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Published: December 21st 2007
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G-day all,
yeah, it has been a long time ago, but everything is still going fine Down Under.
While trying to find a job in Sydney, I decided to also start looking for any job outside the city....any kind of job! I started looking for jobs in Perth, Melbourne, Darwin, Brisbane....everywhere. I was willing to relocate to any city around Australia if I found a job. So then I reacted on an advertisement where they were looking for people to work in a fast-food restaurant in Alice Springs, around Perth, Darwin and in the rural area of Queensland (Mc Donalds, KFC, Red Rooster or Hungry Jack's). I reacted and the same day they called me and I had to go to the office in Sydney where I filled all forms and I had to choose between Darwin, Alice Springs and this town 90 km southwest of Cairns, in Queensland. It wasn't to hard to choose one. Alice Springs is in the middle of Australia and during this time of year it's VERY hot there (40°C) and it is also a very small city, which means it's boring....same for the town in Queensland, it must be boring. So I decided
to go for Darwin! The next day I took a flight with Virgin Blue from Sydney to Darwin (via Brisbane).
In Darwin I'm staying at a very nice hostel in the downtown, probably the best around here....just a 4 minute walk to Mc Donalds. The hostel has a nice pool where you'll usually hang around as there is little to do during the day if you're not working. The dorms have air conditioning which is great! My roommate until now has been Scott, from Leeds, Great Britian. He's working here in Darwin and he almost run out of money. But now he got paid and he's almost ready to move on through the west coast. He's leaving tomorrow. Uli was my roommate just the first two days and he moved to another hostel, but he's still here in Darwin. Our new roommate is Tobi from Germany. Most of the times I work closing shifts at Mc Donalds, which means between 18-19:00 until 02-03:00. The work is ok, not so hard at all. I work in the back (cook the meat, prepare the burgers when they're requested by the customers and the clean up when the store closes). They pay
well and that's why I took the job (AU$ 18.07 per hour). During the day I'm also doing some basic cleaning work in my hostel a few hours in the week, only the public spaces: around the pool, the corridors etc. No rooms or toilets (thank God, lol). They pay very well too, in weekends even more! I took the job because normally there is not much to do during the day anyway....I'd rather do something instead of sitting, sleeping, hanging around bored. I'll stay here in Darwin for a couple of weeks and save some money before I continue with my travels in Australia. I don't want to do like many others do....travel around, spend almost all money first and when they have just AU$100 left or less, they'll be desperately looking for a job. After Darwin I'd like to travel through the west coast down to Broome and Perth. But I'll only do this if I find another traveler who owns a car. Normally they always look for 2 or 3 other people to join them during the trip....doing this you share the costs of fuel and the driving. I hope that this will be possible because the
west coast is supposed to be very beautiful and less crowded than the east coast. Traveling by bus in this country is pretty expensive. If I don't find someone with a car I'll skip the west coast and go to Alice Springs and area.
Darwin itself is a small city, about 100.000 inhabitants I think. It's the capital of Northern Territory. It's warm and tropical (everyday 33°C these days) and very humid. Sometimes it feels like being in David, Panama. It has the same climate as in July in David. It's rainy season now, which means that during the afternoons or evenings/nights suddenly a heavy thundershower can develop above the area. Darwin is called "the lightning capital of the world" which means that this city gets the most lightning strikes in the world. Until now it hasn't been raining so much. Last week, while I was working, a heavy thundershower developed above the city with some of the most powerful thunders I've ever heard. One lightning strike nearby turned all the lights of Mc Donalds off for a few seconds and the thunder shacked all the windows and the door.
Darwin lies in the north of Australia, far north
in the Northern Territory...Sydney is further away than Bali, Indonesia. The city was destroyed two times in the past. The first time was when the Japanese bombed the city during the Second World War in 1942 and when the cyclone (hurricane) Tracy made landfall at Darwin at Christmas 1974 which left the city totally destroyed. Hurricane season just started here, it lasts from December until May (the opposite of the Atlantic/Caribbean hurricane season).
Most travellers are leaving Darwin now because the rain season started. But there are still a lot around here. The most famous places to go out are Discovery and The Vic. Especially on Tuesday nights Discovery is a great place to go, filled with young crowds of travellers and Darwin locals. At The Vic you can have cheap dinners every night between 19:00 and 21:30, for only AU$ 3,50. At night, especially weekends, there is live music and entertainment going on there. My Swedish and German friends,
Tommy and
Christiaan, both worked at The Vic about 3 years ago as glass-pickers for a few months here in Darwin. Thammy, a nice English girl, went with us to The Vic last week where we had dinner and we
stayed afterwards when there was live music. I met her in the pool at the hostel. I couldn't stop telling here how beautiful here eyes were...heheh. She left Darwin just a few days after.
Some of the managers at Mc Donalds are Patricia (originally from Parana, Brazil), Andrew and Tim. Tim is the store manager. Patricia is a little bit more "strict"...I like Andrew more, he's more laid back hahaha. During work were having a great laugh, depending with who you work. I also like Delphine a lot, she's a French traveller from Paris....she usually works at the front counter. There are two little sisters working there (14 and 16 y.o) who are really getting on my nerves (and I'm not the only one who thinks the same). They like to command and tell you what to do, as if they're managers. I told one of them already that she's not my manager and she's nobody to tell me when I should take my break or not. If they continue, soon I'll tell them both to "S.T.F.U" (figure out for yourself what that means) 😉 . Even the managers don't like them....but they keep them because they work good
and the store is really looking for staff. There are three stores in Darwin, the one in downtown is the smallest one. It doesn't have a drive thru and there is a little amount of chairs inside. Outside there is a terrace where most customers can sit down.
Being here in Darwin for a few weeks I want to do more than only work, sleep, go out, swim etc. So I searched for volleyball organizations etc. on the internet and I found some...and I also want to look for a church to go on some Sundays (when I'm off). Last Tuesday I went to some social beach volleyball playing at a neighborhood called Coconut Grove. Didn't like this beach volleyball so much since it's not on a real beach and the sand has like a red colour...it only makes your clothes and everything really dirty. I'm used to play beach volleyball sometimes, but at a normal beach where you go for a swim after playing. I'd prefer to play normal indoor volleyball and that's what I'm going to do starting in January.
Well....that's all for now. A Merry Christmas to all of you and a happy and blessed
new year! May all your best wishes become true in 2008!!!
Elton
+61 420 886 820
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non-member comment
Gezegende dagen
thanks