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G'day and greetings from down under! We have now been in the land of Aus for over a week now, and after the culture shock of Thailand, Sydney is much more of a home from home!
We were late arriving into Sydney, after some horrid delays at Bangkok airport. This was due to someone not getting on the plane at the right time, and then a power cut. It was pretty worrying to be towed out in the pitch black cabin, onto the run way - I half expected them to be attempting a bump start at one point! However, power was restored, and as you can now obviously see - we arrived here without further incident!
We were picked up at the airport by the typical Aussie bloke, who was to take us to our accomodation. He was very very excited about the weather here - reaching up to the early morning Sydney sunshine and happily proclaimming "Jeeeas, can you feel that heat off that sun, its going to be a scorcher!" - I was a little suprised by this, and looked a bit like a rabbit in the headlights when he turned round to see me digging into my bag for my jumper! After a month in the humidity of Thailand, spring time Australia has been anything but warm!
Thats not to say the sun hasnt been out, or that the weather hasnt been good - its just that neither me or Jammo has had much time to appreciate it! After a brief shower and change, we were picked up and taken on a tour of the harbour area - a good look at the opera house and the city skyline - even though it was something I have seen thousand times, it was still amazing!
We battled bravely and stayed awake until 9pm that night having had no sleep on the plane! (Qantas in flight entertainment - choose your own films, start them when you like, a whole music library and mini golf and bowling games were more than enough to occupy me for the entire flight!!) We slept for 15 hours that night, and then rather unexpectedly Jammo and I found ourselves with jobs - after being in the country for about 30 hours. Which wasnt shabby!
So this last week has been spent plying our trade in our new jobs in telesales - or as our job title says - "Customer Relations Manager".............
And we are selling ------- Accidental Death Insurance!!!!
"I know Madam, I totally aggree, not many people find insurance and death a comfortable subject to talk about - but my company hopes that if you talk to me about it today, and give me the last for digits of your credit card number, signing yourself up to a $500,000 policy, that you will have at least dealt with it , and won't have to think about it ever again......"
I am waiting for the moment i get to ask to speak to a Mr Harold Bishop, although I dont think that will come!
We started with 22 other people on monday, and it was great to meet some other travellers and go for a fair few beers after a soul destroying day - but there are now just 6 of us left who are going to see if we can hack it in the second week! As a result we went out on a celebratory night out last night in and around Darling Harbour - to a club called the Chinese Laundry. An interesting experience to say the least - firstly because we couldnt find it for a good time, and secondly because booze seems to reveal the hidden colours of the people you have been befriending at work for the last week!
Home by 4am after a visit to Hungry Jacks - and time to meet our latest room mate! With 3 of us in a room for 4 in our hostel, its been a little bit of a merry-go-round! Rich, the pleasant and polite Scot, a Japanese guy who spoke no English, and now we have the slightly crazy and camp Enrico from Italy - "I cannna finda my caaaaap, ma favorite caaapppp" - by which I translate to mean that he has lost a hat somewhere..........
The trick we are all finding hard to master is limiting our spending in the city - food is just as expensive to cook yourself as it is to buy it from the huge selection of fast food places - subway will be an ever present on this trip i expect! I have also discoverd my dream chocolate bar - the cookie dough Kit Kat Chunky - at $2.50 a go its not cheap - but it is sooooo good! I have been saved by short supplies in all the shops though, grrrr.......!
Sydney city life suits me very well, but on Tuesday our group will reduce to just the pairing of Jammo and Myself as Keith heads off to pastures new and an exploration of the East coast - and possibly the west! I will put up some photos of Sydney etc as soon as I can - being a working man and all makes me a very busy boy......!
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