Day 15 -...,
I'm lumping some of the past seven days together, partly because I don't have the patience to type the concise details of each day from the past week, but mainly because most of the week's activities were not very interesting. Right so day 15 (21 sep) me and Chloe had interviews' with Serena Russo recruitment agency in the morning and they basically created profiles, including our resumes', enabling us to apply for jobs through them and they send us notifications of jobs relevent to our searching criteria etc. blah. We soon realised we could have done this ourselves in the first place, so have.. now. I should mention my tenses will most likely be mixed up due to my back tracking.
Im being a little harsh on Serena Russo, they provided us with some great advice on sites we could search for jobs on and changes we could make on our resumes' to make them more appealing to employers, so I am grateful. Probably just venting my irritation of not having a job yet.
From our job hunting research into cafes, restaurants and similar establisments we also realised without a)experience and b)certification in the chosen area of hospitality you're applying to, its almost impossible to get a job with these places. This unhappy fact led us to the conclusion that we needed to do some course in at least one area of hospitality. We thought we'd start with coffee makiiiiing. This rash but good decision was made on Wednesday (day 16), I say rash because the course was on Thurs (day 17). We rang up and luckily they had places left. Doing the course finally felt as though we were making some progress in this otherwise seemingly unsuccessful week.

Day 17, The course was in the city, 10-16:00, and very much hands on, practical type learning. We started learning some basic coffee knowledge, for instance did you know there are two main types of coffee bean: arabica and robusta, the arabica popular for its aroma and flavour, whereas, robusta is known more for its strength. Along with some other very interesting coffee based facts, we were shown how to use the coffee machine safely, and then we set out to make our very own, first ever espresso! Once we mastered this we all felt quite pleased with ourselves, and for one guy sitting behind us, so much so, he kept saying "espressooo" really loudly. We moved onto latte's and cappuccino's, then after lunch it got really exciting when we made spooned and poured patterns in our coffees. It was actually really fun, although, I felt a bit sorry for all of the coffee beans that perished; no joke there were about 8 buckets filled to the brim with coffee liquid at the end. Yay so we have certificates saying we can make coffee, what a relief, because now it means we stand half a chance of getting work in cafes etc.
After our course we met with our cousin Alex and his girlfriend Laura in the city and had a really nice evening, first with some drinks at this bar/club called the Carlton, then they took us to china town where we had chinese, suprisingly enough. And if we weren't already full from the meal, we then went to this A-mazing cafe with so many beautiful cakes, you can't go in and not buy a desert. I had this chocolate slab with macadamia nuts and Chloe this goey chocolatey cake, mega nom.

Day 18, We made our way into the city to see the parade for the footy final taking place on Saturday (25 sep). Just a quick note if you the reader have either not read my previous blog about Aussie footy or forgotton, I can't stress enough how much it is not the same as our football (they call football soccer, like Americans do). Anyway, we caught the end of the parade which led to Flinders st where there was a stage and we saw the players arrive, songs were sang.. then we got bored and sought lunch. Nice atmosphere though, apart from this cow who wouldn't let me and Chloe past to get a better view, so I found another way round then stood right in front of her, ha. On Laura and Alex's recommendation, in the afternoon we went to the library, which is really big and prestigious looking, also has a couple of galleries with exhibitions and art inside. We explored and became members.

Day 19, We were invited by our cousin Chris to watch the footy final at his and his fiance Emily's house, where he was having a bbq, although confusingly, he doesn't like the game.. Chloe made some potato salad and me some brownies to take along. It was amusing sitting with some of Chris's avid footy friends, who liked shouting at the screen, poor Tyeson (Chris's jack russell) looked a little frightened. I was briefly Tyeson's best friend when I gave him the remainders of one of my burgers. The teams drew, which was quite a big deal apparently, when the last time the same thing happened was ten years ago. As a result a rematch is being held next Saturday. For this reason I felt it was quite an exciting match to watch! We then went to play some pool where I exhibited my shockingly bad pool skills and I lost every game, nevertheless, had lots of fun.

Day 20, I wrote a covering letter in the morning, specifically for coffee making places, to go with my resume. Me and Chloe distributed a few resumes to some cafes around Eastland shopping mall then got the train, later than expected, into the city, followed by a tram to St Kildas, a really pretty beach town with lots going on. I was so grateful for the lovely weather this day, when nice sunny weather has been a bit rare of late. We had a mosey along the coastline until we came to a cafe looking out to the sea, where we sat for a coffee or "flat white" ! After our visit me and Chloe pretty much have our heart set on getting a place in St Kilda, its in a great location being close to the city of Melbourne and hellooo next to the beach, plus since its getting on for summer, the latter pro is made even more appealing. We're currently looking into it, seeing whats out there within our budget, and we definately need jobs sorted before we can afford to make a move.

Day 21, Today! Day consisting of job hunting on the internet mostly, oh i went for a run this morning..... I'm looking forward to my tea which Chloe is making for me right this moment and I have an inkling its almost ready because theres that almost ready food smell drifting from the kitchen. Fingers crossed for job interviews this week!