Last Day in St. Kilda

Today is my final day in St. Kilda as tomorrow morning I travel across the Tasman to old New Zealand. The last weekend has been good too. Drunken shenanigans on Friday night after getting my new camera,
First up, here's a drizzly day camera test

And here's what happens when the Sun goes down...

Saturday was my penultimate day at the butcher's, and thanks to a tad too much wine I was hanging. That was about it for Saturday, I did also get my New Zealand working holiday visa emailed to me, which is pretty important as I wouldn't have got too far into New Zealand without it.

Free accommodation?

Sunday was my last day at the butcher's. Nothing special really, just the odd joke about New Zealand being in a different time zone... called 1994. But I'll find out about that tomorrow evening. Today I went out in the drizzle fo shizzle and took a few last photos of what has been home for the past couple of months.

What the hell kind of statue is that?

And now I'm packed and ready to get my New Zealand on! I have still been in contact with the farm supervising job that still seems a bit weird, so soon I will find out if that was a load of bollocks or the luckiest job offer ever.

Now I'm going to continue blogging on my New Zealand blog... here

So don't forget to keep an eye on that.

Promoting My Meat

Never forget that, when traveling, it doesn’t pay to be too sentimental. I have already made some good friends here in St.Kilda, but like all hostels friendships shift and change at a moment’s notice

Now, I’m fortunate enough to be blessed with rugged good looks and a sense of humour so wicked that I can make a German fall for me... Everyone knows that isn’t a metaphor. To be fair, ‘falling’ is the wrong word, ‘flirting’ would be more accurate. Either way, I and a certain young lady had a great couple of days/nights in which I went to my second day of work after 4 hours sleep because this particular leibling wanted to see the little penguins at four in the bloody morning after a night at The Barkley.

Needless to say we put on quite a show for those penguins as things got a bit steamy on the rocks. We both knew we wouldn’t be together long as she was going to Cairns on Sunday night. I would feel like fate has deemed it necessary to push apart the chances of finding a special someone, but I’m not the kind of guy to care about ‘fate’. That in mind, there was an ‘uh-oh’ moment in the form of the line ‘you’re a lot older than me’. Having heard that, it soon dawned on me that this may be a mistake. But, and it is an important but, I didn’t even know she was nineteen until that night. I knew she must be younger than me, but not ‘that’ much’ younger. Geez. T’is an odd feeling indeed when you become ‘too old’ for somebody when you’re 26. I never thought I’d be so unprepared to hear it, but one cannot let such things deter oneself. True to form I stayed the course and at 5 am I finally returned to the hostel with a new ‘close’ friend. So, work was tough the next day.

On the subject of ‘work’, I am now a meat promoter, standing outside a butcher’s in a shopping centre letting people sample some of my special meat products. It’s not a bad job, it’s like the charity fundraising thing I did last year in Sydney except people are much happier when they get to try some free food. Maybe ‘Save the Children’ should cook parts of starving African kids to encourage people to subscribe?

Although there's more meat on these ones...

The job is going so well that I have been offered more hours, sadly it still only adds up to 30 hours a week, which is ok but I really want to save some money so I’m going to have to think of something that doesn’t involve ‘full body massage’ as one text message I received in response to my current Gumtree ad suggested.

So money is still an issue, but I’m hoping for something else to come up. Meanwhile I’ve been hanging out with my fellow 'hostellers', drinking, laughing and having a generally good time with some good folks, like last night when we sat on the beach at 11pm.

Saturday, I and a few others went down to the Espy to take in some live music and have a few quiet ones as I was still living on 4 hours sleep from the penguin/hot loving session the night before (reading this blog post back I now realise it’s maybe a bit all over the place, but whatever). Luckily the music was pretty chilled out, like a slow Mumford and Sons, but shit got closer to real when I noticed my 'close' friend getting a little teary eyed. Did I mention she would be leaving for Cairns with her travel partner the next day? Oh, maybe I should have. Well, she wouldn’t be in St. Kilda much longer and clearly the mellow tones and harmonies of Mitch Davis and the Dawn Chorus were highlighting that. So our relationship was on a tight schedule and it ended up taking a long time to walk back to the hostel as we kept stopping for little make out sessions in dark alley ways. And that was my weekend, or what I can remember of it. I have a day off today before I start giving passers by a portion in the shopping centre at Carnegie for 3 hours tomorrow.

