It's probably about time I did an update. It's actually the 28th and I'm in Sydney, but I'm going to pretend that it's before Christmas and I'm still in Brisbane. I hope you don't mind me deceiving you in this way. Last time round, I'd just got into Brissie again, and was staying in a hostel and had no job. This soon changed. Funnily enough, I randomly met two of my friends the day after checking into the hostel. One of them was still living in the same room from when I was last there (about two months previously - he's obviously someone who doesn't like change) and another guy who I'd met in Darwin about 5 months ago - he happened to be staying in the same hostel as me. Small world, isn't it? Can't escape the backpacker trail. Well anyway, after a week I'd managed to get a job and some nice accommodation. I must be one of life's go-getters to sort things out so quickly. Or, I'm lucky. I'm more inclined to think it's the latter. I was supposed to move into my friend from Telstra's old house, but that didn't happen, so instead I moved into my friend from Telstra's old house. See what I did there? They were two different friends! Ha, had you all confused I bet. Yes, so it was Hannah's old house. I moved in with an Aussie named Steve. And a dog named Eddie. I'd already been round the house a fair few times, so it was a bit odd to make the transition from guest to resident. The house was about 15 mins away on the train from central Brisbane, very handy for getting into work. Ah, work! Nice little segue there. The kind people at Hallis recruitment got me a job at Suncorp, a large insurance and banking and what-have-you company. It sounded pretty perfect really, $19 an hour, right in the middle of the city and for 5 weeks, which would take me right up to Christmas. Didn't exactly work out perfectly though....The first week was ok, there were 4 of us who started at the same time doing the same thing - basically sitting on the phones taking calls from brokers who wanted to know where their mortgage documents were, It sounds boring, and it was. It was a little more complicated than that, but it would take far too much effort for me to explain it. E-mail me if you really want to be bored and I'll write you a couple of thousand words on the ins and outs. Everyone there seemed nice and friendly, the other temps were nice and so were the people who were there to help. I will add at this point that we had no training. This seemed fine at first, but then it was far from fine. The people who were helping us during our first week then left, and gradually we were all cast adrift and had to sort out everyone's numerous problems by ourselves, which is when things got bad. The managers thought we were idiots, they kept telling us the wrong things, they got angry at us for things that weren't our fault....and I could go on. And, to top it all off, we got invited and then uninvited to the stupid Christmas party! Grrr! I can feel all my angre bubbling up to the surface again, I must learn to be calm. Anyway, after all this nonsense, we were told (not by anyone at Suncorp, the weak idiots) that we could leave after being there for 3 weeks. I for one was not too unhappy about this, the whole affair was very stressful. The only person out of the 4 of us who was kept on was the boss's daughter, who had only been in once that week. Ooooooh, Suncorp, I'll never bank with you. Luckily, that night was the recruitment agency's Christmas party so the three of us who had been sacked were able to drown our sorrows for free. FREE! Perfect. I could write an essay about stupid Suncorp, but I'll leave it at that. I don't think my anger will ever go away though. If I come back home an angrier person, it's all down to them....
Onto more pleasant things. After that, I only had two weeks until my return to Sydney, and happily I picked up three days' work delivering leaflets for the council. This was a great job. We got paid over $23 an hour (loads) for very little work. There were five of us in a team (including one of my fellow sackees from Suncorp) and we got a car to drive off in and deliver a few leaflets in the 30 degree heat. Mmmmm, twas good. Very sweaty though, that was the worst thing about it. And there was no-one to watch over us, so we basically took as long as we wanted to get rid of the leaflets. So that was a nice little way to spend a few days - certainly passed the time. In my spare time, I watched a lot of the cricket (unfortunately). I went to the Gabba to watch day 3 of the first test in Brisbane with Steve and a couple of other people. We got absolutely hammered. Really good day though, I had my first beer at 8.45am. Quite happy with that. You really appreciate how quickly the bowlers bowl, even the spinners. Atmosphere was good, although I think the heat and the beer combined to make it a bit quieter than it could have been....
All in all, it was a pretty quiet and very enjoyable 6 weeks back in Brisbane. I enjoyed living in Graceville in a nice house with Steve and Eddie, watching sport, drinking and having unlimited and free use of the internet. Hannah popped over to check that the boys weren't ruining her old abode and I managed to check her new place out. Oh, and I've got into poker now as well. So no doubt I'll be spending all my time in the casino wasting my money on the pokies and poker tables. This is a joke (although I do like poker. And the pokies. They're my favourite things beginning with the letters pok).
That's it for now - next update will be from Sydney, detailing all the fun I'll have had over Christmas and the New Year. Hope everyone had a good Christmas!