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Published: August 6th 2007
Well its that time again people, another month gone (my 4th now, flying by) where not much has happend but I shall spend an age telling you it anyway!Besides I have a few requests for a new blog and my last one was my 2nd most popular ever, so allow me to do a mini mexican wave to myself in this internet cafe, get a slight ego(some would say its big enough) and then I can continue, well a woooo hooo...ok i am done..
So lets begin with the job situation, an up and down affair this one, recent weeks have had me worrying I made the wrong call originally. I wasnt really interested in OZ again after 5 months here last time (hey to my ex travelling boys by the way)(this will make no sense to anyone else, Haines just texted me as I wrote that sentence to say him and Yank were having a Starbucks and wondering what I was doing-SCARY!!)(OK they now texted again asking for a mention, I had already done the double mention but now writing this to prove it!!)anyway where was I... ah yes so this time its more about getting around the world
Our random group at the start of the night
Welsh, Irish and English all mixing beautifullyand just having a brief flirtation with OZ. But to do this I needed money and my choice was either stay home for 6 months, teach, get a load of cash then come to OZ for a month or so and then head off to the wider world, OR come here, work for 6 months, see the east coast of OZ then get around the world. As you all know I chose the latter, but it is currently 4 months since I left and I had worked a total of about 20 days so the maths was not looking good!! Add to that some boredom of Sydney and some itchy feet (as in I wanted to travel, not that I had athletes foot or anything)and it was looking gloomy. So joining a new agency and getting a new job renewed my hopes, it sounded decent enough on paper, working for the uni promising a laid back atmosphere, easy work, decent money and for a 3 month period. Well I was lucky to last a day, never have I been more bored or out of my depth! (the work wasn't in a swimming pool, it was just above my level..)
Spiders!!
Loads of these in the trees and bushes around Bondi Beach, luckily there are none up the Junction by us! The work was actually in the finance department and I was in charge of invoices and accounting, and let me tell you my people, I aint no accountant! Now these next few lines will seem silly trivial reasons to most and in hindsight maybe I shouldn't have quit, but when added together with my stubborn streak I couldn't go on: it wasnt smart casual-it was shirt and shoes stuff, I was the youngest there, in an office of 20 or so middle aged men and women in power suits, doing umm accounting stuff, the vast majority of which flew right over my head, I'm not the sharpest tool in the box but neither the bluntest, but I struggled with their forms, systems and umm accounting. I don't mind hard work (cough) but I was looking for a laid back office with some young people and by God even some fellow travellers... so 20 middle aged people, mostly who could barely count English as a first language but could do accounting-was not for me, and to add to that the office was silent, no banter and it was annoying to get to (a train and then a 20minute walk, i mean
honestly people!!). Finally, it didn't help that I was trained by some utter idiots, one could barely pronounce my name let alone talk me through the work involved and she trained me for 3 of the days. Then the final nail in the coffin was the most random weird guy I have encountered in many a while. As usual it will be hard to describe and imagine without ever meeting, and first let me apologise for mocking someone with a speech impediment..... ok you can guess where this is going..but he had a stammer, but one that sounded like (and indeed he looked like minus the moustache) Groucho Marx. So if you can, just for a second, put aside the moral wrongness, and imagine a Groucho look-alike stammering every third word while trying to train me on accounting... never have I bit my lip so hard while trying not to laugh, I was physically digging my nails in my leg under the desk at one stage so as not to laugh in his face. To add to this he had the curious habit of roughly once every 4 minutes saying "Oh that really gives me the shits", it seems a
lot of things provoked dodgy bowel movements from him, a phone ringing, an email arriving, his mis-spelling of a word, someone breathing to loudly etc, all met with a stuttering and a "Oh see, now that gives me the shits", or to be more accurate "Aahh..Aaah see now thhh thaaat really gives mmmmm mmme the shhh shhh shhhhhhhh (ME:"the shits Alan?") "yeh the shhhhii shhii" and so on it went...Strange guy but he was almost worth staying in the job for.
