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Within a few days George was on Melbourne turf and new adventurers were about to begin. The first night we caught up with her, found out what had changed in England and what her plans were while she was over here. It was strange as we only live about one and half hours away from George in England and her Grandparents lived in the same town as me, but we had only ever met in foreign countries. Although we hadn't seen each other for over three months it was like we only saw her last week. We had a good few nights out with Cat and George. They fed us lots of strange Chinese food , like dim sims, sushi and some other strange things they said we needed to try. I am not gonna lie I wasn't a huge fan, I was sure I was eating dog or at least cat but it was an experience.
The following week we had new housemate which was a long time coming. Becki and I were finding it hard living and working together as we always brought work home with us. All our conversations we work related and most were negative about the job. Most of you know how we feel about the job and from day one, neither of us have been happy doing it. Fitness First lives very much up to the private image of a health club, people aren't members, they are numbers, this is the same for the staff too. Both Becki and I don't enjoy working for a company like this, they want us to get a sale at any cost, even lying and taking money from people who you know can't afford the payments and wont use the gym. Sadly Murray our manger didn't quite realise who he was employing when he took us on!! Everyday was a battle with ourselves, stay or go, leave or stay but never when do we go home. It would be fair to say we only stayed at the job for the money but I am not sure if the money is even enough to keep us here until November. Oh well we will see....
Our new housemate was a 20 year old English man, called George. He had been in the training for the marines and been on the road for a few months working in Queensland on a farm. George fitted in really well and it was nice having someone else in the house, taking our minds of work. The next few weeks were spent, hanging out with either George or Cat and George, just going for walks chilling out, watching movies or just having fun.
Now back to the dreaded job scene... there are some good things that have come from Fitness First. Both Becki and myself needed selling experience to be able to progress in out careers when we return and we have thrown ourselves in the deep end to try and learn everything possible. What I have learn is there are two types of sellers, soft and hard and its your personality that determine which one you are. Now neither are better than one another they are just very different, the hard seller gets a sale no matter what, but their customers usually leaves feeling negative and the risk of cancellation is high, but number of sales is also high. Soft seller, takes their time get to know their customer but struggles to close the deal on the fence sitters, these sellers usually have fewer sales but less cancellation and more repeat business. I also have learned the benefit of choice of words, if you give someone the opportunity to say no, they will, however if you always show assertiveness then more people will agree as they will have to break the mold and go against the "most" category. I think both Becki and I have taken different things away from the challenges of Fitness First but neither of us would have changed or decision to work there.
The best thing about the job is the team we work in. Murray our manager is the vein of my life and we clash at least once a week, but I think that's only because we are both very head strong people, outside of work we get on great. Our Sales manager was Karl a Malaysian Australian. He was a very different manager and always asked the team their opinions on things but was less proactive, so its hard to know which approach worked best. Karl was a really nice guy but he had a life threatening disorder which kept him in and out of hospital a lot and very preoccupied, understandably. As a result he was soon moved to a less stressful club. We then got Channel, who moved departments and was a loud mouth Aussie who had way too much energy for such a small person, but I loved her. She very full on but all in positive ways and tried to get the best stories. She had a lot of life experience which we didn't get the chance to hear all about but the one that suck in my mind was that she was only 28 years old and had battled and won cancer. As a result she had this infectious love for life which was passed onto whoever was around, I loved it. She got a new job fairly quickly, which meant I didn't get to know her as well as I would have wonted it.
The only two birth Australians are Mel and Jess (Jess let Fitness First after 6 weeks!) They are both traditional Aussies who love life, full of energy and love to get involved. Jess had been backpacking around Asia so we got on really well and Mel loved knowing all the stories. Jason sits next to me, he is a 24 year old privately educated rugby loving London lad. We got on straight away as he is chilled out and didn't take life too seriously, he two had done a fair bit of traveling in his time which also helped! The last few weeks Jason has moved into our house as George left to go and live with his cousin. We all get on great and usually take it in turns to cook and buy dvds in the evening!
Finally last but no means least is Kushan, he is a 27 year old guy from Sri Lanka! Where to start with him...? he is one of a kind for many reasons. He is by far the most laid back easy going chilled out guy I have ever met. To be fair he hasn't got too much to worry about with his dad being the MD of communications in Sri Lanka! Kush came to Oz 6 years ago to study HR and never left, he loves the western culture of Australia and the massive party and drinking scene. Becki and I went out for his birthday, knowing that we were going to a nice place as there was a strict dress code and no queue to get in. We arrived at the Spice Bar where he said he would be, to be greeted but a lady with a clip board.. very Hollywood I hear you say, yup. Name not on the list your not coming in! A little scared of the place, I called Kush and he met us with his friend, whoms exact words were "their with me" were muttered to the clip board lady. She apologised and ushered us in, where we were greeted with drinks in the VIP area. My whole outfit cost the grand total of $50 and I was drinking very posh scotch which was older than me and the bottle cost more than my outfit. Needless to say I felt a little inferior, but I needed not to. Kush and his friends were lovely and they didn't show off their money, you just couldn't finish your drink without a waitress bringing you another. Half way through the night some sparklers and Merlot champagne was brought out, I felt the bees knees. I was hanging out with some of the nicest most friendly people I had met who happened to have very rich parents!
