Working in Oz - Where everybody knows your name

I thought an update on my life in Australia was needed, as last time I posted about it before my brief sojourn back to the UK I hadn't really settled into my jobs or general life here.

Contrary to my past post about having difficulty about finding work here I have now found myself with five part-time jobs, and am actually turning down job offers, including one at a Ramada Encore hotel, which I really wanted when I interviewed for it weeks ago, but in the end it was too far away.

I've found that things take time in this country. The places I wandered into with my CV when I first arrived started to get in touch a couple of weeks ago, hence how I've ended up working all hours to save money.

The good thing about working in a restaurant, three cafes, and doing leaflet delivery on the side is that I can work them around each other and maximise my hours. Minus Mondays, which I've set aside to watch bad TV, eat at a table and not on a train, and generally catch up on sleep.

Although I don't have time for anything fun right now, I've settled into a regular routine and I am enjoying it in a slightly masochistic way. The main thing that's getting me through is the thought that it's only for a couple more months and then I'll be back on the road doing what I've come to love - travelling! I miss the freedom and the excitement of seeing new places, meeting new people and having new experiences every day. But this is an experience in itself, living and working in Melbourne. And it's a necessity for me to do everything I want to do in Asia.

I do have a good time working here. I work with nice people and get to speak Spanish at the Peruvian cafe I work at, and practise Japanese with one of my coworkers at the restaurant. And I've developed the Pavlovian response to a bell that anybody in the hospitality industry will understand. The most funny thing is that the regulars at the cafes have all quickly learnt my name and greet me cheerfully whenever I see them. It makes me feel like a part of the community here.

A community I'll soon have to leave. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

There and Back Again

After my two-week surprise trip home has somewhat clouded into an oddly distant and cherished memory, here I sit in my aunt and uncle's house in suburban Melbourne. It wouldn't be inaccurate to say I'm drifting in and out of a jetlag infused stupor, having been awake since 4.30am this morning. 

I've never had the lag this bad, and it's horrible! Especially as work starts tomorrow, and continues for the following four days. I'm going to be a mess. And upsettingly a cold mess, as my proper little summer holiday to sunny Britain (not even joking - I'm missing the best summer for years and have come back to *Australia* with an English tan) has brought me back to Melbourne's delightful winter. 

But I did have something that perked me up this afternoon. Perked up not only from the insomnia madness, but also the thought of not being on the road for several more months. I got a fourth job! It's at a café just over the road, literally a five minute walk away. This brings my job repertoire here to two cafés, a fancy restaurant, and leaflet delivering on my days off. All of varying hours, pay rates, and locations. Cue me juggling shifts like a money-crazed circus performer. 

And it is all about money. I have been looking at my finances with an attractively furrowed brow recently, but this latest addition to my CV should really help. It's easy, and comforting, to say "it's only money", but the sad truth is that when travelling the world, money equates to experiences. And that's what it's all about. 

After a few more months of working these jobs (hopefully they'll all last) I should have enough money to do a bit of Australia, although I have to say I'm starting to feel I only want to see some choice highlights and then get out of this money-drain and get to Asia, and a proper tour of South East Asia. 

I can't say I'm excited about the next chapter of my trip. It's just a time for me to pump Australia for its relatively high wages. I already can't wait to get back out there and see the world again. But money first, fun later. 

Seeing my friends back at home working 9-5 jobs and living routine lives has made me appreciate what I'm doing. I may just be working and scrimping, but I'm doing it in Australia. Albeit a cold Australia. It's just that compared to the four months prior to this section of my trip where I was constantly seeing and doing incredible things, and fulfilling childhood dreams, serving people plates of bread is a little mundane. But I've been spoiled for amazing experiences. This period will just make the next chapter all the better. 

But right now my next step is to keep awake for a few more hours. I think chocolate and some star jumps should do the trick. 

An Unexpected Journey

Three weeks ago I was resigned to a straight run of working various part time jobs in Melbourne, doing whatever I could to earn money, with not a whole lot of fun to break it up. Then, due to unforeseen circumstances at home, my travel insurance (True Traveller - who have been so great I'm never going with anyone else) paid for return flights to the UK for me to attend a funeral. They gave me the maximum two weeks they offer and paid £1300 for a flight into my hometown with Emirates. Do these things actually happen in real life? Apparently so. 

With six days notice, I asked my jobs if they would mind me disappearing for two weeks after starting with both of them the week before. I was expecting firm nos. Or at best apologetic nos. But they were both amazing, and said they would cover me and the jobs would still exist when I got back to Australia. Again... Real life? 

After a whirl of contacting friends, packing, brief sojourns to Kuala Lumpur and Dubai airports, back-to-back episodes of Under the Dome, and a stomach full of butterflies, I was standing in my house. 

I managed to keep my Saturday evening arrival a secret from my mum, who was expecting to pick me up from the airport on Sunday morning. I don't think I'll ever try to surprise someone like that again, because it was constant stress trying to get everyone to keep to my story. But it was so worth it. We both agreed it was a life moment we'd never forget. 

The two weeks I spent at home went back in a fabulous flash, full of trips to see family and friends in Wiltshire, London and Bristol, and I even managed a few nights in my own bed. I didn't think I'd see the people I saw until February next year, so every reunion was lovely. The local pub quiz, drinks in Soho, family dinner at my gran's, an evening Just Dance session... 

And this surprise return home happened six months into my year-long trip. Saying "see you in six months" after the first half of my year away went so quickly was a lot more palatable than "see you in a year". 

I did have to say goodbye to my house again though. It's still in the process of being prepped for being put on the market, and will almost definitely be in someone else's hands by the time I get back for good. In a way it was harder to say goodbye to the only family house I've ever lived in this time, partly because it was even more final than last time, and also because I didn't have that excitement of starting my trip by going to Rio for Carnival. Instead I was returning to my glamourous jobs in a cafe and restaurant in wintry, Antarctic wind-beaten Melbourne. 

But who'd've thought that I'd have a brief break from travelling the world to see my friends and family? And for free? I count myself very lucky.