Back to work and back to reality? Not on Lindeman! Our new Home...

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Hello All!


We thought we'd be cutting down on the blogs but it seems there is still things to write about even when we are on our island working! Here is some details on our first few weeks of work and settling in to island life...


We caught a few boats over to Lindeman island where we had landed our jobs and it looke beautiful on the way in. We were greeted by HR at the jetty and given a quick tour of the resort as we got the bus to our ne home. Clubmed is the only thing on Lindeman Island and the rest of the small island is national park and beaches. We live in staff accomodation called GE land and its not too bad. GE is gracious employee, GO is gracious orgnaisor and GM is gracious member (guests!). The GOs live in the main resort and do all the activities and organise the guests time, and all the other staff live in GE land. Nick has a single room and Adam lives with a guy called Chuckles. All of the staff seem pretty cool and there is a few crazy characters (probably too long on the island!). Most of the staff are either Aussies, Kiwis or korean, we are the only English GEs.


We are waiters on the island and the resort has 2 restaurants. The main one, which is buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner, and Nicholsons which is a posher fine dining restaurant where the guests must book in for dinner, and this restaurant has the most amazing view. Our basic jobs in the main restaurant include setting tables, clearing tables, re-setting tables, taking to the guests, polishing glasses etc. Adam has done a few shifts in Nicholsons and there we do much of the same plus take bookings and orders, in here we have to set up about 4 knifes and forks per guest! Also Adam can fold a napkin into the shape of the Sydney Opera House - see picture! We have become skilled at carrying massive stacks of plates and as we write this neither of us has smashed anything! We can also change tables clothes without showing any table! On a whole the job seems pretty easy, and with lots of managers leaving soon we might be in with a chance at some more responsibility (hopefully!). We always thought McDonalds turned over staff quickly but here people only stay about 3 or 4 months so pretty soon we'll end being the experienced ones!


We had 2 days off together after a weeks work and decided to explore the island. We went to all the beaches, most were quite rocky but had nice clear waters, and we went up Mt Olfield which is bascally the highest point on the island. The views from up there are stunning and you can see about 30 islands, well worth the hours walk. We also played doubles tennis against a few of the restaurant staff and then played a round of golf. The golf course is very hard for us beginers but has some nice views and lots of snake warning signs! The 8th hole on the golf course is also the only place we can get phone signal - so use internet rather than phones to contact us! We also had a staff party for the whole island a few days ago in the disco with free drinks - it got a bit messy and someone (no names - don't want sacking!) ended up in the guest pool at 3am in thier underwear! We also play a lot of ping pong on our breaks from work and have been getting quite good, although we still can't beat the Koreans! We also learnt Beer pong, which involves having bottles in the 4 corners of the table and you have to drink if someone hits yours, good fun! Each evening next to the restaurant there is a different show put on for the guests by the GOs, every 2 weeks they introduce the waiters and chefs on stage so the guests ca give us a clap. We had to get up on stage last Friday and ended up having to dance crazy sign dances in front of all the guests. Crazy Signs are things like the macarena, I am the music man and saturday night. They made all us waiters do 3 dances on stage including some korean songs, which involved the koreans standing at the front, 'Justin' made us laugh by claiming to be Japanese when they forced him to the front!


There is quite a lot of wildlife on the island and we see lot of parrotts and cockatoos flying about, there are snake warning signs but we haven't seen any! They are lots of buush turkeys walking about, and the frequently sneak into thhe restaurant and have to be chased out! There is lots and lots of very big bats in the woods next to our accomodation and we see they flying about in the sky lots at dusk. The view of the night sky out here on the islands is amazing, its a shame we can't get a decent photo of it, you can see so many stars and the milky way can be seen stretching across the sky! When we first arrived on the island we had a spell of bad weather (grade 2 cyclone!) but it has cleared up now and its very hot in the day, and really cold at night! We have also spotted lots of turtles in the clear sea from the main restaurant when working, a nice treat to the guests when you point them out as you collect thier plates!


We still haven't used to kayaks and windsurfing on our days off but intend to soon. Adam had a day off today and played a round of golf (parred the 8th!), an hour of tennis and then ran up the mountain and back! There is also quite a few excursions that we can get really good discounts on, so while we are here we will definetly go diving and snorkling on the great barrier reef, so the blogs will still be interesting for you all! All in all settling back into working routine hasn't been to hard, but when you look at the pictures you'll probably see why!


We have decided to stay here for 15 weeks to save as much money as we can and make the most of our working visas, which means changing a few flights. This means we will only have 3 weeks in New Zealand and 1 week in Fiji but we think that should be enough, then we have 2 months in North America before we get home. We are going to finish working about a week before we fly to NZ and hopefully manage a 3 day trip to Ayers Rock in the centre of Australia.


Hope you are all well back home. Your weather is as hot as our we have read! The olympics should be a good watch, a lot of GB vs Asutralia hype seems to be going about on the news, so we hope that we beat them in the medal table and take 4th to rub it in thier faces while we are here!

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Thanks for reading...

Adam Gibson and Nick Burke

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