Back to Work

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Hi Folks,

From the sunshine Coast we headed here to Brisbane. Our main reason for staying here was to earn some money in the hope we can afford a trip to Fiji. The first thing we did was get a tiny flat in the Fortitude Valley area. Its basically a shoebox, but has done the trick, and even has cable tv (with 2 sports channels for me, and the National Geographic for Laura). Over the last 7 weeks we have had 4 jobs. First up was selling mortgages over the phone, for a guy with no front teeth. We lasted a day. The pay and work were so terrible, we didn't turn up for day 2. You might think we were being choosy, but it wasn't worth the abuse we recieved on the phone!!

Next up was "face 2 face" fundraising work. We thought that this would be on the streets of Brisbane getting people to sign up for the company's Oxfam campaign. How wrong we were. We headed out an hour West of Brisbane and began basically knocking on door to door trying to get people to sign up. If you didn't manage a sign up - you didn't get paid. We politely declined the trial run and went back to the drawing board.

We managed to both get an interview with a call centre organisation selling home phones and internet packages for the 3rd largest telecomms company in Australia. After completing a 2 day (non-paid) training course - that was nearly a week gone with no earnings. So we had to take this job. It was like nothing I have ever experienced before. The sales environment was more like a panicked office on Wall Street during black wednesday. Every time a sale was made, the seller would ring a bell, and recieve applause and high fives from the 60 strong workforce. There were whoops of delight and hystrionics that was like something out of a Top Gun movie. It wasn't our scene, and despite absolutely no sales - we plugged on at a measley 4 pound 40 an hour. Some guys were making upwards of $1500 a week (due to commission basis). but we couldnt get the knack of it, and just havent got the laid back Aussie "gift of the gab". The call centre had been operable for 4 years but after a week of working there, we were told the contract had been pulled and we were made redundant. In hindsight, I can't help wondering if it was just us they told this too!! After all this, we have been short changed and are still chasing them for 1 weeks pay (we keep ringing them but the comapny hasn't re-opened). The result - 92 pounds for 3 weeks work.


Our last resort was a labouring company a fellow traveller recommended. It was putting up huge marquees, carrying heavy irion girders, laying flooring and cleaning deep fat fryers. We went for it, and it was the hardest job I've ever done. Fair play to Laura, she managed it too - even though it exhausted us. We were getting up at 5.30am and not getting home until 7.30pm. It felt like we were just working and sleeping. The job included exhibitions, events and concerts etc. We were on $15 an hour (6 pounds), and did 3 weeks of it. I have multiple unidentified bruises and injuries but at least we were out in the fresh air. On the plus side, we've seen the sights of Brisbane, been to some music venues, met up with some friends we met along the way, and got a day off for the Melbourne Cup horse racing (I won $80).

We've also met up with Alan & Carys, which was a great evening out, seen some of the Wales matches on our tv, been to some great Islands off the Queensland coast, and got to see the ashes (but only in an exhibition in the museum of Queensland). Brisbane has been a good city to work in, and the live music & night life is excellent. But it's time to move on to the Gold Coast tomorrow.

We didn't earn as much as we hoped but as we're probably only doing this once, we've booked our flights to Fiji regardless!

Hope your all well.

I promsie the next journal will be more exciting.

Rich

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