My first travel blog entry!

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Hello and welcome to my first blog entry,

I am currently residing in a backpacking hostel in Southbank, Melbourne. Me and James have been here approximately 1 week and as usual have spent most of our time looking for work (damn you expensive Australia). Anyhoo, we have both found jobs, yippee! I am working in a coffee, cake & gelati (ice cream to the English) kiosk in a casino complex and James is working in an Irish bar. The hours are long but the money is good, well in compared to England anyway, I am getting paid double what I was in the UK for a much less taxing job. James' job pays a lot better than mine but he doesn't get as many hours. They are training him in all things bartendery, he lied on his resume and told them he had 2 year’s experience. I am too much of a whimp to do this, knowing my luck I would be caught out within 5 minutes of the lie leaving my mouth but that's the Gee luck for you.

So the hostel in nice enough, we are currently sharing with a crazy Italian who looks a bit like the scousers from Harry Enfield and Chums. When we questioned how long he had supported Chelsea (due to his matching Chelsea tracksuit) he replied he didn't really follow soccer and just like the track suits. Hmmm. He also said he didn't like Melbourne and he was going back to the East coast for the surfer lifestyle, when I asked how long he had been surfing he told me he didn't surf because it looked too difficult. Hmmm. Interesting fellow.

It's hard being back to relatively normal civilisation; I can't really be a scruffy backpacker anymore and have started wearing proper make up again. The girls here dress like the do at home for a night out and right now my backpacker clothes just don't fit the bill. I didn't even bring bloody straighteners. Trying to fit into normal society whilst living in a hostel out of a rucksack is not the easiest thing.

List of silly things I miss from home:

Chocolate - you may be thinking but they have chocolate in Australia, they even have Cadbury's. Yes they do have Cadbury's or what they have labelled Cadbury's. It tastes like cheap advent calendar chocolate, yuck yuck yuck.

GPS on my phone - I keep getting lost. Maps don't tell me which direction I am facing.

My wardrobe full of clothes.

Watching trashy TV - I miss you New Girl, Desperate Housewives, crap on SYFY, The Big Bang Theory.

My comfort zone - you are long gone!

So I come to the end of blog entry one, I may from time to time revisit places experienced so far in order to catch up on lost entries.

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Comments

[Suzanne]

Hey Alison, it's good to read about your life down under. You seem destined to work with kids - now serving them ice cream! :) Glad you've got jobs and are earning your dollar. Look forward to reading the next instalment! Suzanne x

[John n Sheila]

We like.
Nice to get the snippets and know things are going good. Watch out for Italian fellas. He can,t be all bad if he doesn't support Chelsea tho. You seem to have landed on your feet in Melbourne with your jobs so the Gee-luck is holding good. Hope to read more blogs in the near future. Take care,love n xxx

[Max]

Ahoy there! Fascinating info on yr blog...
Hello Alison, You'll meet some crazies in hostels, as I'm sure you know! I'll swap my crazies for yours. Hmmm, agree with you about the poor old Indians, my girlfriend is Japanese, and there's no boundary the Indians won't trample over, owing to them never having met a woman before...Make sure they know who's boss, eh? Alison I'll be going to Melbourne soon and looking to work as much as possible, so the Casino has jobs with lots of hours? I'll check it out. Sydney's got a million jobs of the telemarketer variety, pay is about $20/hr, job is in an aircon office but most people only stay a few weeks. Comfortable but crap job, hope that's helpful if you visit Syd. Some backpackers rotate, a few weeks in each company, they're forever looking for new people. Otherwise there's plenty of bar jobs, your boyfriend's experience will help him get one. Hope you enjoy your holiday...and if beer gets too expensive, you can buy a home brew kit (ebay?), and a week or two later it's ready to drink, 50 cents a longneck, 25 cents for a stubby. Hope this helps, cheers, -Max

[Gee3po]

Home brew kit sounds interesting
Hi there, Thanks for your comment. I am adjusting to them slowly! I keep considering telemarketing but I m terrible at convincing people to do things they don't want to. The strip I am working on has a lot of work to offer I don't think that you will struggle. If not just come work at my place, as long as you don't tell my collegues I blog about them, haha! Thanks for all the advice, we will be going to Sydney at some point so will keep all that in mind. Have good travels x

[Hannah B]

Really enjoyed reading your first blog post - keep them coming! So jealous, I'm sure you're having an amazing time at there! :) I've just come back from backpacking around South-East Asia and have major travel blues so it's nice to read new blogs about different places http://bellexrose.blogspot.co.uk/

[Gee3po]

Thanks!
Hi, Thanks for your comment I am glad you enjoyed it. I have never blogged before. We are doing Asia after Australia so I will have a good read of your blog and get some tips! Shame it's over for you now but you can always book another trip :)