And so I left on the Friday, which basically got me blacklisted with the agency and meant me out of work for another 2 weeks, ooops! This resulted in lots of sitting around the apartment for me and Andy, which resulted in lots of playstation, and sadly we got through (yes we kept score) some 150 games of pro-evoultion soccer, sad-yes,fun-yes, did i win?yes(come on Andy I had to mention that!). The weather has been as bad as ever and rained a bit too so that didn't help! Julie had and indeed still does work in a shoe shop about 35 seconds from the flat and so was doing well there, whilst Gav has just come back from
2 weeks with the on/off/on/off/on girlfriend Nat, but of course he is only slighlty pink and not at all tanned (I can hear him cursing me from here). In the meantime I sent my CV off to more agencies, got rejected by more but signed up by one, which has led to a new job, woo! Only been in it one day but so far so good.....yes people I'm still there, go me. Its more basic data entry, to do with pensions, right in the middle of Sydney (travelling boys again-3rd mention!!its right next door to where we ate once and saw the Chinese kid get knocked over, then sat watching through the window and carried on eating whilst the restraunt emptied to help him ha!) The job seems OK so far but we are only at training stage so locked in a room with 5 other newbies and a trainer. I have once again been blessed with what appears to be a quiet actual business type office (I keep expecting to find one which is full of backpackers, you know people sat on desks in shorts, some in the corner at the mini bar, throwing things out windows etc,
but alas all seem pretty work orientated!) So the work seems not bad as far as I can tell at training stage, but again I have been blessed with great company, we have Niyati in charge, then Fernando, Gilbert, Tang, Alice and Jenny-she being the only UK person(Scottish) with me-hmm maybe a week is optomistic with this job!!
So thats the bulk of the news, onto the usual smaller stuff, dessert if you will(cheesecake is my favourite since you asked) Liverpool won their Champions League Semi Final, Man United did not. Now I am not usually one to brag about football nor comment on it in my blog, but firstly its retaliation for months ago when Man United VERY LUCKILY fluked a win over liverpool and I had a couple of comments (Yes Yank you again) about it so this is payback, and also because Liverpool don't get there every day and have a chance of winning such a big thing, oh expcept 2 years ago when we won it, cough. Now finally, boys don't bother commenting back because I have power over them and just won't publish them so its a waste of 5 minutes of your life
writing them! ha! I have also spoken to loads back home this month, plans are still abound for Chris, the fellow commrade and banteriau friendiau, to join me in September so fingers crossed for that. Mr David Fletcher Morris has been on msn with me lots so good times there (an ex workmate currently in Asia is also due to here soon for a month or 2), then there is Ryan Mcgee's wifes sister Ciara (tres random, love it) coming out in July and of course I still have Gethin here,we have had some random nights lately, cowboy hats and neckerchiefs made of newspapers among the usual stupid stuff when drunk.
One night me and Jules also rocked the stage in Scruffy Murphys, was apparently a Bon Jovi tribute band on (Lyndsey if you read this, no comments please I know I mock you religiously for liking them) so Jules jumped up with the band after an invite for ladies and was singing and dancing away. I know what you are thinking my blogettes, how could I stand there and let her be centre of attention on stage while I stood idly by...well i couldn't, I had to gatecrash
I am slim honest
Drunk and vain, saw a picture of me with a double chin, had to prove I was skinny, hmm, drunk!!!! and did so, what a pair we made, or did make until the bouncer threw me off for not being female, or invited, nor any good come to think of it, ah well my Pop Idol dreams in shatters!Speaking of the Irish, they are the same and I love them so but the era is nearly ending, watch this space but current plans involve Andy and Julie leaving this week to go around Oz for a few weeks, NZ and Fiji, then to our apartment for maybe a few days then heading home in July so our time is rapidly wasting away, mind you their plans change daily so I wouldn't be surprised if they don't head off this week as planned. Gavin is Gavin, and so as unpredictable as ever, he could leave tomorrow, or July 2009, or he could have left yesterday, I love his randomness. One quick example is us walking past a hot girl and him saying "Wow I'd let her be my surrogate mother!!"...I mean, honestly, what?!?!?!?he also ordered a plain chicken burger from McDonalds, got all the way home to eat it and find they had just given him a warm bun and nothing
Me next to the tallest guy in the world!
OK I know I'm short, but this guy was huge!! inside, well he asked for plain!!! I have also been made by Andy to point out that whilst I did indeed mock the Irish songs in my last blog, he made the very valid point that at least the Irish write their own while the English just steal everybody elses awesome songs and claim them as their own for sport, Jerusalem and Chariots spring to mind, fricking Englsh eh!!We have also had our usual cinema trips, shooter-good, spiderman 3-not so much!