So, to play us off, here's Mitch Davis and the Dawn Chorus.

Feeling Un-Fit

Not feeling too fit today, not as in ‘good looking’ fit (You know I'm hot like a McDonalds’ apple pie),

Baked in the fires of Hell!

I’m in the ‘can’t ride a bike to work without nearly having his heart explode’ category of not fit. I was back in Wallace today, no not that Wallace,

Although he is a looker

the place 'Wallace'. But today I did the most excellent thing of getting myself to work, through the medium of the second cheapest bike at Big W! And I wish more than ever that I could afford a car. Why did they build roads that go up hill when flattening them would save me a lot of sweat? Those bastards. Fortunately I have the luxury of having the option to stop off at the pub on the way home, which I did today, so I can meet locals and talk about stuff instead of riding a bike, which I did today. I was only going to stop in to take away a few bottles to veg out in front of the telly with when my legs gave out as soon as I got back to Poverty Peak, but I got talking to a couple of Gordon residents when I waited for the barman and the rugby league match between Manly and Leeds was on the box (congrats Leeds).

So two and a half pints later I left quite happy and then rode for about two minutes before realising I was riding a bike and took to walking up and just rolling down hills with a bottle from my take away Carltons in my hand (What? It was the cheapest beer there).

I don’t know why those Tour de Frogs bother peddling all the way, my way is much more relaxing and you can take in more of the scenery.

You can’t see much of anything when you’re riding a bike, it’s all blurry. 

Naturally, that one bottle of on the road beer for me was like spinach is to Popeye and I had enough strength / Dutch courage to ride the rest of the way back. I never expected to be setting record times straight away, but I am confident that I will one day be able to ride easily up those hills and drink beer at the same time...

Pictured: The dream 

Spud Packer

Finally, I have a job (But you knew that already). So for the past 3 days I've been going to work near Wallace,

Wallace? WALLACE? WHERE THE...

Steady on, kids might be reading this.

Turns out it is quite heavy work packing spuds, even though most of the work is done by machines which undoubtedly make the job less tiring.

That's right, Mr. Anderson, machines are useful!

The hours are 7- around 3, Simon took me to work the past three days with Alan (the boss) bringing me back to Poverty Peak at the end of the day. Well, Alan didn’t bring me back yesterday as I had to go baaaaack to Ballarat

Oh wait, I’ve done that ‘joke’ before.

Why Ballarat? Well, I had to get a bike as having Simon take me into work every morning isn’t great when he sometimes doesn’t get in until 10pm. So I shall cycle to and from work each morning, which will be a shock to the system as I haven’t ridden a bike any distance since I was a temp at the Woolwich in Basildon (Which was when I lived in Basildon, which was a few hundred years ago).

Well before the council went completely insane.

According to Google Maps my route is a good 8KM with plenty of hills, looks like I’d better give myself 2 hours tomorrow. Oh yeah, I’m working tomorrow (Saturday) for a few hours because I need those dollar dollar bills y’all!

I have an expensive diet.

That’s all the news for now, the chickens are still alive, Atti is still here WWOOFing and I’m pretty tired after a day at work so I’m going to do nothing for a bit and then sleep.

Please Excuse The RPG Analogies

Today I was baaaaaack, baaaaack, back in Ballarat, but this time I was on a quest that I had been given last week after via email.

You may remember I posted an ad on Gumtree to promote myself in an eloquent way. If you don’t remember then go back and read it again! You should start paying attention or you’ll fail your end of year exam!

And stop chewing gum!

Well that piece of genius advertising returned one result in the form of an Irish lady called Noreen. Noreen runs a cafe in Ballarat and she emailed me with a handy tip, her neighbour knows somebody who is looking for workers at his potato packing place.

