Working at last!

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I have finally put my green card and work boots to use, and I have got myself some labouring work! Woohoo! Unfortunately its not as fun as it sounds, actually its worse than that. My first job through Worforce International was for a company called Taiyo Membranes. It involved working at a newly constructed retirement village just outside Manly, erecting a steel/PVC awning outside the front of the main building. The job itself was interesting enough, if not bloody hard work. The main problem I had was with the two blokes I was working with. Neither of them seemed to acknowledge my existance apart from when they wanted something doing. Also, as I had to get a lift to and from work with one of them, making conversation to pass the time was like extracting your own teeth with a pair of pliers. By the middle of the second day I actually gave up and resigned myself to the fact that working with these two blokes was going to be a miserable experience.

After four days on the same job, we finished up for the weekend and Wally my boss, promised me work for the following monday. The only thing was it was out of town so we would be leaving early to travel to the site. Monday morning came and I got up at the ungodly hour of 4am, and got to work for 5.15am. After half an hour, Paul hadn't arrived and I was starting to think I could have sneaked another ten minutes in bed. After 45 minutes I was wondering if I had the right day. With nearly an hour gone, I called Wally on his mobile to find out where Paul was. Wally seemed as bemused as me and tried Paul himself on his mobile. With no answer, Wally then suggested I hang around until Paul turned up, and keep trying him on his mobile in the meantime. I hung up from Wally before my brain could muster the words to tell him where to go. With the sun just coming up, I headed back to the hostel to get changed and thought about what the hell I was going to do with my day.

The thursday after that, Workforce had another job for me at a house in Hunters Hill which a company called Acclaim were renovating. Hunters Hill is a very nice suburb just outside Sydney, and I had my travel arrangements sorted for the morning. I took the train from Central station and arrived at a place called Chatswood at 5.50. From there I would take a bus at 6.05 to Hunters Hill. When I got to Chatswood it was apparent that the previous night's thai takeaway was ready to exit my body. With 15 minutes in hand, I figured I had plenty of time to make a quick pitstop. Thus I completed my business and got out of the train station with 5 minutes to spare. From there I took a gentle stroll to where I thought the bus station to be, to find it had been closed down long ago. I felt a sudden rush of panic as I realised there was no bus, and not much time. I legged it back to the station to find conflicting signs pointing me in two directions to the make shift bus shelter. Trust me to pick the wrong one. When I finally got on track and found where I needed to be, the bus had departed 5 minutes previous. I read up on the timetable to find that the next bus was an hour away. Great. With no other alternative, I conceded into getting a cab to work. It cost me 16 bucks. Taking a toilet stop on the way to work cost me 16 bucks! I got to work for 7, and it was my morning break before I even earned enough to cover my travel expenses!

After another long weekend of general mooching about, Workforce arranged for me another job. As my work effort up to now has been pretty poor I could really use the cash and workforce promised a whole week's worth of work. Great I thought! 500 or so bucks in my hand. One snag though - its working for Taiyo Membranes - the b**t**d's I was working for the previous week! Oh well, just think of the money...

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