Umm other events include the TV show we were hooked on ending, it was The Biggest Loser..ok 14 severly overweight people compteing to lose the most fat does not sound good on paper but was on EVERY night after tea time which meant we started watching it, got hooked and saw all episodes for 2 months while they competed and got voted out. We had our favourite Damien (Damooooo as we called him) a sheer legend (sheer mountain, he was 35 stone at the start and biggest on the show) who eventually came 5th (we hand on heart nearly cried when he was voted out, unfair too by a tactical error on his part, hmph)but he was the
shows hero and ours whilst being an inspiration for me and the house to avoid kebabs from now on...well except for weekends, lets not be too hasty about this people!! Oh and also in answer to a few peoples questions I have finally found some beasties, I assumed it all a myth after 5 months here last time and now 4 months, and not seeing any killer animals except in zoos...then I went for a walk down near Bondi Beach (and later Jules and Andy, her pics are shown, good camera work Jules) and found the trees and bushes infested with the big hairy bas*ards..not Andy's you understand, spiders..luckily we avoid such things being high up in the junction and I think they are the big yet not fatal Huntsman ones but still beats a Daddy long legs at home!
Final couple of things, firstly my good friend Ryan Mcgee (you may remember him from past blogs, his business suffers from the time it takes to read my efforts)well his afore-mentioned business now as has its own fancy pants website, admitedly its in Ireland and most of my readers aren't there, and I doubt your profits will go up
300% after me mentioning it, but I feel it worth a go, if you need any gardens designed or built then he is your man!:
http://www.gardendesignandbuild.com/
On a smiliar note, although maybe more messy, our local pub, the infamous Tea Gardens, now has a 24 hour webcam. This means you can log in anytime and watch idiots like me getting slowly drunk and then embarassing themselves with dodgy dancing, failed women chasing and all my usual randomness! Remember the time difference of 9 hours but I am usually in there Friday and Saturday nights from 10 onwards, I'll be the guy swaying and leering at women..:
http://www.teagardenshotel.com.au/
Also while I think of it, our other local bar, the always mentioned, much loved and often visitied Scruffy Murphys is in the lastest mens magazine Zoo (bit like FHM only cheaper!) for being the most racist bar in Australia ha ha. It seems the owner decided to ban a few different ethnic minorities (no not Welsh or Irish luckily!) for starting too much trouble and the news didn't go down too well! However, I was there (again) this weekend and happy to report it was the same as ever, packed
full, mainly of men, sticky dancefloors, dodgy drinks, cheesy music, funny smells, random events and me causing mischief, you can always rely on some things in life!
I think thats it people, not much else to say but just!!My latest saying picked up from the Irish, it is used in many ways, usually to avoid elaborating on a point, or to be lazy, or to end an argument. An example if I may, "So where are we off tonight?" "Hmm I dunno if I fancy going out" "Why?" "Just...." or "What shall we have for dinner?" "Dunno you decide" "Why?" "Just" etc etc..I now say it every 2 minutes, partly to annoy and partly because its stuck in my empty head!!! Will end with a quick hello to everyone at home as usual, hope all are well, mind you nobody has told me about it if anything was wrong, so if thats the case then shame on you for keeping me out of the loop!Most people I speak to all the time and don't need a mention, some I speak to all the time and 'need' a mention (cough SJ) and some I don't speak to all the time
but still miss you all the same, I'm only ever an email, txt or blog comment(hint!!) away people. Oh but Homes and Lou had the first scan of baby and is all fine, but they don't want to know the gender, however I have it on good authority that it is a boy..only don't tell them..Oh also while I think of it Mummy has news of her operation (gall bladder removement bless her, everyone say awww) so goes in at the end of June, good luck for that mother, will try and ring you sometime before it ;-) (Joking people, I ring every Sunday, I am a good boy!!)Next time I blog I hope to have news of me loving my job, of the Irish staying a while longer, of Chris coming out to replace them and umm I dunno, great news for everyone else etc!!
Take care all, stay safe, and if you can't then Just!
xx
PS-there are more pics on the next page, you have to click on the last one you can see and scroll through the rest..
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Sarah-Jane
non-member comment
Impressive spider
Still loving and respecting the blog hun! I found a spider like that in my pocket once! Lol. XXXXX