Brilliant! Quest accepted: Talk to Noreen in person

I would meet Noreen today at her cafe and then, in the usual RPG style, I would have to talk to her neighbour after talking to her. Noreen’s neighbour was a mysterious gentleman by the name of Bryth , he had a Jack Russell dog and as I knocked on the door he bellowed ‘COME IN, LAD!’

After some dialogue he would eventually give me a cryptic message that would ultimately lead me to the potato packing shed in a town called Wallace

OOOOOH YEEEAH

But how did Noreen find my ad? Well, Bryth is friends with the owners of various farms including a Christmas tree plantation and Ray Gregory’s potato packing shed. Alan Gregory (son of Ray) asked Bryth if he knew of anybody who might need a job, Bryth then asked next door if they knew anybody who would need a job as they had relatives etc. . Noreen (from next door) happened to be looking on Gumtree one day when she stumbled upon my ad (labelled as ‘Ballarat’ in the location box) and got in touch.

Bryth would tell Alan that I would be there later in the day to talk jobs as Simon was at work and Bryth didn’t have a phone number for me to call. I gave him my number to pass onto the Gregorys and that was that.

Objective complete: Talk to Bryth

New Objective: Return to Noreen

Noreen had asked me to come back to the cafe once I had spoken to Bryne, so I did. I received a free coffee for turning in the quest which gave me a small stat boost (Energy +5). Then I received an optional quest line, Noreen asked me if I ‘had any cafe experience?’ to which I replied ‘No, but I have worked in a pub for a while’, which was true as I had completed the ‘work in a pub’ achievement ages ago which gave me +9 to my Customer Service stat, but it wasn’t enough so I failed that speech option. Noreen said ‘OK, are you any good with a shovel?’ I chose the option <Exaggerate> ‘Yes, I haven’t done a lot else since getting to Gordon’. Noreen then gave me the optional quest ‘Ask a nearby site office if they need any labourers’ and marked the location on my map (showed me the site at the end of the street)

Objective Complete: Return to Noreen

New Objective: Talk to Gregory at Wallace

If I did choose to pursue the optional quest, Noreen mentioned she could rent a room above the cafe.

So I had exhausted that quest hub for now and had to wait for Simon to finish work as he was my fast travel option, plus the packing shed was on the road back towards Gordon.

With a fair few hours to kill I got my hair cut (+20 Charisma) and had some lunch for an extra 150hp, then I walked up to Lake Wendouree, sat under a tree by the lake and wrote all of the above from the title to this upcoming full stop

After gaining some writing exp I decided to walk the full 6KM route around the lake (with a detour to look at the botanical garden) before walking back through Ballarat to look at things I cannot afford.

I then completed another quest, ‘Grab some shopping from Coles’ and Simon then enabled the fast travel option so we went to Wallace to find the potato packing shed.

After following the directions given, which were surprisingly accurate once we deciphered them, we found the objective and I walked up to talk to Alan Gregory. Alan seemed alright, a normal bloke that runs a packing shed. I introduced myself and it seemed Bryth had kept his word as Alan knew who I was. We talked terms and he offered a trial, two days at $14 cash per hour, then we’ll see how it goes with the promise of a wage increase if the job and I suit each other. I agreed as those two days, whatever the outcome, would give me a bit of instant income.

Objective complete: Talk to a Gregory at Wallace

New Objective: Pass the two day trial that begins on Wednesday at 7AM
(Optional: Repair a bike to go to work on)

I took the fast travel option back to Simon’s and Atti, who had been WWOOFing at the house today, had almost finished making dinner. What an interesting day. Now I’m off to save my progress by transferring it from short term to long term memory. G’night everybody!

Bonuses and World Bar

Yesterday was a good day, which means today will have to be a bad day, so sayeth the theory of ‘good day, bad day’

GD/BD...? Good name for a band.

  What happened yesterday that made it so good? I’ll tell you, but first some music...

AWESOME HAS A SOUNDTRACK!

