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And so I approach the daunting task of writing a blog to span the months June - December and I wonder where on earth to start. I have travelled 6000 km, crossed 3 states, worked 4 jobs and met hundreds of people whose names I cannot remember. So let's start at the beginning…
Continuing where the last blog left off, the remainder of June was dominated by a seemingly never-ending cycle of work and more work. I carried on working at the reception of the Wood Duck Inn until the weekend of the 21st/22nd of June and filled the remainder of my time as a Data Coordinator at Blake Education, an Australian company that publishes school teaching resources and exam preparation books.
A typical day's work at the Wood Duck Inn would comprise waking up at 7.45am for an 8am start, sleepily walking the 12 steps up to reception on the rooftop overlooking Hyde Park and Sydney CBD and then checking in with Wally or Charlie, depending on whoever had been night-managing that night. My duties were varied but the majority of my time was taken up with checking in and checking out guests (and trying to be diplomatic when they complained, or explain things in the most basic of terms when their grasp of English was pretty terrible). I became an expert at folding sheets and let's not forget that I learned all the words to Death Cab's latest album off by heart within a couple of weeks.
Weekdays started at 6am when I would get up in order to have breakfast, make lunch and leave the hostel to catch the 0719 train to Lewisham for an 8.15am start at Blake. The main part of my job was to input sales orders into the computer, the orders being a result of the teleconsultants' calls to schools Australia-wide. Charlie, aforementioned Wood Duck inhabitant, was one of these teleconsultants at Blake, so for a good 3 or 4 weeks we lived and worked together 7 days a week. It turned out to be a lot less unpleasant than it sounds after we quickly developed a pretty solid sibling rappor. So Charlie, along with Bill, Wally and the constant presence that was Lenna, formed my small Wood Duck family unit.
During those few weeks there wasn't much time for play, but I did manage to sort out a new living arrangement. Lesley, H's colleague at Setanta Sports, is a recently-graduated migration and trademarks lawyer from Sydney who had been doing the admin at Setanta for a couple of years. When she suddenly decided to take a job offer in Melbourne she had to leave her flat in the Eastern beachside suburb of Coogee. I jumped at the chance to take over her room for a couple of months until the lease ran out at the end of August and it was perfect timing for Jemma arriving in Sydney on July 1st. In my cyber-brain I feel like I should make Jemma's name a clickable link to take you to a profile on her or something, but to most people she doesn't need an introduction, so I shalln't bother!
Come July 1st our new place in Coogee was a flat on Mount St shared with two Aussie girls, both from country NSW. It was a great top-floor flat with views from the balcony out to Coogee beach one way and right the way across Sydney city the other way. Our room was the biggest in the flat, en-suite, and the cheapest accommodation so far in Oz when two of us split the rent!
Until the end of August we lived as bona-fide Sydneysiders; working Monday to Friday (I wangled Jemma a job as a teleconsultant at Blake) and enjoying what Sydney had to offer us at the weekends: lunch out at the best falafel café this side of Israel at Sababba in Bondi, day trips down to Cronulla and the Royal National Park, visiting Watson's Bay and Old South Head for a massage on the beach front, lunches with Charlotte and the newly arrived Katharine (a former Sheffield course-mate, next-door neighbour and all-round bloody good friend!) in Coogee and cliff-top walks to spot migrating whales between Coogee and Bondi.
The end of August saw the end of our jobs and our daily 1 hour each way bus commute from Coogee to Leichhardt to work, and the sad farewell to 3/119 Mount St and Coogee. For one week we stayed at the Wood Duck Inn and bode farewell to friends Lenna (who was still there, cleaning!), Bill, and Henk who had been off adventuring and was back in Sydney for a couple of days. For weeks if not months we had been attempting planning our travels, but in a couple of days with the help of travel agent extraordinare Cindy we had booked our Greyhound passes and were off, on the road…
To be continued.
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