I Got A Job!

I spent most of the day Tuesday hunting for a job. I applied for tens of jobs online and a few in person. I was sat in the waiting room of a placement agency when I saw a sign that said ‘no passport, no job’ and decided waiting any longer would be a waste of time since I didn’t have my passport on me. I decided I would head back to the hostel and call it a day and head back to the agency with my passport first thing in the morning.

Shortly after making my way back to the sauna of a hostel I was staying in my phone rang. A man named Chris was calling and after asking very few questions he offered me a job in a small town called Collie located about 200km away from Perth. I accepted but since I had three nights booked in my hostel I told him I would come to Collie on Friday. This was probably a silly decision because the time spent in Perth was pretty much a complete waste. It was so hot I didn’t feel like doing anything and there was no air conditioning in my hostel, making it even hotter than it was outside and since the temperature was inching towards the 40’s it was pretty unbearable.

I did however get to catch up with a friend from the UK and that was pretty cool. I used to work with Ben back in Blackpool and when I asked him if he wanted to catch up he offered to show me around a little bit. He picked me up around noon on Thursday and we took off down the coast. He took me to a few different beaches before we stopped for a drink then made our way back to the hostel. The beaches were beautiful, I just wish I had been smart enough to wear a bathing suit so I could have dove in. Oh well, I’m here for a year so I’m sure I will have another opportunity.

I made sure I had all of my ducks in a row before heading out with Ben on Thursday, I bought some new clothes for work, I had set up my bank account, and I had purchased my train ticket, so all I had to do on Friday morning was walk to the train station. Collie doesn’t have a functioning train station (kind of ironic since it is home to a steam engine museum) so Chris originally told me he would pick me up in Brunswick Junction but called me after I had purchased my ticket and asked me to meet him in Bunbury instead. This created a bit of drama since it was a stop further down the line but $8 and a few confusing conversations later everything was sorted.

I started working just a few short hours after I arrived which was a bit of a shock to me but I said I wanted to hit the ground running right? I guess I got what I asked for. The bar is so much different from what I am used to. It was so quiet that we closed early and were finished cleaning up well before 9pm. That would never happen at Walkabout. I think the earliest I ever got out of there was like 2:45am. Today I worked a split shift, which was quite a bit busier than yesterday but still nothing like what I’m used to dealing with.

I think I’m catching on to things fairly quickly but I did make my fair share of mistakes today. Getting used to the till has been a bit more challenging than expected because you actually need to remember if a beer is super, medium, or light to be able to ring it through, and for several items you just need to memorize the price and ring it through as a miscellaneous item, hard to do when you are also trying to remember the 1000 other things the person you are shadowing just told you. I need to work on being more attentive and aware of every single person in the bar. I’m sure it will all come with time though.

Since I have been working since I got here I haven’t really had a chance to explore at all but I am only working a 3 hour shift tomorrow so hopefully I will be able to go for a bit of a wander afterwards. I would like to pick up a few things for my room but I have a feeling this is going to be one of those towns where nothing is open on Sunday’s.