Reasons to be cheerful....1, 2, 3

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So this is my take on the whole running a backpackers hostel thing.
I have to say aside from CD Engineering in Namibia, this is the best job I’ve ever had. For the following reasons
1) Because Verlie and I run the place ourselves, and as several people (quite correctly) have pointed out to me over the years, I have at times not quite seen eye to eye with my “line managers” and seem to have an issue with authority. We are our own bosses, and in that respect this job is perfect!
2) I can literally, fall out of bed and be at work. This has been my fantasy for many years, and is a far cry from an hour or so commute each way to Enfield, every day.
3) We get to meet some amazing people, and after working here, will have more friends worldwide than we can shake a stick at.
4) The owner of the backpackers we work for, has told us after one year he is considering sponsoring our visa, speeding up the process for us.
5) My tourist visa only allows me to work in exchange for accommodation, and Verlie is on a working holiday visa, which allows her full work rights for 1, possibly 2 years. So this job is perfect, between us, we get the free double room, and a wage, everyone’s a winner!
6) We are in sole charge of the music that is played throughout the hostel, and therefore are not forced to insult our eardrums with the absolute toss they used to play here before we took over.
7) I convinced the owner that the hostel mini bus (bright orange with the hostel logo and phone number pasted all over it) is under-used as a marketing tool (its parked outside most of the time), and should be driven around Perth and the surrounding areas as much as possible, especially when Verlie and I need to go shopping, or out for the evening.
8) We are now selling the croc van……Entirely unrelated to point 7.

There are down sides of course, quality time as a couple is very very limited. Our travel plans have been curtailed until we finish here, whenever that is. It’s so hard saying goodbye to people literally 2 or 3 times a week, who are heading north on massive road trips to Darwin or East over the Nullabor to Adelaide or Melbourne. But most annoyingly for me I have to smile and be nice to people that in any other situation, I’d …….well I wouldn’t have much time for shall we say.
It’s not all roses, but the main aim of us coming to Australia before our permanent residency is issued was to kill time, and we are doing that in fine style.
As Verlie said in her blog, she leaves the sorting out of the trouble makers to me, not that we’ve had much at all. But what she failed to mention was that she makes this job difficult for me, by repeatedly calling me “poppet” in front of the guests. I try really hard to strike that really difficult balance between being friendly but also firm and authoritative when I need to be, being called Poppet several times a day by your wife makes being a figure of authority a little bit difficult to say the least. I asked her not to do it, but it’s habit and the odd one slips out from time to time. I didn’t think anyone had picked up on it, until a couple of nights ago when I was late for the Tuesday night poker game, and our friend Marc said “come on poppet, hurry up”…..gutted…….

Friday nights are the busiest and the quietest, I know that doesn’t make sense, but Friday nights are “Black Betty nights” it’s $10 per person and the club adds $10 to that, doubling the money so if 30 people go, the total fund for drinks is $600. It’s been renamed “Blackout Betty’s” on account of the amount of lost hours. Verlie went last week and fell over whilst dancing on the podium. The night starts at 11pm, It’s Friday today and as I type it’s 930pm the whole hostel is warming up with drinking games. I don’t go much myself, I get a perverse thrill out of sitting behind reception until about 2am, while everyone is out and the hostel is dead quiet, I listen to the Smiths and watch as people gradually, one by one get thrown out and stagger back to the hostel. Last week one guy broke the toilet door and passed out on the floor with his trousers round his ankles. Me and 2 other guys stood over him, and the conversation went along the lines of, “well we have to help him, but let’s get a photo first” His punishment was paying half towards a new door (it was already hanging off) and having the photo put on Facebook. Speaking of which, please search for Ozi Inn and be our friend on Facebook.
I’ve had to ask a couple of people to leave who were drunk and misbehaving, I prefer to let them sleep it off, and throw them out the next day when they are hung over, feeling sorry for themselves and not up for talking on the big bloke in a fight. As a great man once said to me, work smarter, not harder. This has worked well so far, with one bloke actually thanking me as I threw him out, for letting him sleep it off before I made him homeless.

I know I have a tendency to ramble on, and I’ve been asked by one particularly demanding friend to blog shorter and more often….I do apologise, but sometimes my thoughts can’t be summed up in a few paragraphs…….I will try in future.
So this far I am loving it, our lack of quality time aside, we are really busy for winter time, we are making loads of really good friends and as Verlie said, the new owner has plans for improvements, he’s back from Singapore for a few days next weekend, and I’m going to try and sell him on the idea of a smaller reception area and a pool table……….
As I finish typing, Verlie is more than holding her own in a drinking game with 5 Irish lads, an Irish girl and a couple from the midlands. She’s just come to the counter and asked to have a photo taken, I will put in on this blog.

Finally I want to say, and this won’t mean much to most people reading this I know, but this blog is dedicated to Nicky Avery, a great man and a giant personality who will be missed by everyone whose life he ever touched.
Cheers!
Mark
PS here is the sldieshow that should have been on the last blog

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Photos

A night out
Ready to party!!!!

Comments

[smalldavis]

i miss you
Hello babies, Everything sounds like it's going so well for you, wonderful, so very proud of you both. Just wanted to say I miss you, loads and love you more xxx