Working at the butcher's has a good advantage in the form of free, nearly off, food! Yesterday I work 3.5 hours and got 11 chicken kebab skewers, worth over $30! Sweet!
Before then I was talking with people at the hostel when waiting to go to work and it turned out Ed, a guy I didn't know too well but had been at the hostel for 6 months, was leaving! A couple of the girls decided to make a little bit of a party with balloons and... well, the rest wasn't really concrete, but hey, balloons!
I brought 11 skewers, I had one and shared the rest with Ed and anybody else that wanted one and they were amazing. Probably because I barbequed them, but maybe because they were really nice skewers.
Joel has a thing for skewers.
A good laugh, a few beers and some goon. All the ingredients one needs for a good hostel party.
Red hats help too.
But it's not all fun and games, especially when you get your 'balance' email from Barclaycard, indicating that things are far from 'balanced' and my Aussie money is on critical, which means I'm going to have to hold out until Sunday with a mere $10 for food. Luckily, there is a place called Lentil as Anything that serves some really nice vegetarian food for a donation of your choosing. The food is so good that I haven't had the heart to pay anything less than $3 for it and their chai teas are really good too.
So if you don't hear from me soon it's because I have died from an overdose of pasta and tinned tomatoes.
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.
Back in a hostel environment and money is becoming an issue. Fortunately I have a part time job (18 hours a week) convincing people to buy from a butcher's shop in a shopping centre. I'm still looking for another job to make up the hours but at least I'm not going to starve.
It's a good hostel here, very social, plus there are quite a lot of long termers here which is a good sign. I've already had some good nights out the past week (hence the lack of funds) so it looks like I'll be here for a while.
I'll probably write something more detailed soon, but I'm going to be offline for a few days as my internet will be expiring tomorrow and I won't be topping it up too soon.
Right, back to job searching. Until next time, adieu!
Yesterday was Anzac day. I got the tram up to the shrine to have a look at the parade for a bit, because parades tend to get boring after a while.
And it was raining.
Then I walked into Melbourne, but a lot of places were shut because of the public holiday so I couldn't ask many shops if they have any jobs going. Yes, that's right, I'm looking for a job again. I walked back to the shrine after a while in the city, just in time to hear the last post.
Then it was time for me to get the tram back to St.Kilda where I would meet a few of my fellow hostelers. A pretty good night, with a lot of beer, a free meal at a place called Base and more beer. There are quite a few long termers here which is good as I'm probably going to be here for a few months as soon as I get as job, which will hopefully be soon as today I handed out a load of CVs to some shops and found out about a website for labourers.
So here I am, one hour north west-ish of Melbourne on a hobby farm near the village of Gordon on a road called 'Poverty Peak'. Simon is the host of this WWOOFing experience and he’s a nice guy, we had a beer and discussed how crazy the world is and how Australia just loves digging shit out of the ground and selling it to China. But of course, me being me, I went out last night and didn’t get anywhere near enough sleep as I helped Sheldon celebrate his birthday in St.Kilda. I have suffered throughout the day (damn these first world problems) but thanks to my unbreakable spirit I made it with nothing more than a mild headache and tired eyes.
I meant Shaun, why did I write Sheldon?
Last night I was out on the town with a few hostellers including the Essex girl (Hayley, whom I met on my first night in St.Kilda) from Maldon (who now lives in Basildon, small world and all that) and as is the way with the backpacking thing we all got trashed on $5 beers and I chowed down on the nicest kebab ever (not a sex joke)! Seriously, if you’re out in St. Kilda go to Sunshine Kebabs!
Me (UK), Michael (AU), Sheldon (UK)
Naturally, at the time of writing this, I'm hungover, but at least I’m over the worst of it (those couple of beers helped). Thankfully I didn't need to get the train today until about 4PM so I had plenty of time to consume enough soup and bread to keep my motor neurones functioning long enough to get to Ballan station. But as I was leaving, leaving, on that late afternoon train to Ballan, I couldn't help but get those feelings of sentiment towards those I’d met at the Pint on Punt. The Irish, English, Swedish, Kiwi, German, Little Penguins, Dutch, Aussie acquaintances that helped make the past week or so that bit more special. But a man who wishes to see the world cannot do so if he never leaves and travelling is what I'm here to do!
Melbourne is a lovely city and St. Kilda a great suburb that exceeded my expectations as I was told St.Kilda is like Melbourne’s Kings Cross. It isn’t, because Kings Cross is a dive and doesn’t have a beach and there are no strip clubs in St. Kilda (that I noticed). Melbourne’s artistic flair extends throughout the city to the point that the Southern Cross station is itself a work of art, kind of, it’s no St. Pancras, but it still interesting enough when you have to wait about an hour for your train.
Yep, it's a train station.
My view for much of the one hour train journey
Simon picked me up at the train station in Ballan and my ‘WWOOFing Part 2: The WWOOFening’ could officially begin.
The building is rustic and interesting but with a few more luxuries than my previous WWOOFing host’s place as this place is on the electricity grid (no phone line though) and it has a microwave! The surrounding area is also different from last time. Large open fields have replaced the valleys and the green that I was engulfed in at Wollombi is now a sandy beige colour. No dogs or three year olds this time, but I will soon be joined by two more WWOOFers in the coming days as some of the work that needs doing might be a bit heavy, but meeting people and rising to challenges are what make life worth living, so bring it on!