I had a straight forward day, drove to South Hurstville to unload a few desks and bookcases, then we dropped off some old desks at the guy who works at the office’s house. At this point I already knew I was getting a bonus prize for working but when I saw the guy’s house I realised that said bonus probably didn’t affect his bank balance too much as his house was amazing. Lots of glass, space and a view of a body of water that I know not the name of. The bonus was, of course, 14 bottles of beer!

I was feeling pretty happy so I treated myself to some crocodile sausages in the cafe and then proceeded to kick some arse in ‘goon pong’ (like beer pong, except the beer has been replaced by poison grape juice) and then out to World Bar with Matteo (from Sardinia), Matt (from Somerset) and Michelle (from London).

So that was a good day, today I have avoided going outside for fear of having a bad day. That’s not strictly true as I did go to get some stuff from Woolworths, which as the theory would suggest, wasn’t such a good plan. Being hungry, hungover and tired I just threw on some flip flops, jeans and a t-shirt and wondered outside to an overcast sky. I signed a petition for Amnesty International (something about Malaysian boats) and bought the stuff I needed. I was not two steps away from Woolworths when the heavens opened and gave me a good soaking, so I got back to the hostel dripping wet and vowed to stay indoors today.

Ten minutes later the clouds cleared and the sun came out, but I could see right through fate’s lies as it plotted to ruin my day, so inside I remained watching videos.

Brazilians, Rugby, Karaoke and Belgians

Sunday, after a few hours at work, Matteo and I went to meet Zoe at Darling Harbour to see some Brazilian festival and maybe watch a bit of rugby. The Brazilian thing was ok, a bunch of food stalls at one end of the area with a stage at the other end, not my sort of thing really, all that samba and odd looking mascots isn't my bag, baby.

Seriously, this has something to do with meat.

So we had a bite to eat at Pontoon and wandered around towards some big screens that were showing the England match, but we stopped off to watch some muscular men do muscular things (no homo)

And then we watched the first half of more muscular men doing muscular things before going to Helm (not a gay bar) to watch the second half in which England prevailed, but not before knocking some Georgian guy out and worrying everybody who was watching.

Work on Monday was probably the easiest day ever and... that’s about all that happened.

Tuesday was a day off! Hooray! I met Zoe on Manly beach and we were shortly joined by Jena and then Matteo, but they were not the only people I met there. I should probably mention I had a day off, I already did? OK, but some people didn’t, namely John and Phillip, now can you guess who happened to be working near Manly and sitting by the beach as I walked passed... No, not Dame Edna! It was John and Phillip! Before bumping into those guys I also bumped into Sebastian from work at the ferry terminal, which was kind of weird.

The beach was very windy, which was a problem, and a bit cloudy, so much like the beaches at home and like the beaches at home we stayed there regardless. The four of us went for a meal at the Ivanhoe as we watched in awe as Italy took Russia by the scruff of the neck and booted their arse out of the stadium.

We got the ferry back to Circular Quay, went our separate ways and that was it for the evening.

Or so we thought, as Matteo and I walked into the 311 we were greeted by our three Belgian lady roommates who informed us that they would like to go to World Bar. As we are gentlemen and all round nice guys we decided to accompany our roommates as we were well versed in the Tuesday night happenings in Kings Cross. First up, free drinks in Trademark, in which I met two more people from work (Gary and Tom, which means in my day off I met over half of the people I work with) then onto World Bar, where the Elephant Backpackers were in attendance and showing the Cross how we roll in Woolloomooloo.

Coolest kids in the building

The Belgian girls went back to Trademark with Matteo, I stayed as I promised a certain liebling that I would take to the stage with her. Now I’m not saying we were the best of the night, but when Amanda and I sang ‘Come Together’ (Amanda’s choice) we were awesome and when a few of us sang ‘Wild Thing’ (Amanda’s choice) we were straight up steak sauce!

I think the t-shirt helped

The karaoke stopped but we didn't, Matteo and the girls had since returned and as 2am crept around the corner the numbers dwindled and we walked back to the hostel. Today I have so far been to Coles, written a blog post and I am currently considering sitting in the botanic garden and reading a book in the glorious sunshine!