Hey y'all
I am starting a blog of my Australian life. This ensures that a) I can still write/post stuff that is too mundane to clog the inboxes of my nearest and dearest, b) my friends can all have another time-waster blog to read at work, and c) my writing can find a wider audience, so more people than just me can laugh at my jokes.
Anyway, I landed in Oz about three and a half weeks ago. I am on a yearlong work-and-holiday visa, so--ahhh!!--I have only about 11 months left Down Undah.
THE PLAN: get a job here in Sydney, work nights, frolic/lounge on the beach/explore during the day all summer. Once summer ends, I want to travel up the east coast, go to the outback and whatnot, and also visit some parts of Western Australia. This country is seriously BIG. And FAR from everywhere. Their local vacation destination is Thailand, which is still a 10-hour flight away. Ker-ist. Anyway, after using up my year here in Oz, I'd like to go to Southeast Asia, and maybe Fiji. Etc Etc.
Here's how it's been going.
Job 1: barista/waitress at a cafe in the downtown neighborhood of Surry Hills. I work 7:30-10:30 every morning, which is a bitch, but it pays cash and my boss is really nice (his bad, repetitive jokes aside.) He also hired me when I had no idea how to make coffee and has been training me, so I feel kinda bad deserting him. IDK how long I can stay on this wake-up-at-6am schedule, though. Bleh
Job 2: After a lengthy search and a few failed "trials" (this really nerve-wracking part of the hiring process here, where they'll basically throw you behind the bar/out on the floor of a restaurant and make you do stuff), I got a job at a fancy restaurant on the 36th floor of a hotel in the harbour. However, the hours were loooong, the pay was bad, the uniform degrading, and the freebies non-existent, so I started looking around for other stuff. Eventually got hired on at the same restaurant and fellow traveller Ranger Alex, who is now frightened that I will make him redundant. Eek-- let's hope not! We are both currently working on memorizing all this info about the fancy dishes served at Bel Mondo, our place of employment. I can go into great detail on the process behind "aubergine ragout" and "elderflower granita." Yay for life skills!!
Milestones this week:
1. I survived on 4 hours of sleep for like 5 days running. Survive being a generous term for someone who was constantly as grumpy as I was. However, I slept about 12 hours yesterday and am gloriously refreshed, and ready to start it all over tomorrow!
2. On Monday I was left alone to run the coffee shop by myself--for all of 15 minutes while Steve (the bossman) ran to the shop, but still! I am slowly proving myself as capable of not burning the place down, which is an excellent skill to complement my newfound ability to toast a croissant.
3. In celebration of my morning of triumph, Alex and I did the Bondi-to-Coogee coastal walk on Monday afternoon. It was sooo pretty, and we did it at the perfect time; the sun was setting as we were walking south. I loved it. Pictures below. Please forgive if the formatting is non-sensical, as I am just working out this blogger stuff.
Here we have some random cliff, and then the lovely Tamarama Beach, next stop on our walking tour of the Eastern beaches.
more pretty pictures. sorry, i cannot figure out how this formatting works AT ALL.
okay now I am done. One more picture of the sunset at Coogee Beach, then I'm signing off. I wouldn't call this first post a raging success, since I don't know why this blasted text is underlined, nor can I figure out how to make the photos go how I want them. 
I think "Work in progress" is the most apt summation at this stage.
I think "Work in progress" is the most apt summation at this stage. Okay, I am going to go enjoy my day off. Will try to drag the Ranger to see "Easy A." It's cheap movie day in Sydney at $9AUD. PS it is also labour day here so happy LD!
-marge
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