Hi my name is Jacey

---

Finally arrived Melbourne after a slightly longer than anticipated stopover in Brisbane.

We were staying in the Base Central Hostel which was such a fun place to be. We made so many friends that by the time we left, it was like having the leaving party we'd had in England all over again!

The reason we stayed was to get a job, but the job I got was short-lived! Telesales - trying to make appointments for government tax incentives. It was the most mundane soul destroying job ever, but the money was pretty good and the people in the office were mainly travellers. We were allowed to come in wearing shorts, tshirts and flip flops! I would do between 200-300 calls in each five hour shift, to which most people would be “not interested”, some would chat on about England, and one even shouted “get off my phone you f***ing Pommy C***!” Oo-er! And some lovely pensioner replied “Oh no thank you Tracy, I'm retired!” Ha ha. I left after a week, but not before well and truly taking advantage of Beer and Pizza Friday, where both me and Blair walked out of the office pissed! Imagine if they did that back home!

Really the whole month was just a pissup, we'd all meet on the hostel roof at about 7pm, drink a few boxes of Goon to varying drinking games and Blair's shouts of “down it, down it, down it”. One Sunday Dave in our room ended up worse for wear after Siobhan made him down several glasses of Goon. Another guy called Alan who wasn't even staying in our hostel passed out in someone's bed and they both proceeded to barf everywhere, neither of them managed to get it in a bin or a bag or anything - Dave did however manage to do it in his backpack! You could smell the sick in every room on the first floor, and even on the second floor if the windows were open. Whilst trying to sort out the carnage in the morning, I spotted a bedbug brazenly wandering over my bed and on closer inspection of the barf bed, it was concluded that it was infested. Advantages - free washing of all our clothes and moved to a 4 bed dorm at no extra cost! Disadvantages - Blair was the only casualty, with 70 bites on his arms alone.

Blair got a job working on Heron Island on the Capricorn coast. Presently he's up there sunning himself in 5 star luxury pretending to be working as a receptionist. Sounds amazing! Two days after we waved him off on the train, me and Siobhan flew down to Melbourne on Qantas. Flying domestic, there was no passport check, just a woman typing our names into the system, so we ended up as Jacey and Siobjan on our boarding passes!

We're staying in a lovely suburb by the beach called St Kilda. The weather was brrrr chilly when we arrived, but today it's 34C! Go figure? Apparently you can have four seasons in one day here, so don't feel too envious if it's cold at home, I might be wearing my jumper too! We are loving Melbourne, it's got the big city feel of high rise buildings, beaches, marinas and quirky lanes that remind me of Brighton. Think we'll fit in just fine here. We're staying in a hostel at the moment, but we're going to get a room in a house next week when I pull my finger out and find one! Although, we've already got jobs and it's only been four days, so I think that's pretty good going. We'll both be working at 'Cotton On' which is kindof like an Australian Topshop/man. Siobhan's starting at a brand new store next Saturday at a new development called 'Port Melbourne' and I'm starting in three weeks at the city centre store. Happy days!


Casey
x

---