I’ve taken a few pics, so have a butchers and talk amongst yourselves as I start uploading the next blog post.
The windmill actually pumps water from the dam below
Of course once I knew I was going to be moving on to Gordon I felt the urge to spend a bit of time down by the sea side, just relaxing all cool, reading some more Moby Dick (which I have neglected since before Christmas) and doing nothing,
Doing nothing means a lot to me.
Reading Moby Dick as a strong sea breeze floats a briny mist occasionally through one's nasal passage does enhance the experience, which means when I get round to reading 'Lord of the Flies' I'll have to do so after killing a fat kid or something? I don't remember much about that story.
Today I went back into the city to buy sunglasses and eat Subway as a bunch of students waffled on about how they are not as rich as a bank, or something? To be honest, I did speak to/got talked at by a pretty woman / ugly girl (depending on what age she was as it was hard to tell) who told me the 'Occupy thing is a discussion, we don't have the answers but we want to discuss a way to find them' she said this as a man shouted about 'in-equality' and how he's had enough of banks making money, way to open the forum, buddy... I walked off and drank my coca-cola without Citizen Smith shouting buzz words in my ear.
WHY AREN'T YOU DRUNK LIKE PROPER STUDENTS?
Me and my new sunnies took the tram back to St.Kilda and paid $5 to do some laundry at the hostel. And now you're up to date.
Another thought. I have only ever seen two people pay to use a tram, including myself that makes two. Maybe the occupy thing is working, free trams for all!
...Of my time in Melbourne as I've secured a job WWOOFing in Gordon!
Free moustache rides!
Yep, looks like I'm quite the catch as after mere hours of replying to a post on the wwoofing website forum I got a reply, not from the original poster, but a completely different wwoofing host!
Well why the hell did I waste a day phoning people!?
Of course I had to speak to Simon before anything could be confirmed so I emailed my number and waited... Of course waiting is boring, so I walked around Melbourne for a bit to kill some time.
Seen in a metro station. Now this is much better advice than 'enjoy coca-cola'.
And it's that time of year... already?
After some munch and a trip to the post office I got the tram back towards the hostel. No sooner had I got off the tram my phone rang. It was Simon - in short I'm going to Gordon, but getting there on the Friday may have been a bit of a problem so it would be easier for all concerned if I instead arrived on the Saturday... The day after I need to check out! DUN DUN DUUUUUUUN!
Don't worry, it turned out that somebody had changed their booking so I could get the extra day I needed, I apologise if you were hoping for more suspense or peril, but, well, there was no drama at all in the end. So Saturday afternoon I embark for Ballan from Melbourne and have another go at this WWOOFing lark.
Hooray! Jazz hands all round!
I took a walk to the botanic garden this morning, partly because I wanted
to see it and partly because I wanted to call some wwoofing hosts without the
threat of interruption from a goon sodden Irish type. That sounds a bit harsh, I
know, but I'm a bit bothered about my stagnating travels here in Melbourne and
an Irish girl in our room managed to conform to the drunk and thick stereotype of her kin by forgetting her key, banging on the door at 1am, then
going back out after waking up her friend (and everybody else) to help find her phone, then banging
on the door at
3am because she forgot her key. Also that age old annoyance of turning the
light on when the room is trying to resume sleeping is a sure fire way to insure
nobody gives you sympathy when you stumble out of bed, walk into a fan and
then say you have a headache. I guess it's to be expected in such a 'hostel' environment? Ahahaha...
Needless to say the wwoofing thing isn't looking too rosy. I've emailed a
few places and called a few more today with all replies being of the negative
persuasion. I have answered a thread post on the wwoofing website so hopefully that will yield a result.
After those bouts of rejection on the phone I walked into the Anzac shrine, a huge war
memorial near the botanic garden, and took my time walking around and admiring
the place and having a chance to think about just what a stupid thing humans
really are sometimes. The Last Post echoed through the building as I made my way to the balcony and I must say it is an odd feeling to walk around a place of remembrance like that after developing the notion that The Great War was little more than a massive waste of life.
You're right. I wouldn't be able to capture that bird in a shot like this again if I tried.
The pillar to the right was for WW2 servicemen as the main building was opened before Hitler started to act up. The flame on the ground in front of it was lit by Queen Elizabeth II
The view from the balcony
I also re-read some war poems that I haven't seen since I
was in A Level English Lit. But the poetry books at college didn't have artwork quite like this...
Picture taking and walking ensued as I wandered through the botanic
garden, it is a lot larger than the one in Sydney so it took a good few hours to wander the paths. The colours and scents
are, as always, able to calm one's very soul as the sun warms the air, then gets blocked by cloud, then
comes out aga... Nope back to cloudy. Such is melbourne's weather.
May be worth a watch?
Scratched into some bamboo, please don't turn it into one of those lame 'inspirational' posters!
This was 'The Wind In The Willows' which is a twice daily show, but it isn't free so I didn't see it.
That's an impressive tree
Note: Doesn't taste like lamb.
Not a bad way to spend a day, though a wwoofing job would have been nice, but I'm still waiting on a few replies so fingers crossed!