It was an amazing night and one not to be forgotten, I now can say I have felt what it would be like to be a queen, but I know if I had the choice I should still choose to be the poorer. It was nice but it was also an eye opener, if you have money you are treated differently by everyone. There are people who want to jump on for the ride, take what they can and give nothing, others that bow to their every need and others who wont even talk to them as they assume they would be stuck up.. society.... funny thing hey?
So thats everyone in the team, all really nice people who I have learned a lot from in many different reasons. I am sure most of you know about my small walking out incident? Well my outspokenness and head strong beliefs has gotten me in trouble before and this time was no different. After a small heated conversation with Murray I left Fitness First with my head held high. The next few days I spent applying for jobs and got a fair few interviews but Becki and I decided that our time in Melbourne was up and we were to leave. As a result I played it cool with Murray, we both agreed we were in the wrong and I went back, how long for tomorrow will find out!!!
To pick us up from work blues, we arranged a day with Cat and George at the Docklands to go ice skating. We took the tram to the Docklands, which we didn't even know was there and headed to the Olympic training ice skating rink. We all had so much fun, just sliding away, free as a bird on the ice. We even managed to get some class A tuition from a local celebrity, who was an 84 year old competitor skater. He showed us a few moves, told us his background and showed us how to get the most out of our glides, oh and importantly how to stop! All four of us went in opposite directions and spent the rest of our time practicing our moves. The day was just what the doctors ordered and hopefully we will get to do it again, before our time is up in Melbourne.
We still had one spare room in Tanner Street and it was filled by yes another English girl, who even more freakishly lives in Southampton and has been out in Bournemouth a number of time, ohhhh small world! Her name is Carly, she is 26 and is a dental nurse. She has been in Melbourne the same sort of time as us, but has been living in a hostel, but wanted her own space. Carly fitted in really well, its like she has always been here. Its cool that she is a bit older as we all get along that bit better and enjoy the same things.
Sadly George (English girl) has to go home, even thought we convinced her to change her ticket once, but before she left we had one more chance for an adventure. Cat, George, Becki and I jumped in the car and headed to Lorn, which is a small seaside town on the Great Ocean Road. We left Saturday night after work and headed through Geelong (where Cat grew up) towards Lorn and to Cats holiday home. That night we just chilled and watched a few movies as the next few days were going to be action packed.
We all ate breakfast together and jumped in the car towards the 'Australian Bush.' I am not sure if it is just me being blond but my idea of the Australian bush, was small shrubbery, with kangaroos, kolas and small desert like animals, nope miss communication its a forest! A little disappointed a slightly mugged off feeling we had a lovely 5Km walk through the forest to a small cave/waterfall. We ate our picnic under the flowing water, it reminded me of a scene in Lost. The weather started to turn so our walk back was at a bit more of a pace, with us jumping over tree roots, hiding in the hollow trunks of the large unburnt trees when the weather got too bad. Sadly Lorn was on the outskirts of all the Australian bush fires, so almost 60-70% of the trees and wild life was burn and due to the bad weather had fallen down.
We then stopped to watch some surfers at the beach, where we all felt old and boring as we didn't want to go for a walk along the beach as it was raining, well I say all, Cat was up for it, but she loves getting wet and can think of any excuse to be by the beach! The girls cooked dinner for us and we enjoyed a few games of cards. We had an early night, that night as we had our big day of the Ocean Road tomorrow. We got up nice and early, made our pack lunch and headed into the car for our long drive. We did a mixture of highway and ocean road to get there as soon as possible. On the way we went a little off track koala hunting. We drove up this windy road where they are know to hang out, we didn't have much luck, so after 20 minutes of dodging trees and broken fallen debris we turned back, to find two koalas at the entrance and a number of different species of parrot.
We continued along the windy roads until we stopped at a surfers spot to grab an ice cream and enjoy the view. Only stopping quickly we soon arrived at the 12 Apostles where the weather was slightly better than before but still not great. We walked to the look out point and enjoyed the view. On the way home we stopped at a extinct volcano, which created a nice look out. We all raced back to the car as the weather turned, but poor old Becki fell over ripping a whole in her jeans! I gave the smallest amount of sympathy, but soon felt bad when I saw the hole it left in her leg! Taking the opportunity to try and get her now holey, pinned together stained jeans to be left behind I was soon shot down by Becki reminding me they were her English pair and they were going strong!
We had a few glasses of goon that night, played some games and chatted about life. The next day we went for a walk around lorn, saw the school, supermarket and looked in the few shops it had to offer. Although the weather was a bit smelly, you could tell the place had charter and it was easy to see why Cat loved it so much. We ate lunch and then had to catch the bus to Geelong then the train home, traveling in a English speaking country is so much easier than I give it credit for! A wonderful weekend had by all, sham it was straight back to work for us!
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