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Published: January 25th 2008
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Sorry, it's been a fair while since our last entry. That would indicate that we have done so much and not had time to even think about the blog, but sadly, it's the opposite.
As mentioned in a previous blog, Emma had managed to have a job to start on the 3rd of January whereas my recruitment agencies had told me there wasn't much available but would contact me in the New Year. Unsurprisingly, they never did, with my attempts to contact them getting nowhere.
Since the New Year, Emma has started her new job and is quite enjoying it. As soon as she started, I began to seek out jobs with little emphasis on the type of work, but merely just to get work itself, so I'm not being fussy. Over the few weeks, I've probably sent my CV (they like to call it resume here though) for over 200 different positions. Most never get back to me, some do and say that they only take on permanent residents. The ones I do phone, just tell me to email my CV in.
The odd ones that do get back to me are usually recruitment agencies who have
said my CV is ideal for a particular position and asking me to come in and do their crappy Excel, Word, and data entry tests, which I've gotten pretty good at now. Only been put forward for a few jobs with some being close calls, but others not getting back to me. It's very annoying. Having spoken to a few other travellers, it's not just me in this boat thankfully as finding a job in Sydney right now is apparantly quite difficult, with some talking of perhaps having to just up and go home. We're hoping it doesn't come to that though!
A lifestyle of sitting in the flat watching Woody Allen films and The Wire (superb TV program!! It took me by surprise) waiting for the phone to ring isn't as fun as it sounds, knowing the money is running out. It feels like I'm sponging off Emma now. The blog has generally taken a back seat to job hunting during my internet time, which I've clocked in a lot of hours on. One afternoon I was in the internet cafe and it turned out Nicole Kidman was eating in the cafe next door, unknown to me at
HMS Endeavour
Full scale replica. the time. Maybe she could have got me an acting gig or something.
Anyway, enough about me. We moved out of our Potts Point flat last Thursday as it was too expensive for a longer term stay. Unfortunately, we never managed to get a flat in time for moving out so we resided in a hostel along the road called The Blue Parrot. Decent hostel, but the cockroaches are unwelcome guests in the kitchen, although we have become pretty ambivalent to them. Managed to get a new flat with an Aussie called Joe though on William Street, just down the road. Again, it's a really nice and clean flat, but more roaches. We have since become certified cockroach serial killers and on the average morning I normally clock in 10-15 corpses either through some purchased artillery or hand to hand combat. This city is full of these guys, but it's the erroneously named German Cockroaches who are guests in the flat. At least they're not the huge Asian ones, but being a bit smaller they fit into a lot more crevices and have a faster breeding turnaround. And the bigger ones don't generally live inside.
Our plan was
to work for 3 months in Sydney which we calculated to save us enough money to do a lot of stuff in Australia, but missing out on 3 weeks hasn't been ideal as a lot of our saved money has been spent on living costs, which are high in Sydney. Because of the money situation, we haven't been able to do too much out and about in Sydney.
One weekend we headed to Darling Harbour for the day and to the National Maritime Museum, which was pretty fun. Got to visit a replica of the Endeavour which was anchored at the harbour, the ship Captain Cook first arrived to Australia in. That was a lot of fun, as it was pretty meticulous in the details so the lower decks were only about 4 feet high so not the most comfortable to get around. Certainly wouldn't have liked to sleep there for months on end like the original crew did. Also visited a submarine, which I sadly broke my sunglasses in. Again it was a tight squeeze but pretty cool. The other visitation was to a Navy boat which was pretty contemporary compared to the others. The museum itself wasn't
Eating Quarters
This was where the crew ate (and some slept). The captain and his ilk had swankier digs. as fun though, but by that time we had been going around for a fair while.
Another cost effective activity was a trip to the Art Gallery, situated quite close to our flat which Emma really wanted to see. Aside from the security guards seemingly having been personally trained by Adolf Hitler, the gallery was pretty fun as there was a lot of aboriginal stuff which was completely different from other stuff we'd seen. We wandered around there for a while and headed to a nearby cathedral which was also free (yay!) and had a gander.
Harry's Cafe De Wheels has been a visitation place for us a few times as it's close to our flat, which is one of the only meals on wheels places in the world listed as a national heritage site. The Chilli dogs are spectacular as are the pies and like every other tourist, we got our picture taken scoffing them down. Sadly, I don't think we're going to have our picture put up on the van by the owners alongside the likes of Richard Branson, Rolf Harris, Pamela Anderson, Colonel Sanders (KFC Guy!!), and umm...the guy from Malcolm In The Middle and
the American Pie guy.
Emma also got me tickets for a football match as part of my birthday to watch some Socceroos in action. It was the league decider between Melbourne and Sydney. We were in the Sydney end, but I was secretly backing Melbourne. Sadly, Grant Brebner never got a game. Must be injured or something as there is now way any team could ignore his boundless talent. The game ended up 2-2, which wasn't what Sydney needed. It was a good game and was exciting towards the end, despite the standard not being the greatest. Juninho was easily the best player on the field, running rings around a lot of them. Ended up sitting next to a Scottish guy, who was extremely passionate about Sydney FC it seemed.
Other than that, not too much else. A couple of cinema visits had to be made, with one of them a Gold Class visit. We don't really have Gold Class at home (The Grosvener is the closest), but as the title suggests, it's pretty classy. You basically go in to a private lounge at the start and you can order snacks or dinner to be delivered to you
Gary
It was lot easier to sit as the roof was very low. during the film at any time. And yes, this includes alcohol. You then go in and there are only 4 chairs in a row, but full arm chairs with reclining backs and legs with a table for your food next to you. The screen is pretty huge too. We ended up getting two free glasses of wine as well due to the workers mucking up an order. Good times.
Over the next wee while, we plan to have a day trip to the Blue Mountains, we have a Neighbours night this Sunday at a bar (will be my second Dr Karl encounter), and whatever else takes our fancy. Weather has been hot, but a lot of Sydneysiders are saying this is a bad summer. To be fair, we did have storms over the past few days but nothing compared to the mass flooding in Queensland. Should end up leaving Sydney at end of March and first on our agenda is a 5 day surf trip which will be a learning experience and then heading up the coast to Cairns. Ciao.
Post-Script: A couple of hours after writing the blog, I got a job temping for Toshiba. And just
On Deck
With stereotype seaman guy in the background. like the tired cliche about waiting for a bus, I got a few more job offers shortly after, with recruitment agencies saying I had an "excellent resume". Funny how things work. I couldn't be bothered changing the blog though.
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Niall
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Juninho
Guess the climate out there suits him better, cos he never ran rings round anyone at Parkhead. I wondered where Grant Brebner had gone.