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Hello everyone. I've been a bit lazy in the last few weeks and have neglected to update. Have no fear, because soon you'll be right up to date. OK, when I last left you, I'd spent a day in Cairns. I only spent three more days there after realising that my prospects of earning money there were minimal (the job agency I registered with still hasn't got back to me with any job offers). I think this is because I have no waiter/bar experience, and seeing as the only businesses in Cairns are restaurants and pubs, this proved to be a bit of a problem. Cairns is a nice place though, and I wouldn't have minded spending more time there. I thought it would be a bit like an Australian version of Benidorm, but it was quite classy (no offence to Benidorm of course...). Lots of restaurants that I couldn't afford to eat in, and a nice marina and what have you. So in an act of uncharacteristic decisiveness, instead of waiting for work to come for me, I decided to go straight to where (I thought) the work was. That place was Bowen, a small place in northern Queensland, home of many tomato, mango and capsicum farms. This would be my chance of earning of millions of dollars by picking tomatoes. Alas, it didn't turn out quite like that. I managed to get a tomato picking job on my second day there simply by sitting down in the hostel and waiting for someone to offer me a job. I should have done that all along instead of wasting my time on job agencies - a lesson learned. Anyway, I was up at 5.30 am the next day and on my first day of employment in Australia, I earned the massive amount of $25, about $7 an hour. Which was pathetic, quite frankly. But it was only the start of the season, and I was told things would 'pick up soon'. That phrase soon became a bit of a catchphrase that nearly always turned out to be untrue. Added to that, after only about 3 hours of work, I was stiffer than I'd been in about two years (since I played my first game of 5 a side football at uni). Luckily for me, I had two days off to recover. This was good for my body, but rubbish for my perilous financial position. Well, to cut a long story short, the picking never really picked up and I was only working about two days a week in the three weeks I was in Bowen. In none of the three weeks did I earn enough to cover my rent. So I made a bit of a loss by staying in Bowen! Not quite what I anticipated. But it was an experience, even if my back did hurt for almost the entire duration of the working day. On my last day there I literally worked from sunrise to sunset, which nearly killed me and persuaded me that I should maybe leave. My poor fragile body just couldn't hack it. And I've got a strip of sunburn just above my bum from where my t-shirt kept riding up when I was bending over to pick. Now there's a fact I'm sure you were desperate to hear. On my numerous days off I walked practically every square inch of Bowen, which was very pleasant. It's a very pretty little town, there's lots of nice bays and beaches and lookouts. It's just a pity that there's absolutely nothing to do there, and no-one wanted to go out anyway because everyone started work at 6 am every day. My annoying roommate got up at 4.30 am every day and clearly hadn't mastered the art of closing the door without causing a sonic boom, which was a tad annoying.
So that was Bowen! I decided to get out of there in an attempt to earn more than $10 an hour every few days so I hopped on the bus for 20 hours and ended up in Brisbane, where I am at this very moment. Have to say, I'm quite happy to be in a biggish city, and Brisbane seems really nice from my first impressions. It was my first full day here and I've registered with a job agency (fingers crossed), went round the museum and wandered the city centre. All very relaxing and enjoyable. Now I need to make some friends to go out and get drunk with to make up for lost time. Wish me luck!
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