Day 272... 

Location: Melbourne (still...)
Physical Appearance: Shagged out
Body Temperature: NOT WARM AT ALL. (all the time)  
Mental State: Scrambled eggs... 
Occupation: Coffee giver outer...

Turns out, Australia actually gets quite nippy through the winter periods in Melbourne... We don't like the cold. I remember having a conversation with Mo, back home, about bringing jackets and coats... 

"Dunno whether to bring one..."

"Me neither..." 

'If it rains, we'll just move to a different part of the world!'

"YEAH!!! Hahaha!"

Fantastic idea... If you haven't already spent all your daymn COIN.
I dislike the person who invented money. Who put that guy in charge? Some smart kid, thought he'd get clever with some circular, metal medallions, and thought that trading those would solve all our problems?! Phhfffttt... Nah. 

I'm still working in the cafe, alongside the 'Greek Mafia'. They're tolerating me for the time being. I've stupidly confessed to them that I won't be staying that long... Couple of months tops. They hire a lot of backpackers, so they know the score, we're all gunna b***** off at some point. No point in sugar coating the situation. They've whacked me on the till, which means I have to do maths and stuff at 7am in the morning. I'm not great at maths, but when you're forced to calculate sums at that hour in the morning, you have no choice, but to become an overnight mathematics genius. After I've finished the shift, I feel like I've been constantly smashed around the noggin with a billion calculators, and rubbed my hands on brillo pads. 

I've just about learnt the communication codes in the coffee house... 

They write on the lids letters and numbers to simplify things, and speed up the process... 

STSKCAP1 = Strong Skinny Cappuccino 1 sugar 
L 1 eql = Latte 1 equal (sweetener) 
L/Mac 1 1/2 = Long Macchiato 1 and a half sugars 

Fancy s***, eh? 

Sometimes they write down the regular's names... 

A lady often comes in and orders a Cappuccino with no chocolate. It's taken me until today to realise that N/C means 'No Chocolate'... I've been calling her 'Nick'... It did seem odd, an Asian lady being called Nick?... WHOOPSIE

There are other codes too...

"Heather! Chocular, Chock!" = "Could you sprinkle some chocolate on top? Thank you Heather" 

"SHOOSH, SHOOSH, SHOOSH!" = Sprinkle stuff on top 

"Sugarsin!?" = "Is the sugar in?" 

It's like learning a new language. 

Anywho... On to other interesting matters... Mo and I noticed that it's very difficult to get away with wearing your light coloured clothes for a prolonged amount of time without looking like a yellow turd. So we came up with the smart idea of buying black dye to camouflage the filth. 

After scrutinizing the instructions, and stirring this bucket of black, cloth soup for a good, solid 45mins (rotating our 'Stir Shifts')... The process was finished. As we began rinsing and drying our clothes, it became very clear to us that our clothes had not taken to the 'black dye', but a fancy ,Cadburys Dairy Milk Purple colour. Oh dear. 

"Heather, I'm gunna look like the f***ing joker from Batman!" Shrieked Moses, as he held up his purple chinos. 

Lesson to be learned here... Don't stinge out on your fabrics dyes (unless you wanna rock the 'Willy Wonka' look). 
 

Mo is now working with Alex in a Mill as a laborer. This means getting up at stupid o'clock as well!! They have to leave at 5am... So we all share the comfort of the cold, dark mornings together! And each take turns in grunting at each other in agreement that it truly does 'suck a dick' being awake at that hour in the morning. 

Ahh, life is incredibly fun eh? Sarcasm asside, I've actually had heaps of fun over these past few weeks. 

So, as you're all aware, it was in fact my 21st birthday on the 11th June... Which meant peeling myself out of bed at 5am for work... Moses offered me a birthday cup of coffee... (which I had to instruct him how to make it)... followed by toast. We can't afford fancy birthday presents, so big hugs and tea is all we're offering. 

I was surprised with a huge delivery of colourful, happy bouquet of flowers, Moet Champagne and delicious chocolates... Cheers parents! 

A bunch of us all hung out at Alex's new place, with Sam and Emma (Australian guy, and an English lass - super cool), then shared some drinks and nibbles. 3 cakes were made by people for my birthday! I'll have to confess that Morgan's coffee and spicy Apple cake was my favourite (that's pretty much all I ate on that tragic Sunday after). Morgan (AKA - awesome Canadian lady) also whipped up a batch of cheesy, ham and spinach dip with ciabatta bread as an appetizer (so sooooo good!!) . We then headed down to Revolver Night Club (AKA - Suction pit for all travellers and wreck heads). Partied until 7am. I can happily say, that glugging that sweet champagne from the bottle was a door opened to an absolutely, awesome night.

Took me a good couple of days to recover. Work on that Monday was TOUGH. 

Recently we've had half our clan leave us. Jess and Sam (Scottish bird and a Swedish guy) have nabbed themselves a sweet, little camper van and are now heading North for farm work. No rush there! They've only just made it past Narooma, and they left a good couple of weeks ago... Amongst the drinking wine on board a boat with strangers, doing a runner from the weed dealer and finding a cushy spot to practice surfing, it's safe to say they've been preoccupied. We've also had to say goodbye to Morgan and Dave (the Canadian couple). Awesome, awesome people. They are now travelling around New Zealand, before heading to Nepal. We've invited all these b*****s back to Brighton, so make room around the fire pitt back home peeps! 

As of now... the plan for me, Mo, Emily (Scottish bird who's also apart of the clan) and Alex, is to leave Melbourne within the next couple of weeks... Mo's birthday to be precise... We need to look for farm work, complete three months, earn some dough, then sign off for our second year visa. I've got a feeling it's going to be a rocky ride... 

Wish us luck!!! 

 Quote of the Day 

Me and Mo talking about some guy in Revolver...

"That guy looks just like that underground, Romanian drug lord!!" 

"Nah, that guy from Apocalypto!!" 

"ORRRLLAAAACCCKKKK!!!" 

 "ORRRLLAAAACCCKKKK!!!" 

"Oh s***.... So, so accurate" 

 "ORRRLLAAAACCCKKKK!!!"