Brisbane by Any Other Name

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Hey everyone! I am alive in Brisbane! I’ve been remiss about updating this since there has been little to update about, but I’ll tell you about what’s going on so far.

I arrived in Brisbane on Wednesday a couple weeks ago to get better work than I had back in Byron Bay and there have certainly been more opportunities though many in the commission fields of work. I had been working for a company called 4Gen Direct which is a marketing company for an electricity and gas retailer called Australian Power and Gas. The way the energy industry works here in Queensland (and the majority of the east coast of Australia) is that there is the energy producer (Energex) which produces the electricity (mostly through coal plants) and distributes that along with the natural gas. The energy industry became deregulated here in 2007 which means that instead of Energex billing everyone who used the energy, the market opened to other companies to buy the energy at wholesale prices and were then able to sell it to the people who used it. Essentially middle men stepped in and now there are something like 5 or 6 companies that compete with one another to get more clients to bill.

My job consisted of dressing up (if only in slacks and a button down shirt and tie) and going from door to door in a designated neighbourhood in an attempt to sign them up with our company. I was working 10 hour days sometimes for no money at all, even having to pay for public transit to those areas on those days. In either case I found that it wasn’t for me (even though I gave it 2 weeks to see if my sales would pick up) though many others do very well for themselves, I’m not one of those who are suited to the job since I don’t like bothering people in their home.

The company is really big on getting everyone hyped up about how in X amount of years and sales you can be in charge of a team of 10 people making Y many dollars and all that, but that had absolutely no draw for me. First off I am a backpacker who does not plan to stay in Australia for longer than 4 more months, and I don’t buy into the hype that “everyone can be a leader with a team of minions making them money for their management skills.” There is only ever so much work (even if there happens to be a lot of work) and some one will always have to be the (if you’ll excuse the language) bitch doing all the work while all the rich managers sit up there occasionally making some sales themselves.

I say it all in the past tense because I resigned today due to budget constraints. I need to be working at a job where I get an hourly wage, so I can know how much money I’ll have at the end of the week. Some would say that quitting before finding another job was less than wise (as past experiences have told me before) but working 10 hour days 6 days a week leaves little time to go job hunting. Either way, by the end of next week I will have a job by the end of next week where I can at least save enough money to stay here in Australia and start to save for the European leg of the trip.

Enough about the job situation though, I’m staying at the Bunk Backpackers in Brisbane, Julie was staying in another backpackers since she took a different (and longer) route up to Brisbane and booked online before I arrived. She’s since left Brisbane to continue her travels north for a month before going to New Zealand for a month.

The Hostel is pretty big, something like 200+ beds and is sitting in Fortitude Valley right next to China town. It’s alright, the kitchen is pretty large, but there aren’t enough fridges for everyone. I started off staying in the super cheap 16 person dorm which was $18 a night which you are only supposed to be allowed to stay in for a week and I stayed in it for 5 nights before having to shift. I was then in the next level up that was $21 a night for a full week, this being 5 days longer than I was supposed to be allowed to stay in any of the cheap rooms. With wit and charm (not to mention my rugged good looks) I talked my way into the $18 room for another week before the manager (who is not the friendliest guy) caught on to my devious little set up and told all the female receptionists who I had been sweet talking not to let me in the cheap rooms again.

I’ve made some great friends here, some from Ireland, the UK, Germany, and France and a bunch of us pooled some cash together and went out for a BBQ. I really wish I had a photo of it, but there are free barbeque areas in some parks around Australia and this one in particular had a hilarious sign. Drinking in public is illegal like in Canada but attached to the barbeques are signs that say “Drinking alcohol is permitted along with a substantial meal.” Of course we had brought some beer with us, expecting to have to drink it on the sly, but since it was permitted we were able to be much more casual about our BBQ.

At the time of writing I was interrupted by an announcement over the PA system that there were job openings for people on a cattle ranch where there would be positions open for up to 6 months (with a minimum of 1 and a half) and I literally leapt out of my bed and raced downstairs. I got a position and will start tomorrow! To the best of my knowledge it will be cattle wrangling where we go out for a couple weeks at a time, on horseback and on dirt bike to get the cattle from a section of ranch to wherever they are loaded onto vehicles. We are supposed to work 10 hours days and will get board (room being a waterproof sleeping bad we will be sleeping on the ground in) and something to the tune of $200 a day, 6 days a week with one day to relax.

I will probably not be able to talk to you guys for at least 3 weeks, but that’s about normal isn’t it? I wish I could say I have a ton of pictures from the city, but that isn’t the case. I will get the pics when I get back to Brisbane after my stint on the ranch I guess. I’ll update you guys as often as possible and I will be sure to include the pictures I will be taking along the way.

I will be careful and take all due precautions while out on the job, no need to worry!

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