had saved up more money I decided to organise a trip up the East Coast for a couple of weeks before I left Australia. It’s a very expensive trip but I managed to get a fairly good deal flying from Sydney to Cairns, doing a Dive, the Whitsundays on the Tongarra Boat, doing a 4wheel drive around Fraser Island, camping and then dolphin Kayaking in Byron Bay. This trip including all travel and Hostels was only $1,400 (which is cheap even though it seems expensive but if you compare it to earning $700/$800 per week then it is cheap). After all this was booked I set myself up to save spending money! I finally had a date to leave Sydney, and I was excited but scared to leave what now felt like home to me. I had been in Sydney for 8 months and had settled well, even though it was really hard at first.





During my time at BSA I still saw a lot of Claire and Sandra, and around 2 weeks before my departure Sandra was heading off on a 4 week holiday to Bali and Thailand with her sister who had come over from England. I had to say my goodbyesto her and it was really hard. The thought of not seeing her again felt really strange!! So it was just me and Claire left! Leaving Sydney was beginning to feel real and I was scared and excited at the same time, but knowing I may never see this City again makes me feel really sad.





I haven’t spent a great deal of time writing EVERY thing I have been up to since I have been in Sydney, because this blog would go on and on for a very long time. I just wanted to give everyone a brief detail of how hard it was for me at first,but then after struggling through it and battling with myself about whether to go home or not, and after continuing without much fight left in me I found out how amazing this City really is. Life is not always a breeze but then whose is? Without sadness you would never appreciate happy times and how lucky you really can be.

I’m sitting at my last day at work in BSA and tonight I am going out for leaving drinks with my pals.... the next time I write my blog I may be in New Zealand. I am such a lucky girl right now and thankful for all that I have!

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